The Greek princes having continued to reside at Bukorest, probably on account of its being nearer to the Turks, Tirgovist was by degrees deserted by the remaining part of its inhabitants, and it is now reduced to a mere village. It contains many ruins of ancient edifices, amongst which those of the Voïvodes’ palace are the most conspicuous. The river Dimbovitza runs alongside of it.
Yassi,the capital of Moldavia, is a smaller but better-built town, containing many elegant houses built in the most modern style of European architecture, forty thousand inhabitants, and seventy churches. One part of it stands upon a fine hill, and the other is situated in a valley. The prince’s palace is the most extensive edifice in the whole town, and is surrounded by gardens and yards. It is furnished in a style which is half Oriental and half European, and has room enough to lodge conveniently more than a thousand people.
The palace of Bukorest was formerly a large building, standing on an eminence at one extremity of the town, and commanding a full view of it. In 1813 it was accidentally burnt down, and it has not been rebuilt. The late prince had, since that time, resided in two private houses joined into one.
Both capitals occupy a great extent of ground, the houses being separate from each other, and surrounded by yards or gardens, and trees. All the buildings are made of brick, and their walls, outside as well as within, are plastered and whitewashed. Tiles are seldom used, and the roofs are generally covered with wood.
The streets of the two capitals, and indeed of all the provincial towns, are, without exception, paved with thick pieces of timber, thrown across, and made tight to each other. In some, the surface is made smooth and even, whilst in others, the logs of wood are almost left in their natural state. In the rainy seasons they are constantly covered over with a deep liquid mud, and in the summer, with a thick black dust, which the least wind renders excessively injurious to the eyes and lungs; besides these great inconveniences, a complete renewal, at least once in every six years, is absolutely necessary.
At Bukorest, under the wooden pavements, to which the natives give the more appropriate name of bridges, there are large kennels, which receive the filth of the houses, and are meant to convey it to the river Dimbovitza, which runs through the town. Hardly any care is taken to keep the different passages open, and the accumulation of dirty substances frequently stops them up; in this state they sometimes remain for months in the hot season, during which they produce the most noxious exhalations, and occasion fevers of a putrid and malignant nature,—diseases to which the natural position of the town must alone dispose a great part of the inhabitants.
It has been long supposed, and it is still considered impossible to pave the streets with stone, not so much on account of the scarcity of the material, as owing to the ground being of a soft clay, which offers no hold to it. This idea, very prevalent among the natives, is certainly erroneous, and there cannot exist a more convincing proof of it, than the stone pavements constructed by Trajan and the Romans, which have so firmly withstood the destructive hand of time.
From a certain distance, and on elevated ground, the city of Bukorest offers itself to the view with great advantage; the mixture of the houses and trees give it a peculiar beauty; but it is like the fine scenery of a theatre which charms the distant eye, and on being approached is found to be a coarse daub.
As late as thirty years back, the Boyars were in the habit of visiting each other, and going to court on horseback, and the women of the most opulent only, went in coaches. Within that period, the fashion of riding in coaches has so increased, and it is now so universal, that no person of either sex, who has claims to respectability, can pass the gates of his house otherwise than in a coach, even in the finest weather. The Boyars consider it derogatory to their dignity to make use of their legs, and leave to the mob the vulgar practice of walking. The consequence is, that the streets, about seven or eight yards wide, are always full of carriages, and frequent accidents happen to the unfortunate pedestrians.
The kind of carriage most in use, is the German calèche; and the Boyars have introduced the fashion of having theirs ornamented in the most gaudy manner; but as they do not so much regard the beauty of the horses and harness, nor the dress of the coachman, it is very common to meet in the streets a carriage glittering with gold, drawn by a pair of miserable hacks, and driven by a gypsy in rags.