\. tf. o '^\ ■A Q I NORTHERN SUMMER: TRAVELS ROUND THE BALTIC. NORTHERN SUMMER; OR TRAVELS KOVNO THE BALTIC, THROUGH DENMARK, SWEDEN, RUSSIA, PRUSSIA, AND PART OF GERMANY. IN THE YEAR 1804. JOHNj^CARR, ESQ. AUTHOR OF THE STRANGER IN FRANCE, Sic. Sr<. . EonDon: PRINTED FOR RICHARD PHILLIPS, NO. 6, BRIDGE STREET, BLACKFRIARS. By T. Gillet, Salisbury-square. 1805. ( ■ k. Giff 04^ ChavUs if. f^ofo/^ \ TO THE HONOURABLE SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH, KNT. RECORDER OF BOMBAY. SIR, WHILE you are imparting new light to those regions, so gloriously illuminated by the genius and the virtues of the late Sir William Jones, wiH you allow a Traveller to express his thoughts to you in contemplating your character and situ- ation? I cannot but felicitate that race of my fel- low-creatures who are placed within the protec- tion of your judicial care ; yet, in recollecting how many listened to you with delight in this country, I feel your distance from it, in one point of view, a source of national regret. Conscious that these sentiments are sincere, I am encouraged by theriti to request, that you will honour with indulgent acceptance, a book, whose author has endeavoured to unite amusement and information. M181E84 VI DEDICATION. Doubtful of success in each of his purposes, he is anxious to conciliate favour, by introducing his performance to the Public under the shelter of your name : a name that awakens universally the re- spect due to the beneficent exertions of knowledge and irresistible eloquence. That health and felicity may attend you, in those scenes of arduous duty where your gracious Sove- reign has stationed you ; and that you may return to this favoured island, and long enjoy in it all the various rewards of honourable service, is the ardent wish of him who is, Sir, With the truest esteem, Your faithful and obedient servant, JOHN CARR. No. 2, Garden-Court, Temple, 1st. June, 1805. CONTENTS. HE AGREEMENT. Page. I CHAP. I. Time of setting forth. A western town. Harwich. The poor Norwe- gian's tomb. Helogoland. Floating merry faces. Husum. A Stuhl- waggon. The fair. The wonder. Novel application of a church. Waltzes. A shocking secret. - - - - 3 CHAPTER II. Dull matters necessary to be known. The village wonder. Musical Postil- lions. Snaps. Farm-house and 'inn. The post delivered. A conspi- r:icv. Bolton's dollar. The little Belt. Village bride. The Great Belt. Corsoer. Bardolph's nose - - - - - 18 CHAPTER III. Danish character. Gin. Zealand. Turnpike gate. Mile stones. In- telligence of women. The tomb of Julian. Maria. Husband intriguing with his wife. Margaret of Voldemar. The ./"'jming mother. Co- penhagen. A Danish dinner. Tomb of the Heroes ^^ .i vsecond of April, 1 80 1. The battle of that day. Lord Nelson. The brave young Welmoes - - - - - - - 33 %^ y\[[ CONTENTS. Page CHAPTER IV. Valour facetious. Gallery of paintings. Curiosities. Tycho Brahc's golden nose. The garden of Fredericsberg. The Crown Prince. The fa- shionable schoolmaster an4 Uttl^baronet. ^r^tef^l peasant. Religion. Excellent law. The fiUr^om&stet 'vmh c^nar^ bird. The hermit of Dronningaard. Quickness of vegetation. The prisoner's son. Palace of Rosenberg. Table d'hote. Droll misconception of the English la- dies. Rasp house. Dutch town .,.-.. - - - - S3 CHAPTER V. Fredericksborg. Storks. Fastidious Mares. Forest laws. Penalties of travelling. Prince William of Gloucester. Continental equipages. Ham- lets. Orchard. Cronberg Castle. Some affecting scenes which passed there. The farewell kiss. The gallantry of Captain Macbride. The little court of Rell. The death of the Queen Matilda - - 82 CHAEtEft Vt. Cross the Sound. Sweden. Cinderella^ Mice. Rapid Travelling. Strange question. Roof-grazing. Misled by the light. A discovery. A cau- tion. A French hotel .1. " " " " ^°^ CHAPTER VII. ' National welcome. Brief description of Stockholm. A great genins ir - decline. Painting. Short sketch of Gustavus III. Female stratagem. The palace. The state bed. The Opera house. Assass;:ation. For- giveness. A hint not intended to offend - - - 119 CHAT»?jrR VIII. A visit in the country, ^servatory. Dinner and fashions. ' "Blooming ' girls of npt'-S:&afa.'''Drottningholm. Queen Christina's cunning. Ward- • r.qfe of "tharles XII. Beauty. Concealment and prudery. National CONTENTS. IX Page, importance of a British advocate. Contrasted justice. Haga. Cause of the friendship of Gustavus III. for Sir Sydney Smith. A singular anec- dote. A review. Iron mines. Linnaeus - - - 137 CHAPTER IX. Poor post-horses. Language. Merry criminal. Prisons. Psalm-singing watchmen. Washerwomen. French comedy. Passports. Indecorum of a little dog. Set sail for Swedish Finland. Begging on a new ele- ment. Islands upon islands. A massacre. The arts. Abo. Flies. Forests on fire. Russia. Fredericksham. Russian coins - - 175 CHAPTER X. Rustic urbanity. Wretched village. No. i . Wibourg. Greek religion. A charity sermon. Religion and extortion. A word or two to fortified towns. Starved horses. Volunteer jacket. Appearance of Petersburg. Cossac. Renowned statue _ - _ - . 207 CHAPTER XI. Advantages of the Imperial city. The village architect. The summer gar- dens. Kissing. Horses with false hair. Sweetness of Russian language. Bearded milliners. Incorruptibility of beards. Great riches amassed by common Russians. The cause of humanity and justice. Music and argu- ment better than the whip. A Negro's notions. Slavery. The New Kazan - - _ - - - - 224 CHAPTER XIL Pedestrians, how considered. The scaffolding of the New Kazan church. Great ingenuity of common Russians. The market. The knout. Cru- elty of the Empress Elizabeth. Punishment of two lovely females - 249 CHAPTER XIIL A caution. The house of Peter the Great. Singular anecdote. Police. A traveller's duty. An extraordinary purgation. A British court of cri- b CONTENTS. minal law. Noisy bells. Fruiterer. Ice. The sorrowful musician. ^'^*' Drollery and drunkenness. Imperial theatre. Northern grandees - 276 A gloomy catastrophe CHAPTER XIV. CHAPTER XV. 302 Sir John Borlase Warren. The Polignacs. The parade. The baneful effects of passion. The Emperor. A pickpocket. A traveller's memo- randums. Unpugilistic bruisers. Doctor Guthrie. Visit to the Taurida palace. The colossal hall. The winter gardens. The banquet. Prince Potemkin. Raw carrots. Flying gardens. The house of Charles XII. at Bender discovered - - - » 321 343 CHAPTER XVI. English ground in Russia. National baths. A new sect. How customs vary. A panacea. Visit to the Emperor's greatest favourite. A recipe for revolutionists. Wild dogs. The marble church and pasquinade. Academy of Arts. A traveUer's civilizing idea. A row to Kammenoi Ostroff. Delicacy and gratitude. Bravery and generosity of Gustavus III. to his bargeman. An elegant and grateful compliment. Russian music. Its effect upon Italian ears and cows. Forest on fire - CHAPTER XVII. Court clock. Winter palace, Hermitage. Players and government car- riages. Convent des Demoiselles. Instability of fortune. Generosity in a child. The Foundling hospital - _ . . . < , CHAPTER XVIII. Apple-f^st. Dog-killers. A barrier against swindling. Festivities of Pe- terhoff. Horn music. A favourite bear. German theatre. Visit to Cronstadt. Prison. Military punishment. The inn. Oranienbaum Flymg mountains. The value of a bloody beard. Fasts, famine, and firmness ... 381 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER XIX. Page. Rising of the Neva. Academy of Sciences. The review. Cadet corps. Pelisses. Country palace of Zarsko Zelo. Another bust of the British Demosthenes misplaced. Canine tumuli. Imperial pleasantry. Gat- china. Pauvoloffsky. Anniversary of a favourite saint. More dvirarfs 397 CHAPTER XX. Leave Petersburg. The little Swede. Adventures at Strelna. Narva. Bears. Beds. Dorpt. Teutonic knights and whimsical revenge. Whip- ping of boors. Brothers-in-law. Courland. Poles. Memel. Severity of Prussian drilling - - - -----41^^ CHAPTER XXI. Desolate scene. English sailor wrecked. Koningberg. Beauty in boots. Prussian roads. The celebrated ruins of Marienbourg. Dantzig. Co- quetry in a box. Inhospitality. A German Jew. The little grocer. Dutch Vicar of Bray. Verses to a pretty Dantzicker - - " 43S CHAPTER XXII. Reflections upon a stuhlwaggon. Prussian villages. Military manoeuvres. Irish rebel. Berlin. Linden walk. Toleration. Prussian dinner. Cheap living. The palace. Cadet corps - - - - - 45 1 CHAPTER XXIII. Potsdam diligence. Potsdam. Sans Souci. Voltaire, and dogs of Frede- rick the Great. Noble firmness of an architect. King and lovely Queen of Prussia. Anecdotes. Female travelling habit. The duchy of Meckle- burg Swerin. Return to England --*.--« ^^(j f? DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE ENGRAVINGS. Copenhagen - - . . To face page 39 Cronberg Castle and Elsineur, from Hamlet's garden - 90 A Swedish village church - - _ _ j j j Stockholm - - _ _ _ -120 Haga - - . ,' . - - 154 Upsala - . . . . - 163 Petersburg, taken from the steeple of St. Peter and St. Paul - 233 House and Boat built by Peter the Great - - - 280 Hall and Winter Garden in the Taurida palace - . 334 Narva - - - » 419 The Brandenbourg Gate - - . . -4c8 ERRATA. Page 16 line 19. for « Fleursborg" read « Fleusborgr-Vz^it 41,liiie 20, for " its size is" read «//;. -Pa^e 47~&l ;k "' h°J '^- " »^'^ "---"-Page 164, line 19. for " ausati" read ^^aurati." — I'ageJi?. line 13, the word "(ro«/azn/w'o"»tted. — Paee 235 last linp thf -ort^rA u " -VJ a after " devout."-Page 238, line 20, the word "«r" omittei-pLl49 li^e l fr'^PoTHnn •'^ '" for « Gostmnoi door" read « Gostinnd t/^or."— Page 290, line 1 for «« those" read "f-T. 1-i / » M"^* 3"6'°rne'2f°;h: iTd "?' ^/''—^'f ''\'- ""^ ^' ^- " ShW^mbo^ 'Tead"« k^^^^^^^^^ ted lip' e 3^ r/f/fr«l.^^ n "'^ ''°'' '^' ^°^^ " ""'y" °"£h» ^° have been omft- fctd.."^ ' ' "*** ">*."-Page 466, line 12, for ♦' pieces of ice" read "frozen THE AGREEMENT. The ground which my pen is about to retrace, has not very frequently been trodden by Englishmen. Northern travellers of celebrity, who have favoured the world with the fruits of their researches, have generally applied their learning and in- genuity more to illustrate the histories of the countries through which they have passed, than to delineate their national cha- racteristics. Nature generally receives our last homage ; we never wander from the contemplation of her simple charms, but we return to them with pleasure. As the attempt, al- though aiming at originality, is not of an aspiring nature, I feel the more confidence in stating, that the object of the fol- lowing pages is to describe those features which principally distinguish us from our brethren in other regions, and them from each other. I hope that the execution of my wishes will at least be with- out the fault of fortifying those prejudices which so unhappily divide nations that ought to be linked together by mutual love B 2 THE AGREEMENT. and admiration. Whilst I wish to amuse, I am desirous to fa- cilitate the steps of those who may follow me, by giving the detail of coins, and post charges, and some little forms which are necessary to be observed in a northern tour. My descrip- tions follow the objects which they pencil, and partake of the irregularity of their appearance. I write from my feelings ; and as I propose that my Reader shall travel with me, it is reason- able that he should share some of the inconveniences as well -as the enjoyments of the excursion. Before we smile together in the beautiftil islands of Sweden, we must be content to bear with resignation the gloom of her almost interminable forests of fir. If he will riot commence the Tour upon these terms, and agree to support without disappointment those vicissitudes of amusement and of languor, that seldom fail to diversify all the roads both of literature and of life, much as I shall lament the separation, it will be best for both parties, that we should not Avander together over another page. NORTHERN SUMMER; OR TRAVELS ROUND THE BALTIC. CHAP. I. time op setting forth a western town — harwich the poor Norwegian's tomb — helogoland — floating merry paces — husum a 8tuhlwagg0n the pair the wonder novel application of a church waltzes a shocking secret. It was on the 14th of May, 1804, that, impelled by an ardent desire of contemplating the great and interesting volume of man, and by the hope of ameliorating a state of health which has too often awakened the solicitude of maternal affection, and of friendly sympathy, the writer of these pages bade adieu to a spot in which the morning of life had rolled over his head, and which a thousand circ\imstances had en- deared to him. I cannot quit England withx)ut casting a b2 4 A WESTERN TOWN. lingering look upon my favourite little town of Totnes, where, as a characteristic, family alliances are so carefully pre- served, that one death generally stains half the town black; and where Nature has so united the charms of enlightened society, to those of romantic scenery, that had a certain wit but tasted of the former, he would have spared the whole county in which it stands, and would not have ansAvered, when requested to declare his opinion of the good people of Devon, that the further he travelled westward, the more persuaded he was that the wise men came from the east. The angry decrees of renovated war had closed the gates of the south; the north alone lay expanded before me; if she is less enchanting, thought I, perhaps she is the less known, and whereever man is, (women of course included) there must be variety: she has hitherto been contemplated, clad in fur, and gliding with the swiftness of a light cloud before the wind, upon her roads of shining snow. I will take a peep at her in her summer garb, and will endeavour to form a nosegay of polar flowers. There is always a little bustle of action and confusion of ideas, when a man, about to slip from his friends, is in the agonies of packing up. My mind alternately darted from my portmanteau, to the political appearances with which I was surrounded; and, with all the vanity which generally be- A WESTERN TOWN. O longs to a traveller, I resolved to commemorate the period of my flight, by a cursory comment upon the state of my country, which, by the time the last strap was buckled, was simply this: A great man had succeeded a good one in the direction of its august destinies, and another being who may be considered as the wonder of the west, was preparing amidst the blaze of brilliant novelties to mount the throne of a new dynasty; amongst them was a threat to cover the shores of England, with his hostile legions. Nine hundred and ninety- nine Englishmen, out of one thousand, had started into martial array, on the sound of the haughty menace — patrio- tism, with the bright velocity of a wild-fire, ran through the valley and over the mountain, till at last it was discovered that we might be invaded whenever we pleased. Ministers were more puzzled by their friends, than their enemies; where streams were expected to flow, torrents rolled headlong, and whatever may be our animosities, we are at least under an everlasting obligation to the French, for having enabled us to contemplate such a spectacle of loyalty. How I happened to lea\'c my country at this time, it may be proper to explain : Devonshire offered, to her lasting honour, twenty thousand volunteer defenders of their homes and altars, nine thousand were only wanted or could be accepted; in the latter, a spirit- ed body of my fellow-townsmen, who honoured me by an election to command them, were not included; after encoun- tering (and it was equal to a demi-campaign) the scrutinizing (3 .>: HARWICH. eye of militia-men, and the titter of nursery-maids, until awk- wardness yielded to good discipline, and improvement had taught our observers to res}:)ect us, we found that our intended services were superfluous, and I was at full liberty to go to any point of the compass; so, after the touching scene of bidding adieu to an aged and a beloved mother, whilst she jwured upon me many a half-stifled prayer and benediction, I hastened to the capital, where, having furnished myself with the necessary passports and letters of introduction to our embassadors from the minister of foreign affairs, a circular letter of credit and bills from the house of Ransom, Morland, and company, upon their foreign correspondents, and with a packet of very hand- some letters of private introduction, which were swelled by the kindness of Mr. Grill, the Swedish consul, and a passport (in- dispensably necessary to the visitor of Sweden) from the baron Silverhjelm, the enlightened and amiable representative of a brave and generous nation, I proceeded to Harwich, and at midnight passed under the barrier arch of its watch-tower, which was thrown into strong picturesque varieties of shade, by its propitious light, which from the top flung its joyous lustre over many a distant wave, so gladdening to the heart of the homeward mariner. In the morning we went (I had a companion with me) to the packetragency office, where we paid four guineas each for our passage to Husum; 1/. 11 5. 6d for provisions THE POOR NORWEGIAN'S TOMB. ? on board (seldom tasted) ; after which douceurs of 10^. 6d. each remained to be paid to the mate, and 7s. each to the crew, and 5s. apiece to a personage who contributes so largely to human happiness, and particularly to that of Eng- lishmen, the cook; we also paid ten guineas for the freight of a chariot belonging to an acquaintance at Petersburg, '2s. per ton on the tonnage of the vessel, and Is. in the pound upon the value of the said carriage; this accomplished, I had nothing further to do, but to amuse the time until four o'clock In the afternoon, when the foreign mail from London ar- rives. The church-yard lay adjoining to the inn: in this solemn spot, we are not always enabled to indulge in those serious and salutary reflections, which it ought alone to inspire ; the quaint or ridiculous effusions of the village schoolmaster, and the sexton, those prolific mortuary laureates, too often awaken an irresistible smile, by commemorating the ravages of death in some pious pun or holy conundrum ; a perversion whicli well merits the interposition of the ecclesiastical officer whose power extends over these regions of the dead. I had no^ wandered far, before a fresh plain slab attracted my notice, and by its inscription informed me that it was raised to the memory of captain Christensen, of Krajore in Norway, who fell by the bite of his dog, when mad; the tale was simply, but touchingly, told, and drew from me the following lines : 8 HELOGOLAND^ Ah! hapless stranger f who without a tear Can this sad record of thy fete survey ? No angry tempest laid thee breathless here. Nor hostile sword, nor Nature*s soft decay. The fond companion of thy pilgrim feet. Who watch'd when thou would'st sleep, and moaned if miss'd Until he found his master's face so sweet. Impressed with death the hand he oft had kiss*d. And here, remov*d fi-om love's lamenting eye. Far fi-om thy native cat'racts' awful sound; Far firom thy dusky forests' pensive sigh. Thy poor remains repose on alien ground. Yet Pity oft shall sit beside thy stone. And sigh as tho* she mourn'd a brother gone. Soon after we had quitted the tomb of the poor Norwegian, the mail arrived, and at five o'clock a favouring breeze bore us from the lessening shore. Now, as I am one of those unhappy beings who, like Gonzalo in the Tempest, would at any time give one thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground ; and as there may be many more who may find the rocking of the ocean somewhat unfriendly to the regularity of appetite ; let me advise them to la}^ in some anchovies, lemons, oranges, and a little brandy : and as we are upon the subject of travelling economy, let me also recommend the packing up of a pair of leather sheets and a leather pillow-case, in addition to their linen ones; the former will prevent the penetration of damp, and repel vermin. As we passed Orfordness-castle, the sun was setting in great g\ory; and several ships working to windward. HELOGOLAND. 9 and alternately crossing each other, presented the most grace- ful figures : it was such a scene as the chaste spirit of Vernet might have hovered over with delight. The next day, \^ e saw the topmasts of our bmve blockaders off the Texel; it was painful to contemplate the effects of a dire necessity which forces us to harass a people, who in their hearts cherish no animosity, but against the tyranny which separates them from us. A noble frigate from the squadron passed us under a cloud of sail, " breasting the lofty surge;" she proudly dashed through the foam of the ocean, and to the eye of Fancy looked like the palace of Neptune. Her appearance reminded me of the nervous, spirited, and Chatham-like excla- mation of a celebrated wit, upon the same subject: " an " English man-of-war is the thing after all: she speaks all " languages ; is the best negotiator, and the most profound ** politician, in this island; she was Oliver Cromwell's embas- " sador; she is one of the honestest ministers of state that ever ** existed, and never tells a lie; nor will she suffer the proudest *' Frenchman, Dutchman, or Spaniard, to batmboozle or give *' her a saucy answer." On the third day, a very singular object presented itself; it was Helogoland, a vast lofty perpendicular rock rising out of the ocean, and distant about ibrty-five miles from the nearest shore : it is only one mile in circumference, yet upon its bleak and bladeless top, no less than three thousand people live in c * 10 HELOGOLAND. health, prosperity, and happiness. The hardy inhabitants subsist principally by fishing and piloting, and are occasionally enriched by the destroying angel of the tempest, when the terrified observer, looking down upon the angry storm, might, in the . moving language of the clown in the Winter's Tale, exclaim, " Oh 1 the most piteous cry of the poor souls, some- " times to see *em and not to see 'em : now the sliip boring the " moon with her mainmast, and anon swallow'd with yest " and froth." But to the honour of the brave Helogolanders, they never augment the horrors of the enraged element. Hu- manity and honourable interest impel them gallantly to face the storm, and snatch the sinking mariner, and the sad remains of his floating fortune, from the deep : they never suffer the love of gain to excite any other exclamation than that of thanks to God; not that the storm has happened, but that the ocean has not swallowed up all the wreck from them. How unlike a body of barbarians who infest the west of England, and prefer plunder to the preservation of life, and who have been even known to destroy it, whilst struggling with the waves, for the sake of a ring or a bauble, and who are accustomed in the spring of every year, to speak of the last zs)reck season as a good or a bad one, according to the violence or moderation of the preceding winter ! * * I allude to the wreckers of Hope Cove, near Kingsbridge. HUSUM. 1.1 The Helogolanders are a fine healthy race of people, re- markably fair, live in small huts, and sleep on shelves ranged one above another, and are governed by a chief who is deputed from the government of Denmark. They are obliged to victual their island from the shore ! What a spot for contem- plation, to view ** Th'ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam, ** To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds !'* ■ i We entered the river of Husum about four o'clock in the morning, in a stiff gale attended with rain. The clouds in the west were dark and squally, with here and there a streak of copper colour; in the east the sun was gently breaking. Whilst I was contemplating this picturesque appearance, and occasion- ally regarding the anxious eye and gesture of our Danish pilot, who by the aid of buoys and floating poles conducted us with admirable skill through a narrow, and the only navigable, part of the river, which lies between two long lofty sand-banks; the effect of the scene was encreased by an owl of yellow plumage, endeavouring to reach our ship: the poor bird we supposed had been blown off the coast; his wing touched the extremity of the boom, but, exhausted with fatigue, he dropped breathless in the water. A sailor, who was looking over the sides, with a quaint imprecation of mercy, pitied the dying bird. The shore as we advanced looked low, flat, and muddy, sur- c2 12 HUSUM. mounted here and there with a soUtary farm-house and wind- mill; but the river presented a scene of considerable gaiety. Boats put off from the little islands which appear on either side of the river, filled with hardy men, women, and boys; the ladies wore large black glazed pasteboard bonnets, glitter- ing in the sun: they were all going to the great fair at Husum. We cast anchor about four miles from that town, whose tall spire appeared full in our view : a large boat filled with these good holiday folks came alongside, and received us, baggage and all. As we proceeded up the river, which became narrower as we advanced, and which seemed more like thin mud than water, through which we heavily moved by the assistance of punting poles, I waded through the tedium of the time by contemplating my companions, most of whom, with myself, were covered over below with the hatches to avoid a heavy shower of rain. They were all in their holiday dresses; the men in blue or brown druggets, and large round hats, and the women in coarse striped camlet gowns, in which red was the prevailing colour, with those vast shining bonnets before described, and slippers with high heels without any quarters: we were crowded together almost to suffocation. Our company was more augmented than improved by pigs and poultry, and the various produce of the farm, amongst which I noticed some delicious butter. In the party was a fine blooming young Scotswoman, who had married a Helogolander; her expressive dark eyes flashed A STUHLWAGGON. 13 with delight, to find herself seated near an Englishman: in her look was legibly written the inextinguishable love of our country. '»? >i Upon our landing, we were immediately addressed by a Danish centinel who was upon duty at the quay, and whose dress and appearance were very shabby; he dispatched one of his brother soldiers with us to the burgomaster, to notify our arrival and produce passports, thence to the secretary to procure others to proceed. >^ f>l -l^'f : rnr >:off oh'*- ^ />'n,t on A little money here had the same virtue which it possesses in almost every other part of the globe, by producing unusual energy in these subordinate ministers of government, and enabled us^ to sit down to an early dinner at an English hotel, during which, I was a little surprised at hearing one of our fellow-passengers, who was immediately proceeding to Ham- burgh, frequently vociferate, " Is my waggon readj^ ?" What a country, thought I, must this be, where a waggon is required to convey a man, and one too who was little bigger than his portmanteau ! Observing my surprise, he informed me, that the carriage of the country was called a Stuhlwaggon ; upon its driving up, I found that its body was very long and light, being formed of wicker work, and fixed to thin ribs of wood; the bottom was half-filled with hay, a cross seat or stool was fastened by straps to the sides, and the whole mounted upon 14 FAIR AT HUSUM. four liigh slender wheels; it runs very lightly, and is admi- rably adapted to the heaviness of the roads, which are very deep and sandy. Soon after dinner I strolled through the fair, which was filled with peasantry from various parts of Holstein and Slesvig. The women, in their rude fmery, reversed the am- bition of their fair sisters on the other side of the water; they were strongly buckramed to the top of the neck, and exhibited no traces of the bosom ; but, to soften the severity of this rigid decorum in front, they presented such a projecting rotundity behind, that, to eyes which had been accustomed to gaze upon the symmetry of English fair-ones, appeared truly grotesque, and awakened many a smile. The church, which is large and ancient, was upon this occasion disrobed of the sanctity of its character, and in its fretted aisles booths were erected, in which books and haber- dashery were exposed to sale, and where I found some coarse copies of engraving from some of the pictures of Westall. In several places upon the continent, I witnessed, with no little degree of pride, a striking predilection for the works of this distinguished artist. Almost every article which was exposed sale was called English, although I am satisfied that many of them were never fashioned by English hands ; but the charm of the name has an influence^very where ; its sourii^is WALTZES. iVIT^A 15 attractive, and the very pedlar of the fair finds his account in its forgery. A custom-house officer waited upon us at the inn to inspect our luggage, but the dexterous introduction of a dollar into his hand, convinced him in a moment, from the mere physi- ognomy of our trunks, that they contained nothing contra- band; — let him not be blamed, for his penetration was admi- rably correct. Before the river of Husum was choaked up with mud, the town was a place of considerable commerce; it is now princi- pally filled with tradesmen and farmers; and the removal of the packets to this place from Tonningen, has circulated a con- siderable quantity of money amongst the inhabitants. It is rather a large town; lime trees grow before the houses, the roofs of which run very high, and present the appearance of steps; these vast attics are never used but as lumber-rooms, and have a very disagreeable effect. There is a palace with gar- dens belonging to the duke of Holstein, but they ailfe un- worthy of further notice. The gaiety of the day terminated with great sobriety ; there were many light hearts, but I believe not one aching head. In the evening, a crazy violin and drum allured me into a public room, in which the merry peasants were dancing 16 ACTIVITY OF A BRITISH TAR. waltzes. Heavens! what movements! A Frenchman, who resolves every thing into operatic effect, would have felt each particular hair stand erect, had he contemplated the heavy so- lemnity of the performers. The females looked like so many tubs turning round, and their gallant partners never moved their pipes from their mouths. Upon quitting this scene of phlegmatic festivity, I strolled to the quay, where the skippers were landing the carriage, which a fine sprightly powerful fellow of an English sailor, with scarce any assistance from the smoking crowd who had assembled to view it, put together in little more than an hour. The alertness and activity of the British tar, afforded a striking contrast to the sluggishness of the Danish seamen who sur- rounded him. As soon as the carriage reached the inn, we proceeded to the post-house, and ordered four horses, being one more than we were compellable to take by the Danish post law, but no more than the weight to be drawn and the depth of the roads rendered necessary. The post was to Fleujjborg, distant five Danish or twenty-five English miles, and for which we paid eight dollars, one marc. Of the coin and post regulations I shall speak in the next chapter. Thus having prepared every thing for our departure the next morning, we returned to the inn ; where in one of the front rooms we had not been seated long, before a pretty pale A SHOCKING SECRET. 17 and interesting girl, whose age could not have exceeded thir- teen, entered with a trembling step, and presented one of the gentlemen present with a note — ^the contents of it unfolded such a secret as must have shocked the soul of the most de- praved libertine — it was written by her mother. We detained her miserable and devoted child until we had raised a little subscription for her, and dismissed her with an involuntary exclamation of abhorrence against the parent In the first step which an Englishman makes out of his own country, he is sure to meet with something to satisfy him that he cannot find a better. iiiCf r u noqiJ ii # Vi ! « J 1, ( 18 DULL MATTERS ■^ijii fth'^ftri Ui^i' CHAP. II. DULL MATTERS NECESSARY TO BE KNOWN— THE VILLAGE WONDER MUSICAL POSTILLIONS SNAPS FARM-HOUSES AND INN— THE POST DELIVERED A CONSPIRACY BOLTON*S DOLLAR THE LIT- TLE BELT VILLAGE BRIDE THE GREAT BELT— CORSOER BAR- DOLPH*S NOSE. X HERE is scarcely a duller thing which an ardent traveller or reader can encounter, than the little detail of money matters which occur on the road; and I shall therefore, with all due dispatch, dispose of it upon the present occasion. In Slesvig and Holstein, the only Danish money received is the Danish specie dollar, and the notes of the banks of Sles- vig and Holstein, as also those of the bank of Norway. The specie dollar contains sixty skillings, or so many English pence, of the currency of Slesvig and Holstein, and at par is equal to five shillings English. The rix dollar of the currency of Sles- vig and Holstein contains only forty-eight skillings; of course four specie dollars are equal to five rix dollars current money. The money is divided into skillings, marks, and dollars : '/in NECESSARY TO BE KNOWN. *r/ !HT ig 16 skillings make 1 mark. iii^.'i.ii. * 3 marks 1 rix dol. Slesvig and Holstein cur. 3 marks 12 skil. 1 specie dollar, fie m Ihid iiE 1) It will be advisable not to take up more money than will be sufficient to last as far as the island of Fynen or Funen ; as the only money there received, and so on to the capital, is the currency of Denmark Proper. It will be most conve- nient to take rix dollar notes instead of coin. It may be as well here to state the post regulations. If the number of tra- vellers exceeds three, they are compellable to take four horses. In Holstein and Slesvig as fer as Hadersleb, a horse is twenty skillings of that currency, per mile Danish, which is equal to five miles English; the other charges are per station or post: thus, ^om 01 u iiJiw filtiom Bin oi >a iims: 4 skillings Slesvig cur. for shrivepenge. 4 Ditto for fetching horses from the field. 4 Ditto ' ^f ml Y< i i>9i to the ostler. 4 Ditto i^ ,^^>^ v'v to postillion. -^ It is usual, however, to encrease this latter charge to one rix-dollar per station. With respect to this charge two drivers are only considered as one. J Having procured all this essential information, the carriage appeared at the door, surrounded by a crowd of gaping pea- d2 ^ THE VILLAGE WONDER—MUSICAL POSTILLIONS. sants, who gazed upon it as if they expected to see us mount in the air with it. As soon as we had passed the town-gate, we instantly dropped into a deep sand ; through which we ploughed our way at the rate of two miles and an half in an hour, and beheld on each side of us nothing but a dreary waste. Had not the cheering beams of the sun refreshed and supported us all the way, we must have suffered pretty severely under the pressure of a distemper which foreigners confine, 9Xid very jwstly, to Englishmen. Our driver was mounted on the near shaft-horse, drove four in hand in rope harness, and carried, more for show than service, a prodigious long lash whip ; he was dressed in scarlet, with yellow facings, and wore a brass plates o« his hat, on which was stamped " Christ" 7."; from a string which was suspended over his right shoulder, de- pended hi^ french bom, somewhat battered by long exercise, which he applied to his mouth with the most frightful conse- quences whenever we met a traveller, and with which, when- ever we ascended a hill, he never failed to serenade our ears and those of his cattle, who, deafened by long use, or having no taste for the concord of sweet sounds, seldom turned their auricular organs towards this hoarse croaking tube. Thus did we move in all the majesty of a menagerie upon the point of en- tering a town on a fair-day. Two or three times in the course of each post, our driver begged to have a little snap money. Snaps is one c^ the SNAPS — FARM-HOUSES AND INN. 21 earliest and most frequent words which a traveller will pick up in Denmark; in plain English it signifies a refreshing glass of spirits. We always found our account in granting this request* The Danish driver is merciful to his horses : to equalize their labour, in the course of the station, he changes the situ- ation of each of them. A whimsical fellow of this condition amused us not a little, by every now and then peeping into the carriage, or as he called it the waggon, to see that we and the luggage were all safe; these men, whenever they stop to refresh themselves, feed their horses with large slices of barley bread. We passed some neat farm-houses, having the barn with two large folding doors in the centre, the offices belonging to the farm on one side, and the farm-house on the other ; the whole upon a ground floor, and under one roof As we approached Flensborg, the country became more agreeable, and we observed the wonderful activity with which nature was every where exerting herself, in a climate which so much confines her to time : it was then the 30th of May, and the ground had been covered with snow only three weeks before, and some bitter winds very sensibly informed us that winter had not as yet retreated very far. At a very clean inn where we dined, we found some ex- cellent red dried beef, sweet butter, good bread, baked like 22 FARM-HOUSES AND INN. English tops and bottoms, and miserable vin du pays. In our dining-room the best china and glass tumblers made a gala show upon the tester of the bed, which gave a double capacity to the room. I was highly pleased to observe, that whilst the postillion took very good care of himself, he did not neglect his horses. .-. ^xh ni At eight in the evening we reached Flensborg, having ac- complished twenty-five English miles in nine hours ; a tedious time, sufficient to make any tmveller peevish who had been ac- customed to the velocity of an English mail. It was solely owing to the great depth of the roads, for upon better ground, our horses " were not hollow pampered jades of Asia, which cannot go but thirty miles a day." ^• Hit hi' bmio As soon as we had entered the inn, our driver presented us with a small printed paper, that directed the traveller to state his opinion of the conduct of the former, which is afterwards submitted to the postmaster; and, by an ordinance of government, if any cause of complaint arises, the postillion is punishable. r; Upon a traveller's reaching the end of a Danish post, it will be lucky for him if he does not find his patience put to a trial, by having to wait in general an hour for horses to for- ward him, which, at the time of his arrival, are nibbling the THE POST DELIVERED. 23 blade in some distant field. Our inn was the post-house, which every where affords the best accommodations. Flensborg is a large commercial town, very neat and pleasantly situated; it is well supplied with excellent water from fountains, which are placed at certain inten^als in the centre of the principal street: the houses are like those at Husum, with the addition of strong braces of iron. The view from the quay, the river, and the opposite village, is very beau- tiful; the language thus far is German, and the religion of the country throughout is lutherian. The English chariot was still the object of admiration; smiths thronged the yard to ex- amine the springs, and waggon-builders to contemplate the wheels and body. The patent boxes of the former excited un- common astonishment. At the corner of the yard, the last beams of the setting sun threw an agreeable tint upon a variety of interesting faces, all waiting for intelligence — the friend, the lover, and the merchant, for the postman had just arrived, the i '^mWtt f With tears, that trickled down the writer's cheeks; 'JiT^SXf ^■ ' Fast as the periods from his fluent quill, Or charg'd with am'rous sighs of absent swains. Or nymphs responsive, equally affect ^ ' ' ' '^ His horse and him, unconscious of them all. ^4 A CONSPIRACY. When I had retired to my chamber, the constant dashing of the fountain in the court-yard, the frequent crowing of a Httle hoarse bantam cock, two cats making violent love, and a party of fomging fleas, united their powers most successfully to keep " tired nature's sweet restorer" from my lids the greater part of the night. In the morning, at five o'clock, we entered the great road to Copenhagen, from the city of Slesvig, and pro- ceeded along the shores of the Baltic, through a sandy and dreary country; our progress was now encreased to five Eng- lish miles an hour. We found the population very thin, the land but little cultivated, and the solitary cottage, which ap- peared to cover more misery than industry, had rarely a little garden by the side of it. The only vegetables which we met with were small stinted asparagus and parsnips, both of which the good people here boil in their soup. The few houses which we saw on the road side, were, however, neatly built, with a light brown brick, and thatched. The steeple and the body of the church were every where divided from each other; whence their separation arose in Denmark can be no more accounted for, I should suppose, than their conjunction in England. Upon strolling into one of the church-yards, I remarked that their monuments were principally composed of a frame of an oblong square, divided by cross pieces of wood painted black, and the spaces between filled with stones. BOI^TON'S DOttAR. 2^5 The country about Abenraac, a small fishing town, where we changed horses, was very pretty, and much resembled that beautiful slope of wood in Lord Borringdon's park at Saltram, which parts the high road to Plymouth. The country from Abenraac to Hadersleb is hilly, woodj^, fertile, and romantic. The cattle were every where tethered, or fastened by a cord to a circle of pasture. At Hadersleb, whilst dinner was preparing, we went to the Bank, to exchange our Holstein and Slesvig money for the currency of Denmark Proper, previous to our embarking for the island of Funen. Here the exchange, which is governed by that of Hamburg, is always in favour of the traveller going to Copenhagen. For one hundred and thirty-five rix dollars Slesvig we procured one hundred and fifty-six current dollars and six skillings, which was at a premium of seventeen pounds per cent, in our favour. Upon our showing the banker one of the new doUai-s from Bolton's mint, he ap- peared to be much gratified with its beauty, and begged that we would permit him to exchange it; a little lavour, which we gladly granted him. On our return, we found a good dinner, in a long room, painted of a leaden blue colour, having the floor well sanded, three little windows decorated with festoons of inuslin, an old- fashioned chandelier threatening peril to those ^A ho passed E 26 LITTLE BELT?- under it, and two ancient portraits of a king and qiieen of , Denmark, who looked very smirkingly upon each other. I must not omit to introduce the reader to the kitchen, in which, in Denmark as well as in Germany, the fire-place is raised about two feet and a half high from the floor, and very much resembles that of a blacksmith's forge ; the meat is baked, or, as they call it, roasted, in a sort of cheese-toaster, and having undei^one the previous operation of three parts boiling : such is a Danish inn. The traveller in this country would do well to confine his supper solely to bread, butter, and eggs. The wine every where is very poor, and the beer detestable. The peasantry appear to be clean and happy. It was pleas- ing to see, early in the morning, as we travelled, groupes of young milkmaids, whose cheeks glowed with the bloom of health, balancing their pails with great dexterity, and knitting and singing as they went. As we could save several tedious miles by crossing the Little Belt at its broadest part, we proceeded to Aversund instead of Snoghoi, where we found the country very undulating and beautiful, but the roads rather heavy. Nothing can be pret- tier than the situation of the post-house, with its gardens slop- ing to the water, to which a Inight sun, distinctly marking out the little island of Arroe to the south, and the greater one of VILLAGE BRIDE. Tl Funen in front, distant about eight English miles, added new charms. The boatmen, with uncommon dexterity, in about ten minutes hoisted, by means of tackles, our carriage entire and luggage into an open boat, and having a fair breeze, we crossed the little Belt in about an hour and a half, and landed atAssens. ■\- - A stranger cannot but be surprised to see a kingdom so composed of islands. The province which we had just left notwithstanding the desolate appearance of some parts of it from the main road, is, on account of the independent spirit of its peasantry, the most valuable of the crown of Denmark. Rix Dollars. Mark. Skills. The passage for ourselves and carriage was - 3 8 To assistants getting the latter into the boat 12 At Assens we, for the first time, experienced the change of a large feather-bed, instead of a blanket and sheet. To an untravelled Englishman nothing can be more singular. In the morning, as the horses were putting to, a singular proces- sion passed us : a young woman in gala, whose hair was stiff- ened almost to the consistency of stucco with powder and po- mati^m, on which was raised a high cap of lace, decorated with a profusion of artificial flowers, and with a large nosegay of spring and artificial flowers in her bosom, and a book in her hand, and turning-in her toes most abominably, passed in e2 28 VILLAGE BRIDE. the most 'stately manner up the street, preceded by three girls in mob caps, decorated with Httle bits of silver and gold lace, and in red jackets, each with a book in her hand, and followed by two old women, holding books also. The fair heroine of this singular groupe moved to me as she passed. She was proceeding to the church, where her bridegroom was counting the lagging moments of her absence. The old and the young peeped out of the doors and windows as they passed. Heavens keep me from any thing like pomp or publicity on the marriage day ! In this island, as I have before intimated, the coin is pro- vincial, thus 16 skillings make 1 mark. 6 marks 1 rix-dollar Danish currency. And one skilling of Holstein and Slesvig is equal to two of the currency of Denmark Proper, The post regulation as under: 1 horse per Danish mile 2 marks Danish currency. For fetching horses per pair 6 skillings Danish. To the ostler 4 ditto. At Odensee, which is a large respectable town, an episcopal isee, the richest in Denmark next to that of Copenhagen, and the capital of the island, we dined ; there was nothing singu- lar in our repast, but that the first dish was manna soup. VILLAGE BRIDE. 29 ' There is a public school here, where a small number of boys are educated and maintained gratuitously, and a gym- nasium for students of sixteen years of age. The cathedral is an ancient pile of brick, and is remarkable for nothing more than containing the tombs of John and the sanguinary Chris- tian II. who seized upon the crown of Sweden by the right of conquest, and, in a cold-blooded massacre, put six hundred of the flower of her nobility to the sword — that scene of slaughter is exquisitely displayed in the beautiful tragedy of Gustavus Vasa, published, in 1738, by Henry Brooke, esq. and with which I am sure my reader will be delighted. -Think upon Stockholm When Cristiern seiz'd upon the hour of peace. And drench'd the hospitable floor with blood, Then fell the flow'r of Sweden, mighty names! Her hoary senators, and gasping patriots. The tyrant spoke, and his licentious band .'''i> . Ofblood-train'd ministry were loos'd to ruin. Invention wanton'd in the toil of infants Stabb'd to the breast, or reeking on the points Of sportive javelins — Husbands, sons, and sires With dying ears drank in the loud despair Of shrieking chastity. The thatch of the cottage in this island, and in most parts of the north, is bristled at the top with cross braces of wood, to keep it together, and has a very inferior appearance to the warm compact neatness of the English thatch. The road 30 GREAT BELT. from hence to Nioborg is good, partly paved, and the country on all sides very picturesque. The lambs, in the flocks which we passed, had one foot fastened to the body by a piece of string. A custom so painflil to the luckless objects was in- tended to fix them more closely to their dams, and, by abbre- viating their exercise, to fetten them. I was much surprised at not seeing either in Denmark or any other part of the north that I visited, a single member of a very ancient family, the most useful, the most ill-treated and despised of any that moves upon all-fours, an ass. About nine o'clock in the evening we arrived at Nioborg, which is a small but handsome fortified town, containing about nine hundred inhabitants; and determined, as the wind was fair, to cross the Great Belt that night. We were there obliged to show our passports; the captain of the passage-boat, on ac- count of the lateness of the hour, threw many difficulties in the way of our determination, which, however, the tender looks and eloquence of a French girl at the inn, aided by a little bribery on our part, effectually removed. Here the wheels of the carriage were obliged to be taken off, and after a delightful sail of about two hours and an half, we effected our passage, which is twenty English miles, imd landed at Corsoer, in the metropolitan island of Zealand. CORSOER, 31 As I passed over this mighty space of water I could not help reflecting with astonishment, that in the month of Fe- bruary 1658 it formed a bridge of ice for the hardy troops of the warlike and ambitious Charles X., who, contrary to the advice of his council of war, marched over it to give battle to the Danes. During this tremendous passage a part of the ice gave way, and a whole squadron of the guards were immo- lated, not one of whom were saved, an order having been given that no one should attempt to assist his neighbour in such an emergency upon pain of death. After passing the Lit- tle Belt in the same way, Charles Gustavus Adolphus obliged the Danes to make the peace of Roschild. This enterprise may be ranked amongst the most marvellous achievements, and a recurrence to it will furnish ample means of occupation to the mind of the traveller during his passage over these por- tions of the sea. It was midnight by the time we quitted the vessel; the wind was very fresh, and the moon occasionally darting in full effulgence from a mass of black clouds, illumined the front of an ancient castle, of little strength, near the key, which is the occasional residence of the crown prince. Upon the ramparts the cloaked centinel kept his solitary watch; it was a " nipping and an eager air," and the scene, more than any other which I saw in Denmark, impressed the imagination with the simili- tude of that 32 bardolph's nose. ** In which the majesty of bury'd Denmark " Did sometimes march.'* The good people at the post-house were in bed, but after many a rap at the door, it was at last opened by a figure, who most completely corresponded with the bard's description of Bardolph. With Shakspeare we might have exclaimed, ** Thou art an admiral, thou bear'st thy lantern ** In thy poop — ^but 'tis in the nose of thee— — ** Thou art the knight of the burning bmp." As the night was very sharp, we made our way to the kitchen to catch a little warmth from its expiring embers; but here we found we were distressing the coyness of a comely young cook, who had just quitted her bed to prepare some- thing for our supper, and who was very uneasy until we had left her territory. After a comfortable repast, Bardolph lights ed us to bed. '■ DANJSH CHARACTER, ^ S3 km : ■ i«b. CHAP. III. DANISH CHARACTER GIN ZEALAND TURNPIKE GATE MIL^ STONES INTELLIGENCE OF WOMEN THE TOMB OF JULIANA MA- RIA HUSBAND INTRIGUING WITH HIS WIFE -MAKGARET OP * VOLDEMAR — -THE MOURNING MOTHER COPENHAGEN A DANISH DINNER TOMB OP THE HEROES OF THE 2D OF APRIL, 1801 THE BATTLE OF THAT DAY LORD NELSON THE BRAVE YOUNG WEL- MOES. IT is scarcely necessary for me to observe that the govern- ment of Denmark is despotic. The Dane is a good natured, laborious character ; he is fond of spirits, but is rarely intoxi- cated; the severity of the climate naturalizes the attachment, and his deportment in the indulgence of it, is inoffensive. At breakfast at Corsoer a respectable Dane entered the room ; the landlady, a vast unwieldy good-humoured creature in boots, without saying a word opened her cupboard, and tdkr ing down a bottle of gin, presented her guest with a large wine glass full, which he drank off, as if it had been so much cocoa milk, and immediately retired. The island of Zealand is said to be very luxuriant, and 34 ZEALAND — ^TURNPIKE GATE. abounding with picturesque scenery ; its shores are Hned with pretty towns, noble chateaus, and extensive and well-wooded domains, but upon the high road we did not observe, until our near approach to the capital, any indication of such exuberance and beauty ; although it was at this time the third of June, the gooseberries and currants were but just formed into berries. Upon our first post in this island, we met with, for the first time in Denmark, a turnpike gate, which was erected at the end of every Danish mile. As the roads were tolerably good, the impost was unobjectionable, which for a carriage and four horses is six skillings Danish currency. This toll, in consequence of a recent ordinance, is paid before the traveller sets off, to the post-master, which saves the inconvenience of stopping. The turnpike-gate, like all the barrier gates of the north, is simply constructed of a long pole or bar, which turns upon a pivot, fastened in a strong post, about four feet high, placed on one side of the road : the end of this pole is charged at the end with a preponderating weight of stone or blocks of wood, so that when the post-master slackens the string or slight chain which attaches it horizontally to a post on the other side of the road, the bar rises sufficiently high to let a carriage pass under. The mile-stones here, the first which we saw in the coun- try, are formed of granite in the shape of a handsome obelisk. INTELLIGENCE OF WOMEN. 35 and enumerate the miles and half miles, and bear the names of Christian and sometimes of Fred. V. In our route we saw several storks, who shewed no other symptoms of alarm when we approached them, than awkwardly moving from us upon their red, tall, lean legs, upon which the body seemed mounted as upon stilts. The country from Slagelse to Ringsted was very picturesque. The most ancient church in Denmark is in this town ; it is built of brick, with two low towers : there are some royal tombs here very ancient, which are principally filled with the ashes of the descendants of Sweyn II., and are level with the pavement. We passed many forests of fine beech and oak, feathering the shores of several extensive and beautiful lakes. As we approached the capital we were a little surprised to find every thing become cheaper, and the horses and drivers leaner and shabbier. ' I must not omit to state, for the honour of the female sex, that however we were at a loss to explain ourselves on account of our ignorance of the Danish language, and had exhausted our stock of gestures upon the men in vain, we always found that the women comprehended us with one- third of our pantomimic action ; and to the end of my days I shall gTatefully and experimentally contend for the supe- rior quickness of female comprehension. We arrived on a Sunday at Roskild, which, according tp f2 36 THE TOMB OF JULIANA MARIA. Holberg, was formerly a city of many parishes, and con- tained within its walls twenty-seven churches, and an equal number of convents, though now a place of very little im- port. We went to the cathedral, a heavy pile of brick covered with copper, with two spires, the most ancient part of which was erected under the auspices of Harold, the grandfather of Canute the Great, king of England and Denmark. The inside of this building owes its gran- deur to its size : the ceiling is stained with little sprigs of flowers in a vile taste, and are wholly unenriched by those exquisite interfacings in the roof that form the principal beauty of Gothic architecture, the rudiments of which na- ture first imparted to our early forefathers, by placing be- fore their imitative eyes the graceful intersections of a simple bower : the organ is upon an immense scale, and the tone very fine : the stops are moved by the feet of the organist. Tn a large octagon chapel, divided from the body of the cathedral by an iron grate, so finely wrought, that at a dis- tance it resembles black gauze ; and in a subterranean vault, repose the remains of the royal family of Denmark, in se- veral raised stone coffins, which are coveredwith black velvet palls, embroidered with small crowns of gold, falling in full drapery upon the floor. It is foreign to my purpose to enu- merate them all. The most superb tomb is that of Juliana Maria, whose sanguinary conduct towards the hapless Queen Matilda and the unfortunate Counts Struensee and Brandt, MARGARET OF VOLDEMAR. 3? excited so much sensation some years since. As I gazed upon this gloomy depository of unrelenting jealousy and ambition, imagination raised the bleeding shades of those devoted men, consigned from the pinnacle of power and royal favour to the dungeon and the scaffold. Alas ! the common tyrant, in no wide lapse of time, has closed the eyes of the ruthless de- stroyer and her victims. I must not omit the tomb of that wonderful woman Mar- garet of Voldemar, or, as she was styled with a derision which she well revenged, the king in petticoats. She flou- rished in the 13th century, and bore upon her brow the crowns of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The northern Semi- ramis was destined to astonish the world by her marvellous exploits, and her very entrance into it was rendered some- what extraordinary on account of her being the legitimate daughter of her father and mother. The former becoming disgusted with her mother, confined her in a castle, and about the same time fell violently in love with one of her dames d'honneiir, and was a suitor for her favours; the good-hu- moured girl affected to consent, but imparted the assignation to the unhappy queen, was instrumental in conveying her in disguise to the spot, and Margaret was the fruit of this sin- gular intrigue. We were much gratified by seeing in one of the chapels 38 THE MOURNING MOTHER. the rich and beautiful mausoleums of Frederic II. and Chris- tian III.; they were designed and made in Italy, at an im- mense cost, by the order of Christian IV. The sovereigns are represented in recumbent postures the size of life, under a stone canopy, supported by Corinthian pillars ; the basso re- lievos which adorn the tomb of Frederic II. are exquisite pieces of sculpture. Here are also interred many distinguished heroes, who have raised the glory of their country, and live in the page of history. The beautiful ideas of Addison came into my mind — " When I see kings lying by those who deposed them ; when " I consider rival wits placed side by side ; or the holy men " that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I re- " fleet with sorrow and astonishment on the little competi-: " tions and debates of mankind ; when I read the several dates " of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six " hundred years ago, I consider that great day when we " shall all of us be cotemporaries, and make our appearance " together." As we crossed the church-yard to return to the inn, we were stopped by the appearance of an interesting young wo- man, who, with much grief in her countenance, was scatter- ing slips of lilac and half-blown tulips and fme sand from a little basket which she held in her hand, upon a fresh grave, COPENHAGEN. 39 which from its size, and from her looks, I conjectured to be that of her infant child. It was the custom of the country, and an affecting one it was. We met with nothing to denote our approach to the ca- pital till we reached Fredericksberg, one of the king's country palaces, about two English miles from Copenhagen ; the ap- pearance of much bustle, and lounging lacqueys in scarlet and silver, announced that the court was here. As we rolled down from the beautiful eminence, upon the open summit of which the palace stands, the city, crowned by its palace in ruins, the Sound, and the surrounding country, presented a de- hghtful prospect. The road was crowded with people in their Sunday dresses and merry faces, hurrying to pass the evening in the gardens of Fredericksberg, which, with the permission of his majesty, is the favourite resort of the people. We were detained a few minutes at the custom-house, adjoining the first draw-bridge, over which and an inner one we passed to the gates of the capital, which we entered through a long arch, forming part of the ramparts. As we approached Lubel's hotel, to which we were recom- mended, we passed by the walls of the royal palace, which bore ample and afflicting testimony to the colossal size and ' magnificence which must have formerly distinguished it, be- fore it fell a victim to tlie flames in 1794. Upon our visiting 40 COPENHAGEN. this splendid pile, after dinner, we found by an inscription re- maining undefaced, that it was raised by Christian VI. out of his own private purse, without pinching his subjects, and cost six millions of dollars : it stands in an island, formed by a canal, and has several gates; the principal entrance is of wrought iron, and has a noble eftect : the front has twenty-five enormous windows in a line, and is composed of six stories, three of which are upon a large, and the remaining three upon a small scale. This front is three hundred and sixty-seven feet long, the lateral sides three hundred and eighty-nine, and the elevation one hundred and fourteen ; all the grand apart- ments of state were upon the fourth story ; the court is sur- rounded with two wings of piazza twelve feet deep, and on each side are stables for saddle and carriage horses, which are arched : these have escaped the fury of the conflagration, and are truly magnificent ; the racks of that which holds forty-eight horses are of copper, and the pillars which separate the stalls are of brick stuccoed. In another we observed the racks and columns were of Norwegian marble ; the floor of the stalls is of stone, and the breadth of each is six feet. The court is three hundred and ninety feet long, and three hundred and forty in its greatest breadth ; the pilastres are of the composite order, and the columns Ionic ; there are also two lateral courts which are surrounded with buildings of two hundred and forty-five feet by one hundred and six. The stable to the left is divided by the riding-house, which is one hundred and seventy-six feet COPENHAGEN. 41 by tifty-six, and lighted by lifteen cross-bar windows, with a gallery for the royal family and spectators, and has altogether a very grand appearance. Here all the branches of the royal family were formerly lodged : so rapid was the fury of the con- flagration, and such the panic which it inspired, that but little of the treasure of its pictures, furniture, and gorgeous de- corations could be saved. Of the internal magnificence of this palace, some idea may be formed by the following de- scription of the ritta saal or knight's saloon : it was one hun- dred and eighteen feet long by fifty-eight, was lighted by day ^ by nine windows, and at night by three lustres which con- tained more than twelve hundred wax lights : on each side was a gallery richly gilded and supported by forty-four co- lumns of cinnamon wood, the bases and capitals of which were also richly gilded : an artist of the name of Abilgaad was com- missioned to embellish the hall with twenty-three large paint- ings, from subjects arising from the Danish history, at one thousand rix dollars a-piece. The library of the king, which suffered much by the fire, contained one hundred and thirty thousand volumes and three thousand manuscripts, f^i^^i hb too enormous for that of the capital and kingdom, and forms a striking contrast to the present residence of the royal family. Whilst I was contemplating these stupendous remains, a splendid English vis-a-vis dashed by, drawn by a pair of noble # 42 COPENHAGEN. V greys, which, with a profusion of gold lace upon the coats of the coachman and footman, attracted the notice and sur- prise of the good people of Copenhagen, w^ho had never even seen their beloved Crown Prince in such finery : it was the equipage of a foreign quack doctor, who had had the good fortune to live and flourish in England in an age of pills. . Copenhagen is a small but very neat city, its circumference between four and five English miles ; the streets are broad and handsome ; the houses, of which there are about four thousand, exclusive of the quarter belonging to the sailors, and garrisons for three regiments, are generally of brick stuccoed to resemble stone, and some are of free-stone, and in an elegant stj le of Italian architecture ; the shops are in the basement story, and by making no prominent appearance, do not disfigure the beauty of the rest of the building. Such is the case upon every part of the Continent which I have visited. In England every tradesman's shop is the raree show of the street, and perhaps it is in allusion to this as much as to any other cause, that our neighbours on the other side of the channel, have pronounced us to be a nation of shopkeepers. The streets are divided by canals, which afford great facility to the transport of goods, but liave narrow and inconvenient foot-paths : the population is estimated at eighty-two thousand. La rue de Goths is a beau- tiful street, and is about three quarters of an English mile long. The Kongens nye Tow or King's place, which is also the mar- ket place, is a noble, spacious, irregular area, adorned with many fine houses, several of which have been raised since the late fire. The only theatre in the city is here ; it was not ' open during our stay. This building is detached, small but handsome without, and within is elegantly decorated : in the season, the performers play four times in the week, alternately , opera and play, which is generally in the language of the coun- try. On account of the vast number of persons who have free admission to it, amongst whom are all marine and land offi* cers, the receipts are but ^^ery little, and the deficiency, which is supplied by the king, generally amounts to about one hun- dred thousand rix dollars per annum. Upon the whole the court is not a very munificent patron of the drama, and the performers seldom exceed mediocrity. In the middle of the market-place is an equestrian statue in bronze of Christian Vj but too deficient in merit to attract the notice of a traveller. One of the large buildings in this place is the castle of Chariot- tenberg, part of which is devoted to the royal academy of paint- ing, architecture, and sculpture ; it has eight professors and four masters : the day for the annual distribution of the prizes is the 31st of March, the birth-day of the prince, FrederiCj who is the patron. Those pupils who obtain the golden medal are sent to travel at the expence of the crown. Such of the productions of the pupils and professors as I saw did not excite a very high opinion of the arts in Denmark. g2 44 DANISH DINNER. No respectable stranger can enter Copenhagen without splee- dily becoming the object of its frank, and generous hospitahty. The day after our arrival enabled us to partake of the hearty profusion of a Danish dinner ; it was given at the country house of one of the most respectable inhabitants of the city, and appeared in the following succession : soups top and bottom, Norwegian beef boiled, ham strongly salted, fish, pigeons, fowls, stewed spinnage, and asparagus ; the meat is always cut into slices by the master of the house, and handed round by the ser- vants. Etiquette proscribes the touching of any particular dish out of its regular course, although the table may be groaning : under the weight of its covers ; this ceremony is occasionally a little tantalizing. Creams, confectionary, and dried fruits fol- lowed: the wines were various and excellent. Our party was composed of English, Norwegians, Flemish, Swiss, Russians, Danish, and French : would to heaven that their respective nations could for ever be as cordial and joyous as was this che- quered collection of their merry natives ! The repast lasted a formidable length of time : it was two hours of hard stuffing in a fog of hot meats. The appetite of the fair ones present, was fer, I might say very far from being puny or fastidious, but in the homely phrase, what they eat did them good. The Danish ladies are en bo?i point, and possess that frank and generous countenance, which, the moment the eye sees, the heart understands and loves; they much resemble the I» DANISH LADIES. 45 higher class of Wouvermann's figures, and very largely partake of that gay good humour, which is so generally the companion of a plump and portly figure. Having said so much in their favour, which they eminently deserve, I cannot help hinting that they are not so attentive to neatness of dress as their neighbours ; they want such a man as Addison to rally them with his delicate satire out of a slovenly habit, which induces them, when they buy a gown, almost always to prefer a dark cotton, because it does not want washing. The Danish ladies would immediately feel the force of the remark, without being offended at its freedom. They speak English with its proper accent, as well as French and German fluently. The English language forms a prominent part of female education. Upon my complimenting a Danish lady on her accurate knowledge of the English language, she said, " We are obliged " to learn that, and French and GeiTnan, in our owji defence, ** otherwise we should frequently be obliged to sit mute, which " you know is a very unpleasant situation for any woman, for " beyond the islands," meaning Zealand and Funen, " our lan- " guage, which is a dialect of the Teutonic, is not understood." This I found afterwards verified : upon my return to Holstein firom Prussia, a Danish serjeant in drilling a recruit from the former place, was obliged to speak to him in German. Here, as in France, the company rise and retire with the 46 TOMBS OF THE HEROES . lady of the house. In the garden we found coffee and a droll fellow of a wandering mendicant Norwegian who occupied sans ceremonie one of the garden seats, and upon his rustic guitar had collected the little folks of the family round him^ who were dancing to some of the wildest and sweetest sounds that ever issued from the touch of simplicity. On our return to the city, and about a mile from it, a turfed hillock of small poplars attracted our notice : it was the na- tional tomb of the heroes who fell in the memorable battle of Copenhagen roads on the second of April, 1801, and stood in a meadow about two hundred yards from the road, and looked towards the Crown battery. As we approached it, we saw a small monumental obelisk which was raised to the memory of Captain Albert Thurah, by the Crown Prince. It appeared by the inscription, that during the heat of that sanguinary battle a signal was made from one of the block ships, that all the officers on board were killed ; the Crown Prince, who be- haved with distinguished judgment and composure during the whole of that terrific and anxious day, and was giving his or- ders on shore, exclaimed " who will take the command V* The gallant Thurah replied " I will, my Prince," and im- mediately leaped into a boat, and as he was mounting the deck of the block ship, a British shot numbered him amongst the dead, which formed a ghastly pile before him, and con- signed his spirit and his glory to the regions of immortality. - OF THE SECOND OF APRIL. 47 He was a young man of great promise. It is thus that death often - Strikes the poor peasant ; he sinks in the dark, Nor leaves e'en the wreck of a name. He strikes the young warrior, a glorious mark, He sinks in the blaze of his fame. As the battle under all its circumstances was as awful and affecting as any in the English and Danish history, the reader will I am sure feel no reluctance minutely to contemplate the larger tomb which first attracted our notice : it is a pyramidal hillock, neatly turfed and planted with sapHng poplars, corres- ponding with the number of officers who fell. At the base of the principal front are tomb stones recording the names of each of these officers and their respective ships. A little above is an obelisk of grey northern marble, raised upon a pedestal of granite bearing this inscription : To the memory oftlwse who fell for their country, their grate- ful fellow citizens raise this monument, April 2, 1801. x\nd beneath, on a white marble tablet, under a wreath of lau- rel, oak, and cypress bound together, is inscribed : The wreath which the country bestows never withers over the grave of the fallen warrior. The whole is enclosed in a square palisado : as a national mo- nument, it is too diminutive. 48 BATTLE OF THE SECOND OF APRIL. The next day I visited the spot where so much blood was shed. A young Danish officer upon the Crown battery obhg- ingly pointed out the dis|x>sition of the ships, and spoke of the battle with great impartiality. From the position of the British fleets, before the squadron under Lord Nelson bore down, and rendered his intention indubitable, the Danes were firmly of opinion that the British commander intended to pro- ceed either to Calscrona or Revel, and made no preparation for defence ; their ships were lying in ordinary, they therefore trusted solely to their block ships and batteries. On that day the hero of the Nile surpassed those atchieve- ments, which an admiring and astonished world conceived must for ever remain without imitation as they had been with- out example, in the annals of the British navy. Favoured by a fortunate shift of wind, and an extraordinary elevation of the tide, which at the time was higher than the Danes had long remembered it, he placed his unsupported squadron, and as it is said with an unobserved signal of retreat flying at the mast head of the ship of the chief in command, in a most advanta- geous and forniiidaMe position. The citizens of Copenhagen in a moment flew to their posts ; all distinctions were lost in the love of their country. Nobles and mechanics, gentlemen and shopmen rushed together in crowds to the quays ; the sick crawled out of their beds, and the very lame were led to the sea side, imploring to be taken in the boats, which were perpetually LORD NELSON. 49 going off with crowds to the block ships. A carnage at once tremendous and novel only served to encrease their enthusiasm. What an awful moment ! The invoked vengeance of the Bri- tish nation, with the fury and velocity of lightning, was falling with terrible desolation upon a race of gallant people, in their very capital, whose kings were once seated upon the throne of England, and in the veins of whose magnanimous prince flowed the blood of her august family. Nature must have shuddered as she contemplated such a war of brethren : the conflict was short, but sanguinary beyond example ; in the midst of the slaughter the heroic Nelson dispatched a flag of truce on shore with a note to the Crown Prince, in which he expressed a wish that a stop should be put to the further effusion of human blood, and to avert the destruction of the Danish arsenal and of the capital, which he observed that the Danes must then see were at his mercy. He once more proposed their with- drawing from the triple league, and acknowledging the supre- macy of the British flag. As soon as the Prince's answer was received a cessation of hostilities took place, and Lord Nelson left his ship to go on shore. Upon his arrival at the quay he found a carnage which had been sent for him by Mr. D., a merchant of high respectability, the confusion being too great to enable the Prince to send one of the royal carriages ; in the former the gallant admiral proceeded to the palace in the octa- gon, through crowds of people, whose fuiy was rising to firenzy, and amongst whom his person was in more imminent danger H 50 LORD NELSON AND than even from the cannon of the block ships ; but nothing could shake the soul of such a man. Amved at the palace in the Octagon he calmly descended from the carriage amidst the murmurs and groans of the enraged concourse, which not even the presence of the Danish officers who accompanied him could restrain. The Crovt^n Prince received him in the hall and conducted him up stairs, and presented him to the King, whose long-shattered state of mind had left him but very little sensibility to display upon the trying occasion. The objects of this impressive interview were soon adjusted, to the perfect satisfaction of Lord Nelson and his applauding country ; that done, he assumed the gaiety and good-humour of a visitor, and partook of some refreshment with the Crown Prince. During the repast Lord Nelson spoke in raptures of the bravery of the Danes, and particularly requested the Prince to introduce him to a very young officer, whom he described as having performed wonders during the battle, by attacking his own ship immediately under her lower guns. It proved to be the gallant young Welmoes, a stripling of seventeen ; the Bri- tish hero embraced him with the enthusiasm of a brother, and delicately intimated to the Prince that he ought to make him an admiral, to which the Prince very happily replied, " If, my Lord, I were to make all my brave officers admirals, I should have no captains or lieutenants in my service." This heroic youth had volunteered the command of a praam, which is a sort THE BRAVE YOUNG WELMOES. 