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. /