Vi. Bölöni Farkas Sándor (1795-1842) and his Travels

VIII. English Travellers in Hungary in the 19^th Century

IN THIS SECTION, we will cover:

• 
  the journeys of English travellers in the 18^th century
  
• 
  the reasons of English interest in Hungary in the 19^th century
  
• 
  four English travellers (Mrs. Gore, John Bowring, John Paget and Miss Pardoe) and their perceptions of Hungary
  

In the 18^th century, few people dared to travel to Hungary. Still, some Englishmen, including Richard Pococke and Jeremiah Milles (who were cousins) undertook such a journey. They came to Hungary at a time when few risked to come to such a dangerous place. They famous figures in the Anglican Church (both of them were priests) and they were chiefly interested in archeology.

Richard Pococke arrived in Hungary in 1736. He saw great, big lands, which were uncultivated and great forests, but scarce population due to Turkish occupation and the Rákóczi war (1703-11). He was mainly interested in archeology, and does not really deal with contemporary situation in his description. He visits Buda and major cities of the Transdanubian area. He was quite naive and held rather confused motions (e.g. thinks that Hungarian language is a relative of Hebrew and other Oriental languages, and so he relies mainly on second-hand information).

In the 19^th century, however, the interest in Hungary revived. The main reasons for the English coming to Hungary were the following: 1) it was obviously safer to travel; 2) the public life was Anglo- oriented (see “anglomania” above); 3) they heard of Széchenyi’s efforts in implementing institutions and ideas coming from England; and 4) the most important reason was that they could travel faster and safer due to the development of steam-shipping.

What were the different specific manifestations of these visits?

a, Horsemanship: Széchenyi and English example is always there. A great number of horses were imported from England, the so-called “Gyepkönyv” was edited along the lines of the English Racing Calendar and Stud Book, which were translated into Hungarian, and it was compulsory to follow their regulations. The description of early races in Pest contain the names of horses and riders, which are more often English rather than Hungarian. We know that English trainers also arrived here and we know Edward Jackson by name.

b, fox-hunting: these events were first organised in Nyitra and Sopron counties in 1823. Hounds and horses were brought from England. This was quite an expensive sport and it belonged to the practice of mainly copying the external features of English public life.

c, steam shipping: two Englishmen (John Andrews and Joseph Pritchard) start to operate a line on the Danube in 1829. The importance of steam shipping was naturally recognized by both Széchenyi and the English. Széchenyi could realize his plans with English help (machines, captains, loans). But it was also the English interest to have a navigable line till Constantinople (see the Crimean War in the 1850s!)

d, cheap English loans to build railways. England was also interested in railway building, businessmen came here to invest. The reason was the same as in the case of steam shipping: since it was quite evident that in the future, Russia would become the enemy of England.

e, engineers and bridge builders: the Chain Bridge, Adam and William Clark directed the construction. The great majority of the work was done by English workers. They arrived in great number, since they needed separate Scottish missionaries, William Duncan and William Wingate to take care of their religious life. According to one magazine (Életképek), 26,000 English workers were intending to come to Hungary. (“Az Életképek szerint 26.000 angol akarna hazánkban gyári foglalkozás végett megtelepedni. Tehát ismét egy népfajjal fogna megerősödni világhírű nemzeti egységünk.”) This is obviously a bombastic piece of news and a fantastically exaggerated number, but it shows clearly the extent of foreign workers coming to Hungary.

Now let us see the travellers themselves who came to Hungary.

Catherine Grace Frances Gore (1799-1861) travelled in Hungary somewhere before 1829. The contemporary press did not report her journey here. She published Hungarian Tales in 3 volumes in 1829. The topics were her personal experiences: she observed the great privileges of aristocracy, the subjected state of common people, the low level of culture in the countryside and the passionate feeling of patriotism. According to her, England's indifference towards Hungary is ingratitude, because anglomania “rages” more than in any other country; Hungarians like to compare themselves to the English (although it would be more appropriate to draw a parallel between the Irish and the Hungarian) She also points out that the most famous authors, Shakespeare, Byron, Scott works are generally known.




Sir John Bowring (1792-1872) was born Exeter in a puritan family. He became a businessman and later made acquaintance with Jeremy Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism and began to work for the Westminster Review. He was a member of Parliament and dealt with commerce and economics. He was keenly interested in the culture and literature of European and Asian nations and edited several anthologies, including Specimens of Russian Poets (1820); Ancient Poetry and the Romance of Spain (1824); Sketch of the Language and Literature of Holland (1829); Poetry of the Magyars, 1830; and Cheskian Anthology (1832). The Hungarian Academy elected him a honorary member. He only visited Hungary in 1838 for a brief period. Later, he published Translations from Alexander Petőfi, the Magyar Poet in 1866. He is also ranked among the world’s greatest hyperpolyglots: he was said to be able to speak at least 100 languages. He also knew the Hungarian language very well and maintained that the Hungarian language was so singular and unique because nothing may be added to it, and it is not likely to add anything to other languages; in short, it is as solid as a rock.

