Page:EB1911 - Volume 19.djvu/557

 account of the fisheries, which are mentioned in the Domesday Survey, one of the chief services of the burgesses being that of taking fish to the king’s court wherever it might be. This custom was continued after Henry III. had granted the borough with the manor of Edgmond, to Henry de Audley, but in the middle of the 13th century James, son of Henry de Audley, granted that the burgesses need not take the fish anywhere except within the county of Shropshire. The burgesses must have received certain privileges from Henry I., since Henry II. in an undated charter granted them all the liberties, rights and customs which they had in the time of Henry I. This probably included a gild merchant which is mentioned in the Quo Warranto Rolls as one of the privileges claimed by the burgesses. Confirmation charters were granted by Edward I. in 1287 and Edward II. in 1311, while the town was incorporated in 1551 by Edward VI. whose charter was confirmed by James I. in 1604. The governing body consisted of a high steward, deputy steward, two water-bailiffs and 28 burgesses, but the corporation was abolished by the Municipal Corporation Act of 1883, and a Local Board was formed, which, under the Local Government Act, gave place in 1894 to an urban district council.

 NEWPORT, a city of Campbell county, Kentucky, U.S.A., on the Ohio River opposite Cincinnati, Ohio, and at the mouth of the Licking River opposite Covington, Ky. Pop. (1900) 28,301, of whom 4081 were foreign-born and 424 were negroes; (1910 census) 30,309. It is served by the Louisville & Nashville, and the Chesapeake & Ohio railways, and by electric lines to Covington, Cincinnati, Bellevue, Fort Thomas and Dayton. With Cincinnati and Covington it is connected by bridges. In the highlands, about 3 m. back of the city, is Fort Thomas, a United States military post, established in 1888 to supersede Newport Barracks (1804), in the city, which were abandoned in 1894. Newport is essentially a residential suburb of Cincinnati, but it is also industrially important. In 1905 the value of the factory product was $5,231,084, Newport ranking third among the manufacturing centres of the state. Newport was settled late in the 18th century, was laid out in 1791, was incorporated as a town in 1795, and was chartered as a city in 1834.  NEWPORT, a city, a port of entry and the county-seat of Newport county, Rhode Island, U.S.A., occupying the southern portion of the island of Rhode Island at the entrance to Narragansett Bay, about 50 m. S. by E. of Providence, about 71 m. S. by W. of Boston and about 165 m. E.N.E. of New York Pop. (1905 state census) 25,039, of whom 6111 were foreign-born, 2590 being born in Ireland; (1910 U.S. census) 27,149. It is served by the Newport & Wickford Railroad and Steamboat Line, which connects with the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway at Wickford junction; by ferry to Bristol, and by steamboats to Providence, Fall River and New York.

The broken water-front of the island, about 17 m. long, is partly rocky and partly made up of sandy beaches. From the harbour on the south-west the land rises to a gently rolling plateau with maximum elevations of about 250 ft. The climate is notably mild and equable throughout the greater part of the year. In the newer parts of the city there are many magnificent estates of summer residents; and in the “Old Town,” the greater part of which is close to the harbour, and extending up the hillside, are many 18th-century houses and Thames Street, its principal business thoroughfare, only 20 ft. wide. Near the northern end of Thames Street, Washington Square or the Parade, connects with Broadway, which extends northward and is the principal thoroughfare through a large residential district of the permanent inhabitants. From the Parade, also, Touro Street extends eastward to the upper end of Bellevue Avenue, the principal street, which extends southward to the ocean. There Bellevue Avenue connects with the southern end of the Cliff Walk, which for about 3 m. winds along the cliffs on the eastern coast of the island. North of the walk is the smooth, hard Easton’s Beach, frequented for sea-bathing.

