sort, among which are those frequented by the foresters and
gamekeepers, not professed houses of entertainment, yet always
provided with such materials for those who love the merry greenwood,
and who extend their walks within their cool and solitary depths. And
now we must speak of the expenses of these rural repasts. A party of
five persons can breakfast in the above manner--that is to say, on
coffee, eggs; sausages, rolls, butter, and a quart bottle of wine--for
something less than 4-1/4d. a head. Those who breakfast more simply,
take coffee and rolls--and the natives rarely, if ever, eat butter in
the morning, though a profusion of this, as well as of oil and lard,
enters into the preparation for dinner--and such guests pay only from
3d. to 3-1/2d. But if wine, which is the most common native
production, is taken instead of coffee, it is always cheaper. Among
the middle and lower classes, the favourite refreshment is wine,
household bread, and walnuts; and thus you will constantly find
labourers, foresters, or wood-cutters, joyfully breakfasting together,
with their large slices of brown bread and a bottle of wine, for 2d. a
head. Many, again, of the lower classes of labourers bring their own
home-baked bread in their pockets, and get their large tumbler of good
wine to moisten it for a half-penny.

The evening, however, is the great time for recreation and redoubled
enjoyment, as the labours and occupations of the day have then ceased;
and all without exception, rich and poor, flock from the town to the
sweet, cool, flowery repose of the woods and vineyards, and there take
their evening repast in the midst of the wild luxuriance of nature,
'health in the gale, and fragrance on the breeze.' And when the sun is
gone down, they return in the cool twilight to their homes, where they
find that sweet sleep which movement in the open air alone can give,
and which, with our more confined British habits, few but the peasant
ever enjoy.

A word more on Presburg, and we have done. In winter, this place, so
little known to travellers, is frequented by the best society in
Hungary; and it becomes a little metropolis, to which many of the
nobility resort from the distance of 300 to 500 miles--from Tokay, and
beyond the Theiss and Transylvania. In summer, perhaps, it offers
still more enjoyment; for although the winter society is then
scattered far and near, the town is always animated by the presence of
those who are continually