New Castle, historic and picturesque . lsound; l)ut I fear it would shrink to a rude and rather squalidstructure were we able to reconstruct it of its original propor-tions and materials. Albeit, let the name and the sound remainto revive the imagination, by whose light we can most profitablyexplore the obscure beginnings of great enterprises. Whateverthe building, the situation is noble. It is a slightly elevated andlevel promontory, sloping to the water, and including the landfrom Seaveys Creek to the mouth of Little Harbor. Nothingcould show more discretion or finer perception of natural be
New Castle, historic and picturesque . lsound; l)ut I fear it would shrink to a rude and rather squalidstructure were we able to reconstruct it of its original propor-tions and materials. Albeit, let the name and the sound remainto revive the imagination, by whose light we can most profitablyexplore the obscure beginnings of great enterprises. Whateverthe building, the situation is noble. It is a slightly elevated andlevel promontory, sloping to the water, and including the landfrom Seaveys Creek to the mouth of Little Harbor. Nothingcould show more discretion or finer perception of natural beautythan the site selected by our ancestors for the foundation oftheir enterprise. A friend of mine has said that the choice• would have raised the reputation of a Phoenician navigator. Hewas nearly right. The best harbor on the coast; the mouth of adeep and broad river, easily defensible, and which they took caieto fortify immediately; twentj^ islands between the sea andPortsmouth, green to the tide, where they meet the clearest of. HISTORIC AND PICTUBESQUE 19 waters; a climate tempered from excessive heat or cold by theocean; with less fog, rain and east wind than is usual in seasidesituations; surrounded by a fertile and well-timbered country,—certainly leaAe nothing to seek for loveliness and conveniency ofhabitation. Tliere is no monument to mark the site of MasonHall. Some part of its foundations may be traced; and youwill sliown, on asking at the Odiorne homestead, an oldraisin-box partly filled with the broken relics found about it;these consist of some iron and pewter utensils, broken pipes,bullets and moulds, and a three-pound cannon-ball, intended,doubtless, for a saker or murther. Some portions of ahuman skeleton came to light In digging near the site of ]\IasonHall a few years since; these were laid upon the beam of an out-building and forgotten. At length the building was removed toanother part of the grounds; the poor bones fell from theirignoble shelf, a
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