Walter Scott. It
speaks well for the good taste of the aristocratic quarter, even
though the tribute came a bit late,--about twenty years after
"Waverley" was published!
The celebrated north side of the Square was called, by the society
people, "The Row," and was, of course, the last word in social
prestige. But, for all its lofty place in the veneration of the world
and his wife, its ways were enchantingly simple, if we may trust the
tales we hear. In the Square stood the "Pump With The Long Handle,"
and thence was every bucketful of washing water drawn by the
gilt-edged servants of the gilt-edged "Row"! The water was, it is
said, particularly soft,--rain, doubtless,--and day by day the pails
were carried to the main pump to be filled!
When next you look at the motor stages gliding past the Arch, try,
just for a moment, to visualise the old stages which ran on Fifth
Avenue from Fulton Ferry uptown. They were very elaborate, we are
told, and an immense improvement on the old Greenwich stagecoaches,
and the great lumbering vehicles that conveyed travellers along the
Post Road.
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