countryman. In 1784, when the state parcelled out the confiscated
lands of Philipse, this part fell into the hands of Gerard C. Beekman,
whose wife was Cornelia Van Cortlandt, a connection of the Philipse
family. An interesting incident connects this place with the Andre
matter. Some time before his capture, John Webb, one of Washington's
aides, left a valise containing a new uniform with Mrs. Beekman,
asking that it be delivered only on a written order. Some two weeks
later Joshua Het Smith, whose loyalty was at that time regarded
doubtful, called and asked for Lieutenant Webb's valise. Mrs. Beekman
disliked the man, and refused to deliver it without the order, which
Smith could not produce, and he rode away much disappointed. Andre was
concealed in his house at this very time, and the uniform was wanted
to help him through the American lines. Thus Mrs. Beekman forged the
second link in the chain leading to the Andre capture.

The little old Dutch church is believed to be the oldest church
edifice now standing in the State. It was built in 1699 by Frederick
Philipse. Irving says of it: "The sequestered situation of this church
seems always to have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. It
stands on a knoll surrounded by locust trees and lofty elms, from
among which its decent whitewashed walls shine modestly forth like
Christian purity beaming through the shades of retirement."

"To look upon its grass-grown yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep
so quietly, one would think that there, at least, the dead might rest
in peace," and there Irving himself rests in peace with a plain white
stone at his head which modestly tells that

WASHINGTON

SON OF WILLIAM AND SARAH S. IRVING

DIED

NOV. 28, 1859

AGED 76 YEARS, 7 MO. AND 25 DAYS

[Illustration: Old Dutch Church. Tarrytown. 1699.]

North of the church and on both sides of the Post Road are the remains
of the one-time Beekman forest, whose thickets once served the deer
for a cover. So long ago as 1705 it was necessary to enact game
laws for the protection of these animals, which were even then in a
fair way to being exterminated.

[Sidenote: _ST. MARY'S CHURCH._]

The six miles to Ossining are largely made up of handsome estates
lining both sides of the road. Here and there nature still litters the
earth with weeds and bushes, or the farmer tends his crops, leaving a
fringe of wild things to border his domains, but as a gener