Friday, 23d.
About 8 o’clock we left Roe’s, and baited the Horses at Smiths Town at a Widow Blidenberg’s a decent House 10 miles from Setakit – then 15 miles to Huntington where we dined – and afterwards proceeded seven miles to Oyster Bay, to the House of a Mr. Young (private and very neat and decent) where we lodged. –The house we dined in at Huntington was kept by a Widow Platt, and was tolerably good. – The whole of this days ride was over uneven ground and none of it of the first quality but intermixed in places with pebble stone. –After passing Smiths-town & for near five miles it was a mere bed of white Sand, unable to produce trees 25 feet high; but a change for the better took place between that and Huntington, which was a sml. Village at the head of the harbour of that name and continued to improve to Oyster Bay about which the sands are good – and in the Necks between these bays are said to be fine. It is here the Lloyds own a large & valuable tract of Neck of Land (Lloyd’s Neck was a great rendezvous for Tories during a part of the Revolution.) from whom the British whilst they possessed New York drew large supplies of wood – and where, at present, it is said large flocks of sheep are kept.
Saturday, 24th.
Left Mr. Young’s before 6 o’clock and passing Musqueto Cove, (Now Glen Cove) breakfasted at a Mr. Underdunck’s at the head of a little bay (Henry Onderdonk’s, upon the shore of the present Hempstead Harbor, at the village of Roslyn) Where we were kindly received and well entertained – This Gentleman works a Grist & two Paper Mills, the last of which he seems to carry on with spirit, and to profit – (This was the first paper-mill erected in the province, and was established by Andrew Onderdonk at about the middle of the last century. There is a tradition in the family that, on this occasion, Washington made a sheet of paper (it then being made by hand) and that it was preserved for a great many years. Distc from Oyster-bay 12 miles. – From thence to Flushing where we dined is 12 more - & from thence to Brooklyne through Newton (the way we travelled and which is a mile further than to pass through Jamaica) is 18 miles more. The land I passed over to day is generally very good, but leveler and better as we approached New York – the soil in places is intermixed with pebble, and towards the west end with other kind of stone, which they apply to the purposes of fencing which is not to be seen on the South side of the Island, nor towards the Eastern parts of it – From Flushing to New town 8 miles & thence to Brooklyn, the Road is very fine, and the Country in a higher state of cultivation & vegetation of Grass & grain forwarded than any place also, I had seen, occasioned in a great degree by the manure drawn from the City of New York, - before sundown we had crossed the Ferry and was at home.
Left Mr. Young’s before 6 o’clock and passing Musqueto Cove, (Now Glen Cove) breakfasted at a Mr. Underdunck’s at the head of a little bay (Henry Onderdonk’s, upon the shore of the present Hempstead Harbor, at the village of Roslyn) Where we were kindly received and well entertained – This Gentleman works a Grist & two Paper Mills, the last of which he seems to carry on with spirit, and to profit – (This was the first paper-mill erected in the province, and was established by Andrew Onderdonk at about the middle of the last century. There is a tradition in the family that, on this occasion, Washington made a sheet of paper (it then being made by hand) and that it was preserved for a great many years. Distc from Oyster-bay 12 miles. – From thence to Flushing where we dined is 12 more - & from thence to Brooklyne through Newton (the way we travelled and which is a mile further than to pass through Jamaica) is 18 miles more. The land I passed over to day is generally very good, but leveler and better as we approached New York – the soil in places is intermixed with pebble, and towards the west end with other kind of stone, which they apply to the purposes of fencing which is not to be seen on the South side of the Island, nor towards the Eastern parts of it – From Flushing to New town 8 miles & thence to Brooklyn, the Road is very fine, and the Country in a higher state of cultivation & vegetation of Grass & grain forwarded than any place also, I had seen, occasioned in a great degree by the manure drawn from the City of New York, - before sundown we had crossed the Ferry and was at home.
*Images provided by the Oyster Bay Historical Society Summers Postcard Collection, the website for the George Washington Manor in Roslyn, NY: http://www.georgewashingtonmanor.com/History.html (accessed 04/22/11), and the website: http://www.longislandcateringhalls.com/li/george-washington-manor.html# (accessed 04/22/11).
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