POLAND: TOWNS. 255 



grounds and suburban retreats, much frequented on feast-days. Sucb is tlie palace 

 of Lazienki, charniing-ly situated on an old bed of the river south of the city, and 

 adorned with marble statues and artificial ruins, serving as the scene of an open-air 

 theatre. The Wola plain, stretching westwards, recalls those hotly contested 

 royal elections, when as many as 200,000 nobles, with their retinues, would here 

 encamp, at times more like hostile factions than peaceful citizens. Farther on 

 Sobieski's castle of Wilanov contains a picture gallery, a collection of coins, and 

 an historical library. Amongst the celebrities born in or near Warsaw may be 

 mentioned Chopin and Lelewel, historian, geographer, and patriot. 



Twenty-one miles below Warsaw the united Bug and Narev join the Vistula 

 at the town of Nowy Dicor, and both streams are commanded from the north by 

 the fortress of JSfoico Georgicwsk, or Modlin, which passes for a model of military 

 engineering, with a fortified camp capable of accommodating 30,000 or 40,000 

 troops. Nearly all the towns of the eastern provinces of Siedlce, Lomza, Warsaw, 

 belong to the Narev and Bug basins. Between Warsaw and the fortress of Brest 

 are Knh(szijn, Siedlce, Miedzijrzecz, and Biala. or Bala, all surrounded by rich corn- 

 fields. Towards the Lithuanian frontier are Wlodaira, Ostroir, T//kocin, Lomza, 

 OsfroleJca, scene of the decisive battle which opened Warsaw to the Russians in 

 1831, and Pa /tusk, also the scene of memorable conflicts between Swedes and 

 Saxons, French and Russians. 



West of Warsaw and of the Narev junction most of the towns lie far from the 

 main stream in the lateral basins, amongst them are liaira and Brzenzbiy, in the 

 industrial district of which Lodz is the centre ; Skieruien-ice, an important railway 

 junction ; Gahin and Gostynin, on a plateau south of the main stream. On the 

 Mazovian slopes north of it are Mlan-a Plonsk and Lipno. But here the most 

 important places are Block, an episcopal town, founded in the tenth century on a 

 hill overlooking the Vistula, long the residence of the Mazovian dukes, and 

 Wloclnwck, a busy fluvial mart. 



The province of Suwalki, in the Niémen basin, and almost completely cut off 

 from the rest of Poland by extensive swamps, is peopled chiefly by Lithuanians, 

 and formed part of Lithuania down to the last partition of the kingdom. Here is 

 AiKjmtotco, connected by water with both the Vistula and Niémen basins, and 

 formerly capital of the government. The present capital is Suirallci, like Kcd- 

 ivarya, Wi/kou-yski, and the other towns of this province largely peopled by Jews. 

 Here are also some colonies of Great Russian Raskolniks, who numbered 11,000 

 in 1864, and have since been increased by immigrants from Prussia. 



