(FOUND AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRIICKERBOCKER.)
A pleasing land of drowsy-head it was,
Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye,
And of gay castles in the clouds that pays,
For ever ?ushing round a summer sky.
Castle of Indolen the bosom of one of those spacious coves whident the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of the river denominated by the a Dutavigators the Tappan Zee, and where they alrudently shortened sail and implored the prote of St. Nicholas when they crossed, there lies a small market-town or rural port which by some is called Greensburg, but which is menerally and properly known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was given, we are told, in former days by the good housewives of the adjat try from the ie propensity of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert to it for the sake of being precise and authentiot far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley, or rather lap of land, among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull oo 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.
I recollect that when a stripling my ?rst exploit in squirrel-shooting was in a grove of tall walnut trees that shades one side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noontime, when all Nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of my own gun as it broke the Sabbath stillness around and rolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world and its distras and dream quietly away the remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little valley.
From the listless repose of the plad the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are desdants from the inal Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of SLEEPY HOLLOW, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighb try. A drowsy, dreamy in?uence 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 pos there before the try was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudsoain it is, the place still tinues uhe sway of some witg power that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a tinual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently see strange sights and hear musid voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; stars shoot aelare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the try, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite se of her gambols.
The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this ented region, and seems to be ander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a ?gure on horseback without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper whose head had been carried away by a onball in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War, and who is ever and