The country round Mehadia is so wild, both in regard to the scenery and
to the native population, that the contrast of dropping suddenly into a
fashionable watering-place is very curious. This bath is much frequented
for pleasure and health by the luxury-loving Roumanians, who invariably
display the latest extravagance of Parisian fashion. Men in
patent-leather boots devoted to cards and billiards, while in the
immediate neighbourhood of glorious scenery, with bear and chamois
shooting to be had for the asking, seem to me "an unknown species," as
Voltaire said of the English. From what I learned of the ways of the
place it seems that the Magyar and Transylvanian visitors keep quite
aloof from the Roumanian coterie; they have never anything pleasant to
say of one another. At Boseg, a bath in the Eastern Carpathians which I
visited later, the separation is so complete that the Roumanians go at
one period of the season and the Hungarian visitors at another.

It had always been my intention to stay a few days at the Hercules-Bad,
and I had given the place as an address for English letters. Accordingly
I presented myself at the _poste restante_. Seeing that I was a
Britisher, the postmaster gave me all the letters he possessed with
English postmarks. Many of them were of considerable antiquity. Out of
the goodly pile I selected some half-dozen that bore my name; but I was
greatly surprised to come across one that had made a very bad shot for
its destination. It bore the simple name of some poor Jacktar, with the
address "H.M.S. Hercules."

The Romans had their _établissement_ here. The present name comes from
the "Thermæ Herculis" of classic times. There are many interesting
remains here--fragments of altars, sculptured capitals, and stones with
inscriptions, all telling the same story--the story of Roman dominion