way came from one
obstinate Dutchman's affection for his own grounds and his
uncompromising determination to use a gun to defend them, even against
a city?

So, lest what follows appears to be a digression or an irrelevance,
let me venture to remind you that the Village has always grown not
only with picturesque results but by picturesque methods and through
picturesque mediums. It is frankly, incurably romantic. Sir. Peter
Warren's estates, or part of them, were sold off in parcels by the
fine old custom of dice-throwing. Here is the official record of that
episode, by the bye:

"In pursuance of the powers given in the said antenuptial
deeds the trustees therein named, on March 31, 1787, agreed
upon a partition of the said lands, which agreement was with
the approbation and consent of the cestui que trusts, to
wit: Earl and Lady Abingdon, and Charles Fitsroy and Ann his
wife, the said Susannah Skinner the second not then having
arrived at age. In making the partition, the premises were
divided into three parts on a survey made thereof and marked
A, B and C; and it was agreed that such partition should be
made by each of the trustees naming a person to throw dice
for and in behalf of their respective cestui que trusts, and
that the person who should throw the highest number should
have parcel A; the one who should throw the next highest
number parcel B; and the one who should throw the lowest
number, parcel C,--for the persons whom they respectively
represented; and the premises were partitioned accordingly."

Eleventh Street was never cut through because old Burgher Brevoort did
not want his trees cut down and argued conclusively with a blunderbuss
to that effect--a final effect. It never has been cut through, as a
matter of fact, to this day. And by way of evening things up, Grace
Church, which stands almost on the disputed site, had for architect
one James Renwick, who married the only daughter of Henry Brevoort
himself. So by a queer twisted sort of law of compensation, the city
gained rather than lost by what a certain disgruntled historian calls
the "obstinacy of one Dutch householder."

[Illustration: THE BREVOORT HOUSE. "... The atmosphere of chivalry to
women, friendliness to men, and courtesy to everyone, which is, after
all, just the air of France."]

These things are all true; the most amazing thing about Greenwich
Villag