DOI Artikel:
Harland, Henry: The Queen's pleasure
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27806#0034
30 The Queen’s Pleasure
speak of it at all, as I have just done : we say the Principality
of Monterosso. But if we were to enquire at the Foreign Office,
I think they would tell us that our fashion of speaking is not
strictly correct. In its own Constitution Monterosso describes
itself as a Basilestvo, and its Sovereign as the Basile; and in all
treaties and diplomatic correspondence, Basile and Basilestvo are
recognised by those most authoritative lexicographers, the Powers,
as equivalent respectively to King and Kingdom. Anyhow,
call it what you will, Monterosso is geographically the smallest,
though politically the eldest, of the lower Danubian States. (It
is sometimes, by the bye, mentioned in the newspapers of Western
Europe as one of the Balkan States, which can scarcely be
accurate, since, as a glance at the map will show, the nearest
spurs of the Balkan Mountains are a good hundred miles distant
from its southern frontier.) Its area is under ten thousand square
miles, but its reigning family, the Pavelovitches, have contrived
to hold their throne, from generation to generation, through thick
and thin, ever since Peter the Great set them on it, at the
conclusion of his war with the Turks, in 1713.
Vescova is rarely visited by English folk, lying, as it does,
something like a two days’ journey off the beaten track, which
leads through Belgrade and Sofia, to Constantinople. But, should
you ever chance to come here, you would be surprised to see what
a fine town it is, with its population of upwards of a hundred
thousand souls, its broad, well-paved streets, its substantial yellow-
stone houses, its three theatres, its innumerable churches, its shops
and cafes, its gardens, quays, monuments, its government offices,
and its Royal Palace. I am speaking, of course, of the new
town, the modern town, which has virtually sprung into existence
since 1850, and which, the author of my guide-book says, “ dis-
putes with Bukharest the title of the Paris of the South-East.”
The
speak of it at all, as I have just done : we say the Principality
of Monterosso. But if we were to enquire at the Foreign Office,
I think they would tell us that our fashion of speaking is not
strictly correct. In its own Constitution Monterosso describes
itself as a Basilestvo, and its Sovereign as the Basile; and in all
treaties and diplomatic correspondence, Basile and Basilestvo are
recognised by those most authoritative lexicographers, the Powers,
as equivalent respectively to King and Kingdom. Anyhow,
call it what you will, Monterosso is geographically the smallest,
though politically the eldest, of the lower Danubian States. (It
is sometimes, by the bye, mentioned in the newspapers of Western
Europe as one of the Balkan States, which can scarcely be
accurate, since, as a glance at the map will show, the nearest
spurs of the Balkan Mountains are a good hundred miles distant
from its southern frontier.) Its area is under ten thousand square
miles, but its reigning family, the Pavelovitches, have contrived
to hold their throne, from generation to generation, through thick
and thin, ever since Peter the Great set them on it, at the
conclusion of his war with the Turks, in 1713.
Vescova is rarely visited by English folk, lying, as it does,
something like a two days’ journey off the beaten track, which
leads through Belgrade and Sofia, to Constantinople. But, should
you ever chance to come here, you would be surprised to see what
a fine town it is, with its population of upwards of a hundred
thousand souls, its broad, well-paved streets, its substantial yellow-
stone houses, its three theatres, its innumerable churches, its shops
and cafes, its gardens, quays, monuments, its government offices,
and its Royal Palace. I am speaking, of course, of the new
town, the modern town, which has virtually sprung into existence
since 1850, and which, the author of my guide-book says, “ dis-
putes with Bukharest the title of the Paris of the South-East.”
The