“The Hungarian language goes far back. It developed in a very peculiar manner and its structure reaches back to times when most of the now spoken European languages did not even exist. It is a language which developed steadily and firmly in itself, and in which there are logic and mathematics with the adaptability and malleability of strength and chords. The Englishman should be proud that his language indicates an epic of human history. One can show forth its origin; and all layers can be distinguished in it, which gathered together during contacts with different nations. Whereas the Hungarian language is like a rubble-stone, consisting of only one piece, on which the storms of time left not a scratch. It's not a calendar that adjusts to the changes of the ages. It needs no one, it doesn't borrow, does no huckstering, and doesn't give or take from anyone. This language is the oldest and most glorious monument of national sovereignty and mental independence. What scholars cannot solve, they ignore. In philology it's the same way as in archaeology. The floors of the old Egyptian temples, which were made out of only one rock, can't be explained. No one knows where they came from, or from which mountain the wondrous mass was taken. How they were transported and lifted to the top of the temples. The genuineness of the Hungarian language is a phenomenon much more wondrous than this.” (Bowring)

John Paget (1808-1892) is the author of Hungary and Transylvania (1839). He travelled to Hungary in 1835 and 1836 and spent one and a half years here. His interest in Hungary was raised when he met the Baroness Polyxenia Wesselényi in Italy whom he married in 1837. After the wedding, they settled in Gyéres, Transylvania. They started to run a model estate. He participated in the War of Independence of 1848/49. After the Revolution of 1848 he emigrated to England but returned in 1855. He showed great interest in Hungary, specially the Transylvanian Unitarians; he was the founding member of the Erdélyi Gazdasági Egylet and was an active member of the Unitarian church. In his travelogue, he records his experiences with great precision, studies Hungary, but also criticizes it cleverly. He is deeply impressed by Hungary’s sympathy towards the English and urges the deepening of economic relationships between the two countries. He was greatly admired by Széchenyi, and met him personally.

A quotation from the second volume of his book: “It is in Debreczen and its neighbourhood that the true Magyar character may be the most advantageously studied. The language here is spoken in its greatest purity, the costume is worn by rich as well as poor, and those national peculiarities which a people always lose by admixture with others are still prominent at Debreczen.

The pride of the Magyar, which is one of his strongest traits, leads him to look down on every other nation by which he is surrounded with sovereign contempt. All foreigners are either Schwab (German) or Talyán (Italian); an it is difficult to imagine the supercilious air with which the Magyar peasant pronounces those two words. (…) The Magyar is accused of being lazy; and if by that is meant that he has not the Englishman’s love of work for its own sake, I believe the charge is merited. A Magyar never moves when he can sit still, and never walks when he can ride. Even riding on horseback seems too much trouble for him; for he generally puts four horses into his little wagon, and in that state makes his excursions to the next village, or to the market town. This want of energy is attended, too, with a want of perseverance. The Hungarian is easily disappointed and discouraged if an enterprise does not succeed at the first attempt. The Magyar character has a singular mixture of habitual passiveness and melancholy, mixed up with great susceptibility to excitement.”

Miss Julia Pardoe (1806-1862) wrote The City of the Magyar, or Hungary and Her Institutions (1840). She was a novelist, a traveller, interested in mainly historical subjects. She made several travels to the East, and these voyages inspired her first book, The City of the Sultan. The first volume of her Hungarian travelogue records her travels from east to west across the country and describes buildings, events, people, landscape, and institutions. The second volume is an inquiry into Hungary's national character, and the third volume is an account of Hungary's folklore, history, and social customs. Pardoe was the first person to describe many of Hungary's institutions. Much of her book is based on interviews with powerful people in Hungarian society. After the publication of this work, the English public begin to be interested in England. The Foreign Quarterly Review asked for material to present Hungarian literature.

“The Hungarian language (…) possesses intrinsically sufficient beauty as well as antiquity, to inspire interest (…). At present, worthy as it is of general notice, the peculiarities of the Magyar language are little known in Europe. (…) It has been more than once asserted by Sclavonian writers that the Magyar dialect was a mere corruption and admixture of several other tongues into which their own, greatly degraded and impoverished, had largely entered. This is, however, proved to be a fallacy even by the slightest study of the subject. It is a matter of history that like many other nations more or less civilised, the Magyars possessed their national bards and ballads at the period of the first invasion of the European provinces. The German chronicles mention and even quote several of these; adding that they not only indulged in war-songs but that they also delighted in others of a softer description; and at a very early period mention is made of a class of men called Dallos, or Menne-singers.” (Miss Pardoe)