332 MISERY OF TRAVELLING 



in consequence, could have any rest for their 

 backs, and even then the incessant jolting ren- 

 dered sleeping next to an impossibihty. This 

 hard and rattling conveyance is all very well for 

 a cross-country excursion, but the road from 

 Orsova to Temesvar is a sort of chaussee, over 

 vi^hich there are sprinkled a delightful number of 

 stones, which jolt the unfortunate traveller in a 

 most cruel manner. 



A Hungarian wagen is, in short, a contrivance 

 sui generisy on the whole vastly disagreeable, but 

 exceedingly amusing when the driver sets off 

 at full gallop across country. From Temesvar 

 we travelled in a rattletrap contrivance without 

 springs, and drawn by six horses, portmanteaux 

 and carpet-bags serving us as seats, with a 

 little hay to ease the eternal jolting, which, if 

 the road was a real road, was almost intolerable, 

 an awning, made of matting, sheltering us from 

 the heat of the sun. Sometimes the driver would 

 take a hne of his own, right across country, and 

 proceed in utter contempt for divisions of pro- 

 perty, ditches, or other inconveniences, all of 

 which he charged in a determined manner, as if 

 he was an artillery-driver, and had a gun behind 



