>From the book "History of Washington and Kent Counties, Rhode Island" by J.R. Cole, published 1889, New York, W.W. Preston & Company. Beginning on page 518. [xxx] respresents either notes or the page number. GOVERNOR JOHN POTTER'S HOUSE, that stood a mile or more north of Peace Dale, was built and finished throughout in palatial [519] style. The stone steps leading to the front door were circular in form and very lofty. The ceilings of the lower rooms were nearly or quite twice the ordinary height. The Italian artist who had been employed to embellish the walls of this house painted a full length portrait of Governor Potter's daughter on the panel over the fireplace in one of the chambers. Tradition asserts that the perfidious Italian, taking advantage of the father's prolonged absence on one occasion, painted himself kneeling at the feet of Miss Potter. This so irritated the old gentleman that he drove the artist from his house and erased the image. Miss Potter, however, eloped, and was united in wedlock to the fascinating stranger. THE OLD ABBEY was an elegant mansion, built by Judge William Potter. It stood about a mile north of the village of Little Rest, now Kingston. About the year 1780 Judge Potter became a devoted follower of Jemima Wilkinson, and to accommodate her and her adherents made large additions to the already large mansion, and from this cause probably it was called the Old Abbey. Updike says: "In consequence of his devotion to this artful woman Judge Potter was compelled to mortgage his estate, and finding it impossible to redeem it in its deteriorated condition, he finally, in 1807, sold the remainder of his interest in it and settled in Genessee. "The late Hon. Elisha R. Potter purchased the homestead, but the elegant garden, with parterres, borders, shrubbery, summer house, fruit orchard, his ancient mansion, with the high and costly fences, out-houses and cookery establishment, and the more recent erections for the accommodation and gratification of the priestess of his devotions, were in ruins, and within a few years the whole buildings have been removed." A similar fate as that which attended the Potter estate has attended many others, and to such extent that where once stood elegant mansions there are now only to be seen dilapidated walls, and loose boulders overgrown with briars and bushes. Such are the footprints of Time on this once fertile and beautiful farming country.