Rambles about Portsmouth. Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents. By Charles W. Brewster.

26-: RAMBLES ABOUT PORTSMOUTH.
That little green isle in the Piscataqua, whose still life,
at the present day, is disturbed only by its few inhabitants,
and the travel to and from Newcastle was for the time a
scene of great animation. The flower of the youth and
beauty of Portsmouth were congregated there, and as nothing more unpleasant was experienced than the ordinary
results from vaccination, a majority of them were perfectly
well, and remembered the affair as little else than a holiday
festival of the gayest description.
A gentleman of Portsmouth, still in the full vigor of life,
with whom I conversed recently upon the subject, recollects the pleasure he enjoyed in watching their sports, by
the aid of a spy-glass from the roof of his father's residence
in Buck (now State) street. One of the party then in her
17th year, often said to me, in her maturer years, that
those were among the very happiest days of her whole life.
There was about an equal proportion of both sexes, and as
most of them had arrived at an age to understand that order of animal magnetism referred to in Genesis xxix.: 20,
the little knight of the bow and arrows, with the benevolent
idea, doubtless, of giving them something to occupy their
time during a season of so much leisure, made himself particularly busy among them. A greater amount of that
species of amusement known as "love-making, " was,
probably, never concentrated' within a briefer space or
more limited period. While some of it lasted out a lifetime, the larger proportion, tradition says, was of the
ephemeral kind that sqme crusty bachelor, who probably
never knew anything from experience of "the tender
passion, " has termed a puppy-love, " and did not long survive the change from sea-air to the atmosphere of the
metropolis; still, it was a very harmless pastime, and
furnished a theme for many a pleasant thought and
enlivening chat in' after years.
The following reminiscences, that have survived through