Words fail me to describe the beauty of the road from Tronosha to Krupena.  The heights and distances, without being alpine in reality, were sufficiently so to an eye unpractised in measuring scenery of the highest class; but in all the softer enchantments nature had revelled in prodigality.  The gloom of the oak forest was relieved and broken by a hundred plantations of every variety of tree that the climate would bear, and every hue, from the sombre evergreen to the early suspicions of the yellow leaf of autumn.  Even the tops of the mountains were free from sterility, for they were capped with green as bright, with trees as lofty, and with pasture as rich, as that of the valleys below.

The people, too, were very different from the inhabitants of Belgrade, where political intrigue, and want of the confidence which sincerity inspires, paralyze social intercourse.  But the men of the back-woods, neither poor nor barbarous, delighted me by the patriarchal simplicity of their manners, and the poetic originality of their language.  Even in gayer moments I seemed to witness the sweet comedy of nature, in which man is ludicrous from his peculiarities, but “is not yet ridiculous from the affectations and assumptions of artificial life.”

Half-way to Krupena we reposed at a brook, where the carpets were laid out and we smoked a pipe.  A curious illustration occurred here of the abundance of wood in Servia.  A boy, after leading a horse into the brook, tugged the halter and led the unwilling horse out of the stream again.  “Let him drink, let him drink his fill,” said a woman; “if everything else must be paid with gold, at least wood and water cost nothing.”

Mounting our horses again, we were met by six troopers bearing the compliments of the captain of Krupena, who was awaiting us with twenty-two or three irregular cavalry on an eminence.  We both dismounted and-went through the ceremony of public complimenting, both evidently enjoying the fun; he the visit of an illustrious stranger, and I the formality of a military reception.  I perceived in a moment that this captain, although a good fellow, was fond of a little fuss; so I took him by the hand, made a turn across the grass, cast a nonchalant look on his troop, and condescended to express my approbation of their martial bearing.  True it is that they were men of rude and energetic aspect, very fairly mounted.  After patronizing him with a little further chat and compliment we remounted; and I perceived Krupena at the distance of about a mile, in the middle of a little plain surrounded by gardens; but the neighbouring hills were here and there bare of vegetation.

Some of the troopers in front sang a sort of chorus, and now and then a fellow to show off his horse, would ride a la djereed, and instead of flinging a dart, would fire his pistols.  Others joined us, and our party was swelled to a considerable cavalcade as we entered the village, where the peasants were drawn up in a row to receive me.