1 
 

JOURNAL OF A TOUR 
 
 TO 
 
 MOSCOW. 
 
 TJV THE SUMMER OP 1656; 
 
 THE UKV'r ti n.rAULJVl A . 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD; AUTHOROF 
 " GRECIAN ANTIQUITIES," 8cC. 
 
 Je r;i.cont,e ce c[ue ta-i "vxL J'ai ecnt joiir par jour les 
 
 e^^eaiements qui ont -frappe mesycux; ot je cberche seulmenl 
 a coitiraumcjuearles impTcaatims que J'-'U Tcssenties. 
 
 LAMARQUE. 
 
 L O N D O N 
 
 SI MPK1N_ MARSHALL 
 AND 
 W H ITTA KE R «t C< 
 
JOURNAL OF A TOUR 
 
 TO 
 
 MOSCOW, 
 
 IN THE SUMMER OF 1836; 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. R. B. PAUL, M. A. 
 
 LATE FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD ; AUTHOR OF 
 •* GRECIAN ANTIQUITIES," &C. 
 
 Je raconte ce que j'ai vu — J'ai ecrit jour par jour les 
 evenementsqui ont frappe mes yeux ; etjecherche seulment 
 a communiquer les impressions que j'ai ressenties. 
 
 LAMARQUE. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO., 
 
 AND 
 
 WUITTAKER, AND CO. 
 
 MDCCGXXXVI. 
 
lOAN STACK 
 

 PREFACE. 
 
 Why I have troubled the public with a 
 Journal of my Tour to Moscow, is a ques- 
 tion which I find no small difficulty in an- 
 swering, even to the satisfation of that most 
 indulgent of judges — myself. I certainly can- 
 not plead " request of friends" for until the 
 first sheet was printed, I do not remember 
 having had communication with three per- 
 sons on the subject. I believe it was the 
 perusal of Mr. Barrow's delightful little book 
 that first inspired me with a taste for travel- 
 ling in the North of Europe ; and the recol- 
 lection of the pleasure which that book 
 afforded me, has made me vain enough to 
 
IV. PREFACE. 
 
 hope^ that the personal narrative of a less 
 talented writer might not be entirely with- 
 out interest to the public, especially as the 
 scene is laid in a country, the manners and 
 customs of which are every year becoming 
 more a subject of enquiry among us. 
 
 Tn the spring of the present year a valued 
 friend proposed to me to accompany his only 
 son in a summer excursion, leaving tl^e 
 choice of our route entirely to myself. My 
 health had been a good deal shaken by dif- 
 ferent causes in the beginning of the year ; 
 I was glad therefore to embrace an oppor- 
 tunity of recruiting my strength by an ex- 
 cursion, which promised so much of interest 
 and excitement. How completely in this 
 respect the proposed object has been attained, 
 I acknowledge with feelings of the deepest 
 gratitude to Him, *^ in whose hand are the 
 issues of life and death.^* 
 
PREFACE. V. 
 
 With regard to the publication of my 
 journal, I can only say that if the descrip- 
 tion of my wanderings should prove half as 
 entertaining to the public, as the actual 
 journey was to me, my most sanguine hopes 
 will be fulfilled. 
 
 Torquay, November 1 7th, 1836. 
 
COiNTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Arrival at Hamburg — Freedom from custom- 
 house annoyances — We hire a carriage^ and 
 start for Luheck — Bad road — Thunderstorm 
 — Philosophical postillion — JFe arrive at Lu- 
 heck and embark the next morning at Trave- 
 munde for St. Petersburg —Passengers 07i 
 board the steamer — Dutch Captain — Russian 
 Corvette — Cronstadt — Russian custom-house 
 officers — Small steam^packet — Singular pilot 
 — TFe are landed at St. Petersburg — Custom 
 House — Examination of books — Engelhardfs 
 — Hotel de Pai'is — Duration of daylight in 
 summer 1 — 12 
 
Vm. CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Statue of Peter the Great — Comparison between 
 it and the Statue of Charles I. at Charing 
 Cross — Senate Square — Description of the 
 Statue — Alexander s column — Singular story 
 — J^*ev!ski) Prospect — Russian Droshy — Re- 
 spect paid to the English at St. Petersburg — 
 Great Bazaar — Casan Church — English sai- 
 lor — Convent of Alexander Nevsky — Miracle 
 said to have been wrought by the saint 13 — 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Permits of residence — Winter palace — Croivn 
 jewels — Drunkenness of the Russians — Pic- 
 turesque appearance of the peasantry — Their 
 good humour and ingenuity — the Russian 
 language — English church — Hermitage pa- 
 lace — Pictures — Prodigal son — Taurida pa- 
 lace — Singular mistake of a valet de place— 
 Smolnoi convent— Aiilitary church— Exchange 
 — Post-office — Kammenoy Ostroff 22 — 31 
 
CONTENTS. IX. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Old and new arsenals — Specimens of ancient 
 cannon and armour— Catherine' s horse — Stool 
 of a celebrated highwayman — Cannon found- 
 ry — Tapestry manufactory — Mode of tele- 
 graphing a fire — Road to Tsarsko-Selo — 
 Telegas— Kihitkas— Palace of Tsarsko-Selo— 
 Chapel — Amber room— porcelain room — Bou- 
 doir of the Empress — Ornaments of the 
 grounds — Palace of Alexandrosky — The 
 farm — Attempt to assassinate the Grand 
 Duke Alexander — Assassination of four 
 Emperors 32—30 
 
 CHPATER V. 
 
 JVe visit the camp at Krasno-Selo — Officers of 
 tlie imperial guard — Awkward question — 
 Anxiety of tJie Russians to know what is 
 thought of them in England — Soldiers at 
 dinner — Quass — Circassian cavalry — Gigan- 
 tic grenadier — Pay of a foot-soldier — IVe 
 return to St. Petersburg — Glass manufactory 
 — Admiralty — Climate of St. Petersburg — 
 Church of the Trinity — Isaac church 41 — 48 
 
X. CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The mining establishment — The mint — Mode of 
 coining money — Silver roubles — JSTotes — The 
 citadel — Church of St. Peter and St. Paul — 
 Tombs of the Emperors — Russian bath — 
 Mode of bathing adopted by the peasants 
 49—59 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Appearance of our valet de place — Tf^e set out to 
 view the fete at Peterhoff- — Groups in front 
 of the palace — We enter the state apartments 
 — TJie Emperor — Description of his person — 
 account of the insurrection in 1825 — The 
 Empress — Grand Duke Michael — Strange 
 story — Illuminations — Picturesque figures — 
 Prince Nariskin — Russian Admiral — Rus- 
 sian tea — Americans — We return to St. Pe- 
 tersburg 60 — 76 
 
 CHAPTER Vni. 
 We determine to set out for Moscow — Farewell 
 
CONTENTS. XI. 
 
 excursion down the river — The Bussian Quay 
 — Statue of Swcaroff—Marhle palace — Hotel 
 of the French Ambassador — Hermitage — 
 Winter palace — Admiralty — Senate square 
 and statue of Peter the Great — English Quay 
 — English Church — Exchange— Academy of 
 sciences— Museum— Observatory— 'Colleges of 
 the first and second corps of cadets— Acade- 
 my of Arts— Obelisk to the memory of Mo- 
 manzoff—Ecole des mines— Two bridges over 
 the JSTeva— Bustling scene in the river— Fish 
 boats— Floating hay-stacks— Russian beggars 
 —Dress of the Russian ladies— The Knout— 
 Our names are inserted three times in the 
 Gazette— Treatment of the English and 
 French by the Russian government— Lord 
 Durham — Moscow Diligence— Russian want 
 of punctuality — Emharrassment caused by our 
 ignorance of the language- Supper at the first 
 post-house— Thunder storm— Dreary country 
 — Description of a Russian cottage and its 
 inmates— Post-houses— Manner of marking 
 the distances on the road— Horses— Postilliojis 
 —Overbearing conduct of a boy— The railroad 
 from St. Petersburg to Tsarsko Selo—The 
 road from St, Petersburg to Moscow greatly 
 improved ----- 77—94 
 
XU. CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 History of Novgorod—JVe enter the town—Lwig 
 bridge over the Volkof— Cathedral of St. So- 
 phia—I mount on the top of tlie diligence— 
 Valday—The Valday mountains— Lahe— Con- 
 vent— Crowd of curious women — Vishnay 
 Voljoli— Canal constructed by Peter the Great 
 — Torjok— Tver— Klin n— Moscow - 95— 99 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Difficulties on our first arrival— Woman i?i cat- 
 skin pelisse— Kopp' s — Piggott — Howard's— 
 We visit the Kreinlin—Tlie Spashoi gate— 
 ^Jicient usuage — Inscription— Situation of the 
 Kremlin— Three squares— Cathedrals of the 
 Assumption^ Annunciation^ and St. Michael- 
 Tower of Ivan Velikoi— Bells— Great hell of 
 the tower —Dimensions— Great hell of Mos- 
 cow— Dimensions— Outline of its history- 
 View from the tower of Ivan Velikoi— Ap- 
 pearance of the country round Moscow— 
 Descriptimi of the city— Italian valet de place 
 —Carriage and horses— Coachman 100—113 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Arsenal — Cannon taken from the French 
 — Enormous gun — Cuherins — Cathedral of 
 the Assumption — Paintings — Treasure in the 
 Sacristy — Imperial treasury — List of the most 
 remarkable objects— Armoury— Sparrow hills 
 — Labaume^s account of the first view of 
 Moscow by the French — View from the Spar- 
 row hills — Church of St. Saviour — Depdt of 
 malefactors — Roads in the vicinity of Moscow 
 — Man of figure — Picturesque tourists 
 114—123 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Cathedral of the Assumption — Procession — 
 Doctrines of the Greek church— Secular priests 
 and monks — Palace of the Tzars — Angular 
 palace — Cathedral of the Annunciation — 
 Vestibule — Fresco paintings — Painting of 
 the Annunciation — Character of our valet — 
 Simonofskoi convent — Comparison between 
 St. Petersburg and Moscow — Cathedral of 
 St. Michael— Tombs of the Tzars — Church 
 h 
 
XIV. CONTENTS. 
 
 of Vassili Blagennoi — Beautiful place — 
 Foundling hospital — Jewish hanker — Mili- 
 tary exercise house — Convent of nuns — La- 
 haume's narrative—Summer gardens 124 — 145 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Gostennoi Dvor — Beautiful place — Monument 
 of Pojavshij and Minin — Toula snuff boxes 
 — Tartar merchants — Tartar mosque — Tf^e 
 take our places in the diligence — Russian 
 champagne — TFe leave Moscow — Conductor — 
 Squabbles on the road — Delays at the post- 
 houses— TFe narroivly escape being overturned 
 — Return to St. Petersburg — Academie des 
 beaux arts — Picture of the destruction of 
 Pompeii — Palace of Peter the Great — Irmn- 
 dation of 1824 — Summer gardens— Castle of 
 St. Michael — Murder of the Emperor Paul — 
 Palace of the Grand Puke Michael — JFe de- 
 termine on quitting St. Petersburg — Irish 
 gentlemen — Difficulties — Afr. Russell — Rag 
 fair — Carriage bazaar — We purchase a car- 
 riage and harness — Canals and bridges — 
 English back-line — Ray's boarding house — 
 
CONTENTS. XV, 
 
 Our friends obtain their passports^ and we 
 leave St. Fetersburg - - 146—163 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 We enter Finland — Mode of travelling hi that 
 country — Character of the road — Vihorg — 
 Officer of police— IVe lose our companions — 
 Frederiksham — Appearance of the peasantry 
 — Dispute with our driver — Waterfall near 
 Hogfors — Helsingfors — Appearance of the 
 tonm— Harbour — Snyeaborg — Garrison — Fo- 
 licy of the Emperor towards Finland— We 
 leave Helsingfm's — Floors of the houses 
 strewed with juniper — Carrioles — Scenes of 
 drmikenness - - - - +45^.— 176 
 
 Its 
 
 CHAPTER XV, 
 
 Method of mowing in Finland — Finnish agri- 
 cidture — Aho — We lodge at a private house — 
 Description of the landlady arid her daugh- 
 ters — Swedish valet — Damp ship — We dine 
 at the Society house — Expenses of the jour- 
 
XVI. CONTENTS. 
 
 ney through Finland— Char acLer of the people 
 —Church at Aho— University— Observatory — 
 Market boats — TFe go on board the steam- 
 packet — Accident — Swedish dinner — Island 
 of Soderam—Waxholm— Stockholm — Custom 
 house 177—190 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Reasons for writing a tour to Moscow — Drffl- 
 culties of travelling in Russia — J f inter the 
 best time for visiting tJiat country— Expenses 
 of such an excursion as ours — A knowledge 
 of Russiuii desirable^ and of German abso- 
 lutely necessary — Character of the Swedes — 
 Habitual drunkenness — The Palace — House 
 of JSTobles — Inscription — Statue of Gustavus 
 III — Population of Stockholm — Coffee house 
 — Appearance of the houses— Dalecar Hans — 
 King's mews— Park of Rosendal— Scenery— 
 The Queen of Sweden— The Ki7ig and Prince 
 Oscar— Character of the King— Prospects of 
 Prince Oscar— We set out for the iron mines 
 of Dannemor a— Swedish posting— For ebud— 
 Travelling cart— We arrive at the mines and 
 
CONTENTS. XVll. 
 
 descend into one of the pits— Explosion— Ap- 
 pearance of the miners— Region of perpetual 
 ice— Accidents — Upsala —University —Cathe- 
 dral— Monument of Gustavus F^asa— Monu- 
 ment of Linnceus—His life and charade) — 
 Ecclesiastical vestments — Statue of Thoi — 
 W^e return to Stockholm - - 191 — 222 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 We leave Stockholm— Malaren lake—Arhoga— 
 Steam-packet— Orehro—Lidkoping— We over- 
 take our forehud—JsTight scene— Trolhattan— 
 Different opinions of travellers— Opinion of 
 Sir H. Davij— Saw-mills— Guide— Great ca- 
 nal—Curious cave—JVames of Royal visitors 
 —Salmon fishing— Mr. Lloyd— Wolves— Snow 
 ploughs— We arrive at Gottenhurg— Descrip- 
 tion of the town— Steam-packet agent— Our 
 host attempts to cheat us— Steam-packet from 
 Gottenhurg to Copenhagen— The Sound— El- 
 sinore — Cronborg — Helsingborg— Return to 
 England through Copenhagen, Kiel and 
 Hamburg - - - - 223-238 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 pHire 41, line 6. dele " the." 
 
 — line 13, /or *' Russia," read *' Russian." 
 
 57, line 5, from the bottom, /or "cold to heat," read 
 
 •* heat to cold." 
 Page 62, line 2 from the bottom, for **compairing," read 
 
 " comparing." 
 Page 70, line 4 — 10 from the bottom, the words from **along 
 
 the brow" to *' in its centre" should be m a 7iote. 
 Page 84, line 7 fro.Ti the bottom, /or "as" read *' a." 
 
 91, line 2, for ''leather," read "leaden." 
 
 92 line 1,/or " Petetsburg" read " Petersburg.*' 
 
 101, line '1, for " serey," read " serez." 
 
 106, line 16, /or "ground," rear/ "e.arth." 
 
 ■ 18, for " therfore," read " therefore." 
 
 132, line ^,for " sepulcres," read " sepulchres." 
 
 183, line 1, dele "of." 
 
 229, line 18, for "pased," read " passed." 
 
 line 19, for " inismense," read " immense." 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 " Wliat will become of nae ? — I shall lie without a bed, 
 starve on brown bread, and swarm with vermin. The villages 
 are of mud, and the towns of logs of wood : the government 
 is despotic, the police troublesome ; and the dogs bite differ- 
 ently from English dogs." 
 
 Dr. Granville's Solitoquy. 
 
 We landed at Hamburg at eight o'clock on a 
 beautiful morning in June, 1836, after a passage 
 of 52 hours from London. — Of all the ports that 
 I have ever visited, Hamburg is the most free from 
 those petty annoyances in the shape of custom 
 house officers, watermen, commissionaires, &c. 
 which ill other places assail the sea- worn traveller 
 on his landing, and almost make him wish to re- 
 turn to his uneasy berth on board, where at least 
 his person is unmolested, and his little wardrobe 
 secure from the inspection of any eyes but his own. 
 
 B 
 
2 LANDING AT HAMBURG — JOURNEY TO LUBECIC, 
 
 At Hamburg however (as the great Lablache 
 said to a frieDd of mine when speaking of Eng- 
 land) "si sente la dignita d'esser uomo" You step 
 quietly from your steamer into a boat, are rowed 
 to the wharf by a waterman (whose fare is fixed) 
 and are landed with no other interruption than 
 a question, en passant, from an officer of police, 
 relative to your name and country. — 4l quiet 
 civil porter then conveys your luggage to an 
 inn ; and you feel yourself set down in one of the 
 greatest commercial cities of Europe with hardly 
 more bustle than if you had landed from a wherry 
 at Richmond. 
 
 Our first care was to secure a carriage and horses 
 to convey us to Lubeck, a distance of only 35 
 English miles : but the road being probably the 
 worst in Europe, (at least in civilized Europe, for 
 there are worse in Russia,) the journey is seldom 
 performen i- less than 11 or 12 hours. — At one 
 o'clock we started in a comfortable caleche with 
 three horses, but hardly had we proceeded half a 
 mile when the leader turned round, and literally 
 (a feat which I had often heard of, but never 
 witnessed before) exhibited his face at the side 
 of the carriage. An alteration was now made in 
 the arrangement of the horses, the three being 
 
THUNDER STORM — GERMAN STOICISM. 3 f 
 
 harnessed abreast, and we proceeded steadily 
 enough to Schonberg, where we dined at the 
 neat little post-house. Whilst we were at din- 
 ner the sky became overcast, and the tliunder 
 began to mutter in the distance — We wished to 
 wait until the storm was over, but our driver, who 
 of course was better acquainted with the climate 
 of Holstein than we could be, seemed to think that 
 in doing so we should be acting hardly a wiser part 
 than the rustic in Horace, who waited until the 
 river had flowed past. So we "moved on ;" and so 
 did the thunder cloud, which soon opened appa- 
 rently immediately over our heads, and poured 
 forth a stream of lightning accompanied by such 
 a crash as I hardly ever remember hearing before. 
 At the same time the " windows of heaven were 
 opened" for I can find no phrase so appropriate as 
 the beautiful one of Scripture, to express the tor- 
 rent of rain which poured down, and continued to 
 pour for hours. 
 
 In the midst of this "mighty uproar" our driver 
 who had sat to be rained on for two hours almost 
 without moving, suddenly turned round, drip- 
 ping like a river-deity, and presenting his broad 
 flat good-humoured German face at the window 
 (I wish I had not forgotten the worthy fellows's 
 
^ 4 ARRIVAL AT LUBECK — EMBARK AT TRAVEMUNDE. 
 
 name), quietly observed "schiidliches wetter, herrn." 
 "bad weather, gentlemen." The remark was cer- 
 tainly common-place enough, especially to the ears 
 of Englishmen, who are said to make the state of 
 the weather the subject of conversation at least 
 once every day — but I fear a postillion of our own 
 country, or almost any other in Europe, would 
 hardly under such circustances have contented 
 himself with a simple statement of the fact. 
 
 The last six miles are very good, and the use 
 that I made of this cessation of jolting was to fall 
 asleep so soundly, that when the sentinel at the 
 gate of Lubeck stopped us to demand our names 
 and profession and a payment of two marks for 
 entering the city at night, my ideas were in a state 
 of almost hopeless confusion ; and as the very 
 small stock of German possessed by our party 
 was all vested I believe in my person, the man 
 at last, having secured his two marks, gave up 
 the other point and suffered us to proceed. We 
 were comfortably and reasonably lodged at the 
 Stadt Hamburg Hotel, and at 11 o'clock on Satur- 
 day morning we were conveyed in a small Stea- 
 mer down the river Trave to Travemunde, where 
 we embarked for St. Petersburg on board the Al- 
 exandra, Capt. Diets, of 700 tons and 140 horse 
 power. 
 
DUTCH CAPTAIN — RUSSIAN CORVETTE. 
 
 The scene on board was curious enough. — 
 There were Russians, Italians, English, French, 
 Germans and Dutch, 53 in number, and speaking 
 of them generally, I have seldom met with a more 
 agreeable party. The Captain, a Dutchman, a 
 kind good-humoured soul, did every thing in his 
 power to make us comfortable, and the weather 
 was delightful ; so that the voyage of 800 miles 
 was attended with as little inconvenience as any 
 voyage can be. Off the Isle of Rugen we stopped 
 to land the mail, and then learnt that during a 
 heavy gale of wind a few days before a poor gen- 
 tleman had died on board one of the Russian 
 Steamers, of apoplexy, I believe caused by sea- 
 sickness. 
 
 Early one morning at the entrance of the gulf of 
 Finland a Russian Corvette hove in sight, and hav- 
 ing first hoisted a signal and then fired a gun, bore 
 down upon us, and when we were within speak- 
 ing distance, hailed us and enquired whether we 
 had fallen in with the Russian Squadron, then 
 cruising in the Baltic. To this our Captain replied 
 in the affirmative, having seen them the night be- 
 fore off the island of Oesel. It seemed strange to 
 me that this hail was given and answered in Eng- 
 lish — but I was infonned, and I had good reason 
 
6 CRONSTADT — RUSSIAN CUSTOM HOUSE OFFICERS. 
 
 afterwards to know that it was true, that English 
 is as generally used in the Baltic, as Italian is in 
 the Mediterranean. — Our honest Captain knew little 
 I believe of Russian, but spoke English very well. 
 
 At 12 o'clock, on Wednesday June 29th, after 
 a passage of 92 hours from Travemund, we arrived 
 at Cronstadt, the great Dock yard and Depot of the 
 Russian Navy, as well as the station of all the 
 Merchant Ships, whose draught of water is too 
 great to permit their coming up the river to St. 
 Petersburg. — We saw there eight Russian ships of 
 the line, and several frigates, apparently very fine 
 ships. From the guardship an officer came on 
 board our steamer — his boat's crew seemed very 
 awkward and I am sure were very dirty. 
 
 And here we were introduced to the first speci- 
 men of the Russian Art of Official teasing. — 
 Officer after officer arrived, until there was hardly 
 standing room for any more ; they examined our 
 passports (some of them by the bye in reading, a 
 French or German passport, seemed to think the 
 trifling difference of whether they began at the 
 top or the bottom of the paper quite unworthy 
 their consideration) they overhauled our luggage, 
 they sealed, they tied, they wrote, they chattered, 
 whilst a very stout gentleman in a Colonel's uni- 
 
RUSSIAN STEAMER AND PILOT. 7 
 
 form with a profusion of orders, coolly seated 
 himself at the dinner table, and calling for a bottle 
 of champagne, seemed like the Gods of Epicurus 
 **securum agere aevum" without troubling himself 
 much about the proceedings of his inferior func- 
 tionaries. — At last this scene seemed drawing 
 to a conclusion — every passport had been ex- 
 amined and every article of luggage tied and 
 " plombe " and at length we and our effects were 
 handed over the side into a small Russian steamer, 
 which possessed, we were told, the peculiar pro- 
 perty of moving only a head ; the part of the 
 machinery which enables the vessel to back water 
 on occasion, having been unfortunately overlooked 
 in building her. 
 
 At the helm of this scientifically constructed 
 craft sat a creature who might have been taken 
 for " that grim ferryman whom poets write of." — A 
 spare, grizzled, grim, stooping animal, shrouded 
 in a long dirty tunic, with a band of tow tied round 
 its otherwise unprotected head, and a cord of the 
 same material round its waist. Under the care of 
 this amiable being we arrived safely at the English 
 Quay at St. Petersburg, between six and seven 
 o'clock at night. 
 
 The sail up the Neva is as striking as any 
 
8 SAIL UP THE NEVA— EXAMINATION &C. 
 
 thing I have ever seen, with the exception perhaps 
 of the bay of Naples. On the right was the 
 Russian coast with its lines of dark, Arctic look- 
 ing firs, and the domes of the palace of PeterhofF 
 glittering through them, — and on the left at a 
 greater distance from our vessel the coast of 
 Finland. The deep blue of the water, and the 
 brilliancy and holiday trim of the stuccoed build- 
 ings which line its banks for a considerable dis- 
 tance would have afforded us subjects for very 
 delightful contemplation, had not our minds been 
 full of terrible stories, related to us by some of the 
 passengers on board, of the severities exercised by 
 Russian Custom house officers. One gentleman 
 we were told, I almost think he was an officer in 
 our guards, had been obliged to surrender four out 
 of six pair of trowsers, and, so the story went, to 
 be content with two shirts, which the officer on 
 duty assured him were an ample provision of 
 linen for any man. 
 
 I had a few books too, for which, placing implicit 
 faith in the account which Mr. Barrow gives of 
 his own difficulties, I was under very serious ap- 
 prehensions. But candour compels me to say 
 that none of my anticipations were verified. — 
 We were detained indeed a long time on board 
 
BOOKS EXAMINED BY THE CENSOR. 9 
 
 the steamer, why, I never could exactly under- 
 stand, and one gentleman, an Englishman, who had 
 escaped from the vessel and coolly placed hmiself 
 and his effects in a Drosky, was hauled out of 
 his vehicle very unceremoniously hy a man in 
 green uniform : hut this after all perhaps was no 
 more than he deserved. 
 
 The Russian Custom house officers were very 
 slow and very formal, but civil and goodnatured. 
 All our luggage was strictly examined, but I saw 
 no disposition to limit the extent of our wardrobe: 
 and with regard to our books, they were sealed up 
 and delivered to us, with an understanding that we 
 must not open them until they had been examined 
 by the Censor ; which examination by the bye 
 two days afterwards occupied just a minute and 
 half, and all our books were restored to us, al- 
 though some of them were the works of Travellers, 
 whose names I should suppose must be well 
 known to Russian literary men, as speaking in no 
 very complimentary terms of their government 
 and institutions. — I must indeed do the Russian 
 government the justice to say that as far as I ob- 
 served, or could ascertain from enquiry among 
 the resident English, hardly any books are pro- 
 hibited, if known to be for private use. 
 
10 EXGLEHARDT's — HOTEL DE PARIS. 
 
 And now we sallied forth into the streets of St. 
 Petersburg with " the world all before us" and a 
 cart containing our luggage following in the rear. 
 We had heardof a Hotel, kept by one Engelhardt 
 a German, and by dint of repeating his name to 
 almost every passenger we met, we succeeded in' 
 finding him out ; and having explained to him, as 
 well as I could, in my indifferent German, that we 
 wanted lodgings, he contrived to make me under- 
 stand that he never let them for less than a week 
 certain, and that his price for three bed rooms and 
 a sitting room was 150 roubles a week, (nearly £7.) 
 I understand German so imperfectly that I should 
 have thought this a mistake on my part, had I not 
 afterwards discovered that two English gentlemen 
 had actually paid that sum for the same apart- 
 ments. 
 
 Of course Engelhardt" s was no place for us, and 
 having found out a large house, called theHotel de 
 Paris, we established ourselves there at 80 roubles 
 a week, for three bed rooms and a sitting room ; 
 dinner being provided at 3 roubles a head, by a 
 restaurateur in the house. Except its being very 
 dirty, we had nothing to complain of in this Hotel, 
 for the people were civil, and the fare good and 
 cheap; but I tlien thought it the dirtiest house 
 
DURATION OP DAYLIGHT IN SUMMER, U 
 
 I had ever slept in, — I have since had reason to 
 alter my opinion. — The most comfortable board- 
 ing house, I believe, is kept by an Englishman, 
 (Ray,) in the English Back line : I think he only 
 charges 8 roubles a day for board and lodging, 
 and as far as I could judge, from dining one 
 day at the house, the accommodation seemed very 
 good. 
 
 Perhaps there is nothing that strikes a For- 
 eigner more, on his arrival at St. Petersburg, 
 than the silence of the streets, whilst the sun is 
 yet high above the horizon ; at first he is inclined 
 to think that the inhabitants have all gone into 
 the country, until looking at his watch he is 
 reminded that it is actually the hour at which in 
 his own land shops are usually shut and the 
 citizens retire to rest. I slept badly, or rather I 
 believe not at all, the first night after my arrival, 
 and amused myself with reading at the window a 
 very closely printed book, which I found I could 
 do without the least diflficulty. There is in fact at 
 this season of the year no night. 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 *' Instar moutis equum divina Palladis arte 
 
 ^dificant." 
 
 Virgil JEn. 2. 
 
 By Pallas' art the mountain -mass they rear. 
 
 I walked out early the next morning ( Thursday 
 June 30th,) to examine more closely the statue of" 
 Peter the Great, which we had passed hastily the 
 night before, in our transit from the English Quay 
 to our lodgings in the Molnoy Moskoi Street. 
 Some Traveller compares it to the statue of Charles 
 the First at Charing Cross, and if I recollect right, 
 seems inclined to think that our own King Charles 
 has not the worst of the comparison. I confess I 
 thought very differently. 
 
STATUE or PETER THE GREAT. 13 
 
 The statue of King Charles is no doubt very 
 correct, but is it reasonable to compare the stiff so- 
 lemn position, and formal garments of the rider, 
 with the majestic attitude and flowing Asiatic dress 
 of the Tzar ; or the managed pacing of the horse, 
 with the fiery bound of that noble steed, which 
 looks as if he would leap from his pedestal, were 
 he held by any other than the mighty hand 
 which raised a city in the wilderness ? 
 
 The statue of Peter stands in the centre of a 
 square, one side of which is formed by the Wes- 
 tern front of the Admiralty. — Another by the 
 Isaac Church, (begun by Catherine the 2nd.) now 
 encased in a frame- work of scaffolding, — and the 
 third by the senate house, and the riding school of 
 the horse-guards. In front it is open to the Neva. 
 Huge granite columns, 60 feet in length and more 
 than 5 in diameter, (intended for the Isaac Church, 
 and brought by water from the quarries at Peter- 
 lax,) lie scattered about the square. 
 
 The Pedestal on which the statue stands, is an 
 enormous block of granite, brought from Finland 
 by water, having been first rolled four miles on bra- 
 zen balls fixed in grooves. It must have been a 
 noble mass in its days of primitive simplicity, but 
 the artist has chipped and chipped it into taraeness ; 
 c 
 
14 ADMIRALTY SQUARiT. 
 
 and I could not help thinking it scarcely a fitting 
 support for the '' horse and liis rider/" whose ma- 
 jestic bearing deserved a mountain of granite, if 
 one could have been torn from its roots and 
 brought to the spot. On one side in gilt letters 
 is an inscription in the Russian language, which 
 is translated into Latin on the other, 
 PETRO PRIMO 
 CATHARINA SECUNDA, 
 1782. 
 The statue was cast by Falconnet, a Frenchman, 
 and the block of granite, weighing it is said 1500 
 tons, brought from Finland, imder his direction. 
 
 The position of the right hand I thought par- 
 ticularly fine, although Coxe (I believe) considers 
 it too stiff. — To me it seemed beautifully to ex- 
 press the air of dignified but paternal authority 
 which the founder of St. Petersburg might be 
 supposed t.o assume when looking down on his 
 infant city. The face of the figure is towards 
 the Neva. . ■- 
 
 The Senate Square opens into another, of which 
 the principal front of the Admiralty and the winter 
 palace form one side — and opposite to tliem is the 
 Etat Major, in the form of a crescent. The extent 
 of this square surprizes at first, but there is an 
 
Alexander's column. 15 
 
 unfinished air about it which very much dimin- 
 ishes its effect ; still, the long facade of the Amir- 
 alty with its gilt spire rising in the middle, the 
 Etat Major and its arch adorned with military 
 trophies, and above all the column erected in honor 
 of the late Emperor Alexander, form a coup d'ceil 
 hardly to be equalled perhaps in any city in Europe. 
 
 A strange story is told concerning this column. 
 The superintendant of the Finland granite quarries 
 had received orders to find if possible a block of 
 granite which might be formed into a column of 
 about 150 English feet, (its present height.) He 
 found one some feet longer, but the bond expres- 
 sed only the "pound of flesh" so he sawed off the 
 superfluous feet, and sent the remainder to St. 
 Petersburg. The Eussians indeed seem most fully 
 to understand and practise passive unreasoning 
 obedience. This quality they say makes them 
 good soldiers, — perhaps it may. 
 
 The column is fine ; but I thought that the 
 winged figure bearing a cross gave a top-heavy 
 appearance to the whole structure. I should 
 think the statues on the pillars of Trajan and 
 Antoninus at Rome must be much smaller ; at least 
 I do not remember that they struck me as dispro- 
 portionate to the height of the column. An un- 
 
15 STREETS — NEVSKY PROSPEKT. 
 
 pleasant appearance is also produced by the cement, 
 which has run from the capital a considerable way 
 down the shaft. 
 
 Out of the Admiralty Square run three streets, 
 called prospekts, or perspectives, I suppose be- 
 cause each street has a view of the Admiralty spire. 
 Of these the Nevsky Prospekt is the largest. It 
 reaches more than two miles to the convent of 
 St. Alexander Nevsky, and is twice as broad 
 as Regent Street, which it very much resembles, 
 except that it has trees on each side. The shops 
 are shewy on the outside, most of them having 
 large painted signs, with inscriptions in Russian, 
 French and German, and sometimes in English. 
 This street and some others are paved with octago- 
 nal logs of wood, made tolerably sharp at one end 
 and driven with force into the ground, so as to 
 form when wedged closely together a solid pave- 
 ment, very smooth, and very agreeable for those 
 who in driving over the rough pavement of the 
 other streets, have been bruised by the jolting of 
 their carriage, and deafened by the noise of the 
 wheels. 
 
 The Russian Drosky is at best but an uncom- 
 fortable carriage, being little more than a beam of 
 wood covered with a cushion and placed lengtli- 
 
BROSKIES. 17 
 
 wise on springs, with four low wheels. On this 
 beam you mount astride, your legs being in some 
 degree protected from the mud by leathern guards 
 placed on each side. If you are the only pas- 
 senger you do pretty well, but if in a spirit of 
 rigid economy, you invite a friend to share your 
 seat, the situation of both is very unenviable ; for 
 at every jolt more violent than ordinary, your 
 friend who sits sideways before you, is thrown 
 back into your lap, while the Driver, " liquidis 
 perfusus odoribus " generally i-eclines in the arms 
 of your companion. The Drosky however is a 
 cheap conveyance, and makes good way if you 
 get a tolerable horse. In private Droskies there is 
 generally a second horse, which is taught to 
 curvet and rub its knee with its nose, an accom- 
 plishment hardly worth, I should think, the trou- 
 ble it must cost to learn it. 
 
 It speaks well for the English character at S. 
 Petersburg, that the Drosky drivers will always al- 
 low an Englishman to enter a house, and wait for 
 their fare until his return, whereas, from one of 
 their own countrymen, they require payment be- 
 fore they permit him to leave the carriage, for they 
 say it is more than probable that otherwise he will 
 evade the payment of his fare by escaping at the 
 
iS 
 
 GREAT BAZAAR. 
 
 back of the house. Of this confidence in the 
 English, I have myself had repeated proofs : the 
 other part of the story rests on the veracity of one 
 of the most respectable English merchants at St. 
 Petersburg. 
 
 Most people of fashion drive four horses, the 
 leaders being managed by an urchin of twelve or 
 fourteen years old, who sits on the off horse. 
 The traces are preposterously long, and the high- 
 er the rank of the owner, the longer we were told 
 were the traces. The best part of the *' turn out " 
 is the coachman, in his long beard, blue caftan, 
 and low hat, with its broadband and silver buckle. 
 None but snaffle bits seem to be in use. 
 
 For a very neat carriage and pair we paid I o 
 roubles a day, with a trifling "drink money" to the 
 coachman, and 5 roubles a day to the valet de place. 
 
