Back of Foldout Not Imaged SKETCHES IN RUSSIA AND SWEDEN, DURING THE YEARS 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808. BY ROBERT KER PORTER. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: PRINTED FOR RICHARD PHILLIPS, BRIDGE-STREET, BLACKFRIARS. BY T. GJLLET, CROWN-COURT, FLEET-STREET. 1809- PREFACE. The Author of the following pages, while relinquishing them for the press, felt a thousand hesitations whether or not to commit himself so far to the mercy of the world, as to submit a simple familiar correspondence to its eyes. He had engaged to accompany the Drawings in this Work with some explanations, and a general sketch of the manners and customs of the people who form their subjects. There was matter in these letters to furnish what was required ; but the peculiar circumstances of the writer on his return to England, finding the friend to whom they had been addressed dying, would not allow him leisure nor spirits to throw them into any other shape. Hence the Work ap- IV PREFACE. pears with every imperfection ; and three immoveable ones, he fears, are prominent : continual egotism, an appearance of ostentation, and perhaps a too unreserved disclosure of his own situation and feelings. To such charges the fact must reply — As these pages were originally written in the free intercourse of confidence, the writer naturally mentioned himself as going hither or thither, or being engaged in such and such scenes. He also did not hesitate to acknowledge the kindnesses he re- ceived from persons of all ranks ; and so, perhaps, by giving way to gratitude, he may incur the suspicion of vanity. For allowing his heart to be so frequently seen, he can only repeat the same apology : he wrote to a friend ! to one who had shared his thoughts for many years ; to one whose merits were, like his misfortunes, infinite ; and whose youth has sunk blighted to the grave. Captain Henry Caulfield was this friend : and thus to mention him, is, alas ! a poor tribute of respect which affection dictates, and sorrow renders sacred. PREFACE. V On looking over these pages, the writer found the do- mestic sentiments so interwoven with the general subjects, that he could not separate them without recomposing the whole. This he had not time to do : and as he has, by the peculiarities of his fate, been already so brought before the eye of the public that his history is not only well known, but his feelings more than guessed at, he thought it best to sub- mit himself at once to its indulgence, and let the letters go forth even in their original simplicity. Hence, it is not the studied work of an Author bringing forward deep researches, valuable discoveries, and conse- quential observations, that is now laid before the public, but the familiar correspondence of a friend, noticing the man- ners of the people with whom he associates, their fashions, their amusements, the sentiments of the day ; and mingling with these a few occurrences happening to himself, and the reflections to which they give rise. Such then is this work, merely Travelling Sketches : as VI PREFACE. sketches, he trusts a candid public will consider them ; and not pretending to have done more, he hopes his readers will judge him by his pretensions, and not withhold the indul- gence he requires. ROBERT KER PORTER. March , 1809, LETTER I. SAILS from England: Elsineur: Hamlet’s Garden: Kronenbcrg: History of Hamlet: Original Speech of that Prince : Danish Soldiers - « - - 1 LETTER II. Danish Shore : the Sound : Lord Nelson and the Crown-Prince : Cronstadt : Admiral Hen- nacoff : Russian Boat : Russian Music LETTER III. St. Petersburgh : Streets: Churches: Russian Labourers: Carriages: Horses: Drojcka: Tradesmen : Expences : British Merchants - - • - - 19 LETTER IV. Shores of the Neva : Gardens of Count Strogonoff : The Fortress : Banners : Keys of con- quered Cities : Marble Palace and Church : Statue of Peter the Great : Empress Catherine II.: the Veteran Resen ^ LETTER V. Russian Amusements : Summer Garden ; Red Palace : Hermitage : Collection of Pictures there and at Peterhoff : Houghton Gallery - - ■ - - 38 CONTENTS. vui LETTER VI. Institution for the Encouragement of the Arts : Plan of Education : Mr. Martouze : Taurida Palace : Tauridean Venus : Achilles : Hercules : Winter Garden * - 48 LETTER VII. Church of Saint Alexander Nefsky : account of that Prince : the Monasteiy : Grave of Suwarroff : Triumphal Medal: Cemetery: Funeral of Peter III: Emperor Alex- ander -------59 LETTER VIII. The Greek Church : the Princess Olga : Vladimir the Great : Greek Baptism : the Chrism : the Tonsure : Russian Creed, Moral and Religious : Confession - - 67 LETTER IX. The Matrimonial Service: Betrothing: Nuptial Coronation: Dissolving the Crowns: the Holy Oil : Burial of the Dead - - - - --82 LETTER X. Vespers : Matins : Liturgy : the Eucharist : Greek Priesthood : Monks : Nuns - 97 LETTER XI. Winter appearance of the Natives : the frozen Neva : the Sledge : Sledge Race : Dress of the Boors : of the Nobles : of the Women : Distinction of the People : the Death ot a Native : Warm Habiliments; Female Beauty - - - - - 