BoNEKS '■'Tra^^sylvania!' 129 



Gentlemen riders of the first class are numerous. There are several packs of iox-hounds and 

 harriers, kept up quite in the English, or rather the rough Welsh style, where the same pack 

 will hunt everything that will run — from a hare to a polecat. Near Vienna a pack of stag- 

 hounds for hunting carted red deer has been established. 



The late Charles Boner,* whose charming book on Transylvania was written in 1864-5, 

 before the happy reconciliation between Francis Joseph and his Hungarian subjects, gives a 

 delightful picture of travelling in that horse-loving country, in the following passage : — 



" We now changed horses for the last time, and with four little animals started off again. 

 A merry youth drove them, and the delicious elasticity of the air seemed to have inspired and 

 made him happy and buoyant. By Jove 1 how we whirled along with that young charioteer ! 

 Hark how he shouts to his horses, and they answer to his voice ! Before the lash of his long 

 whip flying through the air can touch the leaders, they spring forward as if in a race, and 

 another team, panting for victory, were close behind them. 



" Now the whip is caught up with a jerk, and the wheelers are double-thonged in the most 

 approved style. Again a loud shout, the shout of youth and joy, and the little wiry animals 

 spring forward at their utmost speed. How that boy enjoys his drive; and how I enjoy it 

 too ! For the whole distance he never ceased calling to his team ; and thus, the bells merrily 

 jingling, the whip whirling round his head, and with loud and noisy shouts, in we came to 

 Karansebes as though we were an express with the intelligence that the whole frontier was 

 up in arms, that the Servians had crossed the frontier, or some other equally momentous piece 

 of news." 



Mr. Boner found at Gernyeszeg an exceedingly well-bred stud belonging to Count Dominik 

 Teleki. " His horses are the produce of thoroughbred sires and Transylvanian mares, are 

 hardy, and bear cold without injury ; are tall, good-looking, and fit for any gentleman to 

 ride. The distances people travel with the same horses for days together are astonishing ; 

 they neither break down nor refuse their food. The foals stroll about the farm-yard the 

 whole day in winter, with coats as shaggy as bears, and get little corn. Count Lazar has 

 also a considerable stud. He has spent large sums for the best English blood, and the horses 

 he has bred are very strong animals, but less fitted to stand wear and tear than those of 

 Count Teleki." 



Since this was written the Emperor Francis Joseph, to his immortal honour, has cast 

 behind the prejudices in which he was nurtured, reconciled himself to his Hungarian subjects, 

 and adopted over all his dominions those constitutional principles of government which the 

 noble Hungarians cherished and died for, while all around them submitted to the stupid 

 despotism organised by Metternich and blessed by successive Popes. 



RUSSIA. 



The Russian Empire, like the United States, is so vast that it extends over many climates, 

 differing as much in temperature as Norway and Sicily. Russia also includes many races^ 

 German, Scandinavian, Sclavonic, Oriental, and semi-Oriental, Poles, Tartars, Lesghians — 



* Boner's account of the Hungarian gipsies explains tlie principles on which the horses of thickly-populated countries like 

 England become soft, while those reared on the sandy plains of East Prussia and Eastern Europe are hardy. The children 

 of these gipsies go perfectly naked until ihey are ten years old. "They may be seen sliding down ice slopes on their seats.' 

 The consequence is the weak ones die ; those who survive can live where a townsman would perish with cold and want of 

 food. 



K 



