The Argosy — page 288: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Among the Hunganans. : 2% little, strongly-built carriage, with two dapper little ponies, driven by their master and owner, Gyula, a little fellow of ten; and he drove remarkably well, too, held the reins lightly and firmly, and sat like a rock upon his high coachman’s cushion, with his diminutive groom, no bigger than himself, beside him. One by one the party came together, laden with wraps and umbrellas ; the ladies in practical short dresses and thick boots, well adapted for mountain wear; their faces freshened by the morning air, and their eyes bright with the anticipation of some days of real rustic life and hearty fun, unrestrained by the rules of etiquette or the criticisms of fashionable friends. We were a large and far from peaceful community, and it took some time to arrange us in the various vehicles. At last I found myself seated on a high mail phaeton, beside Dénés, the eldest son, and behind a pair of horses which fully deserved the eulogiums he had bestowed on them the night before. . Through the winding roads of the park, out at the gates, and then we were in the fields. The larks sang as they quivered above our heads in the clear light, as if the sunshine had found a voice; the acacias rustled in the soft breeze ; and the cows tinkled the bells about their necks as they slowly raised their heads to look medita- tively after us. As we scampered by we roused the wild duck among the bulrushes of the marsh, and scared scores of hares and wild birds from our path. The roads certainly had not improved since the previous day, but the heat was less; and when at last we stopped at the village where fresh horses had been ordered, and where we were to rest during the ereatest heat, and attack the provisions with which we were provided, my spirits had gained the elasticity which pervaded those of the whole party. We laughed, chatted, and cracked jokes with the care- less ease and utter abandonment of oneself to the humour of the moment which characterises the Hungarian race, and causes it so strongly to resemble the French. And so by and by we set off again, the roads becoming better and better as the blue outline of mountains in the distance became more distinct. On all the great plain through which we ‘had passed, it would have been as difficult to find a fragment of stone upon the way as a diamond; but now the horses’ feet rang hard upon the sround, and the clouds of dust which had so long accompanied us were left in the rear. The ground began to rise a little; far off on one side wound a silver thread that my companions declared to be the river Maros, and on the left rose the rugged outlines of a chain of hills whose sides were covered with vineyards, intermixed with groups of foliage and straggling villages, with here and there a tiny church. From the summits frowned the ruins of more than one ancient castle, famed in ‘the long wars of Hungary with the powerful enemies who surreyded her. Conniclooolks () (GO