IX 

 IN OLD NEWBURYPORT 



The Dignity, Quiet, and Beauty of the 

 One-Time Busy Seaport 



Salt marshes surround Newburyport with their 

 level beauty and through them you must come to 

 it. Through them, too, the sea comes to it, 

 stretching long arms lovingly as if to clasp it and 

 bear it away. Thus fondly but placidly the tides 

 twice a day give the gentle old city a hug and then 

 go about their business. It is no wonder that this 

 corner of old Newbury knew it belonged to the 

 ocean rather than to the land and was set off as a 

 seaport long ago. In the heydey of their affection 

 the town sent forth its splendid ships in great num- 

 bers to all seas, and the seas in return sent tribute 

 of all distant climes to Newburyport. For more 

 than a century shipmasters and sailors born on the 

 long ridge south of the Merrimac knew Guade- 



