vue Avenue marked another epoch in the history of
Newport. About that time Governor Lawrence bought the whole of Ochre
Point farm for fourteen thousand dollars, and Mr. de Rham built on the
newly opened road the first "cottage," which stands to-day modestly back
from the avenue opposite Perry Street. If houses have souls, as
Hawthorne averred, and can remember and compare, what curious thoughts
must pass through the oaken brain of this simple construction as it sees
its marble neighbors rearing their vast facades among trees. The trees,
too, are an innovation, for when the de Rham cottage was built and Mrs.
Cleveland opened her new house at the extreme end of Rough Point (the
second summer residence in the place) it is doubtful if a single tree
broke the rocky monotony of the landscape from the Ocean House to
Bateman's Point.

Governor Lawrence, having sold one acre of his Ochre Point farm to Mr.
Pendleton for the price he himself had paid for the whole, proceeded to
build a stone wall between the two properties down to the water's edge.
The population of Newport had been accustomed to take their Sunday
airings and moonlight rambles along "the cliffs," and viewed this
obstruction of their favorite walk with dismay. So strong was their
feeling that when the wall was completed the young men of the town
repaired there in the night and tore it down. It was rebuilt, the mortar
being mixed with broken glass. This infuriated the people to such an
extent that the whole populace, in broad daylight, accompanied by the
summer visitors, destroyed the wall and threw the materials into the sea.
Lawrence, bent on maintaining what he considered his rights, called the
law to his aid. It was then discovered that an immemorial riverain right
gave the fishermen and the public generally, access to the shore for
fishing, and also to collect seaweed,--a right of way that no one could
obstruct.

This was the beginning of the long struggle between the cliff-dwellers
and the townspeople; each new property-owner, disgusted at the idea that
all the world can stroll at will across his well-kept lawns, has in turn
tried his hand at suppressing the now famous "walk." Not only do the
public claim the liberty to walk there, but also the right to cross any
property to get to the shore. At this moment the city fathers and the
committee of the new buildings at Bailey's Beach are wrangling as gayly
as in Governor Lawrence's day over a bit of wall