 We drove this morning to one of the Ba- 
 zaars, (Gostennoi Dvor, or great bazaar,) a huge 
 building in the form of a triangle, a little way out 
 of the Nevsky Prospekt. The shops are mere cells, 
 at the door of each of which the owner stands, and 
 as you pass invites you to enter, like the "barkers'' 
 at the Jew Old Clothes shops in London. These 
 shops are guarded in a singular way at night, 
 a dog (and a fierce looking fellow he generally is) 
 
CHURCH OF OUR LADY OP CASAN. 19 
 
 parades in front of each row of shops, being 
 chained to a ring which travels along a line 
 stretched from one end of the row to the other : 
 some people also seal up their property, for it is 
 said a Russian will generally respect a seal, al- 
 though he is not always very scrupulous about 
 breaking a lock. At the corners of the streets 
 stand policemen, old weather beaten veterans arm- 
 ed with pole axes. 
 
 Returning from the Bazaar, we visited the 
 Casan church, which stands on the left hand side 
 of the Nevsky Prospekt as you go towards the Ad- 
 miralty. The effect of the colonnade which springs 
 from each side of the church, and forms a semicir- 
 cle, is very good. The pillars are of the Corinth- 
 ian order. The front of the church is adorned 
 with four colossal figures of saints, standing in 
 niches. I thought the Dome which rises on the 
 roof, small in proportion to the building, as com- 
 pared with St. Peter's at Rome, or our own St. 
 Paul's. 
 
 I do not know that any thing at this church 
 pleased me more than the beautiful basso relievo 
 representations of scripture subjects on the bronze 
 doors: and my surprize, I believe, if not my 
 pleasure, was shared by an English sailor, who 
 
20 CONVENT OF ALEXANDER NEVSKY. 
 
 stood gazing on the beautiful sculpture with much 
 the same sort of half contemptuous, half puzzled 
 face, with which the Jack Tar of the story is said 
 to have contemplated the astounding inscription, 
 which informed him, that in spite of the illumina- 
 tions and rejoicings around him John Bull had 
 after all been " concord " by the French. 
 
 On the inside the roof is supported by granite 
 columns witb brass bases and capitals. Here is 
 the tomb of Kutusoff, and the baton ol Marshal 
 Davoust, in a glass case, with a profusion of Turk- 
 ish, Polish, and French standards and keys of 
 captured fortresses. The dome is said to be 360 
 feet in height, but I believe it is much less. 
 
 From this church, returning, " sur nos pas " we 
 drove to the convent of Alexander Nevsky. The 
 cloisters are very large, but as we could not gain 
 admittance into the convent itself, there was little 
 worth seeing, except the cemetry, which is curious 
 from the multitude of monuments, all adorned 
 with brass or gilding, (how different from the 
 pretty and simple burying grounds in the environs 
 of Copenhagen, with their beds of flowers and 
 neat tombs,) and (in the church) the sarcophagus 
 of Alexander Nevsky, of solid silver, said to weigh 
 3600 poimds. 
 
MIRACIE. 21 
 
 The hero, whose mortal remains are thus mag- 
 nificently " enhearsed," reigned over Kussia from 
 the year 1252 to 1264. A victory, obtained on 
 the banks of the Neva over the Danes, procured 
 for him the surname of Nevsky, (the Conqueror.) 
 He also carried on a successful war against the 
 Swedes. When his corpse lay in its open coffin, 
 and the commendatory writing which the Greek 
 church places in the grasp of the departed, was 
 held out by the priest, it is said that the dead hand 
 opened to receive it. The reputation acquired by 
 this and other miracles has given him a high rank 
 in the calendar of the Greek church. 
 
 In the cloisters of the Convent we saw several 
 monks, dressed in long black robes, with flowing 
 hair and beards. 
 
CHAPITER III. 
 
 *' O, that men should put an enemy in their mouths, to 
 steal away their brains ! that we should with joy, revel, and 
 applause, transform ourselves into beasts." 
 
 SHAKSrEARE. — OtHELLO. 
 
 Friday, July 1st. We obtained our "permits of 
 residence," for which, being gentlemen (called No- 
 bles here) we paid nothing, whilst an unfortunate 
 German who travelled under the inauspicious de- 
 signation of " merchant" was actually compelled 
 to pay ten roubles ; I suppose for a licence to ex- 
 ercise his trade in St. Petersburg. 
 
 We then visited the Winter palace, which ad- 
 joins the Admiralty. The extent of this palace is 
 prodigious, and many of its rooms are furnished 
 with great magnificence. The most remarkable is 
 St George's Hall, the roof of which is supported 
 
WINTER PALACE— DRUNKENNESS &C. 23 
 
 by 40 fluted Corinthian columns with gilded ca- 
 pitals. The Room is hung with crimson paper, 
 studded with gilt eagles. In this hall the Empe- 
 ror receives foreign ambassadors. 
 
 In the jewel room we saw the imperial crown 
 composed of brilliants, with rows of pearls, which 
 injure the effect of the diamonds. The crowns of 
 the Empress and late Empress mother are also com- 
 posed of the same precious materials, and on the 
 top of the sceptre is the largest diamond in the 
 world, weighing 194 carats and as big as a pigeon's 
 egg. There are also necklaces and other orna- 
 ments of diamonds, sapphires and rubies, of im- 
 mense value. 
 
 Saturday, July 2. To day is a fete and "uni- 
 versal Russia getteth drunk." It is really no exag- 
 geration to say that out of every ten serfs we have 
 seen to da,y nine have been drunk. The Russian 
 peasant is no soaker like the Swede or Norwegi- 
 an ; for days together he will abstain from spirits, 
 but it appeared to me that on certain solemn occa- 
 sions every man proceeds in a systematic and 
 business like manner to deprive himself of his 
 senses. 
 
 We have no bad opportunity of observing this, 
 as immediately under our windows is a shop, 
 
24 APPEARANCE OF THE RUSSIA]?? PEASANT. 
 
 where the fiery liquor which they distil from com 
 is sold. Our London abominations the gin-shops, 
 are more magnificent, and are probably more 
 frequented on ordinary days, but I doubt much, 
 whether any district of I^ondon can make such a 
 display of beastly intoxication as we saw at least 
 once a week in the Molnoy Moskoi Street at St. 
 Petersburg. 
 
 Y et drunk as most of them are at least once in 
 seven days, and dirty as they all are every day in 
 the week, there is something picturesque in the 
 appearance and bearing of a Eussian peasant. His 
 rough shaggy beard, and hair long in front and 
 clipped close at the back of the head, the wild 
 glancing of his eye, generally of a light grey, his 
 jerkin of pink cotton, over which in wet weather 
 he wears a shuhe, or great coat of sheep skin with 
 the wool inside, his bare neck, his very boots, 
 present a picture so un-European, I had almost 
 said so unearthly, that I have gazed on them for 
 hours, with the feeling which Macbeth experienced 
 at sight of the witches 
 
 " so wild in their attire 
 
 That look not like th' inhabitants of earth, 
 
 And yet are on't." 
 
 Degraded as he is, the Russian serf is a good 
 
THE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE. 25 
 
 tempered, and an ingenious fellow. In all the 
 scenes of drunkenness that I have witnessed, I 
 never saw a quarrel : and as a proof of their do- 
 cility, I was assured by an officer of high rank in 
 the Imperial guard, that men are selected in the 
 most arbitrary manner to fill the situations of mu- 
 sicians, or army tailors ; but that no difficulty is 
 ever experienced, as the Russian could "turn his 
 hand to any thing." 
 
 I am no politician, and if I were, a residence of 
 a month in Russia would give me no right to can- 
 vass the merits of institutions which I could not 
 by possibility have examined, but I could not 
 help comparing the condition of these men with 
 that of the French peasantry, before the revolution. 
 Jacques Bonhomme was apparently a thought- 
 less, ignorant, good-humoured fellow, who cared 
 little for any thing in the world but " his lass, 
 his fiddle, and his frisk," — yet he swept away the 
 throne and the altar together, in a deluge of blood. 
 God grant that when the " lion is unchained " in 
 Russia, a similar tragedy may not be enacted. 
 
 I had always thought that the Russian language 
 must be something like the Welsh, harsh, guttu- 
 ral, almost unpronounceable: what difficulties a 
 foreigner may have to encounter in learning it, 
 
26 ENGLISH CHURCH. 
 
 I have no means of knowing, but of all the lan- 
 guages I have ever heard, not excepting even the 
 Italian, it appeared to me the most soft and musi- 
 cal; It even seemed that the happy intermixture 
 of consonants, without impairing its sweetness, 
 prevented that mawkishness which the invariable 
 termination of every Italian word in a vowel, now 
 and then produces. I speak of course only of the 
 sound. Whether the language is expressive or 
 not, I had no opportunity of judging. 
 
 Sunday, July 3rd. Went to the English church, 
 and heard two good sermons well delivered by the 
 Eev. E. Law, the chaplain. The Psalms for the 
 21st day of the month were read, the old style 
 (which is twelve days later than the new) being used 
 here by every body. We were also startled for a 
 moment at hearing the minister, after the ejacu- 
 lation " Lord save the King," add, " and his 
 imperial Majesty." 
 
 The church was thinly attended, especially in 
 the afternoon. I hope and believe the attendance 
 is fuller in winter, when the merchants who are 
 now at their country houses, have returned to 
 St. Petersburg. The English church is capable 
 of containing 600 people. It is very neatly orna- 
 mented with Corinthian pilasters of yellow sea- 
 
HERMITAGE PALACE. %7 
 
 gliola. There is also a handsome altar piece (the 
 descent from the cross,) and a neat pulpit and 
 desk of carved fir, unpainted. The organ is good. 
 
 Monday, July 4th. I spent some hours very 
 delightfully in the picture gallery of the Hermit- 
 age palace. There is a superb collection of Paul 
 Potters, Gerard Dows, Scheniders, &c ; besides 
 Rubenss, Vandykes, and Murillos ; but my pre- 
 vailing feeling was one of deep regret, that a large 
 portion of this fine collection should have been 
 permitted, by tlie niggard economy of our govern- 
 ment, to leave England, and adorn the palace of 
 the'* fur-clad Buss." 
 
 If I must ioWow the example of other travellers, 
 and rave about some particular picture, I would 
 say that the " prodigal Son " of Salvator Kosa 
 excels any other work of that master that I have 
 ever seen. As you look on the squalid kneeling 
 figure, kneeling amidst ** the husks that the swine 
 did eat," you almost expect to hear from the open 
 lips the words of penitence, " I will arise, and 
 go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, 
 I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and 
 am no more worthy to be called thy Son." 
 
 Tuesday, July 5th. We visited the Taurida 
 Palace, which has little worth seeing except the 
 
28 CHURCH OF THE SMOLNOI CONVENT. 
 
 conservatory, an enonnous glazed building, laid 
 out in flower beds and walks. 
 
 It was in this palace, I think, that an English 
 acquaintance of ours asked his Cicerone the sub- 
 ject of one of the pictures, — "It is Adam and 
 Eve in the garden of Eden," said the man of uni- 
 versal knowledge. On examining the inscription, 
 however, which happened to be in Latin, my 
 friend found that the [picture represented Venus 
 and Adonis. 
 
 The church of the Smolnoi Convent, is very 
 chaste and neat. The rails of the high altar are 
 made of glass, which has a beautiful effect. There 
 is also a handsome pulpit, and some good modern 
 paintings, among which is a copy of " Eaphael's 
 Transfiguration." 
 
 The quantity of solid silver as well as of gilding 
 employed in the churches almost surpasses belief. 
 All the pictures (the Greek church does not allow 
 images) have gilt glories round the heads of the 
 figures, and generally robes of gold and silver 
 plate nailed on the canvass. The effect, as may be 
 supposed, is most splendidly frightful. 
 
 The high altar in all the churches is concealed 
 by folding doors, which are opened when the 
 Priest comes forth with the Host in his hands. 
 
MILITARY CHURCH. 29 
 
 No women are permitted to enter the room in 
 which the altar is placed, nor is any layman allow- 
 ed to stand on the carpet in front of it. 
 
 There is another church, which we visited, 
 somewhere in this region, belonging I think to a 
 regiment of the Imperial guard. It is surround- 
 ed by cannon, (taken from the Turks in the last 
 war,) placed upright and fastened together by 
 strong chains, so as to form a ballustrade. The 
 keys of the Turkish fortresses are hung up in 
 the church. Such ornaments were appropriate 
 enough for a temple of Mars in the days of hea- 
 thenism ; but surely they are misplaced in a build- 
 ing dedicated to the service of him, at whose birth 
 " peace on earth, and good will towards man " 
 were proclaimed from heaven, and who himself 
 pronounced on the peace-makers the blessing of 
 being called " the children of God." 
 
 But every thing is military in Russia : even 
 ladies, I hear, have military rank at court, and 
 quiet civilians who never drew a sword in their 
 lives, are styled colonels, and major-generals. 
 
 On our return we visited the exchange on the 
 island of Vassilly OstrofF, a fine building erected 
 during the late reign. A peristyle of forty-four 
 Doric cloumns forms a piazza around it, and a 
 
30 EXCHANGE — KAMMENOY OSTROFF. 
 
 flight of steps in front and another at the back 
 lead to the principal entrances, by which you pass 
 into a hall 126 feet long, and 66 feet wide, adorned 
 with tile bust of the late Emperor, and other 
 sculpture. In front are two rostral columns, of 
 brick stuccoed, and ornamented with bronze stat- 
 ues at the bases, and beaks of ships along the 
 shafts. A handsome granite quay terminates the 
 space in front of the exchange, and the rest of the 
 island is laid out in walks, filled with myriads of 
 parrots and larks in cages. The latter are brought 
 from Lubeck ; and are said to be sold at the rate 
 of five roubles a head. The exchange was much 
 crowded when we visited it. Large magazines for 
 the reception of goods stand on each side. 
 
 It will hardly be believed that in a nation pro- 
 fessing to be commercial, the post-office is closed 
 every day at two o'clock, and so are most of the 
 public buildings ; so that after that hour the curi- 
 osity hunter, may if he pleases, like " the man 
 who has gotten a good name," "go to bed." 
 
 In the evening we drove to Kammenoy Ostroff, 
 or "the Islands," as it is generally called,the Hyde 
 Park of St. Petersburg. There are some pretty 
 country houses, built of wood very neatly painted, 
 with gardens in front laid out in the Dutch taste. 
 
DREARINESS OP THE COUNTRY. 31 
 
 But the bleakness of the surrounding country, 
 and the want of any trees except the fir, the birch, 
 the willow, and now and then a decfepid oak, with 
 a melancholy misanthropic twist of the trunk, as 
 if he was tired of the world and its storms, gives a 
 wintry appearance to the whole scene, which re- 
 minds one of the flowers hung on the cold walls of 
 Catherine's palace of ice. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ** He had a routh o' auld nick nackets, 
 
 Rusty aim caps, an jinglin jackets, 
 
 Would hold the Loudons' three in tackets 
 
 A towmond gude : 
 
 And parritch pots, and auld saut backets. 
 
 Afore the flude." 
 
 Burns. 
 
 Wednesday, July 6. Visited the Old and New 
 Arsenals, which stand opposite each other near the 
 Neva. The latter was erected in the reign of Al- 
 exander. On entering it you see an enormous 
 eagle, with piles of military trophies on each side, 
 and heaps of cannon balls, and bundles of weapons. 
 They told us that seventy thousand stand of arms, 
 were deposited in the two galleries which run 
 through the building. 
 
 In the Old Arsenal there are some curious spe- 
 cimens of ancient cannon and armour ; figures as 
 large as life of warriors of different countries ; the 
 
Arsenals. 33 
 
 ttavellitig gig of Peter the Great, with an index 
 attached behind, by which he ascertained the num- 
 ber of versts travelled over ; Catherine's military 
 horse ; and a curious stool which once belonged 
 to a distinguished robber : he used to sit on it sur- 
 rounded by pistols, with a huge bludgeon in his 
 hand, and levy contributions from Travellers ; an 
 improvement on the plan of the mendicant thief 
 in Gil Bias, who does not seem to have understood 
 this luxurious mode of highway robbery. They 
 shew also the military wardrobe of most of the 
 Russian Emperors. 
 
 In the foundry we saw them boring cannon. 
 One carronnade was said to be a 120 pounder. 
 
 The tapestry manufactory is hardly worth a vi- 
 sit to those who have seen the Gobelins at Paris. 
 There was in it however a good copy of the por- 
 trait of Catherine the 2nd, in the Hermitage 
 Palace. 
 
 On our return we observed an universal bustle, 
 and looking up to one of the towers which are 
 erected in each district of the city, we saw men 
 running about and performing as it seemed, sun- 
 dry juggling feats with balls for the amusement of 
 the spectators. On enquiring however we found 
 that what at first appeared to us so puzzling and 
 
34 ROAD TO TSARSKO-SELO. 
 
 SO grotesque, was the Russian mode of telegraph- 
 ing in what part of the city a fire had taken place. 
 A flag was hoisted on each of the towers, but the 
 play of balls was confined to the quarter in which 
 the fire was raging and was intended I believe to 
 give directions to the firemen . The whole arrange- 
 ment seemed good and judicious. How the en- 
 gines were managed, and what became of the fire, 
 I had not then any opportunity of ascertaining. 
 
 Thursday, July 7th. To-day we hired a car- 
 riage and four horses, and drove to Tsarsko-Selo, 
 an imperial palace twenty-four versts from St. 
 Petersburg. The horses were harnessed four 
 abreast and driven with great skill ; and the road 
 being excellent we performed the journey (about 
 sixteen English miles) in an hour and three quar- 
 ters. 
 
 For the first two or three versts the road is 
 lined with wooden country houses, with their 
 pretty gardens and little ponds in front, and some 
 times a conservatory attached to the house. In 
 this ungenial climate even the commonest fruits 
 require the assistance of glass to ripen them : and 
 perhaps the tolal want of orchards and fruit gardens 
 is one of the most melancholy peculiarities in the 
 appearance of the country round St. Petersburg. 
 
TELEGAS. 35 
 
 On each side of the road is a row of lime trees 
 supported by stakes painted green. 
 
 The road is very wide, but the comfort of tra- 
 velling is much diminished by the constant ob- 
 struction caused by the long strings of telegas or 
 country carts. The arrangement I believe is that 
 every seventh or eighth driver shall remain awake 
 if he can, in order to direct the movements of the 
 whole string, but it happened, and that very often, 
 that the sentinel was as soundly asleep as his com- 
 panions, and then their only security was in the 
 sagacity of the horses. 
 
 I have really shuddered, more than once, at 
 seeing the wheels of some of these telegas within 
 three inches of the brink of a ditch, a fall into 
 which would probably have been attended with 
 suffocation ; yet the patient sagacious animal al- 
 ways seemed to have measured his distance ; for of 
 the many carts that I saw in this jeopardy, not 
 one was actually overturned. 
 
 The telega, or cart of the peasants in this part 
 of Russia, is composed entirely of wood, without, 
 as I was informed, a single iron nail or bolt being 
 used in its construction. The sides are of open 
 work, something like the crates in which we pack 
 glass ; and the wheels are secured from coming off 
 
36 RUSSIAN MANNER OF DRIVING. 
 
 by a wooden bar which passes from the extremity 
 of the axle-tree to the body of the cart. In this 
 vehicle, the driver, and passengers if he has any, 
 generally recline on a bundle of hay. 
 
 There is another carriage, called a kibitka, used 
 entirely for passengers, not differing very mate^ 
 rially from the telega, except that it has a head of 
 oiled or painted cloth, and is generally, I believe, 
 made with close instead of open sides. Perhaps 
 a gigantic cradle, placed on wheels and furnished 
 with shafts, would convey the best idea of what a 
 kibitka is. 
 
 Our own carriage had a long bar lashed in front 
 to the ordinary splinter bar, and projecting a foot 
 and a half or two feet beyond it on each side ; 
 and to this bar the traces of the additional horses 
 were fastened. The reins are very slight, and 
 arranged in a manner that would certainly puzzle 
 an English stage coachman; yet the Russian 
 drives with a fearlessness as well as accuracy, 
 which many of our most celebrated whips might 
 envy. 
 
 "On this road" says Captain Jones, we have. a 
 strong instance of what despotic power can at- 
 tempt. Catharine, when becoming infirm, visited 
 this palace ^ good deal, contrary to the wish of 
 
PALACE OF TSARSKO-SELO. 37 
 
 her physicians, who at length took the liberty of 
 hinting, that the distance " twenty-five versts, was 
 too great :" "oh very well " she replied " let it he 
 only twenty-two ;" and the distance was accord- 
 ingly registered and marked as only twenty-two, 
 and therefore they are the longest in the Empire. 
 
 The immediate neighbourhood of the palace of 
 Tsarsko-Selo may be called pretty, when compared 
 with all that we have hitherto seen : the grounds 
 of the palace, as well as those belonging to the 
 neighbouring palace of Pavlosk are laid out in 
 good taste ; and the front view of the building is 
 very imposing, but I think not equal to the Cha- 
 teau of Versailles. Granville says, "the elevation 
 is twelve-hundred feet in length, and that every 
 statue, pedestal, and capital of the columns and 
 every ornament in front was gilt with leaf gold on 
 oil during the reign of Elizabeth." The gilding 
 has long since been all removed except on the 
 five domes of the chapel, and the walls are now 
 painted green, and the capitals of the pillars 
 yellow. 
 
 An arched road, constructed by Potemkin for 
 the accommodation of Catherine, leads to the win- 
 dows of the middle story ; and what is most extra- 
 ordinary this road was completed (according to 
 Capt. Jones) in two days. 
 
38 CHAPEL — LAKE. 
 
 The chapel is very gorgeous ; the walls are azure, 
 painted, it is said on a gold ground, with a profu- 
 sion of gold ornaments : the Imperial closet is of the 
 same character. The walls of one room are com- 
 pletely encrusted with amber ; which as a curiosity 
 is worth seeing, but I thought the effect very heavy. 
 There is another, very beautifully ornamented with 
 pyramids of china. I did not observe any good 
 pictures. I ought also to mention a room the floor 
 of which is adorned with mother of pearl ; and the 
 boudoir of the Empress, which has a pretty and 
 unique arrangement, her table, chair, &c. being 
 surrounded by a railing covered with ivy. 
 
 In the grounds there is a fine artificial lake (on 
 which we saw a small cutter yacht) and a profusion 
 of temples, arches, obelisks &c. among which the 
 most grotesque, if not the most beautiful, is a Chi- 
 nese temple, and a bridge with two Chinese figures 
 sitting, like great lubberly school boys, on the para- 
 pets. There is also a pretty toy in the shape of a 
 miniature fortress, where we saw a soldier seated on 
 a wooden horse, and a young student drawing his 
 portrait. On the top of this fortress there is an 
 observatory, from which we saw St. Petersburg, 
 Peterhoff, Cronstadt, &c. The appearance of the 
 country with the exception of the Tsarsko Selo and 
 
ATTEMPT ON THE LIFE OF THE GRAND DUKE. 39 
 
 Pavlosk grounds, is as dreary as can be imagined. 
 
 The present Emperor and Empress, when at 
 Tsarsko Selo reside in th« small palace of Alexan- 
 drosky, where we were shewn models in glass 
 cases of the different sorts of cavalry soldiers, and 
 the Emperor's bed room, with his razors, brushes 
 and combs. 
 
 The farm is very pretty, particularly the cow 
 house, which is floored with polished wood, and 
 cleaner than any habitation for human beings that I 
 have yet seen in Kussia. 
 
 It was in the gardens of Tsarsko Selo, that the 
 young Alexander, the eldest son of the Emperor, 
 was riding with his tutor, when a ball from an air 
 gun struck his stirrup and boot, but without 
 doing him any serious injury. The perpetrator of 
 this crime was never discovered, but suspicion fell 
 as usual upon the Poles. Under any possible 
 circumstances one must detest the character of an 
 assassin, bnt of all assassins surely he is the most 
 odious who could seek to revenge the injuries re- 
 ceived at the hands of the Father, on a mild 
 innocent boy, whose gentle demeanour renders 
 him universally beloved. 
 
 It is however a melancholy consideration that 
 since the days of Peter the Great, few of the male 
 
40 VIOLENT DEATH OF FOUR EMPERORS. 
 
 Russian monarchs have found unbloody graves, 
 Ivan vi. Peter the iii. Paul and the late Emperor 
 Alexander, all fell victims to the ambition or the 
 vengeance of their families or their subjects. The 
 present Emperor has more than once narrowly 
 escaped the same fate. 
 
 I should like to have visited the palace of Pav- 
 losk, but so much of the day had been consumed 
 in strolling about the grounds of Tsarsko Selo, 
 that we had neither time norinclinalion to proceed 
 farther. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ■■ ' ' ■ Whence have they this mettle ? 
 
 Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull ? 
 On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale. 
 Killing their fruit with frowns ? 
 
 King Henry v. Act iii. 
 
 Priday, July 8. The imperial guard are encam- 
 ped near a village called Kra^io Selo, to which we 
 drove this morning. On our arrival we were very 
 soon surrounded by officers, who with great po- 
 liteness and kindness introduced themselves to us 
 and offered to shew us the the camp. 
 
 I feel so little interest in the "pomp, pride, and 
 circumstance of glorious war," which in too many 
 instances is I fear little better than licensed rob- 
 bery and murder, that I was at liberty to study 
 with very little interruption the manners and cha- 
 racter of the first specimen which I had seen of the 
 high bred Kussia gentleman. 
 
42 RUSSIAN OFFICERS. 
 
 I had gone out from England with any thing 
 rather than a prepossession in favor of the Russians; 
 nor has my visit to their country diminished 
 the disgust with which every Englishman ought 
 to regard a military despotism : but truth obliges 
 me to say that 1 have never, in any country, met 
 with more polished or more amiable individuals 
 than these officers. 
 
 One of them I should suppose, from the slight 
 opportunity of judging which half an hour's con- 
 versation afforded, was a man of considerable 
 talent, and some general reading. The terse epi- 
 grammatic style of his language, bordering perhaps 
 on pedantry, (but it was the pedantry of a well 
 bred man,) seemed to indicate a mind that had 
 thought much, and would have thought well if it 
 had been judiciously directed, I met this gentle- 
 man again at St. Petersburg, and received from 
 him some very useful hints for my guidance 
 during the journey which we propose to take to 
 Moscow. 
 
 The other officers were good-natured, cheerful, 
 gentlemanlike young men, eager to shew us every 
 thing, and to explain whatever required explana- 
 tion. One of them anxiously enquired what I 
 thought of the proportion which their artillery 
 
AWKWARD QUESTION. 43 
 
 bore to their infantry and cavalry. Now if he 
 had told me that there was an artillery gun to 
 every twenty men, I might have stared a little, 
 but I really could not, from personal knowledge, 
 have ventured to gainsay the truth of what he said. 
 Feeling the " smallness " of being a non-military 
 man in Russia, I was silly enough to try to evade 
 the question ; but my friend would not be thus 
 baffled : he put it in still plainer terms, so that I 
 was at last fain to confess that I was no military 
 man, that consequently I had the misfortune to 
 be totally ignorant of those matters, but that there 
 was an English officer present who would, I was 
 sure, be delighted to give his opinion. 
 
 He was too well-bred to turn away from me 
 abruptly, but he soon found a convenient excuse 
 for quitting my side, and I saw no more of him. 
 
 The great anxiety of those of the educated class 
 whom we have met in Russia, seems to be to know 
 what was thought of them in England. "We are 
 a people," said one of them to me, *' little known, 
 and grievously mis-represented." How far the 
 latter of these propositions is true, I have no right 
 to determine ; but there is enough in Russia to in- 
 spire at least a superficial observer with feelings 
 not very favourable to the Russians as a nation. 
 
44 SOLDIERS AT DINNER. 
 
 however much he may be pleased with a few indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 The soldiers were just going to dinner when 
 we arrived at the camp : we tasted their food which 
 consisted of fish soup, and a dish composed of 
 buck wheat and oil, by no means disagreeable to 
 the taste : but when, foolishly arguing that if 
 their food was so good, their drink could not be 
 bad, I ventured to take a draught from a huge 
 mug full of quass, the national drink, I thought 
 for a moment that I was poisoned. The discom- 
 fiture of Falstaff, when he found that there was 
 " lime in the sack," could not have been greater 
 than mine, when I tasted the composition of 
 water, fermented flour, and liquorice, which my 
 kind friends presented to me. 
 
 Most men are jealous on the subject of national 
 meats and liquors, and gladly would I have spared 
 the feelings of the Russian officers, and endured 
 my own in silence : but a wry face, which I could 
 not control, told the tale too plainly, and I was 
 constrained to confess that I did not find quass 
 quite as agreable a liquor as I had expected. 
 
 The most interesting portion of the army, I 
 thought, was a troop of Circassian cavalry, con- 
 sisting of 250 young men, the sons of Circassian 
 chiefs, who reside at the imperial court as hostages 
 
CIRCASSIAN GUARD. 45 
 
 for the fidelity of their countrymen. They are 
 changed every three years. The troop was quar- 
 tered on the side of a bleak hill at a considerable 
 distance from the camp; and was forbidden to 
 enter the village, as the wild Circassian blood had 
 caused the stabbing of more than one peasant, 
 whose language or gestures they had misinterpreted. 
 They are fine, active, wild looking men, com- 
 pletely cased in a shirt of linked mail, with a hood 
 of the same substance, which entirely protects 
 the head and neck. Their carbines and long dag- 
 gers were richly inlaid. It is said that they are 
 very expert in sliooting at a mark when at full 
 gallo}), but I had no opportunity of seeing their 
 performances. Their horses are handsome, but 
 none of them, I think, had more than two shoes, 
 and some no shoes at all. 
 
 We had no means of conversing with these pic- 
 turesque warriors, but they received us with 
 friendly guestures, and permitted us to look at 
 their stables. 
 
 Among the grenadiers of the guard was the tal- 
 lest man, I think, that I have ever seen, not a thin, 
 feeble youth, who has evidently outgrown his 
 strength ; as is the case with most of the giants 
 one sees ; but a muscular, broad-shouldered, deep- 
 
46 RETURN TO ST. PETERSBURG. 
 
 chested, middle aged man, with a fine bald head, 
 and a weather-beaten face, standing, I should think, 
 seven feet high, and overtopping his comrades by 
 at least a head. We saw another very tall man in 
 the hospital, but he seemed weak and sickly. 
 
 The pay of a foot soldier in the Imperial guard 
 is 10 roubles a year, out of which he is obliged 
 to keep his clothes in repair, provide buttons, ^c. 
 The military hospital we found very clean and 
 comfortable, and a vapour bath is provided for 
 the invalids : yet in spite of these precautions 
 many men fall victims to fevers contracted by ex- 
 posure to the wet in these yearly encampments. 
 
 We returned to St. Petersburg more rapidly than 
 we had anticipated or even desired, for the driver 
 of a carriage in which were four of our English 
 acquaintances, having unfortunately got drunk at 
 the village, our only plan of safety, having the 
 lead at starting, was to keep it, or he would cer- 
 tainly have run us down, as he afterwards did a 
 telega, and a file of soldiers, who were quietly 
 marching along the road. Our man displayed 
 great judgment and coolness, and contrived to 
 keep the advantage which he had gained at start- 
 ing ; the other carriage followed close behind us, 
 and we could see one of the inmates shaking his 
 
VIEW FROM THE ADMIRALTY — CLIMATE. 47 
 
 fist convulsively at their crazy charioteer. Hap- 
 pily however we all reached St. Petersburg in 
 safety. 
 
 Saturday, July 9th. We went to the glass 
 manufactory on the Schlusselburg road, and saw 
 some decanters blown. There was a vast number 
 of pier glasses in the warehouse, the prices of 
 which seemed moderate. We also visited the 
 imperial Porcelain manufactory : the painting is 
 good, but not equal to Sevres or Worcester. 
 
 On our retuni, we ascended the Admiralty spire, 
 which is gilt, and has a vane in the form of a ship 
 at its top. The bird's eye view of St. Petersburg 
 was very interesting to us, as we had had time to 
 make ourselves acquainted with most of the prin- 
 cipal buildings, and were therefore easily enabled 
 to recognize them. 
 
 I think it is of St. Petersburg that the Italian pro- 
 verb says that it has "nove mesi d' inverno, tre mesi 
 d' inferno." I hardly know under which of these 
 denominations the weather which we have exper- 
 ienced since our arrival here ought to be classed. 
 We have had scorching heat, a piercing wind, 
 rain, fog, in short every variety but frost and 
 snow ; to-day however, it is warm and bright, 
 and we have enjoyed the view from the Admir- 
 
48 CHURCH OF THE TRINITY. 
 
 alty spire. Such a summer they tell us has never 
 happened in the memory of the ^'oldest inhabi- 
 tant, " but alas ! of what place is not the same 
 thing said once in every three or four years ? 
 From its situation it seems impossible that St. 
 Petersburg can enjoy a tolerable climate. 
 
 The new church of the Trinity repaid us well 
 for the trouble of visiting it. It has five cupolas 
 of bright blue studded with gilt stars, and four 
 porticoes, each consisting of six columns of the 
 composite order ; the effect altogether is very 
 good : but the inside is disfigured by a huge brass 
 chandelier suspended from the dome. It is this 
 church that one first sees from the river, tower- 
 ing above the rest, like St. Paul's at London, and 
 St. Peter's at Rome. 
 
 The Isaac church, when finished, will it is said 
 be much more magnificent ; many of the granite 
 columns are raised, and the work we were told was 
 going on vigorously, but as we could not be ad- 
 mitted to see it without an order, which there 
 would have been some diflficulty in procuring, I 
 can say little about it. 
 
 Sunday, July 10th. Incessant rain. The Eng- 
 lish church was very thinly attended. At midnight 
 the rain still continued with unabated violence. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ** Frigida pugnabant calidis." 
 
 Ovid. Metaraorph. 1. 
 Where hot with cold in wild confusion fights. 
 
 Monday, July 11th. Still rain: about one 
 o'clock it cleared up, and we hired a boat at the 
 Isaac bridge for 80 copecks, (about 8d.) to take 
 us to the ecole des mines, or mining establishment, 
 which is about a mile further down the river. 
 
 The collection of minerals is, I am told, ex- 
 ceedingly valuable. Among other curiosities, we 
 saw a beryl, as large as a middle-sized cucumber, 
 and said to be worth 180,000 roubles, and an 
 enormous block of malachite weighing 3600 lbs. 
 some beautiful models of mines in Siberia, and 
 rich specimens of gold, silver, and other metals ; 
 a curious specimen of fossil wood, with human 
 
50 ECOLE DES MINES. 
 
 bones embedded in the centre ; beautiful swords 
 manufactured in imitation of Damascus blades, 
 with historical subjects enamelled on them. 
 
 There were also petrified loaves of bread, mo- 
 dels of steam engines, and all the machinery used 
 in mines : and a curious model in which all the 
 strata are composed of minerals found in the real 
 mine. But the great "lion" of this collection 
 is the fossil skeleton of a mammoth, very perfect 
 and of enormous size. 
 
 Underneath the building is a series of cham- 
 bers, intended to represent the mode of working a 
 mine, with its shafts, levels, &c.; but the air, we 
 were told, was very damp and chill, and as I did 
 not feel quite well, I would not run the risk of 
 descending. Dr. Granville says that there are 330 
 resident students at this establishment, 130 of 
 whom are supported by government, the others 
 pay 800 roubles a year each. The whole establish- 
 ment is on a noble scale, and is well worth the 
 trouble of a visit, even at the risk of such a wet- 
 ting as we got on our return, in rowing up the 
 river against wind and stream. 
 
