Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. Vol. 1. Eger Journal of English Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 24)

George Cushing: Eger - British connections

bringing the money to my master, which water I carried upon a horse in ieathar bags on either side the horse one. Before I had lived a whole year in this Slavery, a disease came upon us in the house, whereof my master died and others, which ministered to me (as I thought) good opportunity to get away, and so early one morning I let myself down by a hayrope ... and took my way to Old Buda, a League distant from Budin where my master lived, and swimmed over Danubius the River on that side Pesta lieth, and so I took my next way towards Hungary and thence up to Novigrad: but Fortune did smile but a little while upon me, for at a town called Eger there met me a party of Turks who were sent as Scouts to watch the Enemy's Army, some of them presently knew me and seized upon me, then tying a double bag of filth and earth and stones having thrust my head through the middle tied it with a fast knot, and so drove me before them to the new Buda, where they delivered me to my master's son, who gave me 300 blows upon the soles of my feet; after this he caused weightier stones to be put upon my legs than before and kept me close till I was recovered.'

3 Poyntz was sold again to a certain Dervish Pasha, where he became a groom and also attendant to one of his ladies; then he was resold to Joseph Ogga in Belgrade, but ran away, only to be recaptured and sent to the galleys from which he was ransomed. He eventually made his way north, once again passing near Eger on his way to Vienna after six years of captivity. Presumably he did not have very happy memories of his time in Hungary. The eighteenth century was a time of rebuilding and consolidation in Hungary, and nowhere more so than in Eger, whose splendid baroque architecture and ironwork date from this period. It would be interesting to know how many of the buildings contained stone from the castle, which was deliberately demolished in 1702 to prevent it from being used by rebels (this was the time of the Rákóczy rebellion). Two successive bishops, Barkóczi Ferenc and Esterházy Károly, played a large part in the building programme. It was in 1793 that the geologist Robert Townson (1758-1822) spent five months on a scientific tour of Hungary. He published his Travels in Hungary in London in 1797, and this was quickly followed by a French version. Although much of the book is concerned with his mineralogical discoveries, he describes his experiences in the country with a certain degree of impatience. He could be very irritable, as for 52