102 M. Eeudanfs Travels in Hungary. 



covered with trees, mostly oaks, for the town or village of 

 Tallya. I expected to find a road for my carriage, relying on 

 the assurance of my conductor. There is, indeed, a road, but 

 it is never perhaps frequented, unless by wood-cutters, and it 

 was so bad that the horses had to stop every minute to take 

 breath, and we were obliged to lay stones under the wheels, 

 In descending the road proved much better. 



I passed the night at Tallya, and set out next morning for 

 the Sator, the most elevated point in this part of the country. 

 From the plateau or little plain, at the summit, there is a very 

 beautiful prospect over a great number of towns and villages, 

 that, from their contiguity and magnitude, evince the fertility 

 of the country. The eye distinctly recognises Tailya, Golop, 

 Manok, Megyozzo, Szanto, Varallya, &c., and a number of 

 others that are partly hid among trees. The remcjte view is 

 terminated by mountains. 



The object of my next journey was Tokaj, or Tokay, a town, 

 the name of which is justly celebrated from the wines which 

 constitute the riches of this part of Hungary. But for this it 

 would not be considerable enough to merit particular attention. 

 The place, however, is rather cheerful and gay than otherwise, 

 and the Theysse which borders it, by facilitating its commer- 

 cial intercourse, produces a degree of activity among its inha- 

 bitants. Some of the houses are well built, and there is a 

 tolerable auberge ; the inhabitants dso seem comfortable in 

 respect of circumstances. The town is not without some re- 

 putation among mineralogists, but it is a borrowed one, for the 

 substances to which the name of Tokay is given, are found at 

 some distance, about other villages and towns that are en- 

 titled to notice equally with Tokay. 



The wine, known throughout Europe by this name, is not 

 peculiar to the environs of the town, which furnish but a small 

 quantity, and that not of the best quality. The vineyards 

 which produce this wine, extend over large tracts of country, 

 from Szanto to Tokay, on the western declivities of the moun- 

 tains, and from Tokay- to Tolcsva, along a semicircle of hills 

 that pass by Erdo Benye. The vines are also cultivated on 

 the declivities between Tolcsva and Uj Hely, and even on hills 

 more remote. The whole territory at the foot and about, the 

 high mountains, bears the name of Hegy Allya, denoting the 

 lower part or flank of a mountainous region ; hence the wines 

 of Tokay are sometimes known by the name of Hegy Allya. 

 By mistake, in various French and German works, this last 

 name has been assigned to a little chain of mountains between 

 Tallya and Tokay, but the mountains of Hegy Allya would then 

 signify, literally, mountains at the foot of the mountain. 



