=Dobbs Ferry= is now at hand, named after an old Swedish ferryman.  The village has not only a delightful location but it is also beautiful in itself.  In 1781 it was Washington’s headquarters, and the old house, still standing, is famous as the spot where General Washington and the Count de Rochambeau planned the campaign against Yorktown; where the evacuation of New York was arranged by General Clinton and Sir Guy Carleton the British commander, and where the first salute to the flag of the United States was fired by a British man-of-war.  A deep glen, known as Paramus, opposite Dobbs Ferry, leads to Tappan and New Jersey.  Cornwallis landed here in 1776.  It is now known as Snedden’s Landing.

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A lovely country for a summer encampment, breezy hills commanding wide prospects, shady valleys watered by bright pastoral streams, the Bronx, the Spraine and the Neperan.

    Washington Irving.

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At Dobbs Ferry, June 14, 1894, the base-stone of a memorial shaft was laid with imposing ceremony by the New York State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, which erected the monument.  There were one thousand Grand Army veterans in line, and addresses by distinguished orators and visitors.  The Society and its guests, including members of the cabinet, officers of the army and navy, and prominent men of various States, accompanied by full Marine Band of the navy yard, with a detachment of Naval Reserves, participated in the event.

Voyagers up the river that day saw the “Miantonomoh” and the “Lancaster,” under the command of Rear-Admiral Gherardi, anchored mid-stream to take part in the exercises.  During the Revolution this historic house was leased by a Dutch farmer holding under Frederick Phillipse as landlord.  After the war it was purchased by Peter Livingston and known since as the Livingston House.  Arnold and Andre were to have met here but providentially for the American cause, the meeting took place at Haverstraw.

The Indian name of Dobbs Ferry was Wecquaskeck, and it is said by Ruttenber that the outlines of the old Indian village can still be traced by numerous shell-beds.  It was located at the mouth of Wicker’s Creek which was called by the Indians Wysquaqua.

=Tappan Zee.=—­The steamer is now entering Irving’s rich domain, and Tappan Zee lapping the threshold of “Sunnyside,” seems almost a part of his very dooryard.  The river, which has averaged about a mile in breadth, begins to gradually widen at Hastings, and almost seems like a gentle, reposeful lake.

=Piermont=, whose “mile-long-pier,” built many years ago by the Erie Railroad, hardly mars the landscape so great is the majesty of the river, is seen on the west bank with Tower Hill rising above it from which four states are seen.  The view includes Long Island, the Sound and the Orange Mountains on the south, with the Catskills to the north and Berkshires to the northeast.  Louis Gaylord Clark, a friend of Irving, and an early literary associate had a cottage on Piermont Hills.