res of
architecture and scenery are extremely interesting; the first represent
buildings familiar to us in old German towns, and the rural scenes
depict a variety of agricultural instruments, together with many details
of home life in the olden time. The colours of the birds and flowers are
as bright as if only finished yesterday. The ingenuity of the design is
very striking; no two objects are alike. It would have taken hours to
have looked over the volume thoroughly.

In the palace, of which the museum forms a part, there is a gallery of
pictures, collected by the Baron Bruckenthal, formerly governor of
Transylvania. The history of these pictures is very curious, they were
mostly purchased from French refugees at the time of the first
revolution. It appears that both at that period, and at the revocation
of the Edict of Nantes, many French families had sought an asylum in
Hungary and Transylvania. In the Banat I am told there are two or three
villages inhabited entirely by people who came originally from France;
they retain only their Gallic names, having adopted the Magyar tongue
and utterly lost their own. This little colony of the Banat belonged of
course to the Huguenot exodus. I had now an opportunity of examining a
collection of the Roman antiquities obtained from the Hatszeg Valley.

I remained several days at Herrmannstadt, principally for the sake of
resting my horse, which unfortunately had been rubbed by the saddle-bags
on my ride from Petroseny. I spent the time agreeably enough, exploring
the neighbourhood and making chance acquaintances. I bought here Bishop
Teusch's 'History of Transylvanian Saxons,' a handy-book in two volumes.
It interested me very much, especially reading it in the country itself
where so many stirring scenes had been enacted.

Wishing to see some of the neighbouring villages, I set off one fine day
on a walking expedition. I chose Sunday, because on that day one can see
to best advantage the costume of the peasants. Hammersdorf is a pretty
enough village, "fair with orchard lawns," but not so charming as
Heltau, which, standing on high ground, commands an extensive view of
the whole plain, with the old "Red Town" in the foreground of the
picture. The church in this village is a very fine specimen of the
fortified churches, which are a unique feature of the Transylvanian
border-land. The origin of this form of architecture is very obvious; it
was necessary to have a defence against