51 of raft, carrying six small cannon, and manned with twenty-four men, who pushed off from shore, and in the fury of the battle placed themselves under the stern of Lord Nelson's ship, which they most successfully attacked, in such a manner that although they were below the reach of his stern chasers, the British ma- rines made terrible slaughter amongst them : twenty of these gallant men fell by their bullets, but their young commander continued knee-deep in dead at his post, until the truce was announced. He has been honoured, as he most eminently de- served to be, with the grateful remembrance of his country and of his Prince, who, as a mark of his regard, presented him with a medallion commemorative of his gallantry, and has appointed him to the command of his yacht, in which he makes his an- nual visit to Holstein. The issue of this contest was glorious and decisive ; could it be otherwise, when its destinies were committed to Nelson f To shew how brittle must be the bands of a confederacy of powers, whose jealousy and dislike is ever unhappily in pro- portion to their proximity, the Swedes very composedly con- templated the battle from their hills, and appeared to lose all sensation of their share of its mortifying results in the humili- ation of a rival country. So nature pulls the strings of a little man and a great nation ; the latter is only the larger puppet, and requires more strength to put it in motion. h2 52 ; ROYAL PALACES. La place Frederic, or the Octagon, containing the palaces of the royal family, and where Lord Nelson had the audience that I have just mentioned, is composed of four small palaces all uniform, each having two wings : four very noble streets, principally inhabited by the nobility, lead to this place : the grand entrance is through a gate composed of double rows of Corinthian pillars and a rich entablature ; one of the streets is tei-minated by the harbour, and the other by the church of Fre- deric, which has been long left unfinished ; it has the appear- ance of an elegant design, and reminded me, both by its con- dition and style of architecture, of L'Eglise de Madelaine at Paris. In the centre of the Octagon is an equestrian statue of Frederic V. in bronze, by Saly ; it was erected in 1769 by the Danish East India Company, and is said to have cost 80,000/. An Englishman cannot help remarking the slovenly appear- ance of the grass, which is here permitted to shoot up through the stones, and particularly within the railing of the statue : the soldiers who are always lounging about the palaces, would remove the evil in almost the time that I have taken to com- ment upon it. ( 53 ) CHAP. IV. VALOUR FACETIOUS — GALLERY OP PAINTINGS CURIOSITIES TYCHO brake's GOLDEN NOSE THE GARDEN OP FKEDERICSBERG THE CROWN PRINCE THE FASHIONABLE SCHOOLMASTER AND LITTLE BARONET GRATEFUL PEASANT RELIGION— EXCELLENT LAW THE BURGOMASTER AND CANARY BIRD THE HERMIT OF DRON- NINGAARD aUlCKNESS OP VEGETATION THE PRISONER'S SON PALACE OP ROSENBERG TABLE d'hOTE — DROLL MISCONCEPTION OP THE ENGLISH LADIES RASP HOUSE DUTCH TOWN, 1 HERE is something very pleasant in contemplating the most inconsiderable actions, even the little badinage of great men, I forgot in my last chapter to mention the playful good- hiimour which Lord Nelson displayed soon after the battle of Copenhagen roads. By the ship which conveyed his dis- patches to England, he sent a note to some respectable wine- merchants to whom he was indebted for seme wine, in which he sportively said that, " he trusted they would pardon his not " having sooner sent a checque for his bill, on account of his " having been lately much engaged.'* In one of the wings of the burnt palace, to which the flames did not extend, the gallery of pictures and museum of curi- 54 TYGHO BRAKE. osities are placed. In the former we found a few excellent pictures, and particularly noticed a Jesus betrayed, by Michael Angelo ; a naked Venus, in a very singular posture, by Titian; a good Woman, by Leonardo de Vinci ; the Holy Family, by Raphael ; a dead Christ on the cross, by Rubens; adjoining to this is an unaccountable picture upon a large scale, the sub- ject. Fallen Angels : the artist, with singular whim, has sul>- stituted butterflies for fig-leaves. In the cabinet of curiosities is a very ingenious invention for tranquillizing the fears of jealous husbands ; a stuffed stag, said to have lived several centuries ; a lion and bear ; there is here also a celestial globe made by Tycho Brahe, who was sent to Copenhagen by his father in the sixteenth century to study rhetoric and philosophy, but the great eclipse of the sun on August the 21st, 1562, engaged him to study astronomy. He was the inventor of a new system' of the world, and had some followers, but it is said that his learning made him super- stitious, and his philosophy/ irritable, to such a degree that in a philosophical dispute the argument rose to such a pitch of per- sonal violence that he lost his nose, which he supplied by a gold and silver one admirably constructed ; he was also very fond of Automata, and the reputation which he obtained of a conjurer. I was much pleased with the convivial cup of the celebrated Margaret of Valdemar ; it had ten lips, which were marked - CURIOSITIES. 55 with the respective names of those whom she honoured with her intimacy, who were the companions of her table, and were permitted to taste of the Tuscan grape out of the same vessel. There are here also some exquisite carvings in wood, by a Norwegian farmer, with a common knife; some mummies badly preserved ; a piece of amber weighing more than twenty- seven pounds, found in Jutland ; lustres of amber ; several mo- dels of ships in amber, ivory, shell, and mother of pearl ; beau- tiful works of ivory ; a toilet of amber of surprizing workman- ship ; a great lustre of the same, with twenty-four branches, made by M. Spengler. A compleat closet filled with bits of wood, carved by the peasants of Norway, who are extremely expert in this work ; a portrait of Denner ; a bit of ivory, prettily worked by Queen Louise, mother of the present King ; others of the same kind, by Pierre Legrand ; the emperors LiCopold, Ro- dolph II. &c. ; Jesus Christ on the cross, car\'ed in wood, of so fme a workmanship that it must be seen through a magni- fying glass, it is attributed to Albert Durer ; a carriage with six horses, of an inconceivable smallness ; a great jug of ivory, with a triumph of Bacchus of a very fine workmanship, by Jacob Hollander, a Norwegian ; the descent from the cross, a superb piece, by Magnus Berg ; several figures dressed in foreign dresses, Indian, Chinese, &c.; great vases of gold and silver; a flagon or decanter of rock chrystal, very beauti- fully engraved; a horn of gold, found in Jutland, in 1639, the inscription on which has puzzled the learned ; a bust of 56- FUNERAL PROCESSION. Brutiis in bronze ; many precious antiquities of the country ; a portrait of Charles XII. ; the skull of archbishop Absalom, with his dress : the prelate's skull reminded me of the ridicu- lous question which a lady put to one of the librarians of the British museum, ** Pray sir, have'nt you a skull of Oliver Cromwell here?" " No, madam," replied the man of learning and antiquity ; " Dear me," said she, " I wonder at that, for thej^ have a very fme one in the museum at Oxford." There are also some curious religious utensils, which were used by the ancient natives of the north. Such is a sketch of the Danish gallery and museum, which is worthy the notice of the tra- veller. In order to have a better view of the city, upon leaving the museum, I ascended by an external spiral stair-case, the top of the church in Christian-haven, one of the quarters of Copenhagen ; from this eminence the view was delightful ; the city, its palaces, churches, docks, arsenals, and the little Dutch town which lay about two English miles off; the roads, the shores of Sweden, and the Sound embellished with ships, lay like a map below me. Immediately underneath us we saw a funeral procession of a principal inhabitant, proceeding to that " dark and narrow house, whose mark is one grey stone ;" the coffin, covered with a pall, was placed upon a bier, sur- mounted with a canopy, which moved upon four little broad wheels, and was drawn by a pair of horses. I regretted to ob- serve that the Danes pursue the same pernicious custom which LUTHERAN RELIGION. 57 obtains in England of burying their dead in the city. There are people who live in the tower of the church, to give signals in case of fire breaking out, of which the Danes have a great dread, for no people have suffered more from its destructive visi- tation. A precautionary warning to the inhabitants to take care of their fires and candles, and a long string of blessings upon the heads of all the royal family of Denmark, constitute the elaborate subject of the watchman's comment after he has an- nounced the time. Nothing can be more annoying to a fa- tigued stranger than his noisy and melancholy ditty every half-hour ; but the police is admirable, and the city safe at all hours of the night. This church was the only one which was worthy of notice. The Lutheran religion seldom arrays her- self in the graceful drapery of the arts ; confiding in the pu- rity of her precepts, and the devotional spirit of her unaspiring followers, she is satisfied if her shed but repel the storm of the heavens; nor does she seek to attract the wanderer to her temple, by the eleg-ant and expressive powers of the architect, the painter, and the statuary. The Exchange is a large an- cient building of brick : within are little shops, very much re- sembling Exeter Change, in London, but more commodious and handsome. At the entrance nearest to the burnt palace the mer- chants assemble. In this quarter of the town there are some excellent pastry shops, where the English and other foreign news-papers are taken in. The beautiful appearance of the evening attracted us to Fredericsberg, the palace of which is I 58 THE CROWN PRINCE. small, and stands upon an eminence ; the gardens slope from its terrace : they are confined, but tastefully arranged ; the Crown Prince shares the delight they afford in common with the meanest of his subjects. As the King resided at this time in the palace we could not see it, and from all that I could learn we had not much occa- sion for regret. He passes much of his time here, which he di- vides between billiards, romances, and his flute ; he enjoys good health, but his mind is so infirm that his royal functions sel- dom exceed the signing of state papers. I was much disap- pointed in not having the honor of being presented to the Crown Prince, who at this time was in Holstein with that able and excellent minister Count Bernstoff. The Prince is vir- tually the sovereign of the kingdom, as his father has for many years presented only the phantom of a king. The misfortunes of the august mother of the Prince, his virtues and his wisdom unite to render him very interesting to an Englishman. In person I was informed that he was short and slender, his eyes are of a light blue, his nose aquiline, his face singularly fair, and his hair almost white ; his mind is very capacious, culti- vated, and active : his disposition is very amiable ; and in the discharge of his august duties he is indefatigable. He is an enemy to dissipation and parade, and avoids the latter upon all but necessary occasions : his virtues constitute his guard of honour, and excite distinction and respect wherever he moves : THE ROYAL FAMILY. 59 in his youth he was a prince of great promise, and every blossom has ripened into fruit. At the age of sixteen he effected a revolution in the councils, and crushed the powerful am- bition of the sanguinary Juliana Maria, and consigned her in- triguing and turbulent spirit to the shades and seclusion of Friedensberg, by a master-piece of discretion, eloquence, and |X)licy. If the Prince has any fault, it is that he does not sufficiently appreciate the genius of his countrj^ which is more commercial than military. Impelled by a martial enthusiasm, he appears to consider the encouragement of commerce, as an object less worthy of his notice, than the discipline, and perhaps superflu- ous augmentation of his troops, whose energies will in all hu- man probability, be long confined to defensive operation ; yet in another mode this prince has sagaciously consulted the iur terests of his country and the happiness of his people, by ab- staining from any material participation in those conflicts, which have so long deteriorated the interests of the rest of Eu- rope. Small in size and resources, Denmark has every thing to lose and nothing to gain. A dwarf amongst giants, had she moved in the general confusion, she would have been crushed by some powerful foe, or trodden upon by some ponderous ally. The king's daughter is married to the Prince of Augus- tenbourg, and is spoken of as a very beautiful and accom- plished woman. The daughters of Prince Frederic, the bro- i2 60 LEVEE DAYS AT COPENHAGEN. .^ ther of the king, and the favourite son of Juliana Maria, are also much beloved and admired. The court days in summer are few : in winter there is a le- vee once a fortnight : on these days there are suppers, when strangers, upon the presumption of their having the rank of Co- lonels, are invited. At this meeting the number of men and women is equal, and all precedence, except that of the royal family, is determined by drawing lots as at a ball in England. In the winter, when people aggregate from necessity together, the social meetings in Copenhagen are said to be very fire- quent and delightful, and the ministers are very polite to strangers well introduced. The action of the 2d of April was of too short a duration to produce any other impression on the country than a temporary irritation, and the event of that day taught her the impolicy and danger of departing from a state of unequivocal neutrality ; at the same time it displayed to the world what never yet was questioned, the valour and enthusiastic f)atriotism of the Danes. It will be considered, however, as somewhat singular, that for two successive years, they commemorated the return of that day, as a day of victory. A whimsical Dane adopted another mode of softening the affair, by endeavouring to prove, what was his own irremoveable conviction, that Lord Nelson was of Danish extraction. They now, however, confine themselves THE FASHIONABLE PEDAGOGUE. 61 to the glory of a gallant but unavailing resistance, and in a little lapse of time their love for the English will return to its former channels. The conduct of England upon this memorable occasion, re- minds me of the policy of a certain fashionable school-master who had the care of three pupils of distinction, a duke, a vis- count, and a baronet ; the boy of the highest rank, who was the oldest and the most mischievous, during the absence of the learned doctor, prevailed upon his comrades to spend an even- ing at a fashionable bagnio; the doctor unexpectedly returned in the interim, and upon discovering where his pupils had been, felt a reluctance in wounding the high feelings of the duke and viscount, and visited the sins of all three upon the hapless lower seat of honour of the poor little baronet. Thus Russia and Sweden led Denmark into the northern confederacy against the supremacy of the British flag, and Lord Nelson whipped the latter for the presumption of all the parties to the said league. Denmark has reaped the fruits of her neutrality, and without fatiguing the reader by a long string of compa- rative, exports and imports, nothing can be clearer than that her interests have been in a state of progressive amelioration for several years past. The radical emancipation of her pea- santry has remunerated her with a merited reward, the love of a free people, and the happy results of unshackled enterprize. This blessing has not only been felt, but expressed. 62 LAWS OF DENMARK. = '^HT A few miles from the capital, on one side of the pubhc road, is a plain and simple monument, expressive of the condition of those who raised it : it was erected by the peasants of the late Count Bernstoff, in gratitude for their liberation : 'Tis liberty alone that gives the flow'r Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume ; And wc are weeds without it. Cowper. "^ • ' Curiosity led me one day into the principal court of judi- cature : it was a handsome large room, in a range of buildings in which the governor of the city resides: the throne was in front ; twelve judges presided attired in rich costume ; there were only two advocates present, who wore embroidered capes and blue silk gowns. The laws of Denmark, with an excep- tion to the forest laws, are simple and wholesome, and are im- partially administered, although the king is despotic. Justice does not appear, preceded by Corruption, and followed by Fa- mine. There is one law in Denmark which restrains the ty- ranny of parents towards their children, that deserves to be particularly mentioned : No parent can, by his own act, disin- herit his child: if he thinks that his son will dishonour him, and dissipate his fortune, he cannot change the usual channel of his property, without applying to the sovereign for permis- sion, who, in council, cautiously considers the allegation and answer ; and thus the refusal or permission is the result of a public process. Admirable as the laws of England are, it GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK. ^3 would be well if such a law as this, adapted to the genius of the constitution, could be introduced. Alas! in England, how often is the happiness of an excellent child sacrificed to the unnatural caprice or pride of an angry, foolish, mercenary parent ! The mildness of the Danish government is such, that \^en the king and the subject, as is frequently the case, happen to be engaged in litigation, respecting titles to land, the judges are recommended, if the point be dubious, to decree in favour of the subject. A short time before we arrived, a woman had been found guilty of murder, and she was sentenced only to four years of solitary confinement. The Crown Prince is un- willing to see the sword of justice stained with human blood : he is merciful almost to a fault ; The quality of mercy Is not strained ; It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heav*n. Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed : It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes, '^"^ The internal taxes are raised or reduced at the discretion of the king, which with the customs and tolls upon exports and imports, the duties paid by foreigners, and his own demesne lands and confiscations, constitute the revenues of the crown. The land tax ad valarem is admirably managed in Denmark, by which the soil is charged according to its fertility, which is estimated by the quantity of gi*ain required to sow a certain 64 HOSPITALITY OF THE DANES. quantity of land. This tax is formed into classes : the pea- sants have no assignable property in the soil, like tenants in England upon long leases; they contract with their lord to cultivate so much land, in the manner prescribed by the ordi- nances respecting agriculture, and pay their rent either in mo- ney or provision. Such is the law now, that they can experi- ence no oppression t y jPrinces and Lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them as a breath hath made. But a bold Peasantry, their Country's pride. When onee destroyed can never be supplied. The hospitahty of the numerous and highly respectable fa- mity of the De Conincks, the principal merchants at Copenha- gen, would not suffer us to quit the capital, without visiting their beautiful seat called Dronningaard or Queen's palace. As we reserved Sunday for this little country excursion, we learned, not without some inconvenience, that the Danes are remarkably rigid in their observance of the hours of wor- ship. On that day during divine service no one is permitted to quit or enter the city but at one gate. Immediately after we had passed the wrong draw-bridge, the clock struck eleven, and the gate closed upon all erratic sinners : this unlucky event compelled us to go round the ramparts, and make a de- viation of several miles. Thoroughly impressed as I am with the necessity of preserving the sanctity of the Sabbath, I must confess i am at a loss to see the utility of barring gates to keep DRONNINGAARD. d5 religion in. This expedient appears to me as useless as that of a burgomaster, who, upon a favourite lady flying to him in tears to tell him that her canary bird had escaped from its cage, ordered the drawbridges of the town to be raised to pre- vent the elopement of the little fugitive. The gates are shut in summer at twelve, and in winter at seven at night. ill no Dronningaard is the first private residence in Denmark, lies about sixteen English miles from the city ; the grounds, which are very extensive, and tastefully laid out, slope down to a noble lake, twelve English miles in circumference, and is skirted with fine woods, and romantic country houses. At the end of a beautiful walk I was struck with the appearance of an elegant marble column, on a tablet affixed to which was inscribed: ^uv? vfu^j-j^-i "This Monument is erected in gratitude to a mild and : beneficent Government, under zi)hose auspices ^n^fi I enjoy the blessings that surround me.** In another part of the grounds, in a spot of deep seclusion, we beheld the ruins of a hermitage, before which was the channel of a little brook, then dried up ; and a little further, in a nook, an open grave and a tomb-stone. The story of this retired spot deserves to be mentioned. Time has shed many winter snows upon the romantic beau- K > 66 THE HERJVIIT OF DRONNINGAARD. ties of Dronningaard, since one who, weary of the pomp of courts r d the tumult of camps, in the prime of hfe, covered with honours and with fortune, sought from its hospitable owner permission to raise a sequestered cell, in which he might pass the remainder of his days in all the austerities and priva- tion of an anchorite. This singular man had long, previous to the revolution in Holland, distinguished himself at the head of his regiment, but in an unhappy moment the love of aggran- dizement took possession of his heart, and marrying under its influence, misery followed : and here, in a little wood of tall firs he raised this simple fabric : moss warmed it within, and the bark of the birch defended it without ; a stream of rock water once ran in a bed of pebbles before the door, in which the young willow dipt its leaves ; and at a little distance from a bed of wild roses the labernum gracefully rose and suspended her yellow flowers : he selected an adjoining spot for the depo- sitory of his remains when death like a lover^s pinch That hurts, but is desir'd, should have terminated all his sufferings here. Every day he dug a small portion of his grave until he had finished it : he then composed his epitaph in French, and had it inscribed upon a stone ; the reader I think will be pleased with it in the Eng- lish dress which it has received from the distinguished pen of William Hayley, Esq. : THE HERMIT OF DRONNINGAARD. 67 THE HERMIT'S EPITAPH. < Here may he rest, who, shunning scenes of strife, Enjoy'd at Dronningaard a Hermit's life; The faithless splendour of a court he knew, And all the ardour of the tented field, V Soft Passion's idler charm, not less untrue. And all that listless Luxury can yield. '^ ^ He tasted, tender Love ! thy chaster sweet -, Thy promis'd happiness prov'd mere deceit* To Hymen's hallow'd fane by Reason led. He decm'd the path he trod, the path of bliss ', Oh ! ever mourn'd mistake ! from int'rest bred. Its dupe was plung'd in Misery's abyss. ,;|j^ But Friendship ofter'd him, benignant power, "' ' Her cheering hand, in trouble's darkest hour. Beside this shaded stream, her soothing voice Bade the disconsolate again rejoice : Peace in his heart revives, serenely sweet ; The calm content so sought for as his choice* Quits him no more in this belov'd retreat, lav O In this singular solitude he passed several years, when the plans of his life became suddenly reversed, by a letter of recal from his prince, which contained the most flattering expressions of regard. The wishes of his sovereign and of his country were imperative, he flew to Holland, and at the head of his regi- ment fought and fell. The night preceding his departure, he composed a farewell to the enchanting scenery in whose bo- som he had found repose, which as an affectionate remem- brance of the unfortunate hermit, is inscribed upon a tablet of marble, raised in a little grove not far from the hermitage ; K 2, . 6S THE HERMIT OF DRONNINGAARD. for the following translation I am indebted to the poetic and elegant mind of Leigh Hunt, Esq. : FAREWELL OF THE HERMIT OF DRONNINGAARD. Vain would life's pilgrim, lingering on his way. Snatch the short respite of a summer's day ; Pale Sorrow, bending o'er his sad repose. Still finds a tear in ev'ry sheltering rose: Still breaks his dream, and leads th' unwilling slave To weep, and wander to a distant grave. E'en he, whose steps since life's ungenial morn Have found no path unfretted with rude thorn ; From all he lov'd must turn his looks away. Far, far from thee, fair Dronningaard, must stray. Must leave the Eden of his fancy's dreams. Its twilight groves and long-resounding streams ; Streams, where the tears of fond regret have ran. And back return to sorrow and to man ! O yet once more, yc groves, your sighs repeat. And bid farewell to these reluctant feet : «r f^. f* ^. Once more arise, thou soft, thou soothing wave, _ ^ In weepmg murmurs, ere I seek my grave ; fflOli iii:>:>'I t^Erc yet a thousand social ills I share, > Pleasures that ill conceal their future pains, fn^H Ttifl^OVirtue in want, blest Liberty in chains, **flT Jy^^-v^ .'.[ lofV'ce, proud and powerful as the winter's wind, f And all the dire deliriums of mankind. ; .1 /jitriu . f . 1 IK , Yet e'en this heart may hail its rest to come ; Sorrow, thy reign is ended in the tomb ! -HTKJflO'* 1. There close the eyes, that wept their fires away; j'^f -There drop the hands that clasp'd to mourn and pray ; There sleeps the restlessness of aching hearts; There Love, the tyrant, buries all his darts ! THE CROWN BATTERY. ^ .-', O grant me, heav'n, thus sweetly to repose f 'Tis thus my soul shall triumph o'er its woes ; Spring from the world, nor drop one painful tear On all it leaves, on all it treasures here ; Save once, perhaps, when pensive moonlight gleams O'er Dronningaard's meek shades and murmuring streams, < The sacred grief, to dear remembrance true. O'er her soft flow'rs may shed its gentlest dew. May once in sounds, that soothe the suff'ring mind. Breathe its lorn murmurs through the solemn wind ; Lament, sweet spot, thy charms must wither'd be, And linger e'en from heav'n to sigh for thee ! The dispatch with which nature pushes on her vegetation in these cold climates is amazing : this delightful spot, which was now in full foliage, presented nothing but naked branches a fortnight before. I quitted Dronningaard with almost as much regret as did the devoted eremite. K| dm lot ,fnrittD fi i Tfj -, A visit to the Crown-battery was very interesting. A young Danish officer, who was present at the battle of the second of April, pointed out the respective positions of the fleets and block ships, and described with great candour and liberality the particulars of the engagement. This formidable battery is about half an English mile from shore, is square, and the water flows into the middle of it ; it is now very rapidly enlarging, and undergoing such alterations as will make it a place of great strength. It is also in contemplation to raise a fresh battery to the southward in addition to that called the lunette. The har- bour is very capacious and safe. The holm or arsenal is not ^# DANISH COMMERCE^ shewn without the permission of the admiral. The ships in or- dinary are finely arranged and make a gallant show : a gallery or nan'ow bridge, resting upon piles, runs on each side of the line, which is patroled day and night. The magazines, forges, and workshops are ujDon an admirable construction : each ship has her different magazine, containing all the materials for her r^id equipment. This depot is furnished with iron fi"om Norway, hemp from Riga, cloth from Russia and Holland, and wood fi-om Pomerania. The rope-walks are each a thousand feet long. As I was enjoying, one fine afternoon, a row m that part of the harbour where the arsenal is, and nothing can be more beautiful or interesting than such an excursion, I observed a man of war lying near the quay of a peculiar construction : she swelled amazingly in the upper sides, forming a considerable portion of a circle, for the purpose of enabling her to bring several of her afler guns to act with her bow guns or with her stern chasers : she had a very clutnsy appear- ance, and I was informed that the experiment had not an- swered the wishes of government. The number of mer- chant vessels we saw at the quay confirmed the account we re- ceived of the magnitude of the Danish commerce. Nature, which has broken the kingdom into islands, has instinctively made the Danes, merchants and sailoi-s : their principal foreign trade is with France, Portugal, and Italy, and the East and West Indies : their principal domestic trade is with Norway, and even with Iceland, which, to all but its patriotic and con- DANISH ACADEMIES AND CITADEL. 71 tented native, is a most deplorable country, the very outskirts of the world. The seamen are registered, and are divided into two classes, the stationary sailors who are always in the employ of the crown ; the others are, in times of peace, permitted to enter into merchant ships, subject to recal in case of war, and have a small annual stipend. The academy of marine cadets forms one of the palaces in the Octagon; it was founded by Frederic V. Here, and at an hotel which belong-s to it, sixty youths are maintained and instructed in the principles of navi- gation, at the expence of the crown. There are also several other young gentlemen admitted to the school, but are not maintained there. Every year several of these gallant pupils make a cruise in a brig of war, that they may blend practice with theory. The academy of land cadets is pretty nearly upon the same establishment : fifty boys are maintained and edu- cated for a military life, by the crown, and others are admitted to the school, but maintained at their own expence. The for- mer are well fed, but are never permitted to drink tea. In the academy is a riding house, and in the adjoining stables eight horses are kept for the use of the young pupils in the art of riding. ^ In the course of my rambles I visited the citadel, which is small and stands at the extremity of the city, and contains two battalions ; it has two g-ates, one towards the city, and the other towards the country ; the latter is well fortified by five bastions. Adjoining the chapel is the dungeon in which the 72 * AN INTERESTING PRISONER. ' ' ^I Count Struensee was confined; it is indeed a most disma! hole ; it was here that he Hghtened the weight of his chains and the horrors of imprisonment by his flute, upon which, so little apprehensive was he of his impending fate, that his favour rite air was from the Deserteur, beginning with Mourir c'est notre dernier ressort. Upon quitting this melancholy abode we requested the soldier who conducted us to shew us that of his unhappy feUow-sufferer Brandt; he accordingly led us through a gloomy stone passage, and after unlocking and un- barring a massy door conducted us up a winding stone stair- case into the cell, where, to my surprise, a sun-beam slanting through a small grated window, presented to us the figure of a man of respectable appearance, and of about the middle age of life, emaciated by long confinement and bowed down by grief As we approached him a faint blush partially spread over his sallow cheek, and a tear stood in his eye, which he en- deavoured to conceal with his hand, and with a bow of hu- miliation turned from us to a little bird cage which he was constructing. We apologized for our intrusion, and hastily turning towards the door, we beheld a beautiful boy standing near it, apparently about eight years old ; his look at once ex- plained that the prisoner was his father: the face of this httle child of sorrow was the most artless and expressive I ever be- held. As we descended he followed, and when at the bottom of the stairs, we asked him why he looked so pale, the little creature replied in French, " Ah, Sir ! I look so because I PALACE OF ROSENBERG. 73 ** have just recovered from a fever ; I do not always look so : I shall soon be well, but my poor papa never will." We put money in his hand, and begged him to take it to his father ; tliis he immediately returned saying, " No, sir, indeed I must not, my father will be angry with me." All our efforts were in vain ; it was a scene of affecting mj^stery. The soldier took up the child and kissed it, and bidding him return to his fe- ther, closed the door. He informed us that the prisoner had been convicted of forgery, but stated that there were many strong circumstances in his feivour. Oh, how I wished that that merciful prince whose ears are ever more open to the sounds of suffering than of flattery, had heard what we heard! the looks and language of the little prattler would have pleaded for the wretched prisoner. . ^.^i r r The little ancient palace of Rosenberg, said to be built by Inigo Jones, attracted our notice, the gardens belonging to which form the principal town parade of the belles and beaux of Copenhagen. The statues in these gardens are not worthy of notice, although recommended to the notice of travellers by many of the Copenhagers. In the street adjoining are the barracks for the foot guards, and a covered hall for military ex- ercise, of four hundred feet long. This Gothic edifice is prin- cipally remarkable for containing the room in which the King holds his annual bed of justice, and for the jewel office : the former is a long low room, the whole length of the build- L 74 CABINET OF JEWELS. ing; before the throne upon the floor stand three lions of massy silver, in different attitudes as large as life, and excite a fine idea of barbarous grandeur : the walls are surrounded with large pieces of ancient tapestry, somewhat the worse for age, representing the exploits of the most military of the Da- nish monarchs in their wars with the Swedes. In a little room adjoining the hall are several services of plate, vases, wine-glasses, and goblets, in chrystal, which were presented to Frederic IV. by the Venetian States ; the collection is very valuable and tastefully arranged. In another small apartment, ^e saw the saddle of Christian IV. covered with pearls, said to be worth 30,000/. which he once used upon a magnifi- cent gala day in Copenhagen. In the cabinet of jewels are the coronation chairs, crowns, and various valuable and curi- ous assortments of jewelry ; but I was most gratified by a beautiful service of Danish porcelain, which was made in the new manufactory of china, on which was exquisitely painted the Flora Danica, or the indigenous botanical productions of Denmark and Norway. We found it difficult to get a peep at this place, on account, as we were told, of the grand marshal of the court always having the custody of the key. An old offi- cer of the rank of colonel shewed the curiosities, and through the hands of an attendant received a ducat for his trouble. From the palace I proceeded to the observatory, a noble round tiower, one hundred and twenty feet high, in which a spiral road P^HTA 1 1 ACUTE SENSIBILITY, *-> 7S of brick nearly winds to the top, so that thus far any one might ascend or descend on horseback with perfect ease and safety : at the top is the observatory of the celebrated Tycho Brahe. The instruments are good and in excellent condition ; amongst the telescopes there is one that is twelve Danish feet long, and magnifies eight hundred times, made by Alh of Copenhagen. From this tower a young Dane precipitated himself, a short time before we visited it, and was dashed to pieces : at the school to which he belonged, the master had passed over his merits, as he too rashly thought, to compliment a boy of higher rank, but his inferior in learning. The wounded sensibility of the former drove him to frenzy, and caused the melancholy catastrophe above re- lated. Nor far from the observatory is the university library ; it contains about four thousand volumes, they are chiefly upon theology and jurisprudence ; there are also about two thousand manuscripts, amongst the most rare of the latter is a bible in Runic characters. This library has an annual revenue of eight hundred crowns for the sole purpose of purchasing books, and is open to the public. The school of surgery is a small, neat and handsome modern building : under this roof a singular in- stance of acute sensibility happened a few years since, which is still mudi talked of: As Kruger, a celebrated anatomical lec- turer, was addressing his pupils, he received a letter announ- cing the death of a very dear friend at Paris ; he was observed to be much agitated, and exclaimed, " I have received intelli- gence which I shall never long survive ; I cannot recover the l2 76 STRANGE IDEA OF THE ENGLISH LADIES. shock." His scholars, who very much loved him, pressed round, and bore him to his home in their arms, where he ex- pired a few hours after. The hospital for secret lying-in, is a handsome edifice ; here pregnant women, who have reasons for seeking concealment, are received upon paying a small sti- pend ; they enter at night in masks, and are never seen but by those who are necessary to their comfort, and their names are never required. This is a noble institution, and is said to have produced a very visible diminution in the crime of infanticide. At the tahles-d'hote at Copenhagen, a stranger is at first struck with the appearance of noblemen with stars glittering upon their breast, being seated at the same table with the rest of the company. This seldom occurs but in the summer, when the heads of noble families who pass that season of the year at their chateaus, come occasionally to town, where their houses are generally shut up till the winter. It was at one of these places that I met with an extraordinary instance of the igno- rance in which a native of one country may remain of the manners of another. A Danish gentleman, as he was picking his teeth with his jfor A;, a delicate custom very prevalent upon the continent amongst all classes, observed that he had heard the English women were very pretty, but he was confident that he never could love them : upon being pressed for his rea- son he replied, because he understood they were never seen without a pipe in their mouths ! We told him that it was very A MBRRY TURK. 77 true they had frequently pipes in their mouths, and very sweet ones too, but that they never smoaked ; nay, so much did they abhor it, that they regarded the man with disgust who indulged himself in the habit. At Copenhagen I had an opportunity of obser\ing, that a Turk in a Lutheran country can get as gloriously drunk as a Christian. At a table d'hote which I frequented, we were occasi- onally amused by a little fat follower of Mahomet, who had just arrived, with some appearance of consequence, but with a sus- picious application to the Danish government : the mussulman very soon forgot or defied the sumptuary provisions of the Al- coran, and became enamoured with some excellent port wine and English bottled porter ; his libations, which were pretty co- pious, were generally followed by dancing and kicking his tur- ban round the room ; at length, he was suddenly told to look out for other quarters. A little facetious waiter was asked whe- ther he had removed him, to prevent his further augmenting the anger of the prophet ? " I know nothing about his pro- " phet," said he, " all that I know is, that he has got no more " money." Afler having perused the description which travellers have given of the grounds and house of Count Bernstoff, I was somewhat disappointed upon visiting them: the fornier are certainly finely wooded, and command a beautiful view of the 7B DANISH PRISONS. Sound, but they are not laid out with much taste ; the latter is by no means splendid. I was more gratified with the King's park, which is extensive and highly picturesque, as I was with the grounds and gardens of Prince Frederic, the King's brother : this spot is very delightful, and on account of the mot- ley crowds which flock to it, is in miniature (a very small one) at once the Versailles and Greenwich-park of Denmark, t^ii?!' The laws of Denmark prevent the gratifications of shoot- ing : a young Dane, who had been in England, observed to me one day with a most serious countenance, that nothing could exceed the impertinence of the hawks, who, availing them- selves of the laws, flew into the room and killed his canary birds. A gloomy curiosity conducted us to the Rasp-house, where capital offenders are confined for life : the male convicts, some of whom were ironed, rasp and saw Brasil wood and rein-deer's horns; the latter is used in soup. The females spin. The prisoners are separately confined : the house of correction is on the right : here offenders of both sexes are enclosed in the same room, many of them young and healthy, but strange to relate, I only saw one little child in the apartment : they all looked neat and clean, and are made by their labour to contribute to- wards their support. It has often surprised me that the latter arrangement has not been adopted in the principal prisons of DANISH MANUFACTORIES. 79 England ; surely it is a subject well worthy the notice of the statesman. We have hundreds of miserable wretches shut up in confinement after conviction, who, with the exception of picking oakum in some of the correctional houses, and that too in a very desultory and unprofitable manner, do nothing but render their depravity more desperate. Justice demands that their services, if possible, should atone for their crimes ; policy, that they should help to maintain themselves ; and hu- manity, that their health should be promoted by their labour. The Admiralty-hospital, the Citizens-hospital, the Orphans- house, and the hospital of Frederic, are all very humane foun- dations and well maintained; there is nothing in them worthy of elaborate description. To an Englishman such establish- ments, and every other institution by which misfortune can be relieved, misery alleviated, and infirmity recovered, are proudly familiar to his eye : they constitute the principal beauty of every town and city in his country. Although the manufactories of the north are much inferior to those of the south, 1 must not omit to mention the gratification which we derived from visit- ing the manufactory of china, which is very beautiful, and al- though in its infancy, is thought to rival those of Saxony, Ber- lin, and Vienna. This manufactory furnished the beautiful service which we saw in the palace of Rosenberg : it is un- der the care of directors, who very liberally and politely 80 DUTCH TOWN.* - shew the whole of this very curious and elegant establishment to strangers. I did not leave Copenhagen without visiting the Dutch town in the isle of Amak, about two English miles from the x^apital, which is inhabited by about four thousand people, descendants of a colony from East Friesland, who were in- vited to reside here, with certain privileges, by one of the an- cient kings of Denmark, for the purpose of supplying the city with milk, cheese, butter, and vegetables ; the neatness and luxuriance of their little gardens cannot be surpassed: they dress in the Dutch style, and are governed by their own laws. The road from this village to the city is constantly crowded with these indefatigable people, who by their bustle and acti- vity give it the appearance of a great ant-hill. In Denmark no other money is to be seen than the money of the country, the currency of which is penally protected : I must except, however, Dutch ducats, which pass all over Europe, and are very seldom below par. There is here a plentiful lack of gold and silver coin, and abundance of copper. Having seen most of the lions of Copenhagen, we pre- pared to bid adieu to our friends, and to shape our course to- wards Sweden : as a necessary preliminary we exchanged our Danish money for Swedish dmall notes : . the exchange was CURIOrus OCCITRRENCE. 81 about three per cent, in our favour ; by this precaution we ob- viated the difficulty of procuring change for large Swedish, notes in the country, and the inconvenience (and not a small one it is) of carrying its coin. We also procured a servant who spoke Swedish, which was very necessary, and purchased ropes and cross bars to enable us to construct a new harness and tackling in Sweden according to the custom of travelling there. When a man is about to set out on a long journey, it is a for- tunate thing for him if some little pleasant or ridiculous event occur to set him off in good humour ; nothing therefore could happen more opportunely than the following circumstance : Just before our departure we had occasion to go to a leather breeches maker, to which we were conducted by our lacquais de place : our gentleman, who by the bye w£is an Italian, and the coolest of his countrymen, with the greatest sangfroid ad- dressed himself very familiarly to the Baron B , the Bava- rian minister, who was in the shop when we entered, and at last begged to have the honour of introducing him to us. We bowed to each other with a smile of astonishment at the intre- pid assurance of our mutual fi-iend. We took the road to El- sineur, attended by several of our Copenhagen friends, who begged to accompany us as far as Fredericksborg, where it was agreed that we should dine and part. Every thing in Den- mark is very dear, pretty nearly as much so as in England. M ( 82 ) CHAP. V. FREDERICKSBORG STORKS FASTIDIOUS MARES FOREST LAWS PENALTIES OP TRAVELLING PRINCE WILLIAM OP GLOUCESTER CONTINENTAL EQUIPAGES HAMLETS ORCHARD CRONE ERG CASTLE SOME AFFECTING SCENES WHICH PASSED THERE THE FAREWELL KISS THE GALLANTRY OP CAPTAIN MACBRIDE THE LITTLE COURT OF ZELL THE DEATH OF THE QUEEN MATILDA. 1 HE road from Copenhagen to Fredericksborg, distant about sixteen English miles, is very beautiful, and presents a luxu- riant display of lakes, woods, corn-fields, and forests of beech, oak, and fir. Before we reached that town, we passed through a forest of wild horses, some of which we saw; they had a noble, rough appearance, and presented a fine study for such a pencil as Gilpin's. Whilst our dinner was preparing we visited the palace, a heavy and most incongruous massy pile of building, in which black marble contends with red brick, and the simple graces of the Grecian order, with all the minute fret- ted perplexities of the Gothic ; the whole is covered with cop- per, and was built by Christian IV. : it stands in a lake, a^d seems to be fit only for the residence of frogs, and I believe. PALACE OF FREDERICKSBORG. SS with the exception of two old house-keepers, it has no other inmates. The Sal de Chevalier is a very long room, crowded with paintings, badly arranged, and perishing with damp and mildew : some of them seemed to deserve a better fate. The pillars which support the cornice of the fire-place in this room were once crowned with silver capitals, which the Swedes car- ried off in one of their irruptions. In the chapel we saw the throne upon which the kings of Denmark Were fbrnierly crowned : the roof is most superbly gilt and decorated, and the walls are covered with the arms of the knights of the first or- der. As we passed through one of the old g-alleries, over a moat, a gust of wind shook the crazy casement, and the great clock heavily struck its hour : it was altogether a place well suited for a second edition of the exploits of Sir Bertrand, or would form an appropriate academy for the spectre-loving pu- pils of the German school. In the gloomy grounds of this palace we again saw our old friend the stork: this subject of his Danish Majesty generally quits his territories in October, and returns in Spring; and what is singular, he always returns to his own nest. From this place we walked to the royal stud, about half a mile distant, (the road to which was exquisitely picturesque) where the king has two thousand fme horses, each of which is disfigured, by being marked with a large letter on one side of m2 84 BREED OF HORSES — GAME. \ the haunch, and the year of his birth on the other. There is here a beautiful and very rare breed of milk-white horses : they always herd together, and the mares will not permit the stal- lions of any other breed to approach them. I have been in- formed that there is a similar breed in the island of Ceylon. There is as much good nature as policy in the permission which his Danish Majesty grants to all the farmers, to have their mares covered by his finest stallions gratuitously: hence the fine breed of horses in Denmark, the keep of which happily for that noble animal, is the only cheap thing in the kingdom. , This part of the country is said to abound more in game than any other, but although the forest-laws prevail with all their rigour in Denmark Proper, except that the punishment of death is commuted into perpetual imprisonment, yet there is but little game, and but little increase in the breed of deer. It is a just retribution for the severity of the prohibition. After a glass of excellent Burgundy, which, as it was the signal of departurCjL seemed to lose half its flavour, we pressed our ex- cellent friends by the hands, and proceeded on the road to Elsineur. It is one of the penalties of travelling, and a painful one it is, to meet with here and there a being, who delights, attaches, and is gone for ever. It was even so with one from whom I parted on this very spot, in all human probability never more CANNON-FOUNDRY AT FREDERICSVAARK. 85 'to meet on this side the grave. He was a youth full of genius, accomplished, diffident, gentle, brave, and generous : he came from the region of mountains and cataracts, from the Swisser- land of the north, where the winter snow is seen undisturbed to settle on the naked breast of the hardy and happy peasant. I must again borrow the language of my adored Shakespeare, to paint my noble young Norwegian : ** His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe: And, in a word (for far behind his worth Come all the praises that I now bestow), '^ He was complete in feature and in mind. With all good grace to grace a gentleman." My memory will long dwell with delight upon the name of Knudtzon. Time would not admit of our seeing Fredericsvaark, which is near this place. The cannon-foundry and manufactories were established by General Claussen, who, by his skill and perseverance, has triumphed over the most formidable dif- ficulties of local situation : the whole is at present under the superintendence of our ingenious countrj^man, Mr, English. It is said that this establishment can completely equip a fifty gun ship in two months, in all her guns, powder, and stores. .. The country houses, many of which we passed, are generally 86 PALACE OF FREDENSBORG. built of wood, painted red or light yellow : they seldom exceed two stories, frequently containing only a suite of ground floor apartments, and are far more comfortable within, than hand- some without. Sometimes they are built of brick, when the frame and timbers are visible, and have a very unpleasant ap- pearance. The gardens are in general formally laid out, and the garden door is remarkable for being formed of a frame covered with fine wire netting, through which the grounds behind appear as through a muslin veil, and the garden railing is almost invariably heavy and tasteless. Through a forest of fine beech, the sun shining gloriously, and making the trunk of many a tree look like a pillar of gold, and illuminating the casement of many a romantic little cottage, we reached the palace of Fredensborg, or the Man- sion of Peace : it stands in a valley, and was the retreat of the remorseless Juliana Maria, after the young Crown Prince had taken possession of the reins of government, which, having stained with blood, she vainly endeavoured to retain. Here in solitude she resigned her breath. No doubt her last moments were agonized by the compunctious visitings of conscience, for the wrongs which she had heaped upon the unfortunate Ma- tilda, and her savage sacrifice of Struensee and Brandt. The grass was growing in the court, and upon the steps. The building is a large square fix)nt, surmounted with a dome, and PALACE OF FREDENSBORG. 87 extensive crescent wings ; the whole is of brick, stuccoed white. The window-shutters were closed, and the glass in several places broken; all looked dreary and desolate: after thun- dering at the door with a stick, we at length gained admittance. The apartments were handsome, and contained several good Flemish paintings. The domestic shewed us, with great exul- tation, the hall in which the Crown Prince entertained Prince William of Gloucester with a grand dinner about two years before. The Danes alwa5^s mentioned this Prince with ex- pressions of regard and admiration, that shewed how fa- vourable were the impressions created by his amiable de- portment and engaging manners during his visit to Denmark. The gardens and woods are very beautiful, but neglected, and gently slope down to the extensive lake of Esserom. As we roved along, the birds, with plaintive melodies, hailed the moist approach of evening, and our time just admitted of our visiting, which we did with real satisfaction, a vast number of statues, which are circularly ranged in an open space sur- rounded by shrubs, representing the various costumes of the Norwegian peasantry : some of them appeared to be admi- rably chiseled. Upon returning to the carriage, the images of what I had just seen produced the following lines : 88 PALACE OF FREPENSBORO, FREDENSBORG, THE DESERTED PALACE OF THE LATE QUEEN DOWAGER JULIANA MARIA. Blest are the steps of Virtue's queen ! Where'er she moves fresh roses bloom. And when she droops, kind Nature pours Her genuine tears in gentle show'rs. That love to dew the willow green That over-canopies her tomb. But ah ! no willing mourner here Attends to tell the tale of woe : Why is yon statue prostrate thrown. Why has the grass green'd o'er the stone. Why 'gainst the spider'd casement drear So sullen seems the wind to blow ? How mournful was the lonely bird. Within yon dark neglected grove ! Say, was it fancy ? From its throat Issu'd a strange and cheerless note ; *Twas not so sad as grief I heard, Nor yet so wildly sweet as love. In the deep gloom of yonder dell, Ambition's blood-stain'd victims sighed : While time beholds, without a tear. Fell Desolation hovering near. Whose angry blushes seem to tell. Here Juliana shudd'ring died. As we descended to Elsineur, the town, the Sound, enliven- ed by shipping at anchor and under sail, and the shores of Sweden, presented an enchanting prospect, which the brilliancy MARIA'S DELIGHT. 89 of the sky at this season of the year, in these northern cUmates, enabled me to contemplate till midnight. The next morning, as I was quitting my hotel to take another ramble, the Go- vernor of Copenhagen, Prince W., and his Princess and suite, who had been spending the preceding day at Elsineur, were setting off for the capital : they were all crammed into a shabby coach, drawn by six horses in rope harness. It is asto- nishing how little a handsome travelling equipage is under- stood upon the continent. The town, which is principally built of brick, is large, and has a very respectable appear- ance. I, The gardens of Marie Lyst, or Maria's Delight, which are r within half an English mile of Elsineur, cannot foil to prove very interesting to every admirer of our immortal Shakespeare. I here trod upon the very spot, where, with all the uncer- tainty of antiquity, tradition asserts that the Father of Hamlet was murdered : that affecting di-ama is doubly dear to me. Its ^ beauties are above all eulogium ; and I well remember, the desire of seeing a ghost occasioned its being the first I ever beheld. As I stood under the shade of a spreading beech, the " Majesty of buried Denmark" seemed to say to the afflicted prince : Sleeping within my orchard, ^^^ My custom always in the afternoon, N 90 CRONBERG CASTLE. Upon my secure hour thine uncle stole, With juice of cursed heberon in a vial, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment Thus was I sleeping, by a brother's hand Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch*d. Cut off, e'en in the blossoms of my sin, Unhousell'd, unappointed, unaneal'd. No reckoning made, but sent to my account With all my imperfections on my head. A more beautiful spot for such a frightful conference could not have been selected. The walks fi-om this celebrated scene, to the tower which overhangs the cliff, and firom whence there is a fine view of Cronberg Castle, are enchanting. There is a little chateau near Hamlet's Orchard belonging to the Crown Prince, who pennits one of his chamberlains, called a kam- merherr (a nobleman) to reside here : the symbol of his dis- tinction is a singular one ; a golden key, fastened by a blue ribband to the back part of the body of his coat. The spires of the fortress of Cronberg, which appeared im- mediately below me, and the battlements upon which the hapless Matilda was permitted to walk during her confinement in that castle, excited an irresistible wish to lay before my reader a fi|w of the most affecting circumstances, which passed under its gloomy roof during her captivity. COUNT STRUENSEE. c^^^ 91 It is well known what neglect and suffering the Queen, in the bloom of youth and beauty, endured, from the fatal imbe- cility of the King's mind, and the hatred and jealousy of ' Sophia Magdalen, the grandmother, and Juliana Maria, the step-mother, of his Majesty; and that the anger of the latter was encreased by Matilda's producing a prince, an event which annihilated the hopes that Juliana cherished of seeing the ele- vation of her favourite son Prince Frederick, to the throne. The Queen, about this period, 1769, was saved from ruin, only by attaching to her confidence the Count Struensee, who, sa- gacious, penetrating, bold, enterprising, and handsome, without the pretensions of birth, had ascended to an unlimited power over the will of the sovereign, had obtained the reins of go- vernment, and had far advanced with almost unexampled ce- lerity and unshaken firmness in reforming the mighty abuses which encumbered and distorted the finance, the laws, the administration of justice, the police, the marine, the army, and the exchequer, and in short every department of govern- ment. Struensee restored the Queen to the bosom of her sove- reign, and with the assistance of Count Brandt, the friend of Struensee, environed the King, and made him inaccessible to every other person. His Majesty's great delight at this pe- riod arose from the society of a negro boy, and a little girl about ten years of age, who used to amuse him by breaking the win- dows of the palace, soiling and tearing the furniture, and throw- n2 02 COUNT Sl^RUENSEE. ing dung and turf at the statues in the garden. Struensee experienced the usual fate of reformers, the abhorrence of those whom he corrected, and the suspicions or indifference of the people whom he served. He dislodged a nest of hornets : Juliana, with the keen unwearied vigilance of the tyger-cat, watched her victims from the gloomy shades of Fredensborg ; where herself and her party, consisting of Counts Ranzau, Rol- ler, and others, fixed on the 17th of January, 1772, to close the career of their hated rivals : their savage resolve was facilitated by the last fatal and infatuated measures of Struensee, who beheld too late the phrenzy of precipitate systems of re- form : he prevailed upon the King to issue an edict empower- ing every creditor to arrest his debtor without reference to birth or rank ; the nobility flew to their estates in all direc- tions, with revenge in their hearts ; he terrified and grievously offended the mild and rigid citizens of Copenhagen, by assi- milating its police to that of Paris, and by disbanding the royal foot-guards, composed of Norwegians, for the purpose of draft- ing them into other regiments. His days, his hours, were now numbered : on the night of the l6th of January, a magnificent bal "part was given at the great palace, since, as I have related, burned. The young Queen never looked more lovely, she was the very soul of this scene of festive grandeur : Grace was in every step, heaven in her eye. It was the collected brilliancy of the expiring flame. At three STRUENSEE AND BRANDT. 93 o'clock a dead silence reigned throughout the palace : the con- spirators, with several guards, passed the bridge over the canal, •and surrounded the avenues. Juliana, Prince Frederick, and Ranzau, went to the door of the King's apartment, which at first the fidelity of a page in waiting refused to unlock ; they terrified the monarch by their representations of an impend- ing plot, and thrust into his hands for signature, the orders for seizing the Queen, Struensee, and Brandt. Upon seeing the name of Matilda upon the order, love and reason for a moment took possession of the King's mind, and he threw the paper from him, but upon being ardently pressed, he signed it, put his head upon his pillow, pulled the bed-cloaths over him, and in a short time forgot what he had done. Koller pro- ceeded to Struensee's room, and being a powerful man, seized the latter by the throat, and with some assistance sent hinj and Brandt in a close carriage, strongly guarded, to the ci- tadel. Ranzau and Colonel Eickstadt opened the door of the Queen's chamber, and awoke her from profound sleep to unexpected horror. These savage intruders are said upon her resistinor to have struck her : the indecency and in- dignity of the scene can scarcely be imagined ; after the Queen had hurried on her cloaths, she was forced into a car- riage, attended by a squadron of dragoons, and sent off to the fortress of Cronberg; upon her arrival, she was supported to her bed-chamber, a cold, damp, stone room : upon observing . ^- 94 MATILDA, aUEEN OF DENMARK. the bed she exclaimed, " Take me away ! take me away ! rest " is not for the miserable, there is no rest for me." After some violent convulsions of nature, tears came to her relief : " Thank " God," said the wretched Queen, " for this blessing, my ene- " mies cannot rob me of it." Upon hearing the voice of her in- fant the Princess Louisa, who had been sent after her in another carriage, she pressed Jier to her bosom, kissed her with the most impassioned affection, and bathed her with tears. " Ah ! art thou here ?" said she, " poor unfortunate innocent ; this is indeed some balm to thy wretched mother." In the capital a scene of terror, tumult, and forced festivity followed : at twelve o'clock the next -day, J^uliana and her son paraded the King in his state coach, arrayed in his regalia, through the principal streets, but only here and there a solitary shout of joy was heard. For three days the imprisoned queen refused to take any food, and ** Three times she crossed the shade of sleepless night." It is said that the King never once enquired for her, and now became the sole property of the infamous Juliana, who guarded her treasure with the eye of a basilisk. The court of Great Britain made a mild but firm communication upon the subject of the personal safety of the Queen : nine commissioners were appointed to examine the prisoners : the following were the principal charges against Struensee. MATILDA, QUEEN OF DENMARK. 95 1. A horrid design against the Ufe of his sacred Majesty. • . 2. An attempt to oblige the King to resign the crown, . 3. A criminal connection with the Queen. i\{i 4. The improper manner in which he had educated the Prince Royal. i' 5. The great power and decisive influence he had acquired in the government of the state. i ' 6. The manner in which he used this power and influence in the administration of affairs. Amongst the charges preferred against the Count Brandt was the following ridiculous one : 'V "While the King was playing in his usual mafiner with " Count Brandt, the Count bit his Majesty's fmger." Four commissioners proceeded to examine the Queen, who, with the wretched Constance, might have exclaimed Here I and Sorrow sit, Here is my throne, let kings come bow to it. Her answers were pointed, luminous and dignified : she denied most solemnly any criminal intercourse with Struensee. S , a counsellor of state, abruptly informed the Queen, that Stru- ensee had already signed a confession in the highest degree disgraceful to the honour and dignity of her Majesty. " Im- " possible !" exclaimed the astonished Queen, " Struensee ne- " ver could make such a confession : and if he did, I here call 96 MATILDA, QUEEN OF DENMARK. " heaveii to witness, that what he said was false/' The artfhl S played off a master-piece of subtilty, which would have done honour lo a demon : " Well then," said he, " as your " Majesty has protested against the truth of his confession, he " deserves to die for having so traitorously defiled the sacred " character of the Queen of Denmark." This remark struck the wretched Princess senseless in her chair : after a terrible conflict between honour and humanity, pale and trembling, in a faultering voice she said, " And if I confess what Struensee " has said to be true, may he hope for mercy ?" which words she pronounced with the most affecting voice, and with all the captivations of youth, beauty, and majesty, in distress : S nodded, as if to assure her of Struensee's safety upon those terms, and immediately drew up her confession to that effect, and presented it to her to sign ; upon this her frame became agitated with the most violent emotions ; she took up the pen and began to write her name, and proceeded as far as Carol — , when observing the malicious joy which sparkled in the eyes of S , she became convinced that the whole was a base stratagem, and, throwing away the pen, exclaimed, " I am " deceived, Struensee never accused me, I know him too well ; " he never could have been guilty of so great a crime." She endeavoured to rise, but her strength failed her, she sunk down, fainted, and fell back into her chair. In this state, the barba- rous and audacious S put the pen between her fingers, which he held and guided, and before the unfortunate Princess *?- '' TRIAL OF aUEEN MATILDA. 97 could recover, the letters — ina Matilda, were added. The commissioners immediately departed, and left her alone : upon her recovering and finding them gone, she conjectured the fill! horror of her situation. To afford some colouring to the mock trial which followed, the advocate Uhldal was appointed her defender : his speech on behalf of the Queen, was in the highest degree able, pathe- tic, and convincing. Uhldal discharged such duties, as in a few years afterwards devolved upon the eloquent Malsherbes, and with equal effect : the illustrious clients of both were pre- judged : it was the show of justice, not to investigate, but to ^ve a spurious eclat to their fate. How opposite was this tri- bunal to that which Sheridan, in a blaze of eloquence, apostro- phized upon the trial of Warren Hastings, Esq. ! " From such " a base cariacature of justice," exclaimed the orator, " I turn ** my eyes with horror. I turn them here to this dignified and " high tribunal, where the Majesty of real Justice sits en- " throned. Here I perceive her in her proper robes of truth " and mercy, chaste and simple, accessible and patient, awful "without severity, inquisitive without meanness, her loveliest " attribute appears in stooping to raise the oppressed, and to " bind up the wounds of the afflicted." The grand tribunal divorced the Queen, and separated her 9S EXECUTION OF STRUENSEE AND BRANDT. for ever from the King, and proposed to blemish the birth of the Princess Louisa, by their decree, and reduce the little in- nocent to that orphanage " which springs not from the grave, " that falls not from the hand of Providence, or the stroke o| "death;" but the cruel design was never executed. Uhldaf" also exerted all the powers of his eloquence for the two unfor- tunate Counts. Humanity revolts at their sentence, which the unhappy King, it is said, signed with thoughtless gaiety : they had been confined from the seventeenth of January, and on the twenty-eighth of March, at eleven o'clock, were drawTi out to execution in two separate carriages, in a field near the east gate of the town : Brandt ascended the scaffold first, and displayed the most undaunted intrepidity. After his sentence was read, and his coat of arms torn, he calmly prayed a few minutes, and then spoke with great mildness to the people. Upon the executioner endeavouring to assist him in taking off his pelisse, he said, " Stand off, do not presume to touch me :" he then stretched out his hand, which, without shrinking from the blow, was struck off, and almost at the same moment his head was severed from his body. Struensee, during this bloody scene, stood at the bottom of the scaffold in trembling agony, and became so faint when his friend's blood gushed through the boards, and trickled down the steps, that he was obliged to be supported as he ascended them : here his courage wholly foorsook him ; he several times drew back his hand, which was L^G. DEPARTURE OF QUEEN MATILDA, 99 dreadfully maimed before it was cut off, and at length he was obliged to be held down before the executioner could perform his last office. Copenhagen was unpeopled on the day of this savage sacrifice ; but although the feelings of the vast crowd which surrounded the scaffold, had been artfully wrought upon by Juliana and her partizans, they beheld the scene of butchery with horix)r, and retired to their homes in sullen silence. No- thing but the spirited conduct of our then ambassador. Sir Ro- bert Keith, prevented the Queen from being immolated at the same time. On the 27th of May, a squadron of two British frigates and a cutter, under the command of the gallant Captain Macbride, cast anchor off Helsingfors, and on the 30th every thing was finally arranged for the removal of the Queen : upon the barge being announced, she clasped her infant daughter to her breast, and shed upon her a shower of tears. The Queen then sunk into an apparent stupor; upon recovering, she prepared to tear herself away, but the voice, the smiles, and endearing motions of the babe chained her to the spot ; at last, summoning up all her resolution, she once more took it to her arms, and in all the ardour and agony of distracted love, imprinted upon its lips the farewell kiss, and returning it to the attendant, exclaimed, " Away ! away ! 1 now possess nothing here," and was sup- ported to the barge in a state of agony which baffles descrip- o2 100 DEPARTURE OF QUEEN MATILDA. tion. Upon the Queen approaching the frigate, the squadron saluted her as the sister of his Britannic Majesty, and when she came on board. Captain Macbride hoisted the Danish colours, and insisted upon the fortress of Cronberg saluting her as Queen of Denmark, which salute was returned with two guns less. The squadron then set sail for Stade, in the Hanoverian do- minions, but, owing to contrary winds, was detained within sight of the castle the whole day, and in the early part of the following morning its spires were still faintly visible, and until they completely faded in the mist of distance, the Queen sat upon the deck, her eyes rivetted upon them, and her hands clasped in silent agony. Shall we follow the wretched Ma- tilda a little farther? The path is solitary, very short, and at the end of it is her tomb. Upon her landing at Stade she proceeded to a little remote hunting seat upon the borders of the Elbe, where she remained a few months, until the castle of Zell, destined for her fiiture residence, was prepared for her : she removed to it in the autumn ; here her little court was remarked for its elegance and accomplishments, for its bounty to the peasantry, and the cheerful serenity which reigned throughout The Queen spent much of her time alone, and having obtained the portraits of her children from Denmark, she placed them in a retired apartment, and fre- quently addressed them in the most affecting manner as if present. -^ n^' DECEASE OF QUEEN MATILDA. 101 So passed away the time of this beautiful and accompHshed exile, until the eleventh of May, 1775, when a rapid inflam- niatory fever put a period to her afflictions in the twenty-fourth year of her age. Her coffin is next to that of the dukes of Zell. Farewell poor Queen ! " Ah ! while we sigh we sink, and are what we deplore." ( 102 ) CHAP. VI. CROSS THE SOUND SWEDEN CINDERELLA's MICE RAPID TRAVEL- LING — STRANGE QUESTION ROOF-GRAZING JVIISLED BY THE LIGHT A DISCOVERY A CAUTION A FRENCH HOTEL. The traveller will do right to obtain letters of introduction to Mr. Fenwick, our consul at Elsineur : they will be the means of making him acquainted with an amiable and highly respect- able family, whose manners, information, and hospitality, must afford gratification. In the evening we procured a boat, em- barked ourselves and baggage, and, by the assistance of a gentle breeze that just curled the water, we crossed the Sound, about four English miles in breadth, and in three quarters of an hour found ourselves in Sweden. We passed close by Cronberg Castle, which stands upon a peninsular point the nearest to Sweden. I was again forcibly struck with the abbey-like appearance of this building : it now forms the residence of the Governor of Elsineur. It mounts three hun- dred and sixty-five pieces of cannon, and its subterranean apartments will hold more than a regiment of men. Fame, at one period, assigned to it the character of the impregnable and impassable fortress. On the celebrated second of April, Ad- SWEDEN. 103 mirals Parker and Nelson passed it with perfect security, and disdained to return a shot. Two British seventy-fours judici- ously moored, and well served, would, in a short time, blow all its boasted bastions and intrenchments at the moon. No visitor, without special permission from the governor (sel- dom granted), is allowed to put his foot upon the draw-bridge : why all this caution is used, I know not ; perhaps to keep up the mystery of invincibility. For my part, I am so well as- sured that the policy of power is unostentatiously to shew itself, that could I have discharged a paper bullet from my little boat into this redoubted castle, I would have enclosed in it this sen- tence : " Where there is concealment there is apprehension." This place was open to every one, until the wand of Fatima was broken on the second of April. The Crown battery is a place of real force, and even Englishmen are permitted to see it without the least difficulty. We disembarked under the steep and rocky shores of Hel- sinborg, a small town upon a long pier, where the carriage was landed with considerable risk and difficulty ; and I warn those who travel with one, to take good care that they cross the Sound in calm weather, as it is obliged to be lifted out of the boat by mere manual strength. On landing, a Swedish hussar, a fine-looking fellow, in blue loose trowsers and jacket, with his two side-locks plaited, and fastened at the end by little 104 COURIERS. heights of lead, demanded very civilly out passports; and, whilst he went to the commander with them, we paid our ro- bust boatmen in Danish money : Dollars Marks Skillings For the boat - - 3 Carriage - - 2 Drink money - - 3 We now settled all our accounts with Denmark, and pro- ceeded to a very neat little inn, not far from the shore, where we found comfortable accommodations, which I suppose are improved by the neighbourhood of Ramlos, where the no- bility of this province assemble every season to drink the waters. Having refreshed ourselves with some excellent cof- fee, we hastened to the duties of the evening, which proved a very busy one, for we intended to start direct for Stock- holm, at five o'clock in the morning, and our impatience cost our p7'ide nothing less than figuring away a few days afterwards in the Stockholm Gazette as a couple of couriers just landed. The reader who never means to make a nearer approach to Sweden, than from his fire-side to his library, may as well pass over the following dull but necessary detail of money matters : SWEDISH CURRENCY. 105 SWEDISH MONEY. SILVER. 12 Runstycks make 1 skilling. 48 Skillings — 1 silver dollar or Banco dollar. 1 Silver dollar is worth at par five shillings English. PAPER. The notes of Government are in plotes, Ricksgalds, and Banco dollars. A plote is equal to 16 skillings, or one third of a silver dol* lar, or \s. 8^. English. This small paper is very useful to tra- vellers. A Ricksgalds dollar carries an agio of 50 per cent, so that one silver dollar is equal to one and a half of a Ricksgalds dollar. A Banco dollar is worth at par 5s. English, the same as the silver dollar. N. B. Banco money is both coin and paper. To the Swedish collector of the customs we paid I>r«. Marks. Sks. ' For tax and wharfage - - 2 12 Porterage - - 1 12 We paid also a little sum to the custom-house officer for a slight search. 106 RATES OF POSTING. Whilst we were settling these little matters, a young fellow, from whose face the picture of honesty might have been pen- ciled, with the additional recommendation of a military hat, cockade and feather, such as might belong to the rank of a Serjeant, made a low bow, and an application, which will be more clearly understood when the reader is informed that in Sweden, the traveller who is not willing to wait an hour and a half for his horses at the end of a post, will take special care to dispatch some hours before he sets off, an avante courier, called a vorbode, who will proceed to the end of the journey for a mere trifle per mile Swedish, which is equal to six miles and three quarters English, and will order horses to be ready at the proper post houses, at the hours which are mentioned in his instructions. The peasants are obliged by law, to furnish the adjoining post-houses with a ceitain number of horses, according to the value of their farms, and are under the controul of the post- master. The horses are obliged to remain twenty-four hours at the post-house : their owners are paid for their time and trouble, if a traveller arrives ; if not, they lose both. This regulation must be oppressive to the peasant, and injuri- ous to agriculture, and calls loudly for amelioration. The price of posting is twelve skillings, or eight pence English, for a horse, per Swedish mile. When the post-house happens to be A DISASTER. 