CHARLES WATERT0N, ESQ. lxiij 



and whilst we were at tea, I proposed to our 

 excellent friend Mr. Fletcher, who had joined 

 us at Cologne, that we should leave the inn at 

 four the next morning on foot for Rome, and 

 secure lodgings for the ladies, who would fol- 

 low us in the carriage after a nine o'clock 

 breakfast. Having been accustomed to go with- 

 out shoes month after month in the rugged 

 forests of Guiana, I took it for granted that I 

 could do the same on the pavement of his 

 Holiness Pope Gregory the Sixteenth, never 

 once reflecting that some fifteen years had 

 elapsed from the time that I could go bare- 

 footed with comfort and impunity ; during the 

 interval, however, the sequel will show that 

 the soles of my feet had undergone a consider- 

 able alteration. 



We rose at three the morning after, and 

 having put a shoe and a sock or half-stock- 

 ing into each pocket of my coat, we left the 

 inn at Baccano for Rome just as the hands of 

 our watches pointed to the hour of four. Mr. 

 Fletcher having been born in North Britain, 

 ran no risk of injuring his feet by an act of 

 imprudence. The sky was cloudless and the 

 morning frosty, and the planet Venus shone 



