8 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPOET. 



Vienna to Buda-Pesth, and expresses his surprise at 

 not falling in Avith a single Englishman : he adds that 

 the English, he believes, have not yet found out 

 Hungary. During the two decades which have passed, 

 we have, it is true, become more familiar with the 

 country of the Magyars ; but even now the ordinary 

 traveller has little more knowledge of Hungary than 

 he can gain in a brief sojourn at the capital, for he 

 rarely penetrates into the interior. It is for this reason 

 I have given this slight sketch of the dwellers in the 

 Theiss valley, who, like their neighbours the Transyl- 

 vanians, may be said to inhabit an odd corner of 

 Europe. 



Though I knew many parts of the great plain pretty 

 well, I had myself never visited Szegedin. I had 

 passed it more than once in the railway ; but I really 

 knew nothing of the place beyond the fact that it was 

 considered the second city in the kingdom; and 

 further, that the inhabitants bore an excellent char- 

 acter for thrift, industry, and love of progress. On 

 this particular morning, when travelling towards the 

 doomed city, I was glad to seek information from 

 my companions, and I learned that the town con- 

 tained over 70,000 inhabitants. The special industries 

 of Szegedin, I was told, were in connection with 

 soap, mats, shoes, paprika, and rope-making. The 

 flour-mills had been doing very well : one flour 

 company of Szegedin had been paying over 20 per 

 cent to its shareholders for some years past. My 



