I need not tell you that these towns are Newburyport, Portsmouth, and Portland.

The Oriental character they have in common consists in their large, square, palatial mansions, with sunny gardens round them.

The two first have seen better days.

They are in perfect harmony with the condition of weakened, but not impoverished, gentility.

Each of them is a "paradise of demi-fortunes." Each of them is of that intermediate size between a village and a city which any place has outgrown when the presence of a well-dressed stranger walking up and down the main street ceases to be a matter of public curiosity and private speculation, as frequently happens, during the busier months of the year, in considerable commercial centres like Salem.