107 in a town the price is doubled. The object of our visitor was to state that he was going to Feltza, (a great part of the way to Stockholm) and if we would pay for the hire of a little cart and horse he would act as our vorbode, and carry some of the luggage : to these tenns we soon acceded, and he retired to rest in order to start at two o'clock in the morning, which he did in a little carriage, somewhat of the size and shape of that which in London I have seen drawn by a large mastiff, and filled with dogs' meat. Our servant, who had been in Sweden before, and knew its characteristic honesty, entrusted him with . his trunk, to which we added another. Our next care was to prepare our rope harness, as our tackling was to be entirely of a new construction, and to lay in provision for the journey, the most valuable part of which was some ribs of roasted mutton, cooked after our own feshion; but lo ! and behold! when we rose in the morning, our basket in which it had been most carefully deposited, had been rifled by some vile dog, and only^ a mangled and indented Avreck remained. The unprovided traveller may vainly expect to fmd any thing which he can eat on the road ; even eggs in this part of the country are a rarit}-. As I had it in contemplation to spend the winter at Venice or Rome, I was obliged with regret to proceed direct to Stock- holm, instead of visiting Carlscrona, the celebrated Swedish arsenal, the town of which we understood was much improved P :2 108 EXPEDITIOUS TRAVELLING. since its revival after the dreadful conflagration of 1790, and that the new docks, hewn out of rocks of granite, as far as they are advanced, are marvellous monuments of labour and enter- prise. For the same reason also I was obliged to relinquish the gratification of seeing Gotheborg, the second city of Swe- den, and the stupendous falls and works of Trolhsetta. In these routes I am informed that provisions and accommoda- tions are better. A lucky discovery made by our good-hu- moured host in his pantry, supplied the melancholy empti- ness of our basket, with an admirable piece of cold stewed beef, and thus provided we commenced our joumej^ Our servant drove us, attended by two peasants, to whom the horses belonged ; one of them was seated on the box, and the other stood behind the carriage, yet with such a weight our four little horses conveyed us with the most surprising velocity. The animals looked as if Cinderella's protective Genius had waved her wand over them, and had raised them from mice to the rank of tiny horses : they started in full gallop, and scarcely ever slackened their pace, until they had reached the end of their post. The peasants drive very skilfully, and it is not unusual to see a blooming damsel assume the reins. The roads, which are of rock, thinly covered with gravel and earth, are said to be, and I believe with truth, the finest in the world. We accomplished several stages at the rate of thirteen and even fourteen English miles an hour. At the end of each stage the THE NIGHTINGALE. 109 traveller is presented with a book called a dagbok, to enter his name, his age, whence he came, whither he is going, the number of horses, and whether he is satisfied with his postilion. The spring here is scarcely perceived ; and although it was the seventeenth of June, the morning air was very cold and nipping. Our road lay through Scone or Scania, said to be one of the finest provinces of Sweden. The nightingale has seldom been known to extend her northern visit beyond this province, and even here she but feebly pours " her amorous descant." Farther northward, only magpies, woodpeckers, crows, and birds of the rock, are to be found. We passed through forests of beech and fir; many of the latter were blasted, and had a very picturesque appearance. The first stage was sixteen English miles, during which the only ani- mated creatures w^e saw, were a group of dancing goats, and a boy with a flageolet, going to the fair. Between Astrop and Lynngby is one of the most convenient ferries on which I ever floated : we drove upon it without any difficulty, and were im- mediately conveyed to the other side. At the first post-house where we stopped, my astonishment was not a little excited, by the peasants, whimsically enough as I then thought, asking us to tell them where their beloved king was. The first day we dined at Orke Ginga under the porch of a little cottage : the scenery about us was very desolate and 110 SWEDISH COITAGES. dreaty. As we skirted some of the lakes, which abound in Sweden, we saw the peasant women, half-knee deep in water, washing their linen : they looked hardy and happy. The ar- chitect must ever be governed by nature in the size, shape, and materials of his building. Sweden is one continued rock of granite, covered with fir : hence the cottages, which are only one story high, and many of the superior houses, are constructed of wood, the planks of \^ hich are let into each other in a layer of moss, and the outside is painted of a red colour ; the roof is fbiTTied with the bark of the birch, and covered with turfi which generally presents a bed of grass sufficiently high for the scy tho of the mower. The floors of the rooms are strewed with the slips of 5 oung fir, which give them the appearance of litter and disorder, and the smell is far from being pleasant. No* thing can be more dreary than winding through the forests^ which every now and then present to the weary eye little patches of cleared ground, where firs had been felled by fire, the stumps of whicli, to a considerable height, were left in the ground, and, at a distance, resembled so many large stones. Inexhaustible abundance of wood induces the peasant to think it labour lost to root them up, and they remain to augment the general dreariness of the scenery. The population in both the provinces of Scania and Sma- land is very thinly diffused : except in the very few towns be- t^veen Flensborg and Stockholm, the abode of man but rarely SWEDISH PEASANTS. Ill refreshes the eye of the wearj^ traveller. At dawn of day, and all day long, he moves in a forest, and at night he sleeps in one. The only birds we saw were woodpeckers. The pea- santry are poorly housed and clad ; yet, amidst such discou- raging appearances, their cheek boasts the bloom of health and the smile of content. Their clothes and stockings are ge- nerally of light cloth ; their hats raised in the crown, pointed at top, with large broad rim, and round their waist they fre- quentl}^ wear a leathern girdle, to which are fastened two knives in a leather case. The country in these provinces ap- peared to be very sterile ; only small portions of its rocky sur- face were covered with a sprinkling of vegetable mou'd. One day, wearied by the eternal repetition of firs, we were, without the least preparation, suddenly enlivened by the rounds of a military band, and an abrupt opening in the forest dis- played, as by enchantment, an encampment of a fine regiment of the Lindkoping, or, as it is pronounced, Lindchipping in- fantry : their uniform, which is national, is blue faced with yellow. The instantaneous transition from the silence and gloom of woods, to the gaiety and bustle of the camp, was very pleasing. At the next post from this sprightly spot, whilst we were changing horses, our servant was again addressed by a re- spectable peasant, who, with a serious face, asked him, as he 112 WELLER LAKE. was a foreigner, to be good enough to tell him in what part of the world his beloved king was. Heavens ! thought I, how strange it is that these virtuous people, who are so much attached to their sovereign, should not know where he is ; and how happy must that prince be who is enquired after with so much affection and solicitude ! We dined at Johnkopping, or, as the Swedes call it, John- chippig : it is a well-built town of wooden houses, situated on the exti'emity of the lake Wettem, which is about one hun- dred English miles long. At dinner, here, and every where in Sweden, we found that the bread and cheese had in them an immense number of carroway seeds, by wliich they were not improved. In our road to Grenna we passed by the base of vast im- pending rocks, and commanding a fme view of this lake, upon which we saw an island about twelve miles long. The Weller lake, which lies further to the north-west, has, I am informed, two hundred trading vessels upon its bosom, many of which are ships of considerable tonnage, and its shores are so wide, that sliips are frequently out of sight of them. I mentioned that sometimes the grass grew very high upon the houses; a singular instance of this occurred just before we reached Nordkoping, or Nordchipping. We sa^y a sheep DECEIVED BY THE LIGHT. 113 grazing ujx)!! the side of a smith's house, which was low ; an adjoining pigstye had afforded the poor animal an easy ascent, and he appeared to enjoy himself as comfortably as if he had been in a rich well-watered meadow. ol Irilifimoq "^ff %>mt% • Nordkoping is in East Gothland, is a large and handsome town, and ranks £p^ to the capital ; but the appearance of so many houses covered with high grass, excites an impression of poverty and wretchedness which their interior immediately dispels. The principal beauty of this place is produced by the waters of the river Motala, which, at that part where the prin- cipal manufactories are, descends in broken masses with un- common violence, and presents the appearance of a fine cas- cade. The town has a high mercantile character : its prin- cipal manufactories consist of brass, cloth, paper, and guns. We made a curious mistake here. On the evening of our arrival, after tea, as we strolled in the streets, we were sur- prised to fmd them so silent and apparently deserted, for we onlj' saw very few persons who were slowly moving home- wards: at length eleven distinct strokes of the church clock satisfied us that sleep had hushed the population of the town. At this time the light was equal to that of a fine day in Lon- don, which, united to our ignorance of the time, and to our having just drank tea when we ought to have supped, pro- duced our enor. We were pressed the next day to spend it with a very respectable inhabitant ; but were obliged to de- a y^^ 114 ;rn SWEDISH COTTAGE, cline his civilities, alledging that our horses were ordered. As the httle comphment which he paid us is characteristic of the hospitable urbanity of the well-bred people of this country, I must be permitted to state that our amiable friend replied — " It is the first time that a Swede ever doubted an English* ** man ; but 1 must attend you to the inn to see if your rea- " son be a sincere one,that I may reclaim, you if it is not ; and ** if it is, that I may see the last of you/' r *\ As we ascended the hills which surround Nordkoping, the scenery below was highly picturesque and beautiful, and is said to resemble that of S wisserland, consisting of vast rocks, lakes, forests of fir, and scattered hamlets : This was by far the finest prospect which I beheld in Sweden. It is singular that Sweden should abound with lakes and rivers, whilst Denmark, an adjoining country, should be so destitute of both. Whilst our horses were changing at the next post, I walked forward, and was much enchanted with the romantic scenery which surrounded a neat little peasant's cottage. Out flew my sketch- book and my pencil, but the latter would do nothing but write verses. A SWEDISH COTTAGE. Here, far from all the pomp ambition seeks. Much sought, but only whilst untasted prais'd ; Content and Innocence, with rosy checks. Enjoy the simple shed their hands have rais'd. ' '.^rAOV BREAD. ■ H3 : nOiB '■: ' On a grey rock It stands, whose fretted base ,i*^j The distant cat'ract's murm'ring waters lave ; Whilst o'er its grassy roof, with varying grace. The slender branches of the white birch wave. Behind the forest fir is heard to sigh, On which the pensive ear delights to dwell ; And, as the gazing stranger passes by, .^^j^^ l^^^^ The grazing goat looks up and rings his bell. • 1 ( i, Oh ! in my native land, ere life's decline. May such z spot, so wild, so sweet, be niinc. Fortunate would it be for the peasantry, as well as the tra- veller, if I could present this cottage as a representation of all the cottages in Sweden. In the interior of these abodes of simplicity, a stranger is struck with the pastoral appearance of lines of large round cakes of bread, made of rye and oats, as broad as a common plate, and about the thickness of a finger, with a hole in the middle, through which a string or stick is passed, and suspended from the ceilings : this bread is veiy hard, but sweet The peasants bake only once, at most twice, in the year : in times of scarcity they add the bark of the birch well pounded, the hard consistency of which requires the jaws of a stone-eater to penetrate. The family presents a perpe- tual scene of industry in weaving coarse cloths, spinning thread, or carding flax. They drink a poor wretched beer ; but, in most of their post-houses, a traveller is sure to find excellent coffee and sugar. Amongst the peasantry we saw several Swedish women with black crape veils : in the winter they a 2 1 16 SUBURBS OF Sl^OCKHOLM. afford protection to the eye against the glare of the snow; and, in the summer, against the fierce and sparkUng reflec- tion of the sun upon the rocks. We were surprised to fmd that almost the only currency of the country was paper. I never saw, although I understood the coin had been much improved, but one bit of silver, from our entering until we. quitted Sweden. Upon our arrival at Feltja, the last post to the capital, our vorbode took leave of us,* and expressed very affectionately his regret that he could not proceed with our luggage further. We were much pleased with his civility on the road ; for he halted every evening at the same inn with us, and started three or four hours before us every morning,, to have our horses ready at the different posts, and indeed I never saw a more frank, honest looking fellow. We entered the suburbs of Stockholm over a long floating bridge under a gate, and, at the custom-house which adjoins it, we underwent a rigorous examination, which we could neither mitigate by money nor persuasion : it was the delay only that we dreaded. The search, however, introduced us to a very interesting secret. Just as I had finished, in my careless way, sitting upon one of the trunks which had been strapped, a little eulogium in my memorandum book upon the simple fidelity of our young Swede, we discovered the A DISCOVERY. 117 cause of his liaving so tenderly regretted that lie could pro- ceed no further with us than Feltja. His vorhodeship had, during his custody of our trunks, picked their locks, and made free with a great coat, nankeen breeches, some shirts and hand- kerchiefs ; but what our poor sen^ant, who partook of the loss, regretted most, although I never witnessed greater philosophy in grief) was a golden locket, given to him by some cherry- lip'd princess or another, to prevent the usual effects of time and distance on roving lovers. Some wanderers, like Voltaire's traveller, who observing that the host of the first inn he en- tered had carrotty locks, made a memorandum that all the men of that country were red haired, would, from this unex- pected development, have protested against the honesty of all Sweden. Heavens ! what a fool should I have been, had I. pennitted the felonious treachery of this fellow to make me think unworthily of a race of men through ages so justly re- nowned for their valour and their virtue : perhaps Sweden never enrolled this man amongst her children. The forbid- den fruit too, was placed close to his lips, and all suspicion and vigilance withdrawn ; and forlorn indeed would be the condi- tion of society, if property had no other protection than an appeal to the virtues of mankind. Our misfortune, however, was a feather, compared to that which befel an English mer- chant on this very spot a few days before, who was proceeding to Petersburg ; and, as it may operate as a servicable caution, J shall mention it. In his packages were some English bon- 118 STOCKHOLM. nets, gloves, and shoes, presents to some beloved sisters : the nide talons of the law pounced upon the whole collection, and condemned their unfortunate bearer to the penalty of 1301. Having replaced our goods and chattels, we proceeded, pas- sing through a suburbal part, of more than an English mile long, terribly jDaved with large unwieldy and unequal stones, and entered the city which promised us great gratification. We drove to the Hotel Franfais, so called perchance, because not a soul in the house could speak a word of French. Like Bottom's idea, in the Midsummer Night's Dream, " I will get " Petej- Quince to write a ballad of this dream : it shall be " called Bottom's Dream, because it hath no bottom.'* After groping up a dark winding stone stair-case, we were, with much difficulty, shewn into a coinfortable suite of apartments. It is surprising that the hotels in Stockholm are so few and so bad. (■••'119 ) CHAP. VII. NATIONAL WELCOME BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF STOCKHOLM A GREAT GENIUS IN DECLINE PAINTING SHORT SKETCH OF GUSTAVUS III. —FEMALE STRATAGEM THE PALACE THE STATE BED THE '^ OPERA HOUSE ASSASSINATION FORGIVENESS A HINT NOT IN- t>'l TENDED TO OFFEND. .liJiUiii Jii J UllU : In the morning our slumbers were gently dispelled by music, which " came o'er our ears like the sweet south." According to the custom of the country several musicians, I believe be- longing to the military band, serenaded us at our chamber door, with some exquisite soft national airs, which induced us to rise. After breakfast we ascended an eminence of rock called Mount Moses, in the south suburb, from whence we be- held in a bird's eye view this singular and beautiful city, which appears to be a little larger than Bristol, is situated in 59** 20', of northern latitude, and stands upon a small portion of two peninsulas and seven islands of grey granite, washed by a branch of the Baltic, the lake Mseler and the streams that flow from it. The palace, a large quadrangular building, unit- ing elegance to grandeur, rises from the centre of the citv. 120 SERGELL THE STATUARY. which it commands in all directions. It will be more particu- larly described afterwards. The merchants' houses, which are in the south suburb, run parallel with the spacious quay, and front the ships which are moored close to it, are lofty, and in a graceftil style of Italian architecture. Most of the buildings, rising amphitheatrically one above another, are either stone or brick stuccoed, of a white or light yellow colour, and the roofs are covered with dark or light brown tiles, and pre- sents with the suiTounding scenery of scattered half-covered rock, thin forests of fir, the lake, and the windings of the Baltic, a most romantic and enchanting prospect. The streets are very badly paved. The reputation of Sergell the statuary speedily attracted us to his house, where we beheld his beautiful Cupid and Psyche, which he has determined shall not be sold, until that event shall have happened which stops and sanctifies the works of ge- nius. These figures display the finest conceptions of feeling, grace, and elegance, and heartily did I rejoice to find it in that countiy, which I trust will never permit it to be removed. In a temporary building, we had also the gratification of seeing the colossal pedestrian statue of the late Gustavus III. in bronze, which had just been cast, and was then polishing : it is a pre- sent fi-om the citizens of Stockholm, and will cost when finish- ed, 40,000/. and is intended to commemorate the marine vic- tory, obtained by that illustrious prince over the Russians, in SERGELL, THE STATUARY. 121 1790. The King, with a mild but intrepid countenance^ which I was informed is a most faithful likeness of him, is re- presented holding a rudder in one hand, and extending an olive branch with the other : he is attired in the very graceful costume which he introduced, resembling that of the old Spanish, and the feet are sandaled. It is a noble work of art, and may, in all human probability, be considered as the last effort of its distinguished author : a pedestal of one solid block of porphyry is already raised near the palace to receive it upon the quay, which in that part is formed into a crescent. Sergell, so long and so justly celebrated, is rapidly descend- ing into the vale of years, and although honoured and enriched, a morbid melancholy, such as might arise from neglect and po- verty, disrobes his graceful occupation of her attractions, and renders him disgusted with himself and with the world.- It has been said, and very justh^, that only extreme mental wretched- ness can make a man indifferent to the applauses of his fellow- creatures : such is the forlorn case of the great but hapless Sergell ; the friends of his youth have no charm for him, the admiration of his countrymen and of foreigners no exhilaration. Visible only to his workmen, and that reluctantly, the illustri- ous artist is sinking into the melancholy misanthrope ; but when his hand shall no longer display its skill, taste ^^ ill worship, and wealth will covet, the marble which it has touched, and time will enrol his name amongst the most favoured sons of Genius. R 122 SWEDISH ACADEMIES. In painting, the two Martins, who are brothers, may- be considered as reflecting considerable honour upon their country ; one of them, I believe the youngest, has painted and engraved a series of views of Stockholm with great fidelity and beauty. In the academy of sculpture and painting, raised by Adol- phus Frederick, are some fine casts, said to be the first impres- sions of the only moulds ever permitted to be taken fi^om the antiques at Rome : they were given to Charles XI. by Louis XIV. There are also some casts fi'om the bas-reliefs of Trajan's column. The children of tradesmen are gratuitously taught to draw in this institution, that their minds may be furnished with impressions of taste in those trades which are susceptible of them. All the pupils furnish their own crayons and paper : out of the funds of the academy, a certain num- ber are sent into foreign countries to improve themselves. The funds, unaided, would be inadequate to the object, but the munificence of public spirited individuals, which throughout Sweden is very great, has hitherto supplied the deficiency. The academy of sciences was founded in 1739, and consists of one hundred members and foreign associates. Their re- searches, reputed to possess considerable learning and ability, are published ever}^ three months in the Swedish language. The cabinet of natural history is enriched with several rare GUSTAVUS III. 123 collections, particularly with subjects which occurred in one of Captain Cook's circumnavigations, deposited in the academy by Mr. Sparmann. ; ..en Most of the living artists of Sweden owe their elevation and consequent fame to the protective hand of the late king, Gus- tavus III., a prince, who, to the energies and capacities of an illustrious warrior, united all the refined elegances of the most accomplished gentleman : his active spirit knew no repose ; at one time the world beheld him amidst the most formidable dif- ficulties and dangers, leading his fleets to glory in the boister- ous billows of the Baltic ; at another time it marked him amidst the ruins of Italy, collecting with a sagacious eye and profuse hand, the rich materials for ameliorating the taste and genius of his own country. What Frederic the Great was to Berlin, Gustavus the Third was to Stockholm : almost every object which embellishes this beautiful city arose from his patronage, frequently from his own designs, and will be durable mo- numents of that capacious and graceful mind, which, had not death arrested, would, in the profusion of its munificence, have impoverished the country which it adorned. This prince derived what hereditary talent he possessed from his mother Ulrica, who, by a capacious and highly cultivated mind, dis- played that she was worthy of being the sister of Frederick tlie Great. Her marriage with Adolphus Frederick was the fruit r2 124 A STRATAGEM. of her own unassisted address, which, as it has some novelty, I shall relate : The court and senate of Sweden sent an ambas- sador incognito to Berlin, to watch and report upon the cha- racters and dispositions of Frederick's two unmarried sisters, Ulrica and Ameha, the former of whom had the reputation of being very haughty, crafty, satyrical and capricious ; and the Swedish court had already pretty nearly determined in favour of Amelia, who was remarkable for the attraction of her per- son and the sweetness of her mind. The mission of the am- bassador was soon buzzed abroad, and Amelia was overwhelm- ed with misery, on account of her insuperable objection to re- nounce the tenets of Calvin for those of Luther : in this state of wretchedness she implored the assistance of her sister's counsels to prevent an union so repugnant to her happiness. The wary Ulrica advised her to assume the most insolent and repulsive deportment to every one, in the presence of the Swedish ambassador, which advice she followed, whilst Ulrica put on all those amiable qualities which her sister had provisionally laid aside : every one, ignorant of the cause, was astonished at the change ; the ambassador informed his court, that fame had completely mistaken the two sisters, and had actually reversed their reciprocal good and bad qualities. Ul- rica was consequently preferred, and mounted the throne of Sweden, to the no little mortification of Amelia, who too late discovered the stratagem of her sister and her adviser. merchants' club. ; 125 A traveller will find much gratification in occasionally din- ing at the merchants' club, to which strangers are introduced by subscribers ; here we found the dinners excellent, and served up in a handsome style at a very modemte expence ; the apart- ments are elegant, consisting of a. noble dinner-room, an anti- room, a billiard-room, and a reading-room where the foreign papers are taken in. The view from the rooms over the Maeler, upon the rocky cliffs, crowned with straggling parts of the suburbs, is very beautiful. There is another club su- perior to this in style and expence, but as the rooms were under repair, its meetings were suspended. One afternoon, as I was quitting the merchants' club to go to the church of Ridderholm, the quay in that quarter presented an uncom- monly crowded appearance of gaiety and vivacity ; the little canal which runs under the bridge leading to the church was covered with boats filled with garlands and small poles wreathed with flowers ; the old and the young, the lame and the vigo- rous, pressed eagerly forward to purchase these rural decora- tions, destined to honour the festival of St. John, which was to take place the following day. The national religion of Sweden is Lutheran, but without jealousy it is pleased with seeing every man worship his God in his own way. The palace is well worthy of notice : it is built of brick stuc- 126 PALACE OF STOCKHOLM. coed, and stained of a light yellow, the four sides of which are visible to the different quarters of the city. This very elegant edifice was begun by Charles XI. and finished by Gustavus III. : it is composed of four stories, three large and one small ; in the front are twenty-three noble windows ; ten Doric columns support a like number of Ionic cariatides, sur- mounted by ten Corinthian pilasters; the roof is Italian. At either end of the grand entrance, which faces the north sub- urbs, is a bronze lion ; the basement story is of granite, and the arch of the doors towards the quay are composed of rude masses of that rock ; on this side there are parterres over two projecting galleries, and a garden ; the chapel is very rich, and opposite to it is the hall for the meeting of the Estates, where the seats are amphitheatrically arranged, those of the nobles on the right of the throne, and those of the clergy, the bourgeois, and peasants on the left ; there is a gallery round it, and the whole has a grand effect. As only the senators and their ladies have the privilege of entering the grand court in their carriage on court days, those who are not possessed of this rank are as much exposed in bad weather as the English ladies of fashion are when they pay their respects to their Majesties at St. James's, where many a fair one, enveloped in a mighty hoop, is frequently obliged to tack according to the wind. Not many years since, an erect stately duchess dowager, in en- deavouring to reach her carriage, right in the wind's eye, was completely blown down. THE king's museum. 127 I considered myself fortunate in seeing the King's museum immediately after the opening of several packages containing five hundred valuable paintings and antique statues from Italy, where they had been purchased about eleven years since, by Gustavus III.^ but owing to the French revolution and the wars which it engendered, were prevented from reaching the place of their destination before : they lay in great confu- sion, and some of them were much damaged. Amongst the antique statues were those of Cicero and Caracalla, won- derfully fine. The state rooms are on the third story, to which there is a most tedious ascent, under arcades of por- phyry. Prince Charles's apartments, which are the first, are superb : his little drawing-room is well worthy of notice, the seats of which are in the form of a divan : at their back is a vast magnificent horizontal mirror, the frame of which is of yellow and purple-coloured glass, and was presented by the reigning Emperor of Russia. The Queen's apartments are elegant, but the windows are old fashioned, hea\y, very large, high from the floor, and look into a quadrangular court ; however, if they command no fine scenes in the summer, they are warmer in the winter, a better thing of the two in such a cli- mate. There are several pretty little rooms, called cozing or chit-chat rooms ; nothing could be more neat, snug, and com- fortable, or better adapted for the enjoyments of unrestrained conversation. The King's apartments are very handsome, some of the rooms are adorned with beautiful Gobeline ta- pestry from Paris. 128 ANKERSTROEM. The chamber most interesting to us was that in which Gustavus III. expired. We saw the bed on which he lay, from the time that he was brought wounded to the palace from the masquerade at the opera-house, until he breathed his last. In this room it was that the dying prince personally exa- mined his murderer Ankerstroem, when he confessed his guilt, and was immediately ordered to retire. The general circum- stances of this melancholy catastrophe are well known ; per- haps it may not be as generally so, that Ankerstroem presen'^ed such resolute coolness at the time of the j^erpetration of the deed, that, in order to make sure of his mark, as the King, who was dressed in a loose domino, and without a mask, was reclining, a little oppressed by the heat, against one of the side scenes, Ankerstroem placed his hands upon the back of the Sovereign, who, upon feeling him, turned shortly round, when the regicide fired. The King, who thought that he was a victim to French machinations, as he fell, exclaimed, " My " assassin is a Frenchman !" the consolation of the illustrious Duke d'Enghein was denied him. The hero, the friend, and the idol of Sweden, perished by the hands of a Swede. As soon as this outrage was known, the most eminent surgeons flew to his relief The first words which the King uttered, were to request that they would give him their candid opinion, observing, with great serenity, that if he had only a few hours to live, he would employ them in arranging the affairs of the state, and those of his family ; and that, in such an extremity. i AFFECTING INTERVIEW. 129 it would be unavailing to augment his pains, and consume his time, in dressing his wound. The surgeon having examined it, assured his Majesty that it was not dangerous ; in conse- quence of this opinion he permitted it to be dressed, and was conveyed to the palace. The next day an interesting and affecting scene took place ; the Countess Fersen, the Count Brahe, and the Baron de Geer, who had absented themselves for a long period from court, were the first to enquire after the health of the King, who requested them to enter the room Avhere he was, and received them with the most touching good- ness, expressing the cordial delight which he felt in seeing them thus forget their animosities in these memorable words : " My wound is not wdthout a blessing, since it restores to me ** my firiends.** He languished in great torment for eighteen days. It is generally supposed that the malignant spirit of politics had no influence in this horrible outrage, but that he fell the victim of private revenge and fanatical disappointment. Several young men, who thought themselves aggrieved by the neglect of their prince, were concerned in this conspiracy ; but it was his dying request, which was observed, that only Ankei-stroem should suffer death. Upon the tomb of this brave, eloquent, and magnanimous prince, should be engraved the beautiful and beneficent sentence that appears in the new form of government with which he presented the Swedes at the time of the memorable revolution. " I regard it as the greatest honour to be the first citizen amongst a free people." s 130 CONTINENCE. It has been asserted, and I believe with truth, that his sen- sibility towards the female sex was far from being lively : he seldom cohabited \*ith his Queen. Strange to tell, gifted with acute feelings, and a \^'arm and brilliant imagination, this accomplished prince, descending from a race of beau- tiful women, displayed an example of almost monkish con- tinence. But that love had not wholly renounced his heart, We may infer from an anecdote of a little picture, which adorns one of the apartments of the palace : it is a portrait of a lovely young woman, of whom the King became ena- moured during his tour in Italy. Upon hearing of her death, he is said to have shed tears, and displayed all the impassioned indications of an afflicted lover. The royal library is very va- luable, containing twenty thousand volumes, and four hundred manuscripts. Amongst the collection are some precious books, particularly one called the Codes: Aureus, from the great num- ber of gilt letters which it contains. There are also two enor- mous latin MSS., the vellum leaves of which are made of asses* skins, and are of an amazing size. The Prince Royal, or heir apparent, a child between six and seven years of age, inhabited a part of this palace, which, instead of presenting the gay bustle of a court> bore all the ap- pearance of neglect and desertion. The mysterious questions of the rustic were explained. The people of Sweden had not been gladdened with the presence of their young Sovereign OPERA-HOUSE. 131 and his beautiful Queen, to whom they are devotedly and de- seiTedly attached, for a long space of time, during which the court had been removed to the territory of the Prince of Baden, the father of the Queen of Sweden. The effect of such an absence was felt and deplored every where. No doubt the virtuous suggestions of his ow^ii heart will speedily restore the King to his people, and another traveller will have the grati- iication which was denied me, of seeing him in the bosom of his country, where a Prince always appears to the most advantage. The King is said to possess a very amiable mind, and to regard the memory of his illustrious father with enthu- siastic adoration ; I contemplated a powerful proof of it in an obelisk of one solid block of porphyry, forty feet high, which is at once a monument of his taste and piety. I should not be doing justice to the King, were I not to mention the ab- horrence which he, in common with his subjects, has mani- fested at the cold-blooded outrage committed against the per- son of the devoted Duke d'Enghein. The opera-house, built by Gustavus III., is an elegant square building: upon the architrave is inscribed, *' Patris Musis.** The front is adorned with Corinthian columns and pilasters : the interior, which is small, and will not con- tain above nine hundred persons, is in the form of a broken ellipsis ; and, even by day-light (for there was no performance during our stay), appeared to be superbly decorated. The s2 132 SWEDISH BALLET. dresses and decorations of the performers, which solely belong to the crown, we were informed, are of great value ; and in these respects the Swedish opera is said to surpass every otlier in Europe. The royal seals are in the pit Swedish plays are performed here, many of which were composed by the accom- plished Gustavus III., whose taste in that species of composi- tion excited the literary jealousy of old Frederic the Great. It was an admirable policy, worthj^ of such a genius as Gusta- vus, to attach a nation to its own language, by making it that of the stage ; the surest, because the most flattering mode of raising it to its utmost polish. The first Swedish opera ever performed, was Thetis and Peleus : the favourite national piece is Gustavus Vasa. Upon the death of Gustavus III., the oj^era lost much of its attraction. When it is considered that, in his time, a ballet occupied ninety personages of the light fantastic toe, and put into activity no less th&n. eighty fancy- dress makers, it was necessary that the pruning-knife should be used, to curtail these luxuriant suckers of the state, the graceful, but too costly growth of a princely and munificent mind. In this building there are some very handsome apart- ments for the King's private parties. I had much to regTet that no plays were performed here during my stay. The female, who shewed me the building, was much affect- ed when she pointed to the spot where Ankerstroem com- Tsiitted the bloody deed. Alas ! how inscrutable are the way« STATUE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 133 of Heaven ! When the illustrious victim raised this beautiful fabric from the ground, he little thought of the part which he was to perform in the sanguinary scene of the seventeenth of March, 1792, and that mimic sorrow was to yield to genuine woe. This structure, and the opposite palace of the Princess Sophia Albertina, the King's aunt, which is uniform with the former, form the sides of a handsome square called la Place du Nordy and is adorned in the centre with a fine equestrian statue, in bronze, of Gustavus Adolphus, who, excepting his head, which is crowned with laurel, is in complete armour, and in his right hand is an inclined truncheon : the horse has much animation, and the rider great elegance. This colossal statue was cast from the designs of Archeveque, a very distin- guished French statuar}^ who dying before it was finished, left its completion to the masterly hand of Sergell : it was erected in 1790. The latter has introduced the figures of History pointing to an inscription on the pedestal, and of the Chan- cellor Oxenstiern. The pedestal, which is of granite, is deco- rated by medallions of the principal favourite generals of Gus- tavus Adolphus, viz. Torstenson, Baner, James de la Gardie, Horn, and Saxe Weimar ; all by Sergell. The unbounded friendship and confidence which existed between this great Prince and the upright Oxenstiern, form the theme of his- toric delight ; and the gentle counteraction of their mutual, and rather opposite, characters, rendered each the idol and the i>enefactor of his country. It is said that Gustavus having, 134 ANECDOTE. upon some affair of state, observed to Oxenstiern, that he was cold and phlegmatic, and that he checked him in his career, the Chancellor replied: " Sire, indeed I own that I am " cold ; but unless 1 had occasionally tempered and moderated " your heat, you would have been burnt up long ago." Gus- tavus Adolphus never engaged in any battle, without first praying at the head of his troops ; after which he used to thun- der out, in a strong and energetic manner, a German hymn, in which he was joined by his w^hole army : the effect of thirty or forty thousand people thus singing together was wonderful and terrible. He used to say, that a man made a better sol- dier in proportion to his being a better christian, and there was no person so happy as those who died in the performance of their duty. Of the death of this great hero, it was said, " that " he died with his sword in his hand, the word of command " in his mouth, and with victory in his imagination." Only the complimentary part of the following witty epigram, which was made upon the equestrian statue of Louis XIII., which formerly stood in the Place des Victoires in Paris, with the four cardinal virtues standing round it, would apply to that of Gustavus Adolphus : O le beau monument ! O le beau pedestal I Les Vertues sont a pied, et le Vice a chcval. Oh ! noble statue, noble pedestal ! Vice proudly rides, the Virtues are on foot. In front of this statue, to the south, the eye with pleasure con- CHURCH OF RIDDERHOLM. 135 templates an elegant stone bridge, not quite finished, crossing a rapid stream of the Mseler, at the end of which the palace displays a majestic and highly graceful back scene : this spot presents the finest architecture in the city. The traveller will be gratified, by noticing the beautiful co- lonnade of solid porphyry which forms the entrance to the grand stair-case of the Princess Sophia Albertina's palace. A tasteful observer must regret that these exquisite columns are so much concealed. The streets of the Queen and of the Regency, in the north quarter, are by far the most handsome, and form the residence of fashion. The spire and church of Ridderholm, rising from the centre of the principal island, add to the ro- mantic beauties of the surrounding scenery. The interior of this edifice, which is large and heavy, is only worthy of notice, on account of its containing the ashes of such illustrious per- sonages as Gustavus Adolphus, and his equal in bravery, but neither in prudence or justice, Charles XII, , who carried the system of daring to pretty nearly its utmost extent, and, in his end, verified the words of the great dramatist : " Glory is like a circle in the water Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself. Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought." The tomb of the latter is very simple and characteristic : it is of black marble, upon which are thrown a lion's skin and club. 136 JOHN BANER. in bright yellow bronze. In another part of the building arc the ashes of a general much more entitled to the admiration of posterity, the illustrious John Baner, who was deservedly the favourite of the great Gustavus Adolphus, and who, after a series of splendid victories, expired on the tei^th of May, 1641. ( 137 ) CHAP. VIII. a visit in the country observatory dinner and fashions blooming girls op delecarlia duottingholm queen" Christina's cunning — wardrobe op charles xii. — beauty — concealment and prudery national importance op a british advocate contrasted justice haga cause op the friendship of gustavus hi. for sir sidney smith a sin* gular anecdote — a review iron mines — linnieus. An invitation into the country enabled us to contemplate a little of the rural character of the Swedes. In our way we passed by the obsei-vatorj^ w^hich stands upon an inconsi- derable eminence in the north suburbs : its horizon is too cir- cumscribed on account of the rocks which surround it ; and as the artificial heat of stoves would cloud the glasses in the ^vinter nights, which are the best for observation, it is of very- little utilit}^ Our ride to our friends was occasionally very beautiful, but the funereal heads of our old acquaintances the firs were ever and anon presenting themselves, and shedding melancholy upon us. The chateau to which we were invited was of wood, small, but very tastefully fitted up : the grounds, which were very extensive, were delightfully laid out, and on one side rippled the waters of the Mseler, embellished T 138 A DINNER. by vessels of various sizes gliding ujx>n its tranquil bosom. A short time before dinner was announced, a table was set out with bread, cheese, butter, and liqueurs : all these good things in this hospitable region are considered as mere preparatives for the meal which is to follow; amongst the superior orders this custom is universal. Our dinner was in tlie following or- der: pickled fish, meats, soups, fish, pastry, ice, and dried fruits ; preserved gooseberries formed the sauce of the mutton, and the fish floated in a new element of honey ; by the bye it rather surprises a stranger to meet with so little sea-fish in a country which is washed by so many seas. The herring fishery, which has hitherto been of so much importance to Sweden, has nearly disappeared. To return to our dinner : each dish was carved and handed round, as in Denmark ; a regulation truly delightful to one who abhors carving and carves badly. The spirit of French fashion, but a little disciplined, reigna in Sweden, and gives a lightness and elegance to dress : the table, and the furniture, and even their manners, partake consi- derably of its gaiety, except that as soon as our amiable and eleg-ant hostess arose, upon our rising at the same time, we stood solemnly g"azing upon each other for half a minute, and then exchanged profound bows and curtsies ; these being dis- patched, each gentleman tripped off with a lady under his arm, to coffee in the drawing-room. Nothing else like formality occurred in the course of the day. DELECARLIAN FExMALES. 139 Just as we were quitting this spot of cordial hospitality, we were stopped by the appearance of two fine female peasants from the distant province of Delecarlia : their sisterhood par- take very much of the erratic spirit and character of our Welch girls : they had travelled all the way on foot, to offer them- selves as hay-makers ; their food on the road was black bread and water, and their travelling wardrobe a solitary chemise, which, as cleanliness demanded, they washed in the passing brook, and dried on their healthy and hardy frame, which, however, was elegantly shaped ; the glow of Hebe was upon their dimpled cheeks, not a little heightened by the sun, ** which had made a golden set upon them;'* their ej^es were blue, large, sweet, and expressive; their dress was singular, composed of a jacket and short petticoat of various colours ; and they w^ere mounted upon wooden shoes with prodigious high heels, shod with iron. There was an air of neatness, in- nocence, delicacy, and good humour about them, which would have made even a bilious spectator happ}^ to look upon them. Unextinguishable loyalty, great strength of body, content, and sweetness of temper, beauty of fece, and symmetiy of person, are said to be the characteristics of the Delecarlian moun- taineers, a race rendered for ever celebrated in the history o^ one of the greatest men that ever adorned the liistoric page of Sweden, Gustavus Vasa. It is thus he describes them, after he has discovered himself to them in the mines, in the beau- t2 ./ 140 PEASANTS OF DELECARLIA. tiful language of the bard, whose dramatic genius has con- spired to render his hero immortal : * here last I came, And shut me from the sun, whose hateful beams Serv'd but to shew the ruins of my country. When here, my friends, *twas here at length I found What I had left to look for, gallant spirits. In the rough form of untaught peasantry. Yes, I will take these rustic sons of Liberty In the first warmth and hurry of their souls ; And should the tyrant then attempt our heights^ He comes upon his fate. Led on by Gustavus Vasa, they restored liberty to their coun- try, and expelled the bloody tyrant miscalled Christian. These, too, were the peasants who, having heard in the midst of their mines and forests that their sovereign Charles XII. was a prisoner in Turkey, dispatched a deputation to the Re- gency at Stockholm, and offered to go, at their own expence, to the number of twenty thousand men, to deliver their royal master out of the hands of his enemies. Their sovereigns, have ever found them the incorruptible and enthusiastic sup- porters of the throne. Surrounded with treason and peril, their king has found them faithful amongst the faithless, and never sought their succour in vain. In consequence of the terrible defection which appeared in the Swedish army in the campaign of the year 1788 against the Russians, when, owing to the machinations of the Swedish traitor Sprengporten, who PEASANTS OF DELECARLIA. 141 was in the pay of the Empress Catherine, the Swedish officers, although confident of victory, refused to march, because Gus- tavus III. had commenced the war without consulting the estates, the King was compelled to retire to Stockholm, where the insolence and intrigues of the nobility threatened the re- duction of his regal rights to the mere phantom of sovereigntj^ Menaced with revolt and assassination, this great prince, at- tended by a single domestic, in secrecy reached the mountains of Delecarlia, the immoveable seat of Swedish loyalty , where, with all that bold, affecting, and irresistible eloquence, for which he was so justly famed, upon the very rock on which, in elder times, their idol Gustavus Vasa had addressed them, he invoked them to rally round the throne, and preserve their Sovereign from the cabals of treason. At the sound of his voice they formed themselves into battalions, with electric celerity^ and encreasing as they advanced, proceeded under the command of Baron Armfelt to Drottingholm, where they overawed the factious. At this very period, an unexpected disaster made fresh demands upon the inexhaustible resources of Gustavus's mind, which encreased with his emergencies. The Prince of Hesse, at the head of twelve thousand men, marched from Norway to Gottenborg, at the gates of which, at a late hour, the King, having surmounted great difficulties in his way through Wermlandia, presented himself, and the next morning surprized the Danish herald, by informing him in person from the ramparts, that sooner than surrender the H2 PEASANTS OF DELECARLIA. place, the garrison should be buried under its ruins, and ac- cordingly ordered the bridge over the river Gothael to be burnt. It is well known, that the wise and active mediation of Mr. Elliott, our then minister at Copenhagen, prevailed upon the Prince of Hesse to retire. To return to the Delecariians : the dress of the men is always of a grey or black coarse cloth, and, on account of the many services w hich they have ren- dered to go^^emment, and their proved patriotism, they enjoy the flattering and gracious privilege of taking the King's hand wherever they meet him : the pressure must ever be delight- ful to both parties. From the mountains of health and liberty, Gustavus IIL selected the wet-nurse of the present King, that, with her milk, he might imbibe vigour and the love of his country. This woman was the wife of a De- lecarlian peasant, lineally descended from the brave and honest Andrew Preston, who presented Gustavus Vasa from the mur- derers who were sent in pursuit of him by Christian. The houses of the Delecarlian peasants are as simple as their owners are virtuous : they have but one hole in the roof) ex- posed to the south, which answers the double purpose of a w indow and a clock : their meals are regulated by the sun's rays upon a chest, placed beneath this hole on one side ; or upon the stove, with which all the Swedish houses are warm- ed, standing on the other. We were much gratified with the palace of Drottingholm : ANECDOTE. 143 ai pleasant drive of about ten miles brought us to the island on which it stands in the lake Maeler ; the road to it lay through rocks covered with firs, and over two large floating bridges ; the building is large but light, and is of brick stuccoed white; the hall and stair-case are in bad taste; their ornaments are white upon a dark brown ground, resembling sugar plumbs upon gingerbread. The state rooms are very rich and elegant, and an Englishman is much gratified to find in the library a very large and choice collection of English authors. There is a beautiful picture here of a weeping Ariadne, by Wertmul- ler, a Swedish artist, who, unfortunately for his country, has for ever left it, and settled in America. Whenever I reflect upon a neglected artist of merit, a de- lightful little anecdote, which is related of Francis I. always occurs to me : that sovereign having received a picture of St. Michael from the hand of Raphael d'Urbino, which he much coveted, he remunerated Raphael far beyond what his modesty conceived he ought to receive : the generous artist, however, made him a present of a Holy Family, painted by himself, which the courteous monarch received, saying, that persons famous in the arts partake of the immortality of princes, and are upon a footing with them. In this palace there is the head of a Persian Sybil, in mosaic, exquisitely beautiful, and two costly and elegant presents from 144 aUEEN CHRISTINA. the late Empress Catharine II. of tables of lapis lazuli and Siberian agate. There are also some exquisite statues in ala* baster and marble, and Etruscan vases, purchased in Italy by Gustavus III. during his southern tour. The Etruscan vases are veiy beautiful ; but in tone of colour, classical richness, elegance and variety of shape, not equal to those which I. had previously seen in England at Gillwell Lodge, the seat of William Chinnery, Esq., who unquestionably has the finest private collection of this kind in England, perhaps in Europe. There is here a portrait of that eccentric personage. Queen Christina, who abdicated the throne of Sweden in 1660, and left to her successor, Charles X., the costly discovery that, amidst all her whimsical caprices, she had taken good care to clear most of the palaces of their rarest furniture previous to her retiring to Rome : picking out even the jewels of the crown before she resigned it. So completely had she secured every thing that was valuable, that Charles X. was obliged to borrow several necessary utensils for his coronation. This loss, for I suppose it must not be called a depredation, has been amply restored by the taste and munificence of Gustavus III. In the state sleeping-chamber, the royal banner of light blue and silver was fixed at the foot of the bed, and had a very chival- rous appearance. In the garden there is a theatre, which is large and handsome ; but since the death of Gustavus III., who was much attached to this place, and made it the seat of ARSENAL. 145 his brilliant festivities, it has been Uttle used. In the gardens there is a range of small houses in the Chinese taste, but nei- ther the former nor the latter are worthy of much notice. After our return from Drottingholm we gained admission, but with much difficulty, to the arsenal. This depot of mili- tary triumphs is a brick-building, consisting of a ground floor, with lofty windows down to the ground, stands at the end of the King's gardens, the only mall of Stockholm, and has all the appearance of a large green-house. The artillery, which is planted before it, has the ridiculous effect of being placed there to defend the most precious of exotic trees within from all external enemies, who either move in air or pace the earth. The contents, alas ! are such fruits " as the tree of war bears," and well deserve the attention of the traveller and antiquary. Here is an immense collection of trophies and standards taken fi-om the enemies of Sweden, and a long line of stuffed kings, in the actual armour which they wore, mounted upon wooden horses, painted to resemble, and as large as life, chronologically arranged. I was particularly struck with the clothes of Charles XII. which he wore when he was killed at the siege of Frederickshall, and very proudly put them on, viz. a long shabby blue fi*ock of common cloth, with large flaps and brass buttons, a little greasy low cocked hat, a handsome pair of gloves, fit to have touched the delicate hands of the Countess of Koningsmarck, a pair of stiff high-heeled military boots, u 146 CHARLES XII. perhaps it was one of those which he threatened to send to the senate at Stockholm, to which they were to apply for or- ders until his return, when they were impatient at his absence during his mad freaks in Turkey. As it is natuml to think that great souls generally inhabit large bodies, my surprise was excited by finding that when I had completely buttoned the frock of this mighty madman upon my greyhound figure, my lungs gave sensible tokens of an unusual pressure from with- out. I must be indulged in giving the following extract from an account of this marvellous madcap, which was given by a person who had seen him, and who thus speaks of him : " His " coat is plain cloth, with ordinary brass buttons, the skirts " pinned up behind and before, which shews his Majesty's " old leather waistcoat and breeches, which they tell me are " sometimes so greasy that they may be fried. But when I " saw him they were almost new ; for he had been a gallant " a little before, and had been to see King Augustus's Queen ** upon her return from Leipsic, and, to be fine, he put on " those new leather breeches, spoke not above three words to ** her, but talked to a foolish dwarf she had about a quarter " of an hour, and then left her. His hair is light brown, very " greasy, and very short, never combed hut with his fingers. '* At dinner he eats a piece of bread and butter, which he ** spreads with his thumbs.'* Think of all this as applied to " the most powerful among ANECDOTE. 147 ** the kings that worship Jesus ; redresser of wrongs and inju- " ries, and protector of right in the ports and republics of " south and north ; shining in majesty ^ love of honour and " glory, and of our sublime Porte — Charles, King of Sweden, " whose enterprizes may God crown with success." The said blood-besprinkled gloves, and bullet-pierced hat, have furnished abundant and fatiguing sources of vague and violent disputation : pages, nay volumes, have been written, to ascertain whether the death of Charles was fair or foul : a feet to be found only in the records of Heaven, and of small import to be known here. Let the blow have been given from whatever hand it may, Sweden had good reason to bless it, and happy are those who live in times which furnish but little of such materials for the page of history as Charles supplied. Though HCharles was said to possess a great coldness of cha- racter, the following anecdote will shew that he was susceptible of flattery: Whilst the batteries of the citadel of Frederick- shall were firing heavily at the enemy's trenches, a young wo- man who w^as looking at the King from an adjoining house, dropped her ring into the street : Charles observing her said, " Madam, do the guns of this place always make such an uj)- " roar ?" " Only when we have such illustrious visitors as your " majesty," repUed the girl. The King was much pleased, and ordered one of his soldiers to return the ring. This ex- u 2 148 SWEDISH LADIES. traordinary being must have sometimes, excited the smiles, as he often did the teai-s of mankind. After the Turks, irritated by his relusal to depart, were obliged to burn his house over his head, and by main force send him to Bender, Charles XIT. a fugitive, attended only by a few wretched followers, ruined, and his coft'ers completely exhausted, wrote to his envoy at the court of Louis XIV. to send him the exact ceremonials of that brilliant and magnificent court, that he might immediately adopt them. Hurried away by kings, palaces, and statues, I have to my shame, (my cheek reddens whilst I write) staid thus long in Stockholm ere 1 noticed those, without whom a crown is un- enviable, the most magnificent abode cheerless, and of whom the most graceful images of art are but imperfect imitations. The Swedish Mies are in general remarkably well shaped, en hon pointy and have a fair transparent delicacy of com- plexion, yet though the favourites of bountiful nature, strange to relate, they are more disposed to conceal than display those charms, which in other countries, with every possible assistance, the fair possessor presents to the enraptured eye to the best advantage. A long gloomy black cloak covers the beautiful Swede when she walks, confounding all the dis- tinctions of symmetry and deformity ; and even her pretty feet, which «a^e as neat and as well turned as those of a fine Frenchwoman, are seldom seen without the aid of a favouring . J SWEDISH LADIES. 149 breeze. - Even the sultry summer has no influence in with- drawing this melancholy draper}^ but I am informed that it is less worn now than formerly : often have I wished that the silk-worm had refused his contribution towards this tan- talizing concealment : occasionally the streets of Stockholm displayed some bewitching seceders from the abominable ha- bit. This custom arises from the sumptuary laws which for- bid the use of coloured silks. The Swedish ladies are generally highly accomplished, and speak with fluency English, French, and German, and their tenderness and sensibility by no means partake of the severity of their northern latitude ; yet they exhibit two striking cha- racteristics of whimsical prudery : in passing the streets a Swe- dish lady never looks behind her, nor does she ever welcome the approach or cheer the departure of a visitor by permitting him to touch the cherry of her lips ; the ardent admirer of beauty must be content to see that Welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing. This chilling custom is somewhat singular, when it is consi- dered that the salutation of kissing, even between man and man, hateful as it is to an untravelled Engli^nan, prevails almost in every part of the continents 150 FORENSIC ELOaUENCE. I was very desirous of attending the courts of justice, or as they are called the kcBmners-rcetter, of which there are four in Stockholm, but I found they were all close, and only the judges and parties and necessary officers permitted to enter. What a contrast to the unreserved openness with which the laws in England are administered ! By unfolding the gates of justice, and displaying her in all her awful majesty, her or- dinances become widely promulgated, and the respect paid to her decrees augmented by the reverence which is excited by her presence ; her seat is not only the depository of the law, but of all descriptions of learning, and is a school of eloquence in which the language of the country receives its highest po- lish. Of what national importance the powers of an illustri- ous advocate may become, let those say, who have witnessed the brilliant genius, exalted persuasion and profound know- ledge of an Erskine, and can trace their consequences to a country which knows how to appreciate them. The laws of Sweden are considered to be simple, mild, clear, and just, and since the labours of Gustavus III. to render them so, have been impartially administered. In civil causes each party pays his own costs; this must frequently be unjust; but whilst Sweden, however, may learn something from the manner in which the laws are dispensed in England, she presents to our admiration a spirit which we should do well to imitate : the prosecutor sustains no share whatever of tlie expences of prose- cuting a criminal. LAWS OF SWEDEN. 151: In England there is a highly important society, first estab- lislued by the celebrated Sir John Fielding, the objects of which are actively and ably conducted by its solicitor and se- cretary, S. S. Hunt, Esq. for prosecuting felons. These ob- jects are to prevent the impunity which too frequently follows depredation, from the heavy extra expences wliich often at- tend the discovery, apprehension, and trial, of delinquents, by raising a yearly subscription fund to indemnify the suffering individual who prosecutes in the name of the Crown. How a foreigner who takes a keen and close peep at us, must be surprised to observe an institution, which, whilst it exhibits the patriotic spirit of individuals, reflects with not a little justified severity, upon the absence of a legislative provision, which is of so much consequence to the country. It may be said, that there are a certain description of these expences which a judge in his discretion may allow upon application. The natural pride of a respectable British subject, to whom such expences may prove an object, ought not, in the performance of a great public duty, in which the repose of the nation is concerned, ^nd the King in consequence the avowed and recorded prose- cutor, to be put to the blush by asking for it in forma pau- peris. This most just indemnity ought to form a part of the law of the land. By another admirable provision Sweden is enabled to ascertain the state of her population every third year, and which is effected by the periodical returns from the clergymen and magistrates, of the births, deaths, marriages. 152 LAWS OF SWEDEN. and the number of inhabitants that are Hving in their several districts, a measure highly worthy of adoption in England. The laws of Sweden, the most novel to an Englishman, are those by which primogeniture is disrobed of those exclusive rights which attach to it in other countries : all the male chil- dren of a nobleman are equally noble, but to prevent the con- fusion of numbers, the eldest only, upon the decease of the fa- ther, represents the family at the Diet, and all inheritances are equally divided, but created property is subject to the will of the father. The punishments in Sweden are beheading, hanging, whip- ping, and imprisonment : the three foniier are inflicted in the market-place ; the instrument of flagellation is a rod of tough birch twigs. There is a horrid custom in Sweden, as odious as our hanging malefactors in chains, of exposing the naked bodies of delinquents who have suffered death, extended by their limbs to trees until they rot. Two or three of these shock- ing objects occur in terrorem upon the road from Gotheberg to Stockholm, on account of its being a greater thoroughfare, and more robberies having been committed there. The cri- minal laws of Sweden may be considered as mild, and the pu- nishment of death is rarely inflicted. I was rather disappointed upon seeing the House of Nobles ; PALACE OF HAGA. 153 it contains the hall and room which are reserved for that branch of the Diet, and which, as it is now convened at the will of the sovereign, may be considered as a mere phantom of power. If the authority of the states were any thing better than nominal, the country gentlemen would have some cause to complain, as they are wholly excluded from any legislative paiticipation, this shadowy representation be- ing confined, and it was even so when the Diet was in its ple- nitude of power, and held the Sovereign dependant, to. the nobles, clergy, citizens, and peasants. The exterior of the building is simple but handsome. In the square before the House of Nobles is the pedestrian statue of Gustavus Vasa, by Meyer, erected by the nobles at a great expence, but in .my humble opinion unworthy of the immortal man whose memory it is intended to perpetuate. A delightful morning attracted me to Haga, which is at the short distance of a mile and a half English from the north gate of the city. As this little palace and gardens were built and disposed after the design of the graceful Gustavus III. with the assistance of Masrelier, and were the favourite retreat of the former, my gratification was certain. The approach to the villa is through a winding walk of luxuriant shrubs, the most flourishing and beautiful of any that I saw in the north : at a small distance there is a line of picturesque rocks, X 154 SIR SIDNEY SMITH. crowned with firs; and at the bottom of a rich meadow, by the side of the Maeler, presenting a noble sheet of water, surrounded with forests of fir, stands the chateau, built of wood, and painted to resemble stone, containing a small front of three stories and two long gallery wings. The grounds and ornamental buildings reminded me of the Petit Trianon of the unfortunate Queen of France at Versailles, The rooms are small, but elegantly fitted up. Gustavus s|^ent much of his time here; it is said that this spot was particularly endeared to him, on account of his having se- cretly consulted with his friends, in the recesses of the rocks which constitute one of the great beauties of the scenery, upon the revolution of 1772. This circumstance induced him, when he travelled, to assume the title of count Haga. Ad- joining, upon an eminence, is the foundation of a vast palace, which Gustavus III. commenced in the year 1791, but which has never advanced since his death. The undertaking was too vast and expensive for the country, and is very judiciously laid aside by the reigning sovereign. In the library I was gratified by seeing several drawings and architectural designs of its accomplished founder, which displayed much taste and genius. The friendship and confi- dence with which this prince honoured the heroic Sir Sidney Smith is well known ; the King first conceited an attachment SIR SIDNEY SMITH. 155 Ibr him from the resemblance which he thought, and which he frequently was heard to observe, existed between the face of the hero of Acre and Charles XII. As Sir Sidney is one of my favourite heroes, I will run the hazard of being blamed for deviating from my narrative a little, and for detaining the reader an extra moment to re- late a singular prepossession he felt, when a youth, of his fame, and the theatre of his future glory, which has just oc- curred to my memory. Being sent, some years since, on «hore upon the Irish coast with a brother officer, who is now holding a deservedly high situation in the service, to look for some deserters from their ship, after a long, fatiguing, and fruitless pursuit, they halted at a little inn to refresh them- selves ; having dined. Sir Sidney on a sudden became silent, and seemed lost in meditation : " My dirk for your thoughts," exclaimed his friend, gently tapping him on the shoulder; " what project, Sidney, has got possession of you now r" " My good fellow," replied the young warrior, his expressive countenance brightening as he spoke, " you will no doubt " suppose me a little disordered in my mind, but I have " been thinking that, before twelve years shall have rolled *' over my head, I shall make the British arms triumphant '' in Holy Land." We need not knock at the cabinet door of St. Cloud to know how splendidly this prediction was v^rilied, X 2 156 REVIEW. In the afternoon, after our return fi'om Haga, we went on the Baltic to the park, situate on the east side of the city, three EngUsh miles distant, to see a review and sham fight of about four thousand troops, encamped there. The park is a place of great resort in fine weather, like our Hyde-park. Our water excursion was delightful. The manoeuvres com- menced at five o'clock in the evening, upon the arrival of the Prince Royal, a little sickly child about six years old, who on this occasion represented his father. He passed the line in an open carriage drawn by six horses, attended by some mi- litary officers and two pages of his household, followed by an escort of body guards. After the pages, who wore a Spanish costume, consisting of a jacket of stone-coloured cloth, with slashed sleeves and a short robe, had seated their Httle charge upon a rock, jutting out of a rising ground, the regiments were put in motion, and displayed a strong, martial, and well disci- plined body of men. When the bloodless battle was con- cluded, the regiments passed in open order before the Prince, who with great docility held his little hat in his hand during the ceremony, then remounted his carriage and returned to his nursery. The costume of the two pages was the only relic, I met with, of the fantastic change which Gustavus HI. produced in the dress of his subjects ; the difficulty and dan- ger of which, it is said, was artfully suggested by Catherine H. when he visited her at Petersburgh, in order to induce his pride ^nd spirit more ardently to attempt the change by COSTUME. 157 which she secretly hoped that he would disgust the Swedes, and thereby induce them to attempt the restoration of the fallen privileges of the states, overturned by the cele- brated revolution, which he effected by his fortitude, con- summate address, and eloquence. It was one of the dis- tinguishing marks of the policy of the modem Semiramis of the north, to embroil her royal neighbours in perpetual conflict with each other, or with their own subjects. The Swedes were too loyal, too good tempered, and too wise to quarrel with their Prince, and such a Prince as Gustavus III. about the cut of a coat; but they reluctantly adopted a fashion which had no similitude in the north, and assimilated them in appearance with a people who bear no analogy to them but in national honour, the subjects of his Castilian Ma- jesty. Before we left the camp, we presented a fme little peasant boy, who was playing near us, with some fruit ; his mother sent him to thank us, which he did by kissing our hands : a token of gratitude all over the north. • The military force of Sweden is divided into regular or garrison regiments, and national militia : only the latter will require some explanation. The levies for this establishment are made from the lands belonging to the crown, the holders of which contribute not only to the support of the troops, but of the clerg}^ and civil officers. The estates are called Hem- mans, and divided into rottes; each rotte is charged in a settled 158 MILITIA. proportion ; the most valuable with the support of cavalry, the others with that of infantry. The men, thus selected from the very heait of the peasantry, are almost always healthy, stout, and well proportioned. In war and in peace, the crown land-holders are compellable gratuitously to transport these levies and their baggage to their respective regiments, and to allot a cottage and bam, a small portion of ground, and to cultivate, it during the absence of the soldier upon the service of government, for the support of his family, and also to supply him with a coarse suit of clothes, two pair of shoes, and a small yearly stipend. In peace, where the districts adjoin, tlie soldiers assemble by companies every Sunday after divine worship, to l)e exercised by their officers and Serjeants. Be- fore and alter hanest, the regiment is drawn out and encamp- ed in its district for tliree weeks. In every third or fourth year, encampments of several regiments together are formed in some province, which is generally the centre of many dis- tricts; and, during the rest of their time, these martial Jius- baiidmejiy who are enrolled for life, are permitted to work as labourers for the landholder, at the usual price of labour. Such is a brief abstract of the manner in which this great con- stitutional force, " tliis cheap defence of nations," is organised. Upon our return from the review, we were much gratified with seeing the gun-boats from the Admiralty Isle manoeuvre. These vessels are used upon the lake IVIaeler, amongst the CARRIAGES. 159 roeks, and on the coast of Finland; but are incapable of weathering high seas or strong winds : some of thenn are of forty-four oars, and carry twenty-four pounders in their bow^ Although it was the twenty-eighth of June, it was so chilly, that I began to give credit to a remark that the north has two winters, a z^hite and a green one. We now prepared to make a little excursion to Upsala, and the mines of Dan- mora, distant about eighty-five English miles: for this ex- pedition we hired a little light phaeton for one plote and six- teen skillings per day : this vehicle required only two horses, and was well adapted to the cross roads. The prevailing car- riage, used by the respectable part of the inhabitants, is a gig,, with a small seat behind for a servant, who at a distance ap- pears to be holding by the queue of his master, and has alto- gether a very whimsical effect. The traveller, whose time is not limited, would do well to visit the founderies of Sahlahutta, the silver mines of Sahlberg and of Herstenbotten ; A fvestad, where the copper is refined ;. Norberg, remarkable for its very curious mineral productions ; Fahlun, the capital of the heroic Dalecarlians,. the famous silver mines of Kopparberg, the cataracts of Elfscarleby, Mr. Grill's anchor-forge at Suderfors; at all which places, as well as at Danmora, the natural treasure and phenomena of Sweden, are displayed in the most interesting and sublime manner;. 