 Tuesday, July 12th. Rain again. We began 
 to think that the question of the French gentle- 
 man *' Monsieur pleut il toujours ici?" and the 
 
MIKT. 51 
 
 answer of his friend " Non, Monsieur, qiielque- 
 fois il neige," not quite so hyperbolical as one had 
 been accustomed to consider them. In defiance 
 however of the rain, we went to see the mint, 
 which is in the citadel. , 
 
 A kind friend had before procured for us the ne- 
 cessary orders, and we were admitted with no more 
 delay than Russian dilatoriness always imposes. 
 
 The silver is first cast into bars, which are 
 rolled thin by iron rollers worked by a steam en- 
 gine. It is then cut to the proper size and shape 
 by means of punches, which are also worked by 
 steam. Every coin is then weighed and counted, 
 and the edges milled by machinery. They are 
 then rubbed bright with sulphuric acid and sand ; 
 after which they receive an impression, the silver 
 coins by means of a stamp worked by steam, and 
 the platina (of which only a few are struck) by a 
 hand screw ; as from the hardness of the platina 
 the force with which a stamp descends would 
 break the die : both sides are stamped at once. 
 
 We bought some silver roubles, having the 
 Alexandrine column on one side, and the Empe- 
 ror's head on the other : they were intended, I 
 believe, rather as medals than for circulation, as 
 the silver rouble is almost an imaginary coin. It 
 
52 CITADEL. 
 
 is worth 3 roubles, 75 copecks in paper, being 
 depreciated in value in comparison with the smal- 
 ler silver coins, each of which is worth exactly 
 four times as much as the value specified on it : 
 for instance, the 10 copecks' piece is worthy 40 
 copecks, and the 25 copecks' piece 100 copecks ; 
 that is to say one paper rouble. 
 
 There are also notes of 25, 10, 5 roubles, &c. 
 each class distmguished by the colour of the pa- 
 per. When we were at St. Petersburg the paper 
 rouble was worth lOfd. English. 
 
 Before we left the mint, we were required to 
 scrape our shoes very carefully, but respect, I 
 suppose, for our national character, prevented 
 their searching our pockets, as we were told they 
 generally did. 
 
 The citadel stands on a small island, which is 
 regularly fortified, but would be in the present 
 day, I am told, of little use for the defence of the 
 city. The side next the river is protected by 
 walls faced with granite, and there is a gate lead- 
 ing to the water as well as one on the land side. 
 In the centre of the enclosure stands a church 
 dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, which con- 
 tains little remarkable except the ashes of all the 
 Emperors and their families since Peter the Great. 
 
SPIRB OP THE CHURCH. 53 
 
 The "mighty dead" are deposited in stone tombs, 
 in the form of coffins, which on solemn occasions 
 are covered with a pall of cloth of gold. 
 
 The spire of this church is one of the most 
 conspicuous objects in the city. It is of no very 
 great size, but being splendidly gilt, it makes a 
 brilliant appearance on a fine sunshiny day. It 
 stands on a gilded cupola, which again rests on 
 a lofty tower, in which there is a clock, purchased 
 I believe by Peter the Great. We were very 
 anxious to compare the view from the top of this 
 tower, with that which we had seen from the Ad- 
 miralty ; and accordingly we made the attempt, 
 but no sooner had we raised our heads above 
 the trap door that opens on the leads, than 
 ** Omnia ventorum concurrere proelia vidi," 
 our cloaks were blown over our heads, crushing 
 our hats with the superincumbent weight, and 
 we were too happy to retreat into the tower, with- 
 out tempting the fury of Eurus and Notus any 
 further. 
 
 This evening I determined to try a Russian bath, 
 not I confess, without some nervous mis-givings, 
 but my comfort was, that unlike the animals who 
 went to pay their respects to the sick lion in the 
 fable, the traces of returning footsteps were as com- 
 
54 RUSSIAN BATH. 
 
 mon here as those in the contrary direction. In 
 plain words, I had never heard that any one had 
 been seriously injured by a Russian bath : and yet 
 in spite of what reason said, that there was really 
 no danger, I had worked myself up to such a pitch 
 of nervous agitation, that, like Bishop Bruno, 
 ** When the porter turn'd the key, 
 I almost expected death to see," 
 
 And the porter was not a figure calculated at 
 first sight to re-assure me. He was a grim raw 
 boned, cadaverous looking native, with a more than 
 ordinary prolixity of red beard : and I thought he 
 eyed me as if he was going to inflict the knout, 
 instead of doing the honours of the bathing house. 
 
 I was not sorry when he handed me over to one 
 of the inferior attendants, a youth of an ingenuous 
 aspect, whom I was obliged nevertheless to turn 
 out of the room '*par voie du fait" (as our old law 
 books express it,) as no pantomime that I could 
 employ, would make him understand that I did 
 not require his attendance. 
 
 The room into which he had ushered me, and 
 out of which I had thus unceremoniously ejected 
 him, was a small neat dressing room, warmed to a 
 temperature of 80^ of Fahrenheit, (which might be 
 increased or diminished at pleasure by opening the 
 
HEAT OP THE BATHING ROOM. 55 
 
 door of the bath room, or the window of the dres- 
 sing room) and furnished with a sofa, chairs &c. 
 I undressed immediately and walked into the bath 
 room, the floor of which although only at a tempe- 
 rature of 100 degrees, seemed to me insufferably hot. 
 In one corner of this room stood a large stove, 
 which reached almost to the ceiling. On the side 
 of this stove were four wooden shelves or stages, 
 one above another, each furnished with a rest for the 
 head. The temperature increases as you ascend. 
 Whether I was not fully aware of this, or whetherin 
 my agitation I had forgotten it, I do not know ; 
 but so it was, that before I had been in the room a 
 minute, I found myself on the highest shelf, from 
 which I made I believe hardly more than one step 
 to the floor, for the heat seemed at that time unen- 
 durable, even for a moment: the truth is that 
 until the perspiration is completely established, a 
 sensation of fever is felt, with burning of the head 
 and throbbing of the arteries ; but when the pores 
 are once opened, every uneasy sensation ceases, 
 and you mount from stage to stage, wishing every 
 two or three minutes for an increase of heat, until 
 at last you actually find yourself, as I did, lying 
 on the highest stage of all, at a temperature of 124* 
 without feeling the slightest inconvenience. 
 
56 MANNER OF BATHING. 
 
 On the shelves which surround the room there 
 is an array of bright brass basons ; and and on one 
 side are two brass cocks which supply cold and 
 warm water, and a pipe with a large rose, which 
 acts as a shower bath. 
 
 I went to the bath many times after this, and 
 feeling much more at my ease, I proceeded regu- 
 larly in the operation. First I mounted one of 
 the lower shelves, and after remaining there a few 
 minutes, I descended to the floor and washed the 
 whole of my body in cold water. I then lathered 
 myself from head to foot with soap, rubbing every 
 part of the body with a handful of the soft inner 
 bark of the linden tree. After a second sprinkling 
 of cold water, I mounted to the highest stage, 
 and immediately the perspiration streamed from 
 every pore in such profusion that I could hardly 
 believe I had wiped myself dry before I mounted 
 the stage. So case-hardened had I now become, 
 that I sat some minutes on the top of the stove at 
 a temperature of 132* without feeling more incon- 
 venience than I had experienced when I first enter- 
 ed the bath room. But I found afterwards that 
 I had by no means felt the highest degree of heat 
 which a Russian bath is capable of affording ; for 
 when I was in one at Moscow, our Italian valet de 
 
FEELJXGS AFTER BATHING. 57 
 
 place, suddenly entered the room, and seizing a 
 large vessel of water, dashed the contents into the 
 furnace, which is filled with hot cannon balls. 
 Unfortunately I had not then my thermometer 
 by me, but from the sensation I experienced, I 
 should think the heat for two or three seconds 
 could not have been much less than 170 degrees. 
 
 This operation, together with the scrubbing, is 
 generally performed by the " ingenuous youth " 
 whose services I had rejected when I took my first 
 bath ; but I could never overcome my repugnance 
 to being washed and lathered by any hands but 
 my own. 
 
 After lying a few minutes on the highest stage, 
 I descended gradually, and having rubbed myself 
 well with a towel, returned to the outer room and 
 dressed at my leisure. 
 
 These experiments convinced me that to a per- 
 son in health the sudden transition from heat to 
 cold is attended with no danger, provided the vi- 
 tal power be not diminished by fatigue. The cases 
 of sudden death, caused by the change from cold to 
 heat, of which one reads, are always I believe those 
 of persons, who after being exhausted by violent 
 exercise, or the heat of a tropical climate, have 
 plunged suddenly into cold water : the heart in 
 
58 TEMPERATURE OP THE BATH. 
 
 these instances has lost so much of its energy, that 
 it is unable to send back to the surface the blood 
 which the shock has determined to the nobkr 
 parts, and death of course ensues. 
 
 The heart of the Russian on the contrary ac- 
 quires unusual vigour, by the stimulating effects 
 of the heat, and he runs from the bath and rolls 
 himself in the snow, with the certainty that the 
 perspiration will be restored the moment he re- 
 turns to the bath. 
 
 The temperature of the Russian Bath is as follows, 
 
 FAHRENHEIT. 
 
 Dressing Room 80 
 
 Floor of Bath Room ..100 
 
 1 Stage 102 
 
 2 Stage 106 
 
 3 Stage 110 
 
 4 Stage 124 
 
 Top of Stove 132 
 
 After I was dressed, I wrapped myself in my 
 cloak and went to see the public baths, which are 
 under the same roof with the private one which I 
 had just quitted. On the shelves lay half a dozen 
 men and boys, each with a bundle of birch twigs 
 with the leaves on in his hand, with which, I was 
 told, they flagellate their bodies, in order to in- 
 
BATHS OF THE PEASANTS. 59 
 
 crease the flow of perspiration. The "very ancient 
 and fish-like smell" which proceeded from this 
 room, very soon forced me to retreat, without 
 examining the arrangements very minutely. 
 
 It is impossible to describe the sensation of 
 lightsomeness which I experienced on my return 
 home, — every thing appeared " couleur de rose," 
 the world and all its cares were nothing to me, 
 and I really felt (it is an absurd phrase, but I have 
 no better,) etherialized. Nor was this delightful 
 feeling followed by exhaustion, for when I awoke 
 the next morning, I felt more than usually active 
 and cheerful. 
 
 The mode of bathing adopted by the peasants 
 in the country is simple enough, — the peasant 
 creeps into the oven, from which he has just ex- 
 tracted his bread, or his mess of buck wheat, and 
 having baked himself to his heart's content creeps 
 out again. When we consider that this operation 
 is performed two or three times a week, and that 
 the ordinary temperature of a peasant's cottage 
 is from 70 to 90 degrees of Fahrenheit, we need 
 not wonder at the pale sodden appearance of al- 
 most every one that we meet. In consequence 
 however of this mode of life, rheumatism, I hear, 
 is almost unknown among them. 
 
CHAPTER Vir. 
 
 ** Now shift the pageant : let the trumpet's clang, 
 Link'd with the silver lute's melodious chime, 
 Tell that the mighty of the earth approach." 
 
 Anonymous. 
 
 Wednesday, July 13th. Henri, our valet de 
 place, appeared to-day in all the '* faded splen- 
 dour wan " of a scoured olive surtout, white trow- 
 sers, and a hat, of what, I suppose, in Russia is 
 considered the most fashionable cut, exactly like 
 those worn, according to Mrs. Trollope, by the 
 republicans in France; very high crowned, and 
 tapering to a point, like those unfledged hats 
 which one sees in a state of infancy in a manu- 
 facturer's warehouse. It was the day of the grand 
 fete at Peterhoff, and we had determined to wit- 
 ness the festivities. 
 
ROAD TO PETERHOFP. 61 
 
 Accordingly about five o'clock in the afternoon 
 we sat out for the imperial palace, which stands 
 on the southern shore of the gulf of Finland, 
 about 18 versts from St. Petersburg. The crowd 
 of carriages of every sort was very great, from 
 the aristocratic coach and four to the humble te- 
 lega : all driving and jostling, as if some dreadful 
 penalty attached to the last comer. The day was 
 very hot, and the effects of hard driving were soon 
 painfully evident, for we found no less than three 
 horses lying dead in the road. One poor fellow 
 was standing, like Sterne's peasant over his dead 
 ass, by the side of his fallen horse ; and as I look- 
 ed at his melancholy countenance, and heard the 
 plaintive tone of his voice when he addressed 
 a little crowd that had collected round him, I could 
 not help thinking that, if the faithful servant had 
 lived, his owner would cheerfully have shared with 
 him the last crust in his wallet. The Russian 
 peasant is a kind master, although either from 
 ignorance or the excitement of the moment, he 
 sometimes drives more rapidly than he ought. By 
 his side was a stern looking policeman, who was 
 urging him, our servant said, to remove his horse 
 out of the road. 
 
 Before the gates of the palace stood a crowd of 
 
 G 
 
62 DIFFICULTY OP PROCURING TICKETS. 
 
 carriages, among which with some difficulty we 
 found a place for our own, and having " taken an 
 observation," as sailors say, of the bearings of the 
 spot where we had left it, and cautioned our coach- 
 man not to get drunk, we entered the grounds, 
 which were full of well dressed people, listening to 
 two or three military bands, which played at inter- 
 vals in different parts of the gardens. 
 
 Among these groups we strolled for some time, 
 but as we were of course anxious to obtain a good 
 view of the Emperor, we consulted our servant on 
 the practicability of obtaining admission to the 
 palace. This however he declared to be impossi- 
 ble "rt^solument impossible," but suspecting that 
 it was only a Frenchman's " impossibility," we 
 ordered him to go in search of tickets and not 
 to return until he had got them. In less than half 
 an hour the man of impossibilities returned, and 
 with an air of great dignity presented to us three 
 tickets, for which, although the market price as he 
 assured us was fifteen roubles, he had only paid five. 
 
 How much truth there was in this statement I 
 cannot tell, bnt he certainly had a pride in getting 
 every thing for us at a cheaper rate than our coun- 
 trymen paid ; for on a dozen similar occasions we 
 found on compairing notes with them, that we had 
 always paid less than they had. 
 
VALET DE PLACE. 63 
 
 Lest I should forget to mention him again, I 
 take this opportunity of recommending this man to 
 future travellers. I forget his surname, but he 
 may always be heard of at the Hotel de Paris : 
 where if they see a thin upright figure with an ex- 
 pression of countenance like Antient Pistol, and a 
 nose like Bardolph's, and hear him address them 
 in the German accent which belongs to the French 
 provinces on the Rhine, they may be sure that they 
 have found the man. I ought to mention among 
 his other qualifications, that he is what in Russia 
 is called a remarkably sober man, for during the 
 three weeks that he was in our service he was only 
 once so drunk as not to be able to attend to his duty. 
 
 At the foot of the grand staircase we presented 
 our tickets, and moving onwards with the crowd, 
 we ascended to the imperial apartments. The gar- 
 dens from which we had entered the palace were 
 so shaded by trees, that it was difficult to distin- 
 guish objects : our sensations therefore at entering 
 the " hall of state " were like those which William 
 of Deloraine experienced when he raised the stone 
 which covered the wizard's grave '* and the light 
 broke forth so gloriously." I have seen our own 
 courts, and the gorgeous pageantry of Roman fes- 
 tivals, but they were mean compared to the mag- 
 nificent scene which now presented itself. 
 
64 THE EMPEROR. 
 
 The light from a thousand chandeliers shone on 
 rich uniforms, so numerous and so hrilliant, that 
 the eye ached and the brain turned round with 
 gazing on them. Servants in gorgeous liveries 
 were hurrying to and fro : and from one of the 
 apartments we heard the strains of a full orchestra. 
 
 A movement among the spectators soon told us 
 that some personage of more than ordinary impor- 
 tance was approaching, and at a burst of the music 
 louder and more lofty than we had heard before, 
 the folding doors of one of the apartments were 
 thrown open, and a gentleman in a plain scarlet 
 uniform, with the cross of St. George on his breast, 
 and a military hat on his head, entered the room 
 where we were standing. 
 
 It was the Emperor of all the Russias. 
 
 He led by the hand one of the ladies of the 
 court, and was followed by his suite, each gentle- 
 man leading a lady, and wearing over his uniform 
 a light black silk cloak, instead of a domino, the 
 ball being considered a masquerade, although no 
 masks were worn. 
 
 The Emperor is at least six feet two in height, 
 and very handsome. With the exception of its 
 being perhaps a little too broad, I should say that 
 his face is the most perfect I have ever seen ; and 
 
INSURRECTION IN 1825. 65 
 
 his smile is full of archness and good humour 
 He is in truth, I believe, a most amiable man in 
 private life, a kind husband and father, and a good 
 master. Still, when his face was in repose (espe- 
 cially towards the end of the evening when he 
 appeared fatigued) I thought I could perceive tra- 
 ces of the workings of that haughty spirit, which 
 dictated his late insulting address to the unhappy 
 people of Poland. At all events his countenance 
 is full of determination ; a quality which stood 
 him in good stead at the commencement of his reign. 
 
 In December 1825, when Constantine renounced 
 all claim to the throne, Nicholas received from the 
 Council of the Empire, the Senate &c. assurances, 
 confirmed by their solemn oath, that they acknow- 
 ledged him as Emperor, and would bear him faith- 
 ful and true allegiance. The majority of the regi- 
 ments of guards followed their example, but three 
 or four hundred of the regiment of Moscow march- 
 ed into the Senate Square, followed by a crowd of 
 the common people, and proclaimed Constantine. 
 
 These it appears were soon joined by other 
 soldiers, and the consequences would probably 
 have been disastrous to the throne of Nicholas, 
 had he not with uncommon firmness rode alone 
 into the midst of the insurgents, and prevailed on 
 
66 DESCRIPTION OP THE EMPEROR. 
 
 a large portion of them to lay down their arms : 
 still a considjerable body continued to maintain 
 their ground in gloomy silence, although surround- 
 ed on every side by cavalry and artillery ; and at 
 length, when every other measure appears to have 
 failed, the artillery were commanded to play on 
 them, and the cavalry to charge. Of course the 
 few who survived were glad to seek their safety 
 in flight ; many of them were taken, and five ofli- 
 cers of rank were executed. Long before mid- 
 night all was tranquil at St. Petersburg. 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas, is forty-two years of 
 age, and seems in very robust health. His appear- 
 ance is strictly military, and he returns the saluta- 
 tions of the people in military style by raising his 
 hand to his hat. His hair is light brown, slightly 
 curled, and he wears a moustache. 
 
 Having walked a polonaise with the lady whom 
 we had first seen, he led her back to the circle where 
 the Empress was seated, and taking out another 
 lady, led her the round of the apartments ; and 
 then selected a third ; and so on throughout the 
 evening. About a dozen of his suite followed, each 
 leading a lady; and a large body of maids of 
 honour were grouped around the Empress : but in 
 all this crowd there were only two women who 
 
THE EMPRESS. 67 
 
 were not possitively ugly, and one of these we 
 were told was an American. As far as I have yet 
 observed, the Russian women of all ranks are by 
 far the plainest that I have ever seen in any part 
 of Europe. Those of the lower order have be- 
 sides a vile habit of strapping down the upper 
 part of their person in a way which renders their 
 appearance more repulsive than can well be im- 
 agined by those who have never seen them. 
 
 The Empress walked once or twice through the 
 rooms, but generally sat surrouned by her ladies, 
 at the upper end of one of the principal apart- 
 ments. She is a pleasing looking person, and 
 perhaps at one time was handsome, but ill health 
 has deprived her of all pretensions to beauty now. 
 I will not venture to describe a lady's dress, I only 
 know that she wore on her head a sort of coro- 
 net of emeralds, made in the form of the ancient 
 Russian head-dress, which is still worn by the 
 peasants on feast days. An old lady stood near 
 me, who wore one of ivory, most curiously and 
 quaintly carved. 
 
 The Empress is the daughter of the present 
 King of Prussia, and was married in the year 
 1817. The Grand Duke Alexander, eldest son of 
 the Emperor and Empress is now about 18 years 
 
68 GRAND DUKE MICHAEL. 
 
 old, and possesses it is said all the mild virtues of 
 the late Emperor Alexander : and, what is singular 
 enough, the young Constantine, who is still a 
 mere child, has given early proof that in disposi- 
 tion he closely resembles Ms namesake the late 
 Grand Duke Constantine. 
 
 We saw the Grand-Duchesses, who seemed pret- 
 ty and interesting children. They were driving 
 with their governess round the palace gardens in 
 an open carriage, and seemed to enjoy the bustling 
 scene very much. 
 
 Of the Grand Duke Michael, the Emperor's 
 younger brother, we saw little : and that little 
 by no means gave us a favourable impression of his 
 character. In face and figure he bears a strong fami- 
 ly resemblance to the Emperor, but his countenance 
 is gloomy and scowling, and he has a stoop of the 
 shoulders, which seems contracted by a habit of 
 walking with his eyes bent on the ground, rather 
 than by any awkwardness or want of proper dril- 
 ling : for his general appearance is very military. 
 He is said to be a most strict disciplinarian ; and 
 that many an unfortunate subaltern 
 
 *' learns to trace, 
 
 The day's disasters in his morning face." 
 
 I believe it was last year that he attended the 
 
STRANGE STORY. 69 
 
 Emperor to Cronstadt in order to inspect the 
 corps of marine artillery. (I am not certain that 
 I have used the right term : but the whole Rus- 
 sian naval establishment has more of a military 
 than a nautical character.) A hulk was moored 
 about two hundred yards from the land, and 
 against it all the guns were directed, but not a 
 single shot took effect : and at last the Emperor, 
 irritated by the repeated failures of the artillery 
 men, and the sneers which he could not avoid 
 seeing on the faces of some half score of English 
 and American masters of ships, who stood around; 
 turned abruptly away, and communicated by an aid- 
 de-camp to the officers of the corps that he declined 
 partaking of the banquet which they had provided 
 for him, and moreover, that at die end of two 
 days it was his determination to inspect them 
 again : when, unless their attempts were more 
 successful, every officer would be put under arrest. 
 The most extraordinary part of the story re- 
 mains to be told. On the appointed day and hour, 
 the Emperor arrived ; but instead of giving the 
 order to fire, immediately on his arrival, he pro- 
 ceeded first along the line: by which so much 
 delay was caused, that the hulk began to settle, 
 and a few minutes longer would have seen her sink 
 
70 ILLUMINATIONS. 
 
 without a gun being fired ; happily however the 
 word was given in time to save the credit of the 
 artillery -men ; they fired, and the hulk sunk im- 
 mediately, as in duty bound. That she had been 
 previously scuttled, seems hardly doubtful; but 
 the Emperor either did not observe the stratagem, 
 or thought it most prudent to appear satisfied. 
 
 I cannot of course be responsible for the truth 
 of this story, as I did not witness the scene with 
 my own eyes : but I have written it almost word 
 for word from the mouth of a most respectable 
 English resident, and if it is any satisfaction to 
 my reader to know that I believe it, I beg most 
 distinctly to assure him that I do. 
 
 At ten o'clock the illuminations began. The 
 palace of PeterhofF stands on a sort of cliff, about 
 half a mile from the gulf of Finland ; along the 
 brow of this precipice, in front (in speaking of the 
 front, I mean the back front of the palace, look- 
 ing towards the sea. The other front, from which 
 we first entered the palace, stands in a garden, laid 
 out in flower beds and plantations, with a large 
 basin in its centre.) of the palace, runs a wide ter- 
 race ; below it are two cascades which fall into 
 basins ; and behind them a grotto, where one may 
 stand without being wetted by the stream of water 
 
BRILLIANT STAR. 71 
 
 which flows in a broad sheet down the face of 
 the declivity. 
 
 In this grotto were placed lamps, which were seen 
 glittering through the crystal veil, making the 
 whole appear like an illuminated palace of ice. 
 On the ground by the side of these grottoes, were 
 visitors standing in groups, or reclining on the 
 grass : and the broad stone stairs which lead from 
 the front of the palace down to the canal, were 
 crowded with persons of all ranks and ages. This 
 canal, which is lined with stone, runs into the 
 gulf of Finland, dividing the gardens in two. 
 
 Opposite the palace, at the extremity of one of 
 those avenues of fire which were formed by the 
 united blaze of thousands of lamps, was seen a 
 star, in the centre of which, in lamps of a diffe- 
 rent size and colour, was the letter A, (the initial 
 of the Empress, in honour of whose name-day or 
 day of admission into the Greek church, the fete 
 was celebrated,) and the imperial crown. By 
 counting the number of lamps, and guessing at 
 the distance between them, we were able to ascer- 
 tain with tolerable accuracy the dimensions of this 
 star, the diameter of which we calculated at a 
 hundred feet. The letter was probably about twen- 
 ty feet in length. In other parts of the gardens, 
 
72 VARIOUS GROUPES. 
 
 were avenues, and squares, and crescents, with 
 their boundaries marked by a lofty fence of light 
 trellis work, on the sides of which were 
 
 *• Pendant by subtle magic many a row 
 Of starry lamps anil blazing cressets." 
 so that the garden resembled a city of fire. 
 
 The whole of this magnificent scene was en- 
 livened by thousands of visitors, in every pic- 
 turesque variety of costume, who strolled about, 
 sometimes through the illuminated avenues, some- 
 times in those which for the sake of effect had 
 been left in comparative darkness. 
 
 It was curious to stand and watch the figures 
 as they emerged from obscurity into the full blaze 
 of the illumination. At one moment the light 
 was angrily reflected back from the steel hauberk 
 and bright ornaments of a Circassian guardsman ; 
 then it shone placidly on the long white beard of 
 a Priest, sometimes a group of peasants appeared, 
 and now and then an English sailor ''hove in 
 sight," rolling and pitching like a ship in a heavy 
 sea, with his hands buried in his pockets, or his 
 thumbs stuck in the arm holes of his waistcoat. 
 
 About eleven o'clock the Emperor and Empress 
 entered a carriage, very much resembling an Irish 
 car, and drove through the gardens, followed by 
 
PRINCE NAllISKIN. 73 
 
 their suite in seven or eight carriages of the same 
 sort. Among other celebrated persons I was 
 shewn the Prince Nariskin, who has the credit 
 of having made one of the happiest puns that I 
 ever remember to have heard. When the council 
 were one day anxiously discussing the affairs of 
 Turkey and Greece, a harsh grating noise from 
 tlie hinges of the door assailed the ears of the 
 Emperor, who enquired the cause of this distur- 
 bance " Sire " said Nariskin, " C'est La Porte 
 qui reclame la Grece (graisse)." 
 
 We now strolled to the water's edge, where an 
 Admiral's barge had just hauled alongside the 
 jetty ; and to our great surprize we saw the Admi- 
 ral step on shore in a full dress uniform with boots, 
 and long military spurs. It is a stupid jest, but 
 I could not help thinking of the *' horse marines." 
 On landing, the Admiral marched off towards the 
 palace followed by his boat's crew, in military file. 
 
 Two or three steamers had been plying all day 
 between St. Petersburg and Peterhoff; and the 
 denseness of the crowd, which increased every 
 hour, plainly told that at every trip they had 
 brought their full complement of passengers. The 
 Babel like confusion of tongues, the clang and 
 clash of military music, and above all, the daz- 
 
 H 
 
74 RUSSIAN TEA. 
 
 zling blaze of light, on which we had been gazing 
 for two hours, had so fatigued us, that we were glad 
 to look out for some quiet comer, where we could 
 rest our eyes and ears, and procure some refresh- 
 ment for our jaded bodies. 
 
 There were two or three large pavillions erected 
 in the grounds : and one of these we entered, inten- 
 ding to order some tea. But not a soul could 
 speak any language but Russian, and they seemed 
 perversely determined not to understand our signs : 
 so that we began to despair of being served at all, 
 when luckily for us, a Russian party entered the 
 pavillion and ordered tea. I immediately seized one 
 of the waiters, and leading him up to the table 
 at which they were seated, shewed him the tea equi- 
 page, and made him understand, by holding up my 
 fingers, the number of the party for which we re- 
 quired it. Russian tea is always delicious, and we 
 certainly never enjoyed it more than we did this 
 evening. I gave the man a five rouble note, which 
 he carried off to get as I supposed change : but 
 after waiting a quarter of an hour, and finding that 
 he did not return, I began to be uneasy. 
 
 Two gentlemen were sitting in a distant part of 
 the tent, conversing in English, and as I had heard 
 one of them address a few words of Russian to the 
 
AMERICANS. 75 
 
 waiter, I requested him to interpret for me. This 
 he kindly promised to do, but before he could call 
 the waiter to him, the rogue, who had seen us talk- 
 ing together, came forth from some dark corner, 
 and delivered me my change, which he assured my 
 new friend he had always intended to bring back. 
 My acquaintance now launched out into a tirade 
 against Russian knavery. " My friend and I, said 
 he, have had three small glasses of brandy and 
 water, and for these we have been forced to pay 
 four roubles and a half, and this I guess, continued 
 Jonathan, raising his voice, and looking very fierce, 
 this \ guess is a regular in-take. 
 
 We were now thoroughly tired, and anxious to 
 escape from the revelry ; so we left the gardens 
 in search of our carriage, which we found without 
 much difficulty, and what may seem more extraor- 
 dinary, in less than half an hour we discovered 
 our coachman and servant both quite sober. 
 
 At one o'clock we left PeterhofF, and between 
 three and four we were ascending the staircase of our 
 own house, on almost every step of which lay a 
 servant belonging either to the hotel or to some 
 of the inmates, all sound asleep and all snoring.* 
 
 * In Russia nobody seems to take much trouble about 
 providing accommodations for the inferior servants ; they 
 
76 RETURN TO ST. i'ETERSBURG. 
 
 With some difficulty we made our way through 
 them, and reaching our apartments, were glad to 
 forget in sleep, the events of a day which had been 
 almost too exciting. I may perhaps be excused 
 for indulging a little innocent pride at having 
 been I believe the only English writer, for the last 
 fifteen years, who has had the good fortune to be 
 present at this annual fete. At all events neither 
 Dr. Granville nor Captain Jones mentions having 
 been there : and Mr. Barrow laments that circum- 
 stances rendered it impossible for him to remain 
 at St. Petersburg until the day of the fete. 
 
 Whether any other authors mention it or not I 
 do not recollect, nor is it of much importance. For 
 my own part I shall congratulate myself as long as 
 I live on having had this opportunity of witnessing 
 the most splendid festival of the most brilliant 
 court in Europe; and of coming almost into 
 personal contact with princes and statesmen whose 
 names for the last twenty years, have been for 
 praise or censure, "familar in our mouths as 
 household words.'' 
 
 sleep on the stairs, or any where. A poor civil half-witted 
 creature, who discharged the functions of waiter, hoots, and 
 chamberlain at our hotel, seemed to me never to sleep at all, 
 for I used to meet him toddling about at all hours of the 
 day and night. 
 
CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 ** Blight was the day and blew the firmament ; 
 Phcbus of gold his stremes doun hath sent 
 To gladen every flour with his warmnesse." 
 
 Chaucer. — The Marchante's Tale. 
 
 Thursday, July 14th. Having now stayed as 
 long at St. Petersburg as our plans would allow, 
 we determined to set out for Moscow this evening. 
 There is a diligence from one establishment every 
 day, and from another three times a week. The re- 
 gular time of starting is nine in the morning ; but 
 they were willing to wait until the evening, if we 
 could arrange with the other passengers ; which we 
 had little difficulty in doing. 
 
 Before I quitted the city I determined to take 
 a cruize down the river, in order to have a farewell 
 view of the beautiful buildings which line its 
 
78 BUILDINGS ON THE RUSSIAN QUAY. 
 
 tanks. Accordingly I hired a pair of oars at the 
 citadel stairs, and floated leisurely down with the 
 stream. The day happened to be very fine, and 
 as I sat in the stern sheets, with the blue sky above 
 me, and the blue Neva rippling around my boat, 
 I felt the sensation of quiet enjoyment which fine 
 weather and a cheerful scene seldom fail to produce. 
 Opposite the citadel, from which we started, was 
 the Great or Russian Quay, which presents one 
 unbroken line of more than a mile in length, 
 from the monument of Suvaroff * (which stands 
 between the champ de Mars and the foot of 
 the Troitskoi bridge,) to the eastern side of the 
 Admiralty. I can well believe Dr. Granville, when 
 he says, that the buildings on this quay present a 
 frontage unequalled in any city of Europe. A little 
 west of the monument of SuvaroiF, is the Marble 
 Palace, a large building three stories high, with 
 the basement story of granite, and the upper stories 
 of a greyish, with pilasters of a reddish veined, 
 marble. No wood-work appears in this palace. 
 The window frames are of bronze gilt, and the 
 balustrades of the balconies are of the same ma- 
 
 * The statue of SuvarofF is of bronze, representing a 
 warrior completely armed ; with an inscription in Russian, 
 and the date of its erection, (1801.) In the champ de Mars 
 the parades take place in fine weather. 
 
THE WINTER PALACE — ADMIRALTY, &C. 79 
 
 terial. The roof also, I was told, is of sheet cop- 
 per, which is supported by iron rafters. This palace 
 is not inhabited, nor, I believe, even furnished. 
 
 West of the Marble palace are the Hotel of the 
 French Ambassador, the barracks of the Guards 
 Preobrajenskoi, the Grecian Theatre belonging to 
 the Hermitage, and the great and smaller Hermit- 
 age, connected with each other and the Winter 
 Palace, by covered ways, resting on arches. Then 
 comes the long fa9ade of the Winter palace, sepa- 
 rated by a Square from the Admiralty, along the 
 eastern, southern, and western sides of which runs 
 a broad walk shaded by rows of trees. The river 
 front of the Admiralty is disfigured by a dock- 
 yard, spoiling the view of the building from the 
 Neva, and breaking the line, which would other- 
 wise have extended without interruption from Su- 
 varoff 's monument to the western extremity of the 
 English quay, a distance, I suppose, of more than 
 two miles. West of the Admiralty is the Senate 
 Square, (with the statue of Peter the Great,) and 
 the Isaac bridge, opposite the church of the same 
 name, which when finished will be a noble object 
 from the river. The Senate house stands at the 
 eastern extremity of the English quay, which ex- 
 tends westward as far as the new dock-yard, and 
 
80 ENGLISH CHURCH— CITADEL, &C. 
 
 is crossed at about two thirds of the distance by 
 one of the canals, on the western side of which are 
 the houses of Thomson, Bonar, & Co., Thornton 
 & Co., and other English merchants. 
 
 The English church stands almost in the centre 
 of the quay. It would be difficult to distinguish 
 it from another large building which stands near 
 it, but for three large figures of Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity, with which the pediment of the church 
 is decorated. 
 
 On the opposite or right bank is the citadel, at 
 the stairs of which I had embarked. It stands as 
 I mentioned before, on an island, between which 
 and the large island of Vasilly Ostroif, there is a 
 branch of the river, called the little Neva. At the 
 eastern corner of Vasilly Ostroff is the Exchange, 
 with its two rostral columns, and semicircular 
 granite quay. Next to the Exchange is the Aca- 
 demy of Sciences, with the Museum and Obser- 
 vatory ; then the college of the first corps of cadets, 
 separated from the eastern side of the Academy 
 of Arts by a square, in the centre of which stands 
 an obelisk dedicated to the memory of Romanzoflf'. 
 Considerably west of the Academy of Arts is the 
 College of the second corps of cadets, and last 
 of all the ecole des mines with its noble front 
 and portico. 
 
SCENE ON THE RIVER. 81 
 
 Tlie Neva has only two bridges, * formed of 
 large boats ( two of which may be removed to 
 let vessels pass,) and over these planks are 
 laid. The whole is removed in a few hours, as 
 soon as the masses of ice which float down from 
 the Lake Ladoga begin to threaten the safety of 
 the boats. When the ice is firmly settled they are 
 put together again. The Isaac bridge, which con- 
 nects the Admiralty quarter with the Vasilly Os- 
 trofF, is said to be nine hundred feet in length. 
 
