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the most affectionate

FAC-SIMILE OF ORIGINAL LETTER FROM ELIAS BOUDINOT, IN COLLECTION OF DR. THOMAS ADDIS EMMET.

[Referred to on page 271.]

sixty-five varieties of pears, and plums, cherries, peaches, and apples in similar profusion. He took so much pride in his Newtown pippins that, in 1767, he shipped several barrels to a friend in London.

The house was named "Liberty Hall," and it is interesting to note that it was the first refuge of Alexander Hamilton when he arrived in America from the West Indies, a pale, delicate, blue-eyed boy of fifteen. He brought letters to Livingston from Dr. Hugh Knox, and through the advice of the former entered the school of Francis Barber, in Elizabethtown.

"Liberty Hall" was always open to him, and it was in listening to the table-talk of its many and delightful guests, among whom were the Ogdens, Stocktons, Boudinots, and the learned Dr. Witherspoon, that Hamilton obtained his first lessons in statesmanship. Mrs. Livingston and her daughters took a deep interest in the country's affairs, and the young ladies became full-fledged politicians long ere they had attained complete physical stature. The knotty problems of the hour prior to the outbreak of hostilities, and the methods of solving and settling them, were discussed daily in the household. Even in the most familiar correspondence with his children at school, the subject uppermost in Livingston's thoughts occu

pied the chief space. One instance was when his son wrote home about a reference in his lesson to ghosts, Livingston replied: "Should the spectre of any of the Stuart family, or of any tyrant whatsoever, obtrude itself upon your fancy, offer it not so much as a pipe of tobacco; but show its royal or imperial spectrality the door, with a frank declaration that your principles will not suffer you to keep company even with the SHADOW of arbitrary power." Liberty Hall has had an upper story and extensions in the rear added within recent years, modern glass has taken the place of small panes in many of the windows, and the deep fireplaces are framed in marble mantels that had not come into use when the house was new. But the narrow doors and wide staircases-bearing still the cuts of the angry Hessian soldiery when thwarted in their purposes and the innumerable little cupboards and artful contrivances for hiding things in the paneling of the walls, are tenderly preserved. It stands on elevated ground some rods from the street (what was the old Springfield turnpike), about a mile from the railroad station, and the front yard retains the lofty shade-trees of a century ago. The large tree in the foreground of the picture was planted in 1772, by Susan, the eldest daughter of Governor William Livingstonthe same who with such heroism and tact saved her father's correspondence with Washington and congress from falling into the hands of the British, as related in volume twenty, page 178, of this magazine.

It was this lady, Susan Livingston, who became the wife of Hon. John Cleves Symmes, whose daughter became the wife of President William Henry Harrison, and thus the grandmother of President Benjamin Harrison.

The enemy made several attempts to burn "Liberty Hall" during the Revolution, and threatened the governor's life with ugly determination, subjecting him to the greatest possible inconvenience and danger. He presided over the council of safety, which met first in one town, then another, and anywhere in the mountains and woods as policy or prudence dictated. He had a house at Parcipany, where his family lived for a time; and once, while visiting them, his movements were reported, and a party of refugees swooped down upon the place in the night. He had some gentlemen guests, and, wishing to be sure of catching the right man, they concluded to lie in the grass until daylight. They fell asleep, and when awakened by the morning sun, the governor, wholly unconscious of the assassination plot, had risen and was galloping over the road miles away to meet some important appointment.

About the same time Livingston wrote to his daughter Kitty: "If the British do not burn Liberty Hall,' I shall think them greater rascals than