FOURTH JOURNEY. 219 



" Her bloom was like the springing flower 

 That sips the silver dew, 

 The rose was budded in her cheek, 

 Just opening to the view." 



I could not help feeling a wish, to know where she had 



" Into such beauty spread, and blown so fair." 



Upon inquiry, I found that she was from the city of 

 Albany. The more I looked at the fair Alhanese, the 

 more I was convinced, that in the United States of 

 America may be found grace and beauty and symmetry 

 equal to anything in the Old World. 



I now for good and all (and well I might) gave up 

 the idea of finding bugs, bears, brutes, and buffaloes in 

 this country, and was thoroughly satisfied that I had 

 laboured under a great mistake in suspecting that I 

 should ever meet with them. 



I wished to join in the dance where the fair Albanese 

 was " to brisk notes in cadence beating," but the state 

 of my unlucky foot rendered it impossible ; and as I 

 sat with it reclined upon a sofa, full many a passing 

 gentleman stopped to inquire the cause of my misfor- 

 tune, presuming at the same time that I had got an 

 attack of gout. Now this surmise of theirs always 

 mortified me ; for I never had a fit of gout in my life, 

 and, moreover, never expect to have one. 



In many of the inns of the United States, there is an 

 album on the table, in which travellers insert their 

 arrival and departure, and now and then indulge in a 

 little flash or two of wit. 



I thought, under existing circumstances, that there 

 would be no harm in briefly telling my misadventure ; 

 and so, taking up the pen, I wrote what follows ; and 

 was never after asked a single question about the gout. 



"C. Waterton, of Walton-hall, in the county of 



