eau in front of the house, where
some of them ran foot-races in the dark, with no great credit to
themselves as pedestrians. As they were going back into the house, one
of the guests stumbled and fell into the hall, where he lay for some
time, obstructing the closing of the outer door. One of the servants
came to Clarke, who had retired for the night, and asked what he should
do with the large gentleman who had fallen in the doorway, and was
unable to rise. "Drag him in, and put him under the table" was the order
which was immediately complied with, and under the table the fallen
guest remained until morning.

The builder of Hyde Hall died in 1835, and his only American born son,
George Clarke, succeeded him in his American estate, thus becoming at
the age of twenty-one years the largest landed proprietor in the State
of New York. The patents which he held included 1,000 acres in Fulton
county, 6,000 acres in Dutchess county, 7,000 acres in Oneida, 12,000 in
Montgomery, besides 16,000 acres in Otsego county, and a valuable tract
in Greene county including one-half of the village of Catskill. George
Clarke married Anna Maria Gregory, daughter of Dudley S. Gregory, the
wealthiest man in Jersey City, and their married life was begun in great
prosperity, with a town house on Fifth Avenue in New York, in addition
to the country-seat on Otsego Lake.

Clarke had three span of fast horses, and was a familiar figure in
Cooperstown when he drove to service at Christ Church every Sunday, and
frequently came to the village for the transaction of business, or to
meet his friends, making nothing of the seven mile drive from his home.

In his younger days Clarke was quite celebrated as a beau and dandy, and
at one time was said to be the best dressed man in New York; but in his
later years he became notorious for his carelessness of attire, and few
of his tenants wore a cheaper costume. In this matter he was indifferent
to public opinion, and went about looking like an old-fashioned farmer.
In winter he covered himself with a buffalo coat that had areas of bare
hide worn through the fur; in summer his favorite habiliment was a linen
duster. For Fifth Avenue in New York he dressed in the same clothes that
served him in Cooperstown. When his friends ventured to remonstrate, he
put them off by saying that dress was a matter of indifference alike in
city or country. "In Cooperstown," said he, "everybody knows me; in New
York nobody know