e noise at the time of its performance, and the motives at least
of which appear to have been mis-stated. On a former visit, he had gained
great renown by climbing, in company with Captain Alexander of the royal
navy, to the summit of the cross surmounting the ball of St Peter's, and
leaving his gloves on the point of the conductor! and as a pendant to this
notable achievement, it was announced about this time, in most of the
English papers, that in a fervour of religious enthusiasm, on approaching
the Eternal City, he had walked barefoot as a pilgrim the last twenty
miles, and thus so severely lacerated his feet as to be incapable for some
time of moving. "Would that my motives had been as pure as represented!
The sanctity of the churches, the remains of holy martyrs which enrich
them, the relics of canonized saints placed in such profusion throughout
them, might well induce a Catholic traveller to adopt this easy and simple
mode of showing his religious feeling. But, unfortunately, the idea never
entered my mind at the time; I had no other motives than those of easy
walking and self-enjoyment." The enjoyment to be derived from walking
without shoes or stockings over a rough pavement, in sharp frost, proved
as problematical in practice as it would be to most persons in theory; and
Mr Waterton found to his cost, that the fifteen years which had elapsed
since he went barefoot with impunity in the forests of Guiana, had
materially impaired his soles' power of endurance. After sustaining a
severe injury in his right foot, of which the intensity of the cold
prevented his being sensible at the instant, he was glad to resume his
_chaussure_, and was laid up on the sofa for two months after his arrival.
"It was this unfortunate adventure which gave rise to the story of my
walking barefooted into Rome, and which gained me a reputation by no means
merited on my part."

Notwithstanding this mishap, and the many things offensive to English
feelings in the manifold impurities of Roman streets and kitchens, Mr
Waterton speaks with much satisfaction of his sojourn for several months
in "Rome, immortal Rome, replete with every thing that can instruct and
please." Though his former visits had in great degree satiated him with
galleries and palaces, he still found great attractions in the studio of
the Roman Landseer, Vallati,[10] the famous painter of wild-boars; but his
great point of attraction seems to have been the bird-market near t