Rhode Island 



going to be erected a market-house, upon a very 

 elegant design. The places of public worship, ex- 

 cept the Jews' synagogue, are all of wood; and not 

 one of them is worth looking at. They consist chiefly 

 of a church, two Presbyterian meeting-houses, one 

 Quaker ditto, three Anabaptists ditto, one Moravian 

 ditto, and the synagogue above mentioned. This 

 building was designed, as indeed were several of the 

 others, by a Mr. Harrison, an ingenious English 

 gentleman who lives here. It will be extremely ele- 

 gant within when completed : but the outside is totally 

 spoilt by a school, which the Jews would have an- 

 nexed to it for the education of their children. 

 Upon a small island, before the town, is part of a fine 

 fortification, designed to consist of a pentagon fort, 

 and an upper and lower battery. Only two of the 

 curtains, and a ravelin, are yet finished; and it is 

 doubted whether the whole will ever be completed. 

 There are now mounted upon it 26 cannon; but the 

 works, when complete, will require above 150. At 

 the entrance of the harbour there is likewise an ex- 

 ceeding good light-house. These are the chief pub- 

 lic buildings. 



Three miles from the town is an indifferent wooden 

 house, built by Dean Berkeley,* when he was in these 

 parts : the situation is low, but commands a fine view 

 of the ocean, and of some wild rugged rocks that are 

 on the left hand of it. They relate here several 



* See Note XVII. 



[121] 