160 MINES OF DANMORA. To secure admission to ftiost of these places, it will be advise- able to procure letters of introduction to the proprietors or in- spectors. Pressed, as I have before stated myself to have been for time, my election fell upon the mines of Danmora, and a visit to Upsala. The country through which we passed, with our accustomed celerity, was rather rich and picturesque, and in many parts abounded with corn fields ; but as we approached Upsala, and afterwards Danmora, the scenery became bleak and dreary. The first evening we slept at Upsala, and very early the next morning proceeded to Danmora, where we arrived in time to hear the blowing of the rock, which commences every day at twelve o'clock precisely. As we w^ere looking down the principal mouth of the mine, which presented a vast and frightful gulf) closing in impenetrable darkness, our ears were assailed by the deep-toned thunder of the explosion below, which rolled through the vast and gloomy caverns of this pro- found abyss in sounds the most awful and sublime : frequently large masses of rock are thrown out by the violence of the discharge. In these mighty excavations, the hand of man has toiled for three centuries. These mines produce a vast quantity of ore of a superior quality, much used in the British steel manufactories. Feeling an invincible disinclination to descend the principal pit in a bucket, we reached the bottom of another abyss, about four hundred feet de^p, by crazy lad- IRON FORGES AT OSTERBY. l6l ders placed almost perpendicularly, a mode which was at- tended with much trouble and considerable peril : we found the bottom covered with indissoluble ice. Our curiosity was speedily satisfied, and we gladly regained the summit. Mark the force of habit ! Two elderly miners stepped from the firm earth upon the rim of a bucket, which hung over this dizzy depth, and, holding the cord, descended; one singing, and the other taking snuff. The hydraulic machinery by which the mines are kept dry, move a chain of six thousand feet, which, after drawing the water from the mine, forces it through an aqueduct of five thousand feet : this mine is called the Peru of Sweden. From the mines we proceeded to Mr. Tanner's forges at Osterby, about one English mile off, where one thousand persons are employed : •Bath'd in the laborious drop Of painful industry." The ore, as it comes from the mine, is piled upon layers of fir, and partially melted : it is then pounded by vast hammers moved by water, afterwards liquefied in a fiirnace of charcoal, whence it runs into a long mould of sand, where, as soon as it hardens, it is drawn out and laid in piles in the open air. These enormous rough pieces are again melted, and beaten into bars for exportation. See, pale and hollow-eyed, in his blue shirt. Before the scorching furnace, reeking stands The weary smith ! a thundering water-wheel Alternately uplifts his cumbrous pair Of roaring bellows——— y 162 DUKE OF SUDERMANIA. The town of Osterby is small, but neat, and principally in- habited by persons who have concerns with the mines. At the inn, which is very pretty and romantic, we fared sumptu- ously upon strumlins and a cock of the woods, that had been preserved in butter ; and, after a hearty repast, returned to Upsala. This town, which is an archiepiscopal see, and one of the most antient christian establishments in Sweden, stands in a vast plain, in which the general character of barrenness is occasionally relieved by some few corn-fields and partial spots of meadow. Some of the private dwellings and the colleges are handsome, and are generally stuccoed and stained of a yellow colour ; but the majority of houses are composed of wood, painted red, and have behind them little gardens filled with apple and other fruit trees. The river Sala, which com- municates with the Maeler, divides the town. I never saw the gi*ass so high and so green upon the roofs of the houses as here. Upon looking from my bed-room window at the inn, I could not distinguish several of them fi-om the green hill on whose summit the antient palace stands. Upon entering the court gate of this edifice, which is of brick, and has at one angle a large round tower, with a copper cupola, a number of baggage carriages were preparing to follow the Duke of Su- dermania (the King's uncle, and, during his minority, the Regent of Sweden), who had left the apartments which he has here the day before, to join his regiment. r F?5= ^~5 I §^ I ^ ERIC IV. 163 ' This Prince possesses considerable talents: unfortunately there is at present a coolness been his Royal Highness and his august nephew. Part of the palace only remains, the rest having been consumed by fu-e. From the height upon which it stands, the scite of the antient town of Upsala, formerly the capital of Sweden, and the residence of the high- priest of Oden, are discernible. Our time would not admit of our seeing the celebrated Morasteen, or stone of Mora, on which the antient sovereigns of Sweden were crowned ; the last in 1512 : it is preserved, with other curious stones, in a shed about seven miles from Upsala. Under a heap of rubbish, which formerly composed a part of the palace, we were in- formed are the remains of some state dungeons, in one of which the following affecting scene occurred : In the year 1567, Eric IV., the most bloody tyrant ever seated upon the throne of Sweden, seized upon the illustrious family of the Stures, who were the objects of his jealousy, and, in a moment of anger, descended the dungeon in which Count Sture was confined, and stabbed him in the arm : the young captive fell upon his knees, implored his clemency, and drawing the dagger from the wound, kissed it, and presented it to his enraged and remorseless sovereign, who caused him to be immediately dispatched. It would form a fine subject for the pencil. The cathedral is a prodigious unwieldy pile of brick, with Y 2 164 LINNiEUS. two square towers at the west end, in the gothic style, which have been recently decorated with a doric architrave, and sur- mounted by two cupolas of copper, supported by doric pillars of iron. In contemplating such a heterogeneous mixture of architecture, in a spot dedicated to the sciences, I could scarcely give credit to the evidence of my eyes ; but the worst wine is always drank in the vineyard. The present cathedral is erected upon the scite of the antient one, which was burnt down about one hundred and fifty years since. The interior is handsome, and is adorned with a magnificent organ, which was playing when we entered, and poured forth some of the most powerful tones I ever heard. As I was looking upon the ground, I found that I was standing upon the slab that covered the ashes of the immortal linnajus, and his son, as appeared by the following simple and very inadequate in- scription : Ossa Caroli a Linn:e equitis ausati marito optimo filio unico Carolo a Linne patris successori et sibi Sara Elizabeta Morsca- LINNiEUS. 165 The affectionate reverence of the pupils of this distinguished expounder of nature, and the powers of his celebrated friend, Sergell, have endeavoured to supply the humility of the pre- ceding tribute, by raising, in a little recess, a monument of Swedish porphyry, supporting a large medallion of the head of the illustrious naturalist, which is said to be an admimble likeness of him ; under it is the following plain inscription : Carolo a Linne Botannicorum principi Amici et discipuli, 1798. Although this monument is more worthy of him, yet it is far below what a traveller would have expected to fmd in the northern seat of learning, and in the place which gave Lin- naeus birth. His spirit still seems to pervade and consecrate this celebrated spot. The traveller hears every remark enriched with the name of Linnaeus. " There," said a Swede, with a smile of national pride and an eye of delight, " is the " house in which he lived, and there the garden and bower " in which he studied ; over these fields he used to fly, when " the sun refreshed them with his earliest beam, attended by a *' numerous body of affectionate students, to explore the beau- " ties, and unfold, with the eye of a subordinate Providence, 166 TOMB OF GUSTAVU3 VASA. " the secrets of nature ; there, if in their rambles any one " discovered a curious plant or insect, the sound of a French- ** horn collected the herborizing party, who assembled round " their chief, to listen to the wisdom that fell from his tongue." In a private chapel in this cathedml is the tomb of the glorious Gustavus Vasa, whose effigy is placed between that of his two wives, Catherine and Margaret; and in another, that of the Stures, whom I have before mentioned ; the latin inscription upon this monument thus affectingly concludes: " All that was noble and magnanimous could not soften the " iron heart of their sovereign ! Reader, if thou art not as " unfeeling, lament the undeserved fate of such virtue." In one of the recesses we saw a small recumbent statue of John III. which experienced a similar fate; the ship that was conveying it to Sweden from Italy, where it was made, sunk near Dantzig, and the statue remained under water for one hundred and fifty years, when it was fished up, and presented by the burghers of Dantzig to Eric, and was deposited in the old cathedral. Here repose also the remains of the cele- brated chancellor Oxenstiem. It is surprising that neither this great man, nor Christian IV. of Denmark, the two great ornaments and benefactors of their countries, have any monu- ments raised to their memories. The reader may he pleased with the following account OXENSTIERN. 167 of the Chancellor from the pen of the eccentric Christina, queen of Sweden, who was placed, during her minority, un- der the guardianship of Oxenstiern. *' This extraordinary " man had amassed a great deal of learning, having been a " hard student in his youth : he read even in the midst of his " important occupations. He had a great knowledge of the " affairs, and of the interests of mankind : he knew the forte " and the foible of all the states of Europe : he was master " of great talents, a consummate prudence, a vast capacity, " and a noble soul : he was indefatigable : he possessed a " most incredible assiduity and application to business; he " made it his pleasure and his only occupation : he was as " sober as any person could be, in a country and in an age '* when that virtue was unknown. He was a sound sleeper, " and used to say, that nothing had either prevented his " sleeping, or awakened him out of his sleep, during the " whole course of his life, except the death of my father " Gustavus, and the loss of the battle of Nordingue. He " has often told me that, when he went to bed, he put off " his cares with his clothes, and let them both go to rest till " the next morning. In other respects, he was ambitious but " honest, incorruptible, and a little too slow and phlegmatic." As we proceeded to the College of Botany and its gardens, it was singular to see the professors of philosophy hooted, JEvery thing in Sweden is performed in boots : as soon as a 168 MUNGO PARKE. child can walk he is booted ; perhaps the cheapness of leather may be the cause of this. The college was erected under the auspices of the late king, with his accustomed taste and mag- nificence. Monsieur Aftzelius, professor of chemistr}^ and who presides over the cabinet of mineralogies, attended us with great politeness. This gentleman has lately returned to Sweden from a very interesting, and perilous investigation of the natural history of the interior of Africa, and has enriched the department over which he ably presides, with several rare and precious objects, which he brought from that countrj'^. His mineral collection is much esteemed, but I confess my inability to describe it. Amongst other matters, the conversation turned upon the authenticity of many of Mungo Parke's marvellous stories, upon which the Professor assured us, that he believed his rela- tion to be perfectly true, and declared, that in that distant and unfrequented region he had himself met with many extraor- dinary objects and occurrences, which it required great cou- rage to relate. I have, since my return to England, seen some beautiful drawings made upon the spot, descriptive of the manners, and particularly of the rural economy of the interior Africans, by a highly ingenious and enterprising artist, Sa- muel Daniell, Esq. which ftiUy confirm the observation of the learned Professor, and might, from their concurring and con- vincing testimony, abate the force of his apprehensions. Upon AN ANTIENT PARROT. 169 the subject of abolishing the slave-trade, the Professor made a remark, which, flowing from local knowledge and long inter- course, strongly impressed my mind : he deprecated any other than a gradual abolition, for which the minds of the negroes should be prepared ; and declared, in a very emphatic man- ner his perfect conviction that a molent emancipation would only shock and endanger this great cause of humanity. Although unacquainted with botany, I was much grati- fied by seeing one of the rooms, in which there were some beautiful and flourishing date and plane trees, bedded in fme mould, and several rare plants from the South Sea islands, growing against a green treillage that ran on all sides of the apartment, which was formed into walks, and had a very agreeable effect. Amongst the curiosities in this room, I did not fail to pay my respects to a venerable parrot, which we were assured had exceeded his hundredth year : he displayed the marks of great antiquity, part of his plumage was entirely gone, and there was a very visible appearance of feebleness both in his eyes and in his beak ; but he is still likely to see several years more roll over his tufted head. The warmth of the room af- fords the temperature of native climate to the plants ; it was gratifying to see art thus supporting nature in a bleak and hos- tile climate. z 170 UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. The hot-house, which is just finished, is a magnificent hall, supported by doric pillars, and which, when finished, will be warmed by fourteen stoves and nine flues, concealed in the columns. There were no plants here at this time. The room for the museum is also not yet completed, the design is excellent. The lecture-room is very capacious and hand- some, and opens into that part of the garden which is finished and ready for the students, under a portico of pestum columns. The plants in this garden are arranged agreeable to the plan and classification of Linnseus, and afford no doubt a rich men- tal banquet for the erudite herbalist. The libmry of the uni- versity is not now thought deserving of the high reputation w hich was once affixed to it : it is divided into three apart- ments, the first is dedicated to belles-lettres, liistor}% and natu- ral history ; the second is miscellaneous, and was presented to the university by the late King ; and the third is confined to theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. Tliis library has been augmented at various times by the literary collections of those ^countries wliich have bowed to the Swedish sword. The li- brarian, who had lived some years with Sir Joseph Banks in that capacit}^ shewed us a very precious manuscript of a Go- thic translation of the four gospels, supposed to have beea made in the fourth century, upon vellum, richly illuminated with large silver and some golden letters, which have been made by the brush : the former are faded, but the latter are ia excellent preservation. This book formed a part of the lite- CURIOSITIES. 171 rary pillage of Prague, in 1648, and was sent to Christina by- Count Konigsmark ; from that princess it was pilfered by a Dutchman, upon whose death it was purchased for 250/. by some good patriotic Swede, and presented to the university. We were shewn some curiosities, which, in justice to the university of Upsala, I must acknowledge that even those who displayed them were ashamed of) and were better calculated to augment the cabinet of some little, capricious, spoiled, prin- cess, who was just capable of running alone, than that of a grave and learned body, viz. the slippers of the Virgin Mary,„ Judas's purse, &c. In a small room in the library we saw a large chest, about the size of a bureau bedstead, doubled locked and sealed, con- taining the manuscripts of the late King, which he directed should not be opened till fifty years afler his decease. Con- jecture and expectation frequently hover over this case, which will, no doubt, one day unfold to Sweden much interesting memoir, and literary treasure. Here we were shewn some Ice landic manuscripts, said to be upwards of eight hundred years old, and several Lapland tracts. How wonderful, that litera- ture should have lived, and even smiled, in regions which the €un rarely warms ! In one of the mineralogical collections, separate from that z 2 ^ 172 A RIDICULOUS MISTAKE. of M. Aftzelius, we were much gratified by seeing some trans parent agates containing flies, elastic sand-stones, incombus- tible purses of asbestos, a mineral found in the iron mines of Danemora, some beautiful chrystals and many other rarities, which were displayed and explained with the greatest perspi- cuity and urbanity. The students amount to about one thou- sand, lodge, and board themselves according to their finances and inclinations in the town ; in general they wear a black gown without sleeves. By an unaccountable mistake we omitted to bring with us some letters of introduction to the university, which were of- fered to us at Stockholm, but upon a professor, who happened to be in the cathedral at the same time with ourselves, observ- ing that we were Englishmen, he, in the politest manner, en* abled us to see what was most worthy of our attention. Our omission, and Professor Aftzelius's imperfect knowledge of the English language, produced a momentary embarrassment: " How dare you," said he, making a low how^ " come here " without letters of introduction ?" What he meant is obvious, from the politeness with which he received us. The Professor will not be angr3% I am sure, and the following whimsical error will completely keep him in countenance ; it was related by the brave and venerable Prince de Ligne, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Mr. Jackson's, our ambassador at Ber- lin, of an Englishman ^vho had been introduced to him, and ANECDOTE. 173 who was vehemently anxious to make himself master of the French language. It was the custom with this gentleman, for the purpose of restraining as much as possible the blunders which he was perpetually committing, always in conversation to speak each sentence in English first, and then to translate it into French. One day he called upon the Prince, who is a very active man, although far advanced in years, and finding him on his couch, and wishing to rally him on the occasion, thus began : " My prince, Mon prince — I am glad to see you, je suis charme cle vous voir — On your couch, dans voire ac- " couchement — that is, instead of * on your supha,* ' in your " lying in." The revenues of this university, the first in the north of Europe, are rather narrow; fortunate would it be for this learned institution if it were more the fashion to commit the sons of gentlemen and noblemen to its care ; nothing but such patronage is wanting to expand its energies, genius and learn- ing having made this spot their favourite residence. The at- tentions that we received there, and which our own forgetful- ness rendered accidental, have left a lasting impression upon my mind of the respect which is paid to Englishmen. It is by quitting it that we are able best to appreciate the value of our country ; every Englishman who leaves it from honourable motives, becomes a subordinate representative of 174 SWEDISH REVENUES. ft, and ought to revolt at tarnibhing a name wliich is every where honoured. The jx)pulation of Sweden, including Finland, is rapidly en- creasing ; it is at present ascertained to exceed three millions. The revenues of Sweden arise from the poll-tax, about one shilling and three pence each person, with certain exceptions ; royal demesnes, windows, horses, equipages, supernumerary servants, watches, tobacco, snuff, duties on exports and im- ports and distilled spirits, on mines and forges, part of the great tythes, deductions fi'om salaries, pensions and places, and monopoly of salt-petre. The herring fishery is said to be much on the decline. We found every things except cloth, very cheap in Sweden. ( 175 ) CHAP. IX. POOR POST-HORSES ^-LANGUAGE MERRY CRIMINAL PRISONS rSALM-SINGING WATCHMEN WASHERWOMEN FRENCH COMEDX PASSPORTS INDECORUM OP A LITTLE DOG SET SAIL FOR * SWEDISH FINLAND BEGGING ON A NEW ELEMENT ISLANDS UPON ISLANDS A MASSACRE THE ARTS ABO — PLIES FORESTS ON PIKE — RUSSIA — FREDERICKSHAM — RUSSIAN COINS. 1 HE Swedish peasantry are certainly not so merciful to their horses as their neighbours the Danes : but provident and generous Nature, who, foreseeing the cruelty of man towards the poor ass, armed his sides with the toughest hide, made his temper patient, and taught him to feed contentedly upon the thistle, seems to have fortified the Swedish post-horse against hardships and neglect. I have frequently seen this poor ani- mal, after he has brought us to the end of a long station, left to stand in the road, refreshed only now and then by some little bits of hard bread, broken from a circle which the driver generally wears slung over his shoulders. During this excur- sion, as well as on our first progress through the country, my ear was frequently delighted by the strong resemblance be- 176 SWEDISH POETS. tween, and even identity of the Swedish and English lan- guages, as in the following words : god dag, good day ; farvel, fareweU ; efter, after ; go, go ; vel, well ; hott, hat ; long, long; eta, eat; fisk, fish; peppar, pepper; salt, salt; vinn, wine ; liten, little ; tvo, two ; go out, go out ; streum, river ; rod, red, &c. &c. The Swedish language, which is derived from the Gothic, has two different pronunciations ; one in which every letter in a word is heaixl just as it is written, such as it is used in the various branches of oratory ; the other, established by custom for common use, has many abbreviations, and, in many in- stances, I was informed by an intelligent Swede, deviates from the rules of grammar. The language is very sonorous : it places, as does the Danish, the article at the end of the nouns, as in the most antient languages, contrary to the Eng- lish and German, as fhe man, der man ; Swedish, mannen. Some of the national songs are said to be very sweet, and to breathe the true spirit of poetiy. Amongst their modem poets, they speak with great rapture of Dalin ; and amongst their antient of Stiemhielm, who flourished in the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, and, wonderful to relate, was the greatest mathematician and poet of his age. Perhaps it was the life of that singular man that suggested that whimsical satyrical poem, " the Loves of the Triangles." A cuLPRn\ 177 The higher orders of the Swedes are highly cultivated, well informed, and accomplished. In consequence of every parish having a public school, almost every peasant can read, and many of the sons of the peasants are sent from these schools to the colleges at Upsala. As I was strolling through the streets of Stockholm, just after our return from Upsala, I met with an occurrence which clearly established that an innate sentiment of submission to the laws will better ensure the safe custody of their violator than guards and gaolers; and it is admitted, that the Swedes are more under the influence of such an impulse than any other people. Turning a corner, I was overtaken by a raw flaxen-headed countryman, who, as it afterwards proved, had never been in the city before, driving, in a little country cart, a very ro- bust merry looking fellow, whose hands were fastened by a large clumsy pair of handcuffs, and one leg chained to some little slips of wood which composed part of the body of the vehicle. Both driver and culprit had, it appeared, in- dulged themselves with a few snaps on the road, and were neither of them very sober nor sorrowful. The prisoner, who, from his superior size and strength, might, I am satisfied, have easily knocked down the rustic with the iron round his hands, if he had been so disposed, and effected his escape with little or no difliculty, sat at his ease, amusing himself with now and then pinching his conductor, which was always followed by a A A 178 PRISON AT STOCKHOLM. joke, and a mutual hearty laugh. In this way they jogged on through the city, tlie thief shewing his driver the road to the gaol, as merrily as if he had been going to the house of festivity. I saw several prisoners passed from one town to another, under similar circumstances of apparent insecurity. They all ap- peared to be too unconcerned, if not cheerful, to be secured by the trammels of conscience, which is said to be sometimes ca- pable of holding a rulTian by a hair. Upon visiting the principal prison, the rooms appeared to me to be too small and close, were much too crowded with prisoners, and the healthy and the sick were confined together. The prisoners were not compelled to Avork as in Copenhagen, to which circumstance, and the preceding causes, their sallow looks may be attributable : they are permitted to take the air only for a short time in the court-yard twice in the day. 1 was shocked to see a bar of iron, as long and as thick as a great kitchen poker, rivetted to each man's leg, and which, to enable him to move, he was obliged to preserve in a horizontal posi- tion, by a cord fastened to the end of it, and suspended from his waist. To load a prisoner with irons of any other weight or shape than what are necessary for security, is a reflection Tipon the justice, humanity, and policy of the' government that permits it. The women were confined in a separate division of the building : they were not ironed, but their cells were too close and cro^A ded ; and they were also permitted to live in SWEDISH WASHERWOMiSN. 179 indolence. I must confess, when I reflected upon the enlight- ened benevolence of the Swedish nation, I was surprised to see how little this place appeared to have shared in its solici- tude, and most cordially do I hope that the time is not distant, when these miserable wretches will be rendered more comfort- able, and less burthensome to the state. The watchmen of Stockholm, like their brethren of Copen- hagen, cry the hour most lustily, and sing anthems almost all night, to the no little annoyance of foreigners who have been accustomed to confine their devotions to the day. These im- portant personages of the night perambulate the town with a curious weapon like a pitch-fork, each side of the fork having a spring barb, used in securing a running thief by the leg. The use of it requires some skill and practice, and constitutes no inconsiderable part of the valuable art and mystery of thief- catching. Before I quit this charming city, I cannot help paying a compliment to a deserving and meritorious part of its female inhabitants, I mean the washerwomen, which I am sure all lovers of clean linen will re-echo. It is refreshing to see them enter one's room with the greatest propi-etS, with their baskets filled with linen as white as the driven snows of Lapland, and lay it out upon the table with that look and movement of con- scious, but decent pride, which every creature feels who has aa2 180 THEATRE. reason to be in good humour with her own works : their bills are surprisingly moderate. Perhaps when the merits of these ladies are more widely known, luxury delighting in whatever is foreign, may seek their aid, and the winds of heaven may waft into Swedish harbours vessels freighted with foul linen from English shores. We found the French comedy tolerably well attended : the interior of the theatre is small, and of an oblong shape, meanly decorated, and badly lighted : the royal-box is in the centre of the front, the whole of which it occupies. The perfonrv- ers were respectable, and receive very liberal encouragement from the public : the scenery was tolerable. The embellish- ments of this theatre suffer from the prodigal bounty which has been lavished upon the opera. As the time fixed for our departure was rapidly advancing, to enable us to pass through Russia, we were obliged to fur- nish ourselves with a passport from the Governor of Stock- holm, for which we paid eight rix-dollars and a half, and an- other passport from the Russian minister, resident at the Swe- dish court, which cost two rix-dollars ; and as it is attended with the least trouble and expence to cross the gulf of Bothnia to Abo, by proceeding from Stockholm up the Baltic, we hired half a packet, the other half being engaged, for fifteen rix-dol- lai-s. The distance from Stockholm to Abo is about three INDECORUM OF A LITTLE DOG. 181 hundred and fifteen English miles. The vessels, which are hired upon these occasions, are single-masted, and resemble a shallop with a raised deck, and a pink or sharp stern, which is much lower than the fore part, and is frequently under water : they cannot live long in rough weather. On the day of our departure we dined with one of the most amiable and hospitable men in Stockholm. Few respectable Englishmen can pass through this capital, without knowing and consequently esteeming him; I allude to M. Winner- quist the banker. From his house I once more ran up to the church of St. Catherine, at the top of Mount Moses, to take my last farewell of this enchanting city, which, warmed by a briUiant sun-tint, lay beautifully expanded below me. Having laid in our provisions, — and let me recommend the traveller to secure a good quantity of bread, for none can be procured till he reaches Abo, — we proceeded to the quay, where our vessel lay in front of the palace : here, whilst I was wait- ing on shore the operation of hoisting the mainsail, a little trait of national character occurred, which did not fail to set me off in good humour. The walls of the casement story of the royal castle, and of the garden on this side, are of granite, vast, enormously thick and long, and cannot be taken by sap. A tradesman passed with a little dog trudging after him : the animal, it is to be presumed, had not had experience enough 184 DEPARTURE FROM STOCKHOLM, to know that, in the north, the very stones which form the royal pile are held even penally sacred against defilement of every sort, for, irresistibly impelled, he raised one of his hinder feet against this said royal wall ; a sentinel, who had a little . whip in his hand, I suppose for this special purpose, sent this fourfooted disloyal violator of decorum howling, with many a backward look of reproach, after his master, whom he vehe- mently scolded, for not having taken care to prevent such dis- respectful behaviour towards the seat of majesty. At five o'clock in the evening of the sixth of July, with very little wind, we slowly withdrew from Stockholm. Before night we were completely becalmed ; our captain rowed us up to a rock, and throwing out a gang board, tied the vessel to a fir-tree for the night. Here we landed, and ascended the rocks, which, sparingly clothed with grey moss, rose from the w^ater's edge in the most grand, romantic, and picturesque disorder. Before us the rich crimson suffusion of the sun, just sunk behind a dark undulating line of fir forests, gave at once tranquillity and tone to the lake-appearance of this arm of the Baltic, which was enlivened by the white-lagging sails of a few boats, that on the opposite side softly and slowly creeped through the deep shadow^s of the shores, crowned with the woods of liston-cottage ; whilst in the south, the tower of St. Catherine's, mounted upon her airy summit, the houses, the palace, and the spires, seemed composed of light AN AQUATIC BEGGAR. 183 doud and mist. The silence of this delicious repose of na- ture was only faintly broken by the dashing of the oar, and the carol of the distant boatmen ; in the language of the di- vine Milton : . ** Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Had in her sober livery all things clad : Silence accompanied ; for beast and bird. They to their grassy couch, these to their nests. Were slunk " ■ M With living saphirs. now glowed the firmament Seated upon a rock, we for a long time contemplated this exquisite scene, till at length the calls of sleep induced us to descend into our cabin, where our accommodations were very comfortable. With the sun, which was an early riser, we unmoored, and advanced but very slowly ; as we proceeded, misery in a new shape presented itself From a wretched hovel, upon one of the islands which began to appear in clusters, hanging over the edge of the water, and ready to drop into it, an old man in rags, and nearly blind, put off in a little crazy boat, and rowing towards us implored our cha- rity in the most touching maimer, and seemed very grateflil for the trifle we gave him. In the evening, having made but little way, the master again moored the vessel to another island for the night ; as I 184 THE peasant's NEST. found was the custom, on account of the danger and diffi- culty of the navigation. This island was indeed a most en- chanting scene ; upon its romantic summit of grey rock we found a little cottage, embowered in trees of fir, ash, and elder, that might well be called " the peasant's nest," A fisherman, his aged mother, his wife and his children, formed the population of this beautiful spot. A little field of grass. in which a cow was grazing, another of corn, a garden, and the waters of the Baltic, which again resembled a lake, sup- plied them with all their wants, and all their riches. Here it seemed as if the heart could no longer ache, as if ambition might wish to be what he beheld, and that love might ponder on the past without a pang. The inside of the cottage was neat and cheerful ; the good old lady, with the children in their shirts playing round her, sat knitting by the light of a sprightly fire, and under locks of snow presented a face at peace with all the world. Upon hearing that we wished to have some supper, the fisherman, with a countenance of health and g'aiety, descended into a little creek, where his boats were moored, for some perch, confined in a wicker well in the water, whilst his young wife, who had a pair of very sweet expressive eyes, laid the cloth in a detach- ed room facing the cottage. Whilst supper was prepar- ing I rambled over this little paradise. Night came on, and all the beauties of the preceding evening, with some variety of new forms, returned ; the same bright bespangled heaven ! THE NYMPH OF THE ROCK. 185 the same serenity ; the same silence ! yielding only to the unceasing rippling of a little stream of rock water, to which, as it gushed from a bed of long moss, and as our fair hostess presented her pitcher, thriftily fenced with wicker, might be applied the beautiful inscription of Bosquillon, on the foun- tain in the street of Notre Dame des Victoires in Paris : 4< La nymphe qui donne dc cette eau Au plus creux de rocher se cache : Sulvez un exemple si beau ; * ' Dpnnez sans vouloir qu'on le sache." Or thus in English : ** Prompt to relieve, tho' viewless wrapp*d in stone, The nymph of waters pours her generous stream : Go, gentle reader, do as she has done ; See while you bless, but blessing he unseen,^* J. a It was just such a spot as the poetical spirit of Cowper would have coveted : his eye would have penetrated, and his pen could alone have painted every beauty. On the third day of this voj^age of islands, we touched at another, and procured a noble pike, fresh from the net, and some eggs. Our skipper very ingeniously kindled a fire and cooked it in his little canoe, which was towing astern, by placing upon the bottom of it a large stone^ upon which he B B 1 86 SWEDISH CLEANLINESS. set fire to some chips and pieces of fir, and suspended over it, from an oar laid across the sides of the boat, an iron pot containing the fish ; our eggs formed the sauce, and with a broken saucer for a plate, we made an excellent Robinson Crusoe repast. One morning as I was looking over the deck from the stem, I beheld an operation somewhat ridiculous ; but as it origi- nated in rude notions of cleanliness, and moreover is one of the domestic customs of the country, I shall relate it. Our skipper was lying at the feet of a good-natured brawny girl, who was a passenger ; his head was on her lap, just as Qwliffli some time SdTnjtffiafT since rested his in that of Delilah ; but the fingers of our fair companion were more kindly employed than were those of the woman of the valley of Sorek : the skipper had no comb, per- haps never heard of such a thing, and this kind-hearted crea- ture was sedulously consigning with a humane, because an in- stantaneous destruction of sensation in every vital part by an equal and forcible pressure, everj?^ restless disturber of his peace in that region, which most assuredly must be, though doctors may dispute the point, the seat of reason ; the cabin-boy suc- ceeded his master, and in return, with the keen eye and nimble finger of a monkey, gratefully repaid the obligation upon the head of his benefactress. In Italy, these engaging little of- fices of kindness constitute the principal delights of courtship. REFLECTIONS IN A CANOE. 187 The islands, after we had passed Aland, and as we ap- proached the Gulf, ceased to present any picturesque object; they appeared but a little above the water, and were scantily covered with slender weak firs, whose naked branches were whitened over with hoary moss, and at length, from their num- ber and similarity, became very tedious, and as dull as the me- lancholy forests through which our road lay on shore. In the midst of the heavy ennui inseparable from such a si- tuation, by good fortune upon rummaging my portmantua I found a catalogue of the year's exhibition ; with this precious prize in my hand, I jumped into the little canoe astern, and defied the gloom of the rocks and firs ; with fresh vigour m}^ memory revisited that splendid gallery of the British arts. The genius of West, of Westall, and of Smirke, in history ; of the Daniells, and of Turner, in landscape ; and Lawrence, in portrait painting, again filled my mind with the proudest sensations of delight. During these meditations I had pre- vailed upon the president and council to confine the admission of portraits to a certain number, that the public eye might no longer be confused and disgusted by a mob of faces, in which nature had done nothing for the originals, or the painter but little for nature. With a thrifty use of my treasure, it lasted till the tenth, when, as I was gazing in my mind's eye, with silent rapture, upon the bust of the lovely Lady B B 2 18B GUN-BOATS. Rjbblesdale, by Bacon, the fairy fabric of my reveries AvaS in a moment destroyed by a cry of " there is Abo, there is Abo." About two English miles before we reached the town, we entered a very naiTow channel, not abpve forty feet wide, which ^vas marked out by piles, not wide enough to ad- mit of large vessels, which are obliged to moor a little before the entrance of it. On the left we passed by the castle, built of brick stuccoed : it is very antient, and has a very pic- turesque appearance, and was once the prison of the bloody Eric IV. but is now a garrison. A little further on the same side is the house of the gallant Admiral Steddynk, who in the last reign displayed distinguished skill and bravery in seveml engagements with the Russians, and who has the com- mand of the gun-boats, which are ranged in a long line of boat-houses near his residence. It is a matter worthy of observation, particularly at this period, that the gun-boats used in the naval conflicts between Russia and Sweden with so much effect, originally suggested to France the idea of using them against this country. In the seven years war they were recommended to the Due de Choiseul, the mi- nister of Louis XV. by Captain Kergvagelin, of the Swedish navy, and in the late revolution by Captain Muskein, who was also a lieutenant in the same service : this small crafl is -INVASION OF- ENGLAND. 189 capable of acting iri the Baltic, where no tides ever interfere with manoeuvres; but it has excited astonishment, not only m Sweden but in every other part of the Continent which I visited (and I mention it with more shame than rekictance, be- cause with the millions of England, I believed at the time in the romantic practicability of the long, very long threatened, invasion), that any reflecting Eiiglishman could believe in the possibility of a flotilla of gun-boats crossing such an expanse of water as divides the Isle of Wight from Boulogne, subject to the tides, currents, and winds, which ore with more or less cer- tainty felt there, omitting the proud and confident reflections which our gallant cruisers and channel fleet naturally suggest. We well know, that in the year 1791 Muskein, without hav- ing much to dread ii-om the natural difficulties before enume- rated, on account of the shortness of the distance, attacked that dot in the channel, the island of St. Marcou, with fifty of his redoubted gun-boats ; that the battery of the little wave-girt fortress blew her rash and presuming enemies to atoms ; and that their commander with diificulty escaped only to be dis- graced by the Directory, In mere patriotic ardour and en- thusiasm, independent of tides, currents, winds, cruisers, and fleets, the French, if they reflect at all, will regard St. Marcou as a miniature of a gi^eater island. Beyond the boat-houses is the custom-house, from whence an officer came on board, and proceeded up the river with 190 ABO. US to the town, which, with the cathedral, now presented the appearance of a large and populous city. We soon reached the quay, and very gladly landed in the capital of Swedish Finland. In our inn yard I beheld the first indication of our being in the neighbourhood of Russia, in a clumsy kibitka, the ordi- nary carriage of that country, and which was here ex[X)sed for sale. It is a small cart, very much resembling a cradle, round at the bottom, about five feet long, and in which two persons can sit or lie, the latter is the usual posture, and who are pro- tected from the weather by a semicircular tilt, open in front, made of broad laths interwoven, and covered with birch or beech bark ; it has no iron in it, but is fastened to the body of the carriage without springs, by wooden pins and ropes : the driver sits upon the front of it, close to the horses' tails. At dinner we had some delicious wild strawberries, the first fruit that we had tasted for the year. Abo is situated upon a point of land where the gulfs of Finland and Bothnia unite, is a large town, and carries on a tolerable commerce. Many of the houses are handsome : they are mostly built of wood, but some are of brick stuccoed, and the inhabitants are said to exceed ten thousand. The fir of Finland is superior to that of any other part of Sweden, and particularly preferred for building : great quantities of it .Mil THE CONSTANT SLEEPING-ROOM. l91 are annually sent from Abo to Stockholm. The- cathedral is a very antient massy pile of brick, displaying no attractions to the eye ; and the gloom of the interior is augmented by a bar- barous representation of drapery in blue, upon a leaden-co- loured ground : it contains the tombs of many illustrious fa- milies. Christina, who with all her levities was a learned woman, and the munificent friend of learning, endowed an uni- versity here, which has a library containing ten thousand in- different volumes: the former is not in a flourishing condi^ tion, and the latter worthy of little notice. We ascended the craggy rocks impending over one side of the town, which, with the windings of the Aura, and occasional glimpses of the gulf of Finland, shining through the opening's of those dark forests that cover its stores on this side, presented a somewhat inte- resting, but sombre prospect. In the course of my northern excursion, it was generally my fate, when we passed a night in a town, to have a ball or a public cofl'ee room for my chamber, which, on account of their size, are generally the most comfortless apartments that a man can attempt to close his eyes in. At Abo, my bed was made up in an appendage to the ball-room, and had much of Finnish decoration to recommend it. The walls were labo- ^riously painted in glowing colours, with flaming swords, fiddles, and flutes, and seraphim's heads, which were saved from the voracious and expanded beaks of griffins, by the tender inter- 19^ SWEDISH FINLAND. position of baskets of flowers, and over the whole there was a pretty sprinkling of sphinxes and the royal arms of Sweden. Here we provided ourselves with a stock of pro-visions for our journey, and early the morning after our arrival bade adieu to Abo. The regulation of the post and the coin are the same here as in the other parts of Sweden. As we proceeded the face of the country began to undu- late; we observed that the houses were constructed of fir trees rudely squared by the axe, and laid, with a little moss between, upon each other, the ends of which, instead of be- ing cut off, are generally left projecting beyond the sides of the building, and have a most savage and slovenly appear- ance. The roof is also of fir, sometimes stained red; the windows are frequently cut with the axe after the sides of the house are raised. Such of these as were well finished had a good api^earance, and are very wami and comfortable within. Our servant, who was well acquainted with the Swedish language, began to find himself) every mile we advanced, more and more puzzled. The patois of this province is a barba- rous and unintelligible mixture of Swedish and Russ. The summer, now the eleventh July, burst upon us with Jieri/, fury, with no other precursors than grass and green leaves. On a sudden the flies, which experience a longer date of ex- istence in the north than in the milder regions of Europe, on account of the stoves used in the former, awoke from the tor- m m WRETCHED INN. 193 por iji which they had remained, between the discontinuance of artificial warmth and the decisive arrival of the hot weather, and annoyed us beyond imagination. They are the musqui- toes and plague of the north. No one, but those who have suffered, could believe them capable of producing so much torment. < One night we put up at Mjolbollsted, a solitary post-house in the midst of a gloomy forest of fir, which lay upon the borders of an arm of the gulf of Finland. The post-master ushered us into a little hole in a wooden shed, opposite to the posthouse, the latter being occupied by his family. We had the consolation of finding that we had the place to ourselves, from which we could never have expected to emerge, if, not- withstanding the treacheiy of our vorbode some time before, we had not formed a high opinion of Swedish morality. The windows, which looked into the depth of the forest, were as immoveable as the building ; this was somewhat satisfactory. It 4s always a pleasant thing to strengthen fevourable impres- sions with judiciows precautions. The sides of the room were completely encrusted with flies, who at this moment were recruiting themselves for the mischief of the next day ; and mice and tarrakans, or beetles, shared the possession of the floor. In two corners of this dolorous hole stood two cribs, each furnished with a bed of straw, a bronze-coloured blanket well charged with fleas, and a greasy coverlid. Cribs c c 194 THE IBEOT. are the usual bedsteads in the north. Here we endeavoured to invoke that sweet power which It is a comforter." -seldom visits sorrow ; when It doth, Alas ! our wretched taper, and the bustle of bringing in our luggage, had excited an alarm amongst our tormentors, who besieged us in battalions. These busy many-eyed marauders, with their gossamer wing and incessant hum, opposed the approach of sleep, and fairly kept her aloof for two long dreary hours. Weary, yet incapable of repose, something was to be done. I resolved upon revenge, and accordingly made an irritable effort to surprise three of my enemies, who in a row were audaciously washing their little slender black hands upon one of mine ; I gained nothing by my rage but (such is the association of ideas) the recollection of an admirable re* presentation, which I once saw in a private room, of an ideot attempting to do the same thing, and the wild delight which he displayed in succeeding, by a gentleman who closely and chastely copying nature, the only model capable of making any actor great, may be ranked amongst the first comer dians of his time, I mean Mr. Matthews. ' The itppression of that surprising display of imitative power, so completely occupied me, that in spite of my oppo- jnents, I succeeded in closing my eyelids, and never opened POVERTY OF THE PEASANTS. : lOS tliem until the full day broke in great glory. Upon rising I found some brother travellers, who arrived after we had retired to rest, had slept on the earth under their carriage, and were in the act of shaking themselves and setting off for Abo. I must confess, agreeable as solitude frequently is to me, I was glad to retire from this species of it. As the sultry sun was flaming in the meridian, we passed a large portion of a forest on fire. This circumstance was not the effect of accident nor of a natural cause, which in these regions is frequently fol- lowed by the most direful consequences, and to which I shall have occasion to allude hereafter. By some smart touches of the whip we saved our servant, horses and carriage, from be- ing a little toasted on one side. What we saw arose fi*om the farmers clearing the ground, who confine the flames to the proper boundary by making an interval of felled trees. In the evening we passed by, at some distance, another forest which was in the same predicament, and had a very sublime and novel effect. ;: /) mo'ii. lui I The country about Borgo, a garrison town most mi- serably paved, and where our passports were demanded, is undulating and fertile, but the cottages in that part of Swedish Finland are very miserable, and the peasantry wretchedly clothed. The men, the women, and the chil- dren, had no other covering than ragg^ed shirts ; altKough the sun was too intense to induce any one to pity them on ao c c 2 196 NATIONAL IMPORTANCE OF PAINTING. count of their exposure to the weather, yet their appearance was that of extreme penury. The roads were still excellent, and enabled us to proceed with our accustomed velocity. The time did not admit of our attempting to see the celebrated Swedish fortress of Sveaborg, which occupies seven islands in the gulf of Finland, and is capable of protecting the fleets of Sweden against the Russians. The batteries, basons, and docks, are of hewn granite, and said to be stupendous. I was reconciled after^^ards to my not having attempted to see this place, as I found some English travellers, of great respec- tability, were about this time refused permission to view it, and that too with some degree of rudeness. About three miles from Louisa, another garrison toAvn, we reached the frontiers of Sweden, and in a custom and guard house beheld the last remains of that country. A Swedish soldier raised the cross bar, such as I described in Denmark ; we passed over a bridge which crosses a branch of the river Kymen, and divides Sweden from Russia The exclusive right of painting this little bridge, had very nearly inflamed these rival nations to the renewal of all those horrors, which have so long and so prodigally wasted the blood and treasure of both countries. It has been contended, that aggregate bodies of men are governed by other rules of conduct, than those which ordinarily influence mere individuals: for my part I regard a nation only as a man magnified, constantly J '"" AN IMPORTANT BRIDGE. 197 displaying all the anger, inveteracy, caprice, and petulance of the solitary being. This marvellous dispute, after a stormy dis- cussion, with the sword half-dmwn, was settled in the follow- ing manner, viz. Sweden was to use what sized brush and what colours she preferred, upon one half of the bridge, and on the other Russia the like materials in the way that best suited her fancy ; but it is useless to talk about a few piles and planks ; they were the ostensible, but the real cause of the difference was, and ever will be, the vicinity of the countries, for, unhappily ! nations are more disppsed to mutual attach- ment, if they cannot see each other. > Russia has exercised the privilege of her brush with a vengeance, not only upon her half of this said bridge, but upon all her public buildings, which she has distinguished by a magpye colour. This predilection is said to have arisen from the result of the late unfortunate Emperor's reflections upon mankind, whom he an'anged under two classes, the good and the bad, thinking no doubt with the Spanish proverb, that heaven will be filled with those who have done good actions, and hell with those who intended to do them, and accordingly he ordered the fronts of all public railings, offices, &Ci to be striped with white and black. Sancho Pan9a, a man of no little wit and sagacity, thought life susceptible of being represented by an inter- mediate colour ; upon returning from an important commis- 198 SANCHO PAN9A. sion, he was asked by his master, whether he should mark the day with a black or a white stone. " Faith, sir,'* replied his trusty servant, " if you will be ruled by me, with neither, but " with good broziii ochre" the colour best suited to describe it. I heard another reason assigned for this magpye appearance when I reached the capital. »' A new race of beings, in green uniform, stout, whiskered, and sun-browned, raised the bar of the barrier on the other side of the bridge, stopped the carriage, and conducted us to the guard-house, a square wooden building, with a project- ing roof, resting upon little pillars of wood, under the shade of which seveml soldiers were sleeping. This building was of course embellished after the fashion of the bridge, and had a most frightful apj^arance : we were ushered into a small shabby room, in the windows were some flower pots, and upon an old table the poems of Ossian in French, open, and by their side a vast snuff-box and most filthy handkerchief; presently a little old Russian major entered, in a white linen dressing- gown, and in French demanded our passports, with which he was satisfied, and immediatel}^ made out our order for post- horses, without which no one can travel in Russia, called a podoragina ; upon presenting the paper to us, he demanded six rubles and forty copecs, wliich he informed us constituted a part of the revenues of his imperial majesty ; we told him ■that we had no Russian money whatever, but offered to pay UNEXPECTED ADVENTURE. 199 him in Swedish rix dollar notes: " If you have any of them," said he, " I must seize them," and went into another room ; but he uttered this mthout severity : perhaps the considera- tion that he was speaking to a couple of Englishmen softened his tone and look. In a moment we found ourselves like two ill-starred mice, who unexpectedly fmd themselves v^ithin the basilisk beam of a cat's eye. - Our station from the last post-house in Sweden, extended to the seventh verst post in Russian Finland, and we never en- tertained an idea that any law so pregnant with inconvenience existed in Russia, for making Swedish money found within its barrier forfeitable, more especially as there is no bank upon the confines of either country. The Major presently returned with a pile of notes, exclaiming, " See what a quantity I seized ** a few days since from a Danish gentleman!" We endea- voured to give a turn to the conversation, in which his urba- nity assisted, and at length we paid him in Dutch ducats, one proof at least of the safety and convenience of this valu- able coin. Before we parted, we observed that he entered our names in a register as arrivals on the second of July : at first we were surprised, for, according to my journal, it was the fourteenth ; but a moment's recollection informed us that we were in a country in which the Julian calendar, with the old style, obtains, before which our calculation always precedes, by an advanced march of twelve days. Both old and new style 200 THE REWARD OF INTEGRITY. are superior to the poetical absurdity of the French calendar,- which must be at perpetual variance with the immutable law of climates and geography : for instance, when a merchant is melting away under the fiery sun of the French West India Islands, his correspondence will be dated Nivose, or the month of snow. an odrr ^'x>i ut i^Trrt 1« I i i i io fr(fi*>d After making our bows to the little Major, and secretly wishing, for his civility, in the language of his favourite author, that he might be " the stolen sigh of the soul" of some fair Finn girl, and that " her fine blue eyes might roll to him in " secret," but not for ever, a circumstance, by the bye, which age, form, and feature, had rendered not very likely to happen, we were most vexatiously detained on the opposite side of the ^\'ay by the custom-house officers, who, under a broiling sun, ransacked every article of our luggage; even the private recesses of the \^'riting-desk were not sacred. The scrupulous fidelity with which they performed their duty, was, on this occasion, as, alas ! on many others of more importance, the reason of our leaving virtue to be its o^vn reward ; for, provoked with the trouble they caused us, we gave them nothing but black looks^ and Q, few private inverted blessings. ■ ''« v We now began to reckon our stations by versts ; a verst is about three quarters of an English mile, and is marked upon a post, painted like the bridge, somewhat resembling, only that ■^?''-V.. FREDERICKSHAM. 201 the verst-post is square and much taller, a barber's pole. The rapidity of our travelling, and the frequent appearance of these memorials of our velocit}^, were the only cheering circum- stances that we met with. Upon the road we saw several peasants bare-headed, cropped, fair, with shorn beards, and booted. We met with little or no delay for horses : the j)ea- sant, to whom the}^ belonged, attended us to take them back. After passing through a country the most wretched and rocky imaginable, a country formerly \a rested by the Russians from the Swedes, in which the gloomy sterility of nature was only once relieved by the waterfalls which attracted our notice at Hagfors, and a large camj) of several Russian regiments, who had a very fine appearance, we reached, at eleven o'clock at night, the draw-bridge of Fredericksham, the gates of which had been some time closed. After repeatedly knocking, a little beardless officer presented himself, and very politely requested to have our passports and post-order, with which he disappeared. Here we waited in suspense for three quar- ters of an hour : all owing to the provoking integrity and de- tention of the custom-house officer at the barrier. At length we heard some massy bolts move, the gates unfolded, and we entered the town through a long arch under the ram- parts, and anxiously looked out for an hotel : it was then as light as the day, but as silent as the tomb. At length we halted before a house, which our little officer, as well as we could understand him, informed us was the only inn in the 202 DISAPPOINTMENT. town. Here we found no person moving^: after trj^ing at thS door for some time in vain, I peeped into the front room, and beheld a spectacle d, la mode de Russe, to me completely novel ; it was a collection of nine or ten men and women all lying, with their clothes on, promiscuously upon the floor, like pigs, heads and tails together. An officer passing by in-, formed us that this was a private house, and that the inn, in Russ called a kabac, was the next door ; but that it was locked up and empty, the host having gone to enjoy the breezes of the sea side for a few days. This circumstance plainly demonstrated one of two things; either that this part of Russia is not much frequented by travellers, or, as I frequently experienced, that an inn-keeper, however poor, is very indifferent whether he affords them any accommoda- tion. We had been travelling all day under a fervid sun, were covered with dust, and parched with thirst ; our Abo ham was glowing to the bone, our last bottle of claret was as warm as milk from the cow, and our poor exhausted horses were lick- ing the walls of an adjoining building to cool their tongues. In this dilemma I beheld an elegant young officer, uncovered, in a dark bottle-green uniform (the legionary colour of Russia), and an elderly gentleman, upon whose breast two resplendent stars shone, coming towards us : these stars A^ere two propi^ tious constellations. The principal personage addressed us in HOSPITABLE GOVERNOR. 20^ a very kind and conciliatory manner in French. Upon our explaining our situation, he said, " I am very sorry this fel- " low is out of the way, but it shall make no difference. " When Englishmen enter Russia it is to experience hospi- " tality, not inconvenience ; trust to me, I will immediately " provide for you :" he bowed, g-ave directions to an officer who followed at a distance, and passed on. This amiable man proved to be the Count Meriandoff, the Governor of Russian Finland, who, fortunately for us, had arrived about an hour before from Wibourg. An officer soon afterwards came to us, and conducted us to a very handsome house belonging to a Russian gentleman of fortune. Our kind host, who spoke a little English, introduced us into a spacious drawing-room, where we went to rest upon two delightful beds, which were mounted upon chairs. Our poor servant, after the manner of the Russians, ranked no higher in our host's estimation than a faithful mastiff, and was left to make a bed of our great coats on the floor of the entry, and to sleep comme il plait dDieu, The next day we had a peep at the town, which is small but handsome, from the square in which the guard-house stands, a building of brick stuccoed, and painted green and white, almost every street may be seen. It was here, in the year 1783, that Catherine II. and Gustavus III. had an in- terview. Upon this occasion, to impress the Swedish monarch with the magnificence of the Russian empire, and to render D D 2 204 RUSSIAN CARRIAGES. their intercourse less restrained, a temporary wooden palace was erected, containing a grand suite of rooms, and a theatre, by the order of the Empress. The town appeared to be filled with military. The Russians of consequence generally de- spise a pedestrian. I was uncommonly struck with seeing officers going to the camp, and even the parade in the town, upon a droska, or, as they are called in Russ, a drojeka, an open carriage, mounted upon springs, and four little wheels, formed for holding two persons, who sit sideways, with their backs towards each other, upon a stuffed seat, frequently made of satin ; the driver wore a long beard (which we now began to see upon every rustic face), a large coarse brown coat, fastened round the middle by a red sash, was booted, and sat in front, close to the horses' heels, whose pace was, as is usual in Russia, a full trot. iij\ > .mmno no4|o ij^nuom V) ffi iDfbrif on lyrAam , We here exchanged our Swedish money at Mr. Broom's, and found the exchange against us. After having been so long strangers to the sight of any coin, we were surprized by seeing his Russian clerk, habited in a long blue coat, fastened round the middle by a sash, enter the room, perspiring under the weight of a coarse bag of five-copec pieces, a monstrous coin, fit for some infantine republic that might wish to excite a distaste for riches amongst her virtuous citizens, worth about threepence English. It may be as well to run over the coin of the country now : ^lii lo >ji dhHi itiiw RUSSIAN MONEY. 205 *»/u-/j(i9V/i bii£ ,^lduf i^'COPPER. «i Mm %'riii<< /. One-fourth of a copec, called a polushka, very few in circu- lation. One-half of a copec, called a denishka. wmm i^)dim «i il One copec. j*iii'n lull ui i CHAP. xr. RUSTIC URBANITY — WRETCHED VILLAGE — NO. 1 WIBOURG GREEK RELIGION A CHARITY SERMON RELIGION AND EXTORTION A WORD OR TWO TO FORTIFIED TOWNS — STARVED HORSES— VOLUN- TEER JACKET APPEARANCE OP PETERSBURG COSSAG RE- NOWNED STATUE. ^ >' l.iu:. V? HILST the peasants were adjusting our horses, four abreast to the carriage, in the yard of our kind and hospitable host, I was amused with seeing with what solemn and cour- teous bows the commonest Russians saluted each other ; no- thing but an airy dress and a light elastic step were wanting to rank them with the thoughtless, gay, and graceful creatures of the Bouvelards des Italiens: here the Russian exterior was more decisively developed ; but I should wish to postpone a more particular description of it until we reach the capital ; it is now sufficient to observe, that the men in complexion and sturdiness resembled the trunk of a tree, and that the women were remarkably ugly : I saw not a female nose which was not large and twisted, and the dress of the latter, so unlike their sex in other regions, was remarkable only for filth and raggedness. Travelling is very cheap in Russian Finland ; :208 WRETCHED VILLAGE. we paid only two copecs for each horse per verst, except for the last post to Petersburg, when we paid five copecs. In Russian Finland the comfort of sending an avante-courier to order horses ceases. On the road we met with several kibit- kas, such as I have described. After we left Uperla, those extraordinary detached rocks, and vast stones, which hitherto had lined the sides of the roads and were scattered over the fields, began to assume a redder tint, and to show a greater portion of friability than their hard and savage brethren which we had left behind, and gradually disappeared in deep sand : the country presented a scene of extreme wretchedness. To the squalid inhabitants we might have said in the beautiful language of Cowper : 'i» r'-ii r-f Jt « . Within th' enclosure of your rocks. Nor herds have ye to boast, nor bleating flocks j ^ ^^^ '^^^^ 5^111 iJ No fertilizing streams your fields divide, • > That show, revers'd, the villas on their side ; ''' No groves have ye ; no cheerful sound of bird, Or voice of turtle, in your land is heard; >h ^lonj No grateful eglantine regales the smell i> 'iuVm^e^ 1. 11 • 1. J ii»> >'hi5ti sioin * ' *' t^Of those that walk at evenmg where ye dwell. ' :, .,. , , _ ' -r-c-c '4 We halted at a village of old crazy hovels, comix)sed of trunks of trees, rudely thrown across each other, and perched upon granite rocks ; every one of these forlorn abodes was out of the perpendicular, whilst, from a little hole which feebly admitted the light, the smoke issued. The inhabitants were DIRECTING POSTS. 209 nearly naked, and looked like a race of animals formed in the anger of heaven. Instead of the green refreshing blade, parched hoary moss covered the earth; where the limpid brook ought to have rippled, a narrow, slimy, brown stream, of reeking offensive water, crawled indolently and unwhole- somely along. Not a tree was to be seen ; not even a me- lancholy fir ! Time, that bids the barrenness of nature bear, that enables the shepherd and his flock to find shelter and rich pasture in the altered desert, has passed over these regions without shedding his accustomed beneficence. These people, or, as they are called, the Finns, I found always distinguish- able in the capital from the proper Russian, by their squalid and loathsome appearance. Yet even in this inhospitable spot, are to be found what many a traveller in England has frequently lamented the want of) viz. the exposition of every diverging road carefully, and intelligibly, marked out by a directing post. Although the peasantry of the country, in these immediate parts, are so wretched, a considerable portion of Russian Finland is con- sidered to be as fertile in corn as any part of the Polar empire. \^^e were prevented from reaching Wibourg on the day we set off from Frederickshamn, on account of our being detained, for want of horses, at Teniock, which forms the E E 210 NUMBER ONE. last stage to the former place. Here, as it was too hot to admit of two sleeping in a chaise, I entered a sorrj^ post-house ; the room contained only a crib and a sheet, as aged, and as brown, and as filthj^ as the post-master's face and hands, who, after having given me to understand that I might use the bed after he had done with it, very composedly jumped into it with his clothes on, and soon made this black hole resound with one of the loudest, and least tuneable, nasal noises, I ever heard. Sleep sat heavy upon me, and with my pelisse for a bed, and my portmantua for a pillow, I closed my eyes upon the floor, which appeared to be the favourite promenade of flies, fleas, and tarrakans. Necessity, like ** Misery, acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows." At three in the morning, I was awakened by the jingling of the bells of our horses, which the peasants very merrily gallopped up to the door. The sun was up, and threatened very speedily to destroy the refreshing coolness of the air. At five we passed the bridge, and were at the gate of Wibourgj the capital of Russian Finland. It is a large, handsome, fortified town, a place of considerable commerce, and has been much improved since the terrible fire which happened in 1793. Like mice, who find no difficulty in getting into a cage, but know not how to return, we were admitted within the gates of this town with perfect facility, but were THE GREEK CHURCH. 211 detained no less than nine hours for a new post' order, which must be signed by the governor or his deputy. It was Sun- day, and whilst this was negotiating, I visited the Greek church, wliich stands in a corner of the area where the pa- rade is held, and is an elegant structure of wood, [)ainted light yellow and white, with a roof and dome of copper, painted green. It had a very light and pleasing effect. Every Russian, before he ascended the steps which led to the door, raised his eyes to a little picture of the Virgin, fixed to the cornice, and having uncovered his head, inclined his body, and crossed himself with his thumb and fore-finger. The Virgin was framed and decorated with a projecting hood of silver. If she had not been produced by the coarse and crazy imagination of tlie painter, it might have been supposed that one of the nymphs, which we saw between Frederick- sham arid this place, had sat for the model. She was a bru- nette of the deepest mahogany, and bore no resemblance whatever to any branch of Vandyke's holy family. In the Greek church images, musical instruments, and seats, are proscribed. Even the Emperor and Empress have no drawing-room indulgence here. No stuffed cushion, no stolen slumbers in j^added pews, inviting to repose. Upon, entering the church, these people again crossed and bowed themselves, and then eagerly proceeded to an officer of the church, who was habited in a rich robe; to liim they gave one E E 2 212 THE GREEK CHURCH. of the small pieces of money, and received in return a little "vvax taper, which they lighted at a lamp and placed in a gi- randole, before the picture of the saint they preferred amongst the legions enrolled in the Greek calendar. Some of them had a brilliant homage paid to them, whilst others were desti- tute of a single luminary'. In the body of the church were in- clined tables, containing miniatures of some of these sanctified personages in glass cases, adorned with hoods, of gold, silver, and brass, looking very much like a collection of medals. The screen, composed of folding-doors, at the back of the altar, to which a flight of steps ascended, was richly gilded and embellished with whole-length figures of saints of both sexes, well executed. In one part of the service the folding doors opened, and displayed a priest, called a Papa, in the shrine or sacristy, where lovely woman is never permitted to enter, for reasons that an untravelled lover would wonder to hear, without caring for, and which I leave to the ladies to discover. The priest always assumes his pontificals in this place, whilst it constitutes a part of the privileges of a bishop to robe in the body of the church. The sacerdotal habit was made of costly silk and rich gold lace ; and the wearer, who appeared to be in the very bloom of life, presented the most mild, expressive, evangelical countenance, I ever beheld, some- thing resembling the best portraits of our Charles I. ; his au- burn beard was of great length, fell gracefully over his vest, and tapered to a point. Seen, as I saw^ him, under the fa- M A CHARITY SERMON. 213 vour of a descending light, he was.altogetlier a noble study for a painter. After reading the ritual in a low voice, during wliich his auditory Crossed themselves, and one man, near me, in a long and apparently penitential gown of sackcloth, re- peatedly touched the basement with his head : the congrega- tion sung in recitative, and with their manly voices produced a fine effect. This will suffice for a description of the Greek church ; as to its abj^tract mysteries, they are but little known, even to its followers, who recognise the authority of their own priests only, and renounce the supremacy of the Roman pontiff. From this place we proceeded to a reformed catholic church, where the preacher was delivering, with apparently great pa- thos, a charity sermon, in German : every avenue was thronged almost to suffocation ; whenever the orator had made a suc- cessful appeal, his hearers testified their approbation in savage acclamations, and the proper officers seized these impressive moments to collect from the congregation the fruits of their bountiful dispositions, received in a little silk bag, fastened to the end of a long stick, from which depended a small bell, shaken whenever charity dropped her mite. I had good reason to believe that our landlord, ^vho was a thorough-paced Italian, had been a devotee here, and wished to supply by extortion the vacancy which a sudden impulse of 214 EXCUSE FOR EXTORTION. beneficence liad occasioned in his purse, for the fellow had the impudence to charge us ten rubles and fifty copecs foe a breakfast, a plain dinner, and a bottle of claret. " Gentle- " men," said he, in reply to our remonstrance, (which by the bye Av'as a successful one) " why do you object to high charges ? " they are the inevitable consequences of approaching the ca- " pital." There are some who, thinking with less respect than I do of the Russians, would have thought that they had in- oculated this native of the south with knavery, but I was sa- tisfied from his tone, look, and gesture, that he took it in tlie natural way ; so wishing that we might never see his face, nor that of a fortified town more, we mounted our carriage and proceeded to the gate leading to Petersburg, where we were again detained at the guard-house three quartet's of an hour, because it was necessary that the deputy governor should once more see his own wretched scrawl at the bottom of our past- order, not t)*en even perfectly dry. In what a situation would English tmvellers in their ow^i country have been, with all their accustomed irritability and impatience, if the sound sense of a single vote had not o^erpo^^ ered the fortifying phrenzy of a certain illustrious engineer ! How many governors, gates, and guards, would have been wished at the devil a thousand and a thousand times ? The gratitude of those who are fond of loco-motive facility, iihould Jong since have raised a monument to Wolfran Ccrn-^ RUSSIAN FINN HORSES. 215 wall. However, our stoppage reminds me to mention a cha- racteristic which I had forgotten : before all the guard-houses in the north there is a raised platform of wood, upon which are little posts; against these the soldiers on duty recline their pieces. Thank heaven ! we are out of the town, although the road is very sandy and hilly. We travelled all night, and in attempt- ing to ascend a long and steep hill, our cattle began to flag. There is a very material difference between the Swedish and Russian Finn horses; the latter are much larger but very weak ; indeed they appeared to be nearly in the situation of the hack of an eccentric genius, who resolved to see whether his beast could not serve him without food ; for seven days the poor thing fasted, but just as his master had taught him to live without eating,, he died. Upon observing the stoppage, our peasant (for in Russia only one takes charge of the post- horses) descended, and breaking a sapling fir, would have be- laboured his miserable animals most unmercifully, had we not interfered : famine or excess of labour had fixed them to the earth, and they had less motion than the firs of the dark and hideous forest in which the accident befel us. I would not have answered for the perfect patience of Job, had he been obliged to drive four in hand in Russian Finland. I' In spite of the military jokes and sparkling philippics of Mr. 216 VOLUNTEER UNIFORM. Windham in the senate, I was resolved to see if a volunteer uniform had really nothing of value in it, but to excite a jest. I speedily mounted my jacket, and with the peasant walked forward to the next |X)st-house, distant about two miles and a half It was in the dead of a cloudy night; as we approached the house, I saw upon a dreary heath six or seven sturdy pea- sants lying on each side of a great blazing fir-tree, fast asleep : ** Allow not Nature more than Nature needs ; ** Man's life is cheap as beasts.'* The moment the post-master ojjened the door and beheld my regimentals, he bowed most respectfully, and upon the pea- sant's explaining the condition of our horses, he awakened the peasants by their fir-fire, and dispatched four of them to assist in drawing the carriage, and the remainder to catch the horses in the adjoining woods for the next post ; he then very civilly placed three chairs in a line, and gave me a pillow, looking to- lerably clean, and thus equipj^ed, I was preparing to lay down, when a marchand de liqueur who lived in an o[)posite hotel, imcoA ered, with a large beard, a gieat bottle of quass in one hand, and a glass in the other, entered the room, and after crossing himself and bowing before me, he pressed me to drink ; all tliese marks of distinction, to which let me add four good courier horses for the next stage, were the happy fruits of my volunteer jacket. Thus satisfied, I enjoyed two hours Df delicious sleejii, until the jingling beUs of our poor post- THE WIBOURG BARRIER. 217 horses announced the arrival of the vehicle, and of all the ca- valcade. The following day we beheld the shining cupola and spires of the capital, about ten versts from us, just rising above a long dark line of fir forests. At twelve o'clock we reached the barrier, a plain lofty arch of brick stuccoed white, from each side of which a palisado ran, part of the lines of this vast city. There is no custom-house here, but we were de- tained nearly an hour, owing, as we aftenvards found, to the officer of the guard, a very fine looking young man, and I dare say very brave withal, being somewhat of a novice in the mystery of reading and writing : our passports appeared to puzzle him dreadfully, at length a Serjeant, who doubtless was the literary wonder of the guard-house, was sent for, and in two minutes relieved his officer and the Englishmen at the same time. A fair-complexioned cossac of the Don, habited in a pyramidal red velvet cap, short scarlet cloak, with a belt of pistols, a light fuzee slung across his shoulders, and a long elastic spear in his hand, mounted upon a little miserable high- boned hack, was ordered to attend us to the governor of the city, and with this garde d'honneur we posted through the vast suburbs of Wibourg, and at length ascended the Empe- ror's bridge of pontoons or barges ; here the most magnificent and gorgeous spectacle burst upon me, and for a time over- whelmed me with amazement and admiration. F F 1 1 8 PETERSBURG. / . i The sk}^ was cloudless, the Neva of a brilliant blue, clear, and nearly as broad as the Thames at Westminster bridge ; it flowed majestically along, bearing on its bosom the most pic- turesque vessels and splendid pleasure-barges ; as the eye ra- pidly travelled several miles up and down this glorious river, adorned with stupendous embankments of granite, it beheld its sides lined with palaces, stately buildings, and gardens, whilst at a distance arose green cupolas, and the lofty spires of the Greek churches covered with ducat gold, and glittering in the sun. Immediately before us extended the magnificent railing of the summer gardens, with its columns and vases of granite, a matchless w^ork of imperial taste and splendour. In the capacious streets of this marvellous city, we passed through crowds of carriages drawn by four horses at length, and a variety of rich equipages, and of people from all parts of the world, in their various and motley costume. At the gover- nor's office we presented our passports, and the cossac left us. The cossacs have a curious appearance upon their little shabby horses, which have the reputation, however, of being remark- ably fleet and hardy ; their riders hold their spear, which is fi'om fifteen to eighteen feet long, vertically resting upon their stirrup. It is said that they have the faculty of calculating from the appearance of trodden grass, the number of men and of cattle that have passed over it, and even to ascertain the period of their passing. The cossacs are never trained to attack in HOTEL. 