The Hungarian peasantry are all soldiers when their services are required, but resume their agricultural and domestic duties immediately that the necessity has ceased to exist; hence they are all erect, and smart-looking; and as they are a remarkably fine race of men, their appearance is very striking. Of the women I cannot in candour say so much, as they are, generally speaking, very plain; with flat features, and expressionless countenances. There were, however, several startling exceptions; and I know not whether in such cases it be actually the intrinsic degree of beauty possessed by the individual, and that in a land of plain women, Nature lavishes on the few all that she has withheld from the many; or that the dearth of good looks in the many may lead a stranger involuntarily to heighten to himself those of the few; but it is certain that I saw in Hungary, as I thought at the time, half a dozen of the loveliest girls imaginable. We had left Orsova only a few miles behind us, when, descending a short but precipitous declivity, we entered upon a road skirting the mountain ridge on the one hand, and bounded on the other by the bed of a torrent; whose waters, now in a state of comparative repose, brawled over the masses of rock with which their own violence had cumbered the channel during the winter storms; and ran dancing in the light, as their course was further impeded by the fishing-dams of the peasantry; and, after forming a thousand pigmy cascades, fell flashing back into the depths of the ravine, to form a mirror for the overhanging hills. Another hour of rapid travelling brought us to the ruins of Trajan’s road. Six of the arches, built against the solid rock, still remain nearly perfect; and hence this stupendous work may be traced for several miles, as well as the massy fragments of a bridge across the torrent.