** The following are the inscriptions upon this monument: North side.—"Here repose the mortal remains of Isaac Van Wart, an elder in the Greenburgh church, who died on the 23d of May, 1828, in the 69th year of his age. Having lived the life, he died the death, of the Christian." South side.—"The citizens of the county of West Chester erected this tomb in testimony of the high sense they entertained for the virtuous and patriotic conduct of their fellow-citizen, as a memorial sacred to public gratitude." East side.—"Vincit, Amor Patriae. Nearly half a century before this monument was built, the con script fathers of America had, in the Senate chamber, voted that Isaac Van Wart was a faithful patriot, one in whom the love of country was invincible, and this tomb bears testimony that the record is true." West side.—"Fidelity. On the 23d of September, 1780, Isaac Van Wart, accompanied by John Paulding and David Williams, all farmers of the county of West Chester, intercepted Major Andre, on his return from the American lines in the character of a spy, and, notwithstanding the large bribes offered them for his release, nobly disdained to sacrifice their country for gold, secured and carried him to the commanding officer of the district, whereby the dangerous and traitorous conspiracy of Arnold was brought to light, the insidious designs of the enemy baffled, the American army saved, and our beloved country free."
View of Sunnyside, the ancient "Wolfert's Roost"—Jacob Van Tassel
classic as were the groves where Orpheus piped and Sappho sang to the Acadians of old. As I sat beneath a spreading cedar sketching the unique villa, and scolded without stint by a querulous matronly cat-bird on one side and a vixen jenny-wren on the other, and observed the "lord of the manor" leading a little fair-haired grand-nephew to the river brink in search of daisies and butter-cups, I could not repress the thoughts so beautifully expressed in his own little story of The Wife: "I can wish you no better lot than to have a wife and children. If you are prosperous, they are to share your prosperity; if otherwise, they are to comfort you.... Though all abroad is darkness and humiliation, yet there is still a little world of love at home [for the husband] of which he is the monarch." *
The residence of Mr. Irving is upon the site of the famous "Wolfert's Roost" of the olden time. It w'as built by Wolfert Beker, an ancient burgher of the town, and afterward came into the possession of Jacob Van Tassel, one of the "race of hard-headed, hard-handed, stout-hearted Dutchmen, descended of the primitive Netherlanders." Van Tassel was the owner when the Revolution broke out, and was a stanch Whig. His house was in the midst of the debatable region called the Neutral Ground, and in the broad waters of the Tappan Sea ** in front, British vessels were almost constantly anchored. The Republican propensities of Van Tassel were well known, and as the Roost was a place of general ren-
* Sketch Book.
** Tappaan Zee, or Tappan Sea, was the name given by the Dutch to the expansion of the Hudson at this place.
"The Roost" a Castle.—Its Garrison.—Attack upon, and Defense of "the Roost."—Dobbs's Ferry.