The Poor House Burial Ground, at the corner opposite the present new Court House, was at this time a standing nuisance in consequence of the want of drainage and the careless manner in which bodies of paupers were interred. After the law for closing all places of burial in the city had been carried into operation, this open space was planted with trees and ground carted in to fill up hollow places, and a substantial wall built around it. The old tan Yard of Andrew and John Smith was then one of the most picturesque and secluded spots in the neighborhood of the town. The stream which turned their mill passed down from the south common through Smith's Fields, where it formed a pond near the town road, known as the mill dam, for many years the resort of skaters in winter, continuing south-eastward to Freshwater Bridge and passing through a range of willow trees, some of which may still be seen above the present bridge. Southward from old bridge the road was at this time but a footpath winding along the shore to Steele's Pond, beyond which it was passable for carriages. At a very early period, however, there had been a broad carriage road all along the shore to Point Pleasant, but the earth had fallen in or been washed away by the tide. Black Rock, a point running out south from Trider's old lime kiln, was then, and for many years after, the resort of bathers. There was a fine gravel beach outside the old Freshwater Bridge leaving a large expanse of gravel when the tide was out. It was customary for gentlemen's servants, truckmen and others who came morning and evening to water their horses in the stream above the bridge to ride their horses in the surf at low water. That part of the city known as Schmidtville, or Pedley's Fields, west from Queen Street and the General's quarters, was not laid out into building lots until many years after the period we are now describing.