The public dinner was already over, being Sabbath; but the proprietor of our hotel, a worthy Quaker named Potter, got us a very comfortable meal at five o'clock, according to our wishes: meantime we rid ourselves of the accumulated dust of two days, and were comfortably established in out-quarters, the hotel being full.
The appearance of Newport is much less imposing, as approached by land, than when viewed from the noble harbour over which it looks. It consists of one long line of close-built, narrow streets running parallel with the water about the base of the steep hill, with many others climbing up its side. It is indifferently paved, and has a very light soil; so that upon the least land-breeze the lower town is filled with the dust, which is blown about in clouds.
Before the revolution, Newport was a city of comparative importance, and indeed, whilst the importation of slaves continued a part of the trade of the country, held its own with the most thriving cities of the east coast, through the great advantage it derived from its easy harbour, but with the abolition of that traffic came the downfall of its prosperity; for having no back country by the exportation of whose produce it might sustain itself, it was speedily deserted by the mercantile community, and its carrying trade usurped by Providence, although the latter is situated some thirty miles higher up the river. A railroad from Boston through the wealthy manufacturing districts might nevertheless, I should imagine, bestow upon this place the supremacy which the difficulty of land-carriage alone has withheld from it.
Its great natural advantage to visitors is the charming climate with which it is favoured, owing to its being on all sides surrounded by deep water: this is a point that cannot be changed by a decree in Congress, or removed by order of the Board of Trade, and likely to be of more use to the place, if made the most of, than the dockyard and depôt which they seek to establish.
If the English plan was adopted, and small snug cottages built and furnished for the use of families resorting here, these families would naturally quit the arks in which they are now congregated, and live each after the manner of its kind, as all wise animals do; in which case, I cannot anywhere imagine a more charming abode, or one possessing superior advantages.