The out-of-doors life enjoyed by the inhabitants of the continent,
strikes a person, unacquainted with their habits and manners, more
perhaps than anything which meets his eye in that part of the world.
Rational, agreeable, and healthy as it is, it requires a long time
before a thorough Englishman can accustom himself to it, or feel at
all comfortable in eating his meals in the open air, surrounded by two
or three hundred persons employed in the same manner, or crossing and
recrossing, and circling round his table. He is apt to fancy himself
the sole object of curiosity; while, in reality, the eyes which seem
to mark him out, have in them perhaps as little speculation as if they
were turned on vacancy. We have been amused, and sometimes ashamed, in
witnessing the painful awkwardness of many of those numerous
steam-boat voyagers who, subscribing in London for their passage to
and from the Rhine in a given time, and for a trifling sum, find
themselves in a few hours transported from the bustle of Oxford
Street, Ludgate Hill, or the Strand, to the happy, idle, _fat_,
laughing, easy enjoyment of a German _Thee-Garten_, in the midst of
four or five hundred men, women, and children--all eating, drinking,
and smoking as if time, cares, and business had no influence over
them. It is a life so new to him, and so diametrically opposed to all
his habits and notions, that, in general, it affords him anything but
ease and enjoyment. To those, however, who know how to enjoy it, it
affords both. There is in these popular reunions an ease and
confidence, a _bonhomie_ and freedom, of which a Briton, with all his
boasted liberty, has no idea. What is strangest of all to him, no
distinction of rank, wealth, or profession is acknowledged. There are
no reserved places. The rich and the poor, the prince and the artisan,
sit down at the same kind of modest little green-painted tables, with
rush-bottomed chairs, all kind, affable, and jovial--all respecting
each other. The child of the citizen comes up without restraint, and
plays with the sword-knot of the commander-in-chief; and the little
princess will naïvely offer her bunch of grapes to the peasant who
sits at the next table with his pipe and his tall glass of Bavarian
beer. And yet the truest decorum is observed. There is no noise, no
rioting, no intoxication; we have never witnessed a single example of
any of these inconveniences. The education and habits of all the
inhabitants of this part of the world, have been from infancy so
regulated, and during many generations so completely formed to this
sort of life, that not the smallest ungracious familiarity ever
troubles these kindly popular reunions.
But let us come to a definite description. We will take the
Blum-Garten at Prague, for example--a city where the aristocracy are
as exclusive, as it is called, as anywhere in the world. This garden,
or rather park, is an imperial domain, having formed part of the
hunting-park of the emperors of Germany in the beginning of the
fourteenth century. It was planted by the great and good Charles IV.,
king of Bohemia, and emperor of Germany, son of that blind king who
was killed at the battle of Cressy by Edward the Black Prince. This
park is situated without the fortifications of the Hradschin, at about
half an hour's walk from them, in a valley formed by the river Moldau,
and stretches away to the plateau which forms the eastern boundary of
the valley. On the edge of this plateau, surrounded by gardens and
plantations, is situated the Lust-Haus, or summer residence, in which
the governor of Bohemia, or the members of the imperial family in
Prague, pass some days at intervals during the summer months. The
principal descent to the park is by a broad drive, which zig-zags till
it gains the proper level. There are also several pleasant paths which
descend in labyrinths under a profusion of lilacs and other flowering
shrubs, overhung by birches and all kinds of forest-trees.
At the foot of the drive is the house of general entertainment,
consisting of several apartments, together with a spacious
ball-room--an indispensable requisite, as on the continent all the
world dances. From this house stretches a long wide gravel space,
completely shaded from the noonday heat by four or five vast lime-tree
alleys, beneath which are placed some fifty or a hundred tables. A
military band is always to be found on fête-days, and very good music
of some kind is never wanting. Here the whole population of Prague
circle with perfect freedom, and with no attempt at class separations.
The first comer is first served, taking any vacant place most suited
to his fancy, or to the convenience of his party. At one table may be
seen the Countess Grünne, her governess, and children, taking their
coffee with as much ease and simplicity as if she were in her own
private garden; at another, a group of peasants, with their smiling
faces and picturesque costumes; at a third table, a soldier and his
old mother and sister, whom he is treating on his arrival in his
native town. Then come the Archduke Stephen, with his imperial
retinue, and one or two general-officers with their staffs; and at a
little distance, with a merry party of laughing guests, the Prince and
Princess Coloredo. In short, all the tables are by and by occupied by
guests continually succeeding each other, of all classes and of all
professions, from the imperial family, down to the most humble
artisan; all gay, amiable, condescending on the one side; happy,
respectful, and free from restraint on the other. Thus the season
passes in that delicious climate, which is rendered a thousand times
more delicious by the harmony and good-feeling reigning throughout all
these mingled classes of society. In the evening, the same joyous
reunions again take place, with this exception, that after dinner
(which meal takes place generally from three to four, _very rarely_ so
late as six, and that only within the last three or four years) the
aristocracy drive round the broad shady alleys of the park till
sunset, while the lawns and paths are crowded with innumerable groups
of pedestrians, before or after taking their evening repast under the
lime-trees.
But what makes summer life so agreeable in these countries, is the
simplicity and cheapness with which every variety of necessary
refreshment and restoration is afforded, and the multiplicity of
places where such are to be found. Walk in whatever direction you may,
in the environs of any town--wherever there is shade, wherever there
is a grove, or a clump of acacias, limes, or chestnuts, the favourite
trees for such purposes, and consequently much cultivated--there you
are sure to find rest and refreshment suited to the wants and purses
of all classes--from the most simple brown bread, milk, and beer, to
the most delicate sweetmeats and wines. In the article of wine,
however, Bohemia is not so favoured; but this is a circumstance more
felt by the stranger than by the natives, who like the wines of their
own country, as they do the beer better than our ale and porter.