 The river presents a very bustling scene, the 
 most striking feature of which are the floating 
 fish markets ; large decked boats, each divided 
 into two tanks, one for fresh, the other for salt 
 water fish. These boats are moored alonorside 
 
 o 
 
 a large house-boat, on the front of which appears 
 an inscription generally in Russian and German. 
 The purchasers go on board this boat, and examine 
 the live fish, which are brought up for that pur- 
 pose from the tanks, by means of a net fixed to the 
 end of a long pole. One of the largest of these 
 floating markets is moored ofl" the Isaac bridge. 
 There are also fisheries on both sides of the river. 
 
 * I mean the main branch of the Neva. There is also a 
 bridge over the lesser Neva, connecting the island of Vasilly 
 Ostroff with the St. Petersburg quarter, and another over 
 the Great Nevka, which connects the St. Petersburg with 
 the Vibourg quarter. 
 
S'2 TLOATING HAY-STACKS. 
 
 But the most extraordinary sight of all pre- 
 sented itself when we were half way between the 
 bridges. Hay-stack after hay-stack was floating 
 down the stream, and we began to think that the 
 winter's stock of some unfortunate farmer had 
 been swept away by an inundation. As they near- 
 ed us however we discovered that these vagrant 
 hay-stacks were not finding their way, " bon gre 
 mal gre" to the gulf of Finland, but were neatly 
 stowed, each on two boats joined together, the 
 sides being secured by upright stakes, and the 
 whole snugly thatched. In this way the supply 
 of hay for St. Petersburg is brought down the 
 river from the Lake Lodoga, on the shores of 
 which the barges are built in winter on the snow, 
 and when spring comes and the snow melts, they 
 are launched by the torrent into the lake. As 
 they are not worth tracking up the river again, 
 they are broken up and sold at St. Petersburg. 
 
 It is creditable to the police of St. Petersburg, 
 that no beggars are seen in the streets : but they 
 are found sometimes in the churches, where it is 
 said they also practise picking pockets. An ac- 
 quaintance of ours was very indignant one day 
 at having had his pocket-handkerchief abstracted, 
 whilst he was examining the paintings in one of 
 the churches. 
 
DRESS OF RUSSIAN WOMEN. 83 
 
 The Russian ladies of rank dress, I suppose, 
 like ladies of rank in other countries, hut some 
 of the middle class whom we met, were any thing 
 hut graceful figures. They had little honnets, 
 like those which used to excite so much French 
 mirth, when our countrywomen first visited Paris 
 at the beginning of the peace ; and to protect this 
 little precious article, parasols, which looked as if 
 they had been stunted in their growth, were held 
 over their heads. The gentlemen generally wore 
 cloaks, either from the same feeling which the 
 Spaniards and Portuguese have, that the best pro- 
 tection from the rays of the sun is a thick cloak, 
 or because, as I suppose, at St. Petersburg the 
 weather can never be depended on in summer for 
 two hours together. 
 
 Returning to-day to our lodgings we met a party 
 of soldiers escorting an unfortunate lad, whose 
 hands were bound firmly behind his back. Per- 
 haps he had committed some offence that would 
 subject him to the punishment of the knout: 
 which is still frequently inflicted ; although not, 
 I believe, with the same severity as in former 
 times. The Executioner however still possesses 
 the power of killing the criminal by a single stroke 
 qn the ribs : and this we were told has happen- 
 
84 THE KNOUT. 
 
 ed now and then even within the last few years ; 
 when the criminal prefering death to Siberian 
 exile, has bribed the executioner to put an end to 
 his sufferings. 
 
 The punishment of the knout generally takes 
 place on a Sunday. One criminal suffered it 
 whilst we were at St. Petersburg : but of course 
 we had no wish to witness the execution. After 
 all however that has been said and written 
 about the knout, it may possibly be questioned 
 whether the infliction of it on felons is a much 
 greater proof of barbarism than the public flagel- 
 lation of English gentlemen's sons by a dignitary 
 of the English Church. * 
 
 Before we left St. Petersburg it was necessary 
 that our names should be sent to the office of the 
 gazette, in order lo have them advertized three 
 times ; as formality which is absolutely necessary 
 for those who intend to quit the country. As the 
 gazette is published only twice a week, much time 
 would have been lost, had we not empowered our 
 landlord to manage the business whilst we were 
 at Moscow. 
 
 This is one of the many modes of annoying 
 
 * I am not of course speaking of the degree of pain in- 
 flicted, but only of the degrading nature of the punishment. 
 
TREATMENT OF THE ENGLISH. 85 
 
 foreigners, which the Russian police practises. I 
 was complaining one day to my landlady, a little 
 lively Frenchwoman, of the plague they give us, 
 and assuring her that few of my countrymen would 
 visit Russia if they were aware of all that they had 
 to encounter : when she cut me short by telling me 
 that of all the nations in the world, 7ve had the 
 least reason to complain, for the Russian govern- 
 ment were inclined to be unusually indulgent to 
 the English, " Had you been a Frenchman," she 
 continued, "for every day that you are now detained 
 here, they would have kept you three, as some 
 of my lodgers have lately had good reason to 
 remember." 
 
 How much exaggeration there may have been 
 in the poor little woman's gossip, I cannot tell, but 
 I believe the French are looked on with a jealous 
 eye, as sending out a race of political missionaries, 
 whose theories are not very likely to be in accor- 
 dance with Russian ideas of good government. 
 England may be hated by the Russians ; but if she 
 is, there is certainly so large a portion of fear mix- 
 ed with their dislike as to render them very res- 
 pectful to us. Perhaps for this we may in a great 
 degree thank Lord Durham, whose firmness in his 
 intercourse with the Emperor, and considerate at- 
 
86 WANT OF PUNCTUALITY IN RUSSIA. 
 
 tention to the wishes and interests of the British 
 residents, were praised by all with whom I had any 
 opportunity of conversing on the subject. 
 
 At five o'clock, the hour fixed for our departure, 
 we were in attendance at the office of the Moscow 
 Diligence : but it would seem as if the Russians 
 thought their being punctual on any occasion, 
 even where there was nothing to hinder it, might 
 be drawn into a troublesome precedent, for al- 
 though the horses were ready, the luggage stowed, 
 and no earthly reason that we could discover ex- 
 isted for our detention, we were nevertheless kept 
 
 ** Chewing the cud of sweet and bitter fancy," 
 for a full hour. 
 
 At length, and exactly as the clock struck six, 
 our Conductor mounted his throne, and we took 
 our seats inside the vehicle. In figure it resembled 
 an Omnibus with a hackney coach tied to its tail, 
 there being a long body with four divisions, the 
 first containing the conductor and the driver ; then 
 a cabriolet for two passengers ; then two coupes 
 each accommodating two passengers; and last of all 
 the rotunda, a large globular cage, in which were 
 imprisoned three American ladies, who were to be 
 our fellow travellers to Moscow. 
 
 We had not proceeded far, when we discovered 
 
DELAYS ON THE ROAD. 87 
 
 that not one of the party could speak a word of 
 Russian, which was the only language our con- 
 ductor understood. This notable discovery was 
 made, when we alighted at the first post house, 
 and wanted to procure some refreshment. Not 
 that we were particularly hungry, but our con- 
 ductor seemed to have made so decided a stop, 
 that we naturally concluded that this must be the 
 place at which the " coach supped," and were fear- 
 ful of not getting any supper at all, if we neglec- 
 ted the opportunity. Alas ! we need not • have 
 been under any such apprehension ; for at the very 
 next post house a stop of equal length was made, 
 and again at the next, and the next, and so on till 
 we arrived at Moscow ; the time af waiting vary- 
 ing from half an hour to an hour and half. What 
 they were about, or why the diligence with the 
 horses all harnessed, and apparently, ready for a 
 start, was kept standing in the road, I never could 
 ascertain ; some little time, I know, was occupied 
 in bargaining and wrangling with the owners of 
 the post-horses, but this seldom consumed more 
 than a quarter of an hour : how the rest of the 
 time was employed (for the conductor could never 
 have eaten a regular meal at every post house) must 
 remain involved in impenetrable obscurity. It 
 
88 SUPPER. 
 
 was nevertheless provoking to see the postillions 
 driving at the rate sometimes of eight or ten English 
 miles an hour, merely as it seemed that there 
 might be more time to waste at the post-houses. 
 
 But to return to our supper arrangements, which 
 were simple enough ; for when by dint of signs 
 we had made the wrinkled old crone who kept the 
 house understand that we would fain eat some- 
 thing, a few cracked tea cups made their appear- 
 ance flanked by some slices of sour black rye- 
 bread and butter, which we were obliged literally 
 to take, *' cum grano salis " for at every mouth- 
 ful we masticated a large grain of coarse salt. 
 
 However if the fare was not very sumptuous, we 
 could not complain of not having time enough 
 allowed for its discussion ; for when the horses 
 were harnessed, and the conductor about to take 
 his place, a thunder storm, which had been brew- 
 ing almost ever since we left St. Petersburg, burst 
 upon us with great violence ; and our postillion, 
 instead of mounting his seat, stood crossing him- 
 self and making all sorts of contortions and genu- 
 flections, which he carried on most perse veringly, 
 accompanied by all the by-standers, until the 
 storm had blown over, and the blue sky was again 
 visible. 
 
peasants' cottage. 89 
 
 Throughout the whole of that night and the 
 greater part of the next day we continued to travel 
 over a dead flat, through a country the most bleak 
 and uninteresting perhaps in the world. Some- 
 times there was a barren moor on every side as far 
 as the eye could reach, sometimes forests of 
 mournful black pines ; but it was only a variety 
 of dreariness ; which the groups of log huts, " few 
 and far between " made still more melancholy, 
 because this shewed that man was condemned to 
 be the inhabitant of this howling wilderness. 
 
 I entered one of these cottages at a little village 
 where we stopped to change horses. The walls 
 were made of trunks of trees laid on each other 
 horizontally, the seams between them being well 
 caulked with moss. The gable end overhangs the 
 wall two or three feet. The roof is formed of 
 bark or rough planks, or sometimes of loose 
 straw. Attached to most of these cottages is a 
 cattle yard, enclosed by a wooden fence with large 
 folding gates. 
 
 On entering the cottage I found that it consisted 
 of one room, floored with rough dirty planks. In 
 one corner was the picture of a Saint, before which 
 a lamp appeared to be kept constantly burning, 
 and at the other end, occupying a considerable 
 
90 MALE AND FEMALE PEASANTS. 
 
 portion of the room, was the stove, with the oven 
 which the peasant uses for baking his bread and 
 himself, and on the top of which most of the 
 family sleep. Near this stove hung an earthen 
 vessel of water, and below it another vessel ; 
 which seemed to be the general receptacle of all 
 the unappropriated filth of the house. It being 
 summer, we had no opportunity of seeing their 
 mode of lighting their dwellings, but I have been 
 told that in the dark nights they use coarse tallow 
 candles, or oil in iron dishes : and sometimes split 
 fir, which is set on fire and placed against the wall 
 in a sort of candlestick. 
 
 The occupants of this rude dwelling consisted, 
 as well as I recollect, of two men, a woman, and 
 two or three children. The men were dressed in 
 red striped cotton shirts, which hung over their 
 trowsers instead of being tucked into them ; coarse 
 canvas trowsers : rags wrapped round their feet 
 instead of stockings, and large clumsy shoes of 
 birch bark. Of these shoes we saw immense 
 quantities exposed for sale in the towns and vil- 
 lages through which we passed. The peasant also 
 wears a caftan of coarse grey cloth and in winter 
 or wet weather a sheep- skin shube belted round 
 the waist with a red worsted sash. The hat (the 
 
POST-HOUSES. 91 
 
 shape of which varies in different provinces) has 
 a broad belt, with a leather buckle, and is some- 
 times ornamented with a peacock's feather. The 
 women seem to have no clothing beyond a shift 
 and petticoat ; and the little ones were running 
 about and playing before the door, with hardly 
 a rag to cover their nakedness. 
 
 These poor creatures were, I suppose, of the low- 
 est order of serfs, for the more opulent among them 
 wear boots instead of bark shoes. 
 
 Most of the post-houses are large handsome 
 buildings, very imposing in their external appear- 
 ance, but generally deficient in comfort within. 
 Since our first unfortunate essay, we have had no 
 diflSculty in making ourselves tolerably understood, 
 as all the other post-masters thus far have been ei- 
 ther Germans, or persons who know something 
 of the German language. 
 
 The arrangement for marking the distances is 
 very convenient. At every verst (two thirds of an 
 English mile) there stands a tall wooden post, on 
 the top of which are painted, on one side the num- 
 ber of versts that you have travelled from the last 
 stage, and on the other the distance that you have 
 to perform before you reach the next, and ai; each 
 station, the post bears in addition, the number of 
 
9'2 POSTILLIONS. 
 
 versts from St. Petetsburg, and also (but I forget 
 whether this is at every station or not) the distance 
 between the principal towns. 
 
 The frequent recurrence of these posts certainly 
 made the way appear less tedious ; of which we 
 were more fully aware afterwards when we travel- 
 led through Sweden, and found that the only divi- 
 sions of the distance were the long wearisome Swe- 
 dish miles (equal to nearly 7 English.) 
 
 We had generally four horses, but sometimes 
 five and even six. The four or five are driven 
 abreast, but when there are six, two are placed in 
 front, and a second postillion is necessary. Our 
 postillions were almost without exception good 
 whips ; and at night they kept themselves and their 
 horses awake by singing a wild sort of recitative 
 which they kept up for hours with singular per- 
 severance. 
 
 One young fellow (a mere lad of sixteen or 
 seventeen,) was so elated with the " little brief au- 
 thority " in which he was dressed, as being for the 
 time a public servant, that he did not scruple to 
 lay his whip most vigorously across the shoulders 
 of a great rough weather-beaten peasant, who did 
 not use as much expedition in getting out of our 
 way as the urchin thought he had a right to expect. 
 
RAIL ROAD. 93 
 
 It was amusing to see with what perfect sang froid 
 the bearded man endured this insult : but a Russian 
 thinks little of blows, provided blood be not 
 drawn ; an operation by the bye which they are 
 very apt to perform on themselves after they have 
 received a blow, as the penalty, if it appears that 
 blood was drawn, is much more severe than in 
 cases of ordinary assault and battery. 
 
 I ought to have mentioned before, that we 
 passed the embankment which they are making 
 for a railway from St. Petersburg to Tsarsko-Selo. 
 Gessner, the engineer, was a fellow-passenger of 
 ours in the Alexandra. The rail-road is entirely 
 a government affair, and will no doubt be a great 
 accommodation to the court, although of little or 
 no use in a commercial point of view. If, how- 
 ever, it should ever be carried on to Moscow, it 
 would produce an extraordinary revolution in 
 Russian mercantile transactions. 
 
 Under a free government, which puts no fetters 
 on commercial enterprize, such an attempt would 
 very speedily be made ; but as the Emperor keeps 
 all such speculations in his own hands, and his 
 exchequer is said to be by no means overflowing, 
 it seems hardly probable that under the present 
 regime much will be attempted : although the ad- 
 
94 RAIL ROAD. 
 
 vantages which the nature of the ground offers, 
 are greater probably than hi any other country ; 
 for the whole of the road between the two cities 
 (about 480 English miles) with the exception of a 
 few miles of hilly ground in the neighbourhood of 
 Valday, is a dead flat. It would be uncandid, 
 however, to deny that great energy has been dis- 
 played in making the road from St. Petersburg to 
 Moscow. A very few years ago travellers have 
 been known to be a fortnight on the road between 
 the two cities. Now the distance is performed 
 sometimes in 72 hours, the road being as good as 
 any in England. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Wko can resist the Gods, and the Great Novgorod ? " 
 Ancient Russian Proverb. 
 
 It was in her days of high and palmy prosperity, 
 that the republic of Novgorod furnished to the 
 world a subject for the vaunting proverb which I 
 have placed at the head of this chapter. For ages 
 after her foundation she had continued to be an 
 independent state, and when in the ninth century 
 she was reduced by Ruric, the first Grand Duke 
 of Muscovy, it seemed that she was abased only 
 to be more highly exalted, for he made the city 
 the metropolis of his dominions. 
 
96 NOVGOROD. 
 
 Within a very few years however the seat of 
 government was removed to Kiof, and subsequently 
 to Moscow. Novgorod became a provincial city ; 
 but by degrees acquired a complete independency ; 
 which it retained until the middle of the fifteenth 
 century, when the Grand Duke became absolute 
 Sovereign of Novgorod, although he still per- 
 mitted it to retain the shadow of its former go- 
 vernment. 
 
 But even when deprived of political power, the 
 situation on the banks of the Volkof secured for 
 it considerable commercial importance, until the 
 establishmeut of St. Petersburg, when it began 
 rapidly to decline towards the state in which it 
 appeared when we entered the gates at five o'clock 
 in the afternoon of Friday July 15th. A very 
 long bridge, built partly of stone and partly of 
 wood, leads over the Volkof into the heart of 
 this melancholy scene of decayed splendour. Four 
 hundred thousand inhabitants found shelter, it is 
 said, in her best days, within the walls of Novgo- 
 rod; they now contain hardly a fiftieth part of 
 that number : and even these are badly lodged in 
 ruinous brick houses and wooden huts. The only 
 vestige of its ancient magnificence, as far as we 
 could discover, is the Cathedral of St. Sophia, 
 
TOP OF THE DILIGENCE. 97 
 
 which stands near the bridge. It is a very ancient 
 building, ahnost coeval, it is said, with the first 
 introduction of Christianity into Russia. It has 
 a cupola and four domes covered with tin. The 
 pillars on the inside are daubed from their capi- 
 tals to their bases with rude paintings of saints, 
 and in one of the chapels is a head of the Virgin, 
 said to be by St. Luke. There are also two or three 
 curious silver sarcophagi: and the walls are covered 
 with mosaic, which is only worthy of notice on 
 accoimt of its extreme antiquity. Perhaps the 
 same may be said with truth of the whole church. 
 
 In the hope of being able to get a glimpse of 
 the lake, I mounted on the top of the diligence ; 
 certainly not with any wish of making myself a 
 conspicuous object : but the sight of a man sitting 
 on the roof of a carriage when he might have been 
 comfortably lodged within, created such a sensa- 
 tion among the spectators, that I was glad to de- 
 scend from my "bad eminence" to avoid the sight 
 of a long row of grinning faces, by which our 
 progress through the streets of Novgorod might 
 be traced. Before I descended however, I saw, or 
 fancied that I saw, the extremity of the lake, which 
 cannot be at any great distance from the town. 
 
 Saturday, July 16th. We arrived at Valday, 
 
98 VISHKAY VOLJOK. 
 
 crossing what are called the Valday mountains ; 
 a range of hills such as one sees in half the coun- 
 ties of England, hut which derive their conse- 
 quence here from standing in the midst of a dead 
 flat. There is a pretty lake near the town, with a 
 small island on which there is a convent. Al- 
 together the secenery had more heauty than any 
 spot that we had seen before on this road. 
 
 At the post-house we were assailed by a nuisance 
 of no very ordinary occurrence. Crowds of 
 dirty, ill-dressed, ill-looking women, ostensibly 
 dealers in a sort of biscuit which is made here, 
 shoved their flabby shapeless persons into the 
 room where we were washing ourselves; and 
 would take no hint that their attendance could be 
 dispensed with, until our conductor came up, and 
 ejected them without much regard to the delicate 
 feelings of the sex. 
 
 At 7 in the evening we reached Vishnay Voljok, 
 where we saw the canal constructed by Peter the 
 Great to connect the Caspian and the Baltic by 
 means of river navigation.* On the canal were some 
 odd looking craft, heavily laden, towed by horses ; 
 steered by means of an enormous oar, which was 
 
 * The canal connects the rivers Masla and Tvertza. 
 
TORJOK— TVER— KLINN. 99 
 
 handled by a man, who stood for that purpose on 
 a raised stage. 
 
 The next morning we passed through Torjok, 
 the great mart of Russian leather, where we found 
 every body asleep except a sulky, ill-conditioned 
 lad at the post-house; and at eleven o'clock 
 reached Tver, (pronounced Twere) a handsome 
 city, beautifully situated on the famous river Vol- 
 ga ; which is here a considerable stream, although 
 at no very great distance from its source. * Tver 
 contains many good houses, and has altogether a 
 greater air of comfort and opulence, than we have 
 seen in any other Russian town. It is famous for 
 the sterlet, a small species of sturgeon, very highly 
 esteemed by Russian gourmands : caviar is made 
 from its roe. At eight o'clock in the evening we 
 passed through Klinn, and on Monday, July 18th. 
 at five in the morning we arrived at Moscow, after 
 a journey of 83 hours. 
 
 * I mean with reference to the whole length of its course. 
 The Volga rises in the forest of Volkonski, about eighty 
 miles from Tver. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 " So than apace I journed forth among, 
 
 And as he said, so fond I there truely : 
 
 For I heheld the toures high and strong, 
 
 And high pinacles, large of hight and long. 
 
 With plate of gold bespred on euery side, 
 
 And precious stones, the stone werke for to hide." 
 
 Chaucer. — The Court of Love. 
 
 I cannot venture to talk about my impressions 
 on first entering this celebrated city ; all I know 
 is, that on awaking after a long and somid sleep, I 
 found our diligence stopping in one of the squares ; 
 and ourselves looking in vain for some hotel where 
 we might find shelter. At length a woman with a cat- 
 skin pelisse on her shoulders accosted us in toler- 
 able French ; and offered to shew us a Hotel kept 
 by one Kopp. Now this Kopp we had been par- 
 ticularly advised to avoid, and to get, if possi- 
 ble, lodgings at Mr. Howard's, an Englishman's. 
 But to all our inquiries the answer was the 
 
Moecrow. 101 
 
 same " Vous allez sans doute loger chez Kopp." 
 *' Vous y serey bien." At length tired out by the 
 pertinacity of our friend, we consented to inspect 
 Mr. Kopp's mansion, and were very soon satis- 
 fied, that if we were to be '* bien " there, a "mau- 
 vais Hotel," at Moscow must be bad indeed. 
 
 Fortunately, at this crisis, I espied on the oppo- 
 site side of the square, a board which bore the 
 welcome inscription *' Piggott, tailor, from Lon- 
 don," to Mr. Piggott accordingly I went; and 
 having succeeded in rousing him from a comfor- 
 table sleep, and making him understand what I 
 wanted, I got him to write Mr. Howard's address 
 in Russian on a scrap of paper, and shewing it to 
 a decent looking man who was standing near the 
 diligence, he immediately conducted us to Mr. 
 Howard's. 
 
 The mystery was soon cleared up, for I found 
 that there being no H in Russian, they always call 
 him Mr. Goward ; and I might perhaps have asked 
 for Howard until my tongue was tired, (although 
 he is universally known in Moscow,) had I not 
 been fortunate enough to meet with Mr. Piggott. 
 Our acquaintance of the catskin pelisse probably 
 knew well enough what we wanted, but she had 
 her reasons for recognizing no hotel but Kopp's, 
 
102 THE KREMLIN. 
 
 and as to the others, I truly believe they had no 
 conception of what we meant. 
 
 We found Howard's a clean, comfortable house ; 
 but by no means cheap. For our lodgings, break- 
 fast and tea, we paid each ten roubles a day, and 
 five roubles for dinner exclusive of wine : but it 
 was a comfort to find English cleanliness in this 
 land of filth, and we were contented to pay some- 
 what exorbitantly for it. 
 
 After a comfortable sleep and a warm bath, we 
 sallied out to visit the Kremlin.* This famous 
 quarter, which in the early days of Moscow, com- 
 prehended the whole of the capital, is an irregular 
 polygon flanked by a tower at each of its angles, 
 and with the adjoining quarter, the Kitai-gorod, 
 forms a centre, around which the two remaining 
 quarters extend in a circle, the radii of which are 
 sixteen great streets terminating at the sixteen 
 barriers. The Kremlin communicates with the 
 rest of the city by means of five gates : one of 
 which, the Spaskoi, is remarkable for an ancient 
 usage, which compels all persons, whatever their 
 rank may be, who pass through it, to uncover 
 their heads. Tradition declares this to be an act 
 
 * The name Kremlin is supposed to be derived from a 
 Tartar word (Kremle) signifying a rock or fortress. 
 
SPASKOI GATE. 103 
 
 of veneration in remembrance of a miraculous 
 deliverance of the Kremlin from an invasion of the 
 Tartars. On the tower is the following inscription 
 in Latin, " Joannes Vassilii Dei gratia magnus 
 dux Volodimirice, Muscovice, Novogardice, T/e- 
 rice^ Plescovice, Veticice, Ougarice, Termioi^ 
 Volgarice^ et aCiarum^ totiusque Roxioi dotninus^ 
 anno 30 imperii sui, has turves condere jussit^ 
 et statuit Petrus Antonius Solarius Mediolanen- 
 sis, anno nativitatis Domini 1494." 
 
 Entering by this gate we found ourselves within 
 the walls of that Kremlin, of which we had heard 
 and read so much, and which, in former days, I 
 had been accustomed to consider rather as some 
 fairy land of romance, than a spot which there 
 was any probability of my ever visiting. 
 
 The situation of the Kremlin is not perhaps 
 quite so imposing as I had expected, the elevation 
 on which it stands > not being very much higher 
 than many other parts of the city : but it stands 
 well, on the left bank of the Moskwa, and presents 
 a noble coup d'ceil when viewed from the bridge. 
 It contains three irregular squares, in which are 
 the Arsenal, the Senate house, the Treasury or Im- 
 perial Museum, Sec. ; and in the centre are grouped 
 the palace of the Tzars, the imperial palace, the 
 
104 TOWER OF IVAN VELIKOI. 
 
 cathedrals of the Assumption, of the Annuncia- 
 tion, and of St. Michael ; and, rising above all, 
 the great tower or belfry of Ivan Velikoi, (John 
 the Great.) This tower is visible from a great 
 distance, and when the peasant catches the first 
 glimpse of its gilded cross, he uncovers his head, 
 and thanks the Almighty that the goal of his la- 
 bours is almost reached. The tower was built in 
 the year 1600, in the reign of the Tzar Boris Go- 
 donoff, to commemorate a great famine which took 
 place about that time. It is octagonal, 269 feet in 
 height, and surmounted by a gilt cupola, on the 
 top of which is a wooden cross, gilt ; tjvhich has 
 been substituted for that which was stolen by the 
 French, and afterwards abandoned by them in 
 their retreat from Moscow, The height of this 
 cupola is 37 feet, and that of the cross 18 feet 8 
 inches. Underneath the cupola is a Kussian in- 
 scription in gilt letters, commemorating the famine 
 which I mentioned before. 
 
 The tower contains 32 bells: among them is 
 the great bell of Novgorod, which was carried off 
 by the Russians when that city was taken in 1477. 
 and another, which, any where but in the vicinity 
 of t?ie great bell of Moscow, would be called stu- 
 
BELL OP THE TOWER. 105 
 
 pendous.* It was cast in 1817, and the dimen- 
 sions, which I measured as accurately as I could, 
 are as follows, 
 
 Height about 14ft. 
 
 Circumference , 40ft. 
 
 Thickness of rim , 1ft. 5in. 
 
 It is said to weigh 144,000 pounds, f 
 
 We wished very much to hear the sound of this 
 enormous bell, which is suspended in a sort of 
 chamber by itself, but this our guide positively 
 forbade ; as the bell is only rung at Easter, when 
 its heavy toll announces at midnight the feast of 
 the resurrection. The Russians entertain great 
 veneration for their bells, the sound of which is a 
 necessary accompaniment of most of their reli- 
 gious ceremonies. 
 
 At the foot of the tower, surrounded by bulk- 
 heads and scaffolding, stands that wonder of the 
 
 * " It has busts of all the imperial family in bas-relief, 
 which are striking likenesses : added to which are the figures 
 of our Saviour, the Virgin, and John the Baptist ; also a 
 representation of the assumption of the Virgin, with Alexi 
 and Joann, Russian saints, on each side of her. Whatever 
 may be their size, all the church bells throughout the em- 
 pire are fixtures, the clappers alone being moveable, and 
 worked by small lines." Jones, Vol ii. Letter 14. 
 
 f I reckon the Russian pond at 36 lbs. English. Some 
 people call it 40 lbs. : but from all the inquiries that I made, 
 I am almost sure that they are mistaken. 
 
106 THE GREAT BELL. 
 
 world, the great bell of Moscow. Although, like 
 almost every thing grand in Russia, its date 
 is comparatively modem, the history of this bell 
 has been involved in considerable obscurity. So 
 contradictory are the accounts given of it by dif- 
 ferent travellers, that any attempt to reconcile 
 them would be a waste of time. One can only sup- 
 pose, that some of them must have overlooked 
 the real great bell, which lay half buried in the 
 earth, and mistaken one of the bells of the tower 
 for the object of their search. 
 
 As I believe we are the first English travellers 
 who have had an opportunity of seeing the whole 
 bell (for until last year, when it was raised two 
 feet from the ground by means of machinery, a 
 great portion of it was embedded in the ground). 
 I was particularly anxious to examine it tho- 
 roughly, and therfore paid it several visits. Its 
 dimensions I found on measurement to be as 
 follows : — 
 Height of the bell (exclusive of cannons) 20ft. 7in. 
 
 Greatest circumference, , . , . , 68ft. 
 
 Thickness of rim, , 2ft. 
 
 Its weight, according to the inscription which I 
 shall give by and bye, is 10,000 pouds, or 360,000 
 
RAISED BY MACHINERY. 107 
 
 pounds English.* From the lower part of the bell 
 a piece is broken out, measuring about 5ft. Sin. in 
 height and 7ft. in breadth. Through this fracture 
 you enter the bell, which looks on the inside like 
 a high vaulted room of metal. The machinery- 
 broke when they had raised it two feet from the 
 ground : but they intend to make another trial 
 next year when the Emperor comes to Moscow, 
 and will I suppose raise it several feet higher. An 
 amphitheatre of seats has been erected round the 
 place where the bell lies, either for the use of the 
 spectators at the last exhibition, or in anticipation 
 of the next. The clapper which is said to belong 
 to the bell, lies on the other side of the tower ; but 
 its dimensions are so little proportionate to those of 
 the bell itself, that I must doubt whether it ever 
 really belonged to it. I might have ascertained 
 this point, or at least whether the bell ever had any 
 clapper at all, (which I greatly question) if the 
 guard would have let me examine the interior with 
 a candle : but this he obstinately refused. I sup- 
 pose he was afraid of the bell being a third, time 
 the victim of a conflagration. 
 
 * A more distinct idea of the size of this stupendous bell 
 may perhaps be formed by comparing it with the great bell 
 of St. Paul's, which weighs between 11,000 and 12,000 lbs. 
 The bell of the Kremlin therefore is at least 30 times as 
 heavy as that of St. Paul's. 
 
108 INSCRIPTIOKS. 
 
 In the year 1817, the doubts respecting its date 
 were cleared up by the discovery of two inscrip- 
 tions : the second of which seems to have been 
 already known, although the accumulation of dirt 
 had prevented its being legible for many years. 
 The first of these inscriptions runs thus. " Alexis 
 Mikhailovitch, of happy memory^ Autocrate 
 of Great and Little Russia, and of white Rus- 
 sia, ordered that for the Cathedral of the pure and 
 glorious Assumption of the Virgin, a hell of cop- 
 per should he cast, of the weight of 8000 pduds. 
 In the year of the creation 7162, and of the 
 hirth of our Lord Jesus Christ 1654. This 
 hell was first used in the year of the crea- 
 tion 7176, and of Jesus Christ 1668, and served 
 until the year of the creation 7208, and of Jesus 
 Christ 1701, w which year, on the \9th of June, 
 it was cracked hy a great fire, which hroke out 
 in the Kremlin. It was dumh until the year of 
 the creation 7239, and of Jesus Christ 1735." * 
 The second inscription is as follows : — " By an 
 order of the Empress, Autocratess and glorious, 
 Anna Ivanovna,for the glory of God, of the 
 Holy Trinity, and in honour of the Holy Vir- 
 gin, in the Cathedral of her glorious assump- 
 * Guide du Voyageur a Moscou, par G. De Laveau. 
 
GENERAL VIEW OF MOSCOW. 109 
 
 tion the metal of the ancient hell, damaged hy the 
 
 Jire, was re-cast, with the addition of 2,000 
 
 pouds of fresh metal, in tlie year of the world 
 
 1 "^ of the Nativity of our Lord 173. .* the 
 
 fourth year of her Majesty's (/lor ious Reign.'' 
 
 From circumstantial evidence which it would be 
 
 tedious to detail, it now seems tolerably certain 
 
 that the fall which occasioned its second fracture 
 
 tookplace between the years 1 735 and 1 739, and that 
 
 it lay deeply bedded in the ground from that time 
 
 until last year. The history of the bell then may 
 
 be briefly stated thus 
 
 Originally cast in 1654 
 
 First used 1668 
 
 Cracked by a fire 1701 
 
 Re-cast 1735 
 
 Broken by a second fall, I ,«o'- lyqg 
 
 occasioned also by a fire j 
 
 I had often been astonished that travellers, who 
 spoke in raptures of the magnificence of Moscow, 
 seemed unable to explain distinctly in what it con- 
 sisted, but I now quite understand the impossi- 
 bility of conveying by any description, an adequate 
 idea of this beautiful and picturesque city. When 
 
 * The other figures were destroyed by the fracture of 
 the bell. 
 
 L 
 
1 10 COUNTRY ROUND MOSCOW. 
 
 I first surveyed it from the tower of Ivan Velikoi, 
 I felt as I have only felt once before in my life — 
 when I drew back the curtain which veiled the 
 splendours of St. Peter's church at Rome. The 
 beautiful gardens, the splendid palaces, the gilded 
 domes of a hundred churches glittering like balls 
 of fire in the setting sun, the strange contrast of 
 ancient with modern buildings, of the palace with 
 the log hut, presented a spectacle of such stunning 
 interest, that for a few moments I could hardly 
 bring myself to believe that I was gazing on any 
 thing but the " unsubstantial pageant" of a de- 
 lightful dream. Had my fatigues and privations 
 been ten times greater than they were, I should 
 have considered myself repaid for them by being 
 permitted to enjoy that sight. 
 
 Of the appearance which the country round 
 Moscow presents, I feel that I am hardly qualified 
 to speak ; for I was so delighted, after the weary 
 desert through which we had passed, to find a 
 landscape varied by hill and valley and grove, and 
 resembling in some respects the rich scenery of 
 our own England, that I have no doubt I saw 
 beauties which would have disappeared if I had 
 continued to reside long at Moscow. Still in any 
 country the environs of Moscow would be called 
 
*rHE CITY. Ill 
 
 ptetty, although probably not quite deserving the 
 raptures with which I viewed them. 
 
 The city of Moscow has not the most remote 
 resemblance to any European city that I have ever 
 seen. Its circumference is 40 versts, yet in this 
 immense space only about 320,000 souls reside : 
 it may therefore be imagined how large a propor- 
 tion of the ground on which it stands is occupied 
 by gardens, court yards, palaces and churches. 
 Of these last alone there are said to be more than 
 three hundred. All have cupolas either painted 
 some bright colour or gilded. The cupolas, unlike 
 any of those which one sees elsewhere are bulbous, 
 and are terminated by a cross (sometimes standing 
 on a crescent) with several transverse bars, from 
 which are suspended gilded chains connecting 
 them with the cupola. Whether these chains 
 are intended as stays, or merely as ornaments, I 
 could not learn. The walls of the houses are 
 stuccoed and painted with different colours, and 
 the roofs, which generally speaking are nearly 
 flat, are covered with sheet iron, painted red, blue, 
 or green. The river Moskwa winds through the 
 town, and is crossed by a stone bridge, and seve- 
 ral wooden ones, which float on the water. 
 