219 squadrons : they are always placed in the rear of the army, and act only in a desultory manner, upon the retreat of an enemy. At the governor's we were questioned by the officer upon duty, as to our motives of travelHng, names, &c. &c. ; a description of his room will serve to give a general idea of the arrange- ments which constantly occur in the Russian houses : the apartment was divided by a partition of wood, of about three- fourths of the height of the room, indented at the top and or- namented with little crescents ; behind this screen was his bed, and in a comer, suspended near the top of the cieling, was the framed and glazed picture of his favourite saint, before which a lamp was burning; this economy of space gave him the convenience of two rooms. Amidst the tumult of ideas which the scenes around us ex- cited, we drove into the yftrd of Demouth's hotel, I believe the best in Petersburg ; it is kept by some civil Germans, and stands on the side of the Moika, a beautiful canal, having a rich iron raihng and an embankment of granite. It may be as well now to caution the traveller against the free use of the Neva water, which, like that of the Seine, is very aperient. Our hotel was upon a scale with all the surrounding objects, and very crowded ; it was with great difficulty that we obtained two uncomfortable rooms, which, according to the custom of the place, we were obliged to hire for a week certain. One of ff2 ainmui. 220 STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT. these apartments was divided as I have described, and af- forded a place to sleep in for the servant. The walls were covered with a complete crust of our old tormentors the flies, which in Russia, at this season of the year, are little inferior to the plague of Egypt. After discharging the dust of Fin- land in a copious ablution, and partaking of a good dinner, at which, for the first time since we left Stockholm, we tasted vegetables, I sallied forth, but the day was far gone. After hesitating some time, amidst such a blaze of novel magnificence, what object I should first investigate, I resolved to present myself at the base of the statue of Peter the Great. All the world has heard of this colossal compliment paid by the munificence of Catherine II. and the genius of Falconet, to the memory of that wonderful man, who elevated Muscovy to the rank of an European empil^e. Filled, as I was, with admiration of this glorious work of art, I could not help regretting that the artist had so much reduced and polished the granite rock, which, with great grandeur of conception, forms the pedestal of the statue. The horse, in the act of ascending its acclivity, is intended to illustrate the difficulties which Peter had to encounter in civilizing his unenlightened people. Had this rock retained the size and shape which it bore when, as if propelled by some vast convulsion of nature, it fu^t occupied its present place, with only a few of its asperities re- moved, it would have encreased the dignity and expression of FALCONET AND COLLOT. - :221 the horse and his rider, and would have astonished every be- holder with a stupendous evidence of toil and enterprize, which since the subversion of the Roman empire has no parallel. A gentleman, who saw this rock, in Carelia, before its removal, describes it to have been forty feet long, twenty-two broad, and twenty-two high. It is of granite and onyx, and has a mix- ture of white, black, and grey colouring; if I may judge of it by a seal, which the learned Dr. Guthrie presented to me, it is susceptible of a very fme polish. In six months the rock was removed from its native bed to the spot where it now stands, partly by land and water, a distance of eleven versts, or forty-one thousand two hundred and fifty English feet, and cost four hundred and twenty-four thousand six hundred and ten ru- bles. So indefatigable has been the labour of the chisel upon its enormous magnitude and rugged coating, that its history is its greatest wonder. The genius of Falconet was evidently jear lous of the rude but stupendous powers of nature, and was fear- fiil that her rock might engag-e more attention than his statue ; hence he reduced the former, until he rendered it dispro[)or- tioned to the colossal figures which it supports; but he has thereby succeeded in bringing his work nearer to the eye of the beholder. Had he been content to have divided the homage with nature, he would not have been a loser. The head of Peter, which is very fme, was modelled by Madame Collot, the mis- tress of Falconet. The figure and the drapery are admirable, and the horse is worthy of being ranked next to his Venetian 222 HOUSES. hrethreuy those matchless works of art, which now adorn the gates of the Thuilleries. The spot where this statue is raised is alw ays very much thronged, on account of its being cen- tral, and leading to one of the bridges. I bestrode one of the little droshkas which I have described; my driver, who emitted a most pestiferous atmosphere of garlic, with a tin plate upon his back, marked with' his number, and the quarter to which he belonged, (a badge which is used by all the fraternit}^ to facilitate their punishment, if they behave ill), drove me with uncommon velocity. His horse had a high arch of ash rising from his collar, more lor ornament than use. I was much struck with the prodigious length and breadth of the streets, and with the magnitude and magnifi- cence of the houses, which are built in the Italian style of architecture, of brick stuccoed, and stained to resemble stone. They are mostly of four stories, including the basement, in the centre of which is generally a large carriage gate-way : the roof slopes very gently, and is formed of sheets of cast iron, or of copper, painted red or green ; and behind there is a great yard, containing the out-houses, and 4ce-houses, and immense stores of wood. The vast number also of chariots, each of which was drawn by four horses, the leaders at a great dist- ance from the shaft horses, very much augmented the effect. The postillion is always a little boy, habited in a round hat, and a long coarse coat, generally brown, fastened round the EQUIPAGE. 223 middle by a red sash, and, strangely reversing the order of things, is always mounted on the off horse, and carries his whip in his left hand. The little fellow is very skilful and careful, and it is pleasant to hear him, whenever he turns a corner, or sees any one in the road before him, exclaim, or ra- ther very musically sing, " paddee ! paddee ! paddee !" The coachman, or, as he is called, the Ishvoshick, is dressed in the same manner, and wears a long venerable beard; be- hind the carriage are one or two servants in large, laced, cocked hats, shewy liveries, military boots and spurs. What an equipage for St. James's-street on a birth-day ! The beard of the Russian charioteer would here produce as strong a sensation, as did the neat, formal, little bob wig of Lord Whitworth's coachman in the streets of Paris. The carriage and horses in attendance are standing the greater part of the day in the court yards, or before the houses of their masters ; the horses are fed in harness, and the little postillion is fre- quently twenty-four hours in the stirrup, eats, drinks, and slee[)s on hoi^eback, and the coachman does the same upon his box. A stranger immediately upon his arrival, if he wishes to maintain the least respectability, is under the necessity of hiring a coach or chariot and four, for which he pa^^s two hundred rubles a month. Without this equipage a traveller is of no consideration in Petersburg. ( 224 ) CHAP. XL ADVANTAGES OF THE IMPERIAL CITY — THE VILLAGE ARCHITECT THE SUMMER GARDENS— KISSING — HORSES WITH FALSE HAIR SWEETNESS OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE BEARDED MILLINERS IN- CORRUPTIBILITY OP BEARDS GREAT RICHES AMASSED BY COM- MON RUSSIANS THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY AND JUSTICE MUSIC AND ARGUMENT BETTER THAN THE WHIP A NEGRO's NOTIONS SLAVERY THE NEW KAZAN THE KNOUT. X ETERSBURG is worthy of being the capital of an em- pire as large as the half of Asia, more than twice the size of Europe, and covered with a population of forty millions of people. Its boundaries measure about twenty English miles, but the circumference of the ground actually built upon is considerably less. The vast space of its streets and areas will ever give it superiority over every other European capital; but its principal beauty arises from its being the result of one mighty design. In almost every other city, the buildings at once display the progress of its prosperity and taste. In some dark and PETERSBURG* 2^5 narrow lane a palace rears its head; or, in an handsome street, the eye is suddenly offended, hy beholding the little squalid abode of a marchand de liqueur. Most towns, in their progress, have resembled the house of the Cornish fisherman, who at first thriftily built his little abode of one story ; becoming . prosperous, he resolved upon raising it, and accordingly sent for a neighbouring carpenter : the village architect, to whom I suppose the names of Holland, Wyatt, and Cockerell, were as foreign as that of Palladio, upon being informed of the ob- ject ef his employer's wishes, the builder very judiciously beg- ged him to stand up, took measure of his height, and raised his simple chateau one story higher, in which the owner and his wife could very comfortably walk without stooping. In process of time, the fisherman became rich by privateering, the house must be enlarged, the roof was removed, and two rooms, twice the height of those below, occupied the place of the garret, which was promoted one story liigher. In the capital before us, time has feeen actively and ardently employed in filling up one grand outline. What death pre- vented Peter the Great from executing, successive sovereigns, and particularly Catherine IL, and the present Emperor, with gueat taste and encouragement, have nearly accomplished. So rapidly has tliis city risen, that a traveller might think that ©ne mind had planned, and one hand had executed the whole, Very few of the antient wooden houses remain; and those G G 226 PEITDRSBURG. which have not yet fallen a prey to time, are lost in the splen- dour of the buildings that surround them. Of the magical celerity with which buildings are construct- ed in Petersburg the reader may judge, when he is informed that five hundred noble houses were erected in the last year ; yet, though building so rapidly advances in the city, its popu- lation, by the last estimate, it appears has rather declined, whilst that of the country has encreased. I have before stated the amount to be forty millions, in which two females are averaged to one male. m , To all great national works, the government and the genius of the country have been propitious. Unbounded power pre- sents an Emperor of Russia with the lamp of Aladdin ; at his nod a temple of ice rears its chrystal front, or a rocky moun- tain floats upon the deep.* At Petersburg there is no public to consult, the public buildings are therefore the result of one man's will. In England the public is every thing, and the variety of its taste appears in the variety of its buildings. Petersburg is divided into three grand sections by the Neva, and a branch of it called the Little Neva, which issues from the Ladoga lake, and disembogues in the gulf of Cronstadt : this division resembles that of Paris by the Seine. The first * The pedestal of Peter the Great, which was floated up the Neva on vast rafts. ADJACENT COUNTRY. 227 section is called the Admiralty quarter, situated on 'the south side of the river, and comprises the largest and most superb part of the city, and is the residence of the Imperial family, the nobility, a principal part of the merchants and gentry, and nearly the whole of the trading community : this part is form- ed into a number of islands by the intersections of the Moika, the Fontanka, the Katarina, and Nikolai canals. The second section is named the Vassili Ostrof, situated on the north-west of the river, where there are many public buildings and ele- gant streets ; this part coincides with the Fauxbourg St. Ger- niaine of Paris : and the third is called the Island of St. Pe- tersburg, standing on the north side of the river, and is dis- tinguishable for the fortress and some good streets. The country about the city is Very flat and sterile ; but the gardens in the suburbal part have been much improved by the introduction of vast quantities of \'egetable mould, which has been brought from distant parts of the country, and also by ship ballast. The morning after our arrival was spent in delivering our letters of introduction ; and such is the spirit of hospitality here, so frequently and so justly extolled, that it became necessary to chronicle down the invitations that flo%ved in upon us from all quarters. In our walk upon this occasion, it was with astonishment that we beheld the bank and pavement of hew^n granite^ G G 2 228 SUMMER GARDENS. which we first saw in the English Hne in the Galeerenhof : figure to yourself a parapet and footpath of the hardest rock which nature produces, of great breadth and thickness, gracing the southern side of the river, and running parallel with a line of magnificent palaces and splendid mansions for near t^^o English miles I In the evening I visited the summer gardens that face the Ne^ a, the palisade of which, unquestionably the grandest in Europe, is composed of tliirty-six massy Doric columns of solid granite, surmounted by alternate vases and urns, the whole of which, from the ground, are about twenty feet high, con* nected by a magnificent railing, formed of spears of wrought iron tipped with ducat gold. The decorations over the three grand entrances are also exquisitely wrought, and covered with gold of the same superior quality. As near as I could ascertain by my own paces, the length of this magnificent balustrade must be about seven hundred feet. The pillars would certainly be improved were they thinner or fluted. It is customary to attend a little more than ordinary to dress in this promenade, as the Imperial family frequently walk here. The walks are very extensive, umbrageous, and beautiful, though too regular ; they are all of the growth of Catherine the Second's taste and liberalitj^ Here only the chirping of the sparrow is to be heard; not a thrush, linnet, or goldfinch, are to be found in Russia. Amongst the women. A RUSSIAN SALUTE, 229 who were all dressed d la mode de Faris, there were some lovely faces ; but, to prevent incense being offered upon a mistaken altar, let me hint that they were Polish beauties : to each of the groupe one might have said, *t You are the cruelFst she alive. If you will lead these graces to the grave And leave no copy." A young officer of the Imperial guards approached one of them and kissed her hand, and, as he raised his head, the lady kissed his cheek : it is the custom in Russia. Is it possible, thought I, that this spot, in no very distant day, owned a Swedish master ? Can a little paltry bridge make all tliis dif^ ference between the belles of the two countries ? But I will leave this point undecided. Be it as it may, the salutation was the most graceful I ever witnessed : it was politeness im- proved by the most charming gallantry — bows, curtsies, and salams, are icicles to it. Whilst France furnishes us with caps and bonnets, and Egypt with dusky side-boards, may the Russians fix the universal mode of friendly meeting between the sexes for ever and for e^er \ This captivating characteristic, and, as the sun descends, the gentle sound of lovers whispering in the shade, and the beauty of the spot, entitle the Summer Gardens to the name of the Northern Eden. Where the parties are not familiar, 230 MARES. the lady bows, never curtsies : the attitude is very graceful. As I am upon the subject of kissing, and quit it with reluct- ance, I beg leave to state, that in Easter every Russian, be his rank in life however humble, and his beard as large, long, and as bristly as ever graced or guarded the chin of a man, maj', upon presenting an egg, salute the loveliest woman he meets, however high her station : they say, such is the omnipotence of the custom, that, during this delicious festival, the cheek of the lovely Empress herself, were she to be seen in tlic streets, w^ould not be exempt fi'om the blissful privilege. As I approached the Summer Gardens, to which a great number of equipages were hastening, it was curious to observe the prodigious fulness of the horses' manes and tails, which are never cropped : to the former the Russians pay a religious attention; they even carry it so far as to adorn them, as many of the British fair decorate themselves, with false hair. To show the various prejudices of mankind, it is only a short time since that mares were rode. On the appearance of a friend of mine some years since mounted upon one of them, the men expressed their astonishment, and the women tittered. Geldings are prohibited as useless animals. In the streets it is very common to see pairs of Russians, who in their dress much resemble the boys of Christ's Hospital, walking hand in hcuid, never arm in arm. i RUSSIAN LANGUAGE. 231 The Russian language sounded very sweet to my ears, and peculiarly so as it flowed from the lips of Madame Khremer of the English line. There is something very musical in the following expression : " Pazar vleitay padeta suda/' Pray, sir, come and sit bj^ me. French is chiefly spoken amongst the well-bred Russians, who are said to be imperfectly acquainted with their own language : this is one of the foolish effects of fashion. The Russians always add the christian name of their father to their own, with the termination of ivitch or evitch, which denotes the son, as ov7ia or eona does the daughter. It requires some interest, time, and trouble, before a stran- ger can see the palaces and public buildings, I therefore recom- mend him, through the medium of his ambassador, to be speedy in making the arrangements for this purpose. Whilst these matters were negotiating in our favour, I resolved to make the best of my time in seeing what lay expanded before me. Accordingly a friend of mine ordered his Russian ser- vant to drive us to the fortress : when the man received his orders, he curled up his beard, took off his hat, scratched his head, and expressed, by his manner, some reluctance and dis- gust, which arose, as we afterwards found, from the horror with which the common Russians regard the citadel, on ac- count of its containing the state dungeons, and of the horrible stories to which they have given birth. As we galloped all 232 THE FORTRESS. ' the ^vay, the' usual pace in Petersburg, we soon crossed the Emperor's bridge, and passed the draw^bridge and outer court of this melancholy place, which is built of massy walls of brick, faced with hewn granite, of the same materials as the five bastions which defend it. We were set down at the door of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, remarkable for being the burial-place of the Russian sovereigns, and for its lofty and beautiful spire, two hundred and forty feet high, richly covered %vith ducat gold. The inside of the church was damp and dreary, and had no beauties of architecture to recommend it. In oblong square sepulchres of stone, raised and arranged in lines on the right of the shrine, and covered with velvet richly embroidered with gold and silver, repose the remains of Peter thef Gr^at, his Empress Catherine, the celebrated peasant of Livonia, of Alexey, Anne, Elizabeth, and Peter II L and Ca- therine 11,=; and, on the other side of the church, at a distance, is the tomb of Paul, the late Emperor, opposite to a whole length painting of the Saint of his name, covered like the others, but with more cost and grandeur. An inscription in copper informed us, that the unhappy Emperor .died on -the eleventh or twelfih of March, 1^01. On each side of the church, very carelessly arranged, are banners of war, trun- cheons, keys of cities, and arms, taken in battle by the Rus- sians : amongst the former were some Turkish colours taken by Count Orloff, or rather, if merit had its due, by the British Admirals Greig and Dugdale, in the celebrated engagement ■ - . . ..■ 1 ^ , I v^. ■..- . ...-—Y- — ~-"' ■ ■T-r'p--' | |->- ' ■ p i 'i' \^ 1 I 1 BEAUTIFUL PROSPECT. 233 >off Tscheme, when the whole of the vast Turkish fleet, except one man of war and a few gallies, were burnt, so that " the " sun at its rising saw no more of its flag." The view from the belfry is one of the grandest spectacles I ever beheld : below flowed the Neva; before us lay the whole city expanded, from the Convent des Demoiselles to the end of the Galeernhofl', a line of palaces and superb houses, extend- ing nearly six English miles ; immediately facing us was the marble palace, the palace of Peter the Great ; the hermitage, the winter palace, crowded with statues and pillars; and the ad- miralty, its church, and the dome of the marble church; in the fortress from this height we could discern a number of gloomy prison yards and the gratings of dungeons, than which nothing could look more melancholy ; and also the mint, which ap- peared a handsome building, where the gold and silver from the mines of Siberia are refined and converted into coin Here also we had a fine view of the country over the Wi- bourg suburbs, and in a distant part of the citadel was pointed out the court of the prison in which the unfortunate young princess, who was ensnared from Leghorn by the treacherous stratagems of Orloff, and afterwards confined in this place, is ^id to have perished. The story of this devoted young per- sonage is still wrapped in some obscurity : After the burning of the Turkish fleets near Tscheme, a beautiful young Russian lady, attended by an elderly lady, appeared at Leghorn ; al- H H 234 THE VICTIM. though she appeared without shew, or the means of making any, her society was much courted on account of the sweetness and accomplishments of her mind, the attractions of her pereon, and a certain air of majesty which particularly distinguished her. To some of her most confidential friends she communicated the fatal secret, that she was the daughter of the Empress Elizabeth by a private marriage, and that her pretensions to the throne of Russia were superior to those of Catherine II., to w hose suspicious ear the communication was imparted with uncommon celerity. Allured by the deceitful solicitations of a Russian officer, who was an agent of Count Orlolf, who promised to espouse her cause, and to gain over the Count, she came to Pisa in the beginning of the year 1775, where Alexey Orloff then resided in great magnificence during the repairs of his fleet. Upon her arrival the Count paid his re- spects to her with all the deference and ceremony due to a reigning sovereign, aft'ected to believe her story, and promised to support her pretensions. At length, after appearing with her at every fashionable place during the carnival, and paying her the most marked and flattering attentions, he avow^ed, in the most respectRil manner, a tender passion for her, and submitted to her the glittering prospect of her mounting with him the throne to which she was entitled. Intoxicated with the idea, she gave him her hand. A few days afler the nuptials, the Count announced a magnificent marine entertainment in ho- nour of the marriage. The young personage proceeded to his TREACHERY OF ORLOFF. 235 ship in all imaginary naval pomp ; as soon as she entered the cabin, gracious heaven, what a display of treachery was deve- loped ! OrlojfF upbraided her with being an impostor, and the more barbarously to degrade her, ordered her delicate hands to be fastened by handcuffs, which had been prepared for the purpose, and quitted the ship, which immediately sailed for Cronstadt, from whence she was brought to the fortress in a covered barge, \^'here she was immolated, and never heard of more. It is supposed that she was drowned in her dungeon, which was rather deep, during one of the inundations of the Neva. In a part of this fortress is a little boat, which is said to be the father of the Russian marine, by having furnished Peter the Great when a child with the rudiments of naval ar- chitecture, which he afterwards so passionately pursued at Sar- dam. It was brought fi-om Moscow, and deposited here with great pomp, in 1723, and was called by Peter " the Little " Grandsire.'* Upon our return from the fortress I took a view of the cele- brated street called the Grand or Nevski Perspective : it runs in a direct line from the church of the admiralty, from which the principal streets of the admiralty quarter branch like radii, to the monaster}^ of St. Alexander Nevski : its length is about four miles, and its breadth not quite equal to that of our Oxford-street ; it is lined with very noble houses, and what will afford the most delight to the liberal and reflecting ob- server, with elegant churches, in which the devout, without re- HH 2 ♦ : # 236 TOLERATION. straint, may worship his God after the dictates of bis own ha- bits or persuasion. Here sectarian fury never disfigures the temple of the Almight}^ : the Greek and the Protestant, the Armenian and the CathoUc, here quietly pass to their respec- tive places of devotion, and unite in sending up to the tlirone of heaven the hallowed, though varying, sounds of their grate- ful adoration, which, blending as they ascend, charm the Di- vine ear, with the most acceptable homage, th^ harmony of religion. The late Emperor very materially affected the beauty of this street by destroying the foot-paths which were formerly on each side, and forming a very broad path in the centre of it, which he planted with Linden trees, and guarded by a low railing. The idea was evidently taken from the beautiful Linden walk at Berlin, which originated in the exquisite taste and genius of Frederic, so justly called the Great. The trees look very sickly, and for want of soil and moisture never can flourish, and cannot atone for the violation which is offered to taste. If this great nuisance was removed, the perspective would be one of the finest in Europe. The great bee-hive of the city, called the Gostinnoi dvor, is in this street; it is a vast building, wholly dedicated to trade, containing two piazza stories, and presenting three unequal sides, the longest of which is upwards of nine hundred feet : under this roof is an im- mense number of shops and stores: the neatness of the shops^ THE RUSSIAN BEARD. 23? and the dexterity and activity of the shopmen, cannot but inj- press a stranger. The haberdashers here, as in England, are fine lusty fellows, but add to their athletic appearance a prodi- gious bushy beard ; this said beard is the pride and glory of Russian manhood : ** It is the equal grace Both of his wisdom and his face," which the churches of the north and of the east protected with uncommon zeal and contumacy, whilst the razor of ecclesias- tical discipline committed sad ravages upon it in the southern and western regions : at one time, as if in derision, this vene- rable growth of the human visage was cut into a tapering cone, it next assumed the gravity of the scollop, then it alarmed the ladies in whiskers, and afterwards tickled their cheeks with a few monkish hairs upon the upper lip, till at length the holy scythe, pursuing its victory, cleared every hair, until the chin assumed the polish and smoothness of an alabaster statue. The Russian beard struck terror into the soul of Peter the Great, he dared not attack it. It was not surprising that Ca- therine wished to see its honours shorn, but amidst her mighty and resplendent conquests, the beard remained not only un- assaulted but unassailable; and if a smooth chin is one of the characteristics of high civilization, I believe the Russian will implore his saint to let him live and die a barbarian. 238 RUSSIAN SHOPKEEPERS. The following anecdote is an authentic one : A nobleman having laid a wager upon the subject, offered a common Rus- sian, one of his slaves, freedom and two thousand pounds to part with his beard ; the reply of the poor fellow was, " I had sooner " part with my life." To return to the shops : before the door of each of them, parades a shop-boy, whose duty it is to importune every passenger to walk in and buy : this little fel- low seems to partake of the same spirit which so indefatigably moves his brethren, who mount guard before the old clothes and slop shops of Monmouth-street, The acuteness, frugality, and perseverance, of these people, virtues which never fail to raise for their fortunate possessor a pyramid of wealth, is surprizing. Most of these tradesmen have been rasnoschiks, or ambulatory venders of little mer- chandizes in the streets, who, by a judicious application of the golden rule, " take care of the copecs, and the rubles will take '* care of themselves," well digested with black bread and a little quas, a common antiscorbutic acidulous beverage, pro- duced by pouring hot water on rye or barley, and fermented, have become marchands des modes, successful followers of other trades ; the fruitful principle of getting and saving has enabled them to purchase houses, and commence money brokers and lenders, in which capacity many of them die immensely rich. These shopkeepers have also their phrases of allurement. GOOD ACCOUNTANTS. 239 The haberdasher says : " Walk in my fair one, we have straw ♦* bonnets which will very much become that pretty face ; oh ! " how well they would look upon you : how much more your " lover would admire you in one." In an adjoining shop the shoemaker is seen sweeping the pretty foot of some fair cus- tomer with his long beard, as he adjusts the glossy slipper. Upon tables, before the doors of the upholsterers, in which all descriptions of furniture may be purchased, plaister of Paris busts of Alexander and his lovely consort are presented to the eye : " Sir, I am sure you like the Emperor and the Empress, " they are exactly like the originals, you shall have them for " twelve rubles ; I cannot sell them apart, they must not be " separated, they always go together, sir ; they are, you may " rely upon it, exactly like the originals." The consummate knowledge which the Russian shopkeeper possesses of the most complicated calculation, and the entan- gled caprices of that cameleon-coloured goddess who presides over the Exchange, is absolutely astonishing. If he cannot write, he has recourse to a small wooden frame, containing rows of beans, or little wooden balls, strung upon stretched wires, and with this simple machine he would set the spirit of Necker at defiance. It has been the fashion amongst travel- lers to assert, and they seem to have alternately received and imparted the prejudice, without the trouble and the justice of making their own observations, that the Russians are the 240 CRAFT, UNIVERSAL. greatest cheats in the universe. If the worthy shopkeepers of London, of Paris, and of Vienna, had never been known to consider that the value of the thing , ' ' Is just as much as it will bring," then, indeed, might Mercury, invested with his least favour- able attribute, regard the shop-boards of Gostinnoi dvor as his chosen altars. Accustomed to obtain wealth in the detail, and to have their reservoirs filled by partial drops, and not by copious showers, they display that little trick, which may be seen in all other countries under similar influences. It is related of Peter the Great, then when a deputation of Jews waited upon him, to solicit permission to settle at Petersburg, he replied : " My good friends, I esteem you too much to grant *' you that favour, for my people will out- wit you." The Russian has an apology for Ais craft: nature furnishes' him with it; he is doubly a slave, first to his immediate mas- ter, and secondly to his Emperor. It is the policy of the poor fellow, to conceal as cautiously as he can, not from the latter, for he is the fond father of his people, although con- stitutionally his paramount owner, but from his immediate lord; the amount of his profits : he does, what I have heard has been done in another country, where, thank God, petty le^ galized tyranny has never yet had an inch of ground to rest PLEBEIAN WEALTH. 241 upon ! he makes an inaccurate return of income to avoid an augmented imposition upon his profits. Men, whilst they have wigs upon their heads, and robes upon their shoulders, may perhaps blame him, but when these grave and impressive habili- ments of morality are quietly placed upon their respective pegs, their owners will, I am confident, pity, smile upon, and pardon, this hard and much injured toiling son of traffic. In so severe a degree does this sort of subordinate, and ever the most grinding and pernicious of all slavery exist, that it is no unusual thing for a peasant to be exchanged for ahorse, and even a favourite dog. A certain Russian Countess used to make her Calmuc girls read to her till she slept, and under the pain of severe flagellation, continue to read afterwards, to prevent her being awakened by the effect of sudden silence, 'f T bn»> ; V, I one day saw a Russian, distinguished only fi'om the com- monest sort by the superiority of the cloth of his long coat, who had paid fifteen thousand pounds for his freedom, and had amassed, by indefatigable industry, a fortune of one hun- dred thousand pounds : and not far from my hotel resided a Russian, who in the short space of twelve years, with a fair character, had amassed nearly a million sterling. ill /M »l>:>. ">* I am ready to admit that the petty stratagems of the coun- ter can never be justifiable, and that a propensity to conceal II 242 WISDOM OF CATHERINE. may increase them. The more assailants morahtj^ has, like every other assaulted power, the less is her security, and if she withstand, the greater her triumph ; whilst she is expelling knavery at one gate, falsehood may enter at another, and this contentious combination frequently terminates in the restora- tion and victorious settlement of both. Upon the mausoleums of few, may justly be recorded the beautiful epitaph which appears upon the tomb of the brave and generous Philip de Villiers I'lsle d'Adam, in the imperial museum of monuments in Les Petites Augustines at Paris: • i^n " Here lies Virtue vanquishing Fortune.** , , But do not let us think, that the Russian is natui-ally worse than his brethren in other parts of the globe. Pleaven has scattered our infirmities pretty equally ; and I must again re- peat, that the little stratagems of our northern brother find considerable palliation in the law, that secures not the fruits of his labour, but exposes him to the iron grasp of rapacious and unrelenting oppression. » • v The late Catherine thought, that the glory of government did not consist alone in military triumphs ; alarmed, as she most assuredly was, yet wholly uninfluenced, by the terrible storms of the French revolution, it was the anxious aim and the cor- dial desire of her long and splendid reign, to civilize her peo- SLAVERY. 243 pie by gradually unfolding to them, through a soft corrected medium, the glorious light of freedom. Her sagacious mind taught her to know, what Cowper has so exquisitely described, that 'i--f . ■■ ■'^ • :' ' ! ••;.;;, *; .it . ** all constraint ^ ., t .*. . Except what wisdom lays on evil men, >Ofl t'A'df Is evil ; hurts the faculties, impedes , • t Their progress in the road of science : blinds Ine eye-sight or discovery; and begets 1>jbljf{I In those that suffer it, a sordid mind Bestial, a meagre intellect, unfit To be the tenant of man's noble form." The modern Semiramis made some, though inconsiderable advances in the abolition of this odious vassalage, and during its continuance, checked its wanton abuses by some whole- some corrections. The same wise and benign desire exists in the breast of the reigning Emperor. Yet the labours of so noble an undertaking are immense. Genius and patience, firmness and perseverance, unextinguishable enthusiasm and heroic philanthropy, must possess the head and heart of that being who accomplishes so glorious an achievement. Alas ! baronial pride and hereditary prejudice, and that invincible attachment of man to property, have opposed, and will long oppose, this " consummation so devoutly to be wished." When once the Russian peer shall talk of his estate by its quan- tity and quality, and not by the degrading enumeration of so many heads of peasantry ; then, and not till then, can civilization make any rapid and extensive progress in this vast empire. I i2 244 ' JUSTICE. To say that nature has irreversibly doomed the Russian to be a barbarian, is an assertion as disgraceful as it is unjust, and such as nature has herself contravened. Amidst all the oppression that weighs him to the earth, that half associates him with the rugged bear of his forest ; and taught, as he is, that his condition can never know amelioration, this poor slave of the north has displayed the most heroic valour in the field, the most gentle moderation in success, and the mildest unrepining philosophy in suffering : such as would have done honour to a Roman. If you ask whether the sensibilities of nature ever softened the Russian breast, read what the poor exiles have expressed in the desolate wilds of Siberia, and it will put the feelings of your own heart to their fullest proof. In those regions of gloom, the poet may catch some of the finest subjects for his muse. Let us not endeavour to convert the law of climates into the ruthless decrees of immortal vengeance. Well did the poor African say, " Ah ! massa, a good Negro is like a chesnut, all ** white within ; and a bad Englishman is like an apple, thought " perfect when it has many little black grains in its heart.'* No ! no ! the breast of the Russian is not unimpressible. The granite of his inclement region is hard and rugged,harder than any other rock ; but under its rough surface gems are some- times foimd, and time and toil have proved that it is suscep- -. tible of a high polish. MUSIC FOR STRIPED 245 • No one who has remarked the Russian with candour, who judges from what he sees, and not from what he has heard or read, will hesitate to pronounce him one of the best tempered crea- tures in the creation. He will bear the curse and scorn, and frequently the blows of his superior, with mildness. Revenge, almost sanctioned by insults, never maddens his blood ; and knowing, perhaps, how hard it is to suffer without resisting, he is scarcely ever seen to strike the animal over which he has power. His horse is seldom propelled by any other influence than a few cherishing and cheerful sounds; if this encou- ragement encreases not his pace, he does not, heated with savage fury, dissect the wretched beast with the scourge, beat out an eye, or tear out the tongue ; no ! his patient driver begins to sing to him, and the Russians are all famous singers, as I shall hereafter tell ; if the charms of music have no in- fluence on his legs, he then begins to reason with him ; " You " silly fellow ! why don't you go on faster ? come, get on, get " on, don't you know that to-morrow is a prashnick (a fast day) " and then j^ou will have nothing to do but to eat r" By this time the sulky jade has generally had her whim out, and trots on gaily. His hoi-se is the object of his pride and com- fort; well observing the wisdom of a Russian proverb, " It is not the horse but the oats that carry you:" as long as the animal will eat he feeds him ; and his appearance genemlly honours, and his grateful services remunerate, the humanity of his master. A Russian, in the ebullition of passion, may i246 RUSSIANS, DANCERS. do a ferocious thing, but never an ill-natured one. No being under heaven surpasses him in the gaiety of the heart. His httle national song cheers him wherever he goes. Where a German would smoke for comfort, the Russian sings. There is nothing cold about him but his wintry climate ; whenever he speaks, it is w ith good-humour and vivacity, accompanied by the most animated gestures ; and although I do not think that the Graces would at first pull caps about him, yet in the dance, for spirit and agility, I would match and back him against any one oi the most agile sons of carelessness in the Champs Ely sees. ■■; In his religious notions, the Russian knows not the meaning of bigotry, and what is better, of toleration. He mercifully thinks that every one w ill go to heaven, only that the Russians will have the best place. When these simple children of Na- ture address each other, it is always by the affectionate names of my father, my mother, my brother, or my sister, according to the age and sex of the party. To these good qualities of the heart let me add the favourable and manly appearance of the Russians, I mean the proper Russian : during my stay in their residence I never saw one man that was either lame or deformed, or who squinted, and they are remarkable for the beauty of their teeth. Their dress is plain and simple, consist- ing of a long coat of woollen cloth, reaching to the knees, and folding before, fastened round the middle by a sash, into which RUSSIAN COSTUME. 247 his thick leather gloves are generally tucked, and frequently it holds his axe ; his drawers are of the same stuff with his coat, and his legs are usually covered with heavy boots, or swathed round with bandages, for they scarcely ever wear stockings, and for shoes he uses coarse sandals made of cloth and the matted bark of linden or birch ; his hair is alwaj^s cropped : the dress of the common women did not appear to me to vary much from that of our own females of the same degree ; it consisted of a tunic, generally of some shewy colour, with the sleeves of the shift appearing. The milk-women looked very well in this dress; and the manner in which they carry an ashen bow, from the ends of which are suspended little jars covered with matted birch bark, resting upon one shoulder, gives them an uncommonly graceful appearance. When the tradesmen's wives go out, they generally cover the top of their caps with a large rich silk handkerchief, which falls be- hind ; this appeared to be a very favourite decoration. Prudence demands some little knowledge of a character be- fore we associate with it, and it is with great pleasure that in this early stage I present the Russian. What of good he has he owes to himself; his foibles, and they are few, originate elsewhere : he is the absolute slave of his lord, and ranks with the sod of his domains; of a lord whose despotism is frequently more biting than the Siberian 248 RUSSIAN CHARACTER. blast. Never illumined by education, bruised with ignoble blows, the object and frequently the victim of baronial rapa- city, with a ^^ ide world before him, this oppressed child of nature is denied the common right of raising his shed where his condition may be ameUorated, permitted only to toil in a distant district under the protection of that disgraceful badge of vassalage, a certificate of leave, and upon his return com- pellable to lay the scanty fruits of his labour at the feet of his master ; and finally, he is excluded from the common pri- vilege which nature has bestowed upon the birds of the air and the beasts of the wilderness, of chusing his mate he must marry when and w hom his master orders. Yet under all this pressure, enough to destroy the marvellous elasticity of a Frenchman's mind, the Russian is what I have depicted him. If the reader is not pleased with the portrait, the painter is in &ult. ( 249 ) '.??i CHAP. XTI. PEDESTRIANS, HOW CONSIDERED THE SCAFFOLDING OP THE NEW KAZAN CHURCH GREAT INGENUITY OF COMMON RUSSIANS THE MARKET^ — THE KNOUT CRUELTY OP THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH— ' FUNISHMENT OP TWO LOVELY FEMALES. As I ha^^e described that focus of trade the Gostinnoi dovr, I must not omit to mention, that in the continuation of the Perspective towards the admiralty, an Englishman of the name of Owens carries on a prodigious trade, chiefly in Eng- lish manufactures ; his house, which is a very magnificent one, has twenty-five rooms en suite, which are filled with the most beautiful merchandize ; each room is a separate shop, and at- tended by persons who are solely attached to it : the prome- nade, through magazines of music, of books, of jewels, of fa- shions, &c. is very agreeable, and I believe perfectly novel. The respectable and enterprising proprietor is said frequently to receive one thousand pounds sterling in one day: it is the constant and crowded resort of all the fashion of Petersburg, ' ' In the streets I rarely ever saw a Russian above the lowest K K 250 ENGLISHMEN PRIVELEGED. degree Avalking ; the very taylor bestrides his droshka to take measure of his customer, and even many of the ofticers ride to the parade : this may arise from the great extent of the city, and the distance which one place is from another. If a gentle- man is seen on foot he is immediately considered to be an Englishman, who wishes to examine the city ; protected by this consideration, and this alone, he is regarded with tokens of courtesy, should a Russian noble of his acquaintance gallop by in his chariot and four. An Englishman is the only privi- leged foreigner who may, with safety to his own dignity, per- ambulate the streets, and investigate the buildings of Peters- burg. As I walked down the linden footpath of the Grand Per- spective, I observed almost every passenger, with whatever hurry he seemed to be moving, stop short before a church on the right hand, a little below the shops, take off his hat, bow, and touch his forehead, and either side of his breast, and then proceed. This building was the church of the Mother of God, of Kazan, which, although an inferior building, is, in religious estimation, the most considerable of the Greek churches, on account of its containing the figure of the Virgin. Upon all public occasions, the Emperor and court assist, with great splendor, in the celebration of divine worship here. Behind it was a vast pile of scaffolding, raised for the purpose of erect- ing a magnificent metropolitan church, in the room of the THE NEW KAZAN. 251 one which I have just named. This place of worship, when completed, will surpass in size and splendour every other build- ing in the residence ; and, if 1 may judge from the model, will be little inferior in magnitude and grandeur to our Saint Paul's. The, Emperor has allotted an enormous sum for its completion : all the holy utensils are to be set with the richest diamonds ; even the screen is to be studded with pre- cious stones. The scaffolding of this colossal temple is stupen- dous, and most ingeniously designed and executed, and would alone be sufficient to prove the genius and indefatigable labour of the Russians. Most of the masons and bricklayers who were engaged in raising the New Kazan, as w ell as those who are to be seen embellishing the city in other parts, are boors from the provinces. The axe constitutes the carpenter's box of tools : with that he performs all his work. No one can ob- serve with what admirable judgment, perspicuity, and preci- sion, these untutored rustics work, and what graceful objects rise from their uncouth hands, without doing them the justice to say, that they are not to be surpassed by the most re^- fined people in imitation and ingenuity : from me they have drawn many a silent eulogium as I passed through the streets. - Whilst I was gazing upon the New Kazan, the foundation of which, as well as the pedestals of the columns, are already raised, on a sudden all the hats flew off about me, in compli- ment to the Empress Dowager, and her lovely daughters the K K 2 252 THE KNOUT. " Grand Duchesses, who, with their attendants, were passing in two very plain carriages of a dark oUve colour, drawn each by four horees, with two footmen behind, in liveries of the colour of the carriages, with a red cape, large cocked hats, and military boots : upon the pannels were merely the letter E, and the black eagle. This august family, like that of the sovereign of England, but with less show, frequently ride about the city, and pay friendly visits. . Strolling nearly to the end of the Perspective, I found my- self in the market-place, and saw lying near the great market, scales, the apparatus to which delinquents are fastened, when they receive the punishment of the knout, that terrible scourge which Peter the Great and the Empress Elizabeth were per- petually raising over the heads of their subjects, but which the mercy of the present Emperor never, except for crimes of the deepest dye, permits to be exercised with fatal violence. The last man who perished by it, broke into the cottage of a family consisting of five persons, in a dark night, and butchered every one of them with a pole-axe. An act of such wanton barbarity, and so alien to the character of the Russian, did not fail to ex- cite the highest sensations of horror. After a fair trial, the murderer was twice knouted ; ^d, upon receiving his last pu- nishment, was, in the language of the Russian executioner, ** finished,'' by receiving several strokes of the thong dexterously applied to the loins, which were thus cut open : the miserable .'/'BEHEADING. 253 wretch was then raised, and the hgaments which united the nostrils were terribly lacemted by pincers ; but this latter part of his punishment, as I was infermed by a gentleman who was present, created no additional pang to the sufferer, for the last stroke of the scourge only fell upon a breathless body. When a criminal is going to receive the knout, he has a right, if he chuses, to stop at a certain kabac, and drink an allowance of liquor at the expence of government, m iais^Ao iw iii bk. I question if the cruelty of punishment is to be determined by the quantum of unnecessary agony which it causes, whether the infliction of death by suspension is not almost as barbarous as the knout : sufferers in the former mode have been seen to display, for eight and ten minutes, all the appearances of the most horrible torment. There is no mode of putting a capi- tal offender to death so swifl and decisive as decapitation. The scaffold, the preparation, the fatal stroke, the blood, are preg- nant with exemplary and repulsive horror : the pang of the sufferer is instantaneous — all the substantial ends of justice are effected with all possible humanity .j(^^>^| '|(> . • > - »^r » m j « ^ ? i In Russia, ladies of rank have suffered the punishment of the knout : the Abbe Chappe D'Auteroche relates the circum- stance of an execution of this nature which took place in the jeign of the cruel Elizabeth. He states that Madame La- pookin, who was one of the loveliest women belonging to th^ 254 MADAME LAPOOKIN. court of that Empress, had been intimately connected with a foreign ambassador who was concerned in a conspiracy against EHzabeth, and, on this account, his fair companion was de-» nounced as an accessary in his guilt, and condemned to un- dergo the knout : the truth was, Madame Lapookin had been indiscreet enough to mention some of the endless amours of her imperial mistress. The beautiful culprit mounted the scaffold in an elegant undress, which encreased the beauty of her charms and the interest of her situation. Distinguished by the captivation of her mind and person, she had been the idol of the court, and wherever she moved, she was environed by admirers : she was now surrounded by executioners, upon whom she gazed with astonishment, and seemed to doubt tliat she was the object of such cruel preparations. One of the executioners pulled off a cloak which covered her bosom, at which, like Charlotte Cordey as she was preparing for the guillotine, her modesty took alarm, she started back, turned pale, and burst into tears. Her clothes were soon stripped off, and she was naked to the waist, before the eager eyes of an immense concourse of people profoundly silent. One of the executioners then took her by both hands, and turning half round, raised her on his back, inclining forwards, lifting her a little from the ground; u}X)n which the other executioner laid hold of her dehcate limbs with his rough hands, adjusted her on the back of his coadjutor, and placed her in the properest posture for receiving the punishment. He then retreated a ANECDOTE. 255 few steps, measuring the proper distance with a steady eye, and leaping backwards, gave a stroke with the whip, so as to carry away a sUp of skin from the neck to the bottom of her back ; then striking his feet against the ground, he made a second blow parallel to the former, and in a few minutes all the skin of the back was cut away in small slips, most of which remained hanging to her chemise : her tongue was cut out immediately after, and she was banished to Siberia. It is impossible to reflect upon this savage scene, in which the Empress betrayed all the qualities of a ruthless barbarian, without equal horror and indignation. History represents Elizabeth as the most indolent, voluptuous, and sensual of her sex, which her portraits fully confirm. An anecdote is related of her, which proves, if any thing further were wanting, that she was a total stranger to feeling. One of her ladies in waiting, who was far advanced in years, and laboured under a great weakness in her legs, one day very nearly fainted in the presence of the Empress from the fatigue of standing. Eliza- beth observing her situation, enquired the cause ; and, upon being informed, she coolly replied : " Oh, is it so ? then lean ** a little against those drawers, and I will make believe that I ** don't see you." jj... . The late Empress Catherine exercised her vengeance upon a similar occasion with more lenity, but in a very mortifying ^5(3 SINGULAR PUNISHMENT. manner. A lovely vounj? woman, who had married the Count M f one of her discarded favourites, ohtained from her husband some singular particulars respecting his intimacy with the Empress, which she very injudiciously related to some of her female friends at Moscow, where she resided. Not long after, just as the lady and her husband were resigning them- selves to sleep, they were awakened by a loud Tcnocking at the door of their chamber, which the husband unbolted, whem a stout police officer entered with a large rod in one hand, and an imperial order in the other. The husband was commanded to kneel on one side of the bed, and make no resistance or noise, as in the next room there were several brethren of this^ summary minister of justice in waiting. The lady was or^ dered, just as she was, to descend from the bed, and lay her- self upon the floor ; the officer then tied her hands and feet, and gave her a severe whipping : when he had finished the discipline, he loosened her, raised her up, and said, " This is " the punishment which the Empress inflicts upon tattlers ; ** the next time you go to Siberia.'* The story was soon buzzed abroad, and the poor young lady could not appear for some time after in Moscow witliout exciting a titter. In her pleasures, Catherine only reflected upon the unbridled indulgences of the sovereigns of the opposite sex, which she cherished as precedents of indisputable authority. As an Em- j^ress, she considered herself above those restraints with which THE EMPRESS DOWAGER. 257 the protective code of society has environed the delicacy and chastity of women, the bright lustre of which cannot be breath- ed upon without being sullied. It is not likely that I, who be- long to a country which female modesty has selected for her fevourite residence, and in the diadem of which she has fixed her whitest plume, should advocate the licentiousness of Ca- therine ; yet it is but justice to her memory to say, that she endeavoured to conceal her faulty pleasures under a surface of refinement; that she punished, with efficacious severity, every inclination to depravity in her court ; and that she laboured only to make the better parts of her character exemplary. The present Empress Dowager, though past the meridian of beauty, exhibits very powerful traces of her having been one of nature's favourites. Her complexion is very fine, her face full, her eyes of hazel colour, sweet and expressive ; her per- son somewhat corpulent, but very majestic. Her manners are in a peculiar degree soft, benign, and captivating. She devotes herself to the education of the younger bmnches of her august family, to the superintendence and encouragement of benevolent institutions, and to a very tasteful cultivation of the arts. One of her pursuits is somewhat singular ; she is an excellent medalist. I have seen some of her works in this elegant branch of art, as well as some of her chasing in gold, which would do honour to any artist. Her needle-work is L I. 258 THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER, also very beautiful, and must be aditiired even by those who have beheld the exquisite performances of a Linwood. The present Emperor Alexander is about twenty-nine years of age, his face is full, very fair, and his complexion pale ; his eyes blue, and expressive of that beneficent mildness which is one of the prominent features of his character. His person is tall, lusty, and well pro}x>rtioned ; but, being a little deaf, to facilitate his hearing, he stoops: his deportment is conde- scending, yet dignified. In the discharge of his august duties he displays great activity and acuteness, but without shew^ and bustle : the leading features of his mind are sound discretion and humanity, qualities which cannot fail to render an empire nourishing and a people happy ! He is so much an enemy to parade, that he is frequently seen wrapped up in his regimental cloak, riding about the capital alone, upon a little common droshka : in this manner he has been known to administer to the w ants of the poor. It is his wish, if he should be recog- nized in this state of privacy, that no one will take off their hats ; but the graciousness of his desire only puts the heart in the hand as it uncovers the head, I have many times seen him in a chariot, perfectly plain, of a dark olive, drawn by four horses, driven by a bearded coachman, a common little postilion, and attended by a single footman. Soldiers are al- ways upon the look out for him, to give timely notice to the J HIS ATTACHMENT TO THE ENGLISH. 259 guard of his approach ; without this precaution it would be impossible, amidst the crowd of carriages which is to be seen in the residence, to pay him the honours due to his rank. The Emperor is very much attached to the EngUsh, numbers of whom have settled in the empire, and have formed, under the auspices of the government, a sort of colony. The Emperor has often been heard to say that " The man within ** whose reach heaven has placed the greatest materials for •* making life happy, was, in his opinion, an English oountry ** Gentleman,'' Although the Emperor has never visited England, he is perfectly acquainted with its character and manners, as he is with its language. A very amiable and respectable English gentleman, Mr. G. of the treasury, was, by the wish of Ca- therine, brought up with him, and was the play-mate and as- sociate of his early years. The incidents of boyish da3^s, so dear to every feeling and generous mind, left their accustomed impressions upon the heart of Alexander ; and though time placed him at an immeasurable distance from his early com- panion, he has never ceased to honour him with the most gracious regard ; in the display of which he exhibited the Emperor only in the munificent proofs of his friendship. I heard another instance of the strong partiality of Alexander for England. When an English gentleman, who, a short time before the death of Paul, had frequently played duets upon L l2 t , . 260 THE FLUTE. the flute with the Grand Duke, was preparing to quit the empire for his own country, in consequence of the sudden antipathy which the former had taken to our countrymen ; after the close of the last piece they ever performed toge^ ther, Alexander thus feelingly apostrophized the flute of his friendly musician, as he held it in his hand: " Adieu, sweet f * instrument ! you have charmed away many an hour of care ; " often- and deeply shall I regret the absence of your enchant- " ing sounds ; but you are going to breathe them in the best " and happiest country in the world." These are trifling anecdotes to record, but they conduct the reader to the heart. " Man is most natural in little things.'* How much, and how justly, the Emperor is beloved by his people, will occasionally appear as I proceed. The Rus- sians, who have had so many foreign princes to govern them, behold with enthusiastic fondness an emperor born in Russia. The face of the reigning Empress is very sweet and expres- sive ; her person is slight, but very elegant, and of" the usual height of her sex ; she is remarkably amiable, and diffident, even to shyness. Her mind is highly cultivated, and her manners soft, gracious, and fascinating. Her sister, the Queen of Sweden, if there be any fidelity in the chisel of Sergell, must be a model of female beauty. The Emperor and Empress have no family. They were united at an ex- traordinary early age, from a wibh of Catherine to contem- IMPERIAL FAMILY. 261 plate as many of her posterity, who were destined to succeed to the throne, as she could before she died. The two Grand Duchesses, who are grown up, do honour to the care of their Imperial mother, and excite the attachment and admiration of all who approach them. The youngest of the two was mar- ried to the prince of Saxe Weimar, during my stay in Peters- burgh ; and as the ceremony of their nuptial will illustrate the manners and customs of the Russians, I shall hereafter give a brief description of it. From the place of execution in the market place, I made my way to the Monastery of St. Alexander Nevsky, at the very extremity of the eastern part of the city. In the street were several carts standing, filled with pease in pod, with their roots just as when they were pulled up from the garden, and with their stalks, which the poor people bought, sometimes for themselves, and sometimes for their horses ; to both the ve- getable, which was eaten shell and stalk together, appeared a dainty. The monastery occupies a vast space of ground, is moated round, and contains a magnificent church, surmounted by a vast copper dome, a chapel, the cells, refectories, and dormitories for sixty monks, a seminary, and the residence of the metropolitan archbishop. I'he front of the basement of the buildings, which are all connected together, is painted of a deep crimson colour, and, from the immense quantity i62 MONASTERY. and size of the windows, resembles a collection of colossal hot-houses. In the church, wliich is very elegant, I saw the shrine of St. Alexander Nevsky, the tutelar saint of Russia, formerly one of its sovereigns, who was raised to that distinguished honour, in consequence of his having most gallantly repulsed the Swedes, or Finns, some centuries since, on the banks of the Neva. The monument, and military trophies which adorn it, as well as the pillars and canopy under which it stands, are of wrought massy silver, made from the first ore of that metal ever discovered in Russia. One of the columns, which forms the back of the space allotted for the Imperial family, is a whole length portrait of the late Empress, well executed. The altar, screen, and decorations, are very superb. There are cloisters round the whole of the buildings, formed almost entirely of double windows, by which in winter every house in Russia, of the least respectability, is protected against the terrible severity of the cold ; the joists, and all other avenues of air, being either covered with pasted paper or felt. Every part of the monastery appeared to be very neat and clean, and the mansion of the archbishop handsome. The chanting of some fine deep-toned voices attracted me to the chapel, where the monks, assisted by the priest, were at their devotion. The dress of the former is singularly gloomy ; on RUSSIAN TOMBS. 263 their heads they wore a high hat, covered with black crape flowing down the back : the habit, which fell below the ancles, was black cloth lined with a sombre dark blue stuff, their beards were of a great length, and each monk carried a rosary of brown or black beads. As I was returning, several beau- tiful monuments in the church-yard attracted my steps ; they appeared to be constructed and arranged as in England. While engaged in examining them, an elderly lady, in deep mourning, apparently about sixty years of age, with a pale but dignified face, leaning upon the arm of a grace- ful youth, clad in the same suit of sorrow, slowly passed by me, and at some distance stopped before a small but ele- gant tomb, which, from its unsullied whiteness, had the ap- pearance of having been but very lately erected. I noticed them unobserved. They stood under the shade of a wide spreading silver birch, and turning towards the church of the monastery, the youth pulled off his hat, and they both pros- trated and crossed themselves, according to the forms of the Greek faith ; the female then, clasping her hands, dropped her head upon the pedestal of the monument, and appeared to be lost in profound and affecting meditation. The young man knelt by her side, and, if I mistook not the cause which moved his hand, he wept. Some minutes elapsed, they then arose, tenderly surveying the spot, ascended a hillock of grass, and kissed a little marble urn, which surmounted the monu- ment. My conjecture enclosed in it the heart of >some long- 264 FUNERALS. loved husband and father. They then withdrew in the same sad, solemn, and impressive manner, with which they entered, and I approached the object of their melancholy regard. The pedestal which supported the urn was embellished with two medallions ; one represented Resignation, with the face of a beautiful female, upon which the most angelic sweetness ap- peared to triumph over languor and pain ; tlie other depicted Hope, modestly, yet ardently looking to heaven. There was a small inscription between the two heads, in Russ, and un- derneath, the figures 1804. The Russians, like wise people, always bury their dead in the suburbs. The late Empress never permitted burials in the day ; she thought, with some reference to the popular prejudice, that the gloom of the spec- tacle ought to be confined, as much as possible, to the rela- tives of the deceased ; and I should suppose that her ukase, regulating this awful ceremony, still continues, for I never saw a funeral during my stay in Russia. The reader will, I am sure, be pleased with the beauty and pathos of the following stanzas» which form a part of the hymn recited over the body previous to its inhumation. " Oh, what is life ? a blossom ! a vapour or dew of the " morning ! Approach and contemplate the grave. Where "now is the graceful form! where is youth! where the or- " gans of sight ! and where the beauty of complexion ! SUPERSTITION. 265 '. *" What lamentation, and wailing, and mourning, and ** sti'uggling, when the soul is separated from the body ! Hu- " man life seems altogether vanity ; a transient shadow; the *'deep of error ; the unavailing labour of imagined exigence, " Let us therefore fly from every corruption of the world, that *' we may inherit the kingdom of heaven." J/I >*j i " Thou Mother of the Sun that never sets ; Parent of God, " we beseech thee intercede with thy divine offspring, that he '* who hath departed hence, may enjoy repose with the souls ** of the just. Unblemished Virgin ! may he enjoy the eternal *' inheritance of heaven in the abodes of the righteous." The superstition of the Russians is very great. Upon the ceremony of blessing the waters in the winter, when a large hole is perforated in the Neva, a woman supplicated a priest to immerse her newborn child ; the priest consented, but in dipping the miserable little sufferer, his fingers were so be- numbed, that he irrecoverably dropped it under the ice ; the parent, with a smile of delight, exclaimed, " He is gone to *' heaven.", ..^ I ..... . . . . ...... . In one of the churches I saw a woman doing penance for the following crime : She had not long been married before she polluted the bed of her husband, whom she used to keep in an almost constant state of intoxication. One day, whilst MM 266 ADULTERY. {she was indulging herself in her adulterous attachment, her husband unexpectedly appeared perfectly sober : stung with jealousy by what he saw, he sprang upon his guilty rival,, and with a knife stabbed him to the heart. The laws of Eng- land would have protected the miserable man, but by those of Russia he was knouted and sent to Siberia ; and his wife, who was the authoress of this bloody tragedy, was ordered by her priest to prostrate herself six hundred times a day for two years, before the Virgin. Her conscience and her bigotry ei> forced punctual observance of the prescribed mortifications. By the Russian laws,^ if the husband is of a tyrannical and violent temper, a woman may commit adultery with im^ punity. ^tii ^^> a* ' The Russians are fanatically attached to the very stone, brick, wood, and plaster, of their churches : they have a re- mark, that whilst the Russians build their churches first and their towns afterwards, the English never think of a temple until they have erected their own dwellings. It is somewhat singular, that with all their religious enthu- siasm, the Russians pay their priests more miserably than we do our curates ; but perhaps it may be traced ta the ex- treme ignorance of the former. After wealth and birth, know- ledge awakens respect, and perhaps the Russian populace would revolt at the idea of making their ministers indepeja^ ANECDOTE. 267 dent before their minds were cultivated : to their saints they would devote their Uves; to tlieir priests they give black bread. That the Greek faidi admits of confession, the following anecdote will prove : A priest came to hear the confession jof a great man: " Holy father," says the Count, "have you " a good memory V* ** Yes." " Then you remember what I ** told you at my last confession ; since that I have had the ** same temptations j&om without ; the same weaknesses from f* within; and here is tlie same number of rubles." Another reason was now assigned for Paul'* having intro- duced the magpie cdour which I have before mentioned : it was that the soldiers, raw recruits, and boors, employed for government, might the more readily distinguish the buildings which belonged to it. As I crossed tlie draw-bridge of the ligova canal, the latter appeared to be almost choaked with barks of a prodigious length, filled with billets of birch-wood, for the immediate use of the kitchen, and for a winter-stock of fuel ; this and the rent of houses, and necessary equipages, and bread, constitute the most expensive part of house-keeping in Petersburg, which in most .other respects is moderate. These vessels, in which not only wood but charcoal is brought from the shores of the M M 2 268 CARRIAGES. nearest rivers, or of the Ladoga lake, never return, but are broken up and sold, for building houses for the poor, or for fuel. These barks, unavoidably necessary, sadly disfigure the beautiful canals which form the pride and comfort of this ca- pital; and here, as upon the sides of the Seine, the v^^asherwo- men are the principal water nymphs. Most of the canals are finely embanked with granite, and have a rich iron railing running on each side. The Fontanka Canal is eminently beautiful. These intersections of water assimilate Petersburg in some degree to Venice. As I returned through the Grand Perspective, I took a peep at that part of it which is called the Yafnskoi, answering to the Long Acre of London, where there is a long row of carriage builders* shops ; here are drosh- kaes, calashkies, chariots, sledges, and all sorts of carriages, many of them very neat, some of them very heavy, but none very lasting ; yet there is no knavery ; those who build them use the best materials the country will afford, and in shape and fashion, where the carriage will admit of it, they imitate us very closely, and a stranger may buy a very comfortable ca- lashka for about five hundred rubles, for which, a little more elegmitly and substantially made, if calashkies and rubles ran in England, he Avould at least pay one thousand of the latter. This depot, or the yards of the coachmakers, amongst whom there is an EngUsh one, in the second line of the GalcerenofK are the best places for a foreigner to purchase a carriage when he is about to quit Russia. •^^j. RUSSIAN DINNER, 269 As I walked along I obser\'ed, on each side of the street, se- veral stands, each attended by a re\ erend looking long-bearded Russian, with piroghi, or little pies filled with meat, next to which were eggs, and salted cucumbers, of which the Russians are particularly fond, and in a third were pymmids of berries, much resembling a mulberry in shape, but of a light yellowish colour, called the marosliki ; the cranberry, called the glukoi ; wild straw berries, whortle berries, and cloud berries, said to be excellent antiscorbutics. I cannot say much of the attrac- tive cleanliness and delicacy of the patissier, but a Russian stomach is not squeamish ; and for a very few copecs it may be, in the estimation of its ownei7, substantially and completely filled. The fasts of the Russians are very frequent, and very rigidly observed. . . . v ;.- i . ii l^ff*) kA 'flUi^ >^j t^lJiifuJUj.^ i>/.''} V-;H As z.fast in England always reminds me of a feast, I will just give a brief sketch of a Russian dinner, which is seldom later than three o'clock : upon a side-board in the drawing- room is always placed a table filled with fish, meats, and sau- sages salted, pickled, and smoked, bread and butter, and li- queurs ; these airy nothings are mere running footmen of the dinner, which is in the following order : a cold dish, generally of sturgeon or some other fish, precedes, followed by soup, a number of made dishes, a profusion of roast and boiled meats, amongst which the Ukraine beef is distinguishable, and abun- dance of excellent vegetables ; then pastry, and a desert of t70 SAYINGS. very fine melons, and sour flavourless wall fruit ; the table is "Covered with a variety of wines, and excellent ale and beer. The master of the ^louse or a cook <^arves, and slices of every -dibh are handed round to the guests. One of the most grati- fying things that I alwaj^s saw upon the table, was a large vase of ice broken into small pieces, with which the guest cools his wine and beer. In the yard every Russian house has two large cellars, one wanii for winter, and the other filled with ice for the summer. The soup, and coffee, and chocolate are frequent- ly iced. One day at dinner, I sat by a loveli/ Russian lady, that is, born in Russia but of German parents : the explanation will save me a remark embarrassing to gallantry, and which I wisli to avoid, respecting the beauty of the proper Russian women, at least of those whom I saw. This accomplished woman, in my own language as pure as ever it fell from English lady's Hps, requested some salt; upon my presenting it she said, " Whenever you give salt, never fail to ^mile ; it is a supersti- tious custom in Russia." A smile is in this countrv considered as a charm against poison. Heavens ! surely they have not yet to learn that ** A man may smile, may smile, and be a villain.'* They have a beautiful proverbial expression : > " Banter, but never make the cheek red.'* Nature has less to do with climate than library gossips sup- pose, at least I thought so when I committed the following blunder: "You never saw my Sophinka before," said Ma- BLUNDER. 271 dame L , pointing to a fine little girl at table, about ten years of age; " She is your chutghter, I presume?" " Ma- " dame L 's daughter!" exclaimed a gentleman, " surely " that cannot be, she is more like your sister.'' The fact was; the child was neither daughter nor sister^ but a httle yisitor. The result was, that the principal part of Madame L 's enchanting conversation during dinner was withdrawn from me, and addressed to the gentleman whose error was the most fortunate. After a few glasses of delicious wines, cham- pagne included, the lady rises, and the company retires to coffee in the drawing-room. The rooms of respectable houses are never papered, but where tlie sides are not covered with silk or cotton, they are coloured in a brilliant and beautiful manner to resemble papering. In this act the natives are un- commonly tasteful and rapid » The hospitality of this place cannot be surpassed : When a. stranger is introduced, the family mention the days of tho week when they receive their friends, and expect that he will include himself in the mamber : the invitation is frank and cordial, and is seldem repeated ; where it is understood there- is no occasion for it. The frippery and formality of forxed^ and frequently treacherous ceremony^ is not known here. • At the back of the Gastinnoi-door are the fruit, bird, and poultry markets, in a street of wooden sheds like those at a Hi BIRD JMAHKET. fair in England. Apples, pears, rasberries, enrmnts, peaches, excellent melons and pine apples, are temptingly presented to the eye, and are all intolerably dear, even when you are permitted to buy for half the price at first demanded, for the custom of asking double the sum intended to be taken prevails in all this neighbourhood ; but as it is well known, it seldom answers. In the bird quarter were pigeons, sparrows, hawks, birds of the rock, and a few others, in greater numbers than variety : upon a beam in this place was suspended the image of a favourite Saint, with a lamp burning before her. In the [X)ultry department very fine geese, ducks, and fowls, were in great abundance. The bank next attracted my attention : it is a large and very beautiful building of brick stuccoed, containing a centre and two wings, and adorned in front by a very hand- some and elegant iron-railing. The whole of this neighbour- hood is filled with kabacs and public-houses, where dinners are dressed, and beer, and mead, and brandy sold. At the end of the Grand Perspective, the church of the Admiralty, with its lofly spire, plated with ducat gold, having a vane in the form of a ship, presents itself, and, like a haughty female, ashamed in her proud attire of her mean origin and humble relations, seems scornfully to lift herself above the long gloomy line of low brick buildings which, with the yards be- hind, constitute the Admiralty, and disfigure this part of the capital. Time has proved that Peter the Great acted wisely SHIP-BUILDING. 