. The country north-east of Tokay is certainly the most
picturesque side, there is more foliage, and there is also water.

The first time I drove through Bodrog-Keresztur, which is on this side,
I thought that, notwithstanding the pretty country, I had never seen so
desolate a place. The town was once famed for its markets, but the
railways have changed all this; almost every other house is a ruin, and
large trees may be seen growing between the walls.

In the last century a company of Russian soldiers were stationed here
for the purpose of buying Tokay wine for the Russian Court.

One of the prettiest little places in the Hegyalia is Erdoe-Benye; it is
off the main road, right in amongst the hills. It boasts the largest
wine-cellar in the whole district; it has twenty-two ramifications at
two different levels, the whole being cut out of the solid rock; it is
more like a subterranean labyrinth than a cellar. This place was
formerly the property of the renowned family of Rakoczy, who played no
mean part in Hungarian history. Not far from Erdoe-Benye are
mineral-water baths, romantically situated in the oak-forest.

Saros Patak and Uihely are the two most noteworthy towns in the
north-eastern side of the Tokay triangle. The first named has a
Calvinist college of some considerable reputation, a library of 24,000
volumes, a printing-press, and a botanical garden. Uihely is the county
town of Zemplin. An agricultural show was held here last spring (1877),
which I attended. Our English-made agricultural implements were very
much to the fore on this occasion. Some people complain of these
machines on the score of their getting out of order rather easily, and
of the immense difficulty of having them repaired in the country. This
objection, I have heard, does not apply alike to all the English makers.
At this show there were some new kinds of wine-presses which attracted a
good deal of attention; before long no doubt not a few changes will be
effected in the process of wine-making in Tokay. Considering that
Hungary holds the third rank in Europe as a wine-producing country, the
whole question of the manipulation of wine is a very important one for
her.

Amongst the live stock at this show I noticed some very fine merino
sheep. In Hungary the wool-producing quality is everything in sheep, as
mutton has hardly any value. This was only a country show, and the
horses, from an Englishman's point of view, were not worth looking at