Our old friend
Verplanck says that he himself dined there once with thirteen others,
all speaking different languages.... "None of whom I ever saw before,"
he states, "but all pleasant fellows.... I, the only American, the
rest of every different nation in Europe and no one the same, and all
of us talking bad French together!"
It was soon after this that the city began cutting up old lots into
new, and turning what had been solitary country estates into
gregarious suburbs and, soon, metropolitan sections. Among other
strange performances, they levelled the hills of New York--is it not
odd to remember that there once were hills, many hills, in New York?
And right and left they did their commissioner-like best to cut the
town all to one pattern. Of course they couldn't, quite, but the
effort was of lasting and painfully efficacious effect. They could not
find it in their hearts, I suppose, to raze Richmond Hill House
completely,--it was a noble landmark, and a home of memories which
ought to have given even commissioners pause,--and maybe did.
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