butlers and
valets of secretaries of state. For some time back they have been
taken from the half-pay list and the educated classes. One or two can
boast of very fair literary attainments; and a man who once a year
spends a few weeks in all the principal capitals of Europe, from
Madrid to St. Petersburg and Constantinople, necessarily picks up a
great knowledge of the world. The British messengers post out from
London to Semlin, where they leave their carriages, ride across to
Alexinatz on the Bulgarian frontier, whence the despatches are carried
by a Tartar to Constantinople, via Philippopoli and Adrianople.

On arriving at Alexinatz, a good English dinner awaited us at the
konak of the queen's messenger. It seemed so odd, and yet was so very
comfortable, to have roast beef, plum pudding, sherry, brown stout,
Stilton cheese, and other insular groceries at the foot of the Balkan.
There was, moreover, a small library, with which the temporary
occupants of the konak killed the month's interval between arrival and
departure.

Next day I visited the quarantine buildings with the inspector; they
are all new, and erected in the Austrian manner. The number of those
who purge their quarantine is about fourteen thousand individuals per
annum, being mostly Bulgarians who wander into Servia at harvest time,
and place at the disposal of the haughty, warlike, and somewhat
indolent Servians their more humble and laborious services. A village
of three hundred houses, a church, and a national school, have sprung
up within the last few years at this point. The imports from Roumelia
and Bulgaria are mostly Cordovan leather; the exports, Austrian
manufactures, which pass through Servia.

When the new macadamized road from Belgrade to this point is
finished, there can be no doubt that the trade will increase. The
possible effect of which is, that the British manufactures, which are
sold at the fairs of Transbalkan Bulgaria, may be subject to greater
competition. After spending a few days at Alexinatz, I started with
post horses for Tiupria, as the horse I had ridden had been so
severely galled, that I was obliged to send him to Belgrade.

Tiupria, being on the high road across Servia, has a large khan, at
which I put up. I had observed armed guards at the entrance of the
town, and felt at a loss to account for the cause. The rooms of the
khan being uninhabitable, I sent Paul with my letter of introduction
to the Natchalnik, and sat do