Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/89

 fied by building the town, and placing, as it were, a beautiful crown upon them. In the suburb is a second wooden bridge over the river Hebrus, which flows alongside the city; not far from this we lodged in an inn, and stayed two days in the city.

On Nov. 12, on starting from Philippopolis, we saw rice growing like wheat in swampy places. The plain is full of small hillocks, or mounds, raised above the ground, like a kind of graves, which the Turks assert to be barrows thrown up in memory of battles which took place in those plains. They also believe that these mounds are the graves of people slain there in battle. That day we crossed the river Hæmus by a handsome bridge of hewn stone, and afterwards travelled through a beautiful wood or forest. Leaving the river on the left, we spent the night in the village of Papasly, where there is no inn. At that village a chiaous came to us from Constantinople, bringing my lord the ambassador a letter from Herr Petsch, who had been there several years continuously as imperial resident, and was now very anxious to be replaced by another ambassador, and return home.

On Nov. 13 we arrived at the village of Usum Shavas, in which there is a well-built inn, with handsome apartments; and there we spent the night. The next day we came to Harmandli, a pretty village, where is a bridge 160 paces long, and a handsome inn, with a lead roof, where we lay during the night.

On Nov. 15, keeping close to the river Hebrus, which flowed again on our right, and leaving, on the left, the mountains of Hæmus, which extend to the Black Sea,