The Miscellaneous Companions Author:William Matthews Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: abroad, the feat of happinefs muft ever be fixed at home. N E W P O R T. " The firft town that prefents itfelf on this road, is the old and very confiderab... more »le market- town of Newport, fituated at the end of a fifteen mile ftage, and on the bank of the river UJke, over which we pafs into it, by a very long and fpacious wooden bridge, railed on either fide; it has one ftrong ftone arch or pile in the centre, which may be thought neceflary to give fuffkient ftrength to fo long a ftructure. Having put up my horfe, I was impelled by curiofity to examine the firjl Welch caftle a traveller meets with on this road; for a pretty ftriking ruin of this kind, which he fees to the left, fome miles before he enters Newport, he muft pafs by, on account of the inconvenience of the road to it, and the length of this firft ftage. The ruins of the caftle of this town are by no inconfiderable. The wills that remain areare in a pretty found,ftate, but moft complete towards the river. There is one gothick arch entire, opening with a flope down to the water, which, at the top of the tide, is fufficiently high to admit boats of confiderable burthen to moor and unload under the caftle wall. This muf t have been very ufeful to the occupiers in the time of the profperity of the place, and might even now render the fpot a moft eligible one for bufinefs, with a little expence of ware- Jioufc building. But perhaps, if a perfon of fufficient fpirit were to convert the foite of this ruin, with the furrounding walls of the quadrangle, into an Inn, the venerable front towards the river, a little enlivened by a few modern windows, and the offices towards the town being fuitably arranged, there-would be exhibited one of the moft pleafing and convenient places of accommodation that can well be imagined....« less