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

example, in Visegrád, where he was kept awake by fleas, and in Eger too where the wine did not come up to his expectations. He arrived there from Gyöngyös and first went to Felsőtárkány, of which he gives a splendidly poetic description naming it 'a pretty, romantic and retired situation, with murmuring streams and mossy banks, and craggy rocks and gloomy woods and verdant groves: a select abode for Fauns and Silens, and Fairies and Druids and Hermits and Lovers; and Botanists. Here the late bishop (Barkóczy), a man of taste, built an elegant villa, where he often used to retire, more for amusement, it is said, than for prayer. The gloomy, bigoted temperament of the present bishop (Esterházy) prevents him from enjoying the beauties of nature, even of the more serious kind. On his coming to the See, like a Visigoth, he attacked this beautiful environment, and has so completely destroyed it, that the place of its existence is no longer known ...'

4 Townson also describes the hot springs, but soon returns to the theme of the bishop, this time in connection with the wine he is offered. 'The wine of Erlau is justly famed, and, when good, is little inferior to Burgundy. I had long flattered myself with the hope of drinking here a bottle of the best; and immediately on my arrival I ordered some. The waiter told me 1 should have bischöfliche wine. This raised still higher my expectation, for I thought he meant wine fit for a bishop to drink; and I eagerly tasted what he brought me, but was surprised to find it as bad as that of Bogdon (Dunabogdány). I scolded the waiter; he looked gloomy, and told me, shrugging up his shoulders, that it was bischofliche wine; but the poor man only meant to inform me that it was the bishop's wine, and that he had only the vending of it. I then sent my servant about the town to see if he could not procure me a bottle or two, but it was all in vain, the bishop possessing the exclusive right of retailing wine. So I was, till I had made the acquaintance of dr. D., obliged to drink this vile stuff in a country producing the best; it gave me the colic, which I naturally attribute to the bishop, and I must retaliate the injury. How bizarre is the human character! Will it be credited that the man who exacts his rights with so much severity as to make himself considered by his flock, not as a father and protector, but as a hard, severe, and unjust master ... should have erected a public edifice which would be an honour to a crowned head! 53