107 LETTER XII. Russian Provision Market : the Affection of the Peasants : Prince Bagration’s Heroism : General Murat : Russian Soldier - - - - - 120 CONTENTS. m LETTER XIII. Anniversary of St. Nicholas: the Court: the Young Empress : the Bishop: Ladies of Honour: the Nobles : their Amusements: News from England : the Death of Nelson : the Lamentations of the Russians : Rumours from their Armies - „ « 129 LETTER XIV. The Allies defeated: the Dowager Empress: the Foundling-Hospital : Nurses: the Em- peror Alexander’s generous Policy - o - 137 LETTER XV. The Emperor’s Return from the Army: his Person and Manners: Presentation at Court: the Dowager Empress: the Winter Palace: Masquerade there: Imperial Family: Ball and Supper at the Hermitage : Morning Festivities: the Ice Hill: Manner of Skating- Benediction of the Waters : Rein-deer ... LETTER XVI. The Army: Cossacs: the Men: the Horses: Origin of the Cossacs: their Discipline and Dress: Bashkeers: Military System: Guards: Infantry: Cavalry: Pay: occasional Alterations in Tactics : Hulans : Hussras : National Character - - 161 LETTER XVII. A Winter Journey: a Kabitka: a Russian Village: Plains of Snow: Novgorod: St. An- thonys Mdl Stone: Twer: the Barouche: the Post-master: Klin: Post-house: the Pastor : character of the Clerg-v 175 LETTER XVIII. Mosco. Hospitality: Dinner in honour of Prince Bagration: his Person and Manners: Russian Song : Military Bands : Horn Instruments : Dwarfs : Fools : Giants . 189 VOL. I. 9 IV CONTENTS. LETTER XIX. % Situation of Mosco : the Kremlin : the Kitai-gorod : the Biel-gorod : the Zemlenoi-gorod : the Slobades : View from the Tower of Ivan the Great : the Churches : Bells : the Church of Ivan Basilovitch : the Italian Architect : Spring : Breaking up of the Frost : Joseph II. of Austria r Grand Cavalcade : Charms of the Women : Dangers of the Season 198 LETTER XX. May-Day: Countess Orloff: her Birth-day: Banquet: Cannons: Horse-race: Ball: Paternal Authority : Kisses : Vassalage : Attendants : Slaves* Gratitude : Slaves* Revenge : German General : Consolation - - - - - - 210 LETTER XXL View from the Terrace of the Kremlin : Foundling Hospital : Parade in the Fortress : Recruits : Princess Dashcoff : Summer Garden : Military Hospital : Merchants’ Wives : Baths : Bells : Suwarrotf’s Widow - • - 224: LETTER XXII. Palace of Prince Dolgorouky : Devitchy Convent : Tomb of Princess Sophia : Regulations of Nuns, Monks, and Archimandrites : Dress of the Nuns and Novices: Cell of Princess Sophia: Prince W *s fete de village : Mass in his. Church : Account of the Origin of Mosco ------- - - - - 238 LETTER XXIII. Climate of Russia : Archangel : the Horrors of its Winter t Account of the Town : Population of Mosco : Ostanknia : Kuscova : the Baloon : Coursing : St. Martinus Pravidnick s Monastery of Troitza : Tomb of St. Sergius : Sacerdotal Garments : Russian and English Churches. - - - - - * * 251 CONTENTS. v LETTER XXIY. A Prison : Condemnation to the Mines : Penal Laws : Poor Female executed ; Polish Prisoner : Labour: Apparatus of the Knout; Encampment: Tents: Arms: Evening Military Hymn : Supper with Prince G ■— : Dress of the Officers : Boddices : Moscovite Hospi- tality : Unborn Lambs : Furs - - 264 LETTER XXV. Departure from Mosco : a travelling Companion: a Fray: a Village Battle: Voskresensky : Monastery of the New Jerusalem : Archimandrite : Greek Church : Palestine : Gardens of Uriah: David: Monks’ Habits : Jordan: Euphrates: Nichon’s Hermitage : Patriarch Nichon : his Tomb : a new Fray : Summer Views : Natives’ Summer Dresses : Barbarous Custom : Falls of Borovitsky : Valdaia : Groupes of Drovers : Gypsies : their Origin £80 LIST OF PLATES VOL. 1. 1 A View of Elsineur Castle from Hamlet’s Garden I from the En S lish Q ua J at St. Petersburgh o I he Stone I heatre at St. Petersburg!! • 4 Isaac’s Place, St Petersburg 5 Monks of St. Basil ... yd Nuns of St. Basil _ 7 Russian Boors in their Sledge /S A Hackney Sledge . 9 A Russian Tradesman _ AO A travelling Russian Boor H 4 9 entleman in his Winter Walking Dress 12 A Russian Nurse 13 A regular Cossac ,14 An Uralsky Cossac 15 An Officer of the Donsky Cossacs " - 16 An Officer of the Imperial Guards 17 A Soldier of ditto .48 The Inside of a Russian Post-house y39 A View of Mosco - . 20 A Russian Tradesman’s Wife in her Gala Dress 21 o.itto in her Summer Dress 22 View of the Monasters of Devitchy , 23 An Archimandrite or Abbot ^24 The Monastery of Voskresensky -^25 Nichon’s Hermitage 26 A Russian Peasant in his Summer Dress 27 A Female Peasant in her Summer Dress 28 A Bohemian, or Gipsy Page 4 19 ib. 31 106 ibA 109 ib. 112 - ib. - 117"- 144 - 161 - 164 ib. v m ib. 185 - - 198 ' ■ 228 ^ ib. \ 238 \ 289 290 291 295 ib.^ 303 , VOL. II. A29 A Baschkir Trooper sA30 A Chief of the Baschkirs 31 Kirghises 32 A Kalmuc Horseman A33 A Peasant of Finland - ,^34 The Palace of Stockholm * /35 Gustavus Vasa /36 A Mine 37 The Retreat of Gustavus AS8 A Dalecarlian Peasant ^ 39 A Dalecarlian Female Peasant J he Eal,s of Inth atta or Trolhata y'Al Swedish Washerwomen Page 58 v 59- 60 ^ 63- 79 ^ 118 163 ^ 178 204 206 207 252 - ib.