This Stanza From Hofflnan, Who Was A Life-Long Friend Of
Irving, Glided From The Dim Portals Of Memory:
Light as love's smiles, the silvery mist at morn
Floats in loose flakes along the limpid river,
The blue-
Bird notes upon the soft breeze born,
As high in air he carols, faintly quiver.
The weeping birch like banners idly waving,
Bends to the stream, its spicy branches laving,
Beaded with dew, the witch elms' tassels shiver,
The timid rabbit from the furze is peeping,
And from the springing spray the squirrels gaily leaping.
FISHKILL
At Fishkill is located the old Dutch church, erected in 1731,
which housed the provincial convention of 1776. The blacksmith
who forged Washington's sword lived and worked here. The house
referred to in Cooper's Spy is also located here. Back of the
town rises a ridge of lofty hills covered in many places by
forests. Here if you go to the summit a remarkably fine view of
vast extent and most pleasing variety may be obtained. How often
here on Beacon Hill the lurid glare of great signal fires
painted the ebon curtains of the night with their ominous glow.
How often they warned the warriors on distant hillsides of the
approach of an enemy or their crimson glow spoke with many fiery
tongues that peace had been declared. It was viewed by many a
weary patriot or fierce Indian warrior from the wooded peaks of
the Catskills to the high elevations of the Alleghenies, or more
distant heights of Mount Graylock in Massachusetts, or Mount
Washington in New Hampshire.
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