 On our return to Howard's we entered into an 
 
112 ITALIAN VALET DE PLACE. 
 
 engagement with an Italian Valet de place. For 
 five roubles a day he was to give us the benefit of 
 his services in town or country : and I must say 
 that as far as activity and intelligence went, Leo- 
 poldo amply redeemed his pledge. Of his honesty, 
 or to speak more correctly, his total want of that 
 virtue, I may have occasion to speak hereafter. 
 With the exception however of his being one of 
 the greatest rascals I ever met with, he was not 
 badly qualified for his sibiation : for he was 
 shrewd, active, and more than usually well furnish- 
 ed with local information, which in most instan- 
 ces stood the test of a comparison with the "Guide 
 du Voyageur a Moscou." 
 
 Be this however as it may, we had little choice : 
 for of the only three valets de place to be found 
 at Moscow, one is almost a madman, and another 
 little better than a solemn ass. At least this was 
 the report given of him by some friends of ours 
 who had employed him. We also hired a carriage 
 at 20 roubles a day, and as it is considered here 
 hardly reputable to drive only a pair, we were 
 obliged to hire four horses. Judging by the 
 length of the traces, our coachman's notions of our 
 dignity must have been very extended, for we 
 might certainly have placed another pair of horses 
 
CARRIAGE. 113 
 
 between the leaders and the wheelers without any- 
 crowding. The coachman was dressed, as they 
 generally are, in a blue caftan, a little the worse 
 for wear, and had a handsome well-combed beard. 
 The boy who officiated as postillion rode as usual 
 the off horse : but I do not remember any thing 
 very remarkable in his appearance. We had every 
 reason to be pleased with our coachman, who was 
 always content with a very small gratuity in the 
 shape of drink money. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 "Not Babylon, 
 
 Nor great Alcairo, such magnificence 
 Equall'd in all their glories." 
 
 Paradise Lost. Book I. 
 
 Tuesday, July 19th. The Arsenal is one of the 
 handsomest buildings in the Kremlin. It was 
 nearly destroyed by the fire of 1812, and restored 
 in 1818. In front of this building are ranged the 
 cannon (eight or nine hundred in number) taken 
 from the French during their retreat in 1812. 
 They lie on the ground without carriages. 
 
 There is also an enormous gun, mounted on a 
 carriage, and weighing 83,400 lbs. I measured 
 this gun as accurately as I could ; but as I was 
 obliged to do it by fits and starts, whenever the 
 guard's back was turned, (for I am by no means 
 
GREAT CANNON. 1 15 
 
 sure that he would not have carried me off to the 
 guard house, if he had seen what I was ahout,) 
 I cannot answer for the correctness of the measure- 
 ment. As nearly however as I could calculate, 
 the dimensions were as follows. 
 
 Length 20 feet 
 
 Diameter of bore • . . . 4 feet 
 
 The piece was cast in 1586, (as appears by the 
 inscription) in the reign of Feodore loannovitch, 
 whose figure crowned and holding a sceptre is 
 represented in basso relievo on the cannon. 
 
 There are also two culverins, one of which (cast 
 in 1586) is said to weigh 15,480 lbs. The other 
 cast in the same year) weighs 13,320 lbs.* 
 
 We then visited the cathedral of the Assump- 
 tion, the architecture of which closely resembles 
 the Saxon and Norman architecture of England. 
 This church was begun in 1475 and finished in 
 1479. The walls on the inside are completely 
 covered with colossal paintings of saints : among 
 which is one of the Virgin of Vladimir, painted 
 by St. Luke, that indefatigable but not very scien- 
 tific artist, whose performances are the boast of 
 half the Roman Catholic and Greek churches in 
 
 * One of the Culverins is named Troilus, the other 
 Aspic. (Guide du Voyageur a Moscou.) 
 
1 16 CATHEDRAL OF THE ASSUMPTION. 
 
 Europe. There is also a painting of the Assump- 
 tion of the Virgin, by Peter, first Metropolitan 
 of Moscow. On the head of this figure is a crown 
 adorned with precious stones. In the centre of the 
 church is the spot where the Emperors are crowned, 
 and in front of it a sort of pew for the Patriarch, 
 and two others for the Emperor and Empress. 
 The tombs of the Patriarchs are also here. 
 
 The Sacristy of this church (which we paid five 
 roubles for visiting, at least Leopoldo said so,) 
 contains immense riches in gold and silver vessels 
 and jewels. Among others are — 
 
 Two copies of the Gospels, written in Greek ; 
 and one presented in 1693 by the Tsaritsa Natalie 
 Kirilovna, the binding of which is splendidly 
 adorned with jewels, said to be worth 200,000 
 roubles, or more than £8000. 
 
 A large silver chandelier, weighing 7201bs. 
 
 Two large boilers and a tub of silver, intended 
 for the preparation of holy oil, presented by Cathe- 
 rine II, weighing 700 lbs. 
 
 Magnificent robes of cloth of gold, adorned 
 with rubies. 
 
 Amber vases made by the Empress Maria Feo* 
 dorovna. Two cups brought from Novgorod by 
 John the Terrible: one of oriental onyx, the other 
 
IMPERIAL TREASURY. Il7 
 
 of jasper adorned with rubies, worth 25,000 roubles. 
 
 A golden cross, adorned with precious stones, 
 which according to tradition, was borne by Peter 
 the Great at the battle of Pultowa, and saved his 
 life by turning a ball, which would otherwise have 
 struck him. 
 
 The golden crowns used at the marriage of the 
 Tzars. 
 
 The plain bone spoon used by Peter, the first 
 Metropolitan of Moscow. 
 
 We next visited the Imperial Treasury, which 
 is kept in the new Arsenal, a modern building, 
 the front of which is ornamented with Corinthian 
 columns. A handsome staircase leads to the first 
 floor, which is divided into five large rooms. In 
 one of these are portraits of several of the 
 Tzars, and of Peter the Great, Catherine I & II, 
 Elizabeth, &c. 
 
 The room which contains the crown jewels pre- 
 sents a scene of splendour, more like the fabled 
 palaces raised by the magic of Aladdin's lamp, 
 than any thing I could have conceived of earthly 
 grandeur. The eyes are almost blinded by the 
 glitter of diamonds, rubies, and other precious 
 stones. The crowns rest on cushions placed on 
 pedestals, and the thrones are ranged close to the 
 
1 18 IMPERIAL TREASURV. 
 
 walls. Behind curtains are kept the rich robes^ 
 worn by the different sovereigns at their coronations. 
 
 The most remarkable objects in this room are,— 
 
 The crown of Vladimir Monomaque, made of 
 gold fillagree, surmounted by a cross of the same 
 metal, and adorned with precious stones. This 
 crown was employed in the coronation of the 
 Russian princes from the year 1116 to the reign 
 of the Tzars, John and Peter Alexiewitch. 
 
 A second crown of the same monarch. 
 
 The crown of the kingdom of Casan, very rich. 
 
 The crown of Astrakhan. 
 
 The crown of Siberia. 
 
 The crown of Peter the Great, containing 847 
 diamonds and an enormous ruby. 
 
 The crown of John Alexiewitch, adorned with 
 eagles and other designs in diamonds, and sur- 
 mounted by a very large ruby. 
 
 The crown of Catherine I, containing 2536 
 diamonds, and other precious stones. 
 
 The crown of Georgia. 
 
 The crown of Poland, of plain gold. 
 
 The imperial globe of Vladimir Monomaque. 
 His sceptre, adorned with 268 diamonds, 360 
 rubies, and 15 emeralds. 
 
 The sceptre of Peter the Great. 
 
IMPERIAL TREASURY. 119 
 
 The sceptre of the last King of Poland. 
 
 The throne of Vladimir Monomaque, of walnut. 
 
 The throne of Michael Teodorovitch, adorned 
 with 8824 turquoises. 
 
 A Greek throne of ivory. 
 
 The throne of the Tzars John and Peter Alexie- 
 witch, made at Hamburg; with a recess at the 
 back covered with cloth of gold, behind which 
 the regent Sophia is said to have placed herself in 
 order to dictate their answers to the two young 
 Tzars. 
 
 There are also many hundreds of gold and 
 silver vessels : and among them some curious 
 mountains in silver; out of the tops of which 
 issued the smoke of perfumes placed within, and 
 burnt during the imperial banquets. 
 
 I have seen the famous tomb of Carlo Borro- 
 meo at Milan, the shrine of the three Kings of 
 Cologne, the treasury of Loretto, and those of 
 most of the Kings of Europe ; and what perhaps 
 is not unworthy of being compared with them, 
 the warehouse of Kundell and Bridge, in London : 
 but I am guilty of no exaggeration when I say 
 that I truly believe if the whole of them were col- 
 lected into one place, they would fall short of the 
 display of jewels and gold in the Imperial Trea- 
 HViry at Moscow. 
 
120 SPARROW HILLS. 
 
 In the armoury we saw — 
 
 Statues of wax as large as life, mounted on 
 horseback, and clothed in pieces of armour, the 
 date and history of which is involv'ed in obscurity. 
 
 The imperial standard, used at the coronation 
 and interment of the Emperor. The field is yel- 
 low, with the arms of all the provinces em^ 
 broidered on it. 
 
 The helmet of Alexander Nevsky. 
 
 The sabre of the Greek Emperor Constantine. 
 
 The sword of Stanislaus Augustus, bearing the 
 date of 1764. 
 
 The litter on which Charles XII of Sweden was 
 borne at the battle of Pultowa. 
 
 There is also shewn an immense model of a 
 palace, which the architect BajanoiF, in the reign 
 of Catherine, proposed to build on the Kremlin, 
 of dimensions sufficient to embrace its whole ex^ 
 tent. They say that this model cost 60,000 roubles. 
 
 In the evening we drove to the Sparrow Hills, 
 from which the French army first beheld Moscow. 
 Their feelings on this occasion are beautifully 
 describe by Captain Labaume. " Whilst our men 
 were busied in constructing a bridge to pass the 
 Moskwa, the etat major, about eleven o'clock, took 
 "up a position on a lofty hill, from which we be- 
 
FIRST VIEW OF MOSCOW BY THE FRENCH. 121 
 
 held a thousand gilded and rounded steeples, 
 glittering in the rays of the sun, and looking at a 
 distance like so many luminous globes. We were 
 enchanted at this beautiful sight, which^^e recol- 
 lection of the melancholy scenes hitherto witnessed 
 by us, rendered still more gratifying. Not one 
 of us could restrain his joy : but all with one voice 
 raised a cry of " Moscow, Moscow " — At this 
 exclamation all ran in crowds to the summit of the 
 hill ; and each discovered fresh wonders every 
 moment. One admired a magnificent chateau on 
 our left, tlie architecture of which recalled to our 
 minds that of the Eastern nations ; another gazed 
 v/ith delight on a palace or a church, but all were 
 struck with astonishment at the magnificent pic- 
 ture presented by this great city, which stands in 
 the midst of a fertile plain. The Moskwa flows 
 through smiling meadows, and having fertilized the 
 country, passes through the capital, separating an 
 immense group of houses built of wood, of stone 
 and of brick, and constructed in a style in which 
 were united the different sorts of architecture pe- 
 culiar to every nation. The walls painted of dif- 
 ferent colours, the cupolas gilded or covered with 
 lead or slates, the terraces of the palaces, the 
 obelisks, and above all, the spires, presented to 
 
 M 
 
122 RUSSIAN CRIMINALS. 
 
 our eyes the reality of one of those famous cities 
 of Asia which hitherto we had believed to exist 
 only in the rich imagination of the Arabian poets." 
 
 The view from these hills is indeed all that La- 
 baume describes ; and we sat for hours gazing on the 
 beautiful city. On the Sparrow hills they have 
 laid the foundation of a church, to be dedicated 
 to the Saviour, in commemoration of the retreat 
 of the French : but the work seems to be all but 
 abandoned, as, comparing the description which 
 Jones gives of it in 1 823, with what we ourselves 
 saw, we could not discover that much progress 
 had been made. 
 
 Considerably to the left is a small village of 
 wooden huts, in which those miserable beings who 
 have suffered the punishment of the knout are 
 confined previously to being sent to Siberia. 
 We had met some of them on the road, chained 
 together and strictly guarded. Enemy as I am, 
 and always shall be, to the infliction of capital 
 punishment, except in cases of extreme atrocity, 
 I must acknowledge that there is more straight- 
 forward honesty in condemning a man at once to 
 the gallows, than in sending him to linger out a 
 few miserable years in a place where he is sure to 
 die at last of a broken heart. But the subject is 
 too revolting to be dwelt upon. 
 
ROADS NEAR MOSCOW. 123 
 
 The roads in the immediate vicinity of Moscow 
 are, if we may judge from the specimen we have 
 had to day, as much in a state of nature, as the 
 most anti- innovation philosopher could desire. 
 Our coachman made the best of a very bad affair, 
 and guided us with great skill through the laby- 
 rinth of ruts and hillocks : but even his adroitness 
 could not insure us against floundering now and 
 then in a miniature bog, or descending into a rut 
 with a shock which made the springs of our car- 
 riage groan most pitiably. 
 
 I was much amused this evening by the gravity 
 with which one of our English friends asked me 
 whether I thought Moscow was a place which " a 
 man of figure" might venture to acknowledge ha- 
 ving visited.* With great sincerity I assured him 
 that of all places in Europe, it was probably the 
 least in danger of being haunted by the herd of 
 " picturesque tourists " one of whom I have heard 
 actually travelled from Paris to Naples without 
 stopping to see any thing except the cascade at 
 Terni, which he inspected by the light of a lan- 
 tern elevated on the prongs of a pitchfork. 
 
 * Perhaps I may never meet this gentleman again ; but 
 if this little book should ever fall into his hands, I hope 
 he will not be displeased at my taking the only opportunity 
 in my power, of expressing the pleasure which his kind man- 
 ner, and original style of conversation always afforded us. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 " Chi va lontan dalla sua patria vede 
 Cose da quel die gia credea Jontane ; 
 Che narrandole poi, non se gli crede." 
 
 Orlando Furioso. Canto vii. 
 
 Wednesday, July 20th. This morning we went 
 to the cathedral of the Assumption, to see one of 
 the processions of the Greek church. The crowd 
 was one of the most dense I have ever seen, and 
 the smell proportionably strong. The Patriarch 
 of Moscow, attended by a large body of the Cler- 
 gy, all very richly robed, and accompanied by 
 four Priests, tottering under the weight of an 
 enormous picture (one of St. Luke's performances 
 I suppose) walked from the Cathedral round the 
 space in front of the Kremlin, and entered the 
 church of St, Basil, where a very fine service was 
 
*rME GREEK CHURCH. 125 
 
 chanted. There was much of this that appeared 
 like mummery to us ; but I could not help respec- 
 ting the feelings of devotion, however mistaken, 
 which were displayed by all ranks. Might we not 
 learn one lesson at least from these poor people ; 
 not to be ashamed of openly professing our attach- 
 ment to that religion, which we believe to be 
 founded on the pure word of God ? Why of all 
 nations who profess Christianity, our countrymen 
 alone should be ashamed to acknowledge their 
 attachment to their master's service, I never could 
 understand : but so it is that while the Eoman 
 Catholic and the Greek stand boldly forward and 
 declare themselves faithful members of their res- 
 pective churches, the English Protestant in too 
 many instances acts as if he thought a hearty par- 
 ticipation in the Public service of God, fit only 
 for the lowest of the people. 
 
 The Greek Church like that of Rome, main- 
 tains that there are seven sacraments; baptism, 
 the eucharist, repentance, ordination, marriage, 
 chrism (or the anointing with ointment soon after 
 baptism, by which the gift of the Holy Ghost is 
 supposed to be conferred,) and the anointing the 
 sick with oil. Confession is enjoined as a religi- 
 ous duty. In one very material particular the 
 
126 PRIESTS. 
 
 Greek differs from the Roman Catholic Church, 
 namely, in not refusing the cup to the laity. 
 The bread is broken into small portions, which 
 are steeped in the wine and given to the communi- 
 cants. Jones says that a little warm water is mix- 
 ed with the wine, probably in reference to the 
 blood and water which flowed from the side of 
 our Saviour. Images are not allowed in the church- 
 es, but prostration before pictures is permitted. 
 
 The Russian crosses himself frequently during 
 his prayers, and on every extraordinary occasion ; 
 but in order, I suppose, to distinguish himself 
 from the Romanist, he draws his finger from the 
 right to the left shoulder. He also bows when- 
 ever he passes a church or sacred picture, and 
 sometimes prostrates himself Candles are em- 
 ployed in almost all their ceremonies, and lamps 
 are kept burning before the pictures of the saints. 
 
 Their secular priests are permitted to marry ; 
 but I believe the Bishops are always chosen from 
 among the Monks. I was much struck with the 
 appearance of the long hair which hung down the 
 backs of the younger priests : that of the boys 
 who attended on the service was as soft as the 
 finest silk, and dressed with very great care. The 
 monks wear high black caps, the top of which 
 
PALACE OF THE TZAKS. 127 
 
 terminates in a black veil which hangs down the 
 back : in this solemn head gear, with their black 
 robes and long beards they resemble enchanters 
 rather than the priests of a christian church. 
 What the monks do with themselves I cannot tell, 
 but we certainly hardly ever met them lounging 
 about the streets as they do in Roman Catholic 
 countries. 
 
 We next visited the palace of the Tzars, which was 
 built in 1487 in the reign of Joan Yassiel witch III. 
 by the Italian Architect Aleviso. Adjoining it 
 is the Audience Chamber, or angular palace as it 
 is called. This building was begun in 1487 by 
 the Architect Marco, and finished by Pietro Anto- 
 nio in 1491. It consists of one vaulted room, 
 with a gilt pillar in the centre which expands itself 
 at the top into four arches : across each vault is 
 stretched a twisted gilt cord. In this chamber 
 the Sovereign receives the authorities after his 
 coronation in the Cathedral. The room is hung 
 with crimson velvet embroidered with gold : es- 
 cutcheons with the arms of the different govern- 
 ments of Russia are hung on the wall. Opposite 
 the throne is a balcony, from which the female 
 members of the imperial family are permitted to 
 witness the ceremonies which take place after the 
 
1^8 CATHJEDRAL OP THfi ANNUNCIATION. 
 
 coronation in the Cathedral. This hall was al* 
 most entirely destroyed by the fire in 1812 r but 
 has since been restored. 
 
 Our next visit was to another of the churches 
 in the Kremlin, the Cathedral of the Annuciation ; 
 the nine gilded cupolas of which form a very 
 splendid group. Popular tradition asserts that the 
 cross which surmounts the centre cupola is of solid 
 gold ; but whether any measures have ever been 
 taken to ascertain the truth of this story, I could 
 not find otit. The Russians are so lavish in the 
 iise of gold and silver in the decoration of their 
 churches, that such an instance of their magnifi- 
 cence is by no means impossible. 
 
 The church stands on the highest ground in the 
 iKremlin, and on the side next the river has a glaz* 
 ed vestibule, from which there is a view of the 
 Sparrow hills. This vestibule is terminated by the 
 palace on one side, and on the other by a flight of 
 steps, which used to lead to an orchard ornament^ 
 ed with basins filled with fish. This orchard ex- 
 isted as late as the reign of the Empress Catherine 
 il. The churchy which is approached by a hand^ 
 some covered staircase, is full of fresco paintings^ 
 representing scripture subjects, and interspersed 
 with portraits of ancient philosophers^ each of 
 
FEELINGS AT MOSCOW. 129 
 
 whom is appropriately labelled, lest he should he 
 mistaken for one of the Saints, of whom there is 
 also a large company : the walls of the vestibule 
 are similarly ornamented. On one of the exterior 
 walls of the church is a fresco painting of the An- 
 nunciation. The date of all these pictures is a- 
 bout the year 1508, but they were retouched in 
 1770 by order of Catherine. 
 
 This cathedral contains four chapels, in which 
 are some valuable reliques ; but our eyes for the 
 last two or three days have been so satiated with 
 splendid sights, that we feel almost inclined to 
 join in the wish expressed by our friend " the man 
 of figure" that he may never see a gilt candlestick 
 or an embroidered robe again as long as he lives. 
 I would gladly remain two or three weeks at Mos- 
 cow to wander about where and how I pleased, 
 among her gardens and palaces ; and to ride into 
 the country and contemplate her beauties from 
 different points of view ; and to study as closely 
 as I could the character of her inhabitants : but 
 this my limited time will not allow, and I must 
 be content with seeing as much as I can under the 
 auspices of our Italian, who leads us about from 
 place to place, and I more than suspect, pockets 
 at least half the money which we give him for dis- 
 
130 SIMOKOFSKOl MONASTERY. 
 
 tribution among the attendants at the palaces and 
 churches : for those functionaries look any thing 
 but pleased when we take our leave of them at the 
 door. However he takes care that we shall make 
 the best use of our time ; and whether our roubles 
 find their way into his pocket, or that of the im- 
 perial and ecclesiastical servants, is to us a matter 
 of comparatively little moment. I believe the 
 fellow thinks we suspect him ; for he is more pro- 
 digal than ever of his assurances that we possess 
 in him a treasure of integrity, as well as of wit, 
 politeness, and, above all, of Antiquarian research. 
 In the evening we went to the Simonofskoi Con- 
 vent, and heard some good chanting and singing. 
 There was one most magnificent bass voice almost 
 equal I should think to that of Lablache himself. 
 This monastery, dedicated to St. Simon, contains 
 five churches, the largest of which seemed rich ; 
 but the music was so fine that we had little incli- 
 nation to attend to any thing else as long as it 
 lasted, or rather as long as we had strength to 
 stand, for no seats are allowed in the Russian 
 churches, and the chanting we were told would 
 continue until midnight. When we were thor- 
 oughly fatigued by the labour of standing, and 
 the heat of the crowded church, we ascended the 
 
CLIMATE OP MOSCOW. 131 
 
 gothic tower which stands over the refectory, and 
 were delighted with the most extensive view we 
 have yet enjoyed of Moscow and the surrounding 
 country. 
 
 Whether the air of this place is really more pure 
 than that of St. Petersburg, or whether we have been 
 particularly fortunate in having had fine weather 
 since we came to Moscow, I do not know, but 
 certainly we feel a much greater elasticity of spi- 
 rits, and are more inclined to be pleased with all 
 that we see. My own feelings towards the two 
 capitals may be told in very few words. I. am glad 
 that I have seen St. Petersburgh, but never wish 
 to re-visit it. To Moscow I should like to return 
 again and again. But this is so much a matter of 
 opinion, that one of our acquintances has actually 
 been lamenting that he was ever tempted to quit 
 the opera and cafes of St. Petersburg for a place 
 so dull and uninteresting as Moscow : I certainly 
 cannot understand his feelings and I have no 
 doubt he is equally puzzled to comprehend mine. 
 I merely mention this to show how little reliance 
 is to be placed on the statement of any traveller 
 respecting the merits of a place or an institu- 
 tion, even when he relates faithfully the facts 
 which have fallen under his own observation, and 
 is most anxious not to mislead his readers. 
 
132 CHURCH OF ST. BASIL. 
 
 Thursday July 21. We went to the Cathedral 
 of St. Michael in the Kremlin. — This church, 
 which was founded in 1333 and rebuilt in 1507, 
 contains the tombs of all the Tzars down to Peter 
 the Great, who is buried in the fortress at St. Peters- 
 burg. The sepulcres present little worth notice 
 independent of historical reminiscences.* The 
 nine gilded cupolas of this cathedral and the 
 church of St. Saviour are among the most con- 
 spicuous objects of the Kremlin. 
 
 The church of Vassili Blagennoi (Basil the bles- 
 sed) stands in the Krasnoi ploschtad, or beautiful 
 place, close to the walls of the Kremlin, and is a 
 conspicuous object from most parts of the city. 
 It is a most eccentric looking structure, and in 
 point of taste might almost rival that beautiful 
 production of our own age and country, the pa- 
 villion at Brighton. Every cupola presents a dif- 
 ferent form ; one is like a pine-apple, another 
 a bee-hive, another an inverted china tea-cup, and 
 so on through every variety of ugliness and ab- 
 surdity : but it must have been thought a wonder- 
 ful effort of art in its day, for tradition records, 
 that the ferocious tyrant who founded it ordered 
 the architect to be deprived of his eyes, that this 
 
 * The tombs of the Tzars were brutally violated by the 
 French troops in 1812. 
 
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. 133 
 
 church might remain for ever the only specimen 
 of his skill. 
 
 To our great disappointment we received to day 
 a note from the governor of the foundling hospi- 
 tal, expressing his regret that in consequence of 
 the hospital being under repair, all the children 
 had been removed into the country, and therefore 
 that he could not gratify our curiosity by shewing 
 us the institution. This was particularly annoy- 
 ing, as we had purposely abstained from visiting 
 the foundling hospital at St. Petersburg, because 
 we had been told that this was on a much more 
 splendid scale. 
 
 The hospital, or imperial house of education, as 
 it is called, was founded by Catherine 11. in the 
 year 1762. An avenue of trees leads to this very 
 magnificent building, the extent of which may be 
 imagined when it is known that it contains 2228 
 windows, and that 3000 persons are lodged with- 
 in the walls. The boys, as soon as they are old 
 enough to be instructed, are taught Russian, Latin, 
 German, and French, as well as history, geogra- 
 phy, mathematics, &c. When their studies are 
 completed, some of them are sent to the academy 
 of medicine, and others are qualified for holding 
 situations in the public offices. The girls are 
 
 M 
 
134 FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. 
 
 taught music and dancing, in addition to the 
 other branches of education, and are generally 
 sent out as governesses to different parts of the 
 empire, with an understanding however, that they 
 shall not settle in either of the capitals. Besides 
 this, many of the children are sent out as appren- 
 tices to tradesmen in the city. In the year 1805, 
 an addition was made to the establishment, the 
 children of indigent parents in the city being ad- 
 mitted, subject to certain conditions.* 
 
 In the hospital are two infirmaries, one for the 
 children, containing 120 beds, and the other, con- 
 taining 20 beds, for the servants of the house. 
 The number of children attached to this founda- 
 tion appears by tables lately published to be as 
 follows. 
 
 BOYS. GIRLS. TOTAL. 
 
 In the house 504 651 1155 
 
 In the city, at the houses 1 ^^g ^ 
 01 their parents, .... J 
 
 Apprentices, at the uni-"i g. .o 107 
 
 versity, &c. &c J 
 
 In the villages, 4294 5023 9317 
 
 Grand total, 5650 6425 12075 
 
 * These Children are allowed to board at the houses of 
 their parents. 
 
MILITARY EXERCISE HOUSE. 135 
 
 The ground below the Kremlin is laid out very 
 prettily in walks and green slopes, among which 
 we strolled pleasantly enough whilst we were 
 waiting for our carriage to convey us to the ban- 
 ker's (Mr. Marc, a Jew,) who it seems goes out 
 every day at 12 o'clock, carrying, as one of his 
 clerks informed us with great naivete, " de key 
 of de money chest vid him," so we were obliged 
 to defer our business until the next day. 
 
 The military exercise house which we next visi- 
 ted, is one of the most remarkable buildings that 
 have been erected since the fire. It was begun in 
 the reign of the late Emperor Alexander, and com- 
 pleted within a very few months. The length of 
 the building inside is 560 feet, its breadth 170, 
 and the height 43, and what is most surprising, 
 the roof rests entirely on the walls, without the 
 support of pillars. 
 
 On our return we went to see a convent of nuns, 
 who, unlike the religieuses in Roman Catholic 
 countries, were chanting in the midst of the church 
 without being separated from the congregation by 
 any sort of screen. They certainly had no beau- 
 ty to conceal, for I think I never saw human beings 
 who so much resembled a band of resuscitated 
 corpses. What suspicions we excited I know not, 
 
136 CONVENT. 
 
 but one, who from her age and dignified bearing, 
 might have been the lady abbess of this ill-favour- 
 ed community fixed her dead grey eyes on us with 
 so pertinacious a stare, that I really began to feel 
 my flesh creep, as if a lifeless body had risen to 
 reproach us for intruding on its charnel house, and 
 silly as it may seem, I will confess that I breathed 
 more freely when we were fairly clear of this scene 
 of ghostly revelry. 
 
 In the evening we drove to Peterskoe, an impe- 
 rial palace, which stands about four versts from 
 the city.* It is a large ugly red building, only 
 remarkable for having been occupied by Buona- 
 parte in 1812. In front of the palace is a plain 
 on which the French troops encamped.f 
 
 I must again quote the interesting narrative of 
 Captain Labaume, in order to give my reader 
 some idea of what the French did and suffered in 
 that atrocious campaign. 
 
 " On the 15th September the corps quitted the 
 
 * He told me it was the ancient chateau of Peterskoe, 
 where the Sovereigns of Russia were accustomed to reside 
 during the days preceding the ceremony of their coronation. 
 
 Labaume. Book V. 
 
 f The thirteenth and fifteenth divisions encamped around 
 the chateau of Peterskoe. 
 
 Id. Ibid. 
 
labaume's narrative. 137 
 
 village where it had been encamped, and marched 
 to Moscow. As we approached this city, we 
 perceived that it had no walls, and that a simple 
 parapet of earth was the only work which marked 
 the outer enclosure. Thus far there had been no- 
 thing to prove that the capital was inhabited : the 
 road through which we passed was so deserted that 
 we saw, not only no Muscovites, but not even a 
 Erench soldier. Our anxiety increased when we 
 perceived a thick smoke, rising in the form of a 
 column from the centre of the city. At first we 
 supposed that it merely arose from some ware- 
 houses which the Russians according to their usual 
 practice, had burnt when they abandoned the 
 place. Still the narrative of the inhabitant * of 
 Moscow excited our fears, and a fatal presentiment 
 
 * A well dressed man, coming from Moscow, advanced 
 towards us * * * '* I do not come hither" said he "to ob- 
 serve your manoeuvres, or to give you false information ; 
 I am an unfortunate merchant." * * * "To-day at noon 
 your Emperor entered Moscow, and found the streets de- 
 serted ; some men who had escaped from prison, and a few 
 prostitutes, are the only beings who disturb its solitude. 
 Our nobles have determined to leave you nothing but a city 
 without inhabitants, which they intend to give up to the 
 flames. If you doubt this, know that Count Rastopchin, 
 our Governor, sat out for Vladimir this morning, a few 
 hours before the entry of the French ; and that he has se- 
 veral times threatened to have Moscow set on fire, if the 
 French approached the city." 
 
 Labaume, BooK V. 
 
138 labaume's narrative. 
 
 filled our minds, that perhaps his predictions were 
 about to be accomplished. We did not enter the 
 first barrier that presented itself to our view, but 
 wheeling to the left continued to march quite round 
 the city." 
 
 " Following the orders of Prince Eugene, I pro- 
 ceeded to place our troops in position, to guard 
 the great Petersburg road ; the thirteenth and fif- 
 teenth divisions encamped round the chateau of 
 Peterskoe ; the fourteenth established itself at the 
 village between Moscow and this chateau. The 
 light cavalry commanded by Count Ornano, was 
 a league in advance of the village. Having occu- 
 pied these positions, the Viceroy entered Moscow, 
 and established his quarters at the palace of Prince 
 Momonow, in the street of St. Petersburg. This 
 faubourg, which was assigned to our corps, was 
 one of the most beautiful in the city, being entirely 
 composed of superb edifices and houses, which 
 although built of wood, appeared to us of a sur- 
 prizing extent and magnificence. The magistrates 
 having quitted their posts, every one established 
 himself where he pleased." 
 
 " Moscow had been since the evening before, in 
 the occupation of our troops ; yet neither soldiers 
 nor inhabitants were seen in the faubourg where 
 
labaume's narrative. 139 
 
 we were to establish ourselves, so great was the 
 extent of the city, and so completely was it depo- 
 pulated. The most intrepid spirits were shaken 
 by this scene of desolation. Whenever we took 
 possession of a fresh quarter, men bearing lights 
 went before to reconnoitre, and to examine the 
 palaces and churches : but nothing was found, ex- 
 cept children, old men, and wounded Russian offi- 
 cers in the one ; and in the other a thousand lights, 
 burning in honour of their patron saints, whom 
 the pious Muscovites, as it appeared, had not yet 
 ceased to invoke. As we approached the centre 
 of the city, and especially the neighbourhood of 
 the bazaar, we began to perceive some of the inha- 
 bitants assembled round the Kremlin. With eyes 
 full of tears, these imfortunate creatiures were 
 gazing on the citadel, which, until it was taken 
 from them the night before by our advanced guard 
 commanded by the King of Naples, they had al- 
 ways considered impregnable." 
 
 " We saw there a crowd of soldiers who were 
 publicly selling and bartering the property which 
 they had pillaged, no sentinels having been placed, 
 except over the magazines of provisions. As we 
 advanced we met a still greater number of soldiers, 
 carrying on their backs pieces of cloth, loaves of 
 
140 labaume's narrative. 
 
 sugar, and whole bales of merchandize. We learnt 
 from some of the fusileers of the guard, that the 
 smoke which we had seen on entering the city, 
 proceeded from a vast building (called the ex- 
 change) filled with merchandize, to which the Rus- 
 sians had set fire when they retired. Our men, 
 thinking the fire accidental, had at first tried to 
 extinguish it, but when they found that it had been 
 done by order of the government, and that all the 
 pumps had been removed to prevent the possibility 
 of our extinguishing the fire, they left the building 
 to its fate." 
 
 "A natural curiosity urged me forward. The far- 
 ther I advanced, the more I found the avenues of 
 the exchange choked by soldiers and beggars, who 
 were carrying off the most precious effects. I pe- 
 netrated at length to the interior of the building ; 
 but it was no longer that edifice so renowned for 
 its magnificence ; it was now nothing more than 
 one vast furnace, from all sides of which burning 
 rafters were continually falling. The soldiers, 
 standing under the porches, were busily engaged 
 in sharing their booty. Not a sound was heard 
 but the crackling of the flames, the noise of break- 
 ing open doors, and from time to time a horrible 
 crash as portions of the roof fell in. Cottons, 
 
labaume's narrative. 141 
 
 muslins, velvets, the richest stuffs of Europe and 
 Asia, were burning fiercely ; and in the cellars 
 below, sugar, oil, resin, and vitriol were consuming 
 together, and sending out torrents of flame through 
 the thick gratings. As the weather was very calm, 
 we hoped that the capital would have to deplore 
 only the loss of the exchange ; but on the morrow 
 (16th September) at break of day, what was our 
 horror at finding that the fire was at the four cor- 
 ners of the city ; and that the wind, blowing fu- 
 riously, was scattering flaming brands in every 
 direction. * * * * " 
 
 " A great portion of the population of Moscow, 
 terrified at our arrival, had remained concealed in 
 the interior of the houses ; from which they came 
 out the moment the fire reached their asylum. 
 These unfortunate creatures were all trembling and 
 unable to utter a word. Some of them were laden 
 with their most precious effects ; but those who 
 had most feeling, thought only of saving their 
 relatives. On one side might be seen a son carrying 
 off his sick father ; on another women shedding 
 torrents of tears over the infants whom they bore 
 in their arms. The bigger children followed them, 
 endeavouring to keep up with their steps, and cry- 
 ing piteously on their mothers. The old men, 
 
142 labaume's narrative. 
 
 broken down by grief more than by years, were 
 seldom able to follow their families, and many of 
 them lay down to die near the house where they 
 were born." 
 
