124 M. Beudant's Travels in Hungary. 



held up as displaying much stateliness ; I have seen few to 

 exceed it. It is exceedingly well built ; the architecture is 

 noble, and the various offices are of an elegant and embellish- 

 ed description. In these respects it far surpasses the actual 

 residence of the prince at Eisentadt. It is also more exten- 

 sive, containing 200 chambers completely fitted up ; I counted 

 148 window-casements in the principal front, and 200 in the 

 garden front, without including a number of pavilions on the 

 ground floor. 



We enter the court- yard through an ornamented iron gate, 

 not unhandsome, but too small, in comparison with the rest of 

 the building. The court yard forms an ellipsis, in one of the 

 foci of which, we find a basin of no great magnitude. The 

 anterior part is occupied by low buildings, with only a ground 

 floor, and which serve for offices and apartments to the stew- 

 ard, housekeeper, &c. At the lower end is the chateau or 

 mansion ; the middle part forms an elevated structure, with a 

 terrace on the top and on the two sides, buildings like wings, 

 two stories high, arranged in portions of a circle. An exterior 

 escalier, of a congruous and interesting appearance, leads to 

 the first story of the middle building. Here is the great saloon 

 for receiving company; though in an antique taste, it is scarce- 

 ly to be equalled for the ideas of magnificence and beauty which 

 it affords. The ceiling is as high as the building itself; the 

 paintings are but indifferent ; the flooring is of inlaid work, 

 in white and brown colours. We find some very superb 

 chandeliers, and over the mantel-piece a time-keeper, small 

 and but ill suited to its costly accompaniments; I observed 

 others also in the corners of the casements, of a similar de- 

 scription. The bed-chambers and smaller apartments on the 

 right and left of this vast mansion, contain nothing extraor- 

 dinary, and from the contrast, sink in importance and respect- 

 ability. On the ground floor are shewn the minor apartments 

 of the prince ; the most remarkable is a little saloon, the 

 wainscoting of which is a varnish of gilt china, which must 

 have cost immense sums, as every piece must have been or- 

 dered for the purpose ; but the features which characterise it 

 altogether, are far from proving gratifying to the eye. The 

 interior of the chateau, .speaking generally, by no means cor- 

 responds with the exterior, though the grand saloon may form 

 an exception. It is deserted by the family, which may account 

 for its being stripped of its best furniture, and for the wains- 

 cotings and parquets (floorings) going to decay. A quantity 

 of other china is also shewn to strangers, and I saw a number of 

 large dishes^ plates, vases, &c., but inferior to the porcelain of 

 Sevres. There are some dishes, shut up in coffers, that appear- 