South of the Cliff Walk is Bailey’s Beach, a private bathing-beach; at its western end is the Spouting Rock, through an opening in which the water, during violent south-east gales, has been thrown to a height of about 50 ft. Ocean Drive, about 9 m. long, encircles the south-western peninsula. Beyond Easton’s Beach, in the town of Middletown, is Sachuest, or Second, Beach, with a heavier surf, and here is a fissure in the rocks, 150 ft. long and 50 ft. deep, and 8-14 ft. wide, known as Purgatory. North of Sachuest Beach are the picturesque Paradise Rocks and the Hanging Rocks.

At the head of the Parade stands the old State House (used when Newport was one of the capitals of Rhode Island); it was completed about 1743, was used as a hospital during the War of Independence, and is now the seat of the county court. In the vicinity are the City Hall and a monument to Oliver Hazard Perry. Fronting on Touro Street is a synagogue, erected in 1762–1763, and said to be the oldest in the United States; one of the early rabbis was Isaac Touro, a Jew of Dutch birth, whose name is borne by a street and a park in Newport. Near the corner of Touro Street and Bellevue Avenue is the Hebrew cemetery. Of chief historic interest along Bellevue Avenue are Touro Park and Redwood Library. In the park is the historic old Stone Mill or “Round Tower,” which Longfellow, in accordance with the contention of certain members of the Society of Danish Antiquarians, ascribes, in his Skeleton in Armour, to the Norsemen, but which Benedict Arnold (1615–1678), governor of Rhode Island, repeatedly mentions in his will as “my Stone-built Wind-Mill.” Opposite the park stands the William Ellery Channing Memorial Church; and in the park are monuments to Channing and to Matthew Calbraith Perry. The Channing House on Mary Street, built in 1751, is now used for a Children’s Home. The Redwood Library grew out of the Philosophical Society, established in 1730, which Bishop (then Dean) Berkeley possibly helped to found during his residence here in 1729–1731; the Library was incorporated in 1747, being named in honour of Abraham Redwood (c. 1709–1788), a wealthy Friend who early contributed £500 toward supplying it with books; the building was completed in 1750. In Berkeley Avenue, north of Paradise Road, is Whitehall, which Berkeley built for his home in 1729 and which was restored in 1900. The first newspaper of Newport was published in 1732 by James Franklin, a brother of Benjamin Franklin, and in 1758 James Franklin’s son, also named James, founded the present Newport Mercury.

Newport is best known as a fashionable resort during the summer and autumn; there are annual horse and dog shows, and fox-hunting is one of the amusements. The harbour is a rendezvous for racing- and pleasure-yachts. On Bellevue Avenue is the country club, the Casino. Among the great estates with magnificent “cottages” here are those of Mrs Cornelius Vanderbilt, Wm. B. Leeds, Mrs O. H. P. Belmont (the “Marble Palace,” built for W. K. Vanderbilt), Mrs Ogden Goelet, Mrs Robert Goelet, Perry Belmont, and J. J. Astor—all on the Cliff Walk.

Newport has an inner and an outer harbour; the inner is landlocked, 1 m. long and m. wide, but is not deep enough to admit vessels drawing more than 15 ft. of water; the outer admits the largest vessels and is a refuge for foreign and coastwise commerce. The whole harbour is protected at its entrance by Fort Adams, at the mouth of the inner harbour, Fort Wetherill on Conanicut Island, and Fort Greble on Dutch Island. The Lime Rock Lighthouse was for many years in charge of Mrs Ida Lewis Wilson (b. 1841), famous for the many lives she saved. On Goat Island, which partly encloses the inner harbour, is Fort Walcott, with a United States torpedo station and torpedo factory, and on Coasters Harbor Island, farther north, are a United States Naval Training Station and a War College. Along the western border of the outer harbour is Conanicut Island, on which is the town of Jamestown (pop. in 1905, 1337), with the Conanicut Yacht Club and other attractions for summer visitors. Newport has little foreign trade. There is, however, considerable coastwise trade in fish, coal and general merchandise, and in 1905 the total tonnage of the port amounted to 1,770,816 tons.