154 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



some marshes near, used to pass the said bridge in 

 untold quantities at morning flight time. I and my 

 servant used generally to leave the Contrada di Maria 

 di Fiori about two in the morning. The scoundrels 

 we used to see lurking about the streets and suburbs 

 of Rome were enough to alarm one, but we were 

 never molested ; and I have often wondered why we 

 were never stopped, robbed, murdered, and eaten, for 

 to look at them they seemed capable of anything. 



Having done this journey there and back again 

 more than once, I found it was too much of a good 

 thing, and having been introduced to a Count 

 Pulverosi, who was a capital fellow and very fond 

 of Englishmen, and whom we called Dusty Bob, he, 

 having a sort of farm and a sort of barn on the 

 ground, most kindly allowed me to make use of it, 

 and there I used to sleep and put my pony up, and 

 having taken some provisions, and having lit a large fire 

 of faggots which his tenant, who looked like a brigand 

 or some such* scoundrel, brought me, in the corner 

 of the large building, we managed to rough it pretty 

 well ; it was not very luxurious, I own, but it was 

 better than having to travel back on the road I have 

 named, and which was quite impassable for anything 

 but a machine on two wheels. A friend of mine 



