trees, thus giving every opportunity for drives and bridle and foot-paths, past charming scenery, embracing water views, valleys, hills and dales possessing sylvan retreats, grottoes, green lawns, masses of shrubbery, and the many water courses covered by handsome bridges and bordered by pretty landings would give thousands an opportunity of reaching this creation, which would honestly deserve the quotation, “Pro bono publico!"

It would be still better to commence this avenue from a new pier just outside of Lambert's Point. This would give a length of about ten miles to these parks and park-ways.

Just one thing more is absolutely necessary to make Norfolk appear to the stranger, as well as the citizen, a beautiful city, and that is by changing the appearance of Market Square, for it is here that more people concentrate and more strangers form their impression of Norfolk than anywhere else.

The removal of the market and using the space it occupies for a public park has often been suggested and as many times bitterly opposed, the oppositions coming mainly, I understand, from gentlemen who own the stalls in the market; but I think that this could be equitably arranged by building a new and greater market and giving them the choice of the stalls. The strip thus released could be made a semi-tropical garden, for lovely magnolias could grow in it, delighting the eye with their matchless green leaves and loading the air with their fragrance, and other plants that could not thrive. in higher latitudes, while in the centre

A MONUMENT,

towering above all surroundings and vieing in grandeur and artistic merit with the greatest testimonials ever carved out of marble or granite or moulded in bronze, should be erected to perpetuate the deeds of the heroes of three wars: The men of Norfolk who lost their lives while fighting Dunmore at Great Bridge during the war of the Revolution; the volunteers who prevented the capture of the city during the war of 1812 by their desperate and successful defence at Cranie Island, and last to the Norfolk soldiers of the Southern Confederacy, who for four long years fought in a cause which looked hopeless from the first and followed a flag which, though never recognized by the nations of the earth, has gained the respect of even its greatest enemies on account of the fortitude and self-sacrifice of its followers and the heroic deeds enacted on both land and sea under its folds, now forever furled.

Norfolk's opportunity for creating

A MARINE PARK,

or rather an embankment, is not altogether lost. It is easily made possible by buying the strip back of the estates in the West End, from the foot of York street to near the Newport News and Mississippi Valley Railroad wharf, and moving the retaining walls further out, thus securing a magnificent drive and promenade, bordered by the handsomest, best laid out and most artistically arranged grounds in the city on one side, while on

the other the ever-moving waters of the harbor, fretted with black hulks, white sails and curling smoke, moving gracefully and seemingly keeping time to the music made by the waves gently lashing the sea wall.

NOTE. The annexation of the suburbs is no new thing. It has been agitated, I understand, and fondly looked for for over thirty years, and I think there is no better time to accomplish it than now and no better way than by the system of parks and park-ways which I have suggested and submitted in this chapter.

I can further say to the citizens of Norfolk that this is not planned in the interest of any land scheme, as I do not own a foot of ground in any of the places mentioned and have never spoken to any one upon the subject in or out of the city.

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.

I have nearly finished my task. It was hastily constructed and many circumstances combined to make it a work of less magnitude than the subject justifies and which more cheerful circumstances would have made it.

While considerable sickness in my family, and the death of my little child, gave me an opportunity of seeing how ready the good citizens of Norfolk are to soothe and watch by the bedside of the sick (and I am grateful for this opportunity to return thanks for their honest hospitality and sincere friendship), still these adverse circumstances and trouble naturally had anything but an inspiring effect. A great deal of unavoidable

work in and outside of the literary channel forced me out of the city when it would have been to the best interest of this book for me to have stayed; and assistance, as far as descriptions were concerned, was impossible, as I had promised advertisers and other patrons that every city and town would be written up by myself and backed by personal observation, and if I had not it would have been the same, as I have always held that the lowest of all swindlers is the thief who will knowingly allow another's brain-work to come out under his name. But

THE END IS DRAWING NEAR,

and I take a last, lingering look at the city I have described from an upper window of my High street home. The trees have been rendered leafless by the gentle touch of cold which accompanies winter even in this balmy climate, save the near little forest of magnolias which refresh the eye with their ever green and ever pleasing color; hence my view is unobstructed. I glance at the meadow between me and the small tidal stream called Paradise creek and then my eyes rest on the opposite shore, which consists of about two hundred yards of uncultivated land, the foreground relieved by a largesized open boat picturesquely decaying and the remaining space covered with wild grasses and still wilder looking rush. The land slopes gently upward to the city, which is solidly massed in a long line in front of me, looking at this distance more than ever like some ancient English cathedral or college city, with the Bap

tist church, its square, solid and pinnacled tower, centrally situated and standing in bold relief, the dome of the City Hall and the many church spires that overtop the roofs of Norfolk.

As I pen these closing lines

DARKNESS

gradually mantles the earth, and spires, domes, turrets and houses recede from my sight like a dream, but I linger until Night, with. her great dissolving power, has taken full possession and removed every outline of the distant city. I then make a light, and the first thing it brings legibly before me is the title-page of my book, which causes me to muse and think until I become satisfied that if, on some future day in the next century, when this great nation will have the Arctic Ocean as its only northern boundary and the Panama Canal will mark its southern limit, it should be the fortune of one of these books to survive and fall into the hands of an author whose province it is to describe the city, he will smile at its modest title, "Norfolk; the Marine Metropolis of Virginia," as he boldly names his work"Norfolk; the Marine Metropolis of the Republic of United North America."

THE END.