ROMEOSTIA. 155 



once attempted to drive down with me in his mail 

 phaeton, but he was obliged to give it up when he 

 had got about half-way, when he had to turn out of 

 the road on to a kind of large field, and we had to go 

 back to Rome. I remember that, from the Tiber having 

 overflowed, the fields, or whatever they were termed, 

 were all over mud from the said river, and we saw 

 lots of snipe running on the top of the mud ; nothing 

 would suit him but he must get out his gun and 

 have a shot if possible. On coming back, finding the 

 mud too sticky for travelling, he dropped his powder- 

 horn, and on going back to where he thought he had 

 lost it he slipped up into a sitting position, and stuck 

 so fast that he could not get out again without 

 assistance, leaving a very fine impression of the 

 corduroy breeches that he had on, and which may, 

 for anything I know, be there to this day, for the 

 mud of the river Tiber is of a most tenacious order, 

 and what the artists use for modelling with. I used 

 seldom to stay more than a couple or three nights 

 at the Pulverosi barn. There was not much to be 

 done in the daytime ; the flight-shooting in the 

 morning was the sport that pleased me best. There 

 were plenty of snipes about, but from the nature of 

 the ground they were bad to get at. The ground 



