Knin

“The loud roar of a cataract was heard a long way off, and, descending a steep zigzag declivity, I had the upper fall of the Kerka before me, where the river makes one bound of seventy feet from the chaotic region of sterile rocks to the rich flat plain of Kipnin, with its cottages, fields, and gardens. […]. Knin at length presented itself, with the lights gleaming under a high isolated rocky fortress. The inn was miserable in the extreme: a dirty-looking landlord stood at a bar of liquors; and deal-tables and benches occupied the middle of a dingy room on the ground floor with bare walls. […].

Knin is marked on all the old maps in much larger letters than Sign, and formerly was the most important inland provincial town in Dalmatia, being the first place on the old road that entered Dalmatia from Croatia; and when the French held both kingdoms, Knin had always a considerable garrison, being considered by Marmont as an important strategical point. But from the moment that the new road was carried to Zara, direct over the precipices of the Vellebitch, above Obrovazzo, and steamers began to ply between Trieste and the towns of the coast, it has remained quite out of the way of the world, and is a mere shell of what it was, the principal families having all emigrated (pp. 26-28).

The town, which we now sauntered through, exhibits signs of decay, and its situation is at the very foot of the castle-rock, and intervening between it and the river Kerka. […]. We then ascended by steep viaducts to the Castle over head, from which we had a general view of town and country. Going round to a bastion that hung over the river, just where it quitted the town, we found the surgeon of the garrison digging for his amusement among a few beds of flowers and vegetables, and from time to time tossing the weeds over the parapet. It was fearfully dizzy to look down; and the two doctors entering into conversation, I learned that in autumn the hospital is full of patients, owing to the fevers arising from the river overflowing its banks and heat following; but, as at the Narenta, there was much less misery among the common people than elsewhere (pp. 29-30)”.