Page:Historic towns of the middle states (IA historictownsofm02powe).pdf/208

 a genius for getting the poetry and romance out of the past. In The History of New York, impersonated in Diedrich Knickerbocker, he created a legend; in Rip Van Winkle and ''The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'' he gave lasting fame to two stories full of the Dutch spirit. Sleepy Hollow lies to the north and east of Tarrytown, within easy walking distance. It is still secluded and quiet and the stir of modern times has not broken in upon its ancient seclusion.

"A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail, or tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his pow-wows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual dream."

Since the days when these words were written the air of Sleepy Hollow has not escaped the general stirring of a more hurried age; but on