LETTERS FROM THE DANUBE
Do not equal the expectations that a perusal of the author's Gisella might naturally have raised. In his novel he painted manners and sce- nery with vivacity and truth : his defect was in the higher branches of his art--in probability, passion, and Perhaps propriety ; though he could support a dialogue, describe an incident, and, occasionally, indicate a cha- racter with nicety, as in his sketch of the late Emperor Francis. Both the qualities he had and the qualities he wanted seemed to indicate that he would succeed as a describer of the actual, since he appeared to fail from want of the ideal. Stich, however, is not the case. The necessary atm, ture of the fiction, with its narrative, incidents, and persons, compelled a variety in Gisella which there is not in the Letters. This necessity, too, cut short a description, or rather stopped a series of descriptions, and prevented the writer from obtruding himself, his familiars, his likes, his dislikes, his thoughts, and his feelings upon the reader. In fact, in Letters from the Danube the writer's pen has run away with the writer. He never knows when to stop. If an idea rises in his mind, he draws it off to the dregs : if he enters a town, he makes an inventory of what he sees, and minutely describes each individual part of the shifting panorama or fixed picture ; in his voyages on the Danube or excursions along its banks, he gives ever-recurring descriptions of what he elsewhere says cannot be described, though by a figure he contrives to hitch in a
picture of the indescribable. .
Except the first forty or fifty pages, where verbiage and egotism super- abound, and similar passages that occasionally turn up through the vo- lumes, these descriptions are well done, and often interesting, considered singly. Any one letter, and still more any separate bit, presents a pic- ture to the mind, somewhat literal perhaps in substance, but lively, bright, and fluent in manner. Still, "when pure description holds the place of sense" for the best part of two volumes, it palls upon the mind. The reader desires incident, persons, and manners; and though these are occa- sionally introduced, they are only as the garnish where they should form the dish. Well situated as the writer was for presenting his readers with a full view of Hungary and the Hungarians, we have only indications in- stead of accounts. This may in part have arisen from the form of letters, which profess to be written to a female cousin, and probably were ; but a good deal is owing to the flimsy and superficial character of the writer's mind, which seems to rest satisfied with externals, and to treat them rather affectedly. The journey that gave rise to the book was not extensive. The author started from Ratisbon, and steamed down the Danube to Orsova, the fron- tier town of Hungary : he thence made excursions to the celebrated falls, or rather rapids, called the Iron Gate, and to Mehadia, the last watering. place, situated on the confines of civilization. This journey, however, was not accomplished at one heat. He called at Vienna, visited Pesth and Belgrade, with several minor towns, and sojourned as a guest at the country-house of a lesser noble, or what we should call a country squire, as well as at the mansion of a Hungarian magnate, of whom we also have analogous samples in great families, such as that of Northumberland. On these occasions, he had opportunities of observing the domestic eco- nomy of the nobles, the fetes of the peasants, the elections of public offi- cers, and the modes of doing the public county business. He also brought to his task a previous knowledge both of Hungary and the Hungarians. The result is, some descriptions interesting in themselves, and with a passing interest from the present state of affairs in Hungary. But much if not all is superficial. The dress of the different classes— the picturesque effect of the groups they fall into—the forms in which business is done—the appearance of the speakers, with the noise and shouting, are the points that attract his attention, while deeper things are disregarded. This is the more to be regretted since Hungary offers a curious and instructive field of independent observation, and of comparison with England. This comparison, as is well known, the Hungarians themselves are fond of making; and it is true up to a certain point. At the outset, the circumstances of the countries seem to have been greatly similar, with representative houses and analogous county bodies ; but Hungary looks much as our political development might have looked had it been checked soon after Magna Charts. The peasant noble of Hungary seems more analogous to the freedman or freeholder of our early constitution than to the barones minores ; the villein was never transformed into the frank. lin, yeoman, and free peasant ; the disorders of the country and its inland situation prevented the accumulation of wealth, much more the growth of
commerce; and till within these few years, if not now, Hungary pre- sented a sort of petrified feudality verging into a constitutional monarchy, arrested for the benefit of political observers. The contrast between the social advance of the educated classes and the primitive condition of the masses, with the actual amount of freedom and free institutions still pos- sessed by Hungary, is a subject worthy of more attention than it has yet received. When we consider how the country was half conquered, fre- quently invaded, and continually threatened by Turkey, and look at its reduction under the rule of Austria, the foundations of its freedom must have been laid wide and deep to retain the power and vitality they pos- sess in despite of such a long series of disadvantageous circumstances.
