the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 309 



thatclied cottages, which form the village, is used as a road. 

 Once through the village, which ends as it began, with a 

 shapeless pond, you are in the open unenclosed country ; it 

 may be passing through pasture, but more commonly arable 

 land in a more or less imperfect state of cultivation. Wheat 

 and rye stretch away on all sides, and, standing up in the 

 waggon to survey the strange scene, the idea of the observer is 

 best conveyed by the expression, often forced from me, " a sea of 

 grain!" Probably the whole of this tract of grain belongs to 

 the village just left. The next feature which will probably 

 attract attention is a belt of single trees extending in an 

 unbroken line on the horizon. It is the boundary of a large 

 estate. You come up to and pass the boundary, and have 

 then left the peasant land for a while and are travelling over a 

 domain where systematic agriculture is carried on, and where, 

 in place of peasants, are the stewards and labourers of the 

 Count, controlled from a central office by a resident Director. 

 A deserted or unoccupied mansion, houses for the officials, and 

 offices for the transaction of business, to be afterwards described, 

 will all in due time be reached. 



Supposing that you are driving through without staying to visit 

 the Count or his Director, you will journey onwards for an hour 

 or two, and after passing another belt of acacias, will be once 

 more in the domain of the peasants. The estate usually is better 

 cultivated and carries better crops than the peasant land, and it 

 is generally laid off into square fields of from 25 to 40 acres each, 

 defined by grass drives, bounded on either side by trees. These 

 general features of the plains of Hungary are diversified and 

 relieved by a variety of novel objects. The costumes of the 

 peasants and labourers are often exceedingly picturesque and 

 even rich : the fine teams of long-horned oxen yoked to the 

 waggons peculiar to Hungary, or majestically and slowly plough- 

 ing the land — the flocks and herds on the pastures, attended by 

 their faithful keepers — all help to give a character to the scenery ; 

 while the occurrence now and again of sugar-factories and dis- 

 tilleries shows that agriculture is not in undisputed possession of 

 the country. Hungary is, however, not by any means all flat, 

 but much of it is mountainous and hilly. It is in such districts 

 that the famous Hungarian wines are grown, and in passing 

 from Tokay to Pesth, and Pesth to Presburg, the traveller 

 forgets the dreary expanse of plain, and refreshes his eye once 

 more with bold mountain scenery, rushing rivers, and uprising 

 forests. 



The position of Hungary is somewhat isolated. She has no 

 outlet to the sea save by crossing Croatia to Fiume. Her rivers 

 (with trifling exceptions) all merge into the Danube, which flows 