273 in chusing the situation for his city. The shallowness of the Neva presents an insuperable barrier to the fleets of Sweden, and a noble river, so clear that it is drank without filtration, divides and enriches the quarters of the city with the beauty and purity of its waters : but, with the powerful facilities of building ships at Cronstadt, a large impregnable island at the mouth of the Neva, in the gulf of Finland, and the grand naval arsenal of Russia, I must confess, in my poor opinion, he has not been equally judicious in establishing an Admiralty at Petersburg. So little is the depth of water at the latter place, that whenever a ship of war is launched, she is obliged to be floated down to Cronstadt upon camels. Of the trouble and expence of such a removal let the reader judge, when I inform him that I saw this stupendous machinery mounted upon thousands of wedges of wood, in a meadow, about half a mile from any water in which they could be floated. My astonishment could not have been exceeded, had I beheld a first rate seventy-four upon the top of Saint James's palace ! Suppose the clear shell of a larger ship than ever yet was built were cut in two, and each part put into an outer case, but at such a distance from it as to leave throughout a hollow space of from eight to ten feet : such was the appearance of the camels. But how they are removed from the place where they lie in ordinary, supposing any number of men were em- ployed, surpasses my imagination ; however, like every thing else in Russia, when they are wanted they make their a[)pear- N N 274 THE ADMIRALTY. ance, and come when they are called to the Admiralty, where each takes its station on either side of the ship which they are destined to carry to Cronstadt. By the means of vast move- able weights, and by opening several apertures in the external sides of this mighty section of a ship to admit the water, they are sunk, drawn close together under the curve of the ship, and braced with cables ; a work fit for a race of giants ! To see them moved and directed by men, must present the image of the recumbent body of Gulliver covered with Lilliputians. But whilst the frame of man becomes diminutive by the side of his own works, his soul expands, and rises with his labours. The Admiralty is a vast oblong square : the side towards the river is open, and far from being ornamental to the adjoining palaces: that toward the city is defended by earthen ram- parts, fortified with cannon, and secured by draw-bridges. The store-houses appeared to be well arranged : there were two ships, one of seventy-four and the other of sixty guns, ready for launching. An Englishman cannot fail being struck with the prodigious waste which occurs in the dock-yards, in consequeiice of the carpenters using their hatchets instead of the saw in dividing timber. The chips form the perquisite of the workmen ; but the government would save an immense quantity of valuable timber would it give an equivalent, and insist upon the use of the saw. In the naval constitution of Russia there is a regulation which cries aloud for reform ; it is balloting foy rank, and the right of black-balling ; terms which PAUL JONES. 275 sufficiently explain the nature and abuses of an an-angement so degrading and odious tomerit, and detrimental to the service. It appears also injudicious to send a young marine cadet to Engr land to learn navigation, upon a salary of from one hundred and eighty to two hundred pounds per annum, or perhaps to send him at all. Struck with new customs and fashions, he neglects his pursuits, establishes habits of expence, and returns with dissatisfaction to his country upon a pay of twenty-five pounds per annum. There are several English officers in the service of the Em- peror. The late Sovereign made overtures to the celebrated Paul Jones to take the command of one of his sliips ; as soon as it was known to the British officers, ^hey immediately sent in their resignation. The intermixture of so many English subjects in the naval and commercial departments of Russia, so essential to their advancement, and consequently to the ge- neral interests of the empire, must ever preser\'e a favourable disposition in that country toward the British nation. .^' KN 2 ( 276 ) CHAP. XIII. A CAUTION THE HOUSE OP PETER THE GREAT — SINGULAR ANEC- DOTE POLICE A traveller's DUTY AN EXTRAORDINARY PURGATION A BRITISH COURT OP CRIMINAL LAW NOISY BELLS FRUITERER— ICE THE SORROWFUL MUSICIAN DROLLERY AND DRUNKENNESS IMPERIAL THEATRE NORTHERN GRANDEES. 1 WAS much inconvenienced by shipping a trunk contain- ing books and wearing apparel at Stockholm for Petersburg, which, I was assured would be there as soon as I should, yet it never arrived till just before my departure. Let me recom- mend every traveller to avoid this mode of conveyance, not merely for the uncertainty which always attends a Swedish bye-boat during such a voyage, but on account of the difficulty of obtaining possession of property so sent after it reaches the custom-house at Petersburg. If it should contain books, they must be submitted to a censor, and the owner must pay a duty of thirty pounds per cent, ad valorem upon the things. Whilst I was at Petersburg, a book called the Secret Memoirs of the Court of Petersburg was prohibited. The author was a French emigrant, and had been cherished by that court whose secret SINGULAR ANECDOTE. 277 intrigues he had ungratefully exaggerated to the world. This man, a short time since, had the audacity to request permis- sion of the Emperor to return to Petersburg, which he had quitted some time before. The Emperor, with his accustomed sound sense and liberalit}^ sent him word, " That his domi- " nions were open to every body, but he was not so much his " enemy as to recommend his entering them." The house, or rather cottage, in which Peter the Great resided during the foundation of Petersburg, a city which is the growth of little more than a century, stands on the left of the Emperor's bridge in the road to the fortress. This little building, so sacred to the Russians, was covered over with a brick building of arcades by the late Empress, to pro- tect and support it against the ravages of time. The rooms are three, all upon the ground floor, and very low : it was in this very cottage that a whimsical scene occurred whilst the fortress was building. A Dutch skipper, hearing that Peters- burg was building, and that the Emperor had a great passion for ships and commerce, resolved to try his good fortune there, and accordingly arrived with the first merchant vessel that ever sailed upon the Neva, and was the bearer of a letter of intro- duction to the captain of the port from a friend of his in Holland, requesting him to use his interest to procure a freight for him. Peter the Great was working like a common la- bourer in the Admiralty as the galliot passed, and saluted with 27S ANECDOTE. two or three small guns. The Emperor was uncommonly de- lighted, and having been informed of the Dutchman's busi- ness, he resolved to have some frolic with him, and accord- ingly commanded the port captain to see the skipper, as soon as he landed, and direct him to the Emperor, as a merchant just settled there, whom he intended to personate ; the better to carry on the joke, Peter repaired to this cottage with his Empress, who, to humour the plan, dressed herself in a plain lx)urgeois habit, such as suited the wife of a merchant. The Dutchman was introduced to the Emperor, who received him with great kindness, and they sat and ate bread and cheese, and smoked together for some time, during w hich the Dutchman's eye examined the room, and began to think that no one who lived in so mean a place, could be of any service to him : presently the Empress entered, w hen the skipper addressed her, by obser\ ing that he had brought her a cheese, a much better one than she had ever tasted, for which, affect- ing an awkward manner, she thanked him. Being much pleased with her appearance, he took from his coat a piece of linen, and begged her acceptance of it for shifts. " Oh !" ex- claimed the Emperor, taking the pipe from his mouth, *' Kate, ** you will now be as fine and as proud as an empress ! there, *' you are a lucky woman, you never had such sliifts as you " will now have, in your life before." This was followed by the stranger begging to have a kiss, which she coyly indulged him in. At this moment Prince Menzikof, the favourite and ANECDOTE. 279 minister of Peter the Great, who represented him upon mat- ters of state, entered with all his orders, and stood before the Emperor uncovered. The skipper began to stare with amazement, whilst Peter, by winking and making private signs, induced the Prince immediately to retire. The asto- nished Dutchman said, " Why you appear to have great ac- " quaintance here r" " Yes," replied Peter, " and so may ** you, if you stay here but ten days ; there are plenty " of such needy noblemen as the one you saw, they are " always in debt, and very glad to borrow money of any one, " and they have even found out me ; but, sir, beware of " these fellows, resist their importunity, however flattering, " and do not be dazzled by their stars and garters, and such " trumpery." This explanatory advice put the stranger a little more at his ease, who drank and smoked on very cheer- fully, and made his bargain with the Imperial Merchant for a cargo; just as he had settled this point to his wish, the offi- cer of the guard, which had been changed, entered to receive his orders, and stood with profound respect uncovered, and before Peter could stop him, addressed him by the title of Im- perial Majesty. The Dutchman sprang from his chair, fell on his knees before the Emperor and Empress, and implored forgiveness for the liberties he had been taking. Peter en- joyed the scene, and laughing heartily, raised up the terrified suppliant, and made him kiss the Empress's hand, presented him with fifteen hundred rubles, gave him a freight, and or- ^80 POLICE OF PETERSBURG. dered that his vessel, as long as her timbers remained together, should be permitted to enter all the Russian ports free of duty. This privilege made the rapid fortune of the owner. A friend of mine frequently saw her, some years since, at Cronstadt. On the right hand side of the cottage is a boat, built by the hands of Peter the Great. It resembles a large Thames wherry, and does honour to the skill of the princely boat- builder. As I sat in the carriage, waiting for some of my companions, I made a sketch of the house, boat, a droshka, and a groupe of Russians and an American, who -were there. Upon our return the evening was advanced, and the night watch was set ; we met the police master mounted upon a droshka, drawn by two horses in full gallop, followed by two of the police on horseback, dressed in light green, and armed with sabres ; they were going their rounds through the city, to see that order was preserved, and that the nocturnal guards, amounting to five hundred, were at their respective posts. Soon after, we met with a patrolling troop of Cossacs on horse- back. In no city is there greater safety and tranquillity pre- served than at Petersburg, which for this purpose is divided into ten departments, and these divided into several smaller parts, each of which has its proper chief and subordinate offi- cers, who, by a very simple organization, preserve the capi- tal, at all hours of the night, in a state of quiet and security, that cannot fail to excite the admiration of foreigners, and particularly of Englishmen. Those detestable agents of go- . POLICE OF PETERSBURG, " tSX vernment, spies have no existence in Petersburg ; without their baneful assistance, the poUce is so admirably and powerfully extended, that, like a spider's web, whatever comes in contact with it, is felt from the centre to the extremities. The com- manding officers of the police do not rank with the officers of the army, nor are they received with much respect in society, I one evening saw an instance of severity which surprised and disgusted me, but probably it was intended to strike ter- ror, and to abbreviate the labour of the police, by command- ing an instantaneous submission to its functionaries, A quar- rel had taken place between two men in the street througli which I was passing, and before the third exchange of impreca- tions, two of the police appeared, and ordered these disturbers of the peace to walk before them to the neaijest sieja, or little watch-house, but one of them refused to go, upon which an officer drew his sabre, and cut him in the face ; the man, like a true Russian, more affected at the sight of the blood, than by the pain of the wound, submitted himself to the law, and marched off without further delay. It would be well for the safety and tranquillity of the inhabi- tants of London, and more particularly of its immediate neigh- bourhood, if its police were more extended, swift and poxQer- fuL In this respect we are assuredly inferior to most nations. I am aware that arbitrary governments have, hitherto, dis- 28^ REGULATION OF IMPURES. played the most perfect systems of police ; but is this the reason why the genius and constitution of a free one cannot admit of its extending domestic protection to its subjects ? Is civil liberty incompatible with preventive policy ? Is the free- dom of the country gone, when murderers and robbers cease to be free ? or is it to presence our chartered privileges, that a band of superannuated watchmen, who, to protract their becoming an additional burden upon the poor-rate, beyond the ordinary era of eleemosynary aid, are hehneted in flannel night-caps, and with a rattk and a lanthorn, admirable equip- ment for second childhood, and €i/es dim with age ! are sent forth to guard the lives and property of the inhabitants of the iTiost crowded, populous, and wealthy city in the world ? To find fault is an easy and an odious office. But a traveller, like a bee, should never be upon the wing without bringing home some sweet to encrease the honey of his native hive. Neither at night, nor by day, are the streets infested by wo- men of the town ; they live in a quarter by themselves, and I believe are not very numerous ; some of them are Polish^ of course handsome ; some Germans, of course fascinating ; and some, and the most of them, fair and fi'ail wanderers from the upper parts of Finland, w hich, although the portion t)f the province tlmt we saw was so destitute of every thing like beauty, is said to possess many pretty faces and good j^er- ^ns amongst the females. If it be true, as Mr. Justice Col- ^i]divliich is verv lofty, and has two enormous stoves made of brick, covered with blue Dutch tiles : upon the whole, its ap- pearance is very inferior to the club-houses of Stockholm. About two o'clock, the dinner hour at this place, the court- yard is crowded with carnages and equipages. . A fortunate removal of people from the hotel, enabled mc to change my apartment for another more pleasantly situated ; the price was the same, viz. seven rubles, or nineteen shillings English, per week. This room was divided, h la Russe, by a screen, behind which my bed or crib was placed. The windows looked upon the Moika canal, where of an evening I used to be serenaded by the common bargemen, and some- times by the rowers of the pleasure-barges. Of the Russian song and music I will speak by and bye : I shall only now, as some modest barristers say, humhly insist upon it, that barba- rians have not a natural and ardent taste for music and singing. One evening, while amusing myself with a young bear in the court-yard of the house of a friend, my ears were gratified by some wild notes, which, upon turning round, I found issued from an instrument resembling a guitar, upon which a native of Archangel was playing very sweetly : the tenderness of the scene improved the music. The poor fellow was weeping as he play- ed, to mitigate the sufferings of his wife, upon whom death had fixed his seal, and who, with her head reclining upon her liand, sat at an open windown in the basement floor to enjoy TIPPLING, 289 a little air. Tlie rude and sorrowful musician, and his pale and interesting wife, formed a subject for the painter. This sensibility, which would have charmed a traveller had he be- held it in the love-inspiring groves of Italy, was the produce of the frozen regions of the White Sea ! The natives of Archangel are looked upon as more civilized than their more southern brethren, and servants from this part of Russia are preferred for their integrity, intelligence, and activity. Although I have expressed my attachment to the Russian, and like the good-humoured fellow prodigiously ; yet I must admit that he has no objection to improve his notions of earthly felicity by a little occasional inebriation. At a house where I passed the evening, previous to supper we had been drinking some ale, which in this country is prized on account of its being both excellent and forbidden, having left a couple of bottles about half full upon the table when supper was announced, a most demure looking menial, with a long beard, who stood behind my chair, was ordered to bring them in : after some little hesitation, he informed his master " that he " was very sorry for it ; but that, as he passed through the " room, by mere accident he had emptied the bottles." Na- ture, by some of her odd freaks, very soon confirmed the truth of one part of this statement. This propensity is much en- couraged by the extraordinary number of festivals which oc- cur in this country, particularly at the end of Lent ; almost as p p 290 BURTON ALE. many as those of tiie civic corporation of London, which it is said would present, if they were duly observed, a feast for every day in the year, and some over. One day whilst I was at Petersburg, as the Emperor was returning fi'om Cronstadt, when the weather was most oppres- sively hot, he halted at a little village about twenty versts from the residence, in consequence of the relay of horses not being immediately ready. An English merchant who had a country house adjoining, with that warmth of heart which forgets and surpasses all etiquette, ran out, and presented to the Emperor, who appeared to be in great heat and covered with dust, a glass of excellent Burton ale, for which his Majesty, with his usual affability, thanked his attentive host, and drank. Both the Em- peror and the merchant forgot that the beverage was pro- hibited, or secretly relished it the more on that account. A German who was present, and was struck with the frank and cordial avidity with which the Emperor emptied the glass, ob- served, " that had a Frenchman offered it, his Majesty would ** have made one of his horses taste it first," Upon another occasion the Emperor exhibited the native goodness of his heart : some British bottled porter, which is also prohibited, was shipped for an Englishman whose lady was very much indisposed, and to whom it was recommended by her physicians. Scarcely had it reached Petersburg from ANECDOTE. 291 Cronstadt, before it was seized by the custom-house officer : upon the Emperor hearing of it, he sent to the customs, de- claring it to be his own (for such, in truth, the law of confisca- tion had made it), and immediately forwarded it, with some very kind expressions, to the fair invalid. The princely magnificence in which some of the Russian nobility live is prodigious. Having occasion one day to find out a person who occupied a suite of rooms in one of the great town hotels of Count Shermboff, the Russian Duke of Bedford, we had an opportunity of seeing this enormous pile, in which a great number of respectable familes re- side ; and the rent, amounting to twenty thousand roubles, is applied by its munificent lord to the relief of the poor. Ex- clusive of another superb mansion in the city, which he in- habits, the Count has a town on the road to Moscow called Paulova, containing about two thousand five hundred houses, and five churches : this place is the Birmingham of Russia, all the inhabitants of which are his slaves, who carry on an extensive trade on the Caspian Sea. In the neighbourhood of this place, he has a palace rivalling Versailles in extent and splendor. Many of his slaves, all of whom adore him, have realized vast fortunes, and display at their tables sumptuous services of plate, every costly luxury, and have foreign masters to teach their children. Though rolling in unwieldly reve- nues, the Count is frequently embarrassed, from his [nincely PP 2 292 WEALTH. muniiicence ; yet he never replenishes his exhausted treasury, by exercising the sovereign right which he has to raise the ca- pitation-tax of his peasantry. What additional blessings might not such a nobleman bestow upon his country, by converting his vassals into tenants : — how great and immediate would be the influence and example of a spirit so liberal : — ^with what power has Fortune invested him to accelerate the civilization of his country ! One of the Count's slaves advertised, during my stay in Petersburg, for a family preceptor, with an offer of two thousand rubles per annum, and six rubles per day for his table, and a cook ! The Count was under severe do- mestic affliction at this time, having just lost his amiable lady, who had formerly been one of his slaves : she left behind her a little son to console him, whom the Emperor ele- vated to the rank of nobility ; a measure rendered necessary in consequence of his mixed birth, to enable him to enjoy his father's wealth and honours. Prince ShermbofF, who is the lord of one hundred and forty thousand slaves, lost eighty thou- sand rubles one night at the gaming-table : not having so much money at immediate command, he offered to transfer to the winner an estate of slaves of that value ; as soon as the unfor- tunate vassals heard of the intended assignment, dreading ta have another master, they immediately raised the money amongst them, and sent it to their lord. Many of the nobles have three hundred servants; and one of that order, it is re- ported, had thirteen thijusand in constant attendance. MxVNNERS OF NOBILITY. 293 The manners of the Russian nobility very much partake of the manners of the old school of France, and, in complimen- tary profession, perhaps a little exceed it. They are acute observers of human nature ; and knowing that their urbanity, on account of their polar situation, is generally suspected, they are even anxious to make a profuse display of it. They are remarkably hospitable, and very attentive to strangers. Con- nubial happiness amongst the higher orders seldom endures eleven months after the honey-moon, when the parties gene- rally kiss, pout, part, and afterwards are happy. Divorce is not recognized by the laws of Russia. The road to Moscow frequently exhibits a singular spectacle of lords and their la- dies, taking a half yearly glance at each other as they meet, in exchanging their residences in the two cities, for their mutual accommodation and amusement : this is the nearest point of contact. The education of the young nobility ver}^ frequently suffers from the free and unguarded manner with which they receive every needy adventurer in the capacity of domestic tutor, particularly if he be an Englishman: Enghsh taylors, and servants out of livery, and travelling valets, frequently become the preceptoi*s and governors of children. A fellow of this description said one day : " In summer I be clerk to a " butcher at Cronstadt, and in winter I teaches English to " the Russian nobility's children." I knew a lady whose valet left her at Petersburg, in consequence of having been appointed to the superintendence of the children of a Russian 294 IMPERIAL OPERA. nobleman of high distinction, with one thousand rubles per annum, a table, and two slaves. The Russian nobility are in general very extravagant, and consequently frequently embar- rassed : their bills are often at a discount of sixty, and even seventy pounds per cent. Soon after our arrival, we visited the Gmnd Imperial Thea- tre, or Opera House, called the Stone-Theatre, w hich stands in a large open place, nearly in front of the Marine Garrison, formerly the New Goal, and the Nicolai Canal. At four an- gles, in this spacious area, are four pavilions of iron, supported by pillars of the same metal, resting upon a circular base- ment of granite, within which, in winter, large fir fires are constructed, the wind being kept off by vast circular move- able shutters of iron, for warming and screening the servants of those who visit the theatre in the winter. Previous to the erection of these sheds, many of those unfortunate persons were frozen to death. The government, attentive to the lives of the people, has interdicted performances at the opera, when the frost is unusually severe. The front is a noble por- tico, supported by doric pillars; the interior is about the size of Covent-Garden, of an oval shape, and splendidly but ra- ther heavily decorated. The lower tier of boxes project from the sides, at the back of which are pilasters, adorned with ap- propiate decorations, richly gilded, above which are three rows of boxes, supported by corinthian pillars, each of which. INTERNAL ARRANGEMENTS. 295 as well as those below, contain nine persons. Nothing less than the whole box can be taken. It frequently happens that servants stand behind their masters or mistresses in the boxes, during the performance, and present a curious motly appear- ance. The Imperial box is in the centre of the first tier, pro- jecting a little, is small, and very plainly decorated. The pit has seven or eight rows of seats with backs to them, in which a commodious portion of space for each spectator is marked off by little plates of brass, numbered upon the top of the back seat; this part is called the fauteuils. Such is the order ob- served here, and in every theatre on the continent, that how- ever popular the piece, a spectator may, during any part of the performance, reach his seat, in this part of the theatre, without any difficulty. Behind, but not boarded off, is the pit and the parterre. The price of admission to the boxes and fauteuils are two silver rubles, little more than five shil- lings. There are no galleries. The massy girandoles, one of which is placed at every pilaster, are never illuminated but when the Imperial family are present, on which occasion only, a magnificent circle of large patent lamps is used, de- scending from the centre of the roof; at other times its place is supplied by one of smaller dimensions, when the obscurity which prevails induces the ladies generally to appear in an undress. Although this gloom before the curtain is said to be advantageous to the effect of scenery, yet the eye is sad- dened, as it runs its circuit in vain for forms adorned with 296 OPERA RECEIPTS. graceful drapery, the glittering gem, the nodding ])lume, and looks of adorned beauty, that give fresh brilliance to the gay galaxy of light. This theatre is furnished with a great number of doors and passages, reservoirs of water, and an engine in case of fire, and with concealed flues and stoves, to give it sum- mer warmth in winter. It is always strongly guarded by a de- tachment from the guards, as well as by the police officers, who preserve the most admirable order among the carriages and servants. It is not an ungratifying sight, after the opera, to pause at the doors and see with what uncommon skill and velocity the caiTiages, each drawn by four horses, drive up to the grand entrance under the portico, receive their company, and gallop off at full speed ; pockets are very rarely picked, and accidents seldom happen. Owing to the size and quantity of decorations, and the spa- cious arrangement of the boxes, I should not think the thea- tre could contain more than twelve hundred persons. Its re- ceipts have never yet exceeded one thousand six hundred and eighty rubles, or two hundred and forty pounds. How dif- ferent fi-om a London theatre, which, on a crowded night, when a Siddons or a Litchfield delight their audience, is lined w ith faces, and the ver}^ walls appear to breathy ! The first opera I saw was Blue Beard, performed by Italian performers, the subject of which varied but little from the re- BLUE BEARD. 297 presentation of it in England, except that the last wife of Blue Beard has a lover, who in the concluding act lays the sanguinary tyrant breathless with his sword. The catastrophe was finely worked up, and drew from the Russians successions of enthusiastic acclamation. Do these sentiments of tender- ness, these noble notions of retributive justice, denote an im- mutable barbarism ? The processions were in the first style of magnificence, the dresses and ornaments were very costly, and it is not unusual to introduce, on these occasions, one thousand men, selected from the guards for the expression of their faces and symmetry of their figures, to swell the scene of pomp. The orchestra was very full, and combined the first-rate powers of music. The scenes were handsome and well managed. A room was formed of entire sides, and well furnished ; and a garden was displayed with all its cha- racteristics. The Emperor contributes very munificently to the support of this theatre ; and as all the machinists and workmen are his slaves, they are all under admirable disci- pline. The introduction of a tree into a study, or fringing the top of a forest with a rich cieling, scenic blunders which frequently occur on the English stage, would hazard the backs of the Russian scene shifters. This theatre has a ^^ery beautiful set of scenes, which is never displayed but on nights when the Imperial Family honour it with their pre- sence. The silence and decorum of the audience cannot but impress the mind of any one, who has witnessed the boisterous 298 SCHOOL FOR JEALOUSY. clamours of an English audience. The curtain ascends at six o'clock precisely. No after-piece, as with us, only now and then a ballet, succeeds the opera, which is generally con- cluded by nine o'clock, when the company go to the Summer Gardens, drive about the city, or proceed to card and supper parties. This theatre is as much dedicated to the Russian muses, as to those of more genial climates. In this respect Catherine II. pursued the same plan of domestic policy, so wisely adopted by Gustavus III. but the plan since her demise has never been encouraged by the higher circles. A Russ play has the same effect upon fashion in Russia, as George Barnwell has upon the same class in England. Although in the former there are some inimitable performers, as in the hero of the latter, one of the most perfect and affecting imitations of na- ture, in that walk of the drama, ever exhibited upon any stage, is displayed by Mr. Charles Kemble. I went one evening, in company with my amiable and gal- lant friend. Captain Elphinstone, to see a Russ opera, called " The School lor Jealousy :" it is not much esteemed. As it proceeded Captain E. explained it to me : the sentiments were Irequently coarse, sometimes veiy obscene ; the actors, who were Russians, appeared to perform with great ability ; the heroine of the piece was represented by a very pretty and inter- A STRANGE SCENE. -' 299 esting girl, who was taken from the hospital of foundlings : she manifested grace, and a bewitching naivete^ and played and sung most sweetly. I am sorry I have forgotten her name ; she is the principal Russ actress, and is a very great favourite. In the course of the play, to my astonishment, was introduced a scene of the inside of the mad-house at Petersburg, in which, amongst a number of horrible grotesque figures, a mad periwig-maker threw a handful of hair-powder into the face of a frantic girl, who ran raving about the stage with di- shevelled locks, which excited strong risibility amongst the audience. I was so disgusted at the spectacle, and the ap- plause, that I wished it had not happened; but as it did, T re- cord it. Although an English audience has been delighted at a dance of undertakers, laughed at the feats of skeletons in pantomimes, and in Hamlet has expressed great mirth at seeing a buffoon grave-digger roll human skulls upon the stage, and beat them about with his spade, it could not endure a sight in which those objects, whom pity and every tender feel- ing have consecrated, are brought forward with ridicule. But let it be remembered that madness is less frequent in Russia than in milder regions; and hence the people, for they are very far from being strangers to feelings which would do ho- nour to the most civilized of the human race, are less ac- quainted with, and consequently less affected by its appearance ; and when it is thus wantonly displayed upon the stage, it ap- pears under the mask of buffoonery. The government would Q q2 500 NYMPH OF THE DNIEPER. do well to suppress this and every similar exhibition, calcu- lated only to imbrute a civilized mind, and postpone the re- finement of a rude one. I was much more pleased with the Russ opera of the Nymph of the Dnie[)er, which is so popular and attractive, that it never fails to fill the seats of fashion. It is chiefly in- tended to display the ancient costume and music of Russia. The story is very simple : A prince has sworn eternal con- stancy to a nymph, who is violently attached to him ; his fa- ther, a powerful king, wishes him to marry a princess of an ancient house ; the prince consents, but the nuptials are al- ways interrupted by the stratagems of the jealous nymph, who appears in various disguises. The first scene was singularly beautiful: it displayed a river and its banks, and nymphs j^wimming ; the manner in which they rose upon the water was admirably natural ; the music of the ancient Russ airs, in which the celebrated Cossacka is introduced, were exqui- site ; the scenery was very fine, and displayed a number of pantomimic changes. The Russian noblemen are fond of the drama; almost every country mansion has a private theatre. Those of the nobility, who, from disgust to the court, or some other cause, confine their residence to Moscow and the adjacent countr}^, live in the voluptuous magnificence of eastern satraps : after PRIVATE THEATRICALS. cJOl dinner they frequently retire to a vast rotunda, and sip their coffee, during a battle of dogs, wild bears, and wolves; from thence they go to their private theatres, where great drama- tic skill is frequently displayed by their slaves, who perform, and who also furnish the orchestra. These people are tutored by French players, who are very liberally paid by their employers. lit ( 302 ) €HAP. XIV. A GLOOMY CATASTROPHE. It is with deep regret that I approach the delicate and aw- ful subject of this chapter. Humanity would gladly cover it with the pall of oblivion ; but justice to the memory of an un- happy monarch, and to the chief of the august family of Russia, demand a candid though careful developement of the events which preceded the fall of the last Emperor. The original source of my information is from one who beheld the catastrophe which I am about to relate, whom I can neither name nor doubt ; a catastrophe which is too near the period in which I write, not to render an unrestrained disclosure of all the particulars with which I have been furnished, unfair if not imprudent. The causes that first created those well-known prejudices which Catherine II. cherished against her son, have perished with her ; but all the world knows, that, during the many years which rolled away between the Grand Duke's UNNATURAL CONDUCT. 305 arrival at the age of maturity and his elevation to the throne, his august mother never admitted him to any participation of power, but kept him in a state of the most abject and mortify- ing separation from the court, and in almost total ignorance of the affairs of the empire. Although Paul, by his birth, was generalissimo of the armies, he never was permitted to head a regiment ; and although, by the same right, grand admiral of the Baltic, he was interdicted from even visiting the fleet at Cronstadt. To these painful privations may be added, that when he was recommended, that is ordered, to travel, during his absence Catherine seized and sent to Siberia one of his most cherished friends, because she discovered that he had in- formed her son of some inconsiderable state affair. Thus Paul beheld himself not only severed from the being who gave him birth, but fi'om all the ordinary felicities of life. The pressure of his hand excited suspicion ; peril was in his attachment, and in his confidence guilt and treason. He could not have a friend, without furnishing a victim. A gentleman nearly connected with me, now no more, a man of talent and acute observation and veracity, had several years since the honour of spending a short period at the little secluded court of Gatchina, upon which, as tlie dazzling beams of imperial favour never shone, the observer was left in the tranquillity of the shade, to make a more calm, steady, and un- diverted survey. At this time, Paul displayed a mind verv 304 PAUL*S PRIVATE CHARACTER. elegantly inclined, and without being brilliant, highly culti- vated, accomplished and infbnned, frank and generous, brave and magnanimous, a heart tender and affectionate, and a dis- ^)osition very sweet, though most acutely and poignantly sus- ceptible : his j3erson was not handsome, but his eye was pene- trating, and his manners such as denoted the finished gentle- man. In his youth he was seen by the bed-side of the dying Panin, the hoary and able minister of Catherine, and his tutor, kissing and bathing his hand with tears. As an evidence of his intellectual vigour, let the elaborate and able ukase, by which he settled the precedence and provision of the imperial family, unquestionably his own unassisted composition, be re- ferred to. He loved his amiable princess, and his children, with the most ardent, the most indulgent fondness, and it was the labour of their love, as well as of his sen^ants, who were devotedly attached to him, to requite his aflections and graci- ousness, and to endeavour to fill up with every endearing, ever}^ studied attention, the gloomy chasm which had been formed b}^ an unnatural and inexplicable neglect ; but this chasm aa as a bottomless abyss, upon the brink of which his wounded spirit was ever wandering ! Paul possessed a high martial inclina- tion, and, reflecting that he might one day mount the throne of a military empire, he made the art of war the principal object of his studies; but neither this pursuit, so copious, so interest- ing, nor the endearments of those who surrounded him, could expel from his mind the sense of his injuries. He beheld THE SAFE PREDICTION. 305 himself, the second personage and the destined ruler of the empire, postponed to the periodical favourite of his mother, the minister of her unbounded voluptuousness, not unfrequently elevated to the presidency of the Hermitage from the ranks, with no other pretensions than vigorous health and a mighty .frame ; whilst, on the other hand, the bleeding shade of his fether was for ever, in his morbid imagination, pointing to his wound, and whispering revenge. Th.us exiled from the heart of his mother, is it a matter of surprise that he should exclude her from his own ? Catherine more than once observed, that her son would not long occupy the throne after her decease ; and it has been the feshion to say, that her alienation from him was justified by the events which succeeded her death. With this prophetic spirit, she devoted all her care to the education of her grand- sons, Alexander and Constantine, and exercised all the powers she possessed towards the consummation of her prediction. She foretold that the flower which she had planted would wither early : she shook it till every blossom fell, and shaded it so, that the dew of Heaven should never visit it more : she pressed and pierced the delicate and ardent mind of her son until she subverted it. Was it then a proof of inspiration, to prog- nosticate the brevity of his reign over an empire, the history of which has too often and fatally proved, that however des- potic its government, and there is not one under heaven more RR 306 SINGULAR RETRIBUTION. absolute, a cautious and dexterous cultivation of the interest, feelings, prejudices, and affections of the people, is insepamble from the safety of the ruler ? A short time before her demise, Catherine committed to P Z , her last favourite, whom she highly esteemed,, a declaration of her will, addressed to the senate, purporting that Paul should be passed over in the succession, and that the Grand Duke Alexander should mount the vacant throne. As soon as the favourite was acquainted with the sudden death of the Empress, he flew to Pavlovsk, about thirty-five versts from the capital, where Paul occasionally resided, whom he met on the road ; and, after a short explanation, delivered up to him this important document. Paul, charmed with his zeal and loyalty, preserved him in all his honours and fortunes, whilst a general and rapid dispersion, to ail points of the com- pass, instantaneously succeeded amongst the members of the male seraglio of the Hermitage. The Emperor ascended the throne without difficulty, but a total stranger to his subjects. One of the first measures of his reign displayed, in a very singular manner, the native goodness of his heart, under the clouds that rapidly began to overshadow it, in an act of piety towards his murdered father, whose remains he removed from the church of St. Alexander Nevski, called the Monastery ; and having exhibited them in great funeral state, he consigned them to the sepulchre of Catherine II., in tlie cathedral of St. SUVAROFF. 307 Peter and St. Paul. The latter part of this extraordinary tmnsaction has often induced me to think that Paul did not believe that his mother issued the order for the assassination of his father. At this eccentric solemnity, he compelled Count Alexey Orloff, and Prince Baratynski, under whose hands the unhappy monarch is said to have perished, to stand on each side of the body as it lay in state, and afterwards to follow it to tlie tomb as the principal mourners. Not long after this event, his mind began occasionally to display the most fearful symptoms of distraction ; but when his reason was restored, the hapless Emperor never failed to endeavour, y^ith the most affecting sensibility, to repair the ruin and havoc which his delirium had occasioned. The de- posed Stanislaus, the broken-hearted King of Poland, partook alternately of his beneficence and severity ; but with what demonstration of respect and genuine grief did the Emjieror attend the obsequies of this last of the Sarmates ? On that gloomy occasion, he commanded in person the guards who assisted at the funeral ; and uncovering himself, with the most atfecting emotions, saluted the coffin as it passed. To the memory of the hoary and heroic Suvaroff, who fell a broken- hearted victim to the distraction of his Imperial master, in periods of agonized and compunctious reflection, he raised a colossal statue of bronze, in the vast area behind Bens- koi's palace, opposite to Romantzoff's monument ; and, on the R R 2 308 COUNT P z . days when he reviewed his troops there, he used to order them to march by in open order, and face the statue, which he said represented one of the greatest and bravest generals of his own or any other age. Notwithstanding the important service which P Z had rendered him, the Emperor could never separate him, in his mind's eye, from the caresses of his mother, and speedily became disgusted with him ; spoke of him with great asperity to his friends, and at length, converting the bounty of Cathe- rine into a robbery, he denounced him as a defaulter to the Imperial treasury of half a million of rubles ; and, convinced of the justice of the allegation, proceeded, without loss of time, to sequester the vast estates which belonged to him and to his two brothers. Driven to desperation by such conduct, one of the sufferers, the second brother, one day boldly walked up to the Emperor upon the parade, and, with manly elo- quence, represented the injustice of his measures. Paul re- ceived him without anger, heard him without interruption, reflected, and restored the property : but the original disgust rapidly returning, he ordered P Z to reside upon his estate, to which he submitted for a considerable time. But the mind of the exile was too ardent to endure seclusion ; am- bitious, bold, active, and enterprizing, he determined upon re- leasing himself fi'om the unjust constraint imposed upon him by his sovereign, the delirium of whose mind now frequently MADAME CHEVALIER, ,:509 burst forth with all the fury and desolation of a convulsed vol- cano. Messrs. Otto, Sieyes, and Talleyrand, who at that time formed a diplomatic trio, or rather w^ere spies, at the court of Petersburg, with the dexterity of talent, and the sub- tilty of Frenchmen, resolved to turn the gathering storm to the advantage of their own country, by means which, extend- ing beyond their calculation and their w ishes, finally and ra- pidly led to the overthrow of the Emperor. Under their tui- tion, a French actress was introduced on the boards of the French theatre at Petersburg, and placed in such situations of allurement, that the eye of the Emperor could not but notice her. The ruin of domestic happiness furnished these politi- cians with the means of their success. A French actress was destined to estrange the Emperor from his family, and to create a temporary and terrible change in the affairs of Europe. Madame Chevalier possessed that style of face which, without being regularly handsome, was more sweet, expressive, and cap- tivating, than the exact symmetry of a finished beauty. Her person was small, but delicate, and rather en bon point : her manners were of the highest order, and enchanted every one who approached her. The Emperor was fond of music: Madame Chevalier excelled upon the harp, and sung to it some sweet and crafty verses, composed by one of her three employers, and which she herself had set to music; the subject of which was, the martial skill, valour, and gene- rosity, of the Emperor, She had not spread her witcheries 310 A TERRIBLE CHANGE. long, before an evening was appointed for a private gratifica- tion of the musical taste and passion of the Emperor. This Syren very soon became the sole idol of his shattered mind, which she moved according to the direction of her secret prin- cipals, until the Emperor withdrew himself from his alliance with Austria, recalled SuvarofF and his army covered with glory, crowded the roads to Siberia with British subjects, and filled with terror and consternation the Exchange of the Bri- tish empire. I mean not to enumerate all the calamities which followed : they were too signal not to be widely known, too recent not to be well remembered ; and, from their very na- ture, incontestably proved the aberration of those faculties which could alone, by their presence, render the Emperor re- sponsible for all the misery, dismay, and ruin, which threaten- ed the very existence of the empire. P Z resolved upon availing himself of the influence of the fair favourite, to whom he addressed himself with all the insinuation of person, manners, wit, and money : having engaged her in his favour, he made her acquainted with Count K , a man who, from having been about the person of Paul in the menial ca- pacity of a valet, at last obtained a high place in his alFection, distinguished honour, and great wealth. The more firmly to bind K to his interest, P Z feigned an honour- able passion for the daughter of the former, who was, like all the sudden favourites cf fortune, much pleased at the prospect of an alliance with a veiy distinguished family. Count K — , SUCCESSFUL ARTIFICE. 311 and Madame Chevalier, conceived many plans for prevailing upon his Majesty to restore Z to his favour. At length, one evening, when she had tranquillized the mind of the Era- perca*, and excited in him an appearance of gaiety by the viva- city of her wit, and some of her most successful songs, she artfully insinuated that P Z was the most unhappy man alive in being deprived of the Emperor's favour, and of the power of promoting the interests of one of the greatest geniuses that ever mounted the Czarian throne, to whom he was most inviolably attached. The Emperor paused, and ex- pressed some doubt of the truth of the statement ; but upon her reassuring him of its sincerity, accompanied by some of those little blandishments which no woman ever knew how to display with more fmished address than Madame Chevalier, Paul granted her petition, and recalled Z to the resi- dence, where he flew with the celerity of a courier, and threw himself at the feet of the Emperor, by whom he was gra- ciously received, and from whose presence he withdrew to pre- sent his fair advocate with the stipulated reward, a magnificent aigrette of diamonds, valued at sixty thousand rubles. Whatever private pique Z might have cherished against his Imperial master, I believe that it was wholly lost in his review of the de- teriorated and dreadful condition of the Empire, and in those awful measures of restoration which were afterwards resorted to. Z gradually and warily unfolded his mind to K , who as cautiously entered into his views, until their confidence 312 FATAL DETERMINATION. was completely established. The result of their deliberations was, that, to save the empire, it was necessary that the Em- peror should be removed. They next prevailed upon Count P , the governor of the city, and Count P , a very young nobleman, but of considerable famil}?^ interest, the son of the celebrated general. Count P P , who so eminently distinguished himself in the Turkish war, and also the Prince Y , and some other persons of great rank and consequence. All of these noblemen were actuated by no other motive, than to prevent the final ruin of their country, and for this purpose they determined to place in peril their lives and their fortunes. In their conferences, whicn were managed with admirable discretion, it was resolved that Paul should die ; and, like Caesar, it was destined- that he should perish in the ides of March, on the day of the festival called Maslaintza. I think I hear the voice of humanity exclaim, " Why riot " provisionally remove the unhappy Monarch from the throne ?'* Alas ! the constitution of Russia possesses none of those mild and beneficent provisions, which endear our own constitution to us a thousand and a thousand times. When the ruler is once mounted on the throne, an abyss opens below, and the descent from the last step is into eternity. I am endeavour* ing to illustrate motives, not justify them; the record is before another tribunal ! It is scarcely necessary for me to observe. PREJUDICES OF PAUL. 313 that the august family of Paul were wholly unacquainted with the meditated bloAV. The Emperor, from an aversion he had taken to those pa- laces, which formed the favourite residence of Catherine, resolved upon building a palace for himself The gorgeous magnificence of Zarsko Zelo, and of the Winter palace, and all the Oriental voluptuousness of the Hermitage, were hateful to him ; indeed, to such an elevation had his abhorrence of these places attained, that he had determined to reduce them to the dust, that only ** T he blackness of ashes should mark where they stood." His fate, which was fast approaching, prevented the accom- plishment of this irretrievable act of delirium. The Emperor and his family resided, at the time when the confederacy had resolved upon his removal, in the new palace of Saint Michael. It is an enormous quadrangular pile, of red Dutch brick, rising fi-om a massy basement of hewn granite ; it stands at the bot- tom of the Summer Gardens, and the lofty spire of its Greek chapel, richly covered with ducat gold, rising above the trees, has a beautiful appearance. As Paul was anxious to inhabit this palace as soon after he was crowned as possible, the masons, the carpenters, and various artificers, toiled with incredible labour by day and by ss 314 THE MICHAELISKY PALACE. torch-light, under the sultry sun of the summer, and in all the severity of a polar winter, and in three years this enor- mous and magnificent fabric was completed. The whole is moated round, and when the stranger surveys its bastions of granite, and numerous draw-bridges, he is naturally led to conclude, that it was intended for the last asylum of a Prince at war with his subjects. Those who have seen its massy walls, and the capaciousness and variety of its chambers, will easily admit that an act of violence might be committed in one room, and not be heard b}^ those who occupy the adjoining one ; and that a massacre might be perpetrated at one end, and not known at the other. Paul took possession of this palace as a place of strength, and beheld it with rapture, be- cause his Imperial mother had never even seen it. Whilst his family were here, by every act of tenderness endeavouring to soothe the terrible perturbation of his mind, there were not wanting those who exerted ever}^ stratagem to inflame and encrease it. These people were constantly insinuating, that everj^ hand was armed against him. With this impression, which added fuel to his burning brain, he ordered a secret stair-case to be constructed, which, leading from his own chamber, passed under a false stove in the anti-room, and led by a small door to the terrace. 4 It was the custom of the Emperor to sleep in an outer apartment next to the Empress's, upon a sopha, in his regi- i- CHAP. XV. SIR JOHN BORLASE WARREN — THE POLIGNXCS — THE PARADE THE BANEFUL EFFECTS OF PASSION THE EMPEROR A PICKPOCKET Jet— — A traveller's memorandums UNPUGILISTIC BRUISERS-— ^DOCTOR GUTHRIE VISIT TO THE TAURIDA PALACE THE CO- LOSSAL HALL THE WINTER GARDENS THE BANQUET PRINCE ' POTEMKIN RAW CARROTS FLYING GARDENS THE HOUSE OF ^'CHARLES XII. AT BENDER DISCOVERED. • i ij y u ■ ■ ±T was impossible for an Englishman to visit Petersburg when I did, without feeling a justifiable national pride in find- ing his country represented by one of her most distinguished naval heroes, who, to the frankness and sincerity so peculiar to that character, unites the graceful attractions of the most cour- teous and polished manners. From the intrepid minister, and his elegant and enlightened lady, I experienced that urba- nity and attention, which eminently distinguished their con- duct, and endeared them to the Russian court, and to their countrymen. The Emperor, in his private circles, has often extolled the nautical skill and undaunted valour of Sir John Borlase Warren, and honoured him with his friendship. In no period of those political storms which have so long shaken* T T 522 THE POLIGNACS. and still continue to convulse, the continent of Europe, has the cabinet of Russia manifested a more propitious and cordial disposition to the cause and interests of Great Britain, than during the diplomacy of the gallant Admiral. The house of embassy, a noble mansion, in the English line, was fitted up with great taste, and the hospitality which prevailed in it was truly Russian. The parties which assem- bled there were very select and agreeable. Amongst the most frequent visitors I met the Due de Polignac and several of the members of that illustrious house, who, from the highest rank, and an influence equal to that of their sovereign, have been cast into the regions of the north, by the terrible tornado of the French revolution, where, in the sensibility and munificence of the Emperor, they have found protection. .[^ The noble fortitude of the Polignacs, and particularly the heroic and affecting eloquence of one of the brothers before the tribunal of Bonaparte, created at this period a strong sen sation in the public mind, and in no part of the world more forcibly than at Petersburg. In another age, when passion and prejudice shall repose in "the tomb of all the Capulets," the calm investigating historian may perhaps, but in better language, describe their crime, as I have ever considered it, a conspiracy of Bonaparte against himself, to enable him to as- sume the imperial purple. "" THE PARADE. 323 Sunday is always at Petersburg a day of great festivity, but it only manifests itself after the hours of devotion. On this day the parade is well worthy the traveller's notice : it com- mences at ten o'clock, in that great area which lies between one side of the winter palace and the magnificent crescent, which formerly constituted the palace of Catherine's most cherished favourite Lanskoi ; the men amounted to four thou- sand, and presented a very noble and martial appearance; their uniform consisted of a round hat, with only a rim in front, and green feather, a short green coat, buttoned tight round the body, and white duck breeches cut very high, so that no waistcoat is necessary. The belly of the soldier is tightly strapped in, for the purpose of giving an artificial breadth to the chest. With an exception to the English and consular guards, I never saw finer men in my life, nor greater neatness in dress and person. The Emperor came from the palace, mounted upon a beautiful grey charger, attended by two or three officers ; he wore an amazing large cocked hat, fastened under his chin by a black leather strap, and buttoned to pre-^ vent the wind from occasioning that accident, for which a cruel disciplinarian (Frederick the Great) once severely flogged a poor Prussian soldier. The rest of his dress was a short coat of dark olive-green colour, decorated with a small star and the cordon bleu, white leather breeches, and high military boots, with very long projecting spurs. Upon this occasion there is always a great concourse of the commonalty, and a T T 2 324 MILITARY SALUTATION. « great muster of officers to pay their respects to the Emperor, who rode at an easy canter down the hne. As he passed I was much surprised to hear each company salute him with deep-toned voices, and highly gratified when I was informed that the salutation was, " Good day to our Emperor." The words seemed to bring down the haughty disdain of mili- tary discipline to its proper level, and to place the hearts of the Emperor and his l^rave soldiers in contact with each other. Upon his return he alighted and took his station in the centre, when the regiments passed the Emperor, who stood uncovered all the time, in open order, the band playing and officers salut- ing. As the imperial colours passed, which time or war, or both, had reduced to a few shreds of silk, all the officers and spectators bowed. As the last company was marching off the ground, a lane was formed to the palace through the people, who gazed upon their young Emperor with enthusiastic delight. The whole was a very interesting spectacle, for which by the bye I had nearly paid rather dearly. Thinking, perhaps, that I was far removed from the nimble-fmgered disciples of London, or what is more likely, not thinking about the matter, I care- lessly carried my pocket-book to the parade : a common Rus- sian had for some time, it appeared, watched me with a cat-like eye, and at the moment the Emperor passed me, he affected to relieve me from the pressure of the mob, and at the same time really endeavoured to relieve me of my letter of credit, some ruble notes, and what I fear the critics will wish I never A RUSSIAN THIEF. 325 had recovered, many of the memorandums from which I am now writing. A German valet, belonging to a gentleman w^ho was with me, instantly seized him by the throat ere his hand could leave my pocket, when he as speedily relin- quished his prey. The attempt w as made with a skilful know- ledge of seizing opportunities, by which some folks become wealthy, others imperial, and the dexterity and lightness of his fmger would have obtained a medal of felonious honour in the academy of Barrington. However, as I lost no pro- perty by the fellow, I ordered the active servant to dismiss him ; and the terrified Russian rushed rapidly from my sight, and was lost in the surrounding crowd. The Russian is not naturally addicted to thieving r he is seldom seen in hostility to life, in order to obtain the felonious possession of another man's property. A rare instance of what however may be committed in an ebullition of passion, occurred at the preceding parade. An officer, in consequence of very improper behaviour, w^as put under arrest ; in the bit- terness of wounded pride, he slew the centinel who was placed at his chamber door : the Emperor, instead of dooming him to death, ordered him to receive twenty-live strokes of the knout, to be branded in the forehead with vor, or rogue, and be sent to Siberia. As I was quitting the throng, two fellows, somewhat tipsy, 326 A CHALLENGE. began to quarrel ; and, after abusing each other very \'iolently as they walked along, they at last proceeded to blows. No j)ugilistic science was displayed : they fought with the hand expanded, as awkwardly as women play at battledore and shuttlecock ; no desperate contusion ensued. A police officer soon appeared, and, taking out a cord from his pocket, tied the combatants back to back, and placing them upon a droshka, gallopped them off to the nearest sieja. The police of Eng- land would do well to act with the same spirit and prompti- tude towards those academic bruisers, who, in the most daring manner, violate the public tranquillity'', and bid defiance to the authority of the law. A short time before my arrival, an affair, which in some degree illustrates the Russian character, had created consider- able interest. A gallant English merchant conceiving him- self rudely treated at the theatre by a Russian officer, one of the Emperor's aid-du-camps, sent him a challenge. The officer declined the combat, and appealed to the Emperor, which, according to the custom of his country, he might do without a stain upon his courage. Those martial notions of honour, which reign so imperiously in England and France, are but little known in Russia, \^ here the feudal system, the judicial combat and its chivalrous concomitants, never ob- tained, and where the sword never forms, and never has formed, DOCTOR GUTHRIE. 327 a necessary appendage to the dress of the people, which, till lately, has for ages been worn amongst their brethren in more southern latitudes. It was with great pleasure that I availed myself of an in- troduction to the venerable Doctor Guthrie, physician to the Noble Land Cadet corps, a gentleman of the most amiable manners, a philosopher, and well known to the world for his various scientific and literary productions, and particularly for being the editor, as he has modestly announced himself, of the Letters of his deceased lady from the Crimea, whither she went, but in vain, in search of health. It is very gene- rally believed, that the Doctor very larg-ely contributed to this able and beautiful work, which, from fondness to the memory of the departed, he is anxious should be considered as her own. I found the Doctor protected, by his philosophical know- ledge, from one of the most sultry days I ever experienced. He was in a little study built of wood, raised upon piles in a little meadow. Instead of his summer windows being open to admit the air, they were all closed and fastened without ; his servant occasionally moistened the branches of the trees, that were supsended over the building, with water from a garden-engine ; and to prevent, as much as possible, the admis- ision of the flies, the entrance was through an outer door, and an inner one of gauze, and in the centre of the room stood 328 OPERA OF CATHERINE. a tub filled v^ ith ice ; by these means the Doctor, whilst every other person was languishing and panting with heat, enjoyed a cool and delightful atmosphere. His collection of Siberian minerals, gems, and precious stones (amongst which is a beau- tiful ribbond agate) from various parts of the Russian empire, and a variety of marine fowls from the Russian archipelago, are very curious and interesting. I here saw a fine specimen of the encoustic, or wax-painting, the art of which was dis- covered a few years since in Herculaneum, by a soldier acci- dentally holding a flambeau to -an apparently naked wall, when the action of the heat created, to his astonishment, a beautiful landscape, by reviving the encoustic colour in which it had been painted. The Doctor also obligingly shewed me an opera which was composed bj^ the late Empress, in wliich, with great poetical spirit and genius, she has described the founding of Moscow, and the habits and customs of the Rus- sians. The T\'ords of many of the songs were adapted to old Russ tunes, and others were set to music by Sarti. Of this Imperial production only four copies were ever printed; as soon as they were struck off, the press, the types of which were made at Paris, was broken. Independent of his merited re- putation, the Doctor has two other reasons sufficient to make any philosopher proud and happy : he is the father of two lovely daughters ; the eldest is lady Gascoigne, who, to the charms of jouth and beauty, unites the most elegant accom- plishments and captivating manners. So high ;4\'as report in TAURIDA PALACE. 329 her favour, and so little can she be known with impunity, that I felt a sullen satisfaction in learning that she was upon a visit to her friends in Scotland whilst I was at Petersburg ; the other daughter is a lovely girl, pursuing her studies in the Convent des Demoiselles. On account of his long and faithful seiTices, the Doctor was ennobled by Paul, who always retained a great partiality for )iim, even during the temporary disgust which he felt against his countrj^men : he is honoured with a hat and fea- thers, and the rank of a general. It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that, in a military government like Russia, mi- litary rank precedes every other. From Doctor Guthrie's cool philosophic shade, we pro- ceeded to the Taurida palace, built by Catherine II., and given by her to her distinguished favourite Prince Potemkin, upon whom she lavished unprecedented dignities -and treasure. She bestowed upon him the name of the Taurian, in honour of his conquest of the Crimea, and called this building after him. Upon the death of the Prince, the Empress purchased it of his family for a vast sum. The grand front of this build- ing, which is of brick, stuccoed white, is towards the street leading to the Convent des Demoiselles, in the east end of the city, consisting of a centre, adorned with a |X)rtico sup- ported by columns, and a large cupola of copper painted u u 330 FLYING BRIDGE, green, ^nd exteiisi\ e wings. A variety of out-offices, oran-^ geries, and hot-houses, reach from the left wing to a pro- digious distance : in the front is a court-yard, divided from tke street by a handsome raihng. The exterior of this build- ing is very extensive, but low ; and although it has a princely appearance, does not excite the astonishment that a stranger feels in entering it. Through the civility of our countryman, Mr. Gould, the Emperor's gardener, who enjoys a munificent salary, and a handsome house on the west side of the g-ardens, I was frequently enabled to visit this delightfril place. The kitchen, fruit, and {Measure-gardens, and hot-houses, occupy a vast space of ground, which are watered by several canals ; over one of them is thrown the celebrated model of a flying covered bridge of one arch, which an obscure illiterate Rus- sian constructed, for the purpose of embracing the two sides of the Neva, opposite to the statue of Peter the Great : it is about seventy feet long, and is a wonderful display of mecha- nical ingenuity. This extraordinary peasant has clearly elu- cidated the practicability of such a measure : the model is ca- pable of bearing more comparative weight than could ever press upon the bridge itself The enormous expence which must attend such an undertaking will, in all probability, re- serve it for a distant period. The ingenious artist received a handsome pension from the late Empress, and the satisfaction of having displayed with what extent of capacity, unassisted Nature has gifted the Russian mind. In this part of the ENGLISH GARDENER. 331 grounds, Catherine II. was in the habit of taking her morn- ing promenade with a male friend ; and in tlie evening at- tended by. her court. The pleasure-grounds are small, but beautifully laid out by Mr. Gould, who was a pupil of the celebrated Browne ; and who, at the advanced age of seventy-two years, beholds this little paradise, which he created from a mephitic bog, flou- rishing and exciting the admiration of foreigners, and in the shade of which Potemkin, Catherine the Great, and two succeeding emperors of Russia, have sought tranquillity and repose from the oppressive weight of public duty. This respectable Englishman, who has realized a handsome fortune, the fruit of imperial munificence, for long services, keeps an elegant and hospitable table, and is visited by persons of the first respectability. The late unfortunate king of Po- land, during his residence, or rather incarceration, in Peters- burg, felt a melancholy pleasure in quitting the phantom of royalt}^ which mocked rather than consoled him, in the palace of Siberian marble, to pour the sufferings of his afflicted mind into the breast of the frank, cordial, and ingenious English- man, in this abode of privacy. The pleasure-grounds are very elegantly disposed, and> as we passed the little green palisade which separates them from u u :2 332 THE BIRCH TREES. the kitchen garden, we contemplated, with pleasure, the fa- vourite seat of Catherine the Great that here presented itself: it was a long, tasteful garden sopha of iron, interlaced, painted green, and stood under the branches of an oak. Here she used to take her coifee ; and, upon this very seat, she g-ave private and unrestrained audience to the late King of Sweden. I am enabled, from indubitable authority, to state, that the age of Catherine when she expired was seventy-five, although three years are taken from it in the calendar. As we descended a little slope from Catherine's seat, we passed by two birch trees, revered by the superstitious Rus- sians, on account of their having been, with a third of the same species, preserved, when the morass in which they grew was first converted into a garden, and the vegetable patriarchs of the place : we were gravely told that, when Paul died, the one which is missing perished from excessive sensibility. 1 never knew before, that nature had endued the birch with acute feelings: I remember, at school, it was admitted, nem. con. that it had the power of exciting them. The first room we entered from the garden, was the cele- brated hall in which Prince Potemkin gave the most gorgeous and costly entertainment ever recorded since the days of Ro- man voluptuousness : I am not able to communicate to my readers the ideas which this enormous room excited. If a WINTER-GARDEN. 333 pagan were to be transported into it in his sleep, when he awoke he could not fail of thinking that he had undergone an apotheosis, and had been conducted to the banqueting- room of Jupiter. It was built after the unassisted design of Potemkin, and unites, to a sublime conception, all the graces of finished taste. Tliis prodigious room is supported by double rows of colossal doric pillars, opening on one side into a vast pavilion, composing the winter-garden, which I saw prepared for the Emperor, who resides here for a short time every year, just before I left Petersburg. This garden is very extensive : the trees, chiefly orange, of an enormous size, are sunk in the earth in their tubs, and are entirely covered with fme mould : the walks are gravelled, wind and undulate in a very delightful manner, are neatly turfed, and lined with roses and other flowers : the whole of the pavilion is lighted by lofty windows : from the ceiling depend several magnifi- cent lustres of the richest cut glass. Here, whilst the polar winter is raging without, covering the world in white, and hardening the earth to marble; when water tossed in the air drops down in ice ; may be seen the foliage, and inhaled the fragrance, of an Arabian grove, in the soft and benign climate of an Italian spring. The novelty and voluptuous luxuriance of this green refreshing spectacle, seen through a colonnade of massy white pillars, and redupli- cated by vast mirrors, is matchless. Between the columns. 334 MR. FOX. no^v no longer incumbered with boxes for spectators as they formerly were, are a great number of beautiful statues and colossal casts: the two celebrated vases of Carrara marble, the largest in the world, occupy the centre of the room leading to the winter-garden. The Dying Gladiator, Cupid and Psyche, a recumbent Hermaphrodite, and many other exquisite productions of the chisel, afford ample gratifica- tion to the man of taste. Amongst the busts, is that of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox, by Nollekens; an ad- mirable likeness of that distinguished orator. Paul, during his temporary aversion to the English, ordered this bust into the cellar : whether he intended that his spleen should carry the marks of some humour, I know not. His august successor removed it from the region of the Tuscan juice, and the depths of darkness, and ordered it to occupy its present station, where, by the side of Grecian and Roman virtue, the sun of heaven shines fiill upon it. Opposite to the winter-garden is a beautiful saloon, divided from the hall only by the colonnade, which is filled with rare antiques, principally busts. Amongst them a head of Achilles, and a small Silenus, are justly re- ^ garded as the most precious. During the darkened hours of Paul, he converted this palace into a garrison ; and the hall, pavilion, and saloon, into a riding-school for his troops ! The rest of the rooms, which are upon the ground floor, have been elegantly but very simply fitted up by the present PRINCE POTEMKIN'S GALA. S35 Emperor, and all their gorgeous hangings, furniture, and de- corations, have been removed and deposited in magazines. In one of the rooms there is a set of superb lustres, every drop of glass in which may be set in motion by clock-work, concealed in the centre, when it presents the appearance of a little cas- cade. The theatre, which has been much reduced, is still spacious and very handsome. It may not be uninteresting to give a very brief description of the entertainment which I have before alluded to, as I re- ceived it from Mr. Gould, who contributed his talents to aug- ment the rich variety of that resplendent festival : Soon after Prince Potemkin's return from the conquest of Crim Tartary, under the influence of a gloomy prepossession that it would be the last time that he should have it in his power to pay due honour to his imperial benefactress, he resolved upon giving a banquet, which, in modern Europe and Asia, should have no parallel. What the expences attending it amounted to, were never known, but they must have been prodigious. For se- veral months previous to the gala, the most distinguished artists were invited from distant countries to assist in its completion. The grand outline was designed by the Prince, and so various as well as vast were the parts, that not one of the assistants could form any previous idea of the whole of it. In the ge- neral bustle of preparation, the following anecdote, that proves the natural taste of Potemkin's mind, is related: He had 336 TASTE OF POTEMKIN. ordered a statue of Catherine to be formed of alabaster, which he intended should be raised upon a pedestal, in a temple of precious stones, in the winter-garden ; for the motto upon its entablature he wrote : " To the Mother of my Coun- "tr3% and to me the most gracious." In his design, the artist had extended the hand and elevated the sceptre, iu the formal style of our Queen Anne's appearance in wax- work ; the critical eye of this Prince, although he has been tenned, and in some instances justly, a splendid barbarian, in a moment perceived the deficiency of grace in the attitude, and ordered the sceptre to be inclined : tlie artist retired to another room in chagrin, and exclaimed, " This great savage " has more taste than I have, who have been brought up in " the lap of the Arts." Upon giving another direction, the artist stared, and remonstrated upon the enormous sum which it would cost : " What ! Sir," said Potemkin, " do you affect " to know the depth of my treasury ? Be assured it stands in " no need of your sensibility." After which his orders were obeyed without any reference to expenditure. Nothing could exceed the public sensation which this fete excited. At length the evening arrived when the Prince was to appear in all his pomp and glor}^, before his fond and adored sovereign. The walls of these splendid apartments were most richly and beautifully illuminated, and decorated with various exquisite transparencies ; and the staii's, hall, avenues. THE DANCE. 