April xxvi.
This morning we had divine service and a sermon in his Excellency’s family, and in the afternoon he paid a short visit to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, but afterwards a much longer to the abovementioned Constantinus Cantacuzenus Stolnichus. The Patriarch lodges in a large kane, built by the present Prince; where are large apartments and magazines for merchants, the rent of which may yeild about twenty purses per annum, and is by the Prince consigned into that Patriarch’s hands for the use of the Holy sepulcher.
April xxvii.
I visited the press of this place, where I found them printing some pieces of devotion in Arabic, under the care of the Patriarch of Antioch to be distributed by him about his diocess. Beside this, they were undertaking to print a large folio of the famous Maximus Hieromonachus, called Κυριακοδρόμιον, or The course of the several Sundays throughout the year. On this occasion I there bought several books, among which one containing all the Liturgies, Hymns, Rituals, Lessons, and other devotional tracts, used on all occasions in the Greek church through the course of the whole year.
This morning the Prince gave his Excellency another visit, which he returned in the afternoon, and at the same time took leave, with a deep sense of the generous, honourable, and affectionate treatment he had received in this court. After his return from the Prince, he received a visit of leave from Constantinus Cantacuzenus Stolnichus, who then presented him with a gentile horse of the Valachian breed, and at the same time two of the same breed and quality were sent him from the Prince, upon which his Excellency answered the present of Constantinus with a diamond ring, valued at three hundred pounds.
The same day I was favoured with a present of several Greek books, lately printed in this province, from Κῦρ Γεώργιος Καστριώτης; as likewise of some others from his Excellency Constantinus Cantacuzenus. Towards the evening our curiosity led us half an hour out of town to visit a convent, called in the Valachian tongue the Catrochán, and founded by the late Prince Serbanus Cantacuzenus. It is accounted the most beautiful of several in this province, founded by the present and preceding princes; and therefore a short account of this may serve for a specimen of the rest. It is situated on the Dembowitza, which washes it on two sides; while the other two are adorned with a grove of lovely, close, and shady oaks. The neighbouring pastures afford an entertaining prospect, whereas the parts nearer to the convent are disposed into orderly vineyards, and gardens. The fabric it self is an oblong quadrangle, built of regular and massy stone, divided into cells for about forty monks, with lodgings for the abbot, a common refectory, kitchin, and other public apartments. But in the middle of the area is erected the chapel, of the exact figure of the antient Greek churches, that is, distinguished into the νάρθηξ or porch, πρόναος or outward chapel, νάος or body of the church, βῆμα or chancel, and θυσιαστήριον or altar; the several parts being regular and stately, supported with pillars, and covered with high cupolas. The ornaments of painting, gilding, and embroidery are exceeding rich; and the pictures so numerously disposed, as to possess every part of the church in the inside, as well as the outside of the front. Here is shewn the monument of Serbán the founder, with his princess, his brother, and other relations; whose pictures, among others, possess a great part of the western wall. Here also are kept the two horse tails, allowed by the Turks to be carried before this prince, together with the bandiéra of the province, and another called the paschal colours, in which the whole Trinity is profanely represented, and God the Father expressed by the image of a reverend old man, looking over the body of our Savior, as it hangs upon the cross.
Bucurest is a large stragling town of a very peculiar make, the outward parts very mean, consisting of houses, the greater part of which is under ground like our cellars, and covered over at the top with straw or bark of trees. The better sort of houses are about the palace of the Prince, which are covered with handsome wooden tiles, the walls built of substantial stone, and the yards and gardens always very wide[114], enclosed with intire trunks of oaks set as near as possible to each other. The streets appear like a continued bridge, being floored from side to side with massy planks of ten yards long, and as many inches thick; which work, however expensive it may seem, is continued thro all the buildings of the place for the extent of some miles together. The sight of the whole is agreable at a distance, by reason of the several houses of the nobility, the palace of the Prince, and the number of churches and convents. These last are all of one form, regularly built, and rising with cupolas, wherein bells are often hung; which I mention, as being the first I had heard since my arrival in Turkey.
The whole province is luxuriantly rich, abounding with woods and pastures, but thinly inhabited, and that in caves and huts rather than houses. Its chief income proceeds from wax, honey, hides, horses, the mines of salt, and custom on some places of the Danube. By these it is able to maintain its prince and barons splendidly, besides paying a yearly tribute to the Turk, that is settled at three hundred and twenty purses, which are equal to thirty two thousand pounds sterling, besides three times that sum extorted beyond the compact. The lands of the province are intirely in the hands of the Prince and barons; the rest, who are rustics, being all either slaves or servants, whose persons or service are at the disposal of the several nobles, on whom they depend.
April xxviii.
We proceed this morning from Bucurest, and after five hours travel take up our lodging at a small village, called Chrytshulest. In the way we stop a little towards the right hand to visit a gentile palace, which is building by the Prince for his second son, situated on a pleasant lake. And the day following, in seven hours from Chrytshulest, we pitch our tents, and lodge near a small river, called Ilsós.