IX
IN OLD NEWBURYPORT
The Dignity, Quiet, and Beauty of the One-Time Busy Seaport
Salt marshes surround Newburyport with their
level beauty and through them you must come to
it. Through them, too, the sea comes to it,
stretching long arms lovingly as if to clasp it and
bear it away. Thus fondly but placidly the tides
twice a day give the gentle old city a hug and then
go about their business. It is no wonder that this
corner of old Newbury knew it belonged to the
ocean rather than to the land and was set off as a
seaport long ago. In the heydey of their affection
the town sent forth its splendid ships in great numbers
to all seas, and the seas in return sent tribute
of all distant climes to Newburyport. For more
than a century shipmasters and sailors born on the
long ridge south of the Merrimac knew Guade-
