Notes 



by a bridge which John Randel, Jr., declares was known 

 to all the young men and women of his day as the Kissing 

 Bridge. The Kissing Bridge of Burnaby's time, however, 

 spanned a creek in what is now the Bowery, a little to the 

 south of the present Chatham Square. 



Note XVI. p - />^ 



f 



The Redwood Library, chartered in 1747, takes its 

 name from Abraham Redwood (i 709-1 788), a benevolent 

 Quaker merchant of Newport, who was one of its founders. 

 The building in which it is housed, a handsome Doric 

 structure completed in 1750, was designed by Peter Harri- 

 son, the architect of Blenheim Castle. 



Note XVII. 

 In 1725, the famous George Berkeley, then dean of 

 Derry, conceived the idea of converting the American 

 Indians to Christianity by means of a college to be estab- 

 Hshed in the Bermuda Islands. Sir Robert Walpole, at 

 that time chief minister, opposed the enterprise, but 

 Berkeley persuaded the British government to promise a 

 grant of ;^20,ooo in support of his plans, and in September, 

 1728, he sailed for America, expecting to found the college 

 and assume its presidency. He reached Newport in 

 January, 1729, where he bought a farm, erected upon it 

 a small house, engaged in correspondence and study, 

 composed "The Minute Philosopher," preached occa- 

 sionally, and waited in vain for the expected endowment. 

 Finally, wearied by long delays and reluctantly convinced 

 that Walpole had no intention of giving him the promised 

 support, Berkeley gave up his residence at Newport, and, 



[260] 



