The Land Beyond the Forest: Facts, Figures, and Fancies from Transylvania

OLD TOWN GATE AT HERMANSTADT (ELIZABETH THOR).
THE LAND BEYOND THE FOREST
FACTS, FIGURES, AND FANCIES FROM TRANSYLVANIA
BY E. GERARD
AUTHOR OF “REATA” “THE WATERS OF HERCULES” “BEGGAR MY NEIGHBOR” ETC.
WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1888

In the spring of 1883 my husband was appointed to the command of the cavalry brigade in Transylvania, composed of two hussar regiments, stationed respectively at Hermanstadt and Kronstadt—a very welcome nomination, as gratifying a long-cherished wish of mine to visit that part of the Austrian empire known as the Land beyond the Forest.
The two years spent in Transylvania were among the most agreeable of sixteen years’ acquaintance with Austrian military life; and I shall always look back to this time as to something quaint and exceptional, totally different from all previous and subsequent experiences.
Much interested in the wild beauty of the country, the strange admixture of races by which it is peopled, and their curious and varied folk-lore, I recorded some of my impressions in short, independent papers, of which three were published in Blackwood’s Magazine , one in the Nineteenth Century , and one in the Contemporary Review . It was only after I had left the country that, being desirous of preserving these sketches in more convenient form, I began rearranging the matter for publication; but the task of retracing my Transylvanian experiences was so pleasant that it led me on far beyond my original intention. One reminiscence awoke another, one chapter gave rise to a second; and so, instead of a small volume, as had been at first contemplated, my manuscript almost unconsciously developed to its present dimensions.