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; but there are plenty of fine horses in Hungary. The Government has been at immense pains to improve the breed by introducing English and Arabian sires. For practical purposes the native breed must not be decried; the Hungarian horse, though small, has many excellent qualities. For ordinary animals the prices are very low, which fact does not encourage the peasants to take much care of the foals. On this occasion I bought a couple of horses for farming purposes; the two only cost me about L11.

With regard to farming, our English notions of "high farming" will not do in Hungary; what is called the "extensive system" pays best. For instance, if I were already farming, and had some disposable capital at hand, I should find it pay me better to invest in buying more land than in trying to increase the produce of what I had already in hand. After some practical experience in the country, I have no hesitation in saying that Hungary offers a good field for the employment of English capital.

Vineyards, on the other hand, can only be worked "intensively." Nothing requires more care and attention. To begin with, the aspect of the vine garden influences the quality of the wine immensely. Then there is the soil. The best is the plastic clay (nyirok), which appears to be the product of the direct chemical decomposition of volcanic rock. This clay absorbs water but very slowly, and is, in short, the most favourable to the growth of the vine. As the vines are mostly on the steep hillsides, low walls are built to prevent the earth from being washed away. In the early spring one of the first things to be done is to repair the inevitable damage done by the winter rain or snow to these walls, and to clear the ditches, which are carefully constructed to carry off the excess of water. I should observe that in the autumn, soon after the vintage, the earth is heaped up round the vines to protect them from the intense cold which prevails here, and directly the spring comes, one must open up the vines again. In Tokay the vines are never trellised, they are disposed irregularly, not even in rows—the better to escape the denudation of their roots by rain. Each vine is supported by an oak stick, which, removed in autumn, is replaced in spring after the process of pruning. When the young shoots are long enough they are bound to these sticks, and are not allowed to grow beyond them.

No less than three times during the summer the earth should be dug up round the roots of the vine, and it is very desirable to get the second digging over before the harvest, for when harvest has once commenced it is impossible to get labourers at any price. The harvest operations generally begin at the end of June, and last six weeks. In the part of Hungary of which I am now speaking the labourer gets a certain proportion of the harvest. In this district he has every eleventh stack of corn, and as they are fed as well during the time, a man and his wife can generally earn enough corn for the whole year. The summers are intensely hot, and the work in consequence very fatiguing. The poor fellows are often stricken with fever, the result, in some cases, of their own imprudence in eating water-melons to excess.

It is not till the third or fourth week in October that the vintage is to be looked for. It is not the abundance of grapes that makes a good year; the test is the amount of dried grapes, for it is to these brown withered-looking berries that the unique character of the-wine is due. If the season is favourable, the over-ripe grapes crack in September, when the watery particles evaporate, leaving the rasin-like grape with its undissipated saccharine matter.

In order to make "Essenz," these dry grapes are separated from the rest, placed in tubs with holes perforated at the bottom. The juice is allowed to squeeze out by the mere weight of the fruit into a vessel placed beneath. After several years' keeping this liquid becomes a drinkable wine, but of course it is always very costly. This is really only a liqueur. The wine locally called "Ausbruch" is the more generally known sweet Tokay, a delicious wine, but also very expensive. It is said to possess wonderfully restorative properties in sickness and in advanced age.

Another quality, differently treated, but of the same vintage, is called "Szamarodni," now known in the English market as "dry Tokay." This dry wine preserves the bouquet and strength of the ordinary Tokay, but it is absolutely without any appreciable "sweetness." In order to produce Szamarodni the dry grapes must not be separated from the others. The proportion of alcohol is from twelve to fifteen per cent.

When first I saw the vintage in the Tokay district, I was greatly interested in the novelty of the whole scene. It is well worth the stranger's while to turn aside from the beaten track and join for once in this characteristic Hungarian festivity, for nowhere is the Magyar more at home than in the vine-growing Hegyalia.

[Footnote 24: Ancient Volcanoes of Hungary.]

THE END.

MUIR AND PATERSON, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH.