r happened to be in Portsmouth at the time. I
seldom pass through the narrow cobble-paved street without wondering
where the customers are that must keep all these flourishing little
establishments going. Congress Street--a more elegant thoroughfare
than Market--is the Nevski Prospekt of Portsmouth. Among the prominent
buildings is the Athenaeum, containing a reading-room and library.
From the high roof of this building the stroller will do well to take
a glance at the surrounding country. He will naturally turn seaward
for the more picturesque aspects. If the day is clear, he will see the
famous Isle of Shoals, lying nine miles away--Appledore, Smutty-Nose,
Star Island, White Island, etc.; there are nine of them in all. On
Appledore is Laighton's Hotel, and near it the summer cottage of Celia
Thaxter, the poet of the Isles. On the northern end of Star Island is
the quaint town of Gosport, with a tiny stone church perched like a
sea-gull on its highest rock. A mile southwest form Star Island lies
White Island, on which is a lighthouse. Mrs. Thaxter calls this the most
picturesque of the group. Perilous neighbors, O mariner! in any but
the serenest weather, these wrinkled, scarred, are storm-smitten rocks,
flanked by wicked sunken ledges that grow white at the lip with rage
when the great winds blow!

How peaceful it all looks off there, on the smooth emerald sea! and how
softly the waves seem to break on yonder point where the unfinished
fort is! That is the ancient town of Newcastle, to reach which from
Portsmouth you have to cross three bridges with the most enchanting
scenery in New Hampshire lying on either hand. At Newcastle the poet
Stedman has built for his summerings an enviable little stone chateau--a
seashell into which I fancy the sirens creep to warm themselves during
the winter months. So it is never without its singer.

Opposite Newcastle is Kittery Point, a romantic spot, where Sir William
Pepperell, the first American baronet, once lived, and where his tomb
now is, in his orchard across the road, a few hundred yards from the
"goodly mansion" he built. The knight's tomb and the old Pepperell
House, which has been somewhat curtailed of it fair proportions, are the
objects of frequent pilgrimages to Kittery Point.

From the elevation (the roof of the Athenaeun) the navy yard, the
river with its bridges and islands, the clustered gables of Kittery and
Newcastle, the illimitable ocean beyond make a picture