Gran, lying below, has an equal population, and is the residence of the Primate of Hungary, Cardinal Rudnay, who has erected a cathedral, which is not yet finished. From this place the steamer runs between porphyry rocky shores, whose scenery resembles that of Saxon Switzerland. One of the striking features of the river scenery is the thousands of water mills built in boat-form, and occupied, after the ice disappears, for the grinding of the products of the country. Hungary is rich in wine, wheat, horses, horned cattle, and sheep. The quantity of wool produced is enormous—Prince Esterhazy’s estates counting their thousands of shepherds.
When I travelled through this country before a railroad was suggested, it was by “Bauer” or Farmer’s Post, in a rude wagon, upon hay seats, with four raw-boned nags upon the full gallop. I had an opportunity then of judging of the dependent condition of the serfs. Since that time they have been made free by the Ex-Emperor, their freedom growing out of the revolution.
I counted yesterday a procession of three hundred and thirty-five men and women coming over the bridge, with banners flying, and crucifixes in the hands of the priests, after a four days’ pilgrimage to Mount Calvary, which I had seen from the steamer; the chapel is on the summit of a hill, with different stations in ascending. They came in singing, and looked pretty well jaded out. The populace stood along the sidewalk, in masses, to witness the return; they were mostly of the lower classes, and poorly clad.
Offen, opposite this place, has a population of thirty-two thousand. It was in possession of the Turks for one hundred and fifty years, at different times, and in 1684 taken from them; but the traces of its possession by the Musselmans are still left, particularly in its baths, which remind one of old Stamboul, from the heavy massive work, columns and domes; among the number the poor people’s bath costs a kreutzer (three-quarters of a cent). My guide led me through the dense vapor produced by the copious supply of flowing water of a high temperature, and I could scarcely discern an object; but presently figures appear to the eye, as one passes through the mist: there sits a woman washing her clothes; another washes her children; then come men and boys, old and young, diseased and sound, promiscuously thrown together. There were twenty-nine in all, but the bath is capable of containing one hundred and fifty.
The idea is certainly repugnant, and discovers a low state of morals—the blending of the sexes together in a state of nature. With the perspiration rolling out of every pore, I was glad to make my escape.
An excursion to the Kaiser Bad (Emperor’s Bath), a few miles by steamer, gives an opportunity of seeing fashionable invalids, bathing in, and drinking the waters.
The fortification which commands the summit at Offen, and from which Pesth was bombarded during the Kossuth war, and which contains the palaces of the Palatine and castle gardens, is now occupied by the Erzherzog Albrecht, and is a town in itself; and, from its commanding position, one has a fine view of the country villages and retreats in the rear, as also of Pesth and the whole surrounding country. Here stands a new monument, erected to the memory of General Heutzi and Oberst Alnoch, and four hundred and eighteen other Austrian officers and soldiers, who lost their lives in defending the place against the Hungarians, who occupied the heights in the neighborhood. Many buildings on both sides of the river still retain the marks of the cannon and musket balls, and many are entirely destroyed, giving an idea of the destruction caused by the revolution, and of the ravages of war.
In Presburg, the Hungarian’s nationality seems to be, in a measure, absorbed by the German’s. Here, he stands out more in his native form. The shop signs are chiefly Hungarian, and unintelligible to most foreigners. The journals are in both languages, German and Magyar. The officers and troops are from other parts of the Austrian provinces, while the Hungarian soldiery are sent to Vienna, Lombardy, and other points. The language is unlike all the other living languages of Europe, being of Oriental origin, and difficult to acquire.
CX.
Saltzburg, Austria, May 25, 1855.