Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
    Lydia Fisher found it;
  Not a bit of money in it,
    Only binding ’round it.

The appearance of the troops called down the derision of the British officers, the hit of the doctor became known throughout the army, and the song was used as a method of showing contempt for the Colonials until after Lexington and Concord.

* * *

                  When life is old
  And many a scene forgot the heart will hold
  Its memory of this.

Fitz-Greene Halleck.

* * *

=Rensselaer=, on the east bank of the river, was incorporated in 1896 by the union of Greenbush and East Albany.  The old name of Greenbush, which still survives in East Greenbush, four miles distant, was given to it by the old Dutch settlers, and it was probably a “green-bushed” place in early days.  Now pleasant residences and villas look out upon the river from the near bank and distant hillsides.  Two railroad bridges and a carriage bridge cross the Hudson at this point.  During the French war in 1775, Greenbush was a military rendezvous, and in 1812 the United States Government established extensive barracks, whence troops were forwarded to Canada.

=Albany=, 144 miles from New York. (New York Central & Hudson River Railroad, Boston & Albany, West Shore, Delaware and Hudson, the Hudson River Day Line and People’s Line.) Its site was called by the Indians Shaunaugh-ta-da (Schenectady), or the Pine Plains.  It was next known by the early Dutch settlers as “Beverwyck,” “William Stadt,” and “New Orange.”  The seat of the State Government was transferred from New York to Albany in 1798.  In 1714, when 100 years old, it had a population of about 3,000, one-sixth of whom were slaves.  In 1786 it increased to about 10,000.  In 1676, the city comprised within the limits of Pearl, Beaver and Steuben streets, was surrounded by wooden walls with six gates.  They were 13 feet high, made of timber a foot square.  It is said that a portion of these walls were remaining in 1812.  The first railroad in the State and the second in the United States was opened from Albany to Schenectady in 1831.  The pictures of these old coaches are very amusing, and the rate of speed was only a slight improvement on a well-organized stage line.  From an old book in the State Library we condense the following description, presenting quite a contrast to the city of to-day:  “Albany lay stretched along the banks of the Hudson, on one very wide and long street, parallel to the Hudson.  The space between the street and the river bank was occupied by gardens.  A small but steep hill rose above the centre of the town, on which stood a fort.  The wide street leading to the fort (now State street) had a Market-Place, Guard-House, Town Hall, and an English and Dutch Church, in the centre.”

* * *

  I wandered afar from the land of my birth,
  I saw the old rivers renowned upon earth,
  But fancy still painted that wide-flowing stream
  With the many-hued pencil of infancy’s dream.