good.  Who wants to study a city’s life through the registries of its civic diseases or cures?  We want its romances, its exceptions, its absurdities, its adventures.  We not only want them, we must have them.  Despite all the wiseacres on earth we care more for the duel that Burr and Hamilton fought than for all their individual achievements, good or bad.  It is the theatrical change from the Potter’s Field to the centre of fashion that first catches our fancy in the tale of Washington Square.  In fact, my friend, we are, first and last, children addicted to the mad yet harmless passion of story-telling and story-hearing.  I do hope that, when you read these pages, you will remember that, and be not too stern in criticism of sundry vastly important historic points which are all forgot and left out of the scheme—­asking your pardon!

The Village, old or new, is the home of romance (as we have said, it is to be feared at least once or twice too often ere this) and it is for us to follow those sweet and crazy trails where they may chance to lead.

Since, then, we are concerned chiefly with the spirit of adventure, we can hardly fail to note that this particular element has haunted the neighbourhood of Washington Square fairly consistently.

If you will look at the Ratzer map you will see that the Elliott estate adjoined the Brevoort lands.  It is today one of the most variously important regions in town, embracing as it does both Broadway and Fifth Avenue and including a most lively business section and a most exclusive aristocratic quarter.  Andrew Elliott was the son of Sir.  Gilbert Elliott, Lord Chief Justice, Clerk of Scotland.  Andrew was Receiver General of the Province of New York under the Crown and a most loyal Royalist to the last.  When the British rule passed he, in common with many other English sympathisers, found himself in an embarrassing position.  The De Lanceys—­close friends of his—­lost their lands outright.  But Elliott, like the canny Scotchman that he was, was determined that he would not be served the same way.

To quote Mr. J.H.  Henry, who now handles that huge property:  “He must have had friends!  Apparently they liked him, if they didn’t like his politics.”

This is how they managed it:  He transferred his entire estate to a Quaker friend of his in Philadelphia—­this was before the situation had become too critical; then a little group of friendly New Yorkers, among whom was Alexander Hamilton, bought it in; next it passed into the hands of one Friedrich Charles Hans Bruno, Baron Poelnitz, who appears to have been not much more than a figurehead.  However, it was legally his property at the time of the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, and so it was not confiscated.  It probably is safe to assume that Mr. Andrew Elliott still remained the power behind the throne, and benefited by the subsequent sale of the land to Capt.  Robert Richard Randall.