We learn from the author before us, that England is not so enthusi- astically popular as she was in Hungary some few years since. The cause of that change is an opinion. The reading and travelled men of Hungary have discovered a resemblance between Ireland oppressed by Britain and Hungary oppressed by Austria. Hence they have or had a tendency to become what the Americans call "sympathizers," and O'Connell was their model man. In one point of view the resemblance of Hungary to Ireland is clear enough : two races inhabit or rather divide the country. The Magyars and Sclavonians have no more amalgamated than the Saxon and the Celt, although a thousand years have rolled over Hun- gary since the conquering Magyara overran the land, and it is only some six hundred years since Strongbow invaded Ireland. If we had a "full, true, and particular account" of the present disastrous divisions in Hun- gary, it might furnish a curious subject of political observation ; the use- ful lesson—the means of prevention or of cure—would be yet to seek. It is probable that the supercilious tone of the Hungarians toward& the Scla- vonians had something to do with the ill blood. If the author of the Letters were writing now, he would doubtless ascribe a good deal to the machinations of Russia, in opposition to or perhaps in league with Austria. The agents of the Czar, he says and the Hungarians evidently think, are ever at work to sow di:satisfaction.
"Those distant mountains are the mountain of Servia—of Servia, the theatre of so many conflicting interests and intrigues: and at this sight the recollection will come over us of the reports which we have constantly heard, and the truth of which we have every reason to believe, that the monks of all these Greek monasteries among the Syrmian hills are the ready instruments of Russia, and that they never let slip any occasion to forward the interests of the Russian Go- vernment in any of the neighbouring lands of the Turkish provinces; that they here stand, in -fact, as moral sentinels to watith over those interests—the in- terests, they fancy, of their own church also—which to Russia, the self-elected and ambitious head of that church, are a matter of so much political moment. Whatever may be the ulterior designs of Rnssias—whether it really aims as is supposed, at a union in some future time of all the various countries speaking the various Sclavonian dialects, and more especially all those holding to the Greek faith, in one vast Grmeo-Selavonian empire,—and certainly the Russian intrigues that are carried on also in Croatia, which is Catholic, and the Russian party which avowedly exists in that part of Hungary, go far to confirm this sup- position,—whatever be the end and aim of the museums that are so diligently employed,—a subject upon which I most again say, it is not in my province or capacity to enter,—certain it is, that Russian agents, avowedly despatched in the interests of these Greek communities by the head of their church, but unavowedly yet evidently engaged in far other intrigues, are con- stant visiters in the monastic establishments among the Syrmian hills: they come and go, it is not very dear whence or where; that they have been often smuggled over the frontiers into the Turkish provinces, and especially Servia, is a well- known fact. We may look upon our picturesque friends the Greek monks, then, in no other light than as so many Russian spies, agents, and intriguers.
"1 have already said, in a former letter, that Russian intrigue is continually at work to inoculate Russian opinions among thepopulstion adhering to the Greek faith; and that not only the monks, but the Greek priests disseminated through this part of the country, are said to be more or less devoted to the interests, of Russia. It must be remembered also, that we are here in the stronghold of the Greek religion in Hungary- and Carlowitz, which I shall probably see en passant, a town of considerable extent lying on the Danube at no great distance below Peterwardein, is the residence of the Greek metropolitan Archbishop in the coun- try, possessing, besides the Archbishop's palace and the Greek cathedral, a Greek theological college." The military colonies of the frontier were visited by our author; but he gives a poor account of them ; much less specific, full, and interesting, than may be found in other writers. The descriptions of county elec- tions and county business though superficial in matter and minute in description, are worth reading, but would encroach too much upon our space to quote. The descriptions are more available; and of the better kind we will take a couple. The following is from a long account of the pas- sage through the defiles of the Danube, where the mountains hem in the river below Belgrade, or rather perhaps above Orsova.
ROMAN ROAD.
