as to
the whereabouts of Sheldon's own cavalry. Thereby, Sheldon's troop was
enabled to surprise the Hessians, and defeat them in a short and
bloody conflict. The Hessians' comrades later caught Post, stripped
him, beat him to insensibility, and left him for dead. He recovered of
his injuries. His house, a small stone one, became a tavern after the
Revolution, and was a celebrated resort of cock-fighters and
hard-drinkers. Not far north of Hastings is Dobbs Ferry, which was
occupied by both armies alternately, during the Revolution. Further
north is Sunnyside, Irving's house, elaborated from the original
Wolfert's Roost, and beyond that are Tarrytown, where Andre was
stopped and taken in charge, and Sleepy Hollow. Enchanted ground, all
this, hallowed by history, legend, and romance.

NOTE 8. (Page 179.)

The secret passage or passages of Philipse Manor-house have not been
neglected by writers of fiction, history, and magazine articles. The
passage does not now exist, but there are numerous traces of it. The
different writers do not agree in locating it. The author of an
interesting story for children, "A Loyal Little Maid," has it that the
passage was reached through an opening in the panelling of the
dining-room, this opening concealed by a tall clock. I think Marian
Harland says that a closet in one of the parlors or chambers connects
with the secret passage. Both these assumptions are wrong. Mr. R. P.
Getty has pointed out in the northwestern corner of the cellar what
seems to have once been the entrance to the passage. One authority
quotes a belief "that from the cellar there was a passage to a well
now covered by Woodworth Avenue," and that this was to afford access
to what may have been a storage vault. A man who was born in 1821 says
that, when a boy, he saw, near the house, a dry cistern, from the
bottom of which was an arched passage towards the Hudson, large enough
for a man six feet tall to pass through. Judge Atkins says that the
well was opposite the kitchen door, and had, at its western side,
about ten feet deep, a chamber in which butter was kept. One writer
locates an ice-house where Judge Atkins places this well, and says a
subterranean arched way led northward as far as the present Wells
Avenue. "The ice-house was formerly, it is said, a powder-magazine."
Many years ago, the coachman of Judge Woodworth used to say he had
"gone through an underground passage all the way from the manor-house
to the