--HOWARD GLYNDON.
NEWPORT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
There is a magnetism in places which has as strong and subtle a potency
as that which belongs to certain persons. Newport, Rhode Island, is not
an inapt example of the class of which I speak. The wonderful mildness
of the air, coupled with its exhilarating qualities; the fertility of
the soil, which throws tropical vegetation over the stern realism of
crag and precipice; the mixture of the wildest features of Nature with
its softest and most intoxicating influences,--all these anomalies,
unexplained even by the proximity of the itself inexplicable Gulf
Stream, combine to form a perfect and most desirable whole. Nor is this
description over-colored or the offshoot of the latter-day caprice that
has made of the place a fashionable resort. The very name of the State
suggests that of a classic island famed for its atmosphere; and as
Verrazano, writing in 1524, compares Block Island to Rhodes, it is
possible that hence arose its title. Neal in 1717, and the Abbe Robin
in 1771, both speak of Newport as the Paradise of New England, and
endorse its Indian appellation, Aquidneck, or the Isle of Peace.
Pages:
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263