The dale of Kazan, if not narrower than that of which we have already over- come the difficulties, is at least loftier in its mountain flanks; and yet so narrow become on a sudden some of the passes of this ravine, that you cannot but won- der when and how all the vast mass of water has disappeared, and shudder at the thought of the depths below that must conceal it. So abruptly rise the preci- pitous cliffs from either side, that it is evident Nature has here cut off all com- munication along the mighty river: there is not a hold for the feet of a goat or a chamois along these steep walls, much less for the foot of mortal man. But for this very reason, the pass of Kazan is to me the most interesting portion of the river; for on the Hungarian bank runs that stupendous road blasted in the rock of which I have already spoken,—a long, vast, over-arched gallery, bored by the might and power and intelligence of man along a path where Nature seemed to have imperiously pronounced the word a Inipossible !" and on the other bank arise, on every spot, distinct traces of that almost as mighty Roman road, which, nearly two thousand years ago, that wonderful people had constructed with an audacity and intelligence as great. Powder that great nation had not to blast and bore; such modern facilities were unknown to them; but evidences still exist, as fresh as if formed but yester- day, of the manlier in which that curious road was made: even "old Scepticism" must held his tongue; or, if he dare to wag it, no soul will listen to him. Along the whole line of precipitous rocks upon the Servian bank are to be seen square holes, as perfect in the hard rock as if they had been but recently chiselled; and the slightestcomprehension may see at a glance that the sockets were intended for the insertion of beams, to support a wooden towing-path and road of coin- mrmication which ran through the whole series of these difficult passes. Above these square holes are still the traces also of ledges or grooves in the rock, cut for the further support of the road or for that of the roof, which apparently covered it along the whole extent. My mind positively stood confounded with wonder and admiration, and that comprehension of the greatness of the Romans, which Rome with all its vast remains was unable to convey to me; that enthu- siasm into which, although fresh with all the classical recollections of my earlier youth, I had in vain endeavoured to lash myself in the "eternal city,"—in vain, indeed; I often think of my useless efforts at some degree of inspiration with a smile of regret,—I here found suddenly come over me. Since I am speaking of this Roman road, I may mention now, although we have not yet arrived at it, the tablet which still exists, set in the rocky wall of the precipice, near the end of the defile, to commemorate the construction of the road. Although naturally defaced by time, and smoked over below by fires which the fishermen seem to be especially fond or lighting upon that terrace of rock, yet, even as we hurried by in the steamer, we could plainly see the winged figures and dolphins that formed the supporters of the tablet, and the Roman eagle still soar- ing above: the letters of the inscription, which immortalized the great 'work of Trajan, we necessarily could not read; and upon this point we took the informa- tion of our pleasant and instructive guide-book for granted. Where this extraordinary road existed in Roman times, the petty attempts of the poor fishermen who lurk in the recesses of the mountain flanks still contrive to keep up the communication of a path, which forms a strange, romantic, and picturesque contrast with the beauty and solidity of the great new road so mar- vellously constructed on the Hungarian side of the river. Where the stony path- ways up and down the great masses of rock become impracticable, little tottering bridges of plank, or of two or three trunks of trees, have been laid from precipice to -precipice over the ravines and chasms which sever the threads of the path.
HUNGARIAN WHIRS.
Before I close my letter, a word or two, as I promised, about the Syrmian wines; and if the matter prove but of little interest to yourself as well as to me, take "the will for the deed," and give me credit, once for a while, for going through my bounden duties of a properly-behaved tourist. Even the weakest of these Syrmian wines have a full, slightly bitter taste, which give them some resemblance with those of Spain; but they have generally more of the sweet— not the cloying, thick sweet of some of the Southern wines of Europe, but a fresh, sparkling, fruity sweet, which is their chief characteristic. They are pro- duced, as you have seen, from the pure juice of the grape, unmixed and un- adulterated, and are neither cooked nor prepared in any way whatever. The Syrmian ausbruck, the choicest and most valued of all these wines—that which often obtains the preference over the more generally celebrated wine of Tokay—is not to be produced every season; its fabrication can only be expected in a very favourable year. It is made then by a process peculiar to the richer Hungarian wines. When the weather is especially dry and advantageous, the fuller and richer grapes are allowed to remain upon the stalks until they are dried to raisins in the sun; under less favourable circumstances they would rot, not dry; they are then only gathered in the late season. These raisins are picked very carefully, and heaped together in tubs, bored below like sieves; and their oily juice is allowed to run off, pressed out by their own weight alone. It would appear almost impossible, at first, that any drinkable liquid should be extracted from the thick liquor thus expressed from this sweet dry grape,. By degrees, however, the thicker particles settle to the bottom of the tub into which it 13 conveyed; and the pure wine is run off clear from the top. The wine thus obtained is never in a state to be drunk until it has stood several years—some thirty or more, I was told; and at that period the second deposit made by this purified liquor is said to be sometime so great, on the sides as well as the bottom of its receptacl ,e that if the cask be broken, the wine will stand alone in an inward-formed cask of its own leather. Whether this story be apocryphal or not, the fact remains the same that after many years' pre- servation the result produces that nectar of nectais, as it is called, the Syrmian cumin-wk. This superior sort is called, par excellence, the "essence." An inferior, second-class ausbruch, although still of admirable quality., is pro-. duced by a commoner Syrmian wine being poured upon the first deposit of the ausbruch, allowed to remain far a time, and then strained. That this admirable wine should have been so long ignored in England, particularly as it is one of the few Hungarian wines which admit of exportation and travel, can only be ac- counted for by the recollection, that while Tokay was long since known and celebrated in Europe, the province of Syrmia and its vineyards were still de- vastated by the Turks, and that only in comparatively latter times the Syrmian vineyards were again made to bear, and the Syrmian wines again produced.
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