357 and sides of the rooms were lined with officers of state, attached to the household of the Prince, and servants, in the most costly dresses, and magnificent liveries. The orchestra exceeded six hundred vocal and instrumental musicians, and announced the entrance of the Empress and her court, richly attired, by a grand overture and chorus, which reverberated through the colonnades and saloons. Potemkin conducted his Imperial visitor to an elevated chair glittering with gold and diamonds : midway between the columns were boxes gilt with pale gold, and lined with green silk, filled with spectators in gala dresses. The festivity commenced with a dance of youths of both sexes, habited in white, and covered \^ ith pearls and jewels, at the head of whom were the present Emperor and the grand duke Constantine his brother. After the dance, and the most costly refreshments, the party repaired to the theatre, at the other end of the palace, where an occasional piece, composed in honour of the Empress, was performed, in which all the powers of singing, acting, dancing, dress, scenery, and decora- tions, were displayed. Upon the conclusion of the drama, the audience rose, and as if impelled by magic, the benches, touched by springs, moved and formed into tables and little seats, which were almost instantaneously covered with the richest viands, served up in gold and silver. The curtain again rose, and discovered a hall of mirrors, from which descended globular lustres of crystal, and a table appeared covered with X X 538 THE BANQUET. the rarity of almost every region, splendidly served in gold ; and at the head, upon a throne gilded and glittering with precious stones, sat the Empress surrounded by her court, the most brilliant in Europe. Such were the arrangements in this place, that every one could see and be seen. In the colos- sal hall were spread tables filled with delicacies and the most costly wines, and at the head of it was a prodigious massy cis- tern of solid silver, containing sterlet soup, which is said alone to have cost ten thousand rubles. During this splendid re- past, in every room the softest music was heard, which rather enlivened than restrained the current of conversation. Uni- versal decorum and hilarity prevailed; every wish was antici- pated, every sense was gratified. The banquet was followed by a succession of magnificent exhibitions, and the Empress did not retire till midnight. As she proceeded to her carriage, it was observed that she ap- peared much affected by the homage which had been paid to her, encreased, perhaps, by the tender remembrance of de- parted hours ; and as she turned to bid the Prince adieu, she could scarcely support herself: at this touching moment, Po- temkin fell upon his knees, and covered her hand with his tears and kisses : it was destined that he should never more behold her under that roof, and his mind seemed to be fully possessed , of the idea. A short time afterwards, as he was proceeding from Yassy to Nicolaief, he was seized with a violent cholic. POTEMKIN'S DEATH. 339 which it is supposed was produced by his singular irregula- rities ; he alighted from his travelling carriage, supported by his nieces, with difficulty reached a bank on the side of tlie road, and expired in their arms. His remains were interred with magnificent honours, at Cherson, on the banlvs of the Dnieper, and a splendid mausoleum was raised to his me- mory by the order of her czarian majesty. The dislike which Paul ever bore towards Potemkin, prin- cipally on account of his being the favourite of his imperial mother, induced the Emperor, during the dreadful subversion of his mind, to order the body of the Prince to be raised and exposed, and the mausoleum destroyed. A lady whom I met, and who was obliged, during this fearful period, to take refuge in the Crimea, beheld the ruins of the tomb, and the remains of the Prince exposed to the birds of the air. To what trifles do many pei-sons owe their elevation : Po- temkin was indebted for his honours and fortunes to i3l feather. In the revolution which gave the late Empress sole possession of the throne, she appeared at the head of the Ismailof guards, when Potemldn, a young officer in the cavalry, perceiving that she had no feather in her hat, as she appeared on that momentous occasion en miUtaire, rode up to her and pre- sented his. This extmordinary man experienced, in early life, a disappointment of the heart, which so frequently forces the XX 2 340 ANECDOTE. mind out of its proper sphere, and unsettles it for ever. Po- temkin rushed into the field of battle, and in search of death obtained glory. The cruel fair one still rejected him, notwith- standing his scars and honours, became violently smitten with an ugly old man, whom she married, and hated for ever after. Potemkin very frequently refused to pay his tradesmen : it is said that a veiy celebrated French veterinary professor went from Vienna to Petersburg, for the purpose of curing a beautiful charger, that had been presented to the Prince by the Emperor Joseph II., and which was so ill that the me- dical world of Petersburg had given it over. The Professor built a stable for the animal upon a particular construction^ and after the most incessant attention succeeded in restoring it to health. When the horse-doctor w^aited upon Potemkin with the joyful news, and expected to be profusely paid for the heavy sums of money which he had expended, and for his time and skill, he was forbidden the sight of the Prince, never could see him afterwards, and never w as paid : yet notwith- standing these occasional acts of avaricious dishonesty, and although his property was estimated at nine millions of rubles in cash, forty-five thousand peasants, besides two pensions one ©f seventy-frv^e thousand rubles, and another of thirty thousand rubles, for his table, such was his prodigality that he was fre- quently embarrassed. In winter he used to wear a muff of the value of one thousand pounds. FLYING GARDENS. 341 In one of the Princess journies to the Crimea, Mr. Gould attended him, being at that time his head gardener, and was preceded by several hundred assistants. Whenever the Prince halted, if it were only for a day, he found his travel- ling pavilion raised, and surrounded by a garden in the Eng- lish taste, composed of trees and shrubs, raised, and carried forward as the cavalcade proceeded, and divided by gravel walks. Yet, strange to relate, amidst this Asiatic pomp, whilst the subordinate attendants fered upon every dainty that wealth could purchase, the poor Englishman, whenever the Prince requested him to travel in his carriage, which frequently occurred, was obliged to put up with the most homely fare, which Potemkin, always irregular and eccentric, generally preferred. At a sumptuous entertainment, where every rarity of epicurism invited the appetite, the Prince has been known to order a raw carrot, or turnip, and to dine upon it. I must relate the following Uttle anecdote, and then I have done with Potemkin. One day, in the course of their jour- ney, they halted at Bender, in Bessarabia, where, whilst the Prince was alone at dinner, Mr. G. rambled about the neigh- bourhood, for the purpose of discovering the scite, or remains, of the house of Charles XII, of Sweden, in which, on the twelfth of February, 1713, he and a few followers madly bade defiance to the whole Ottoman army, after having been repeat- edly and earnestly entreated to leave the dominions of the Grand 342 A DISCOVERY. Turk. After a diligent search, with the assistance of some of the natives, the EngHsh gardener discovered the ruins which tlie eccentric spirit of the Swedish King had rendered so in- teresting, and exultingly returned to the Prince with the in- telhgence, who exclaimed, with liheral joy, " the English dis- " cover every thing," immediately proceeded to it ; and, after regarding its remains w ith a very lively sensation, ordered the house to be repaired, and partly rebuilt, and a garden to be constructed round it, which were accordingly done, as a monu- ment of his respect for the conqueror of Nan^a. ( 343 ) CHAP. XVI. ENGLISH GROUND IN RUSSIA NATIONAL BATHS A NEW SECT HOW CUSTOMS VARY A PANACEA^ VISIT TO THE EMPEROR's GREATEST FAVOURITE A RECIPE FOR REVOLUTIONISTS WILD DOGS THE MARBLE CHURCH AND PASQUINADE ACADEMY OP ART A traveller's CIVILIZING IDEA A ROW TO KAMMENOI OSTROFF DELICACY AND GRATITUDE BRAVERY AND GENERO- SITY OP GUSTAVUS III. TO HIS BARGEMAN AN ELEGANT AND GRATEFUL COMPLIMENT RUSSIAN MUSIC ITS EFFECT UPON ITA- LIAN EARS AND COWS — FOREST ON FIRE. JL/URING my stay at Petersburg, I paid several visits to the country houses of the English merchants on the PeterhofF road, where they hve in great elegance. In the gardens of one of them, I trod with delight upon British ground : an ardent love for his country had induced the hospitable owner, at a great expence, to bring a quantity of English ballast from British ships to cover his walks with. Every garden is furnished with large swings, capable of holding two persons standing, and one be- tween, sitting. Of this diversion the Russians are ver}^ fond. As I was rovnig in my friend's grounds I heard the cry of some hounds in an adjoining kennel, belonging to a Russian nobleman : the nobility are very fond of the sports of the field. 344 RUSSIAN BATHS. Tlie gentlemen of the English factor}^ have a regular pack and sporting establishment at Garrella. Having assumed a tolerable shabby dress, no difficult thing for a traveller at any time to command, for the purpose of qualifying ourselves for the ap- proaching scene, and to prevent the suspicion of improper mo- tives ; we proceeded to the great national bath on a Saturday, ^\'hich seems to be a purifying day every where. After passing over a raised wooden path, by the side of a long wooden wall, we halted at a house built of the same materials, which formed the grand entrance. Here, upon paying five copecs a-piece, fi*om a hole in a dark shed, or magazine of birch rods 'svith the leaves on, a hand poked out one of them to each of us, which we took, without at the time knowing for what purpose they were to be used. On the entrance on each side were stalls of black bread, little pies, quass, and liqueurs. In the first court we beheld men and women indiscriminately mingled together, in a state similar to that which preceded the slightest notion of breeches and waistcoats. They were ar- ranged like so many hounds in a dog-kennel, upon benches tier above tier, where they were wringing their beards and combing and plaiting their hair. In the middle of the yard was a jet d'eau playing into a great wooden cistern ; as the bathers came out of the vapour-room, red and reeking with heat, they ran to this tank, and filling a bucket with cold water, raised it, and threw it over their heads. When these baths TME VAPOUR-ROOM. 545 are near a river they plunge into it, and in the winter roll themselves in the snow. I opened the door of the vapour-room, in which I could not continue ahove a minute, and in that time a profuse per- spiration came over me. The room was capacious, women and men were piled one abo\ e another amphitheatrically ; the va- pour which filled the room, and gave it the atmosphere of a digester, was produced from water being thrown upon a great number of heated stones, some of them red hot. In this place, to assist the cause of perspiration and washing, they exchange the little tender and delicate offices of flogging, soaping, and rubbing each other down. The Russians in this, as well as many other customs, bear a strong analogy to the Grecians. These scenes, such is the effect of habit, are sel- dom productive of libertinism, even amongst the natives ; to every foreigner they cannot fail to be offensive and repulsive. If a painter wishes to delineate a Venus, or even any part of the figure, let him not go to a Russian bath for a model. My curiosity was soon satisfied, I visited no other part of the building, and right glad was I to quit this disgusting scene. These baths, however, which are to be found in every village, prove that the Russians are naturally clean. After these ab- lutions, clean shirts and shifts are put on for Sunday. It is highly interesting to observe how nations differ from Y Y 34(5 SWIMMING. each other in their customs, and how frequently they reverse them. As we are upon the subject of bathing, I cannot help mentioning that, as I was walking with some English ladies in the Summer Gardens one evening, 1 saw about sixty men and women enjoying themselves in a small canal which runs from the Neva to the Michaeleski palace. Public as this spectacle was, there seemed to be the most perfect innocence amongst all the parties. One man was very desirous that I should see how well his wife could swim ; and a Polish servant in waiting said, with great naivete, to one of our Enghsh ladies, (a very amiable and sensible woman, in whose service he was,) "Madam, there is a fme seat tliere," pointing to one upon the side of the water, " where you can have an excel- lent view, and see the manner in which the Russians swim." Their manner is somewhat curious; they swim as if a dog had taught them. As I was one day walking by the side of the canal which runs before the Opera-house, I saw two yoimg, and I think I may add, modest women, seeking shelter from the sun in the limpid stream. The forms of these Musidoras did more honour to their sex, than any which I had before seen. The Russians beat all the doctors hollow. They have one simple (I know not if certain) cure for every description of disease, viz. two glasses of brandy, a scourging and soaping in the vapour-bath, and a roll in the Neva, or snow. THE GREAT FAVOURITE. SA7 The smile of the sovereign has an universal influence; if you are well at court, it is well with you every where. Im- pressed with this truth, 1 resolved to visit the greatest favourite of his Imperial Majesty. As his sagacity was extraordinary; as he paid no consideration to exterior himself, nor minded it in others ; and, moreover, as his residence was in the neigh- bourhood of the bath, I made up my mind to avail myself of his liberal notions, and seek an audience without returning to my hotel, a distance of three miles at least, to change my dress. Although, with respect to the appearance of his visitors, he was very accommodating, yet I found him, like all courtiers, inaccessible without a bribe ; and accordingly, the honour of being introduced to him cost me something, it is useless now to say what. Was it not singular ? Upon entering his apartment, which was very lofi:}^ I found him heavily ironed by one leg, and guarded; yet, sti'ange as this appeared, I was rejoiced to find, for his character stands very high, that he was not in disgrace. The personage I am speaking of was his Majesty's elephant, who was at least eleven feet high, and, * like his Imperial master, majestic, yet gracious ; and though tearfully armed with power, most discreet and gentle in its use. His establishment consisted of a faithful Persian, who received and repaid his afiections. In the gTOund behind the elephant's apartment, we saw some Caimuc sheep grazing, distinguishable from the same Y Y 2 348 MISCHIEVOUS EMISSARIES. species of animal in other countries, by a vast bag of hard fat, which grows from the rump. As I was returning from his elephantic majesty, a friend of mine pointed to a Russian who was crossing a bridge, and informed me that some years since he was one of the leading characters of a sect, whose tenets extended eternal rewards of happiness to those who, crossing the great design of God in creating man, deprived themselves of the possibility of becoming the fathers of families : against the spreading fanaticism of these monstrous visionaries, which aimed at the mdical extinction of society, Catherine II. di- rected a j)rompt and decisive blow ; those of its wretched and deluded followers who are known, are branded, wherever they appear, with public derision. Catherine put down a sect still more formidable, and by the following whimsically wise manner, saved her people from the baneful contagion of French principles. During that revolu- tion, which portended ruin to all the sacred establishments of all nations,- when in England Pitt trampled out the brightening embers, and saved his country from the devouring flames, ' a group of mischievous emissaries firom France arrived at Petersburg, and began, in whispers amongst the mob, to persuade the poor droshka driver, and the ambulatory vend- er of honey quass, that thrones were only to be considered as stools, and that they had as much right to sit upon one of them as their empress : Catherine, concealing her real appre- SINGULAR PUNISHMENT. 349 hensions, availed herself of the powers with which she was clothed, without shedding a drop of blood. She knew ridi- cule to be, in able hands, a pow^erful weapon, and resolved to wield it upon the present occasion. One evening the police officers were ordered to seize all these illuminated apostles of li- berty, and bear them away to the lunatic asylum, where the Empress had directed that their heads should be shaved and blistered, and their bodies well scoured by aperient medicines, and kept on meagre diet ; this regimen was continued for four- teen daj^s, when their confinement terminated. The com- mon Russians had heard of their fate, and really believing that they had been insane, neglected and deserted them upon their re-appearance in the city with shorn heads, hollow eyes, and sunk cheeks, and all the striking indications of a recently bewildered mind. If this mild and ingenious project had failed, Catherine would have let loose all the energy of power, and for this purpose she rapidly caused to be built that vast edifice, now used for the marine barracks, which she destined for a state prison. The transition from revolutionists to wild dogs is very srm^ pie and natural. About three versts on the left hand side of the Zarsko Zello road, is a wood infested with these animals. To this place dead horses, and all the rank garbage of the city, which a Russian stomach cannot relish, are carried. 350 MICHAELISKY PALACE, These dogs never aim at proselytism, and are never seen be- yond the boundaries of tiieir thicket. Having throvrn aside our bathing dresses, we went to the palace of Saint Michael, where, as I have related, the last Emperor perished. As Paul had expressed so much aversion to the imperial mansions in which his mother delighted, I felt a curiosity minutely to examine a palace of his own crea- tion. In addition to what has been before observed, the whole of this enormous pile was built by an Italian, of red Dutch brick, which at a distance has an animating appear- ance, upon a basement of hewn granite, that resembles a foundation of rock. The grand entrance from the great perspective through the riding-room and offices, is veiy hand- isome. Upon the architrave is written in Russ characters, as it was ti'anslated to me, the following singular motto : " May *' my house endure like the Liord's." The Russians observe, with their accustomed superstition, that the number of letters of this inscription correspond with the number of Paul's years, and that out of them an anagram may be composed, denoting that he who raised the building would • perish bj^ a violent death. The interior is vast, but very gloomy. The cham- bers which were shewn were stripped of their furniture and all their moveable decorations, which are lodged in the cabinet of jewels, but the ornaments which remained exhibited a style of costly magnificence; the doors, some of which were of CHURCH OF ST. ISAAC. 351 various-coloured glass, and richly gilded, were uncommonly superb. We saw the room in which the unfortunate Sove- reign perished, and his private stair-case before mentioned. All the rooms, except those which were used for state, are occupied by persons belonging to the court ; amongst others Mr. Cameron, the imperial architect, has a superb suite of apartments, those which were formerly occupied by the pre- sent Emperor and Empress before they ascended the throne : in one of which is a fire-place which had been encrusted with jewels. To the taste and genius of this gentleman, Russia is indebted for many of her beautiful architectural objects. From the palace of St. Michael, we went, by a special ap- pointment and permission, obtained after much trouble, to the Academy of Arts, and in our way stopped at the marble church of St. Isaac, which was erected, but not finished, by the late Empress : it is entirely built of Siberian marble, por- phyrj^ and jasper, at an immense cost, has a vast copper dome gilded, and is the most magnificent place of worship in Peters- burg ; yet, after all, it has a very sombre appearance without. The late Emperor, disgusted, as I have already explained, with every thing which had engaged the care and regard of his Imperial mother, raised in ridicule a little tower of brick, covered with a small dome, on the west side of this temple. During the calamitous state of his mind, an indiscreet wag 352 ACADEMY OF ARTS. affixed to the door of the church the following pasquinade, in Russ verses : " To Paul the First, Emperor, &c." ** In marble should thy mother's mem'ry shine j In perishable brick and plaster thine." The writer paid dearly for his wit ; he was discovered, knouted, had his nostrils torn, and was sent to Siberia. Upon the ac- cession of the present Emperor, application was made by his friends for liis release, which was granted, and a miserable mu- tilated wretch was restored to those who could with difticulty recognize him. The interior of this building is truly magnificent, being en- tirel}'^ ^composed of the most precious Siberian marble. Near the altar was an elegant pulpit, the only one that I saw in any of the Greek churches : it was built by the orders of the late Empress, who was desirous of enlightening her people in their faith by devotional discourses. The Academy of Arts is an enormous pile of quadrangular brick building, in the Vassili-Ostrolf. In the council-room we were shewn a beautiful golden medal of the head of Paul, by the present Empress dowager, which at once proves the taste of her mind, and the powerful affections of her heart. In the hall of statues were a great number of fine casts from the antique, particularly a beautiful one of the Belvidere RUSSIAN PAINTERS. 353 Apollo: the original, in the Imperial Museum at Paris, afforded me the greatest delight I ever experienced in contem- plating any work of art, and which I greatly preferred to the Laocoon. Amongst the pictures was a perfect and precious piece of painting, in fresco, from Herculaneum. As we passed through a suite of rooms, in which the youngest class of students, from the age of eight or nine years, were drawing (all of whom, as well as the rest of the pupils, are clothed, educated, and maintained, at the expence of the crown), we saw some promising works of art ; but, strang'e to relate, they were principally confined to the younger artists : the tree looks healthy towards the roots, but weakens as it spreads. I could not help observing, that most of the adult students were occu- pied in painting whole and half length likenesses of the Em- peror, in his regimentals, instead of attending to the works of the antient masters, several of whose productions adorn their galleries. The Almighty Disposer of the Universe has limited nations, as well as individuals, to their proper share of his be- neficence. Whilst he has determined that the vine of the Tyrol shall never bend with its luscious grape upon the shores of the Frozen Sea, he seems to have allotted a more benign region to Painting, and to have precluded her from v^^andering far in the north. To the Russian that god has been bounti- ful : — ^but Russia has never yet sent an illustrious painter into the world : — it may be too confident to say she never will. z z 354 HALL OF ARCHITECTURE. In the hall of architecture were some exquisite models; many in cork, of Roman ruins ; the principal were a prodi- gious one of St. Peter's at Rome, which entirely filled a large room ; its dimensions admitted two of us to stand under its dome, and another of the kazan. In the hall of statuary we saw several students at their occupations, who displayed con- siderable ability : there were here some beautiful casts, from Canovre's statues, many of which are in Prince Usupoff's gallery. The adjoining rooms to this ^Aere for the accom- modation of the engravers and medallists. The late Empress lavished enormous sums upon this insti- tution, which, if it does not ultimately reach the perfection of similar establishments in more genial climates, will at least have the merit of having made some advancements. After the profuse magnificence of Catherine, and the thoughtless waste of the imperial treasure during the short reign of his disastrous predecessor, Alexander has most judiciously confined himself to a cautious and scrupulous expenditure. Russia is unquestionably much indebted to the genius and spirit of the late Empress ; but it was impossible that extended civilization could be the fruits of her costly culture. In raising magni- ficent palaces, she raised so many monuments to her memory, which at first surprised the common Russian, but never in- formed him ; and, in doing so, she too much neglected the cottage. If I dare intimate the spot where, in such a country. SOURCES OF CIVILIZATION. 355 die spirit of civilization should commence her oi3erations, I would point to the hovel of felled trees, where the smoke issues through the same hole which admits the light : amelio- rate the domestic economy of rude and abject nature. Take care of the pea sail fri/ : the higher classes are pretty nearly the same all over the world. The reverse of this plan will ever present the hideous spectacle of a voluptuous and vicious no- bility, and of a people corrupt before they are refmed ; or, in the language of a shrewd observer of mankind, " rotten " ere they are ripe." As far as my observation and informa- tion extended, I should conceive that the civilization of Russia would be rapidly promoted, after the removal of that most frightful and powerful of all checks, slavery, by improving the farms, by establishing colleges for the education of those who are destined to the priesthood, by reducing the number of holidays, by instituting rewards for menial integrity at the end of a given period, and by preventing parents from be- trothing tlieir female chikh-en before the age of consent, and contrary to their will. The day when we visited the places before described being remarkably fine. Captain Elphinstone, of the Russian navy, proposed a visit by water in his barge to Kammenoi Ostrofl) a little seat, and the favourite residence of the Emperor, about seven versts from tlie city. The bargemen were very fine fellows, clean shaved, and dressed in clean shirts. As we z z 2 356 ANECDOTE OF CATHERINE. rowed round the islands formed by the Petrovka, branching from the Neva, my gallant friend gratified me, by relating the following anecdote of the delicacy and fortitude of Ca- therine's mind. After the battle between the Russian and Swedish fleets off Cronstadt, in May 1790, Captain Elpliin- stone, then a very joung lieutenant, was dispatched by his uncle. Admiral C reuse, to Catherine, who was at that time at the palace of Zarsko Zelo, with an account of the successful manoeuvres of her fleet. For four days and nights preceding the Empress had taken no rest, and but little refreshment, the greater part of which time she had passed upon the beau- tiful tenace near the baths of porphyry ; listening, with the greatest anxiety, to the distant thunder of the cannon, which was so tremendous, that several windows in Petersburg were broken by its concussion. It is said that, anticipating the last disaster, her horses and carriages were ready to convey her to Moscow. Young Elphinstone arrived at the palace late at night, in his fighting clothes, covered with dust and gun- powder, and severely fatigued with long and arduous duty. His dispatches were instantly carried to the Empress, who or- dered her page in waiting to give the bearer refreshments and a bed, and requested that he might on no account be disturbed. The gallant messenger availed himself of her graciousness, and " Tir'd Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep !" never quitted his eye-lids till the dawn had far advanced, during which period Catherine had sent three times to see if he were awake. ROYAL GENEROSITY. 357 At length Captain Elphinstone, in all his dishabille, was con- ducted to her presence by her secretar}^ when she com- menced an enchanting conversation, in which she compli- mented the gallantry and many naval achievements of his family ; and after proceeding upon various topics for about half an hour, she said, calling him " my son," " Now let us " proceed to business : 1 have received the dispatches, which " have afforded me infinite satisfaction ; I thank you for your " bravery and zeal ; I beg you will describe to me the po- " sition of the ships," which, as Captain E. explained, she indicated with her pencil upon a leaf of her pocket-book ; and as she gave him her orders to the Commander in Chief, she presented him with a rouleau of ducats, a beautiful little French watch, and, although very young, promoted him to the rank of Captain. It was during this battle that the Swedish monarch be- haved with his accustomed distinguished gallantry : As he was rowing in his barge, and giving his orders, in the thickest of the battle, a shot carried away the hand of the strokesman, and at this moment a small Russian vessel of war, discovering the King, bore down upon him ; the brave and generous mo- narch, seeing the accident which his poor bargeman had sus- tained, and his own personal peril at the same time, calmly took out his handkerchief, and bound it over the wound, then leaped on board one of his gun-boats, and miraculously escaped, by that good fortune which never favours litde minds. 358 ELEGANT COMPLIMENT. at the instant when liis barge was boarded by the enemy, the cushions of which were preserved in the apartment of Captain Elphinstone, in the marine barracks, as trophies of war and of humanity. A short time after the Swedish fleet had retired, the gal- lant and venerable Admiral C reuse, who commanded the Russian fleet, paid his resj^ects to his sovereign. Owing to the corpulency of the Admiral, the narrow plank floor of the presence-chamber shook with his weight, which the hero remarked Avith some little humour, to Catherine, when she turned this trivial circumstance into the following beautiful com- pliment :— " My brave C reuse, wherever you go you make the " earth shake under you, and your enemies tremble." As we rowed along we passed several national baths, from which the people precipitately issued in a stream of perspiration, and -plunged into the river. They regard these transitions from ex- :treme heat to extreme cold as conducive to an invigoration of the frame. As we turned uj) the little Nevka, we saw several beautiful country houses and grounds : the chateau of Count Narishkin was of this description ; it had a centre, surmounted by a vast copper dome painted green, and very extensive wings upon a ground floor; a flight of steps led to the principal en- trance, shaded from the sun by a vast projecting awning of canvas ; the whole edifice was built of wood, and painted of a light yellow. Several elegant yachts and pleasure barges with gay streamers, floating green houses and baths, were moored SINGULAR ATTACHMENTS. 359 before it ; the whole had an Asiatic appearance. A superb pleasure barge with twelve rowers, covered with a rich awning from stem to stern, passed us, in which was a lady of rank, and a little yellow humpbacked female ideot, who had the good fortune of being her pet I The Russian nobility, whether from whim, genuine compassion, or superstition, I know not, are uncommonly fond of these little, sickly, shapeless, blighted beings : uniting man to monster, and apparently formed by Heaven to mock the proud presuming nature of those whom he has made after his own image. The imperial chateau is small, has a terrace in front towards the water, and a wood be- hind : as the Emperor was here we did not attempt to see the inside of it, but I understand most of the rooms are for use and comfort only. The Empress, who is one of the most amiable and the shyest being that ever wore a diadem, hurries with delight from the gaudy tumult of a court, to veil herself in the tranquil shades of this sequestered place ; and the Em- peror exhibits the same love of privacy. Is there no moral in their choice ? Does it not point to the spot where only genuine happiness is to be found ? We went on board one of the imperial yachts, a beautiful vessel, the state-room of which w^as most elegantly fitted up. Soon after leaving Kammenoi-OstrofF, we passed Count Stro- ganoff's gardens, which are prettily laid out, and embellished with the customary decorations of hillocks, rustic temples, ar- 560 MARINE WARBLERS. tificial rocks and waterfals. The Count very liberally opens his garden gates on Sunday to the public, when the walks are very much crowded, and resemble, but in miniature, those of Kensington gardens. Upon our return, we rowed against the stream of the Neva a considerable way, and floated down with it, for the pur]X)se of enabling our boatmen to take in their oars, and afford us a specimen of Russian vocalmusic. They first faced each other, and sat very close together, and upon a signal being given, the leader sang a little song alone, which, upon his striking a tamborine, all the party, steadfastly gazing upon each other, joined in, and although their voices at a dis- tance frequently produce an agreeable harmony, such was the shrillness on the present occasion, that I could not help thinking the" conclusion of the song by far the best part of it. When Captain E. was lying in his frigate a few years since off Palermo, he invited a party, in which were two Italian princesses, to a marine breakfast, during which the latter re- quested to be indulged with a native Russ chorus, the fame of which had reached them ; the sailors, who were assembled round the cabin light, commenced their national song before their fair auditors expected it, who, terrified at the screaming sounds which issued fi-om the strained throats of these untu- tored warblers, instandy raised their hands to their -ears, and implored Captain E. to stop his men ; but, convulsed with laughter, and overpowered by the din of the chorus^ he was obliged to let them make a natural finale. When they had MUSICAL COW-KEEPERS. o6l stopped, Captain Elphinstone said, ** Now, ladies, will you " have a little more ?" " Not for the world, my dear Captain, not "^^ for the world, we are quite content," was the universal cry. Whilst I was upon a visit at the house of my much re- spected and hospitable friend John Venning, Esq., I used ge- nemlly to be awakened by a cow-keeper, collecting, Orpheus- like, his cows together, by a very long pipe, from which he produced some strains by no means unpleasing. The dress and attitude of this fellow, with his instrument in his mouth, resembled very much some of the figures which I have seen upon Etruscan vases. For two or three days, whilst the wind was northerly, we were much annoyed in the city by a dense smoky atmosphere, rising fi'om a large forest, which had been burning for several days, about thirty ^^ersts from Petersburg : to prevent the spreading of this ten'ible conflagration> tAvo re- giments were marclied to the spot, who, after great exertion, by felling trees and digging trenches, succeeded in impeding its progress. Accidents of this kind are attributed to the re- action of intense heat fi'om the rock, upon the dry moss which is frequently found upon it. 3 A ( S()2 ) CHAP. XV IT. eOURT CLOCK WINTER PALACE, HERMITAGE PLAYERS AND GO- VERNMENT CARRIAGES — CONVENT DES DEMOISELLES — INSTABI- LITY OP FORTUNE GENEROSITY IN A CHILD THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL. IN order to observe engagements with punctuality, it is ne- cessary that a traveller's watch should be set by the clock of the winter palace, which is the sun's vice-regent in Petersburg, and is certainly more sovereign than that of the Horse-Guards in London. I learned this piece of important information, as I proceeded with a party of friends to the Hermitage ; not the matted cell of an anchorite, but a magnificent modern palace built by the late Empress, and connected by a light elegant g-allery with an enormous mass of building, called the winter palace, built of brick stuccoed, and consisting of a basement floor, a grand and lesser stor}^ supported with Doric columns, and adorned with balustrades, and an immense number of statues, many of which are said to be excellent, but as they are associated with the chimnies, their beauties are not disceinible to gazers on the ground. This pile was built by the Empress Elizabeth, is grand from its magnitude, but very heavy; THE HERMITAGE. 563 within its walls are many courts, galleries, and passages, and stair- cases without number. In the winter it requires fifteen hundred stoves, or as the Russians call them pitchkas, and the resident English, peeches, to warm it. What could induce Catherine to call one of the most costlv and elegant palaces in Europe by the name of the Hermitage I cannot imagine ; not more pre[)osterous would it be to hear Windsor Castle denominated the Nutshell. Its situation on the banks of the Neva is very beautiful ; the apartments are still magnificent, although much of their rich furniture has been removed, and are embellished with the Houghton and other choice collections, to which artists have free access to copy. One room was entirely filled with some of the finest productions of Vernet; there is also a great number by Te- niers. Upon the same floor with the picture galleries, which, with the state-rooms, occupy the second story, is a spacious covered winter garden, filled with orange trees, and foreign singing birds, opening into a summer garden upon the top of the palace, in which there is a beautiful long gravelled walk, lined with shrubs and large graceful birch trees, whose roots I should think must have for some time threatened to make their way through the ceiling of the drawing-rooms below. The \\ hole is adorned with statues, elegant garden sophas, and temples, and on each side are magnificent galleries. In the cabinet of curiosities I was much pleased with a faithful and ex(][uisit^ 3 A 2 SdA POTE-VIKIK'S PEACOCK, model of a Russian boor's farm-house in wax. In tlie mtreic- room adjoining to this are some large and admirable pictures, by Snej^der, representing fish, fowl, and fruit. In the cabinet of jewels there is a rich display of all sorts of jewelry ; and amongst others, under a great glass case, are the celebrated mechanical peacock, owl, cock, and grasshopper, of the size of life, which was made in England, at a vast expence, and pre- sented by Potemkin to the late Empress. The machinery is ^damaged : the cock, mounted on a tree of gold, no longer crows, nor hoots the owl, nor does the peacock spread his tail, at the expiration of the hour, but the grasshopper still skips round to denote the moments. This animal is nearly the size df his more animated brethren in Russian Finland,which are said to be an inch and a half long. There were also several ivory •cups, the fruits of the ingenuitj^ of Peter tlie Great, whose ver- satility was such, that apparently with equal ease, he could bend from the founding of cities, leading armies into the field, ^nd fighting battles, to building boats, turning wooden spoons ^nd platters, and carding in ivory. Raphael's hall, one of the ^galleries running parallel with the garden, is superbly painted und decorated, and has a fine collection of minerals ; its inlaid ^oor is uncommonly rich and exquisite, 1 searched in vain for Sir Josliua Reynolds's celebrated infant Hercules, purchased b^^ the late Empress for ihe Her- itage. Upon enquiry I found that it had been removed DRAMATIC CARHIAGES. 365 into a private apartment below, and was seldom shewn ; the reason assigned was, that the Russians have a superstitious hor- ror of death, and that as the subject was the strangling of the serpent hy the infant god, it was on that account unpopular. IJpon our return through the rooms, we went to the court theatre, connected with the Hermitage by a gallery over an arch, which crosses a cut of water from the ISfeva to the Moilia canal. The space before tlie curtain is filled with seat^ rising amphitheatrically, and the w-hole, without being large, is elegant. The performers were rehearsing at the time : af- terwards, as we were quitting the palace, my curiosity ^^ as excited by a number of Imperial coaches, presenting a grada- tion of qualities ; some were tolerably good, some shabby, and others very old and crazy, to which must be added a \^ry long vehicle, such as is used in England for conveying wild beasts, having four horses abreast, all drawn up before that part of the palace where the theatre is situated. Upon the conclusion of the rehearsal, the players descended : the tra- gedians and genteel comedians occupied the better carnages, the low comedians the more ancient and defective ones, and the chorus-singers, to the amount of about thirty, skipped into the long coach, and were all driven to their re.spectiv:e homes. These machines are kept for the sole service of the })layers, • 'Not far from the Hermitage, and uppn a liiK^ with it, is 366 CONVENT DES DEMOISELLES. the magnificent palace raised by Catherine II. for Gregory Orloif, and afterwards allotted, by the late Emperor, to the last of the Kings of Poland : it is built of grey Siberian marble^ and adorned ^vith columns and pilasters of the same stone, of a brown and reddish colours. The balustrades of the balconies, and the frames of the windows, are of brass richly gilded. All the splendid furniture and moveal)le deco- rations have been removed, and the whole is now occupied by pereons belonging to the court. In consequence of the gracious orders of the Empress Dowager to that effect, we visited a very interesting institu- tion under her immediate protection, the Convent des De- moiselles. This Imperial seminary, which has no equal in Europe, contains three hundred and seventy-two young ladies of nobility ; and two hundred and forty daughters of citizens. There is also another institution under the same roof, called that of Saint Catherine, in which there are one hundred and eighty-eight children, of the inferior orders of nobility. The age of admission is six years. The noble young ladies are taught German, French, Italian, drawing, music, dancing, geography, embroidery, and every other elegant pursuit. The • daughters of the bourgeois are instructed in what is useful alone, and can conduce to their making good tradesmen's wives. Their genius, or bias of mind, whenever it can be ascertained, is always consulted in their pursuits. The build- THE DIRECTRESS. 367 ing is like a great town ; it was formerly occupied by the monks of Smolnoi, who have been removed to accommodate much more useful and lovely members of society. In the centre is a vast neglected church, surmounted with a dome in the centre of four small cupolas, all of copper gilded. Tiiis edi- fice forms a venerable and prominent feature in the city. We were received at the grand entrance by some of the officers attached to the establishment, in full uniform, a dress which is worn by all male persons belonging to Imperial institutions,, on account of the government being military. We were first conducted to the kitchen, where we saw and tasted a sample of the day's dinner, consisting of excellent soup, boiled beef, vegetables, and pastry. The young ladies are divided into classes of age, and distinguished by brown, blue, and green and white dresses. In the first school we were presented to her Excellency Madame Adlerberg, the directress of the con- vent, who apj^eared, decorated with the order of Saint Cathe- rine, a lady of great beauty, and elegance of deportment; her. mind and character were explained by the smiles and looks of affection which every where attended her, as we proceeded through the schools. In the sick room there were only three patients, who were most tenderly attended by the proper nurses; the name, age, disorder, and treatment of the in-t valid, is inscribed upon a little tablet fixed over her head to the back of the bed. The dormitories were remarkably neat, and even elegant. Some of the little girls surprised us d6Q AKECDcnrE. by the e^icellence to which they had attained in drawing. In the Greek church belonging to the convent, we were at- tended by the priest in his full robes, who shewed n» a mag- nificent cup of gold studded with jewels, used in devotion, the work of the Empress dowager. The mortality among the children is very inconsiderable ; upon an average only two die annually out of eight hundred, unless after filling up of several vacancies, occurring at the same time^ \^hen the children admitted from the provinces sometimes bring diseases \\ith them. In tlie blue class we saw an instance of the mutability of fortune, in a little girl about eleven years of age, the Princess S— ^ — the grand-daughter of the late King o( Poland; In the dispersion of the family she was left desti- tute. Her mother, in a frenzy produced by the dethronement of her father, thrcAT her son, a child, from a balcony into the street, and dashed oiat his brains. This orphan relic of an august and most unfortunate family, was saved fi^om actual want by the humanity and feeling of the Princess Biron, with Iv^hose daughter she is educated in the convent. The young Princess Biron, in the blue dress of her class, under\^'ent an examination in French and Avriting in our presence, and ac- quitted herself with infinite credit. In the green and white dassi where the eldest young ladies are, we were entertained with some very delightful Russ and French airs and choruses, aecompaWed by the harpsichord. NATIVE GENEROSITY. 309 In the institution of Saint Catherine, under the direction of Madame Bredkoff, an elderly lady of distinguished talents, and sweetness of disposition,, the following little circumstance occurred, which will prove that the Russian mind, whatever may have been said of it, is susceptible of feeling and gene- rosity. In this institution, which is supported by the Empress- dowager, a hmited number only of young ladies are admitted, free of expence, by ballot ; but others are received uj)on pay- ing, as it is teimed, a pension. At the last admission, two little girls, the eldest not exceeding ten years of age, the ■daughter of a naval captain, who in this country is noble, the father of a large family, presented themselves, and drew, the one a prize, the other a blank. Altliough so young, they knew that fate had, in this manner, resolved upon their sepa- ration ; they felt it, and wept. Another young lady, to whom the next chance devolved, drew a prize, and observing the >distressof the sisters, without holding any communicationn with their parents, or with any other person, spontaneously ran up to the luckless little girl, presented her with the ticket, and lead- ing her up to tlie directress, said, " See, Madam, I have " drawn a prize, but my papa can afford to pay the pension, ^' and I am sure will pay it for me : pray let one who is less ** fortunate, enjoy the good that has happened to me/' This charming anecdote was immediately rejx)rted to the Empress- erial Cadet Corps, in which seven hundred children are educated and maintained, as gentlemen, for the profes- sion of arms, at the expence of the country. The gover- nor, a nobleman of high rank, and several of the officers attached to the institution, attended us through the progres- sive schools. Every child follows his own religious persua- sion, for which purpose there are a Lutheran and a Greek church under the same roof: the latter is singularly elegant. The dormitories, as well as every other part of the establish- 3f 402 CADET CORPS. ment, were remarkably clean and handsome, the pupils having separate beds. In the store-rooms each boy's change of linen and clothes were very neatly folded up, and his name marked upon a tablet over them. At one of the dooi-s we saw some of these soldiers in miniature relieve guard. In the schools are taught mathematics, gunnery, mapping, French, German, and Russian; fencing and dancing, and everjT^ other science and accomplishment which can complete the soldier and the gentleman. We were present at their dinner, which is served at half past twelve o'clock. The dining-hall is two hundred feet long, by forty broad. Every table held twenty-two boys, for each of whom a soup and meat plate, a silver fork, knife, and napkin, and a large slice of wholesome country bread, were laid ; and at each end were two large silver goblets filled with excellent quas : they have four substantial dishes three times a week, and three on the other days. All the boys, after marching in regular order from the respective schools, appeared at the several doors of the dining-hall, headed by their captains : upon the roll of the di'um, they marched in slow time to their respective tables, forming three companies of two hundred each (the fuzileer company, composed of the sons of the soldiers, did not dine till afterwards) ; at the second roll they halted, faced, and sat down : ail their dishes appeared to be excellent : their uniform was bottle green, faced with red. Great attention appeared to have been paid to their manners, by the decorum and urba- COSTLY PELISSES. 403 nity which was displayed at their tables. Tlie kitchens for soup, boiling, and roasting, were remarkably neat, although we saw them just after dinner had been served up. There are several other cadet corps upon the same princely establish- ment, and create in the mind of a stranger a high idea of the wealth and patriotic spirit of the empire. A foreigner should not quit Petersburg without seeing the cabinet of jewels and furs, contained in a superb building in the Grand Perspective : here the clocks, gilded and bronze or- naments of the palace of Saint Michael, are deposited, all of which are very magnificent ; there are also massy balustrades and tables of solid silver. Amongst the jewellery I was much pleased with several beautiful watches, upon the backs of which were little figures, some in the act of angling and drawing up little fish ; others cooking meat, pumping, and rocking cradles; in others little cascades of glass were set in motion. There was a profusion of magnificent diamond snuff-boxes, stars, &c. for imperial presents. In the apartments below was the museum of furs, where we saw several pelisses made of tiny dorsal slips of the black fox, valued each at ten thousand pounds. This animal, a native of Siberia, is so rare and so small, that one of these pelisses cannot be made in less than ten years, and they are ihen paid to the Emperor in lieu of monej^ as tributes, from different 3f2 404 ZARSKO ZELO. provinces. These are generally presented upon some great national occasion to crowned heads. There are also fine collections of sables and other furs, many of which are annu- ally sold. As I have mentioned these tributes, it may be proper here to observe, that the imperial revenues chiefly arise from the poll tax, the crown and church lands, the duties on export and import, profits of the mint, the excise upon salt, the sale of spirituous liquors, post-offices and posting. The proprietors of houses, as w^ell natives as foreigners, pay in lieu of all other taxes, and in discharge from the odious burthen of maintain- ing soldiers, to which they were formerly liable, a duty of one- half per cent, ad valorem, upon the house, and a ground rent which varies according to local advantages, for every square fathom. Of course, I did not leave the capital ^^ithout seeing Zarsko- Zelo, the most magnificent of the country palaces, about twenty-four versts from Petersburg. The entrance to it is through a forest, under a lofty arch of artificial rock, sur- mounted with a Chinese watch tower; after which we passed a Chinese town, where the enormous imperial pile, consisting of three stories, one thousand two hundred feet long, opened upon us. It was built by Catherine I. ; embellished and bar- barously giit by Elizabeth^ and greatly beautified and mo- ROOMS OF GLASS. 405 derriized by the late Empress. Amongst the numerous rooms fitted up in the style of ancient magnificence, the amber- room, a vast apartment, entirely lined with pieces of that va- luable fossil bitumen, presented by Frederic William I. to Peter the Great, but not put up till the reign of Elizabeth. One of the pieces of amber expressed in rude characters, by its veins, the year in which it was presented. The apartments, which Catherine has fitted up and embel- lished, display the highest taste and profusion of expence ; the floor of one of these rooms was inlaid with mother-of-pearl, representing a variety of flowers and elegant figures ; but I w as most pleased with her two celebrated chambers of entire glass, which in novelty and beauty exceed all description. The sides and cielings of these rooms were formed of pieces of thick glass, about a foot square, of a cream and pale blue colour, connected by fine frames of brass richly gilded. In the centre, upon steps of glass, rose a divan, above which was a vast mirror, and on each side were slender pillars of light blue glass that supported an elegant canopy. Behind the mir- ror was a rich state bed. Even the doors, sophas, and chairs, were of coloured glass, elegantly shaped, and veiy light. From the rooms we entered a vast terrace under a colonnade, and proceeded to the baths, which are lasting monuments of the taste of Mr. Cameron, the imperial architect. They con- 40(5 THE PROTEST. tain a suite of sujierb rooms, one of which is entirely composed of the richest agates and porphyry ; in this saloon were two pieces in mosaic, the most brilhant and beautiful I ever beheld. Near the baths is a vast terrace upon arches, with a central covered galler}^ of great extent, capable at all times of afford- ing either a cool or a sheltei*ed promenade. Upon this ter- race are a great number of fme busts of distinguished men ; amongst otliers was a copy of that of Mr. Fox, in bronze, placed on the left of Cicero. As I contemplated the head of the British orator, I secretly protested against his situation, and was endeavouring to give him the right, when a terrified attendant and his companion ran up to me, and prevented me from performing this act of justice. In the gardens, which are extensively and very tastefully laid out by the late and present Mr. Bush, father and son, to whom the care of these gardens and hot-houses have been suc- cessively ^iommitted, we saw the Hermitage, in the first floor of which the late Empress, and a select party of her friends, used to dine without attendants, for which purpose she had a table constructed of most complicated machinery, at a great expence, through which the covers descended and rose by means of a great central trap-door, as did the plates through cylinders. The party was by this means supplied with every delicacy, without being seen or heard. The machinery below filled a large room, and at first made me think T was under EPITAPH. 407 the stage of a theatre : this was another of Catherine's play- things. As we moved through the grounds, we were struck with a rostral column, raised to Feodor Orloff for the con- quest of the Morea ; a marble obelisk to Romantzoff, for his victories near Kagul ; a marble pillar, on a pedestal of granite, to Orloff Tchesminskoi ; and the Palladian bridge, formed in Siberia, and erected here over a branch of the lake : it is simi- lar to that at Lord Pembroke's. In a retired part is an Egyp- tian pyramid, behind which are several tombs, erected by the late Empress to the memory of her favourite dogs : amongst these I copied the following, the composition of Catherine. Cigit Duchesse, la fidele compagne de Sir Tom. Anderson. EUe le suivit en Russe I'an 1776. Aime et respecte par sa nombreuse posterite elle deceda en 1782, agee de 15 ans, laissant 115 descendans taht levriers que levrettes. There is a small superb palace, within about two hundred 403 ANECDOTE. yards of Zarsko-zelo, built by the late Empress, for her grandson Alexander. Some of the rooms are of marble, and very magnificent. At Zarsko Zelo there are no inns, but the hospitality of Mr. Bush, the English gardener, prevents this inconvenience from being felt by any foreigner, who is respec- tably introduced to him. In consequence of a letter from our ambassador, we were very handsomely received, and enter- tained by Mr. Bush, in whose house, in the life-time of his father, the following whimsical circumstance occurred. When Joseph II. Emperor of Germany, to whom every appearance of show wa^ disgusting, expressed his intentions of visiting Catherine II., she offered him apartments in her palace, which he declined. Her Majesty, well knowing his dislike to parade, had Mr. Bush's house fitted up as an inn, with the sign of a Gather ine-wheeU below which, appeared, in German characters, " The Falkenstein Arms," the name which the Emperor assumed. His Majesty knew nothing of the inge- nious and attentive deception, till after he had quitted Russia; a number of very laughable occurrences took place. When the Emperor once went from Vienna to Moscow, he preceded the royal carriages to order the horses, as an avant-courier, in order to avoid the obnoxious pomp and ceremony which an acknowledgement of his rank would have awakened. From Zarsko Zelo we set off for a town near the palace of Gatchina, about eighteen versts from the former, where GATCHINA. 409 we arrived about eleven at night ; although so near an impe- rial residence', three of us were obliged at the inn to sleep upon straw, there being only one sopha vacant: however, the palace and gardens compensated this little inconvenience. The former was raised by Gregory Orloff, and, on his death, purchased by the late Empress. The rooms were superb, amongst which were two of a crescent shape, richly furnished and ornamented; and a chamber, the sopha, bed, canopy, cieling, and sides, of which were formed of white calico, whilst over the latter, projecting a little, was stretched a broad net- work of the same stuff, with roses in the centre of each divi- sion : the effect was unique and very beautiful. The gardens were romantic and elegant. In a small lake were a great number of beautiful gondolas and pleasure-boats; and on a large space of water, a frigate of twenty-two guns, originally built to afford Paul, when a youth, some little notion of a man of war. With a fair wind it is capable of sailing about one hundred yards. It is kept in good order, for the purpose of forming an agreeable object, and on festive occasions is il- luminated. From Gatchina we proceeded to Pauvoloftsky, another imperial chateau, built by Paul in 1780, and which, with Gatchina, form the principal country residences of the Em- press Dowager and the younger branches of the Imperial family, who were there at the time of our visit. Such a 3g 410 ST. ALEXANDER NEVSKY. crowded court I never beheld; every window seemed to be filled with faces, and every avenue with officers of the household, servants and cooks ; it was like a great bee-hive. We took onl}^ an hasty glance at the state rooms, which w ere fitted up in a style of gorgeous magnificence. The pannels of one of the apartments contained excellent copies of some of the exquisite India views of Messieurs Daniels. In the Dowager Empress's cabinet was a most elegant writing table, the top of which was lined on each side with Chinese roses, blowing, in vases sunk to a level with the surface. On the eleventh of September the Court, and all the people of Petersburg capable of walking, attend in great pomp the celebration of the anniversary of their tutelar spirit. Saint Alex- ander Nevsky. After performing their devotion at the Kazan, the Court, in grand procession, in their state carriages, pro- ceeded to the gate of the monastery (which I have before de- scribed), where they were received by the metropolitan and all the bishops in their full pontificals, adorned with pearls and diamonds, and by the monks and choristers, who preceded the Imperial family, chaunting hymns, upon a raised platform, covered with scarlet cloth, to the church, where the effect produced by their entrance was very sublime. They then proceeded to the silver shrine of the saint, which, after several prayers and hymns, as I was informed, they kissed, for the crowd was so great, that I could not see the w hole of the cere.- USUAL APPELLATIONS. 411 mony ; after which they returned, and partook of some refresh- ments at the house of the archbishop. As soon as they had retired, some thousands of people flocked to the shrine of Saint Alexander, and to another of the Virgin adjoining, to touch them with their hps. As the Empress Dowager passed, the musheeks or common boors said to one another, " There goes our good mother.'* All the male Russians, of equal degree in rank, address each other by the name of brat, or brother ; which is also used by any one speaking to his inferior. The Emperor calls his sub- jects brats. A friend of mine heard Paul one day say to a bearded workman, " My brother take care, the ice is too thin " to bear you." When the low address their superiors they say batushka moia, " my father." Very near the monastery is the glass manufactory, where the vast mirrors, for which Russia is so celebrated, are rolled. The establishment resem- bles a little town : almost all the artists are Russians, and in their various departments displayed great taste and ingenuity. From this place we visited the hotel of the Prince Usupoflf, a very noble edifice, but, like all the great houses of the nobility, presented a scene of uncommon neglect and dirt in the front and court yard ; for example, several of the broken windows of the basement story were filled with hay, and in the yard lay oifal-meat, bones, shells, and horse dung, here and there 3g2 412 THE EXECUTIONER. half concealed by grass growing above the stones. The Prince has a fine gallery of paintings and statues, which he has collected at a vast expence in Italy : most of the subjects are in the highest degree voluptuous. Over one painting the Prince has extended a curtain : how little does he know of human nature, if he wishes to pay homage to modesty by ex- citing curiosity: I will venture to say there was more inde- corum and peril in the curtain than in the picture. In the library, which is very excellent, we were attended by a fright- ful bihous dwarf, about forty years of age; a Polish laquais took him by his little shrivelled hand, and patting him on the head, observed to us, that he had been in a small island in the Mediterranean, which swarmed with dwarfs, many of whom he solemnly declared z^re not taller than cats set upon their hinder legs 1 1 ! In the language of Count Aranza, « That's a lie." A few days before I left the city I applied, through a friend of mine, to the polatch or executioner, to purchase of him a knout, to bring with me to England : upon going to his house, which seemed to be a very comfortable one, he was from home, but his wife took up one of the thongs, and in a very gentle and tender manner began explaining the theory and practice of this instrument of torture, in the course of which she observed, that it was made, not of the skin of a wild ass, as has been asserted, for, excepting a small breed of that ani- PRESENTS. 413 mal in Siberia, not one is to be found in any other part of the empire, but of ox's hide soaked in milk and dried, and that her husband was so expert, that he could cut a piece of flesh from the back of exactly its size. These functionaries of jus- tice are held in such abhorrence, that although this very exe- cutioner oifered to give four thousand rubles as a dowry with his daughter to a common droshka driver, she was rejected with scorn. The merciless Empress Elizabeth enjoyed the reputation of having abolished the punishment of death : she little deserved the homage which was paid to her : the fact was, knowing how hateful the appearance of death is to the Russians, she ordered a capital culprit to be knouted to such a degree, that he was only enabled to reach his prison alive, when his lacerated frame was thrown upon a bed of boards, and left to gangrene and mortify for want of medical appli- cation : such was the boasted humanity of Elizabeth ! To the superstitious dread of seeing a corpse, which marks the Russian character, let me add an unconquerable aversion to receiving any thing as a present which has a sharp point : a gentleman presented a young Russ lady with an elegant female pocket- book, in which there was a row of needles ; with some concern . she took from her purse a little silver piece, and gave it to the donor as the purchase moneif, A number of interesting objects still remained to be seen, but my time, and an alteration in my intention of visiting 414 CLIMATE, Italy, made it necessary to bid adieu to a city, which I shall never reflect upon but with admiration, nor upon those of its inhabitants, to whom I had the honour of being known, with- out respect and esteem. In the decline of the summer, (for I now speak of it as de- parted from these regions) the weather was very variable ; a fiercely sultry day was succeeded by a very chilly one ; ^^ ithin thirty hours, from being scarcely able to endure my dressing- gown, I was glad to place myself before, a wonder in Russia, a blazing fire in an English stove ; but the atmospheric fluctua- tions are certainly not so great as in our own climate, and this circumstance might, perhaps, have induced a Russ servant, who had just returned from England, to say, upon being asked whe- ther he was soon familiarized with our country, " I understood " quick all tings dere, but de climate, dat I could no understand." The harvest in the provinces near the capital, which is gene- rally got in by the tenth of August, N. S. had been housed for more than a month, black clouds frequently obscured the sun, the winds began to blow loud and bleak, the leaves were rapidly falling, and each succeeding day grew visibly shorter : these were sufficient warnings for birds of passage to wing their way to milder regions. As some very agreeable coun- trymen and travellers were setting off for Berlin, I had the good fortune of being invited to join the party : to their ba- rouche I added a Swedish carriage, requiring only one horse. TRAVELLING CARRIAGES. 415 to assist in the general conversance. As this little carriage excited uncommon delight and wonder in some countries through which we passed, and lost all its popularity in another, as will be hereafter told ; and moreover as I grew attached to it in proportion as I saw its merits, and beheld them at one time acknowledged, at another derided, I must be indulged in describing it. A small body of railing with a seat for two persons, a head of canvas, and a well for luggage, mounted upon two wheels about three feet high, and a shaft for one horse, composed the whole of this redoubted vehicle. In Russia, every traveller is obliged to purchase a travelling carriage, unless he is disposed to hazard a general dislocation in a kibitka. ( 416 ) CHAP. XX. LEAVE PETERSBURG—THE LITTLE SWEDE— ADVENTURES AT STREL- NA NARVA BEARS BEDS DORPT TEUTONIC KNIGHTS AND WHIMSICAL REVENGE WHIPPING OP BOORS BROTHERS-IN-LAW COURLAND POLES MEMEL SEVERITY OF PRUSSIAN DRILL- ING. It is a great object in quitting a great city, where you have strong ties to detain you, resolutely to set off on the appointed day for the commencement of one's journey, be the hour what it may, and even if you can proceed no further than one post. After a delay of four hours, occasioned by the stupidity of the post-master, at eight o'clock in the evening of the nine- teenth of September, N. S. the servants of our hospitable friends, Messrs. Vennings, who had been some time previ- ously employed in filling every crack and corner of the car- riages with bottles of port, claret, and all sorts of provisions, announced that every thing was ready. As we all assembled in the court yard, my old companion Mishka, to the full stretch of her chain, stood on her hinder legs, and seemed, in her rude way, for her voice was not the most musical, to regret my departure, but upon my giving her some sugar, I found it an THE LITTLE SWEDE. 417 eiror of vanity, for she instantly ran into her house to enjoy it, and, as in the moment of repletion neither Bruins nor Enghshmen, nor perhaps any other being, hke to be disturbed, I did not say with the song — " Give me thy paw, my bonny bonny bear," but left her, to shake hands with those from whom we had re- ceived the most polite and kind attentions. My friend Cap- tain Elphinstone insisted upon riding to the bridge with me, in the little Swede, as he called it, where we parted with mu- tual and genuine regret. The moon shone very bright. The little Russ driver, who sat on the shaft, unfortunately for my ears and the tempera- ture of my mind, proved to be a great singer : his shrill pipe never ceased till we reached Strelna, the first stage, where we proposed sleeping. As soon as we drove up to the door of a handsome inn, which owed its architectural consequence to the proximity of the Grand Duke Constantine's coimtry palace, the host told our servant, a German, he had no room for us ; upon which a voice from the top of the banisters, with Stentorian energy, exclaimed in Russ, " By G — d there is room, the gentlemen " shall be accommodated, or by to-morrow evening the Grand 3 H 418 - SINiGULAR HOSPlTALltV. **I)uke^<>)fistantiiie'shidll blow yob all fothe de\il." The franslatiofi of thi'^ extrabydinary exclaniation we received af- terwards, upon which a Russ officer, a' little flushed with the Tuscan grape, came down to us, and began, according to the custom of the .Continent, to kiss us all round. When we had submitted to this detestable ceremony, he led, or rather drove us up stairs i- lavishing upon the master of the inn all the op- probrious epithets he could collect; in had French ; ordered a handsome supper, artd all sorts of wines; pressed us by the' hands, swore the English were the finest fellows iti the world, and again repeated his loving kindness by another salutation: w^hen one of the party recoiling a little from the violence of his friendship; Bfei turned round, shrugged up his shoulders, and in a most significant manner exclaimed, " My G — d, he does " not kiss like a man!" After making a hearty supper, we ordered our bill, but the officer swore he would murder our host if he presented any, and ordered him out of the room, declaring that we were his own guests, which he followed by screaming several Russ songs ; after which we begged to know the name of this strange creature, and presented him vvith a piece of paper and a pencil; but after many ineffectual efforts, we plainly saw " that his education had stopped before he " had learnt to read or Hvrite." Fnding that we could get no beds, we ordered horses, traveired all night upon good roads, and arrived early the hext morning to breakfast at Koskowa. NARVA. ' 419 All the post houses beyond Strelna are kept by Germans ; for each horse we paid two copecs per verst. This part of In- gria formerly belonged to the Swedes. The female peasantry wear a flat bonnet of red silk and gold lace, large ear-rings, a vest without sleeves, and cloth round their legs : women, be- fore their marriage, wear their hair plaited, and hanging down : the males are simply clad in sheeps' skins, with the wool inside. I would recommend every traveller to sleep at Jarnburg, one stage before Narva. At the former, the post-master told us he had no horses ; but the magic of a silver ruble dis- covered six, quietly eating their hay in the stable, which speedily brought us over a wooden road to Narva, at nine o'clock in the evening, to a very comfortable inn. Here the Russ character began to subside; most of the boors speak German. In the morning we were much gratified with contemplating a town, which the romantic heroism of Charles XII. of Swe- den has for ever rendered celebrated. We passed over the ground where, on the 30th November 1700, Charles routed one hundred thousand Muscovites with eight thousand Swedes. History says, that upon the first discharge of the enemy's shot, a ball slightly grazed the King's left shoulder; of this he at the time took no notice r soon after his horse was killed, and a second had his head carried away by a cannon-ball. As he 3 h2 420 HUMANE POLICY. was nimbly mounting the third, " Tliese fellows/' says he, " make me exercise." His sagacity and humanity Avere auspi- cious in the disposal of his prisoners, who were five times his numbers : after they had laid down their arms, the King returned them their colours, and presented their officers with their swords, marched them across the river, and sent them home. I have heard of the humane policy of a British ge- neral, who finding, after a battle, that his prisoners greatly exceeded his own troops in numbers, and not possessing the local facilities that favoured the Swedish conqueror, to prevent any ill consequences from a situation so embarrassing, he made every prisoner swallow a copious quantity of jalap, and then ordered the waistband of his breeches to be cut : by this aperient and harmless policy, he placed four men under the irresistible controul of one. The waterfalls are about an English mile from the town. At a distance, the trees, which hang over the valley through which the waters roll, were enveloped in mist. I should sup- pose these falls to be about three hundred feet wide, and their descent about seventeen. The weather at this time was de- lightful, resembling some of our finest days in May. In the evening we went to a play, performed by a strolling company of Germans : the hero of the piece was a young English merchant, decorated with a polar star on his left breast ; and another of the dramatis personce was a drunken lady. BEAR-HUNTING. 4:21 We left Narva at seven the next morning, and entered the province of Livonia. The roads were excellent, and the country beautiful : our horses small, plump, and strong ; and above we were serenaded by larks singing in a cloudless sky. Our drivers wore hats covered with oil-skin, and woollen gloves; and the German pipe began to smoke. The little Swede excited the wonder and admiration of every Livonian boor, who had never before beheld such a vehicle. In the evening things began to assume a less pleasing aspect : as we approached the lake Piepus, the roads became very sandy, and the country dreary. At the post-house at Klein- pringern, we saw the skins of several bears hanging up to dry, and conversed with a party of huntei's, who were going in pursuit of that animal, with which, as well as with wolves, the woods on each side abound. Here let me recommend every tmveller to take an additional number of horses to his car- riage, otherwise he will experience the inconvenience wliich attended us before we reached Rennapungen, the next stage. To the little Swede we put two horses, to the barouche six; all lean, miserable animals, wretchedly tackled, and in tliis trim we started at nine o'clock in the evening, and, axletree- deep in sand, we ploughed our way at the rate of two Eng* hsh miles an hour: at last our poor jaded cattle, panting and almost breathless, after several preceding pauses, made a de- cisive stand in the depth of a dark forest, the silence of which was only interrupted by the distant howling of bears. Our i'2-2 A RECOxMMENDATION. drivers, after screaming in a very shrill tone, as we were after- wards informed, to keep these animals off, dropped their heads upon the necks of their horses, and very composedly went to sleep : a comfortable situation for a set of impatient English- men! Finding that the horses of the little Swede began to prick their ears after three quarters of an hour's stoppage, I and my companion awoke our j^ostilion, and ordered him to proceed, that we might send fi*esh horses for the other car- riage. To our surprise w'e jogged on tolerably well, reached Rennapungen in about four hours, and dispatched fresh horses for our friends, who rejoined us at five o*clock in the morning. When I entered the inn at this place, two Russian Counts, and their suite, occupied all the beds ; so I mounted an old spinnet, and with a portmanteau for a pillow, and fatigue for opiate, went to sleep, until the tmvellers, who started very early, were gone, when I got into a bed, w hich the body of a Count of the empire had just warmed. This circumstance re- minded me of the answer of a chamber-maid, at an inn at Exeter, who, upon my requesting to have a comfortable bed, observed, " Indeed, Sir, you cannot have a better one than " the one I have secured for you;" and, by way of recom- mendation, added, " Lord B , who arrived from Lisbon " about ten days since, died in it two nights ago." The following day we passed through a country which, no THE TEUTOiNIC- ORDER AND SIR SIDNEY SMITH. A23 doubt, was a periect Pai*adise in the estimatibn of the race of Bruins; to #Hom I Mt its unenvied' enjoyment, tb sit down to a comfbtoble dinner at Nonal, the next stage, having abun- dantly I'eplenished our stock of provisions at Narva. After skirting a small portion of the Piepus lake, a vast space of water, eighty versts broad, and otie hundred and sixty long, we arrived at Dorpt, which stands upon a small river that communicates with the lake. The town is extensive, has several good streets and handsome houses, and is celebrated for its university, in which there are twenty-four professors, and one hundred and forty students, one-third of whom arc noble. Upon the summit of a hill that commands the town, are the remains of a vast and ancient abbej^ which was founded by the knights of the Teutonic Order, now repairing for the reception of the university library: the palace of the Grand Master occupied the spot where the fortifications are building. The Teutonic Order was established in the twelfth century, and declined in the fifteenth. In a crusade against Saladin, for the recovery of the Holy Land, a great number of German volunteers accompanied the Emperor Barbarossa : upon whose death hii^ followers, who had distinguished them- selves oh that spot: whtir^, setfefal centuries afterwards, it was destined that Sir Sidney Smith, with unexampled heroism, should plant the British standard before Acre, elected fresh leaders, under whom the}^ performed such feats of valour, that Henry, king of Jerusalem, the Patriarch, and other Princes, 424 FRIGHTFUL PRISON. instituted an order of knighthood in their favour, and were ultimately placed under the protection of the Virgin Mary ; in honour of whom they raised several magnificent stiuctures at Marienborg, or the city of the Virgin IVIary, near Dantzig. Afterwards growing rich, they elected a Grand Master, w ho ^vas invested with sovereign prerogatives : by the bulls that were granted in their favour, they were represented as pro- fessing temperance and continence ; virtues which, no doubt, were religiously observed by soldiers^ and travelled men of gallantry. The prison of Dorpt, in wliich a number of unfortunate creatures are immured, is a subterranean vault, damp, dark, narrow, and pregnant with disease and misery. To be con- fined in it is, in general, something worse than being sent to the scaffold ; for a lingering death is the usual fate of the vretch upon whom its gates are closed. Hanway, in the name of justice and humanity, denounced this dungeon : to the present Emperor some recent representations have been made upon the subject ; they will not be made in vain to one who, gloriously reversing the ordinary habits of beneficence, listens with more 4ixed attention to the sounds of miser}^ in proportion as they are distant and feeble. If a pebble be thrown into a standing pool, it will disturb its even surface from the centre to the extremities ; but if a FEMALE VENGEANCE. 