CHAPTER IX.

LIFE ON THE MANORS.

Pages 77-82    

     Though the days of the baronial rights of the Manors were fast waning, the life of the Manors remained much the same for many a year.  Saw mills had been set up by the earlier Lords in the midst of the forests, the machinery having been imported from Europe.  Continuous building went on in the settlements, beginning with the felling of the trees, and carried through all the stages of preparation, until the work ended in a completed house, whose beams and uprights, joinings and sidings, were of that quality of material and labor which outwear a century of use, and defy wind and storm.

     Grist mills supplied flour and Indian meal to all the Manor settlements, and to many others for miles around.  Great attention was given to stocking the home farm, for beef and pork were needed in abundance for the large families and many dependents, and [page 78] also for exportation.  Large droves of sheep wandered over the grassy slopes on the edge of the "Kills," forming pastoral pictures of great beauty, but in the shearing, spinning, and weaving time their practical value was fully apparent, when the blankets to be used in the Manor household numbered scores, and the wonderful woven coverlids of blue and white with the date of construction in the corner, were counted by dozens, and whole pieces of flannel, or linen in its own time, were laid away for clothing or napery, not only for the Manor, but for the poorer neighbors, to whom the mistress of the Manor was always expected to be a lady bountiful.

     On the Livingston estate were docks, and not far away from the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor was Claverack Landing, where, when the Hudson was open, sloops came laden on their outward trips with salted meat, grain, peltries and lumber, and returning, brought cargoes of household necessities not procurable nearer home.  Nor were the imports always necessities.  Many luxurious articles of home embellishment were brought over the seas from the older countries.  The rude and the luxurious were often blended in the [page 79] latter quarter of the eighteenth century.  West India sweetmeats and Dutch garden seeds, sought for right of way in the cargoes of the sloops, with silks and laces, and articles of feminine adornment.

     The Lady of the Manor overlooked garden and farm, preserved fruits, stored vegetables, and put away meats in large quantities.  Hospitality was a manorial custom.  The post-road lay past some of the Manor doors and near others, and coming from Albany, or arriving from New York, it was not only the long-looked for letter that the stages delivered at the Manors, but guests of State, refugees from menacing danger in war times, and relatives or friends bound on jaunts of necessity or pleasure.  It is said to have been the habit of the Manors of the earlier days, to have beds and supplies of all sorts ready for at least ten unexpected guests.

     The manorial homes always contained, as did most other homes of the date, only on a larger scale, a number of relatives whom death or other misfortunes had placed in a position of dependence.  This was a time when the solitary were literally "set in families."  These relatives, together with the Lady of the [page 80] Manor, made a superintending force, through whom the many slaves, and the workman of all kinds from carpenters to shoemakers, from tutors to tailoresses, were kept in employment, the whole of the great working-force conserving toward one end,--the successful management of a great Manor.

     Costly plate and rich furniture held their place amid the homely employments of a large country estate.  There were wide halls and long drawing rooms, paneled wainscoting, and mantels with beautifully carved wreaths, and birds, and dancing maidens, above the tile-bordered fire-places with Scriptural scenes in blue and white.  These fire-places were often found in several rooms in the house, and in front of these delectable picture-books, dark-faced mammies warmed the tiny bare feet of numerous Manor babies before the open fire, while they rehearsed to the wide-eyed, waiting children, the stories of Daniel in the lion's den, or Joseph and little Benjamin and the piece of money found in Benjamin's sack, or told the story, in the soothing cadence of the musical negro voice, of Christ blessing the little children, while the sleepy eyes closed, shutting into dreamland the picture of the children clinging [page 81] about the Savior's knees.

     Beautiful solid silver and white napery adorned the tables of the Manors, and although the ends of the knives were broadened, that they might the more effectually service their purpose in taking the place alternately of both fork and spoon, and there were many other customs that would strike us as uncomely today, the life was lived on a large scale, and the conversation of a Manor table with the guest of note in the time of the making of a nation, might be envied in our own day.

     Not only looking well after the ways of her house-hold was the commendation of the Lady of the Manor, but she was also called upon to attend to her husband's extensive business operations in his long absences in Colonial councils, on journeys abroad, and during service in the war.

     That the training of the Manor life with its alternate residence in city and country, its obligations, responsibilities, and its hospitalities, was in many ways fruitful of the best in manhood and womanhood, was proved in the fact that at one time during the early days of our country, nine men of the Livingston family [page 82] were holding responsible public positions at the same time in different States; and in their service as officers, and soldiers in the ranks of the patriot cause, in the upbuilding of church and educational life, in positions of trust and honor, the descendants of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer the first Patroon of Rensselaerwick, have filled a large place in the building of foundations worthy of the American Nation.

Buttons by www.grsites.com