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 Sketches of persons, localities, and incidents of two centuries: principally from tradition and unpublished documents.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

THE NAVY YARD. 255
cling to it. Occasionally, of a summer, I go, for a day, to
look with bodily eyes upon that' greenest spot in memory's w.Lste;" but it is like visiting the grave of one long
dead, whose quiet resting place it is hard to find. Busy,
ambitious life starts out upon me from all the old quiet places
whiere once \we could dream for hours undisturbed; the
fine brick quarters of the officers stand where once was
our wild strawberry lpatch l; the " old house " on tle
blill, as wo1 ascended fiom where the landing now is, colltailing two tenements under one roof, (and occupied, as
necessity required, by. the lieutenant, surgeon, sailing master, or Ilaval storekeeper,) has disappeared, and the hill
along witl'it, fr om tle surftce of the earth. It stood
ablout where the steps now descend the declivity in the
blasn of which is the Dry Dock; and just beyond the
house, on the summnit of thle hill, was a flag-staff witlhiln a
hexagon or octagon shaped enclosure, built of timber, witl
embrasures for canlnon in time of need, though no cannon
were in it then.
Behlilld the oll ship house, (which for half a century
*sheltered the well seasoned Alabama,,) just on the water's edge, were two small, white-washed, one-story houses,
honored with the name of barracks, and occupied by a
sergeant and a small detachment of marines. And between
these barracks and the blacksmith's shop was an old yellow,
two-storied, frame house, used as the sailor's lodge: the
spot now occupied by the brick lodge beilng tlen a grassy
lholoow, containing a solitary well, wllere occasionally tle
ml: ieiis came to wash and sp-read out their lineii to dry.
But all this is with the past, and. now I look around and
feel bewildered by the ch!ange that has taken place. Tle
old elin in thle enclosure around the Conmmodore's hlouse is
the only object tlat looks familiar-t'e only old land mna k
remaining unchanoged —the original proprietor of the soil,
wvho!e cl'ims are better grounced an: of earlier date than