ston & Albany Railroad_, and also of the _Kinderhook & Hudson
Railway_.

* * *

White fleecy clouds move slowly by.
How cool their shadows fall to-day!
A moment on the hills they lie
And then like spirits glide away.

_Henry T. Tuckerman._

* * *

From an old-time English history we read that Hudson grew more rapidly
than any other town in America except Baltimore. Standing at the head
of ship navigation it would naturally have become a great port had it
not been for the railway and the steamboat which made New York the
emporium not only of the Hudson, but also of the continent.

Hudson had also a good sprinkling of Nantucket blood, and visitors
from that quaint old town recognize in portico, stoop and window a
familiar architecture.

=Columbia Springs=, an old-time resort with pleasant grove and white
sulphur water, is four miles northeast of Hudson. Its medicinal
qualities are attested by scores of physicians, and by hundreds who
have been benefited and cured. The drive is pleasant and the return
can be made through--

=Claverack=, three and a half miles east of Hudson, a restful
old-fashioned village situated at the crossing of the Old Post Road
and the Columbia turnpike and county seat of Columbia in Knickerbocker
days. The court house on its well-shaded street was for many years the
home of the late Peter Hoffman. The Dutch Reformed Church, built of
bricks brought from Holland, wears on its brow wrinkles of antiquity,
emphasized by the date 1767 on its walls. It is said that General
Washington encamped here, but there is no historical data to confirm
the tradition. Claverack Falls is well worth a visit, which can easily
be made in an afternoon stroll. Copake Lake, to the southeast, can be
reached by a drive of about twelve miles, a fine sheet of water ten
miles in circumference, with a picturesque island connected to the
main land by a causeway. Forty years ago a romantic ruin of a stone
mansion still stood on this island, where the writer, when a boy, used
to wander around the deserted rooms looking for ghosts, but the walls
were torn down July 4, 1866, as the place was frequented every summer
by a remnant of the old Stockbridge tribe. The neighbors thought the
best way of getting rid of the "noble red men" was to burn up the
hive. The mansion was built by a Miss Livingston, but she soon
exchanged her island home for Florence and the classic associations
of Italy. Bash-Bish