42^ r^tone be cast into the ocean, it creates but a momentary in- terruption, unfelt by the succeeding wave : thus will a petty oc- currence agitate the trancjuiUity of a small community, which would produce no sensation upon expanded and active society. A trifle, not quite as light as air, a few days before our arrival, had rudely and unexpectedly shattered the peace and har- mony which once reigned in the academic bowers of Dorpt. Professors were drawn out in battle array, and Vengeance assumed the mask of Learning. Two professors' ladies had had a violent dispute at cards, and unfortunately they lived opposite to each other : one of them, upon a sunny day, when all things look clear and bright, ordered her maid, a plump, brawny, Livonian girl, whilst her opponent's husband, a grave and reverend gentleman, was looking out of his window, as a mark of scorn and contempt, to turn her back towards him in her chamber, and exhibit le der^riere de sa personne, sans voile. It was a Livonian thought : the social condition of the country, the rash infirmity of hu- man nature, the summary projects of pique, all plead for the urbanity of the lady, who only in this solitary instance forgot the dignity of her situation. All Dorpt was at first convulsed with laughter, «ave the parties concerned, and their immediate friends. The most erudite civilians were sent for ; and after long and sagacious consultations, a bill Was filed against the mistress and her maid, to which regular answers were put in, most 3 I k 426 SKULLS. ably drawn up. Nothing short of penance and excommuni- cation were expected. No doubt, this most important suit has been long since determined ; and much do I regret, that ignorance of the decree prevents me from finishing the frag- ment of this curious event. Upon turning the corner of a street, we beheld a sight at once shocking and humiliating to the .pride of man, a v^st pile of skulls and bones of the ter- rific and ambitious knights of the Teutonic Order. In break- ing up some cemeteries, for erecting the foundation of a new university, these wretched remains were removed, that once formed the plumed and glittering warrior^ who. " '■■ with his beaver on, His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd, Rose from the ground like feather'd Mercury 5 And vaulted with such ease into his seat, As if an angel dropt down from the clouds." The students at the university seem desirous of retaining in their dress some traces of the martial founders of the town, by wearing great military boots and spurs, a common coat, and a leather helmet with an iron crest : a costume less appro- priate could not easily have been imagined. The peasant women of this province are very ordinary, and wear huge pewter breast-buckles upon their neck handkerchiefs. At Uttern, the first stage, we found the governor of the REVOLTING PEASANTS. 427 province had ordered all the post-horses for himself and suite, and was expected every hour to return from a singular species of service. It appeared that an ukase had been passed considerably ameliorating the condition of the Livonian [)ea- sants, but the nature of it having been mistaken by three or four villages in the neighbourhood of the post-house, they revolted. Two companies of infantry were marched against them, and after flogging half a dozen of the principal farmers, tranquillity was restored, and we met the soldiers returning; This spirit of disaffection detained us at this post-house all night for want of horses. At night a Russian, apparently of rank, of a powerful and majestic figure, and elegant manners, arrived: after a very agreeable conversation at breakfast, he departed early in the morning for Moscow, to which city he gave us a cordial invi- tation : the stranger proved to be Count P Z , who took the lead in the gloomy catastrophe which occurred in the palace of Saint Michael. In all the post-houses is a tablet, framed and glazed, called the taxe, on which is printed the settled price of provisions, horses, and carriages. Travelling still continued cheap, at the rate of ten-pence English for eight horses for an English mile; but it was painful to see the emaciated state of these poor ani- mals. The roads still continued dreadfully sandy; we were 3i 2 428 BROTHERS-IN-LAW. seldom able to go above three versts an hour. The little Swede, who overturned us very harmlessly in the sand, a little before we reached Wollemar, where we dined, still pre- served her popularity; and, as modest simplicity frequently triumphs over presuming splendour, she diverted all the atten- tion of the natives from her shewy and handsome companion. Some English travellers, who followed and at length overtook ns, becan^ acquainted with all our movements from the im- "J)re5sion which the moving wonder had excited. The post- drivers in Livonia, Courland, and throughout Germany, are called by every person Schwagers, or brothers-in-law. In the last stage to Riga we overtook a long line of little carts, about as high as a wheel-barrow, filled with hay or poultry, at- tended by peasants dressed in great slouched hats and blue jackets, going to market : the suburbs are very extensive. The town is fortified, and is a place of great antiquity ; it is re- markable only for one thing, that there is nothing in it worthy of observation. The necessity of setting the washerwoman to work detained us here two days. It is necessary at this place to take a fresh coin : accordingly we went to a money-changer's shop, of which there are several,^ where the man of money sat behind his counter, upon which were rouleaus of various coins, with whom we settled the matter, premising that one ducat ^^ as worth three rubles and sixty copecs, in the following manner: MITTAU. 4:29 Four ortens, or Courland guldens, make one feinfer. Sixteen feinfers — — one marc. Forty marcs — — — one ferdinger. Eighty ferdingers — = — — one rix dollar. Two rix dollars and twelve ferdingers — one ducat. As we quitted the last gate at Riga, where we underwent a tedious examination of passports, we crossed the Duna, a river which penetrates a great way into Poland, and supplies all. these parts with the natural treasure of that country ; part of the bridge, which is built of fir, floats upon the water, and part rests upon sand in the shallows ; the ^^ hole is level and very long. A peasant driving by us with im})roper velocity, an officer ordered him to stop, and flogged him with a large thick whip. The country to Mittau, M'hich is twenty-eight uiiles from Riga, is very luxuriant and gratifying. As this road is much travelled, we bargained with a man, who let out horses at Riga, to furnish us with six, which were excellent, and two skilful drivers, to carry us throughout to Memel. Although this part of ancient Poland, and the province of Livonia, constitute the granary of the north, we frequently found the bread intoler- able ; it seemed as if to two pounds of rye, one pound of sand had been added. We reached Mittau, the capital of Cour- land, in the evening; the first object that announced the town 430 A DUTCH ARCHITECT, was the vast, inelegant, neglected palace of the late sovereigns of Courland, built of brick, stuccoed white, standing upon a bleak eminence, ungraced by a, single shrub or tree. A great part of this ponderous pile ^\ as some yeai-s since burned down ; a Dutch officer obtained a contract for rebuilding it ; and hav- ing got drunk every day upon the profits of his coarse and clumsy ignorance, died, leaving behind him the whole of the southern side of this building as his appropriate monument. Courland has been for some years incorporated with Russia, a junction which was managed by force and fmesse. The late Empress insidiously excited a dispute between the Cour- landers and Livonians, respecting a canal which was to trans- port the merchandize of Courland into Livonia; at which the Courlanders revolted, and sought the protection of Catherine: upon which she sent for the reigning Duke, to consult with him at Petersburg ; scarcely had he passed the bridge of Mit- tau before the nobility held a meeting, and determined to put the country under the care of Catherine. At this assembly some disputes arose, and swords were drawn, but the presence of the Russian general, Pahlen, instantly decided the matter: the poor Duke heard of the revolution at Petersburg. Mittau is a long, straggling, ill-built town, and most wretchedly pa^'ed. On the evening of our arrival there was a great fair, and at night, about a mile from the town, some excellent fire-works took place, which to enable them more distinctly to see, two old ladies, who stood next to me on the bridge, brought BEER SOUP. 431 out their lanthorns. At several of the inns we saw people regaling themselves with beer soup, a great dainty in this country and in many parts of Germany ; it is composed of beer, yolks of eggs, wheat and sugar, boiled together. We departed from Mittau the next morning, and passed through the most enchanting forest scenery, composed of pines, aspins, oak, nut-trees, and larch ; at some distance we saw a wolf cross the road. Upon quitting the luxuriant fields, and rich and cheerful peasantry, of the ci-devant duchy of Courland, a number of wooden cottages with high sloping roofs, and rows of crosses, about fifteen feet high, with large wooden cruci- fixes affixed to them, raised on the road side, and peasants with fur caps and short pelisses, announced that we were in that part of Poland which fell to the Russians in the last par-^ tition ; a mere slip of land, not broader than ten English miles. As we did not penetrate into that interesting country, I had not a {)ersonal opportunity of ascertaining whether the Poles, now that the first shock of separation and national, extinction is over, are more happy than they were before their final dismemberment. However, I was assured by a very intelligent friend, who had recently returned from a tour through the heart of Poland, that the condition of the people, most unjustifiable as the means employed were, is considerably ameliorated : an assurance which may the more readily be believed, when it is considei*ed that, as a nation, their constitution was radically mischievous, and that their poli- ^ 432 POLAND. tical atmosphere was never free from storm and convulsion. It has been said, that the great patriot, and last defender of Poland, has declared, since her fate has been decided, that it was better for his country to be thus severed, and placed under the various protections of other powerful govern- ments, than to remain an eternal prey to all the horrors of an elective monarchy, baronial tyranny, and intestine dis- sension. At Polangen, celebrated for the amber found in its neighbourhood, we reached the barrier of the Russian em- pire ; a Cossac of the Don, who stood at a circular sentrj - box, by the side of a stand of perpendicular spears, let slip the chain, the bar arose, and we dropped into a deep road of neutral sandy and at the distance of about an English mile and a half stopped to contemplate tsvo old weather-beaten posts of demarkation, surmounted with the eagles of Prussia and Russia, badly painted, where, after we had, in mirth, in- dulged ourselves in standing at the same time in both coun- tries, we placed ourselves under the wing of the Prussian eagle, and arrived to a late dinner at Memel. Here we found an excellent inn. To our landlady one of the gentleman said, " I wish to change some money, and " should like to speak to your husband." " If you do, you ♦' had better go to the church-yard," said his relic, who was herself apparently dying of a dropsy. Memel is a large com- mercial town, lying on the shores of the Baltic, most wretch- PRISONS. 433 edly paved, and for ever covered with mud ; yet the ladies figured away in nankeen shoes and silk stockings, and dis- played many a well-turned ankle. In the citadel, which com- mands an agreeable view of the town, we saw^ the prisons, which appeared to be very wretched. The men, and shock- ing to tell, the women also, were secured by irons fastened be- tween the knee and calf of either leg. Upon my remonstrating with the gaoler, who spoke a little English, against the unne- cessary cruelty, and even indecency, of treating his female pri- soners in this manner, he morosely observed, " that he had " more to apprehend from the w omen than the men ; that the " former were at the bottom of all mischief and therefore " ought to be ever more guarded against." We waited at Memel two days, in hourly expectation of the wind changing, that we might proceed to Koningberg by water, instead of wading over a tract of mountainous sand, eighty English miles long, and not more than three in breadth in its broadest part, called the Curiche Haff, that runs up within half a mile of Memel, and divides the Baltic from an immense space of water wliich flows within one stage of Koningberg. During this period, I every day attended the parade and drills, and was shocked at the inhuman blows which, upon every petty occasion, assailed the backs of the sol- diers, not from a light supple cane, but a heavy stick, making 3 K 4:^4 DISGUSTING SEVERITY. every blow resound. My blood boiled in my veins, to see a little deformed bantam officer, covered with, almost extin- guished by, a huge cocked hat, inflicting these disgraceful strokes, that, savagely as they were administered, cut deeper into the spirit than the flesh, upon a portly respectable soldier for some trivial mistake. I saw no such severity in Russia, where some of the finest troops in the world may be seen. I observed, not only here but in other parts of Prussia, that every soldier is [)rovided with a sword. The river which runs up to the town from the Baltic, was crowded with vessels ; the market-boats were filled with butter, pumkins, red onions, and Baltic fish in wells. ( 435 ) CHAP. xxr. DESOLATE SCENE — ENGLISH SAILOR WRECKED— KONINGBERO— BEAUTY IN BOOTS PRUSSIAN ROADS — THE CELEBRATED RUINS OP MARIENBOURG DANTZIG — COftUETRY IN A BOX INHOSPITA- LITY A GERMAN JEW — THE LITTLE GROCER DUTCH VICAR OF BRAY VERSES TO A PRETTY DANTZICKER. As the wind shewed no disposition to change in our favour, we embarked, with our horses and carriages, in the ferryboats, and proceed on the Curiche Haff: by keeping the right wheels as much as we could in the Baltic, which frequently surrounded us, we arrived at the first post-house, which lay in the centre of mountains of sand. Here we learned that some preceding travellers had carried away all the horses, and accordingly our hostess recommended us to embark with our vehicles in a boat which is kept for such emergences, and proceed by the lake to the next stage ; which advice we ac- cepted, and were indebted to a ponderous fat young lady be- longing to the post-house, who waded into the water, and, turning her back towards us, shoved us off from the beach. We set sail with a favourable light breeze, which died away after we had proceeded about seven English miles, when we 3 Ki A36 DESOLATE SCENE. put into a creek before a few little wretched fishing huts, un- der the roof of which, with cocks, hens, ducks, pigs, and dogs, we passed an uncomfortable night: just as we were lying down an English sailor entered the room, with a face a little grave, but not dejected, to see, as he said, some of his coun- tiymen, " hoping no offence :" the poor fellow, we found, had been WTCcked a few nights before, on the Baltic side of this inhospitable region. After hearing his tale, and making a^ little collection for him, w^e resigned ourselves to as much sleep as is allotted to those who are destined to be attacked by battalions of fleas. In the morning we could obtain no post- horses, the wind was against us, and at least eight English miles lay between us and the post-house. Hoping for some fortunate change, I resolved to look about me, and after con- siderable fatigue, ascended one of those vast sandy summits which characterize this cheerless part of the globe : from the top, on one side, lay the Baltic, and on its beach the cordless masts and hull of a a^ reck, high and dry ; on the other, the lake which had borne us thus far, and before and behind a line of mountains of sand, many of them I should suppose to be a hundred feet high, over whose sparkling surface the eye cannot wander for two minutes together w ithout experiencing the same sensations of pain as are felt upon contemplating snow : below, in a bladeless valley, stood two WTetched horses, almost skeletons, scarcely making any shadow in the sun : the natives of this sandy desert, we w^ere afterwards informed by a respect- JL.^ THE BEDCHAMBER. 437 dble authority, eat live eels dipped in salt, which they devour as they writhe with anguish round their hands. The whole of this hideous waste looked like the region of famine. A shift of wind springing up, we ventured once more upon the lake ; and after a little fair sailing, we were driven, in our Uttle open boat, where there was scarcely room for the helms- man to steer, nearly out of sight of land ; the wind freshened to a g-ale, and the rain fell heavily : at last, when we had renounced all sanguine expectations of ever touching land ag^in, a favourable breeze sprung up, and about ten o'clock at night we reached the quay of the post-house called Nidden, and after supping, were shewn into a large gloomy room to our cribs, where we were surrounded by at least fourteen sleep- ing damsels, lying with their clothes on, in filth and coarse- ness, fit to be the inamoratas of the coal-heavers of London. The next morning, as we were preparing to start, we were presented with an enormous bill, which made us feel like the Clown in As You Like It,, when he exclaims, " It strikes **^a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room." This imposition, after much altercation, we successfully re- sisted* As we approached Koningberg the country assumed a more agreeable aspect ; at the inns we found better accommoda- tions, and met with what to us was a great treat, excellent .*/ ■^ 438 KONINGBERG. potatoes, a vegetable which has only been introduced into the north within these twenty years. It is scarcely possible to con- ceive the dreadful state of the roads during the last stage from Mulsen: it was a succession of pits. On the tenth of October we saw the spires of Koningberg, and after passing the place of execution, where three posts were standing, surmounted with wheels, upon which malefactors are exposed, we entered the ancient capital of Prussia Proper : as we were proceeding to the Ditchen Hause, a noble hotel, we passed a vast antique and gloomy pile of red brick; one of my companions pro- nounced it to be either the gaol or the palace; it proved to be the latter, and to be inhabited by the governor : in the church adjoining, Frederick the Great was crowned. The city was first founded in 1255; is extensive, having fourteen parishes: the streets are narrow, terribly paved, and have no foot- j)ath ; almost every woman I saw w as handsome, and wore gi^eat thick boots* and a black ribbon tied in a bow in the front of their caps. We w^ere obliged to stay here two days, on ac- count of the wheels of the little Szs^ede having presented a strong disposition to renounce a circle for a square. The j^a- rade exhibited three fine regiments: previous to their forming the line we were again shocked with several instances of the severity of Prussian drilling. The King of Prussia scarcely ever visits this city. The trade is very considerable : one thousand vessels sailed last year into its ports. The river Pre- gel, which is here rather shallow^ w as crowded with market GERMAN MARRIAGE. 439 boats, filled with fish, butter, bread, plumbs, and Bergamot pears. I was present at a marriage ceremony in one of the reformed Catholic churches, which was very simple : the priest joined the hands of the couple, and addressed them extempo- raneously with considerable eloquence, as it was explained to me, invoking them to constancy, to love and cherish each other. The young bride and bridegroom seemed much af- fected, and shed manv tears. Upon my return to the inn, where it was again my fate, in common with the rest of the party, to sleep in the ball-room, I found a little gentleman with a neat bob-wig, and a narrow rim of a beard, just sufficient with his features to denote that he was a member of the synagogue ; the object of his visit was to change our money for a new currency, as under : Twenty-four groschen, or ninety kleine, or three gulder, or thirty ditchen, are equal to - - - one dollar. Three dollars and four groschen - - - one ducat. The price of posting is ten groschen per horse, per one Ger- man mile, or four English miles and a half A courier having arrived to secure about a hundred post- horses for the new-married couple, the Grand Duchess of" Russia and the Prince of Saxe Weimar and suite, who were on their route from Russia to Weimar, we lost not a minute 440 COPERNICUS'S TOMB, to put ourselves in motion ; and the little Swede, who began now to be much despised, being completely repaired, we reached Frawemborg the next evening, where we stopped the carriage at the foot of an almost perpendicular hill, croAvned with a vast extensive edifice of red brick, including a mo- nastery and a Catholic church : it was dusk as I ascended this heioht, from which there ^^'as a fme view of the luxuriant country through which we had passed, and immediately be- low us a wide-spreading beach and the sea. One of the monks conducted us to the church, which is very large, and the awfulness of the scene was increased by the m} sterious gloom which pervaded every part of this massy pile : \\e had only time to see the tomb of Copernicus, whose remains, we were assured, repose under a plain stone slab which was shewn to us upon the pavement. At the last stage, to my great regret, a majority of the party resolved upon seeing Dantzig. It is impossible for an Englishman who has never left his own country, to form any notion of the Prussian roads in ge- neral, particularly of that which lay before us to Elbing : I cannot say that we moved by land or by water, but in a skil- ful mixture of both, through which we waded, axletree-deep, over trees laid across each other at unequal distances. To complain would be useless ; morever, the most terrible of jolt- ings, every minute threatening a general dislocation, would hazard the repining tongue being severed by the teeth. ELBING. 441 We reached Elbing to breakfast : a very neat town, not unlike a swallow's nest, which is within very comfortable, and without nothing but sticks and mud. Considerable commerce is carried on, and the appearance of the people is respectable, prosperous, and happy. The fruit and vegetable sellers carry their articles in little pails, suspended at the ends of a curved stick, like the milk-Avomen of London. The houses are very singular ; but, as they resemble those of Dantzig, one descrip tion will be sufficient. The post from Elbing to Maiienbourg is nineteen English miles, a tremendous long stage ; indeed, an autumnal day's journey upon such roads, which were precisely the same as those we had already [)assed, except that we had the variety of an endless row of shabby sombre willow pollards. Our poor hoi*ses halted several times, when they had a copious libation of water, but nothing else. The German postilions seem to think with Dr. Sangrado, that nothing is so nourishing as water ; and, what is more surprizing, the horses seem to think so too. I have seen a German horse drink three large pails full, as fast as his driver could supply him. To cheer our postilions, we gave them occasionally some snaps, or glasses of excellent brandy, that we had with us, which the fel- lows drank; and, with a smile, seemed ready with Caliban to exclaim : ** That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor.'* ^ 3 L 44^ MARIENBOURG. In the evening we reached Marienbourg, a small town, once celebrated for being the principal residence of the Knights of the Teutonic Order, as I have before mentioned, Avho raised a castle, and several other structures, in a style of un- rivalled gothic magnificence, in the twelfth century. To these hallowed remains, so treasurable to the reflecting mind, Fre- derick the Great, although a professed admirer of antiquities and of art, paid no veneration. The hoarN^ pile has been beaten down, to furnish materials for building Prussian bar- racks, hospitals, and magazines, and scarcely any vestige is left of this pride of ages but the chapel : in the window of which, is a colossal wooden Virgin but little defaced ; and, by her size and shape, entitled to associate with Gog and Magog, in the Guildhall of London. We were thirteen hours in reaching Dantzig fi-om Marien- bourg, a distance of thirty English miles, through a country abounding with corn-fields, in one of which we counted nine bustards, each of them larger than a turkey. After passing several monasteries, beautiflilly embosomed in trees, and the suburbs of Dantzig, extending nearly two English miles, we reached the drawbridge, and entered the capital of Pomerelia in the evening ; and, at the Hotel cle Lion Blaiic, which was very crowded at the time of our arrival, we were very glad to resume our old quarters, to which we appeared to have a tra- velling prescriptive right, a vast ball and card room. DANTZIG. 443 Nothing can exceed the fantastic appearance of the houses, which are very lofty, and have vast sloping roofs, the fronts of which are surmounted with lions, angels, suns, griffins, &c. The windows are very large and square ; and the outsides of these edifices are generally painted with brown or green co- loui-s, with great softness and variety : in the streets, which are wretchedly paved, and narrow, and, if the atmosphere be damp, covered ankle-deep with mud, are several noble ches- nut and walnut trees. The Rathhaus, or Hotel de Ville, is an elegant spiral structure of stone, with a variety of elaborate decorations. The prison is well arranged : on one side are felons ; and, on the other, the house of correction, where the women are separated from the men. The female prisoners, many of whom were servants, sent by their masters or mis- tresses for misbehaviour, to receive the discipline of the house, were employed in carding and spinning, and are obliged to produce, at the end of the week, a certain quantity of work ; or, in default, receive a whipping : the prisoners looked healthy and clean. The Lutheran church is a noble structure : in one of the towers is a gloomy well, into ^^hich certain offenders against the catholic faith, many years since, used to be let down, and left to perish : the stirrups and chains by which they descended were shewn to us. The Boui^e is most whim-r sically decorated with a marble statue of Augustus III., king 3 L 2 444 POLISH GRAIN-BOATS. of Poland, models of ships, heavy carvings in wood, and great ding}?^ pictures. The Vistula, the largest and longest river in Poland, after springing from mount Crapach, on the confines of Silesia, and crossing Poland and Prussia, washes the walls of Dantzig, and falls into the Baltic. Upon this river a stran- ger cannot fail being struck with the singular appearance of the Polish grain-boats, in shape resembling a canoe, many of which are eighty feet long, by fourteen broad, without any decky and have a single elastic mast, tapering to the top, fifty, iand even sixty, feet high, upon which they fasten a small light sail that is capable of being raised, or depressed, so as to catch the wind, above the undulating heights of the shores of the Vistula. We saw several store-houses of salt : the only salt merchant in the Prussian dominions is the King, who has the monopoly. The exportations of corn from this city are amaz- ing; and it may justly be considered as the grain depot of Europe. The exportation of grain, for the preceding year, amounted to thirty-four thousand one hundred and forty-nine lasts ; a last being equal to eighty-four Winchester bushels : that of the year before to fifty-two thousand four hundred and sixteen. The people appear to be at length reconciled to the loss of their hanseatic sovereignty, and, having no remedy, submit themselves without repining to the Prussian sceptre. Mirabeau, one of the most brilliant orators of his age, said, " that the Dantzickers, who, according to appearances, sup- " posed kings were hobgoblins, were so enraptured to meet coauETRY. 445 *' with one who did not eat their children, that, in the excess ** of their enthusiasm, they were wiHing to put themseh es, " without restraint, under the Prussian government." On a Sunday we visited the theatre, a handsome rotunda, where we saw, the great la\ ourite of the Germans, the tragedy of Mary Queen of Scots, hetween whom, and the sanguinary Ehzabeth, the author effected an interview: there was no after-piece as usual. The form of the theatre before the curtain, was three parts of a circle ; and the scenery, dresses, and de- corations, were all handsome. The grand drop scene, used in- stead of a curtain, was sprinkled with gigantic heads, and had a very strange and whimsical appearance. Nothing could ex- ceed the polite and profound attention paid to the business of the stage : if any one of the audience only whispered rather loudly, all eyes were turned towards him, and a buz of general disapprobation made him silent. In the box, next to that in which I sat, was a lady of fasliion, remarkably deformed ; in age, I should suppose, touching the frontier of desperation, dressed in a white robe, and a garland of artificial flowers; to attract more notice, she was knitting a rich silk purse : the whole of the party exchanged frequent glances with her; but, alas ! had she known what was passing between the eye and the mind, our homage would not have proved very acceptable. In Dantzig, every thing partakes of that petty spirit which 446 INHOSPITALITY. is too often engendered by traffic amongst small communities of mercantile men. Heaven protect the being who visits this city without a commercial commission! As we were walking by the Bourse, we requested a German Jew, who had the appearance of a gentleman, to shew us the way to a com- mercial house to get some money exchanged ; upon which he offered to accompany us. " We cannot. Sir, think of troubling " you : if you will onlj^ direct us, it will be sufficient," said my German friend and companion. " Oh ! Gentlemen," replied the descendant of Abraham, " I beg you will not " mention it ; you will of course pay me for my trouble, and " I shall be happy to attend you." Having parted with my friend, who proceeded to Berlin, I went to Fare Wasser, with a view of embarking for Copen- hagen, which would have considerabl}^ curtailed my journey to Husum ; but the wind being contrary, and blowing a hur- ricane, and several English captains, who were there, assuring me that it frequently continued so for three weeks and a month together, after spending three cheerless days in hopes that a change might take place, I returned to Dantzig, where, without knowing a human being, for this city was* not origi- nally included in our route, I presented myself at the count- ing-house of an elderly Englishman, a denizen of Dantzig, and, in the presence of a host of clerks, detailed my story, and requested that he would be so obliging as to permit one of SPIRIT OF ACCUMULATION, 447 them, who spoke English, to attend me a few minutes to the post-house, that I might endeavour to overtake my friends. The hoary merchant, with an immoveable countenance, coldly looked at me, and briefly replied, " It is our post day ;" and, without saying another word, returned to his accompts. It reminded me of Gadshill and the Carrier, in the first part of Henry the Fourth : " Gad. I pray thee, lend me thy lantern, to see my gelding in the stable. ** Car. Lend thee my lantern, quotha ! Marry, I'U see thee hanged first." This Englishman had gro\ATi old in the traffic of Dantzig, and the generous spirit of his country had been indurated into the selfishness of accumulation. The little Swede was now in the lowest state of deprecia- tion : the post-master thought her unworthy of being drawn by a Prussian prancer, and absolutely refused to put a horse into the shafts ; at the same time he offered me a ducat, that is, nine shillings and sixpence, for her. I would have set fire to her, sooner than that he should have had her. The god of gold seemed to have made this spot his feivourite temple, to have constituted a bag of corn his chosen altar, and to have recorded his oracles in a ledger: the ramparts of the town seem preserved only to repel hospitality and generosity. The Dantzickers keep a cash account of civilities, and never indulge in festivity without resorting to calculation. A calculating countenance 448 INFANTINE SHARPNESS. under a little bob-wig, shining brushed cocked-hat that has seen good service, a brown coat, waistcoat and breeches of the same colour, worsted stockings, a pair of shining little silver buckles, and an ivory-headed cane, denote the thrifty Dant- zicker : the very beggar in the streets seems to expect a double proportion of bounty for his misfortune, and for the trouble oi' asking relief. As I was purchasing some articles at a grocer's for my journey, his wife held a little child in her arms, not old enough to speak, to whom I gave a pear, and presently after I presented him with a gulden, a little coin, which he griped, apparently with the same instinct that would induce a young bear to rifle a honey jar, and dropped the fruit. The little grocer seemed much pleased with his son's preference ; and, in German, as well as I could understand him, exclaimed, " that he would make a brave tradesman." In this place, where, there were so many of my own coun- trymen settled, accident led me to the civilities of a polite and amiable young Dutchman, who had not staid long enough in Dantzig to lose every liberal sentiment. " How strange," said I, " that amongst the residents of this place you alone " should wish to serve an unfortunate solitary Englishman ; " and that, too, whilst our respective countries are at war !" " It is true, our countries are at war," said he, in good Eng- lish ; " but what is that to us ? every man whom I can serve is ** my countryman.** VERSATILE PIETY. 449 Through the medium of this gentleman, I hired a man to go with me all the way to Berlin (who, on such occasions, is called a fuhrman), instead of going post, to avoid as much iss possible the galling pressure of Prussian imposition. To the friendly Dutchman I sold the little Swede for ten ducats, which he vowed he would brush up and paint, and drive with into the country. On the day preceding my departure, my Dutch friend related the following story. Being at church one Sunday, at Alkmaar, when that town was in the possession of the English forces, previous to the sermon the preacher prayed very fervently for the long life of his Majesty George III., and the prosperity of England. Scarcely had he finished this pious compliment, before an inhabitant en- tered, and announced that the English forces were retiring, and that the French were about to resume the protection of the place : upon hearing which, this Dutch Vicar of Bray explained to his audience, that the supplication which they had just heard was coerced; but that now, being able to follow the spontaneous emotions of his own heart, he begged them to unite with him in offering up a prayer to the throne of grace, to bless and preserve General Brune and the French armies f Before I met with the courteous Dutchman, the only con- isolation which I found, was in sitting in the same room with the young Maitresse d'hotel de Lion Blanc, where, without 3 M 450 JEU D'ESPRIT. knowing each other's language, we contrived to pass away the hours not unpleasantly. The beauty and sprightliness of this young woman produced the following Jew d esprit : The sign of the house should be chang'd, I'll be sworn. Where enchanted we find so much beauty and grace 5 Then quick from the door let the lion be torn, And an angel expand her white wings in his place. The young Dutchman translated it into German, and pre- sented it to the fair one. 'fphm^-- vVi"" ( 4.51 ) .XttJUtotiA^^^ / CHAP. XXII. REFLECTIONS UPON A STUHLWAGGON PRUSSIAN VILLAGES MlL^t- TARY M:ANCEUVRES — -IRISH REBEL BERLIN LINDEN WALK TO- LERATION PRUSSIAN DINNER — CHEAP LIVING THE PALACE-^— CADET CORPS. 1 HE traveller going to Germany will be under the neces- sity of changing his money as under : Twenty-four good, or ninety Prussian groschen, are* equal to one dollar, or three Prussian guilders. N. B. Six Prussian dollars are equal to one pound English. When the stuhlwaggon, that was to carry me to Berlin, a distance of upwards of three hundred English miles, in the stipulated time of eight days, drove up to the door, I observed that it had no springs, consequently I could not be detained on the road by their breaking ; that I should be nearly jolted to death, but that would be an admirable substitute for want of exercise ; that I should not be able to sleep by day, conse- quently I should sleep the better by night ; that my driver S M -2 4o2 OLIVA. could not speak English, nor 1 three words of German, ergo, we should associate like a couple of dumb waiters, and my re- flections, if chance any should arise, would not be shaken. Having settled all these points in my mind, with infinite plea- sure I passed the draw-bridge of this seat of extortion and in- hospitality, and as soon as we had cleared the suburbs and dropped into a deep sandy road, my heavy unimpassioned driver took from his waistcoat pocket a piece of dry fungus, and holding it under a flint, with a small steel struck a light, kindled his pipe, and was soon lost in smoke, and a happy va- cuity of thought. Although the red leaves of retiring autumn were falling in showers from the trees, the country appeared very picturesque and rich. After we passed the town and abbey of Oliva, the latter celebrated for containing in one of its chambers the table on which the treaty of peace was signed between the crowned heads of Germany, Poland, and Swe- den, called the Treaty of Oliva, my driver turned into a bye road, the inequalities of which I can compare to nothing but those of a church-yard, thronged with graves ; we were several times obliged to alight, in order to support the carriage on one side whilst it crawled along the edge of a miry bank. The uncertainty of a German mile never fails to puzzle a traveller: there is a long and a short one ; the former is as indefinite as a Yorkshire mile, which I believe is from steeple to steeple,^ sometimes it means five, six, and seven EngUsh miles, the latter. I have already explained* THE AGREEABLE SURPRISE. 453 On the road every Prussian was at once equipped for his bed and tor a ball, by having his head adorned with a prodi- gious cocked hat, and a night-cap under it. The Prussian farm-houses were either tiled or very neatly thatched : some of them were built of brick, and others of a light brown clay, but the favourite colour is that of vivid flesh, were remarkably neat; the ground exhibited the marks of high cultivation, and the farmers looked rich and respectable^ and perfectly English. Although the soil is sandy, yet from its fineness it is capable of bearing all sorts of vegetables for the kitchen : out of four grains of rye sown, the tillers calculate that one will rise. By the time I reached Stolpe, I had formed a little budget of current German expressions, which, at the inn in that town, enabled me to understand a man who said to me, " Pray sir, are you a Frenchman?" " No, I am an " Englishman." " Ah, sir, so much the better for you, and ** so much the more agreeable to me," said he, I wondered to hear such language from Prussian lips : but I afterwards found the man who addressed me was a Dutchman. The road to Berlin has, in one respect, a great advantage, there is a constant and rapid succession of towns and villages^ but no scattered cottages : upon every acclivity the traveller commands six or seven spires rising from little clumps of trees, and clusters of houses ; the road to each of these small communities for about a quarter of a mile is paved with large 454 TRAVELLING ARMS. rough angular stones, which constitute the pride of the parish, and are brought from a great distance, and with considerable cost. Upon my wishing them at the devil one day, which I never failed to do as often as I had to contend with them, my driver turned round and said, " Do not wish them there : " do you know that each of those fine stones cost four good ** groschen V* ^^0lf ^ In Prussia, robberies very seldom happen : the Prussians only pilfer in the shape of extortion, ** And for a pistol they present a biU." Having seen many Englishmen travel through their country with a moveable arsenal of arms in their carriages, united to the received opinion that suicide prevails more in Eng- land than in any other countr}% they conclude that the preparation is not against robbers, but to furnish their owner with a choice of deaths, if his ennui is not dissipated by roving, My adventures upon the road were few, and not worthy of relation, except that my driver was very fond of quitting the main road for every short cut, in which we were frequently obliged, carriage and all, to spring as well as we could over a small ditch ; having repeatedly warned him that we .should be overturned, at last my prediction was verified, the THE PIPE. 455 wheels were uppermost, and we lay sprawling in the road : as- soon as I could look around me I found the driver in great agony, and concluded that he had at least shattered a rib or a leg : but the misfortune was a much greater one in his estima* tion, he had broken his pipe, which lay in the road by the side of scattered provisions and trunks ; he lamented his loss bitterly, and frequently, as we were replacing matters, apostrophized the remains of this natural and inestimable source of German comfort. We frequently passed through the most beautiful avenues of majestic oak, stately lindens, and graceful beech and birch trees. I found the inns very poor ; at Pinnow I slept upon a bed of straw. In the best room are generally the depot of the Sunday gowns, the best crockery, two or three filthy straw beds, a stove of black Dutch tiles, one or two corn chests, a chair with a broken back, jars of butter: adjoining there is generally a room for the daughter or upper servant of the host, who reclines her sweet person upon a bed placed upon a corn-bin, and surrounded by a winter- stock of potatoes. If a traveller fasten the door of his bed- room he will be under the necessity of rising to open it, twenty times after he is in bed, that the master or mistress of the house may have access to something or another which is deposited in his chamber. The winter was now rapidly setting in, and in every post- house the stoves were warmed : before one of them some pea- 456 PRUSSIAN MUSKETS. sant children were reposing upon forms, and their mother standing with her back against it, fast asleep. The peasants erect their ovens, which are made of clay, about seven feet high, in the shape of a dome, at the extremity of their or- chards, removed as far as possible from any thatch. All the roads and bye-lanes in Prussia are abundantly supplied with legible and intelligent directing posts, representing a negro's head, with large white eyes, and a pig tail, whilst two long stiff arms point the wanderer on his way. The want of this species of attention to travellers in England is severely felt. It is scarcely necessary for me to observe that the universal language of Prussia is German. The garrison towns are numerous, at which the traveller is obliged to furnish the officer of the guard with his name, con- dition, and motive of travelling. The soldiers looked to great advantage; they have a favourite, and much admired ma- noeuvre, of forming hollow squares by sections, which at pre- sent is confined to the Prussian service ; and by means of a hollow curve, at the bottom of the barrel of the Prussian mus- ket, leading into the pan, through a large touch-hole, no prim- ing is necessary, or rather the loading primes, by which seve- ral motions are saved. With this improvement, and a heavy ramrod, an expert Prussian soldier, even with Prussian pow- der, far inferior to that of England, can load and fire twelve times in one minute. A soldier who had not long been tfl THE PENITENT REBEL. 457 enlisted, performed these motions in my presence ten times in that period by my watch. At Konigberg, as I was sitting down to dinner, a portly Tsoldier, in the Prussian uniform, opened the door, and ad- dressed me in English. With much address and respect, un- der the venial pretence of my not having written my name legibly at the barrier, he introduced himself to me, and en- abled me very soon to discover that he was one of those infa- tuated Irishmen, who having incurred the displeasure of tlie British government, had been plucked from a station of respec- tability, and the bosom of a beloved family, exiled from his couurtry, and doomed to wear the habit, and endure the disci- pliije of a Prussian soldier for ten wretched years, five of which he had already survived. The poor fellow acknowledged the iatal delusion which had thus torn him from all that was dear to him, and reduced him to the humiliation of gladly receiving a dollar from a stranger. Between Gruneberg and Freyenwalde I passed the Oder, which flows to the walls of Olmutz, rendered eminently fami iiar to th« memory by the cruel captivity of La Fayette, and the spirit of British generosity which restored him and his lovely Marchioness to light and liberty. ' l)^on our leaving Freyenwalde, we ploughed our way' 3n 458 BERLIN. through the dark forests and trackless sands of Brandenbourg, the latter of which Frederic the Great highly valued as a na- tional barrier, capable of impeding and embaiTassing an ap- proaching enemy. Of their depth and dreariness no one can judge, but those who have waded through them : we quitted them with great joy to roll merrily along over a noble new royal road, of about ten English miles in length, lined with sapling lindens ; and, early on the eighth day from my leaving Dantzig, I passed the gate of the wall which sur- rounds Berlin, and with forty-one ducats discharged my com- panion at the Hotel de Russie. Having refreshed myself, I sallied into the Linden Walk, which is ver}^ broad, is formed of triple rows of the graceful and umbrageous tree from which it receives its name, and is situated in the centre of the street, having carriage roads on each side, from which it is protected by a handsome line of granite posts connected by bars of iron, and illuminated at night by large reflecting lamps, suspended over the centre by cords, stretched from corresponding supporters of wrought iron : its length is about an English mile, and presents at one end the rich portico of the marble opera-house and the palace, and at the other the celebrated Brandenbourg gate, designed by Monsieur Langhans from the Propylium of Athens, and raised in 1780. This superb monument of tasteful architec- ture is a stone colonnade, of a light reddish-yellow colour. THE LINDEN WALK. 459 composed of twelve grand fluted Corinthian columns, forty- four feet high, and five feet seven inches in diameter, six on each side, leaving a space for the gates to fold between, pre- senting five colossal portals, through which the park is seen in fine perspective. The wings composing the custom and guard houses are adorned with eighteen lesser columns, tw^enty-nine feet high and three feet in diameter : the whole is crowned by colossal figures of the Angel of Peace driving four horses abreast in a triumphal car, below which are rich basso relievos. This most elegant structure, and the Walk of Lindens, are unique, and would abundantly repay any traveller for the fatigues of an eight days' journey to -behold them. In the walk, although the tveather was very cold, several ladies were promenading without caps or bonnets, and others were riding astride on horseback, according to the fashion of the country, in a long riding habit, pantaloons, and half-boots. In the street scarcely any other objects were to be seen, than *' the soldier and his sword." Upon ascending the gallery of the superb dome of the institu- tion of the poor, in the grand market place, I commanded the wall of the city, the dimensions of which are small, I should not think larger than those of Bath ; but having been the result of one design, and in a great measure built in one reign, it has the advantage of being regular. The river Spree runs through it, and is adorned by some handsome stone bridges. The streets 3 n2 460 TOLERATION. are spacious, and, to the surprise of a stranger, are well paved for carriages and pedestrians, although nature has refused to furnish the coimtry with a single stone : this denial has been supplied by the policy of Frederick the Great, who made all the vessels that came up the Elbe, the Hawel, or the Spree, take on board at Magdeburg a certain quantity of freestone, and disembark it at Berlin gratis. The houses are generally built of brick stuccoed, but some are of stone, in the Italian style of architecture. The palace of" Prince Henry, the brother of Frederick the Great, lately deceased, is built of stone ; but, for want of ornament, possesses but little attraction for the eye : the royal palace is an enormous square pile of the same mate- rials, whose massy and gloomy walls the reigning sovereign has wisely resigned to his courtiers, for a small plain mansion, opposite the common foundery. Mon-bijou, the residence of the Queen Dowager, is a palace, or rather a long gallery, nearly the whole being upon the ground floor, situated on the side of the river S])ree, embosomed in a wood and gardens. The Rotunda, or Catholic church, partly designed by Cardinal Alberoni, is a noble edifice, the grand altar of which was made at Rome, and is celebrated for its beautj^ Soon after Fre- derick the Great ascended the throne, he conceived the sub- lime idea of building a vast Pantheon, in which every descrip- tion of devotion might, at an allotted time, find its altar: Policy, if not genuine charity, induced that sagacious prince NEW THEATRE, 461 to think that tolerance was necessstry to the interests as well as the dignity of a nation ; and he was desirous of not only seeing his subjects and foreigners worship their God in their way, but that, like brothers, they should prostrate themselves before him in the same temple. On account of the state of the treasury, Frederick was successfully advised to drop this benign plan, and it was never afterwards resumed. The gene- rality of the Prussians are Calvinists. In the evening after my arrival I went to New Theatre, a superb building, on the entablature of which the following elegant inscription appeared in German, " Whilst we smile we " mend the manners." All the front of the inside was occu- pied by the royal box, formed into a saloon, from the centre of the ceiling of which a rich lustre descended, and on each side were alabaster vases. The boxes were neat and well arranged. Over the curtain was a large transparent clock ; the players were good; the orchestra very full and fine; and the scenery,^ particularly the drop, or curtain scene, very beautiful. The statue of the celebrated general Ziethen, the favourite of Frederick the Great, and one of the greatest and bravest generals of Prussia, is well worthy the notice of the traveller. It is raised in Wilhelm's Platz, or William's Place, upon a pedestal, on three sides of which are basso-relievos, represent- ing the hero on horseback, in some of the most celebrated 462 CAVALRY HORSES. campaigns, surrounded by an elegant railing: the figure of the general, in his hussar regimentals, is as large as life; his hand is raised to his chin, which was his usual attitude of me - ditation: it is said to be a strong resemblance, and is a fine piece of statuary. In this little square there are several other statues of Prussian generals, who distinguished them- selves in the seven years' war, without any inscription. Upon my German friend enquiring of some of the soldiers, who were standing near us, their names, they told us they knew nothing about them. It is well known, that no living creature is more ignorant than a Prussian soldier. As we passed to the Royal Opera-house, the cavalry were drilling ; the wretchedness of their horses not a little surprised me : the same remark applied to those of every other regiment of cavalry which I saw. The opera-house, which is never open but during the carniva,l, is a superb and elegant building, raised by Frederick the Great. The audience are admitted gratis, by tickets issued by the King's authority : the pit is allotted to the regiments in garrison, each of which is permitted to send so many men. In the time of Frederick the Great, it was no unusual spectacle to see the wives of the soldiers sitting upon their husbands' shoulders : the internal decorations are, I was informed, very magnificent. Berlin is justly celebrated for the excellence of its hotels : .1 JEWS AND CHINA. 463 in my sitting room, looking upon the Linden-walk, I had every article of useful and elegant furniture, my hed-room and sopha-bed and linen were remarkably neat and clean, and both rooms, although the frost was set in with intense severity, were, by means of stoves which are supplied from the passage, as warm as a sunmier day. It is a received opinion, that Eng- lishmen are so accustomed to sit by their fire-sides, that they cannot grow warm unless they see the fire : to this remark I have only to observe, that I partook so insensibly of the at- mosphere which pervaded my room, that I neither thought of heat, cold, or fire-places. At breakfast, the rolls, butter, and coffee, were delicious, and the china beautiful. The porce- lain of Berlin is very fine, and nearly equal to that of Saxony. In the infancy of this manufactory, PVederick the Great granted permission to the Jews within his dominions to marry, only upon condition that they should purchase a cer- tain quantity of this china ; by this despotic policy he soon brought it into repute. At our table d'hote in the hotel, the dinner, with little variation, was in the following order : cold herrings and salted cucumbers, soup, bouilli, ham with sliced carrots, honey and rice pudding, venison and stewed pease. In the streets were groups of female fruiterers, sitting before tubs filled with the finest grapes, and bergamot peai*s, wal- nuts, &c. From those stands a respectable dessert may be fur- nished for the value of three-pence English. Upon the Spree 464 CHEAP LIVING. were a great number of boats, completely laden with the finest apples and pears. Living in Berlin is moderate, in the coun- try remarkably cheap. A bachelor in Hesse Darmstadt, and in many other parts of Germany, can enjoy elegant society, have every day a bottle of excellent wine, and keep his horse, for one hundred and twenty pounds per annum. In the audience-room of the great palace, we were shewn a chandelier of chrystal which cost 4,200/. ; amongst the paint- ings, which are few, we noticed a portrait of the Duke of Fer- rara, by Corregio, for which ten thousand ducats were given : there is also a beautiful statue of Marcus Aurehus, drawn up from the Tiber about fifty years since ; several curious and costly clocks and secretaires of exquisite workmanship and mechanism, one of which, should any one improperly at- tempt to open it, would betray the robber by a tune similar to that in the Academy of Sciences in Petersburg : we were also shewn a circular closet in a tun'et, from whence Frederick, in his latter days, used to contemplate the people in the streets. The Cadet corps is a noble estabUshment, much resembling those in Petersburg : we attended a parade of about four hun- dred boys, who, as they were not sized, nor ranked accord- ing to age, presented a striking instance of the progress of merit, by displaying mere " apple-munching urchins'* PRUSSIAN ARTS. 465 commanding companies of boys bigger than themselves. From the Cadet corps we visited an exhibition of the Prus- sian arts and manufactures, displayed in a suite of rooms : the busts, models, and carpets were beautiful: some of the drawings were pretty, but the paintings were below criticism. English manufactures are severely prohibited in Prussia. 5o l^Ji;' ( 466 ) CHAP. xxir. POTSDAM DILIGENCE POTSDAM SANS SOUCI VOLTAIRE, AND DOGS OF FREDERICK THE GREAT NOBLE FIRMNESS OP AN ARCHI- TECT KING AND LOVELY QUEEN OF PRUSSIA ANECDOTES FE- MALE TRAVELLING HABIT — THE DUCHY OF MECKLEBURG SWERIN RETURN TO ENGLAND. On the Sunday after my arrival, namely, the third of No- vember, I seated myself, at seven o'clock in the morning, with an intelligent companion, in the Potsdam diligence, a vehicle considerably less commodious than that of Paris: it was without springs, and so villainously put togther, that the biting air pierced through a hundred crevices ; sliding wooden pannels supplied the place of glasses, and in the back part were two seats, the occupiers of which were separated from each other by a stout iron bar. Our companions, male and female, were clad in their winter dress of muffs and fur shoes. After passing through a country of corn-fields and fir forests, and some small pieces of ice, at eleven we reached the barrier of Potsdam, which is situated on the river Havel, and is formed into an isle by the adjoining lakes and canals, about sixteen English miles from Berlin. k^*mt>. PICTURE GALLERY. 467 leaving expelled the cold with some soup, we hired a little phaeton, and immediately proceeded to Sans Souci, distant about two English miles, which, as well as the neighbouring country palaces, are so much the fruit of the great Frederick's taste, that it was like paying a visit to his spirit. As we pro- ceeded to the galleiy of pictures, we passed by his hot-houses, which he cherished with great care. So partial was his Majesty to hot-house fruit, that before the buildings were erected, he who would have scantily provided for a gallant officer mutilated in his service, did not hesitate to pay a ducat for a cherry ! When he was dying, his pine-apples occupied his principal attention. • We entered the picture gallery from the road through a rustic door : this room, two hundred and fifiy eight feet long, thirty-six broad, and fifteen high, is supported by Carrara pillars, and is superbly gilded and ornamented. The collec- tion is very select and precious : we principally noticed the Graces, by Dominichino; Vertumnus and Pomona, by Leo- nardo da Vinci ; Titian and his wife, by himself; Danae and Cupid, by the same artist; Venus bathing, by Corregio ; three different styles of Painting, by Guido ; the Holy Family, by Raphael, which cost fourteen thousand ducats; a Cave of Devils, by Teniers, in which his mother and wife are repre- sented as members of the infernal family, his father as Saint Antonio, and himself in a bonnet rouge, laughing at the 3o2 468 DOGS OF FREDERICK THE GREAT. group; a Head of Christ, by Vandyke; Ignorance and Wis- dom, by Corregio; a Head of Christ, upon leaf gold, by Raphael, for which Frederick the Great paid six thousand ducats; several other paintings, by the same great master, upon the same ground; a Virgin and Infant, by Rubens; and several other exquisite works of art. There was once a beau- tiful little Magdalen here, by Raphael, which Frederick bar- tered to the Elector of Saxony for a troop of horse : this sort of barter seems not to have been unusual. Augustus II., Elector of Saxony, purchased forty-eight bulky porcelain vases of Frederick William I., of Prussia, for a fine regiment of dragoons. • . From the gallery we ascended a stair-case, and entered a ter- race, whence a beautiful view of the river, and the surround- ing country, lay expanded before us. As we proceeded to the palace, or pavilion, composed of a long suite of rooms upon a ground floor, the tombs of Frederick's dogs were pointed out to us, the only creatures for whom he entertained $, cordial affection. It is well known that he indulged the strange be- liet that these animals possessed the power of discriminating character, and that he disliked those at whom they barked : most of these canine favourites were honoured with a royal epitaph. It is related, that whenever he went to war, he always carried a small Italian greyhound with him ; and that when, in the seven years war, he happened to be pursued by a ONE AMIABLE TRAIT. 469 reconnoitring party of Austrians, he took shelter under a dry arch of a bridge, with his favourite in his arms ; and that al- though the enemy passed and repassed the bridge several times, yet the animal, naturally churlish, lay quite still, and scarcely breatlied : had he barked, Frederick must have been discovered and taken prisoner, and Prussia, in all human pro- bability, would have shared the fate of Poland, and swelled the empires of Russia and of Germany. There is another story told, the authenticity of which is indubitable : Fre- derick the Great, in his dying moments, expressed a wish to be buried by the side of his dogs. One of these favourites, another greyhound bitch, was taken at the battle of Sorr, when the baggage was plundered by Trenck and Nadasti. Regardless of inferior losses, the King was in the act of writ- ing to Nadasti, to request his bitch might be restored, when the Austrian Greneral, knowing his love for the animal, which was itself greatly attached to him, had sent it back : the bitch, unperceived by the monarch, leaped upon the table while he was writing, and, as usual, began to caress him, at which he was so affected that he shed tears. The day before he had cut off many thousands of men, and charged his dear children to give no Saxon quarter. The only amiable trait in Fre- derick's composition was of a canine nature : he possessed nothing to attach man to him but his fondness for dogs. We saw the room where Frederick slept and died : it wa§ 470 VOLTAIRE. plain and simple ; and, upon the chimney-piece, was a beau- tiful antique of Julius Caesar when a boy. After passing through several handsome rooms, we reached the dining-room. It is well known that Frederick the Great indulged in the pleasures of the table, and that English, French, German, Italian, Russian cooks, were employed in this royal philo- sopher's kitchen. The apartment of Voltaire, where I could not resist sitting down in his chair before his desk, dotted all over with spots of a pen, more keen and triumphant than the sword, and wondering how such a genius could associate for three years with the crafty, ungrateful, cold, ungenerous, ty- rannical, rancorous, and implacable Frederick, who, if he merited the title of great, had no pretensions to that of good : that the wit and the sovereign should have differed no one can wonder; but every one must that they had not quarrel- led and parted sooner. In the life of Voltaire we see the triumph of letters. The late Empress of Russia courted his friendship by ever}^ touch- ing art wliich, even from clever women in the ordinary ranks of life, is irresistible : she did nothing without affecting to consult him ; she invited him to Petersburg, and placed the model of his house at Ferney, in the Hermitage. Frederick the Great sought him with avidity, bordering on abject solici- tation ; but the mean and ungenerous despotism of the sove- reign's heart, rendered him unworthy the honour of an associa- L SANS souci. 471 tion, which with equal meanness and harshness he dissolved* Why was Voltaire thus courted by two of the most distin- guished potentates of their own, or perhaps of any other age ? Because they knew that the pen of such a genius could give any colour to their actions, and could measure out and extend their fame. The gardens of Sans Souci appeared to be elegantly ar- ranged; but it was no time to explore leafless bowers and alleys no longer green : " "When icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the shepherd blows his nail. And Tom bears logs into the hall. And milk comes frozen home in pail." The fapade of Sans Souci, towards the plain, is very elegant; towards the terrace very heavy, where it resembles more a great tasteless green-house than a royal residence. From Sans Souci, we drove through a beautiful park to the new palace, distant about an English mile and a half After passing two grand lodges and out-offices, connected by an elegant semi- circular colonnade of eighty-eight columns, we entered the palace, the front of which is adorned A^ith Corinthian pilasters, and the body built with the rich red Dutch brick : the hall was a superb vaulted grotto, formed of chrystals, branches of xoral and shells, and fountains, arranged with equal elegance and novelty. Respecting the construction of this extraordi- 472 THE ARCHITECTURAL DISPUTANTS. nary apartment, the King and his favourite architect had a violent dispute; the latter insisting that it should be a ves- tibule, the former a grotto. The royal disputant of course prevailed, and the architect was so disgusted, that he declined proceeding in the building. It was lucky for him, that the tyrant Frederick had not sent him to the fortress of Spandaw, where so many brave men, who had fought and bled for him, have been immured for some error in petty punctilio, to me- ditate on the superiority of grottoes over vestibules : the rest of the rooms are very elegant. Having satisfied our curiosity, we galloped to the little marble palace, about two English miles off, built also by Frederick the Great, of Silesian marble and Dutch brick : I was more pleased with it, than with the Petite Trianon at Versailles. The road to the pavilion is lined with small rustic dwellings, surrounded by shrubs for the house- hold : on the left is an extensive and elegant orangerie, in the centre of which is a superb ball-room, lined with mirrors, and opening on either side into alleys of orange and lemon trees : on the right are the kitchens, externally resembling the ruins of an Athenian temple : a lake, lined with elegant groups of trees, pleasure-houses, cottages, and mills, washes the terrace of the little jDalace, the apartments of which are small but singularly elegant, and were adorned with some exquisite antiques. Upon our return to our hotel the clock struck four : just as we had begun to thaw ourselves with some soup, attended, as the Saxon kings of old were, by a wandering i (^x»^. auEEN or PRUSSIA. 473 harper at our door, just as he had sweetly and wildly run over the first division of a German air, by which time my intelli- gent companion and I had settled it, that had the palaces been covered with rubies, and the trees of the royal gardens dropi^ed pearls, we should return discontented to Berlin, unless we had beheld the lovely Queen of Prussia ; in truth, she was the principal object of our excursion : the son of our host ran into the room, to tell us the Queen's carriage was just drawn up to the great palace, which our window commanded. From a little private door of this vast pile, she descended, leaning upon the ann of a page, and attended by an elderly lady of the court ; upon seeing us she stopped, and moved to us in the most gracious and enchanting manner. She is very iair, her face sweet, elegant, and expressive : ** Whose red and white, Nature's own sweet and cunning hand laid on." Her hair is light, her figure exquisite ; and, as she stepped into her carriage, she displayed a foot and ankle which at once convinced us that the most perfect symmetry reigned through- out her frame. Her charms were heightened by her situation ; she was expected, in a few days, to augment the illustrious House of Brandenbourg. At a party at the British ambas- sador's, Mr. Jackson, I was -regaled with the most enchanting account of her amiable virtues; but to look at her is suf- ficient : ** There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple." 3 P 474 ROYAL LOVE. She is very ibnd of retirement, and devotes herself to the edu- cation of her children. As my stay in Berlin was too short to admit of my being presented, I was much gratified in seeing a Princess of whom every one speaks with rapture. The manner in which her marriage occurred was interesting : At a grand review, which took place at Francfbrt on the Main, Monsieur Beathman, one of the richest bankers upon the continent, appeared at the parade, with a superb equipage : struck with his appearance, the King enquired his name, and Monsieur B. was introduced, who invited his Majesty to a grand fete he intended giving that evening at his chateau, which invitation the King accepted, and there met the lovely Princess of Mecklenburgh Strelitz; to look upon and love her were the same. About eighteen months after their marriage, they paid a visit to Monsieur B.; and, as they entered the room where their first interview occurred, the King caught his royal bride in his arms, kissed her, and, with tears of sensibility, exclaimed, " It was in this very " room, my dear Beathman, that I found the treasure of " my happiness." The royal couple are remarkably do- mestic, and largely taste of those endearing and tranquil en- joyments which are seldom seen in the neighbourhood of a throne. The great palace at Potsdam, in which the royal family principally reside, has a few elegant state rooms : in one of which was a half-length portrait of Bonaparte. The Queen ■^y*r'\ ■^ MILITARY POLICE. 475 had displayed her taste by decorating one of lier httle cabinets with engravings from some of the exquisite productions of Westall. The next morning (Sunday) we attended the two parades, which take place on this day within two hours of each other ; I should suppose about ten thousand men were upon the ground ; they presented a very noble appearance. The King, attended by several officers, was present. In roving through the city, we observed that its size and buildings resembled those of Berhn, and that it was equally gloomy. Upon our return, a soldier mounted the coach-box of the diligence at the gate at Berlin, and as we passed close to our inn, we called to the driver to let us out, but the soldier re- fused, and upon our attempting to get out, jumped down, drew his bayonet, and called the guard, upon which, with some little surprise, we submitted to be taken to the post- house, at the further end of the cit^r, where we were suffered to alight without further molestation. This regulation is a part of the military police of this despotic government, which converts every city into barracks, and palaces into head quarters. Upon regaining our hotel, cold and hungry, and ordering our dinner, we found that the cooks, it being dimanche, were all gone to the theatre : however, one of them was soon found, and our appetites soon satisfied. 3 p2 476 HAMBURGH DILIGENCE. On the 5th of November, at eleven o'clock in the morn- ing, as I wished to see a little more of the manners of the people, I mounted the Hamburgh diligence, and proceeded in it as far as Grabow, and afterwards travelled post to Husum : this machine was much inferior to its Potsdam bro- ther ; it was a leather tilted waggon without springs, filled with rows of seats, separated from each other by iron bars; behind was a basket for hay : there were neither glasses nor wooden pannels in the sides, but two hard leather curtains were dropped and buttoned down, when it rained or was cold. The pas- sengers consisted of two Prussian ladies, a girl servant, an Hungarian officer, myself) and one conducteur, an old wrinkled gentleman of sixty-live at least, who lost all his vivacity when he set down the girl, between whom some ten- der touches of the hand, and gentle whispers, passed during one of the most bitter nights I ever experienced. The ladies, who were neither handsome nor aged, and were, as I learned, very respectable women, made no hesitation in tying up their garters, sajis ceremonie, and, in other matters of travelling comfort, displayed as little restraint as the French ladies. All night, it being dark, and the roads very deep and sandy, we moved at a funereal pace. The next evening I bade adieu to the^amburgh diligence, and having convinced myself of the danger of attempting to push through that spit of Hanover through which the direct Hamburgh road lies, in consequence of the ruffian-like perfidious violation of the law of nations, MECKLEBURGH SWERIN. 477 exhibited in the seizure of our ambassador. Sir George Rum- bold, at that city, I ordered a stuhl-waggon at Perlberg, and travelled post to Swerin, the capital of the duchy of Meckle- burgh Swerin, which commences on this side at Grabow. In this petty state, luxuriant in corn fields, posting, which con- stitutes one of the revenues of the duchy, is very dear ; for five German miles I paid seven dollars and two groschen. To avoid this extortion, I recommend a traveller to hire a Furh- man at Perlberg to carry him through to Lubec: he will save considerably by it. A little beyond Grabow I passed a superb country residence of the reigning Duke, situated in a beautiful country, and surrounded by a very neat village. Swerin is a large and respectable town, where the inns are very good, and well supplied with French spies. The palace is a vast and very ancient building, forming an oblong square, presenting galleries, balconies, and turrets, without end. The soldiers on duty were fine-looking fellows ; the forces of the Duke amount to fourteen hundred men. I could not help smiling when, upon discharging my driver at this town, he presented me, with gieat ceremony, a government receipt, to shew that he had paid two groschen for permission to pass over a nearer and better road, which led from the country palace of the Duke. The Malaga wine, of which a great quantity is brought to this duchy, is excellent and reasonable. The approach to Lubec was through a noble road, lin^d >«"" 478 LUBEC. with stately lindens, extending four English miles: it was dusk when I entered it,- and early in the morning when I left it; but, if I may judge by its avenues, gates, and streets, I should pronounce it to be a very beautiful, extensive, and wealthy city. It has a small surrounding territory, and is at present independent ; but strong fears may be entertained that, following the example of Dantzig, its sovereignty is nearly at a close, and that it will speedily be incorporated with Hanoverian France. Through every town to Husum I was obliged to give my name and quality. An English humourist, who had by virtue of his freehold a parliamentary vote in the munici- pal county, upon being stopped at the gate of a town in some part of Germany, throughout which empire an elector is con- sidered as a personage only inferior to the Emperor, and upon his name being demanded, replied, " Je suis un Electeur de " Middlesex: ;" upon which the captain ordered the guard to turn out and salute him, and sent a company to follow the carriage to the inn, and attend him there, and paid him all the honours due to an electoral Prince. The delusion was easily carried on, for princes, even crowned heads in Ger- many, and various other parts of the continent, trouble them- selves but little about equipage. The venerable and gallant Prince de Ligne, whom I have before named,^ a Prince of great rank and dignity, under the pressure of seventy years, travelled from Vienna to Berlin, a distance of seven hun- dred English miles, in an open common stuhl-waggon. After THE JIETURN, 47:9 waiting a few days at Husum, where, like the hunted hare, I returned to the spot I first started from, during which two French spies dined every day at our table d'hote, and gave regular communications of the arrival of ever}^ English- man at the nearest Hanoverian posts, I went on board the packet, which narrowly escaped being frozen in the river, and after encountering a severe gale, during which our only con- solation resembled that of Gonzalo in the Tempest, who ob- served of his captain, " That he seemed to have no drown- " ing mark upon him," we crossed the north seas in forty- six hours, and landed upon the shores of that beloved coun- try which, uneclipsed by any superior in arms, in arts, or in sciences ; and without a rival in commerce, in agriculture, or in riches ; possesses more religion and morality, more huma- nity and munificence, more public and private integrity, is more blest with freedom, more enlightened by eloquence, more adorned with beauty, more graced with chastity, and richer in all the requisites to form that least assuming, but first of earthly blessings, domestic comfort, than any nation upon the globe. If, my Reader ! after having paid our homage to the merits of other countries, we return together, with more settled ad- miration, to that which has given us birth, I shall the less regret my absence from her, and from those who are the dearest 480 A SUPPLICATION. to my heart, and to whom I am indebted for all my present enjo3^ments. \ Having felt most sensibly, in the hour of my return, those prime distinctions of my country, which eminently and justly endear her to all her children, I close the volume with an ardent wish, that Heaven may graciously render those dis- tinctions perpetual. FINIS. 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