HARVARD FINE ARTS LIBRARY FOGG MUSEUM Gift - HCL - May 21, 1964 2635 MASON & PRATT, PRINTERS, NEWPORT, R. I. PART I: INTRODUCTION. It is well known to the travelling public, and, through them, to many others, that there stands, on a beautiful and breezy hill, in the ancient and historical town of Newport, at the southern end of Rhode Island, a singular stone structure, which has, from an immemorial period, defied alike the tooth of time and the wits of antiquarians. It is variously called the Round Tower, the Newport Ruin and the Old Stone Mill. Some years ago it had become celebrated as the central object of certain scenes in Cooper's Red Rover, and, within a few years, the popularity of Newport, as a summer resort, has made it almost the first question put to any one who goes from here to other parts of the country, "What do you make of that old stone mill?" Concerning the origin and object of this unique structure, there are, at home and abroad, divers conjectures. Probably ninety-nine hundredths (we had almost said nine hundred and ninety-nine thousandths) of the Newport people are satisfied that it is " nothing but an old stone mill," though, perhaps, we ought to say that some think it may have been originally intended for a look-out, or a retreat and fortress, or perhaps for a mill, fort and watch-tower, all together. But while the inhabitants regard it as the substructure of a gristmill, the society of Danish antiquarians at Copenhagen have published a learned dissertation to show that it was probably the superstructure of a baptistery, connected with a Church which, it would seem, was to have been erected on the spot, or went to ruin, after it was erected, by the Northmen, who are 'believed to have visited Massachusetts and Rhode Island in the 10th century. This, of course, is regarded by the Newporters as a Quixotic tilt at their old wind-mill, and one of them is disposed to hum to himself something in the style of a venerable Lilliputian Quarto, familiar to our infancy :— There was an Old Mill, that stood on a hill,' And while it stands there, it stands there still. Jump into briars and scratch out their eyes, And then go home and think they're wondrous wise. However, it will have to be admitted, we think, that there has been a little too much confidence, in many quarters, as to the age, authorship and design of this strange relic; that (to borrow a word from Bailey's Festus) this instoned mystery will not soon, if ever, be solved; that this is one of the hardest nuts, that Father Time ever gave his antiquarian children to crack. If the old curiosity was here when the first settlers came in 1638, it seems almost unaccountable that they should not have left several allusions to it, some one of which, indirectly, should have escaped the destruction of records and, on the other hand, if they or their children built it, as there is no evidence that it was according to a then common style of building, it would seem strange, again, that it passed without notice. It is contended, however, by many Newport people, (how plausibly, the pages of this pamphlet must show,) that we have an implied account of its origin and object when we take, in connexion with trustworthy tradition, the words of an extant ancient document, the will of the first Charter Governor of the Colony. We propose, then, under these covers, partly for the sake of gratifying present curiosity, and partly as a contribution towards that so desirable work,the history of the quaint and memorable town of Newport,-to publish together all the letters, newspaper articles and recorded documents we can find, which have been elicited by the Old |