II. ALONG THE WATER SIDE

IT is not supposable that the early settlers selected the site of their
plantation on account of its picturesqueness. They were influenced
entirely by the lay of the land, its nearness and easy access to the
sea, and the secure harbor it offered to their fishing-vessels; yet they
could not have chosen a more beautiful spot had beauty been the sole
consideration. The first settlement was made at Odiorne's Point--the
Pilgrims' Rock of New Hampshire; there the Manor, or Mason's Hall, was
built by the Laconia Company in 1623. It was not until 1631 that the
Great House was erected by Humphrey Chadborn on Strawberry Bank. Mr.
Chadborn, consciously or unconsciously, sowed a seed from which a city
has sprung.

The town of Portsmouth stretches along the south bank of the Piscataqua,
about two miles from the sea as the crow flies--three miles following
the serpentine course of the river. The stream broadens suddenly at this
point, and at flood tide, lying without a ripple in a basin formed by
the interlocked islands and the mainland, it looks more like an island
lake than a river. To the unaccustomed eye there is no visible outlet.
Standing on one of the wharves at the foot of State Street or Court
Street, a stranger would at first scarcely suspect the contiguity of the
ocean. A little observation, however, would show him that he was in a
seaport. The rich red rust on the gables and roofs of ancient buildings
looking seaward would tell him that. There is a fitful saline flavor in
the air, and if while he gazed a dense white fog should come rolling in,
like a line of phantom breakers, he would no longer have any doubts.

It is of course the oldest part of the town that skirts the river,
though few of the notable houses that remain are to be found there. Like
all New England settlements, Portsmouth was built of wood, and has been
subjected to extensive conflagrations. You rarely come across a brick
building that is not shockingly modern. The first house of the kind was
erected by Richard Wibird towards the close of the seventeenth century.

Though many of the old landmarks have been swept away by the fateful
hand of time and fire, the town impresses you as a very old town,
especially as you saunter along the streets down by the river. The
worm-eaten wharves, some of them covered by a sparse, unhealthy beard of
grass, and the weather-stained, unoccupied warehouses are sufficient
to satisfy a moderate app