CHAPTER XXIII.
Manasia--Has preserved its middle-age character.--Robinson
Crusoe.--Wonderful Echo.--Kindness of the
people.--Svilainitza.--Posharevatz.--Baby Giantess.
Next day, accompanied by the doctor, and a portion of the party of
yesterday, we proceeded to the convent of Manasia, five hours off; our
journey being mostly through forests, with the most wretched roads.
Sometimes we had to cross streams of considerable depth; at other
places the oaks, arching over head, almost excluded the light: at
length, on doubling a precipitous promontory of rock, a wide open
valley burst upon us, at the extremity of which we saw the donjons and
crenellated towers of a perfect feudal castle surrounding and fencing
in the domes of an antique church. Again I say, that those who wish
to see the castellated monuments of the middle ages just as they were
left by the builders, must come to this country. With us in old
Europe, they are either modernized or in ruins, and in many of them
every tower and gate reflects the taste of a separate period; some
edifices showing a grotesque progress from Gothic to Italian, and from
Italian to Roman _a la Louis Quinze_: a succession which corresponds
with the portraits within doors, which begin with coats of mail, or
padded velvet, and end with bag-wigs and shoe-buckles.
Pages:
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225