 " The fire, continuing its ravages, had soon reach- 
 ed the fairest quarters of the city. In a moment 
 all those beautiful palaces which we had admired 
 for the elegance of their architecture and the taste 
 of their furniture, were consumed by the violence 
 of the flames. Their superb fronts, ornamented 
 with bas-reliefs and statues, fell with a crash on 
 the ruins of their colums. The churches also fell, 
 and with them those magnificent domes which we 
 had seen the night before glittering with gold and 
 silver. The hospitals, which contained more than 
 twenty thousand sick and wounded, were soon on 
 fire, and a frightful catastrophe followed. Almost 
 all these unfortunate wretches perished ; and the 
 few who still breathed were seen dragging their 
 bodies half burnt under the smoking ashes, whilst 
 others, groaning under a heap of corpses, with dif- 
 ficulty raised them that they might endeavour 
 once more to see the light of day. * * * * The 
 general received orders to quit Moscow ; and this 
 was the signal for the most imbridled licence. No- 
 thing excited the cupidity of the soldiers so much 
 
labaume's narrative. 143 
 
 as the Cathedral of St. Michael, in which the ear- 
 ly Emperors of Kussia are buried. A false tra- 
 dition prevailed that great riches were concealed 
 there. In this belief the soldiers ransacked the 
 sepulcres of the Tzars, but found nothing except 
 stone coffins, covered with red velvet, and having 
 very thin silver plates, on which were inscribed 
 the names of the Tzars, the day of their birth, and 
 that of their death." 
 
 "Furious at their disappointment, they rummaged 
 the coffins, profaned the ashes of the dead, and 
 tore away the offerings consecrated by piety.* * * * 
 With the cries and groans of the unhappy inhabi- 
 tants were mingled the howling of dogs, which 
 being chained before the gates of the palaces, were 
 unable to escape the flames. * * * *" 
 
 "The fourth corps having received orders to quit 
 Moscow, we marched (17th September) towards 
 Peterskoe, where our divisions were encamped. 
 It was at that moment that I perceived a spectacle 
 at once terrible and touching ; a crowd of the 
 wretched inhabitants were dragging on miserable 
 carriages all that they had been able to save from 
 their burning houses, and, as the soldiers had 
 taken away their horses, men, and even women, 
 were seen harnessed to these carts, on which they 
 
144 labaume's narrative. 
 
 had placed an infirm mother, or a paralytic old 
 man. Children almost naked followed these in- 
 teresting groups ; melancholy, so unusual at their 
 age, was imprinted on their faces ; and if the 
 soldiers approached them they ran weeping to 
 throw themselves into the arms of their mothers." 
 " October 18th. Any one, who was not a wit- 
 ness of the abandonment of Moscow by the 
 French army, can have but a feeble idea of what the 
 Greek and Roman armies were when they evacuated 
 Troy and Carthage. * The long files of carriages, 
 which extended three or four deep, for several 
 leagues, loaded with the enormous booty which 
 the soldiers had snatched from the flames ; the 
 Russian peasants, leading their wives and children, 
 the baggage waggons filled with trophies, among 
 which where seen the Turkish and Persian stan- 
 dards taken from the palace of the Tzars, closed the 
 march of an army, which, but for the imprudence 
 of its chief, might one day have boasted of having 
 reached the extreme limits of Europe. " 
 
 * Napoleon had quitted Peterskoe and returned to the 
 Kremlin, which he continued to occupy until the final re- 
 treat. The French army were in possession of Moscow 
 from September 14th, to October 18th. The immediate 
 cause of their evacuation of Moscow was an attack made 
 by the Russians on the division of the King of Naples. 
 Napoleon on receiving the intelligence of this affair, fearing 
 that his retreat would be cut off altogether, gave orders for 
 immediately abandoning the city. 
 
RUSSIAN VANITY. 145 
 
 I ought perhaps to apologize for this long ex- 
 tract, hut the description which it gives of the 
 miseries attendant on the hurning of Moscow is 
 so beautiful that I could not forbear translating 
 it. What the appearance of the city was before 
 the fire I cannot tell, but I should think the gen- 
 eral substitution of stone or stuccoed houses for 
 those of wood must add greatly to the magnifi- 
 cence of its appearance, r am inclined to think 
 that what Labaume says about the destruction of 
 the churches must be greatly exaggerated, for a 
 great number of them, especially in the Kremlin, 
 we were told sufiered very little from the fire, 
 which raged most furiously among the wooden 
 buildings. The only vestige which we saw of the 
 catastrophe, was the house of poor Rastopchin, 
 whom Russian vanity has condemned to exile, 
 because they wish it to be believed that their own 
 prowess could have expelled the enemy, without 
 the sacrifice of Moscow. To such a height has 
 this absurd feeling risen, that we were told they 
 are actually at this moment, erecting an obelisk 
 to commemorate what they are pleased to call the 
 victory of Borodino. 
 
 On our return we visited the summer gardens, 
 but they contain nothing, I think, worth describing, 
 
 N 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ** Cushions, leaden spoons, irons of a doit, doublets that 
 hangmen would bury with those that wore them." 
 
 Shakspeare, 
 
 Friday, July 22nd. We went to the Gos- 
 tennoi Dvor, or great Bazaar, which stands on one 
 side of the square called the beautiful place. 
 Here we purchased some Torjok and Casan slip- 
 pers, very beautifully embroidered with gold and 
 silver. The shops are on the same plan as the 
 bazaars at St. Petersburg, but more numerous I 
 think, and more dirty, and the '* barkers" not con- 
 tent with exercising " their most sweet voices," 
 all but pushed us into their shops. Some of the 
 creatures were absurd enough, bowing almost to 
 the ground, whilst their long hair fell over their 
 
MONUMENT OP POJAVSKIJ AND MININ. 147 
 
 greasy faces, and their tongues poured forth a flood 
 of shop eloquence, which they never seemed to 
 suspect was quite unintelligible to us. 
 
 In the centre of the Beautiful Place, is a monu- 
 ment erected in 1818 by the Emperor Alexander 
 to the memory of Prince Pojavskij and Citizen 
 Minin, two worthies who in 1610 led their fellow 
 citizens from Nijni Novgorod to Moscow, and 
 expelled the Poles, who had obtained possession 
 of the city by treachery. The figures are colossal 
 in bronze, representing Minin presenting a sword 
 to Pojavskij, who is seated. The pedestal is of 
 granite, ornamented with bas-reliefs representing 
 the citizens of Nijni Novgorod contributingtheir 
 property for the support of the war. 
 
 The inscription, in gilt letters, is 
 
 TO 
 
 PRINCE POJAVSKIJ 
 
 AND 
 
 CITIZEN MININ, 
 GRATEFUL RUSSIA. 
 
 1818. 
 The design is spirited, but I thought the figures 
 clumsy, particularly the hands. 
 
 From the Bazaar we went to the Prussian Con- 
 sul's, and purchased some Toula snuflf-boxes (erro- 
 
148 TARTAR MERCHANTS. 
 
 neously so called, as they are manufactured solely 
 at Moscow.) They are composed of 88 parts 
 (I think the consul said) of Silver, and twelve of 
 copper. The figures are then drawn with a gra- 
 ving tool, and some sort of acid applied, which 
 gives the whole the appearance of silver enamel- 
 led on steel. The effect is pretty enough, but the 
 great value of these boxes arises I imagine from 
 the manufacture being confined exclusively to 
 Moscow. 
 
 On our return to Howard's we found some Tar- 
 tar merchants awaiting us with a most tempting 
 display of silks, Tartar caps &.c. They were fine 
 portly fellows, v/ith jolly red faces, and bald heads 
 surmounted by little round embroidered caps which 
 gave them the appearance of being, like the Scythian 
 Philosopher, " all face." I suppose we were taken 
 in after all our bargaining, asLeopoldo was our in- 
 terpreter, but if I recollect right, we gave them about 
 two thirds of the price asked at first. This I be- 
 lieve is the usual proportion paid by persons who 
 understand the ways of tradesmen in Russia, but 
 it is no protection to the stranger, as they are sure 
 to demand so much more than the real value of 
 the commodity, that he generally pays in the end 
 more than they would have ventured even to ask 
 
MOSQUE. 149 
 
 i'rom a Russian. However in return for our rou- 
 bles we had the satisfaction of receiving an invi- 
 tation to their mosque, and the comfort of over- 
 taking on our way thither the fattest of our port- 
 ly friends, seated in a drosky, and jogging on with 
 all the importance of a monied man. It is said that 
 there are 5000 of these Tartars resident at Moscow. 
 
 The ceremony began by a man mounting the 
 roof of the mosque, and inviting the faithful to 
 prayers by the usual proclamation, " There is no 
 God but Allah." &c. The inside of the building 
 which has no ornament but a handsome silver 
 chandelier, was occupied by some odd looking 
 figures in turbans and tartar Caps, squatted on 
 their heels, with their faces turned to a niche in 
 the wall, which looked I suppose towards Mecca. 
 Every now and then they rose, bowed, and pros- 
 trated themselves on the ground. Those who 
 entered after us pulled off their shoes, and appeared 
 in light slippers, in which they shuffled awkwardly 
 along the pavement like travellers going to their 
 bed-rooms at an inn. Not a word was spoken 
 whilst we were there. 
 
 As we had determined to quit Moscow by the 
 diligence this evening, we went to the office to 
 secure our places, and also obtained our "permits 
 
150 DILIGENCE. — CO^']bUCTOR. 
 
 de depart/' for which they charged us 3| paper 
 roubles a piece. By the bye it may not be amiss 
 to state that at Moscow the paper rouble is worth 
 considerably more than the silver ; and in bargain- 
 ing at the shops it is always necessary to enquire 
 which sort of roubles they mean. We dined at 
 Howard's and had some Russian Champagne, 
 which is a cheap and not unpleasant wine, if it be 
 really wine, for I rather suspect it is cider or perry. 
 The French champagne, of which great quantities 
 are drank in Russia, is made very sweet on purpose 
 for the Russian market : it is terribly expensive, 
 and not particularly agreeable to palates unaccus- 
 tomed to it. 
 
 At seven o'clock we entered the diligence, the 
 conductor of which informed me in a most pictu- 
 resque medley of Italian and German ^ that he 
 spoke Italian perfectly well. Whether he had been 
 "crammed" (to use an Oxford phrase,) by Leo- 
 poldo, or whether his Courage failed him when he 
 discovered that I really spoke the language, I do 
 not know, but at all events his Italian, which had 
 gradually become more and more guttural, be- 
 fore the end of the first stage fairly " stuck in 
 his throat," and nothing but German could be got 
 from him for the remainder of the journey. How- 
 
JOUllNEV TO ST. PETERSBtRGi 151 
 
 ever he was an active, obliging fellow, and seemed 
 perfectly to understand his business. At the 
 end of the first stage, '' to our great grief and 
 reluctance" as old Antony a Wood says, four 
 clever horses, which had just been harnessed 
 to our diligence, were taken out without ceremony 
 by a courier belonging to some Russian Prince^ 
 whose rank in the army entitled him, it seems, 
 thus to make himself a nuisance to all less digni- 
 fied travellers. Remonstrance would have been 
 useless, for in the first place nobody would have 
 understood what we said, and if they had, I do 
 not think we should have gained any redress, for 
 our conductor, who was ready enough to resist 
 aggression on most occasions, endured this out- 
 rage with the meekness of a lamb. So we sub- 
 mitted with the best grace we could to see four 
 " galled and spavined jades " attached to our 
 carriage, and were thankful to find that none of 
 them were actually lame. 
 
 The delays at the post-houses were as annoying 
 as ever, but whatever the cause might have been, 
 it certainly was not a lack of wrangling, for our 
 conductor bawled himself hoarse at every station. 
 At one place a bald pated old fellow, with a face 
 like the busts of Socrates, tired it would appear, of 
 
152 ACADEMIE BES BEAU5C ARTS. 
 
 discussing the matter with the conductor, stepped 
 out of the crowd and addressed a long and angry 
 harangue to us, who sat listening to him, with the 
 same sort of imperturbable gravity with which in 
 former days some of the College scouts used to 
 hear a Latin Sermon at St. Mary's. What this 
 *' old man eloquent" urged in favour of his claims, 
 I do not know ; but he was in a furious passion 
 and when he did cease at last, it seemed rather for 
 want of breath than for lack of argument. 
 
 We were nearly overturned by one of our postil- 
 lions driving us into a ditch, but except this we 
 reached St. Petersburg without any unpleasant 
 adventure after a journey of only 72 hours ; the 
 saving of time being effected in a great measure 
 by our having had to descend instead of ascend 
 the steep sides of the Valday hills. 
 
 Tuesday, July 26th. This morning we carried 
 the three gazettes to one of the public offices and 
 had the satisfaction of finding that all had been 
 done regularly so far, and that we must attend in 
 person, or send a messenger to another office at 
 nine o'clock to-morrow morning. 
 
 We then went to the Acadamie des beaux arts 
 to see the celebrated picture of Pompeii, by a 
 Bus«ian artist. The design is very spirited and 
 
COTTAGE OF PETER THE GREAT. 153 
 
 original, and I was inclined highly to extol the 
 genius of the painter, until I found that he was no 
 raw Russian amateur, but a regularly trained 
 Artist who had been studying for years at 
 Rome. Some of the figures we thought very 
 good ; and were particularly pleased with the 
 foot and leg of one of the persons who are en- 
 gaged in carrying off an old man from the scene 
 of destruction ; but the colouring of those in the 
 back ground is very poor. One rough outline, for 
 it is little more, of a priest, is hardly better than 
 the signs which one sees on the outside of a village 
 ale house in England. Besides this famous pic- 
 ture we saw a good copy of Raphael's Transfigu- 
 ration and of Dominichino's St. Jerome. 
 
 The palace, or rather cottage, in which Peter 
 the great resided, is preserved with great care. It 
 is a very small wooden house, erected on a little 
 island near the citadel, and contains a chapel, a 
 sitting and bed- room. In order to preserve it 
 from the weather it is encased in a brick building, 
 through the arches of which the walls of the cot- 
 tage are distinctly seen. A boat, not unlike a 
 Thames wherry, the work of Peter's own hands, is 
 preserved in a shed adjoining. On one of the 
 walls of the o\iter enclosure is an inscription, 
 
154 MURDER OF THE EMPEROR PAUL. 
 
 commemorating the height to whch the waters of 
 the Neva rose in November, 1824, when a great 
 number of persons were drowned, and property to 
 an immense amount was destroyed by the inunda- 
 tion. From this place we recrossed the bridge, 
 and passing SouvarofF's monument and the champ 
 de Mars, entered the summer gardens, and admired 
 the beautiful railing with its columns of polished 
 granite, surmounted by gilt urns. The gardens 
 themselves have, I think, little to recommend 
 them, except the view which they command of 
 the Neva. 
 
 Behind the garden stands the castle of St. 
 Michael, where that unfortunate lunatic, the Em- 
 peror Paul, was strangled. It is a high crime at 
 St. Petersburg to allude to his violent death ; and 
 I trembled for one of our companions, who inno- 
 cently asked our valet de place in what part of 
 the palace the murder was committed. It is said 
 that all these fellows are employed as spies, by the 
 government, and probably my friend's unfortunate 
 speech was duly reported to the police — however 
 no harm came of it. 
 
 A little further west is the palace erected for the 
 Grand Duke Michael a few years ago, by Rossi, 
 an Italian architect. The facade, consisting of 
 
PROPOSED HOMEWARD ROUTE. 155 
 
 the principal building and two wings, is 364 feet 
 in length. 
 
 We had now seen all the most remarkable build- 
 ings of St. Petersburg, except the Museum, which 
 unfortunately for us was closed, being under repair ; 
 and the imperial library, which circumstances, not 
 worth mentioning, prevented our visiting. We 
 were therefore anxious to turn our faces towards 
 home as soon as we could procure our " permits 
 de depart." The route we proposed to take was 
 through Finland to Abo, a sort of Terra incog- 
 7iita, about which no two persons seemed agreed ; 
 some representing the road as execrably bad, and 
 others as stoutly contending that it was one of the 
 best in Europe. One circumstance however there 
 seemed to be no diiference of opinion about, name- 
 ly, that we should find very indifferent fare, and 
 worse lodging at the post-houses ; but as we did 
 not intend to pass a night on the road, and knew 
 that wherever there were inhabitants there must be 
 provisions of some sort, neither of these antici- 
 pated difficulties gave us much uneasiness. 
 
 Fortunately for us there were at St. Petersburg, 
 three Irish gentlemen who intended to take the 
 same route ; and as they had a servant who spoke 
 Finnish, we were glad to place ourselves under 
 
156 PREPARATIONS FOR OUR DEPARTURE. 
 
 their protection, and agreed to start if possible the 
 next evening ; an arrangement which would give 
 lis an opportunity of visiting the falls of Imatra, 
 (about sixty versts from Viborg,) and enable us to 
 reach Abo in time for the steam-packet, which 
 plies once a week between that city and Stockholm. 
 
 Wednesday, July 27th. Was a very busy and 
 bustling day for us : in the first place it was ne- 
 cessary to make our application at the police 
 office, and as we had learnt in Russia the excel- 
 lence of the maxim never to do by deputy what 
 we could do for ourselves, we went thither in per- 
 son : and it was well that we did so, for a whole 
 array of difficulties and "impossibilities" were 
 drawn out against us, which no servant would have 
 taken the trouble to disperse : although they soon 
 retired before a few civil words applied to the "chef 
 de bureau," and two or three roubles to the old 
 soldier at the door. They promised us that if we 
 would come again between twelve and one o'clock 
 our passports should be ready ; a promise which 
 was punctually fulfilled at the time appointed, the 
 old president delivering us our papers, and very 
 cordially wishing us a pleasant journey. 
 
 But we were not to have the good luck of es- 
 caping from St. Petersburg so easily. Our Irish 
 
HAG-FAIR. 157 
 
 friends, who in an evil hour, had commissioned 
 their Swedish courier to get their passports, dis- 
 covered when it was too late that he had considered 
 the difficulties at the police office insurmountable ; 
 and that they had no chance of obtaining their 
 papers until the next day. As all prospect of 
 setting out this evening was now at an end, we 
 determined at all events to be prepared for a start to- 
 morrow afternoon at two o'clock, as we concluded 
 every thing would be ready before that time. 
 Accordingly we engaged one Mr. Russell, an emi- 
 grant blacksmith, who practised his art in the 
 English back line, for a consideration of five rou- 
 bles to stand our friend in bargaining for a carriage 
 and harness. 
 
 Under his guidance we proceeded to a place, 
 the name of which I could not well translate into 
 English, as it expresses a market for the sale of 
 that insect, which, according to Shakspeare's Sir 
 Hugh Evans, " is a sociable peast to man, and sig- 
 nifies lofe." Such a rag-fair I never beheld, — there 
 were old clothes, infirm broken down droskies, 
 pictures of saints, dilapidated frying pans and 
 gridirons, books, boots and shoes of leather and 
 birch bark, knives and forks, tea pots, cups and 
 saucers, old swords, hatchets and saws, buttons, 
 o 
 
158 CARRIAGE BAZAAR. 
 
 rusty nails ; in a word, every sort of rubbish that 
 could well be imagined. 
 
 When we passed the booths in which this costly 
 merchandize was displayed, there rushed out of 
 each of them a dirty pawn-broking looking fellow, 
 who bawled out to us at the very top of his voice, 
 to enter and purchase. As each of these perse- 
 vering merchants took up the cry long before his 
 neighbour, whom we had just past, was silent, 
 there were sometimes a dozen of them shouting 
 and screaming together ; and when it is considered 
 that the wares in which many of them dealt were 
 of a very jingling nature ; the '^ concord of sweet 
 sounds" which assailed our ears, may in some 
 degree be imagined. Poor Eussell too had an im- 
 pediment in his speech, and the fatigue of listening 
 to him would have been sufficient, even if our 
 ears had been unoccupied by other sounds : as it 
 was, I thought I should have gone mad. 
 
 At last we threaded our way to a more respect- 
 able part of the bazaar, where carriages of every 
 description were exposed for sale. Russell ex- 
 amined a great many of them, shook the wheels, 
 banged the iron work with a hammer, looked wise, 
 and talked about naves, and tires, and flaws in the 
 iron, and wood work stopped with putty. The 
 
PURCHASE OF A CARRIAGE. 159 
 
 man was "indifFerent honest" for any thing I know 
 to the contrary, but if he was, he certainly was no 
 match for the cunning Russians, one of whom let 
 us have as a great bargain for 450 roubles, a car- 
 riage for which he at first asked 500, but which 
 I suspect one of their own countrymen would have 
 got for 350 : not that we should have been the 
 gainers in all probability; the only difference would 
 have been that our agent would have pocketed the 
 additional hundred roubles instead of the merchant. 
 
 However the little carriage answered our pur- 
 pose well enough. It was a sort of diminutive 
 britska, with plenty of room for the inside pas- 
 sengers to stretch their legs, and a good commo- 
 dious box for the driver. The iron work turned 
 out to be very good, but the wood, I suspect, was 
 of very high antiquity. The springs were very 
 good, and of this we found the benefit on the road. 
 How Mr. Barrow could endure a journey from St. 
 Petersburg to Abo, in a common kibitka without 
 springs, even packed as he was in hay and bolsters, 
 I cannot understand. I tried the experiment in 
 Sweden for not much more than a third of the 
 distance, and was bruized as if I had been brayed 
 in an apothecary's mortar. 
 
 Having secured our carriage, the next business 
 
160 HARNESS. 
 
 was to purchase a harness; for we were led to 
 expect that we should find at the Finnish post- 
 houses nothing but a change of horses, in the 
 strictest sense, without harness, reins, or driver. 
 This prediction indeed was literally accomplished, 
 as far as related to the harness, and in most cases 
 to the driver also. The purchase of a harness in 
 Russia is not quite so expensive as it would be in 
 England ; a few leathern thongs coarsely stitched 
 together into the simplest form of horse furniture ; 
 heavy wooden hames, and a few yards of line for 
 reins, and of stout rope for traces and pole pieces ; 
 with twenty or thirty fathoms of spare cordage, 
 and three whips of about the size and strength of 
 those with which a schoolboy flogs his top, were 
 all bought for twenty-five roubles. Our whole 
 outfit therefore, including Russell's fee, and the 
 purchase of a small hatchet (which we forgot to 
 take with us,) and a pot of grease, amounted to 
 482 roubles, or about £21 English, a sum which 
 would have bought as good a carriage in England. 
 Thursday, July 28th. At two o'clock our future 
 fellow travellers came to us, with very long 
 faces, and told us that their passports were not 
 yet arrived ; so we had no alternative but to wait 
 patiently for the return of their servant, who had 
 
CANALS. — ENGLISH RESIDENTS. 161 
 
 gone out at twelve o'clock and had not been heard 
 of since. To beguile the time we took a farewell 
 stroll round the city, and examined more parti- 
 cularly the canals. Of these the three principal are 
 called the Moika, the Katarina, and the Fontanka : 
 these three form irregular semicircles, of which 
 the Moika is the first, then the Katarina, and out- 
 side of all the Fontanka. They are generally 
 crossed by draw-bridges, the machinery for raising 
 which is enclosed in four granite towers, two on 
 each side, which have a very handsome and sub- 
 stantial appearance. There seemed to be a good 
 deal of bustle on these canals, and the quays by 
 which they are bounded on each side. 
 
 With the exception, I believe, of Bonar and 
 Thomson, Thornton, and possibly one or two 
 other houses on the English Quay, most of our 
 countrymen seem to reside in what is called the 
 English Back line ; where one might fancy oneself 
 in London, so numerous is the array of signs 
 bearing such classical inscription, as "John Smith, 
 tailor and habit-maker. " " Thomas Williams, 
 upholsterer." " James Jenkins, watch-maker." 
 The celebrated Mrs. Wilson's English boarding 
 house, is on one side of the street, and almost 
 exactly opposite it the house which I mentioned 
 
162 WE LEAVE ST. PETERSBURG. 
 
 before as kept by Ray. He, I have since dis- 
 covered, is dead ; and the house is kept by his 
 daughter's husband, of whose unobtrusive civility 
 and attention, our Irish friends spoke in the 
 warmest terms. His charges are also very reason- 
 able, and his table well supplied. There is an 
 English bazaar, on a large scale, I understand, 
 where all sorts of British goods are sold ; but I had 
 too little taste for shopping to give myself the 
 trouble of visiting it. 
 
 At seven o'clock the Swedish courier brought 
 our friends their passports, and a poderojne or 
 order for horses, which was called for at every 
 stage until we crossed the Russian frontier ; that 
 is to say for three posts ; after which it was no 
 longer wanted. But now arose another difficulty. 
 All the post horses had gone to the camp at 
 Krasno-Selo, where there was a review : so that, 
 after more than two hours wasted in a useless 
 search, we were obliged at last to contract with a job- 
 master. (I am afraid to write his Russian designa- 
 ton, which I am sure I could not spell properly) to 
 take us the first stage at six times the price of regu- 
 lar post horses. This was a bad beginning of our 
 journey, but we had no further difficulties of the 
 sort. At half-past ten we bade farewell to St. 
 
BAD ROAD 163 
 
 Petersburg, our friend's carriage taking the lead 
 with their servant and driver on the box : and 
 my young companion and myself following, neither 
 of us entirely free from uneasy suspicions of the 
 unsoundness of our wheels. The road was exe- 
 crable, worse even than that which we had travelled 
 between Hamburg and Lubeck, and the rain fell 
 in torrents the whole night. At day break how- 
 ever it abated, and soon afterwards we found our- 
 selves beyond the frontier, and fairly in Finland, 
 that comparatively unknown land, which has been 
 traversed by so few of our countrymen. 
 
CHAPTER XIV, 
 
 " Now give a loose to tbfe dear gen'rous steed." 
 
 SOMERVILLE. 
 
 Our harness, which thus far had lain stowed in 
 thebottom of the carriage, was brought into requi- 
 sition at the first post house in Finland ; where we 
 found three or four pairs of horses awaiting us. 
 The posting arrangements in Finland are very 
 simple, and as far as the traveller is concerned, 
 very excellent ; but I suppose they bear hard on 
 the farmer in time of harvest, at least they would 
 be very annoying to him if there were much tra- 
 velUng on the road. The plan is that every 
 morning at six o'clock a certain number of pro- 
 prietors or occupiers of land within the district, 
 
POSTING IN FINLAND. 165 
 
 shall bring each his quota of horses to the near- 
 est post-house, and leave them there, unless pre- 
 viously hired, until six o'clock in the evening, 
 when they are taken home and a fresh supply is 
 brought for the night. Those who are lirst on the 
 list have the privilege of getting the first job that 
 offers, unless the traveller objects to their horses, 
 which he has a right to do, and to choose any 
 others that suit him better ; but this of course no 
 good natured person would do, except under very 
 particular circumstances ; nor is there often oc- 
 casion for it, for the horses are generally good. 
 The mode of arranging the reins is very awkward 
 for those who are unaccustomed to it, the rein of 
 each horse being quite distinct from that of the 
 other ; but by means of a little cutting and spli- 
 cing we easily brought them into the English form 
 and then we got on very well. 
 
 Our plan was, to take with us one boy, whose 
 business it was to bring back the four horses : as 
 we had no servant, he always sat on our box, and 
 would have driven if we had allowed him ; but in 
 general they drive so desperately, and with such a 
 total inattention to the safety of the springs, that 
 we were very soon obliged to take the reins into 
 our own hands, and drive alternately during the 
 greater part of the journey. 
 
166 FINNISH HORSES. 
 
 What is called a horse's mouth, the little Fin- 
 land nags do not possess in the slightest degree : 
 as I found on descending the very first hill ; for 
 whilst I was pulling at them ineffectually with all 
 my might, the reins snapped, and we should have 
 certainly been overturned, had not the voice of 
 the little fellow who sat by my side, brought them 
 up on the very brink of a deep ditch. 
 
 I now began to find out that the only way of 
 managing them was by uttering certain odd sounds, 
 which they invariably obeyed whenever they had 
 the power of stopping themselves : but in descen- 
 ding very steep hills the light snaffle bits afforded 
 them so little support, that the carriage soon got 
 the better of the horses, and then the only plan 
 was to let them go, and trust to the sureness of 
 their footing for bringing us safely to the bottom. 
 Frightful as this seemed at first, we soon got used 
 to it, and at last learned to enjoy the rapid motion. 
 The sound by which they are stopped is a sort of 
 burring noise of the lips, which being exactly the 
 same as that made by an Italian vetturino, when 
 he wants his horses to go on, I now and then 
 found them stopping short in the middle of a steep 
 ascent, when I thought I was doing my best to 
 urge them forward. To make them go gently the 
 
PEASANTRY. 167 
 
 driver whistles; and this also caused at first a 
 few mistakes, for when one of us " whistled as he 
 went," our horses slackened their pace to listen to 
 the music. However we soon learnt to under- 
 stand these peculiarities, and as the little creatures 
 were almost without exception good-tempered and 
 willing, our driving was rather an amusement than 
 otherwise. 
 
 The road thus far, since we passed the Russian 
 frontier, has heen excellent. The scenery does 
 not rise to the magnificent, hut the large pine fo- 
 rests, with here and there a lake glistening through 
 them, have a very picturesque appearance ; which 
 is increased by the masses of granite which lie 
 scattered about in most parts of Finland. The 
 distances are marked, as in Russia, by tall white 
 posts, having the number of versts painted on 
 them : and the average length of the stages was, I 
 think, about sixteen versts. The peasantry in this 
 part of the country shave their beards ; and their 
 costume altogether is more European than that of 
 the Russians : but the appearance of soldiers in 
 green uniform, and now and then a long-bearded 
 serf, sent down to labour at the public works, re- 
 minded us that we were still in the Emperor's 
 dominions. 
 
168 VIBORG. 
 
 Friday, July 26th. We reached Viborg the 
 frontier town of Finland ; a strongly fortified place 
 with spacious streets and squares, but the houses 
 generally appeared rather poor and mean. We 
 drove to an inn, kept by the ex-chorcegus of a 
 band of strolling players, who gave us a very in- 
 different dinner, for which he charged us a Eussian 
 price, but abated something on our remonstra- 
 ting with him. 
 
 Whilst we were at dinner, an officer of the po- 
 lice desired to see us in the next room. He was a 
 civil, well-behaved man, and having put a few 
 common place questions as to whether we had 
 ever been in Russia before &c. he endeavoured to 
 enter into general conversation ; but though my 
 knowledge of German was sufficient to carry me 
 creditably through the routine of questions and 
 answers as long as I could guess at the subject of 
 them, I was soon adrift when we launched on the 
 sea of general topics, and was glad to get rid 
 of them and my friend together, by civilly wish- 
 ing him good evening. 
 
 At seven o'clock we were again en route,* our 
 
 * The falls of Woxa near Imatra, are about 60 rersts 
 from Viborg : but the unfortunate delay of nearly two days 
 at St. Petersburg, prevented our visiting them, and also 
 
WE LOSE OUR COMPANIONS. 169 
 
 carriage with a young Finn on the box, taking the 
 lead. * We had not proceeded many versts when 
 we missed our companions : but as this had often 
 happened before, whenever it was necessary to stop 
 to make any little alteration in the harness, we 
 felt no uneasiness, until after waiting half an hour 
 at the next post-house, we began to suspect that 
 they had lost their way ; a suspicion which was 
 confirmed by the post-mistress, who in a mixed 
 jargon of Finnish and German laboured hard to 
 inform us that there was another road ; but whither 
 it led, or whether we might expect to see our 
 friends again on this side Abo, she either did not 
 know, or I could not understand. In this state 
 of uncertainty we waited another hour, at the end 
 of which, hardly knowing what to do, we ordered 
 the horses to be put to our carriage, leaving a note 
 for our friends in the hands of our post-mistress. 
 The night was delightful, and the horses unusually 
 good , so that I had little inclination to stop for 
 the first three or four posts; but about four o'clock 
 in the morning we thought it best to make a halt, 
 and lie down for a couple of hours on the hard 
 
 compelled us to travel on the Sunday in order to be in time 
 for the Abo steam packet. 
 
 * See Frontispiece. 
 
170 APPEARANCE OF THE FINNS, 
 
 little beds or rather sofas, with which every post- 
 house is furnished. On awaking at six o'clock we 
 had the great satisfaction of seeing our friends. 
 They had taken, it appears, a wrong turning soon 
 after they left Viborg, and had gone many 
 miles out of their way before they discovered 
 their error. 
 
 Saturday, July 30th. We passed through Fred- 
 eriksham, an imposing town enough at a distance, 
 but within, it looked dreary and desolate, the 
 squares and streets being of an extent quite dis- 
 proportionate to the number of inhabitants, a 
 fault which we have since remarked in almost 
 every Finnish town. The road is still very good. 
 The appearance of the peasantry in this part of 
 the country is wild enough, but totally different 
 from that of the Russians. They are close shaven, 
 and wear their long lank sandy hair unclipt. The 
 Russian caftan and shube have entirely disap- 
 peared, and we now see nothing but creatures of 
 coat and breeches , but I doubt whether the appear- 
 ance of one of them in the streets of London would 
 create much less sensation than that of a real Russian. 
 
 We have had to-day for the first time a dispute 
 at one of the post-houses, if that may be called a 
 dispute which consisted of a good deal of anger 
 
DISPUTE. 171 
 
 on our sides, and the most provoking indifference 
 on the part of the Finn. The matter was this — 
 we had taken as usual, the pair of horses which 
 was first on the list, not willing to subject the own- 
 er to inconvenience, although they were worse in 
 appearance than any of the others. As the pro- 
 prietor himself went with us, we thought it best 
 to permit him to drive his own horses, but in spite 
 of all his vociferations and the incessant application 
 of his whip, the poor creatures jibbed at the first 
 hill ; and at the second stood completely still, and 
 refused to proceed any farther, although we got 
 out of the carriage, and applied our shoulders to 
 the wheel. The Finn, a little dry old man, with a 
 face like an apple that has been withered by the 
 frost, sat with the most provoking indifference, 
 raising and lowering his little arm with the regular 
 motion of an automaton, and sending out of his 
 toothless jaws a sound "half whistle and half hiss" 
 which the horses treated with the most mortifying 
 contempt. It was now high time to take the 
 matter into our own hands ; so I endeavoured by 
 signs to make him comprehend that as we could 
 not go on, it might be most advisable to turn back. 
 But this the tiresome little thing would not under- 
 stand, and for any thing I know he might have 
 
172 THE DISPUTE SETTLED. 
 
 sat there until, like Meinherr Von Wodenblok, his 
 clothes fell in shreds from his person, had I not 
 myself seized the horses by the head (for he would 
 not relinquish the reins) and turned the carriage 
 round. I must do the poor animals the justice 
 to acknowledge that they displayed great consis- 
 tency of character, for we had almost as much 
 difficulty in driving them back to the post house 
 as we had experienced in urging them forward. 
 At length however we reached the house, and 
 I was puzzling myself to devise some means of 
 communicating my sentiments to the post-master, 
 when a gentleman drove up, and accosted me in 
 very good French. By his advice I was proceeding 
 to enter a complaint in the book which is kept for 
 that purpose at each station, when the post-master 
 with tears in his eyes promised that such a pair of 
 horses should never be found in his stables again. 
 The stranger now acted as mediator, and easily 
 prevailed on me to withdraw my complaint : in 
 return for which act of kindness the very same 
 horses were harnessed to his carriage, and his 
 journey prolonged a full hour, as he informed us 
 afterwards at the next post house, where we had 
 stopped to rest ourselves. His carriage was lighter 
 than ours or he would never have got through 
 the stage at all. 
 
LOVISA. — BORGO. — HELSINGFORS. 173 
 
 To-day we saw a very picturesque waterfall iiear 
 the little hamlet of Hogfors ; and five and twenty 
 or thirty versts farther we crossed a bridge over 
 the river Alberfors, which forms the boundary 
 between Russian and what used to be Swedish 
 Finland. * We passed through Lovisa in the 
 evening, and Borgo very early the next morning. 
 Neither of them are towns of much importance. 
 The road in many places was sandy, so that we 
 proceeded less rapidly than we had hitherto done ; 
 but now and then it was still very good, and then 
 we rolled merrily along. 
 
