table use; and this, coupled with the fact that we could not detect
the slightest unusual taste, gave us the gravest doubts about the
trustworthiness of this mineral fountain's old and unblemished
reputation: another indication is, that they have never had the liquid
analyzed. But the gouty, the rheumatic, the paralyzed, the dyspeptic,
who draw themselves through the current, and let the current draw
itself through them, are content with no such negative virtues for it,
and assign

To Berkeley every virtue under heaven.

The mountain-village known to Washington as "Bath" is still a scene
of fashionable revel: the over-dressed children romp, the old maids
flirt, the youthful romancers spin in each other's arms to music
from the band, and dowagers carefully drink at the well from the
old-fashioned mug decorated with Poor Richard's maxims; but the
festivities have a decorous and domestic look that would meet the pity
of one of the regular ante-rebellion bloods. After the good people
have retired at an early hour, we fancy the ghost of a lofty Virginia
swell standing in the moonlight upon the piazza, which he decorates
with gleams of phantom saliva. Attended by his teams of elegant
horses, and surrounded by a general halo of gambling, racing,
tourneying and cock-fighting, he seems to shake his lank hair sadly
over the poor modern carnival, and say, "Their tameness is shocking to
me."

There is a good deal of honest sport still to be had in the adjacent
hills: the streams yield trout, and various larger prey, for which the
favorite bait is a small ugly fish called helgamite. The woods contain
turkeys, pheasants, quail and woodcock. The region has a valuable