=The Livingston Country=, whose names and memories dot the landscape and adorn the history of the Hudson Valley.  Dutchess and Columbia Counties meet on the east bank opposite that part of Saugerties where Sawyer’s Creek flows into the Hudson.  “Idele” was originally called the Chancellor Place.  “Clermont” is about half a mile to the north, the home of Clermont Livingston, an early manor house built by Robert R. Livingston, who, next to Hamilton, was the greatest New York statesman during our revolutionary period.  The manor church, not seen from the river, is at the old village of Clermont, about five miles due west from the mansion.  The Livingstons are of Scotch ancestry and have an illustrious lineage.  Mary Livingston, one of the “four Marys” who attended Mary Queen of Scots during her childhood and education in France, was of the same family.  Robert Livingston, born in 1654, came to the Hudson Valley with his father, and in 1686 purchased from the Indians a tract of country reaching east twenty-two miles to the boundary of Massachusetts with a river frontage of twelve miles.  This purchase was created, “the Lordship and Manor of Livingston,” by Governor Thomas Dongan.  In 1692 Robert built the manor house, but did not reside in it for twenty years.  He was a friend of Captain Kidd and a powerful promoter of his enterprises.  The manor consisted of 260,000 acres.  The estate of 13,000 acres, given to his second son Robert, was called Clermont.  Philip, his first son, inherited 247,000 acres, by old-time primogeniture succession.  From each of these two families sprang a line of vigorous and resolute men.  Robert R. Livingston, our revolutionary hero, descended from the smaller estate, owned “Clermont” at the time it was burned by the British.  It was soon rebuilt and Lafayette was a guest at the mansion during his visit to the United States in 1824.

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Let us not then neglect to improve the advantages we possess; let us avail ourselves of the present moment to fix lasting peace upon the broad basis of natural union; let us while it is still in our power lay the foundation of our long happiness and the happiness of our posterity.

    Robert R. Livingston.

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Above West Camp landing on the west side, is the boundary line between Ulster and Greene Counties; Ulster having kept us company all the way from Hampton Point opposite New Hamburgh.  Throughout this long stretch of the river one industry must not be overlooked, well described by John Burroughs: 

=The Shad Industry.=—­“When the chill of the ice is out of the river and the snow and frost out of the air, the fishermen along the shore are on the lookout for the first arrival of shad.  A few days of warm south wind the latter part of April will soon blow them up; it is true also, that a cold north wind will as quickly blow them back.  Preparations have been making for them all winter.  In many