The Fifth Avenue Bank monograph contains a print of the villa, as it was called, reproduced from “Putnam’s Magazine.”  What the print apparently shows is the Thirty-seventh Street stretch, with the wicket fence near the corner, and the low brick wall extending westward beyond.  The villa was of yellowish grey stucco with brown-stone trim, Gothic in style, and had so many towers, oriels, and gables, that when Waddell’s brother saw it and was asked what he would call it, replied, “Waddell’s Caster; here is a mustard pot, there is a pepper bottle, and there is a vinegar cruet.”  There were a conservatory and a picture-gallery, and the house stood considerably above the Avenue level upon grounds that descended to the street by sloping grass banks.  A winding staircase led from the broad marble hall to a tower from which there was a fine view of the rolling country, the rivers to the east and west, and the growing city far to the south.  There were celebrities other than the author of “Vanity Fair” who sampled the quality of the Waddell hospitality.  For ten years the Waddells lived there, entertaining magnificently.  Then came the financial crash of 1857, Mr. Waddell was one of those whose fortunes tumbled with the market, and he was obliged to sacrifice his estate.  The villa was torn down, and the grounds levelled.  “I remember,” “Fifth Avenue” quotes Mr. John D. Crimmins as saying, “very vividly the old Waddell mansion.  I was taken into it by my father the day they began to dismantle it, and remember very distinctly the courteous manner in which we were received by Mrs. Waddell, and how she regretted the destruction of her home.  At that time the Reservoir was an attraction for the view it furnished.  There were no buildings high enough to interfere, and visitors could get a bird’s-eye view of the entire city and the Palisades.  The neighbourhood at that time is well illustrated in the old New York print showing the Reservoir and the Crystal Palace, 1855.  There were no pretentious houses north of Forty-second Street.  It was interesting to see the drovers—­tall men, with staffs in their hands, herding eight, ten, or twenty cattle—­driving the cattle to market, generally on Sunday, as Monday was market day.”

[Illustration:  THE TERRACE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.  TO-DAY THE SPOT IS THE SCENE OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THOSE ENGAGED IN THE WORK OF SPEEDING AMERICA’S ANSWER.  ONCE IT WAS FAR UPTOWN, AND ON THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE AVENUE WERE THE RESIDENCES KNOWN AS “SPANISH ROW,” OR “THE HOUSE OF MANSIONS”]

About the time that the Waddell villa was being pulled down there was going up, two blocks to the north, a New York residence that has endured to the present day.  The original Wendell and the original Astor were partners in the fur trade, and at the time of the death of the late John Gottlieb Wendell his holdings in Manhattan real estate were second only to those of the Astors.  There was a General David Wendell, known as “Fighting Dave,” who fought in