 Sunday, July 31st. We arrived about nine 
 o'clock in the morning at Helsingfors, the present 
 capital, and principal sea-port of Finland. The 
 appearance of the town as you approach it is very 
 pleasing. It contains a handsome square, two 
 sides of which are formed by the Senate house 
 and public offices : a new church which they are 
 now building is to form the third ; and the fourth 
 is occupied by the inn at which we stopped, and 
 other buildings. We got here an excellent break- 
 fast at a very moderate price, and a luxury which 
 we had not enjoyed since we left Howard's at 
 
 * That is to say "between the provinces conquered by 
 Peter the Great, and those ceded to Russia in 1809. 
 
174 HELSINGPORS. 
 
 Moscow, clean comfortable rooms, and a staircase 
 which we could ascend without being obliged to 
 pick our way. After breakfast I walked down to 
 look at the harbour, which seemed very good and 
 safe, being completely land-locked : the entrance 
 however is very intricate, as it is full of small 
 islands and shoals. On a group of these islands 
 stands Sweaborg, strongly fortified, and command- 
 ing the entrance of the harbour. We did not see 
 much shipping, but they told us the trade was 
 increasing ; and this I can easily believe, for the 
 whole town has an air of comfort and prosperity, 
 which I have seen nowhere in the Russian domi- 
 nions, except at St. Petersburg. 
 
 The place has a garrison, but we no longer saw 
 the swarms of soldiers met with every where in 
 Russia. The Finns are obliged to support a certain 
 number of troops ; but as the country is perfectly 
 tranquil, the Emperor, I was told, expends the 
 greater part of the contributions on works of 
 public utility. I do not pledge myself for the 
 truth of this statement, nor do I even remember 
 from whom I heard it : but if it be correct, it 
 manifests a policy which more enlightened govern- 
 ments might perhaps imitate with advantage. 
 
 At half-past ten we left Helsingfors, by a road 
 
THE ROAD BECOMES WORSE. 175 
 
 skirted with neat country houses, and plantations, 
 in which we were glad once again to see a few oaks. 
 The road now began to be very sandy, and conti- 
 nued for several posts so bad that we hardly got on 
 at the rate of more than four miles an hour, although 
 we had taken an additional horse. The scenery was 
 the most picturesque we have seen. It was to-day 
 I think that we first observed the custom, which 
 we afterwards found so universal in Sweden, of 
 strewing the floors of the rooms with leaves of firs 
 or the tops of the juniper. In clean houses the 
 smell is not disagreable ; but where the juniper 
 is seldom changed, and little attention is paid to 
 general cleanliness, a strong unsavoury odour arises 
 which is any thing but refreshing. To-day, in 
 the very worst part of the road, one of our horses 
 fell from exhaustion, and for some time we thought 
 that the poor creature was dead ; but he soon re- 
 covered on being relieved from the collar and 
 harness, and after a little rest was able to go on 
 to the end of the stage. 
 
 We met crowds of people going to and return- 
 ing from church.* They were all comfortably clad, 
 and a great many of them were in carrioles, a sort 
 of gig very generally used in Norway, Sweden, 
 * The Lutheran church is established iu Finland, 
 
176 SWEDISH CARRIOLE.—DRUNKENNESS. 
 
 and this part of Finland. The body is hung on 
 the shafts, between the wheels and the horse, in- 
 stead of resting on the wheels like our English gig. 
 There is generally only room for one person, who 
 sits very much at his ease, with his legs stretched 
 at full length : sometimes however there is a seat 
 behind, on which a servant or child is perched. 
 We saw one or two disgraceful scenes of drunken- 
 ness, but as far as we had an opportunity of ob- 
 serving, the vice is less prevalent in Finland than 
 in Russia. However a traveller who merely posts 
 through a country, as we did through this, has no 
 right to give a decided opinion about the moral 
 condition of its inhabitants. I can only say that 
 we saiv very few drunken men, and were never 
 cheated, as far as Ave could find out ; I therefore 
 think it probable that the Finns are generally more 
 sober and more honest than the Russians. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ** A thousand shapes they wore, those islet stones, 
 And nature, with her various tints 
 Varied anew their thousand forms : 
 
 ♦ *****#» 
 
 This was a wikl and wond'rous scene." 
 
 Southf.y's Thalaba. 
 
 Monday, August 1st. In walking up a hill this 
 morning I observed two lads in a field by the road 
 side laying about them most vigorously with glit- 
 tering instruments which looked at a distance like 
 swords. To satisfy my curiosity I went into the 
 field, and on approaching nearer, found that this 
 was the Finnish mode of mowing grass. The 
 scythe used is about 2J feet in length, and hung 
 like the English scythe, on a wooden handle : But 
 the handle is straight and very short, and is grasp- 
 ed with both hands by the mower, who cuts right 
 and left alternately, shaving the grass as smooth 
 
178 FINNISH AGRICULTURE. 
 
 and almost as short as a gentleman's lawn. How 
 he avoided cutting off his legs, or at least two or 
 three of his toes, I cannot understand, nor was I 
 much inclined to convince myself by actual trial. 
 
 Agriculture I should suppose, cannot be a very 
 profitable occupation either in Finland or Russia, 
 for we saw no wheat cultivated in either country. 
 The principal produce seemed to be rye, which is 
 made with leaven into heavy sour cakes, very 
 unpalatable at first ; but latterly I did not dislike 
 it. In Swedish Finland the "flod brod" or flat 
 cake, is more often used. Some of the cakes we 
 saw were made in the form of large rings, and 
 strung up for future use, like flitches of bacon in 
 a farm house in England. They also gave us some 
 mutton ham, at one of the post houses, but it was 
 so tough, that our unpractised teeth could make 
 no impression upon it. However, we always got 
 coffee, rye bread and butter, and often in Swedish 
 Finland, strawberries and cream. The strawber- 
 ries are gathered in the woods, where they grow 
 wild in great profusion with cranberries and 
 cloud-berries. 
 
 Between five and six o'clock this evening we 
 came in sight of Abo (or Obo as the Fins pro- 
 nounce it.) On the hills round the town are a 
 
ABO. 179 
 
 number of windmills, which present a singular 
 and not unpleasing appearance. On an eminence 
 in the town stands the Cathedral, and on a rock 
 towering above all the other buildings, is the 
 Observatory, the most nothern in the world, being 
 in Latitude 60° 30" N. In the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of Abo there are a great many pretty 
 country seats, built I believe of wood : but none 
 of them were near enough to the road to enable us 
 to examine them closely. 
 
 Abo, like Novgorod, presents a decayed appear- 
 ance, but of course in a less degree, as the Rus- 
 sian city began to decline more than a century ago, 
 whereas Abo was a flourishing town until the Rus- 
 sians transferred the seat of government from it to 
 Helsingfors. One very long street nms on each 
 side the river, from one end of the the town to the 
 other, and out of it branch other streets, most of 
 which lead to a large desolate looking square in 
 which is a theatre. There are some good stone 
 houses, but most of the buildings are, I think, of 
 wood. 
 
 As we could not get beds at the Society house, 
 the only inn in the town, we were lodged at a pri- 
 vate house kept by an old lady and her two daugh- 
 ters, fine shewy girls, whom we found gaily dressed 
 
180 FAMILY PARTY AT OUR LODGINGS. 
 
 for the theatre. However they did not neglect 
 their household duties, for the next morning I 
 found the most lady-like of the two cleaning my 
 boots, and her sister preparing breakfast for the 
 family. They were all kind, simple creatures, and 
 laughed with such hearty good- will at our abortive 
 attempts to speak the language, that we could not 
 resist joining in their mirth, and the house rang 
 with barbarously pronounced Finnish words, and 
 the shouts of merriment which succeeded every 
 failure. 
 
 Our first care was to ascertain at what hour the 
 steamer started ; and our friends accordingly sent 
 out their little Swedish valet to reconnoitre. In 
 less than half an hour he returned, and made the 
 following announcement, with an air of great 
 solemnity, *' Gentlemens, the damp ship sail to- 
 morrow morning, at nine." The craft to which 
 he gave this unprepossessing title, was no other 
 than the steam-packet, (called Damp-schiffe in 
 German,) but the words were ominous ; for a damp 
 ship she proved on the voyage, pitching repeatedly 
 bowsprit under, and sending aft a stream of water, 
 some of which found its way into our berths du- 
 ring the night. 
 
 We ordered dinner at the Society house, and 
 
ABO FASHIONABLES. 181 
 
 whilst they were preparing it, strolled into a 
 large room where two Finnish gentlemen were 
 playing at hilliards. I suppose they were gens 
 comme il faut by their having the run of so 
 respectable a house; but their coats were very 
 shabby, and their persons none of the cleanest. 
 As we were sitting there a woman and young man 
 came into the room, and whilst the former per- 
 formed on a hurdy-gurdy the lad balanced wine 
 glasses, chairs, kc, on his nose and chin ; to the 
 great delight of our friends in the shabby surtouts, 
 whose taste for public exhibitions was probably 
 of the most unsophisticated character. We had 
 a very comfortable dinner, served, like every thing 
 else in Finland, at a very moderate price ; and 
 soon after dinner we were glad to go to bed, as 
 we had been three nights and four days on the 
 road, without stopping to rest except once for two 
 hours when we lost our friends, and an hour and 
 half on another occasion. 
 
 The whole expense of this long journey, which 
 could not have been less than 380 English miles, 
 amounted, (including our dinner and beds at Abo) 
 exactly to £3 a piece ; that is, about 3|d. a mile 
 for posting, provisions on the road, and a good 
 dinner and comfortable beds at the end of the 
 Q 
 
182 CHEAP TRAVELLING. 
 
 journey. The rate of payment for post horses is 
 fixed at six copecks per verst for each horse, and 
 a copeck per verst to the boy who takes back the 
 horses makes him very happy, so that the whole cost 
 for an English mile is less than twopence. For 
 the first stage out of each large town twelve co- 
 pecks a horse are charged ; but there are so few ef 
 these stages that it increases the expense very little. 
 I have never travelled in any country, where the 
 foreigner has so little trouble, and is so little 
 imposed upon : and if he has a servant who can 
 drive, or has nerve enough to drive himself, he 
 travels delightfully for at least 450 out of the 619 
 versts. The sandy road is indeed very bad, and 
 so are the three first stages in the immediate neigh- 
 bourhood of St. Petersburg, but all the rest of 
 the way is as good as the Swedish or English roads. 
 The people are by far the most primitive of any 
 that I ever travelled among. At some of the 
 post houses it was very amusing to see a little 
 crowd of peasants assemble round the carriage, 
 gazing with wonder at the outlandish appearance 
 of ourselves and our luggage. At one place, 
 I remember, we gave a cigar to an old fellow, who 
 was smoking his wooden pipe close to the carriages : 
 he turned it round and roimd, and then handed it 
 
CHURCH AT ABO. 183 
 
 to each of his of companions, but each returned 
 it with a shake of the head, and the old gentleman 
 would probably either have thrown it away, or 
 carried it home to deposit in his museum as a 
 curious organic remain, had not one of the crowd, 
 who was evidently a travelled man (having proba- 
 bly been as far as Helsingfors in his day) explained 
 with a very complacent and patronizing air the 
 nature of our present ; and we left the old man 
 smoking his cigar, and bowing his thanks to us 
 as we drove off. 
 
 Tuesday, August 2nd. I rose early and walked 
 to the church, where they were performing morn- 
 ing service. It is a plain, but not inelegant building, 
 consisting of two stories with two rows of win- 
 dows, like the churches that we sometimes see in 
 England. The interior is very neat, and the altar- 
 piece with its gilt cross has a shewy appearance. 
 In the side aisles are several monuments, one of 
 which is worthy of observation as containing the 
 ashes of Catharine, who became first the mistress, 
 and subsequently the wife of the unfortunate Eric 
 XIV of Sweden, and after his murder retired to 
 Abo, where she died. The church has also an 
 organ said to be a very good one. The men sat 
 on one side, and the women on the other ; most 
 
184 UNIVERSITY — OBSERVATORY. 
 
 of the latter had silk handkerchiefs of various 
 gay colours tied round their heads and under 
 their chins. 
 
 The University is near the church, and contains 
 a handsome hall, ornamented with granite pillars 
 and a good library. The Observatory stands on 
 a very lofty rock overlooking the town. The situ- 
 ation is not unlike that of Edinburgh Castle. I 
 mounted the rocks by means of several flights of 
 wooden stairs, which the thick rain that fell that 
 morning, had rendered so slippery, that I could 
 hardly keep my footing. The building itself seemed 
 rather neglected. Finding the hall-door open I 
 walked in, and went from room to room, hoping 
 to find some one who could shew me the place, 
 but I saw nobody except an old soldier, who merely 
 motioned to me to ascend the stairs ; nor did I 
 meet with any instrument more philosophical than 
 a tin coffee pot, which stood with a cup and sau- 
 cer in one of the rooms. Whetlier the instruments, 
 which when Jones visited Abo about fourteen 
 years ago were lying about half unpacked, were 
 still in their cases, or whether they had been long 
 ago spoiled, as he anticipated they would be, I do 
 not know, but I certainly saw none of them, al- 
 though I found my way into all tlie principal rooms. 
 
MARKET BOATS — STEAM-PACKET. 185 
 
 From one of the galleries which run round the 
 building on the outside, I had a view, which would 
 have been very extensive but for the thick misty 
 rain, that prevented my seeing to any great distance. 
 In a fine day I have no doubt the view would 
 have been very picturesque, but in wet weather 
 neither natural scenery nor buildings look well. 
 The country round Abo is as barren as possible, 
 having hardly a fir tree to cover its nakedness. 
 The mouth of the river is so crowded with little 
 islands that it is impossible to tell exactly where 
 it enters the sea. 
 
 As I strolled along the bank of the river, I 
 stumbled on a crowd of market boats, which 
 bring vegetables and other market-wares from the 
 islands at the mouth of the river. The goods are 
 sold on board, and conveyed on shore by the pur- 
 chaser. On my way to our lodgings I visited the 
 *' damp ship " which was moored alongside the 
 quay, a little way below the Society house. Our 
 carriage was already on board, and they were get- 
 ting up her steam, so I had no time to lose ; I 
 therefore returned at once to our lodgings, and 
 having paid the old lady her very moderate charge, 
 and taken leave of her and her daughters, we en- 
 trusted our luggage to the care of two female 
 porters, and went at once on board. 
 
186 ACCIDENT. 
 
 The Master who spoke a little French and a 
 little English, received us very civilly, and, as 
 there were no ladies, allowed us to occupy the 
 after-cabin, which was a great comfort, as the fore- 
 cabin smelt very powerfully of stale juniper tops, 
 snaps, and various other abominations. The ves- 
 sel's name was the "Solide," and one quality 
 which sometimes belongs to solid bodies she 
 certainly possessed, for her movements were miser- 
 ably slow. She was a fat plethoric looking boat, 
 so much down by the head, that she put me in 
 mind of a man about to fall forward on his nose. 
 Before we left Abo we got rid of our remaining 
 Finnish notes, some of which were as low as 
 twelve copecks, there being no gold or silver mo- 
 ney, and hardly any copper in circulation. 
 
 I was in the cabin arranging my luggage, when 
 a loud thump above my head followed by a shuf- 
 fling of feet, caused me to run on deck, where I 
 found a poor old gentleman apparently in the 
 agonies of death. The vessel had a raised quarter 
 deck, to the edge of which he had inadvertently 
 approached too near, and had fallen backwards 
 down on the main deck, where he lay motionless, 
 and as pale as a corpse. Most providentially the 
 steam-boat had not got under weigh, it was there- 
 
GRATITUDE OP THE OLD GENTLEMAN. 187 
 
 fore hardly an affair of five minutes to procure a 
 surgeon from the town, who soon relieved us by 
 pronouncing the injury not likely to be fatal ; 
 although the bruises he had received would pro- 
 bably be very troublesome. Gradually the poor 
 old man recovered his consciousness, and in less 
 than a quarter of an hour the surgeon left the 
 vessel, and we got under weigh. 
 
 The sufferer, who turned out to be the Russian 
 Consul at Stockholm, (I think, for there was some 
 confusion in the account which the master of the 
 steamer gave of him,) was so grateful to us for 
 the few trifling services we had it in our power to 
 perform to make his situation less miserable during 
 the voyage, that at dinner he insisted on our 
 sharing with him some excellent Madeira wine, 
 which he had brought with great care from St. 
 Petersburg, and a pot of pickled salmon, on the 
 merits of which, being something of a gourmand, 
 he expatiated with great interest. The passengers 
 were all kind and civil, but with the exception of 
 one gentleman who spoke English very well, and 
 two who spoke French, none of them could con- 
 verse with us ; but they gave us good-natured 
 looks, and were anxious to do us any little services, 
 whenever they had an opportunity. 
 
188 SWEDISH DINNER. 
 
 To-day being the first time of our sitting down 
 to a Swedish dinner, we found some amusement 
 in observing its peculiarities. A few minutes be* 
 fore the dishes were placed on the table, each 
 gentleman present, except ourselves, drank a full 
 bumper of the common corn brandy (which seemed 
 to me almost as strong as aqua-fortis) and ate a 
 slice of bread and butter, and some salt fish. 
 This dram they call snaps ; and the custom of 
 drinking it before dinner is I believe universal in 
 Sw^eden and Norway. Another peculiarity was, 
 that at the end of the dinner they brought each of 
 us a breakfast cup of soup, with the yolk of an 
 egg floating in it — I tasted this mixture, but it 
 seemed so much like taking physic that I could 
 not prevail on myself to finish it. The common 
 drink of the passengers besides the snaps, with 
 which the dinner was begun and ended, was very 
 small beer, and in one or two instances Swedish 
 porter, which is manufactured at Gottenburg. 
 Except our own party nobody drank any wine. 
 
 Vast numbers of large uncouth looking vessels 
 were running before the wind, for Abo, and others 
 were beating up to Stockholm, with decks piled 
 many feet high with fire-wood from Finland. We 
 passed an immense number of little islands, some 
 
SODERAM WAXHOLM. 189 
 
 of whicli were well wooded, and others quite 
 barren : at one of them we stopped to take m fuel , 
 and at another to have our passports examined ; this 
 being the last station in the Russian territory. The 
 sea was then clear of islands for about sixteen miles. 
 Wednesday, August 3rd. We made the island 
 of Soderam, belonging to Sweden, where some 
 form of examination was gone through ; but I 
 was too sleepy to enquire what it was. The sea 
 was again studded with islands like the Finland 
 coast: one of them called Waxholm, is very 
 strongly fortified, and commands the only passage 
 to Stockholm, which Jones says is not more than 
 150 feet wide, and is rendered more difficult by a 
 vessel having been sunk in the middle of the chan- 
 nel. There was a large English barque at anchor 
 close to the castle. The scenery all the way from 
 Waxholm to Stockholm is very beautiful, the 
 channel lying between groups of islands, some of 
 which are very picturesquely wooded ; and the 
 first view of the city is very striking, the royal 
 palace towering over the surrounding houses, like 
 a huge oak in the midst of a forest of brushwood. 
 There seemed to be a good deal of shipping in the 
 harbour, but where we landed, near the palace, 
 there was very little bustle. 
 
190 STOCKHOLM. 
 
 The examination of our luggage occupied hardly 
 five minutes : but we had some trouble about our 
 carriage, which being of foreign manufacture was 
 liable to an ad valorem duty : and it was necessary 
 that the price should be fixed by an experienced 
 coach-maker before we could remove it from the 
 vessel. After some delay, a coach-maker arrived ; 
 and partly because the poor little thing had been 
 so shaken as to be worth much less than when we 
 bought it, and partly I suspect because he thought 
 it possible we might afterwards wish to sell or ex- 
 change it, he fixed the price so low, that we had 
 very little to pay. Having got possession of our 
 carriage, we sent it off to be repaired by the coach- 
 maker, and ourselves, under the guidance of our 
 friends' servant, proceeded to lodgings, which he 
 had gone to secure for us whilst we were detained 
 at the custom house. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 '* There was one 
 who had grown old 
 
 In arms, yet had not age unnerv'd his limbs." 
 
 SouTHEY. — Joan of Arc. 
 
 The tour through Sweden not having formed 
 any part of our original plan (which was to see as 
 much of Russia as our time would allow, and then 
 to return to England without delay) I will not 
 attempt a minute description of the different objects 
 which we visited as well as we could during a 
 hurried journey from Stockholm to Gottenburg, 
 and thence to Copenhagen, Kiel and Hamburg. 
 Sweden besides is a land which, unlike Russia, 
 has been again and again described by travellers, 
 many of whom had qualified themselves for the 
 task by studying the language and residing months 
 
192 REASONS FOR WRITING A TOUR TO MOSCOW. 
 
 or even years in the country : it is therefore un- 
 necessary as well as presumptuous for a humble 
 summer tourist to attempt any addition to what 
 they have written. 
 
 In Eussia, as I said, the case is very different, 
 for except Mr. Barrow (who passed even a shorter 
 time there than ourselves, although his talents 
 enabled him to make a much better use of it) I do 
 not think there has been any book published by 
 a Russian traveller since the days of Dr. Granville, 
 and even he did not, as well as I recollect, for I 
 have not the book by me, extend his tour to 
 Moscow. So few indeed of our countrymen have 
 visited that city, that I remember when I presented 
 one of Hanmersley's circular bills to the Banker 
 there, (whose name is on their list) he took some 
 time to consider, alleging as his reason, that lie 
 had forgotten all about those bills, not having 
 had one presented for many years. As the bills 
 were always cashed without a moment's delay 
 every where else, I cannot imagine any motive he 
 could have for making a false assertion, and there- 
 fore believe (what indeed was confirmed by Mr. 
 Howard) that until the present year hardly any of 
 our wandering tribes have straggled to the shores 
 of the Moskwa. 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF TRAVELLING IN RUSSIA. 193 
 
 Like Prior's criminal " I often take leave, but 
 seem loath to depart," for the mere mention of 
 that beautiful city recalls so many delightful ima- 
 ges, that I can hardly resist the temptation of 
 inflicting a little more of my tediousness on my 
 readers. Thinking of Moscow at a distance, I 
 still dwell vvith delight on the fair scene of almost 
 unearthly loveliness which she presents, and 
 as long as I Hve, whenever I gaze on the pur- 
 ple clouds spangled with gold which form the 
 glory of a summer's sunset, I shall always remem- 
 ber the azure and gilded domes of the Sacred City. 
 Strange and exaggerated reports of the difficul- 
 ties and perils of the journey have, I suppose, 
 deterred travellers from visiting Moscow ; and 
 I must confess, that for ladies it would not perhaps 
 be a very agreeable excursion, but for a man, who 
 is not too delicate to be afraid of dining now and 
 then on black bread and salt butter, or of "getting 
 up without having gone to bed," I know nothing 
 more exciting or more delightful than a tour like 
 ours. And after all, the chief difficulties and 
 privations will be in Finland, where he may if he 
 thinks it worth while, carry his own provisions ; 
 in which case he will have nothing to do but 
 make up his mind not to stop at all on the road, 
 
 R 
 
194 HINTS TO TRAVELLERS. 
 
 or to sleep as well as he can on hard, dirty, popu- 
 lous beds, " and to screw his courage to the 
 sticking place," so that when the little nags run 
 away with him, instead of turning pale with fear, 
 he may learn to enjoy the rapidity with which he 
 is whirled along. 
 
 The best time of course to visit Russia would 
 be in the winter, when there is an opportunity 
 of observing all the peculiarities in their mode 
 of living, which the severity of that rugged 
 season renders necessary : but then he must 
 leave England in the Autumn, and cannot well 
 return until the next spring : which would 
 require more time than most people have at their 
 disposal. However, although he may not be 
 able to see all, I cannot imagine any reason why 
 he should not see as much as he can ; and I am 
 sure a tour of only a few weeks in summer to St. 
 Petersburg and Moscow, will furnish him with 
 agreeable reminiscences for the remainder of his 
 life ; if he travels with a determination not to fret 
 at trifling difiiculties, and to be pleased as often as 
 he can. By making his arrangements, so that he 
 may never be kept waiting more than a few^ hours 
 for any steam packet (which is easily effected by 
 means of a little previous calculation) and by 
 
EXPENSES OF THE TOUR. 195 
 
 making up his mind (as we did) never to give way 
 to fatigue, and never to stop in any place that 
 does not contain something worth seeing, it is 
 really surprising how much he may perform. 
 Our journey was about 4460 English miles, and we 
 were absent from home only eight weeks, yet we 
 contrived to pass a month in Kussia, two days at 
 Stockholm, and one at Copenhagen, besides visi- 
 ting the Iron mines at Danemora, and the rapids 
 of Trolhattan. 
 
 The expenses of such an excursion would be 
 as nearly as I can calculate, for one person, about 
 a hundred and fifteen pounds . This of course in- 
 cludes the cost of residence at St. Petersburg and 
 Moscow, together with coach hire, wages of a 
 valet de place, and all other incidental expenses ; 
 as well as the purchase of a few curiosities. If 
 he chooses to dispense with the use of the car- 
 riage and the service of a valet de place, some 
 pounds may of course be saved ; but unless it is 
 really a matter of importance to him, I would 
 not advise him to be too rigidly economical, for 
 he will see the two cities very imperfectly without 
 a carriage and a guide. 
 
 If he could learn a little of the Russian language 
 before he sets out, he would find it very useful, 
 
196 A KNOWLEDGE OF RUSSIAN DESIRABLE. 
 
 and be saved many embarrassments, and perhaps, 
 now and then a ludicrous exhibition ; such as was 
 that of our friend, who having in vain tried to 
 make the people at one of the post houses under- 
 stand that he wanted eggs, rose at last from his 
 seat and hopped clucking round the room to the 
 infinite delight of the spectators. If he will not 
 learn Russian, a certain knowledge of German 
 (even though, as in my own case, it be only a smat- 
 tering,) he will find indispensable ; for it is quite 
 a mistake to suppose that French is generally 
 spoken in Russia, except among the higher orders. 
 I hardly ever could find a native shopkeeper or 
 post-master who spoke a word of the language. 
 In Finland particularly, except in the instance of 
 the gentleman who stood our friend in the dis- 
 pute at the post house, I do not remember to have 
 met with a single person who understood French. 
 But supposing him to have acquired a little 
 Russian or German, and, if he means to return 
 through Sweden, a smattering of Swedish, I would 
 by no means advise him to encumber himself with 
 a servant, who will generally contrive to be out 
 of the way whenever he is particularly wanted, 
 and very possibly will leave his master at an hour's 
 notice, if he can get a better place ; as the little 
 
CHARACTER OF THE SWEDES. 197 
 
 courier of our Irish friends did before they had 
 been many hours at Stockholm, leaving them to 
 find their way as well as they could by themselves, 
 from that city to Drontheim. In Finland, except 
 now and then when his passport is called for by 
 the police, he will never have occasion to speak 
 a word, as day and night the horses are always 
 ready, and boys or men in attendance to bring 
 them back. Even in Sweden, I have since under- 
 stood, a marche-route may be obtained at a small 
 additional expense, which will effectually secure 
 the stranger against imposition. 
 
 But I must not leave Stockholm without at- 
 tempting some little account of the impressions, 
 which a residence there of only two days, pro- 
 duced on my mind. To give a decided opinion 
 about a people of whom I have seen so little, 
 would be perfectly absurd ; but I may perhaps be 
 allowed to add my mite (which the reader must 
 take for just what it is worth) to the abundant 
 meed of praise, which most Northern travellers 
 have bestowed on the Swedish character. They 
 seemed to me a frank, open-hearted, honest peo- 
 ple, civil and kind to strangers, especially to 
 Englishmen, (a name, which, in the North of 
 Europe at all events, was certainly never a more 
 
^. 198 CHARACTER OF TUE SWEDES. 
 
 proud distinction than it is at the present mo- 
 ment,) good-tempered and peaceable among them- 
 selves, and as little inclined, as any people I have 
 ever seen, to take advantage of the ignorance of 
 travellers. A friend of mine who has resided 
 many years in Sweden, tells me that they are 
 '* poor and proud." That a nation so litcle com- 
 mercial should be poor, is most probable : indeed 
 the total want of specie in the country proves the 
 fact to the most casual observer : their pride, I 
 believe they have in common with the inhabitants 
 of most other countries, where titles of nobility 
 are more abundant than large estates ; but as far 
 as I have, ever observed it, it is a very inoffensive 
 weakness, which may now and then subject its 
 possessor to a little good-humoured raillery, but 
 which very rarely seeks to wound the feelings of 
 others by attempting to assert an undue superiority 
 over them. 
 
 The great fault of almost all the Swedes, that 
 I had an opportunity of observing, was that 
 lamentable habit of dram-drinking, which, al- 
 though it rarely, as far as I saw, produced what is 
 commonly called drunkenness, certainly muddled 
 their understandings most miserably. One gentle- 
 man I remember particularly, who was our fellow 
 
SNAPS-DRINKING. 199 
 
 passenger in the Gottenburg, and afterwards in the 
 Copenhagen, steam-boat, seemed to pass his time 
 in an alternation of snaps-drinking, and swallow- 
 ing small beer (to cool I suppose the burning thirst 
 caused by the spirits.) Yet in his manners he was 
 a respectable, and by no means ungentlemanlike 
 man, nor did the fiery liquor which he swallowed 
 ever produce any of the extravagance of intoxica- 
 tion, but his heavy sleepy manner and inflamed 
 eyes told a melancholy tale of a stomach and 
 brain disordered by habitual intemperance. 
 
 The same heaviness of manner we observed 
 almost universally amongst the peasantry, and I 
 sadly fear produced by the same cause ; for the 
 children generally speaking were alert and intel- 
 ligent enough. Yet even they, poor little things, 
 are early taught to like ardent spirits ; for I re- 
 member seeing a boy of twelve years old swallow 
 without a single wry face, a large bumper of their 
 strong brandy, nor did the people who were stand- 
 ing round, seem to think that he had done any 
 thing extraordinary. 
 
 The rooms which we occupied at Stockholm 
 were very neatly furnished in the French style, 
 and the price, considering the difficulty of getting 
 any lodgings at all, was by no ijieans immoderate. 
 
200 THE PALACE. 
 
 All our meals we got at the Hotel du Nord, where 
 we were very comfortably entertained. 
 
 Stockholm is soon seen ; for except the Palace, 
 there seem to be very few public buildings ; and 
 the absence of these, with the quietness of the 
 streets, gives it more the appearance of a neat 
 country town than the capital of a kingdom. The 
 society however, is I understand very agreeable, 
 and visiting on an easy and pleasant footing , but 
 this we had of course no opportunity of proving 
 by personal observation. The Palace is really a 
 very handsome building, almost too magnificent 
 perhaps to be in keeping with the rest of the city : 
 the appearance of one of its fronts is not unlike 
 that of the Louvre, but its length is much less. 
 Fronting the sea, on the parapet of the terrace which 
 forms a communication between the two wings, is 
 a row of porcelain vases filled with flowers, which 
 have a very pretty eflfect : the front next the 
 bridge has a noble marble balustrade and flights of 
 steps, on each side of which is placed a bronze 
 lion. The interior of the courts looks very com- 
 fortless, the building being evidently too large for 
 the King of so poor a country. The rooms I 
 understand are not in general well furnished. 
 
 The House of Nobles is a brick building, with a 
 
HOUSE OF NOBLES STATUES. 201 
 
 handsome staircase : the walls are covered with 
 the coats of arms of the Nobility. Over one of 
 the doors is the following inscription 
 
 PALATIUM ORDINIS EQUESTRIS, CONSILIO 
 ATQUE SAPIENTIA, CLARIS MA JORUM EX- 
 EMPLLS, ANIMIS ET FELICIBUS ARM IS, 
 ARTE ET MARTE. 
 
 Some of the statues m the public squares are 
 very striking, particularly that of Gustavus the 
 third, who is represented with a rudder by his side 
 and a wreath of laurel in his left hand. Next to the 
 palace the most conspicuous object is the church 
 of St. Catherine, from which the view is said to 
 be very extensive ; but hardly more so I should 
 think than that which we enjoyed from the top of 
 the Telegraph. The population of Stockholm is 
 about 80,000. 
 
 In the whole of this city there is only one coffee 
 house, and that is not much more magnificent 
 than a booth at a country fair ; it is a sort of pavi- 
 lion, erected on a vacant space underneath the 
 principal bridge : we got some tea there, and 
 found the people very civil and obliging, but none 
 of them could speak any language except Swedish. 
 The houses in general have a handsome appearance, 
 and the staircases of those which we entered were 
 
202 DALECARLIANS — KING's MEWS. 
 
 of very neat stone. All the shops are on the 
 ground floor : the only one which we visited 
 was a bookseller's, whose stock was not apparently 
 very extensive : but he was a very civil man, and 
 sold us a little French work at at an exceedingly 
 moderate price. 
 
 The most remarkable people that one sees at 
 Stockholm are the Dalecarlians, who come to the 
 city to seek employment, as the Irish labourers do 
 in our own country. The women in their short 
 petticoats and red stockings, and party coloured 
 garments, look more like scare-crows than human 
 beings, and the men are not much better : they 
 are said however to be a hardy race, and to possess 
 many of the virtues for which half civilized peo- 
 ple are often distinguished. 
 
 In the King's Mews we saw a great number of 
 horses, but few of them were handsome, although 
 some of the carriage horses were as large as any I 
 ever saw. The stables are kept scrupulously clean, 
 and every thing appeared in the best possible 
 order. We were allowed to walk through them 
 without interruption, and what may seem more 
 extraordinary, to leave them without being asked 
 for money by any of the attendants. 
 
 In the evening we went to the park of Rosendal, 
 
ROSENDAL. 203 
 
 where the King has a small summer palace or 
 pavilion. It was necessary to cross the water in 
 one of the ferry boats, which ply in great numbers 
 between the different islands on which Stockholm 
 is built ; most of them are rowed by women, who 
 pull a vigorous stroke that would not disgrace 
 watermen of the other sex. There were some 
 country people in the boat, and three Swedish 
 clergymen, distinguished by wearing very small 
 bands attached to their neckcloths ; their appear- 
 ance and manner were grave and respectable, but 
 we had no opportunity of trying to converse with 
 them, as it seemed to be a point of etiquette that 
 none of the passengers should speak a word. 
 
 The scenery of the park is very beautiful, na- 
 ture having done much for it,and the Swedes having 
 had the good sense to follow, instead of attempting 
 to improve on her. The only eye-sore, and it is 
 a considerable one, is the number of the tea and 
 snaps shops, which look like empty tea chests 
 standing on their ends in every part of the garden. 
 But even in this uncouth sight there is something 
 gratifying, for it shews how little exclusiveness 
 there is in the King's manner of living, and how 
 anxious he is to be considered the father of his 
 subjects, and to have no interest distinct from 
 
204 QUEEN OF SWEDEN. 
 
 theirs. There are some very fine oaks in the park, 
 and a great many rocky elevations, from the 
 summits of some of which the views of Stockhohn 
 are exceedingly beautiful. Several equipages over- 
 took us as we strolled through the grounds, and 
 among others two or three English gigs : there 
 were also a great many pedestrians whose conduct 
 was very orderly and respectable. 
 