Still, there are some passably good wines, such as Melnik, Czerniska,
and one or two others, and all at a moderate price, varying from 8d.
to 1s. a bottle. But in Hungary we have good wines and extraordinarily
cheap, which adds much to these rural out-of-doors reunions. It is
true, that some of the most fashionable restaurateurs, both in the
town and country, have been much spoiled by the extravagance of the
higher classes, who are here the most reckless; carrying this vice in
Europe to an excess which has ruined, or greatly embarrassed, almost
all the nobility of the kingdom. Notwithstanding this passion,
however, for everything that is foreign, few countries can be at all
compared with Hungary as to its wines, many of which are scarcely
known to any but to the peasants who grow them, and the local
consumers of the same class. These wines, with which every peasant's
house, especially on the skirts of the mountain-districts, and every
little bothy-like public-house, are abundantly furnished, are both red
and white, and at a price within the reach of the poorest peasant.
Even in and about the great towns--such as Presburg, near the frontier
of Austria--where every article of food is double and treble the price
of the interior--the wines cost no more than from 2d. to 3d. a quart.
Most of the peasants grow their own, and make from 50 to 200, and even
1500 eimers or casks, containing 63 bottles each; and this is not like
many of the poor, thin, acid wines, known in so many parts of Germany,
the north of France, and other countries; but strong, generous
beverage, with a delicious flavour, perfectly devoid of acidity, and
at the same time particularly wholesome. Many of the white wines we
prefer to the generality of those from the Rhine, Moselle, &c.; the
red has a kind of Burgundy flavour, with a sparkling dash of
champagne, and is nearly as strong as port, without its heating
qualities.
For the sake of these agreeable and cheap enjoyments, the whole of the
population of the towns pass a great part of the summer in the woods,
orchards, and gardens in the neighbourhood, where every want of the
table is supplied without the trouble of marketing, cooking, or
firing; and, consequently, in the cool of a summer morning, the
inhabitants of Presburg, for instance, may be seen strolling in
different directions--either ascending the vine-covered hills to the
fresh tops, or wending their way through the deep, shady woods, along
the side of the Danube, to the Harbern or the Alt Mülau. There, after
having sharpened their appetites with this charming walk, they find
themselves seated at a neat little table, beneath the shade of an old
chestnut or elm. The cloth is laid by the vigilant host as soon as the
guest is seated, and often before, as the former knows his hour; for
nothing in machinery can equal the regularity with which meal-hours
are ordered, especially in Germany, where the habitual greeting on the
road is: 'Ich wünsche guten appetit'--(I wish you a good appetite.)
Coffee, wine, eggs, butter, sausages, Hungarian and Italian, the
original dimensions of which are often two feet long, and four to five
inches thick: these are to be found at the most humble houses of
resort, 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 coming and going between Pesth and all parts
of the south of Hungary and Vienna, conveyed either by the railway or
by the numerous steam-boats which daily ply on the Danube. The
neighbourhood, as We have already mentioned, is full of simple and
healthy enjoyments, from the number of its delicious drives and walks,
and places of rural entertainment, the quaint names of some of which
cannot fail to amuse and attract the stranger. At about half an hour's
drive from the town is the Chokolaten-Garten, much frequented for its
excellent chocolate, which is manufactured on the spot. A little
further on, and situated in the centre of one of the most beautiful
little valleys of the Kleine Karpathen, is the Eisen-Brundel, a large
house of entertainment, with a spacious dancing-room; and, without, a
luxuriant grove of fine old trees, forming an impenetrable shelter,
beneath which are arranged a number of tables and chairs. Here every
species of entertainment is to be found, from the most simple brown
bread, milk, and fruits, to the most sumptuous champagne dinners; and
the prince and the peasant take their places without ceremony, as in
the olden time of Robin Hood and Little John--'all merry under the
greenwood tree.'
Numerous other and still more simple places of refreshment and
enjoyment present themselves at every turn of those delicious
mountain-paths, which lead through the little valleys and hollows of
the vineyards overlooking the town. One of the most agreeable is on
the summit of the hill, near the little chapel of St Mary, called
Marien Kirche, under the Kalvarienberg, and from which the eye looks
over the whole town and the plain which stretches towards Pesth, and
through which the Danube winds like a vast silver serpent, till it is
lost in the far woods and dim distance. Lower down, and still nearer
the town, in a little valley, is 'The Entrance to the New World!' The
house is deliciously situated half-way up a wooded hill crowned with
pines, and clothed with rich orchards and vineyards; not far off, in
another little valley, are the Patzen-Häuser, with their orchards and
gardens; and higher up we come to 'The Entrance to Paradise!' whence,
as might be expected, there is a most superb view. This embraces the
whole plain so far as the eye can reach towards the east and south; on
the north it is bounded by the towering mountains of the Great
Carpathians, the haunt of bears and wolves, wild boars and stags; and
to the west, between the valleys which are formed by the hills of this
smaller range of the same mountains, is seen the plain of Vienna, in
the midst of which can be distinguished in a clear day the tall spire
of St Stephen, rising as if from the bosom of the imperial park which
conceals the capital. Beyond this towers the Neu-klosterberg, with its
vast monastery; and further to the left, like white broken clouds in
the blue horizon, are the snow-clad mountains of Steyer-mark (Styria.)