74 M. llcudunt's Travels in Hungary. 



sion of a powder magazine; the Turks had a garrison there, but 

 they abandoned it. Nograd, now a wretched village, had been 

 a considerable place in ancient times, but was desolated by 

 successive wars. Returning to my host, I was equally sur- 

 prised and mortified to find no culinary preparations. The 

 mistress had been at a neighbour's in search of a pullet, and 

 made free to fetch one away in the absence of the family ; 

 this, however, was soon reclaimed, or its value fixed at a floriri; 

 The aubergiste would not pay more than half, and the other, in 

 a foaming fury, snatched the fowl, then ready for eating, from 

 the spit, threw the latter in the face of my hostess, and ran 

 home. I now promised to pay for the pullet, cost what it 

 might ; I even repaired to the house of this neighbour, but she 

 had retired elsewhere, probably to devour the fowl at the house 

 of another neighbour, i was then forced to be content with 

 three eggs, which I had to share with my servant and the 

 peasant that had been my guide. 



In my journeys I visited the mountain of Dregely, which is 

 a conspicuous object, and one of great notoriety in Hungary. 

 Its form is conical, and it stands altogether detached from the 

 mountains that surround it. Its height above the level of the 

 sea is about 1260 feet. There are some remains of its old 

 castle, consisting of dilapidated walls, cemented with a mortar 

 not very solid, of lime, siliceous sand, and pebbles of quartz 

 and granite. In the eastern quarter are a door and a staircase, 

 both cut out of the solid rock. From the top of the walls is a 

 commanding prospect over the whole country, which takes in 

 many extensive ranges of distant mountains. On the 28th of 

 Sept. 1818, the height of the barometer from the castle of 

 Dregely, was 724 mill, j temperature, 16 gr. ; weather, flying 

 clouds ; sun very hot. 



In my journey to Vissegrad, the road winds along the 

 Danube, and sometimes approaches so near that we pass 

 through the water. The castle of Vissegrad was formerly the 

 residence of several kings of Hungary, and its apartments and 

 gardens were decorated in such a style of magnificence, that a 

 pope's legate, in the reign of Mathias Corvin, gave it the name 

 of the Earthly Paradise. When it was built is unknown ; it is 

 first noticed by Hungarian historians, in the reign of Lladislas I. 

 in the eleventh century, as the prison of king Salomon, after 

 the defeat of the Wallachians, whom he had incited to insur- 

 rection. It was probably then of minor importance, till en- 

 larged and beautified by succeeding kings. Charles the First 

 preferred it to any of his other houses, and entertained in it, 

 with extraordinary pomp, the kings of Bohemia and Poland. 

 Mathias Corvin embellished the gardens with marble statues, 