 We were told that both the King and Queen 
 would probably drive through the grounds in the 
 course of the evening , nor had we long to wait, 
 for a few minutes after our arrival at the palace, 
 the Queen's carriage, drawn by four long-tailed 
 black horses, drove up, and the Queen attended 
 by two ladies, alighted, and walked into the flower 
 garden at the back of the palace. She is said to 
 be a very amiable woman, but her manners not 
 being so lively as those of the King, she does not 
 seem to be very popular ; at least so our valet de 
 place said, for we had no more respectable quarter 
 to which we could apply for information. 
 Her Majesty was very soon followed by the King 
 in an open carriage drawn by four white horses, 
 and preceded by a single dragoon. On his left 
 sat Prince Oscar, a fine military looking man, but 
 having nothing to distinguish him particularly 
 
THE KING. 205 
 
 from any other handsome young man, with black 
 hair and moustaches. The Kmg's age is probably 
 seventy ; but he does not look more than sixty- 
 five : years have bent him a little, but his shrewd 
 determined eye, and the alert expression of his 
 countenance shew plainly that he is " strong for 
 service yet and unimpaired. " The most remark- 
 able feature in his face is his nose, which is 
 unusually long and pointed, though not to the 
 degree in which it appears on the copper coins, 
 where the likeness, although strong, is almost 
 a caricature. He was wrapped in a military cloak 
 and wore a little cocked hat, which he raised very 
 graciously when we saluted him in passing. His 
 bow, though graceful and dignified, had nothing 
 of that military stiffness, which is affected by 
 the Emperor of Russia, and which an Englishman 
 so thoroughly dislikes : Bernadotte seems never 
 to have forgotten that he was called to his throne 
 by the people of Sweden ; who on their part are 
 said to look up to him with the affectionate regard 
 of children. He has never been able, I hear, to 
 make much progress in the Swedish language, 
 but Prince Oscar speaks it fluently. 
 
 The rise of this fortunate soldier, and still more 
 perhaps the admirable good sense and tact which 
 
206 SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF BERNADOTTE. 
 
 have enabled him to retain his throne, deserve to 
 he recorded among the most remarkable circum- 
 stances of a very stirring period. Charles John 
 Bernadotte, the son of a peasant, was born in 
 Gascony, and served at the beginning of the 
 revolutionary war as a common soldier in the 
 French army. His military talents raised him by 
 degrees to the rank of marshal, and he was ap- 
 pointed to command the French army in the 
 North of Germany : the moderation which he dis- 
 played in this command, as well as his military repu- 
 tation, recommended him to the Swedes, who, after 
 the sudden death of Prince Augustenberg, elected 
 Bernadotte Crown prince in a diet held at Orebro.* 
 His election was confirmed by Buonaparte, who 
 afterwards withdrew his consent, when Bernadotte 
 refused to become a party to the cotinental system, 
 the object of which was the destruction of Eng- 
 land. Bernadotte however was adopted by the 
 King of Sweden as Crown Prince, and appointed 
 commander in chief of the Swedish forces : and 
 
 * Gustavus IV. ascended the throne in 1792. He was 
 deposed on the ground of insanity, and succeeded by bis 
 Uncle Charles XIII., who during the latter years of his life 
 was guided almost entirely by the advice of the present 
 King, then Crown prince of Sweden. 
 
PROSPECTS or PRINCE OSCAR. 207 
 
 on the death of Charles XIII. succeeded to the 
 throne.* 
 
 Many persons doubt whether Prince Oscar will be 
 permitted quietly to succeed his father. There are it 
 seems three parties in Sweden, one favourable to 
 Prince Oscar ; a second, which wishes the crown 
 to be elective ; and a third, which desires the re- 
 turn of the exiled family. The Swedish Nobles 
 have always been celebrated for their intriguing 
 spirit, and it is greatly to be feared that at the 
 death of the present King, fearful disorders will 
 take place ; and of this, it is said he himself is 
 fully aware, and strives by every means in his 
 power to secure to his son's cause the support of the 
 other states of Europe, whenever the struggle 
 shall take place. Meanwhile the deposed family 
 are not idle, for it is said that the ex crown prince 
 is intriguing with Russia and Austria in the hope 
 that those courts may be induced to support his 
 claims to the Swedish throne. 
 
 Prince Oscar has been many years married to a 
 
 * In the interview which took place at Abo in 1812 between 
 Bernadotle, then Crown prince, and theEmpei'orof Russia, 
 the succession of the family of Bernadotte to the Swedish 
 throne was guaranteed, before he signed the treaty by Avhich 
 the arms of Sweden were to be directed against France. 
 
 Jones.— Letter VIII. 
 
208 WE VISIT THE MINES OF DANNEMORA. 
 
 daughter of Eugene Beauharnais, the late vice-roy 
 of Italy, and has I believe several children. 
 
 Being anxious to see the iron mines at Danne- 
 mora, about 60 English miles North of Stockholm, 
 we put ourselves into one of the common post- 
 carts of the country, and started about five o'clock 
 in the evening. The cart had no springs, and 
 though we nestled as well as we could in a large 
 bundle of hay, the jolting was such as I hope I 
 shall never experience again. Under any circum- 
 stance posting in Sweden is tedious and disagree- 
 able ; the owners of the horses never permitting 
 them I believe to be driven at a greater rate than 
 a Swedish mile an hour, although the roads are so 
 good, that there is no reason why travelling should 
 be slower here than in Finland. Besides this it is 
 necessary in order to secure horses, to send on an 
 avant-courier, called a forebud, to whom you 
 must give at least four hours start, or you will be 
 sure to overtake him on the road, and then all 
 your arrangements must begin again. To ensure 
 his hiring a cart, it is usual to give him some article 
 of luggage too heavy to be carried on his shoul- 
 ders, for unless this is done he is very likely to 
 pocket the money which you pay him for carriage 
 hire, and you will probably have the mortification 
 
SWEDISH POSTING. 209 
 
 of overtaking him before the end of the first stage. 
 If the horses are kept waiting at the post-house 
 beyond the time appointed, the traveller is obliged 
 to pay a fine for every hour that they are detained ; 
 and if he does not appear at the end of four hours, 
 the owner is allowed to take them home, and re- 
 ceives half the price that would have been paid if 
 they had performed the stage. A book is kept, as in 
 Finland, at every post-house, in which the travel- 
 ler is compelled to enter his name, rank, &c., the 
 number of horses he travels with, and his com- 
 plaints, if he has any to make. The whole system 
 may perhaps be less disagreeable to the occupiers 
 of land, than that of Finland, but it is immeasur- 
 ably more tiresome and vexatious to the traveller ; 
 especially on cross roads, where it is sometimes 
 necessary to send on the forebud eight or ten 
 hours before you start, as the post-master is often 
 obliged to send a great distance to procure horses. 
 The post-houses in Sweden are generally very 
 dirty, and the people by no means alert : but in 
 their way they were civil and attentive to us. 
 The fare is so bad that Swedish gentlemen when 
 they travel generally carry provisions with them. 
 However as we always got bread and milk, and 
 coffee, there was not after all much to complain of. 
 
210 UNEASY CARRIAGE. 
 
 The travelling cart is changed at every stage, 
 but I did not find that the variety produced any 
 alleviation of our distress ; the whole journey in- 
 deed was one long jumble, relieved occasionally 
 by jolts which threw us from our seats, and made 
 our very bones rattle. Two seats are suspended 
 by leathern thongs across the cart, but we soon 
 found it better to dispense with one of these, and 
 stretch ourselves at full length with our legs under 
 the seat on which our servant, who always drove, 
 was placed. The night was cold, and altogether 
 I hardly ever recollect having had a more uncom- 
 fortable journey. 
 
 At first we thought that we were among a 
 nation of shoemakers, almost every man whom 
 we met wearing a leathern apron; but this we 
 soon found was the common dress of the pea- 
 santry ; very convenient perhaps and economical, 
 but by no means picturesque. The country be- 
 tween Stockholm and Upsala is generally flat and 
 uninteresting, but well cultivated. In many parts 
 it strikingly resembles the neighbourhood of Wal- 
 lingford in Berkshire, the same sort of common 
 field with its patches of different kinds of grain, 
 and here and there, a village spire " bosom'd high 
 in tufted trees." We reached Upsala very early 
 
APPEARANCE OP THE MINES, 211 
 
 but as we intended to lionize it on our re- 
 turn, we only stopped to change horses, and 
 proceeded to Dannemora, where we arrived at 
 seven o'clock in the morning. The last part 
 of the road is through a wood, in which some 
 miserable half-starved horses seemed to be running 
 wild ; and the approach to the mine is indicated 
 by vast heaps of ore. The water is pumped out 
 of the pits by means of a water wheel of enor- 
 mous size, which stands a mile from the pumps, 
 and communicates with them by rods. The ap- 
 pearance of the pits is really awful. In Cornwall, 
 where many of the copper mines are much deeper, 
 the descent into the bowels of the earth is effected 
 by means of shafts, which are in general only a 
 few yards in diameter : but here a vast gulf, rather 
 resembling the fissure made by an earthquake, 
 than the effect of human labour, yawns beneath 
 your feet, and you look down full six hundred 
 feet and see the men at work in the very bottom 
 of the mine. We saw two of these pits, from 
 which buckets loaded with ore were being drawn 
 up, by precisely the sort of wheel which in Corn- 
 wall is called a whiniy and which is here worked 
 by oxen instead of horses. The empty bucket 
 descends as the other ascends. 
 
212 WE DESCEND INTO THE MIKE. 
 
 To descend into one of the pits was by no 
 means an agreeable undertaking, but it would have 
 been foolish to return without having thoroughly 
 examined what we had travelled so many uneasy 
 miles to see: so mustering all our courage, we 
 entered one of the buckets which had just reached 
 the mouth of the deepest pit, one of the miners 
 accompanying us, and carrying a torch of split 
 pine. Our first sensations were not pleasant. 
 The knowledge that we were suspended by a sin- 
 gle rope over an abyss of six hundred feet, and 
 that the breaking of the rope, or a collision with 
 the ascending bucket, or even a knock against 
 the side of the pit, would inevitably precipitate us 
 to the bottom, awakened sensations of awe, and 
 forced us to remember how entirely our lives are 
 in the hands of Him, without whom not even a 
 sparrow falleth to the ground. 
 
 We were just beginning to recover our compo- 
 sure, so as to be able to look around us a little, 
 when a flash of light, followed by an explosion 
 so loud that it seemed as if all the rocks of the 
 cavern must be crumbled into dust, made us for 
 a moment wish that we had never left the surface. 
 I remember being once in a Cornish copper mine 
 when a similar explosion took place, the effect of 
 
BLASTING — APPEARANCE OF THE MINES. 213 
 
 wliich was by no means so awful ; but we were 
 then standing at the bottom of one of the shafts, 
 instead of hanging like Socrates between heaven 
 and earth in a basket, the feeling therefore of com- 
 parative security may have made us less sensible 
 of the noise. At length we were safely deposited 
 at the bottom and had leisure to look about us. 
 
 Our servant having declined accompanying us, 
 we had no means of communication with the 
 workmen except by signs. Judging from their 
 appearance, I should suppose their employment 
 much less injurious to the health than that of the 
 Cornish miners, for their complexions have no- 
 thing of that cadaverous hue which I have observed 
 in those who work in copper mines : perhaps this 
 may be partly owing to a very judicious regula- 
 tion of the government, which forbids under 
 severe penalties the sale of any spirituous liquors 
 in or near the iron mines. Their work seemed 
 very laborious, for the ore is very hard, and it 
 requires a great many vigorous strokes of a sledge 
 hammer to break off any considerable quantity 
 of it. They were boring for another explosion 
 whilst we were in the pit. 
 
 After climbing two or three ladders and crawl- 
 ing through a wet slippery gallery, we found 
 
214 ICY CAVERNS — ACCIDENTS. 
 
 ourselves in a pit where large masses of ice remain 
 unmelted from one end of the year to the other. 
 A more dreary cavern can hardly be imagined, 
 yet the poor fellows were labouring there as cheer- 
 fully as I have ever seen a vine- dresser in the 
 sunny valleys of Portugal. After remaining some 
 time below, and giving a trifling gratuity to the 
 miners, for which they seemed very thankful, we 
 got into our bucket again and in about four mi- 
 nutes were safely landed at the mouth of the pit, 
 feeling very chilly and not at all sorry to be 
 allowed to bask once more in the warm sunshine. 
 The buckets are much larger than those used in the 
 Cornish mines, and the weight of ore which the 
 ascending one brings up at each trip must be enor- 
 mous. Accidents I understand are by no means 
 common, but there have been instances of the 
 bucket, in which two or three miners have been 
 descending, being dashed against the other, and 
 the unfortunate men being hurled to the bottom 
 of the pit and crushed to atoms. Jones says that 
 the iron produced from the Dannemora ore is the 
 best in the world for making steel, and that it 
 averages about three thousand tons yearly, the 
 whole of which is contracted for in England and 
 sent to Hull. 
 
UPSALA— CASTLE — CATHEDRAL. 215 
 
 Having thoroughly satisfied our curiosity we 
 re-entered our lumbering carriage, and returned 
 to Upsala. This town, once the capital of Swe- 
 den, and still a celebrated University and Arclii- 
 episcopal residence, stands on the river Sala, which 
 communicates with the Malaren Lake. The most 
 conspicuous building is the castle, and one of the 
 most frightful perhaps in this or any other coun- 
 try, being painted a staring red, with a number of 
 sham windows, which give it an exceedingly mean 
 appearance, not unlike a great overgrown baby- 
 house. The cathedral is a much more pleasing 
 structure. It is of brick, in the Gothic style, 
 and has two towers ornamented with marble pil- 
 lars : the interior is very handsome, and contains 
 one of the neatest altar-pieces I have ever seen, 
 with a large crucifix of marble, the cross being 
 black, and the figure of the Saviour of the most 
 snowy whiteness, and admirably executed. There 
 are also many very interesting monuments, among 
 which that of Gustavus Vasa claims the first place. 
 
 "This monarch, bom in a private station, and 
 educated in adversity, gained a crown by the gra- 
 titude of his countrymen, who bestowed it upon 
 him for his long and faithful services. In return, 
 he delivered Sweden from tyranny and a foreign 
 
216 GUSTAVUS VASA. 
 
 yoke, and established a hereditary instead of an 
 elective monarchy, and the Protestant in lieu of 
 the Roman Catholic religion." 
 
 "The inscription on his tomb states that he 
 was born in 1490, chosen administrator of the 
 kingdom in 1520, elected King in 1523, crowned 
 in 1528, and resigned his soul to his Maker in 
 1560, after a glorious reign of forty years, and in 
 the seventieth year of his age. 
 
 " He may justly be said to have shewn his 
 superiority of character in whatever station he 
 was placed, whether as the leader of a party, as a 
 legislator, a warrior, a politician, or a sovereign ; 
 always displaying, in an eminent degree, the quali- 
 ties best suited to support the dignity with which 
 he was invested. He ever proved himself an encou- 
 rager of learning, and a supporter of every measure 
 that tended to the advancement of true piety." 
 
 " He was affable to all ; his deportment was 
 majestic, and he possessed the most persuasive 
 eloquence, so as to carry the hearts of all with 
 him ; and by these endearing and amiable qualities 
 he exercised greater influence over his subjects, 
 than his predecessors had done by the most 
 arbitrary power." 
 
 "He is the father of a line of Kings, called 
 
LINN.EUS. 217 
 
 from him the house of Vasa, who swayed the 
 Swedish sceptre, till qualities, the reverse of those 
 possessed by him, caused it to be torn from the hands 
 of Gustavus IV., and ultimately placed in those of 
 an alien and perfect stranger to the country, but 
 who, like the great man whose encomium I have 
 just been writing, appears determined to devote 
 himself to the good of the country which has 
 adopted him, and to the people who have thus 
 voluntarily become his subjects." * 
 
 There are several other fine monuments, but the 
 most interesting memorial of all is a plain stone, 
 which points out the place in which the ashes of 
 Linnaeus are deposited. A simple inscription tells 
 us that the bones of this great man rest under- 
 neath the stone. There is however another much 
 more imposing monument, of porphyry, erected to 
 his memory by his friends and pupils : it bears 
 the following inscription 
 
 CAROLO A LINNE 
 
 BOTANICORUM PRINCIPI 
 
 AMICI ET DISCIPULI 
 
 MDCCXCVIII. 
 
 The house in which he lived and his garden have been 
 
 suffered to go to ruin ; but there is a museum, and 
 
 * Jones.— Letter viii. 
 
 T 
 
218 LINN^US. 
 
 a botanical garden, established since his death, 
 both of which bear the name of Linnaeus. I re- 
 gret that the necessity we were under of husband- 
 ing every moment of our time rendered it, as we 
 then thought, impossible for us to inspect the 
 University, which I should like very much to have 
 seen ; and, as it turned out, we might have done 
 so, for instead of starting from Stockholm imme- 
 diately on our return from Upsala, we were 
 detained many hours, our forebud (that plague of 
 travellers in Sweden) having thought proper to 
 use his own judgment, and wait our return, instead 
 of setting out, as we had intended he should, at 
 least six hours before we reached Stockholm. 
 
 But to return to Linnaeus. He was the son of 
 a country clergyman, and was bom at Roeshulf, a 
 small village, of which his father was curate. The 
 poverty of his parents was such, that it was pro- 
 posed to apprentice him to some mechanical trade ; 
 happily however for the world, this plan was 
 abandoned, and he was sent first to Lund, and 
 afterwards to the University of Upsala ; where his 
 talents and diligence attracted the attention of the 
 celebrated Olaus Celsius, professor of divinity, and 
 a distinguished naturalist. From this excellent 
 man Linnaeus received so much kindness and 
 
LINN.EUS. 219 
 
 hospitality, that he was enabled to prosecute his 
 studies in spite of his poverty : and at the end of 
 two years was so far advanced, that he was per- 
 mitted occasionally to give lectures on botany 
 in the place of Professor Kudbeck. 
 
 In 1731 he was sent into Lapland by the Aca- 
 demy of Sciences at Upsala. Here he remained 
 many months, travelling generally on foot, and 
 penetrating into regions, which no traveller had 
 ever explored before. The hardships which he 
 underwent were terrible, and once he very nearly 
 lost his life by the upsetting of a boat. In 1733 
 he visited the different mines of Sweden, and in 
 1734 made an expedition into Dalecarlia, and re- 
 sided for some time at Fahlun, the principal town 
 of that province. He afterwards visited England 
 and Holland, in both which countries he con- 
 tracted friendships with most of the distinguished 
 naturalists of the day. 
 
 On the death of Kudbeck he was appointed joint 
 Professor of medicine with Rosen, and gave lec- 
 tures in botany as well as other brcinches of medical 
 science. About this time a very flattering com- 
 pliment was paid to him by the King of Spain, 
 who, offered, if he would reside at Madrid, to 
 settle a large annuity on him, and what in that 
 
220 LINNiEUS — FIGURE OF THOR. 
 
 ridiculously proud as well as bigotted country 
 would seem still more remarkable, to give him a 
 patent of nobility and allow him the free exercise 
 of his religion. The reply of Linnaeus was that 
 of a patriot, "If I have any talents, my own 
 country has a right to them." Nor had he any 
 reason to regret his choice, for his own generous 
 monarch settled a handsome pension on him, and 
 raised him to the rank of a nobleman. 
 
 At length, after a tedious illness, he resigned 
 his soul into the hands of his maker, in the year 
 1778. The day of his funeral was one of general 
 mourning in Upsala, the whole University walking 
 in the procession, and his pall being supported 
 by sixteen Doctors of medicine, all of whom had 
 been his pupils ; the inhabitants in general testi- 
 fying by every means in their power their sense 
 of his great merit, and their grief for his death. 
 
 In the sacristy of the church they exhibit some 
 rich ecclesiastical vestments; and in a strong room, 
 approached by a long passage and secured by 
 three doors, we were shewn a little old wooden 
 grinning figure, which they told us was of very 
 high antiquity, and represented the God Thor, 
 in whose honour human victims used to be sacri- 
 ficed at Old Upsala. I know not what strange 
 
LIDKOPING — POST-HOUSE. 225 
 
 striking object on entering Orebro is a large square 
 house, turreted, and surrounded by a wet ditch 
 hke a fortification : but I believe it is nothing 
 more than the private residence of some whim- 
 sical proprietor. The church is very neat and 
 substantial. 
 
 The next morning we arrived at Lidkoping, a 
 pretty town on the Southern shore of the Wenern 
 lake, which here is very broad ; but certainly, as 
 far as we have seen, not worthy to be compared 
 with the lake of Geneva. 
 
 During the previous night we had the ill-luck 
 to overtake our forebud, who worn out by fatigue, 
 I suppose, had crept into some corner of the post- 
 house, and was snoring in concert with the rest of 
 the inmates when we arrived. On entering the 
 room, to which we were directed by the melodious 
 sounds, we saw nothing at first but what seemed 
 to be bundles of rags ; but gradually one after 
 another they became animated, and about a dozen 
 odd wild-looking figuers rose from the ground on 
 which they had been lying, each stretching itself, 
 and looking round it with an expression of idiotic 
 wonder, which to any persons but belated travel- 
 lers, and at any time except in the middle of a 
 cold night, would have been amusing enough. 
 
226 COUNTRY BETWEEN ARBOGA AND OREBRO 
 
 In vain did our servant again and again repeat 
 his demand for horses ; in vain did the forebud 
 (who seemed not a little alarmed at what to hira 
 must have been our unexpected apparition), bawl 
 in their ears ; they preserved the same appearance 
 of resusciated mummies, which they had worn 
 when they first rose from the floor ; and not a 
 word could we get from them for nearly a quarter 
 of an hour. I certainly never saw people so tho- 
 roughly bewildered, and we began to be almost 
 in despair, when at length one of them revived 
 so far as to be able to tell us that he had sent a 
 considerble distance for horses, which he supposed 
 would soon arrive. 
 
 Whilst we were talking, the horses actually did 
 arrive, and after waiting a reasonable time, in 
 order to give our forebud a chance of getting to 
 the next station half an hour before us, we again 
 proceeded on our journey. 
 
 The country through which we had passed be- 
 tween Arboga and Orebro was in general wild and 
 dreary, huge masses of stone lying piled in all 
 directions ; but none of the scenery here or in 
 any other part of Sweden that we had hitherto 
 seen, had any pretensions to sublimity ; our feel- 
 lings of astonishment and awe were therefore 
 
TROLHATTAN. 227 
 
 raised to the highest pitch when we arrived at 
 Trolhattan. 
 
 There is hardly a place in Europe, about which 
 more contradictory opinions have been held than 
 these celebrated falls. Sir Humphry Davy thought 
 the sight of them a sufficient compensation for 
 the fatigues and privations of a voyage from Eng- 
 land ; whilst more than one traveller has declared 
 that they were hardly worth the trouble of a day's 
 journey. The cause of their disappointment may 
 very possibly have been, that they had been ac- 
 customed to think and talk of the falls of Trol- 
 hattan, and therefore were annoyed at finding 
 them only a succession of rapids. It certainly 
 might have been an improvement if the waters of 
 the Wenern had dashed themselves down a pre- 
 cipice of a hundred feet ; but I must confess, that 
 notwithstanding this defect, so far from being 
 disappointed, I have seldom in my life been more 
 agreeably surprized ; for I had never anticipated 
 the sight of such a " hell of waters " as that which 
 presented itself here. 
 
 Except the sea in a storm, dashing against the 
 rocks of an iron-boimd coast, I have never be- 
 held so sublime a spectacle. The glaciers of 
 Switzerland may be in some respects more striking 
 
228 RAPIDS — SAW MILLS. 
 
 at first, but they want the roar, and din, and mo- 
 tion, which give such an aspect of wild horror to 
 the rapids of Trolhattan, reminding one of the 
 waters of that fearful deluge, which swept away 
 in one terrible ruin, sinful man, with all his pos- 
 sessions and all his hopes. "Lord, what is man?" 
 is the ejaculation which naturally rises to our 
 lips, when looking at such a majestic specimen of 
 the Almighty's handy work. 
 
 The rapids are seven in number ; the two prin- 
 cipal ones (which are divided by an island covered 
 with trees,) having a fall of about 25 feet ; the 
 river then becomes narrower, and its course is 
 again interrupted by an island, which occasions 
 two other falls ; considerably below which there 
 are three more, much smaller, but by no means 
 deficient in picturesque beauty. 
 
 Unfortunately the grandeur of this magnificent 
 scene is impaired by the presence of a number of 
 wretched saw-mills, the clinking and creaking 
 noise of which harmonizes badly with the roar 
 of the mighty flood by which they are worked ; 
 and what is even more provoking, hillocks of 
 saw-dust rise in all directions on the banks of the 
 river, giving a " worky-day " aspect to a scene, 
 which even in spite of them has few equals, but 
 
THE GREAT CANAL. 229 
 
 which without them would he perhaps the grand- 
 est in Europe. 
 
 The best view of the rapids is from a walk on 
 the southern hank of the river ; hut there is by 
 no means a bad prospect from the windows of the 
 inn, where we sat for half an hour drinking tea 
 and looking at the river. A guide was introduced, 
 who spoke a wretched jargon of German and 
 English. He shewed us his book which contained 
 the names of a great many travellers, among 
 whom there were not I think more than half a 
 dozen English. 
 
 Under his guidance we sallied out to see the 
 great canal. This famous work of art, which had 
 been attempted and abandoned at diiferent times 
 ever since the year 1526, was completed thirty six 
 years ago, on the 1st of August 1«00 when the 
 first vessel pased Trolhatten amidst the acclama- 
 tions of an imsmense multitude. 
 
 ** The whole expense of this undertaking a- 
 mounted to three hundred and fifty eight thousand 
 nine hundred and eighty six Rix dollars, a mere 
 trifle when we consider the magnitude of the en- 
 terprise ; it being one mile and a quarter in length, 
 passing two lakes, and having eight locks, one 
 hundred and twenty feet long, twenty two broad, 
 
230 CAVE— ROYAL SIGNATURES. 
 
 and fourteen below the level of each other, making 
 a total difference in the level of one hundred and 
 twelve feet. The whole are blown out of the solid 
 rock, and the scene at the upper part is grand ; 
 but it is soft below, where there is a good deal of 
 meadow and arable ground."* 
 
 By means of this canal a communication is 
 opened for small vessels between Gottenburg and 
 Stockholm ; that is to say between the North Sea and 
 the Baltic, the rapids of Trolhattan, which were the 
 only impediment, being thus avoided. The gates 
 of the locks are made of cast iron ; the first pair 
 having been imported as a pattern from England. 
 
 Near the falls is a curious cave, so smooth that 
 it has the appearance of having been scooped out 
 by the chisel. On the walls of this cavern are the 
 names of several members of the late and present 
 royal families, written originally in chalk by the 
 illustrious personages themselves, and then cut 
 into the rock. Among the names are those of 
 " Carl Johan, Oscar, and Eugenie Desiree. 
 
 On our return to the inn we overtook a country 
 fellow carrying on his shoulders a very fine sal- 
 mon which he had just caught ; he offered to sell 
 it to us, and the price, as well as we could under- 
 
 * From a book published by Lovegren, a bookseller at 
 €ottenburg. 
 
MR. LLOYD — WOLVES. 231 
 
 stand our guide, was about four pence English 
 per pound, but the actual selling price in all pro- 
 bability was not half the money. The salmon 
 fishing here affords very fine amusement to those 
 who are fond of the sport, among the foremost of 
 whom must be reckoned Mr. Lloyd, whose ex- 
 ploits among the wolves and bears have made him 
 the hero of the Swedish peasantry. Not long ago 
 (our man told us) Mr. Lloyd had had the misfor- 
 tune to shoot accidentally a servant to whom he 
 was much attached : I could not ascertain whether 
 it was the *' Elg" of whom he speaks in such af- 
 fectionate terms in his delightful book ; but who- 
 ever the poor fellow was, such a disaster ( which 
 would have been distressing to any one) must have 
 been peculiarly afflictive to a man so kind and 
 warm-hearted as Mr. Lloyd is universally reported 
 to be. 
 
 The audacity of the wolves in winter is almost 
 incredible. A lady told me that not many winters 
 ago one had taken a clean leap over the sledge in 
 which she was driving, and afterwards, in com- 
 pany with many others, had followed her for 
 several miles. Three or four of the post-horses 
 which we had on the road between Stockholm and 
 Gottenburg had ghastly scars on their hind quar- 
 
232 WOLVES — SNOW-PLOUGH. 
 
 ters, left, our servant told us, by the teeth of the 
 wolf. As soon as he feels the attack in his rear, 
 the horse if he be strong and spirited, generally 
 dashes forward, and very often succeeds in saving 
 his life, although at the expense of a considerable 
 portion of his flesh. In summer the wolves are 
 seldom met with. Our Irish friends saw a solitary 
 one in Finland, which suffered them to approach 
 within thirty yards, and then coolly walked into 
 the wood on the side of the road, turning round 
 repeatedly and looking at them with the air of 
 affected contempt which a rogue who has been 
 turned out of respectable society assumes in order 
 to disguise his mortification and terror. 
 
 But after all, the poor wretches deserve our pity 
 as much as our dislike, for the wolf is naturally 
 a cowardly skulking animal, and therefore the 
 desperate feats which he performs in winter shew 
 how maddening the pangs of hunger must be 
 which force him to rush into dangers, from which 
 he would willingly run, if he could do so without 
 the certainty of being starved to death. 
 
 In several places we remarked, lying by the road 
 side a huge machine of wood in form not unlike a 
 mariner's quadrant. On enquiry we found that 
 these machines were snow-ploughs, which are 
 
ROAD BETWEEN TROLHATTAN AND GOTTENBURG. 233 
 
 drawn through the snow, the small end foremost, 
 by horses, thus performing in a few hours a labour, 
 which would employ a body of peasants and their 
 spades for many days. Indeed the Swedish go- 
 vernment attends with the most scrupulous care 
 to every thing connected with the preservation of 
 the roads, which, with very few exceptions, are as 
 smooth and well kept as the finest Mac-adamized 
 road in England. A few more judicious posting 
 regulations would render travelling there as expe- 
 ditious and agreeable as in any country in the 
 world : but at present the arrangements are miser- 
 ably clumsy and harassing to the traveller. 
 
 The road between Trolhattan and Gottenburg is 
 very hilly, and in some parts runs through forests 
 so dark, that even in a starlight night it is impos- 
 sible to see an inch of the way. At half-past 
 seven in the morning we entered Gottenburg, the 
 suburbs of which are composed of wooden houses 
 neatly painted, and very pleasing in their external 
 appearance. We were slightly questioned at the 
 gate ; and one of the douaniers, after a short con- 
 versation with our servant, proceeded with us into 
 the town, and introduced us to a Jew, who keeps 
 a Hotel garni close to the great square. Here we 
 took possession of two very neat rooms, from 
 
234 GOTTENBURG. 
 
 the windows of which we had a cheerful view of 
 the market square, crowded with country people 
 with their different wares for sale. 
 
 The streets of Gottenburg are wide and hand- 
 some, and most of them intersected by canals. 
 The town is backed by an amphitheatre of bleak 
 rocky hills, except on the right, where there is a 
 small marsh, which affords very good wild fowl 
 shooting. There is little of the bustle of trade in 
 the city; but farther down the river Gotha* at 
 Marstucket several large ships were unloading. 
 Captain Jones says, that the principal exports are 
 iron and plank : and the imports East and West 
 Indian produce. There is also a large porter brew- 
 ery established here, but judging of its quality by 
 some that I tasted on board the Abo steamer, I 
 should say that it was execrably bad. 
 
 To our great satisfaction the agent of the Chris- 
 tiania steam packet, on whom we called in the 
 afternoon, addressed us in very good English, but 
 with the same slow drawling pronunciation which 
 distinguishes the Scotch, and which we afterwards 
 found to be universal among those Swedes who 
 
 * The town derives its name from this river, and is 
 always written by the Swedes Gotheborg, but I thought it 
 best in this, as in some other instances, not to depart from 
 the usual English way of spelling tli« names of towns. 
 
STEAM-PACKET AGENT — JEW's BILL. 235 
 
 spoke our language. Their own is pronounced in 
 this manner, and contains besides so many words 
 similar to the lowland Scotch, that it is said a na- 
 tive of that country can always contrive to make 
 himself tolerably understood in Sweden. This 
 gentleman, who treated us with the greatest civili- 
 ty and kindness, informed us that the steam- 
 packet would arrive from Christiania at five 
 o'clock the next morning, but would remain 
 twelve hours at Gottenburg : an arrangement which 
 proved very inconvenient to us, as it made it im- 
 possible for us to reach Hamburg in time for the 
 regular London steamer. 
 
 The following day at two o'clock we sent our 
 baggage on board, and at three went off in the 
 Captain's boat with the agent and two other gentle- 
 men, both of whom spoke English. 
 
 A few minutes before we started, we requested 
 our host to bring his bill ; and to our great asto- 
 nishment and disgust, the little man produced a 
 roll of paper almost as long as himself, scribbled 
 all over with Swedish words unintelligible to us, 
 but ending in a sum total of 36 Eix dollars, or 
 about £3 12. English. To pay such a sum for 
 one nights lodging, two breakfasts and a dinner 
 was out of the question : so we desired our ser- 
 
236 CHARACTER OF OUR LANDLORD. 
 
 vant to tell him candidly our opinion of his be- 
 haviour. At first he affected a generous indigna- 
 tion, but when we declared our willingness to re- 
 fer the matter to the police if he persisted in his 
 demand, he changed his tone to a plaintive whine : 
 and finding that equally ineffectual, caught up the 
 twenty six Rix dollars which I had laid on the 
 table, and rushed out of the room. The name of 
 this fellow (as I think I mentioned before) is Ro- 
 bertson, of No. 62, in a street adjoining the great 
 square : and go where he will I am quite certain 
 he will never meet with a greater rogue than him- 
 self. The poor girl, who had officiated as waiter, 
 stood aghast, concluding, I suppose, that we should 
 have little to spare for her : but when I gave her a 
 trifling gratuity, she seized my hand and shook it 
 so heartily, that I was quite out of countenance. 
 She afterwards told our servant that no traveller, 
 who had once partaken of her master's hospitality, 
 had been ever known to return to his house. 
 
 We found the accommodations on board the 
 steamer very good, and the Captain civil and at- 
 tentive. There were two English gentlemen, pas- 
 sengers, who were returning from a shooting tour 
 in Norway. They were well-informed agreeable 
 men, and seemed delighted to meet two of their 
 
THE SOUND — COPENHAGEN. 237 
 
 countrymen, having had little opportunity of 
 speaking their own language except to each other, 
 for many weeks. The scenery of Norway they des- 
 cribed as very magnificent : and one of them, 
 who had been in Switzerland, considered it equal 
 to the finest parts of that country. They had 
 often fared hardly, having been generally depen- 
 dent on their guns for obtaining any provision 
 better than rye cakes. 
 
 Early the next morning we entered the sound 
 in a thick fog, which suddenly rose like the cur- 
 tain of a theatre and discovered tlie castle of Cron- 
 borg (where the unfortunate Queen Matilda was 
 confined) with the town of Elsinore, and the gar- 
 den in which tradition has laid the scene of Hamlet's 
 interview with his father's ghost. On the opposite 
 coast was the Swedish town of Helsingborg. The 
 sound was crowded with vessels, all of which are 
 obliged to pay toll to the king of Denmark. At 
 ten we arrived at Copenhagen, where we remained 
 until eight o'clock the next morning,* employing 
 our time in visiting the Royal Museum with its 
 magnificent collection of medals and Scandinavian 
 
 * In justice to a worthy man, I ought to recommend 
 the landlord of the Hotel du Nord at Copenhagen, as one of 
 the most obliging, as well as honest persons I have ever met 
 with. 
 
238 RETURN TO ENGLAND. 
 
 antiquities ; and in looking at some of Thorwald- 
 sen's statues, most of which I had seen many 
 years ago in his studio at Rome. From Copen- 
 hagen we went by the steam-packet to Kiel, and 
 thence to Hamburg, where we had the good for- 
 tune to find a steamer ready to sail the next morn- 
 ing. At 3 o'clock we got under weigh, and on 
 Tuesday August 16, arrived in London, only one 
 day later then we had intended when we left Eng- 
 land. 
 
 It now only remains for me to express my hum- 
 ble gratitude to Him, who throughout this long and 
 fatiguing journey, has protected me from every 
 danger, and permitted me to return in safety, and 
 with renovated health, to my own beloved country, 
 and to the society of those who are most dear to 
 me. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Torquay : Printed by E. Cockreai. 
 
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