\U TRATELLING SKETCHES RUSSIA AND SWEDEN. LETTER I. MV DEAR FRIEND, St. Petersburgh, September, 1805 . As your “ mind’s eye” has ever followed me in all my travels, whe- ther through the forests of Germany or the gardens of France, in these more distant regions I shall still wish for the same companion ; and feel each pleasure doubled, when I think that in idea you accompany me, and enjoy, as myself, the interesting varieties of this vast empire. I am now safely arrived at the imperial residence of Russia. But as the road to it was not quite so “ flat and unprofitable” as most of the ways in this world, I must lead you through the Sound before I pre- sent you at St. Petersburgh. On the 29th of August, 1805, I embarked on board the Almeria bound to Cronstadt. The wind setting fair, I bade a short adieu to my country and all in it that I held dear ; a foreign land was before me, fraught with ten thousand objects to interest the mind ; and for- B 2 ' TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. getting the pains of parting in the joys of expected return, I surren- dered all my thoughts to the happy future. The weather continuing favourable, not many days elapsed before I saw the shores of Old Eng- land gradually disappear, and those of Denmark rise along the horizon. The next morning we cast anchor at Elsineur. You may be well assured that my impatience to get on shore was much increased by the meditations which occupied me as the ship drew near a city which had been immortalized by the pen of our matchless Shakspeare. The lapse of ages and the fables of the poet, were all lost in the reality of his painting : the moment of his scene seemed present with me ; and eager to traverse every part of this consecrated ground, I had already followed Hamlet every where ; I had measured the deep shadows of the platform/encountered the grey ghost of the Royal Dane, had killed Polonius in the Queen’s closet, and drowned poor Ophelia in the willowed stream ! With my fancy thus raised 1 stepped into a boat, and soon reached the pier-head of this memorable and once regal city. But te what a falling off was there !” Wapping possesses the splendor of ancient Rome, when compared with the modern aspect of Elsineur. Judge then how soon my eye and mind were called back to the narrow footpaths of dull matter-o’-fact ; but you cannot judge, for you cannot imagine, how much more rapidly I was made to forget the sweet-scented flowers of the “ pretty Ophelia,” in the haut gouts which now assailed my senses. The weather being hot, various effluvia and exhalations sported about so pestiferously, that it was impossible to proceed without the shield of a handkerchief to the nose, if you wished to prevent actual sickness : which accident, by the bye, would be considered of little consequence ; as small ceremony is used here, either as to time, place, or opportunity, in making every addition to this Augean repository. The immortal scavenger of Elis would cer- TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. - tainly be at his labour now had he began at Elsineur : I found it a suffix ciently Herculean toil to wade through this wilderness of filth. In vain I sought for decayed battlements and mouldering towers ; not a single vestige presented itself that bore the smallest trace of this town ever having been hallowed by the mausoleum of an Ophelia, or proudly de- corated with the stately walls of a royal palace. However, as Balbeck, for want of proper investigation, lay hidden many centuries in the desert ; so might all I wished to see, be yet lurking in some unexplored spot : my ignorance might be my only impediment. To get rid of this, I looked about for an informer ; and exerting the key to such knowledge, soon found a clue to the labyrinth; which led me to a place, a mile from the town, that bears the name of Hamlet's Garden. I entered a gateway which opened to a walk well shaded with lofty trees. Striking into this avenue, I momentarily expected to be gra- tified by the appearance of venerable and magnificent ruins. Ruins did appear ; but alas, it was a Satyr to Hyperion ! a modern wretched build- ing, even in youth tumbling to decay I It was easily to be discerned that the fabric and the gardens were of the same date ; and retained no relic of ancient interest, excepting the tradition, which affirms that to be the spot where once stood the Danish palace ; and where was enacted that tragedy, which has been so gloriously immortalized by the genius of our great dramatic bard. Admitting this tradition to be fact, the mind then looks through what is, to what was, and once more ennobles the scene. In this temper then, I shall describe its degenerated aspect ; and the natural beauties of its situation, which, being- stamped by the Creator himself, neither time nor depraved taste has had power to alter. The present edifice is erected on the brow of a gently rising hill ; b 2 4 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. the summit of which is gained by means of a winding walk cut through a small shrubbery. Not being more entertained with the near than the distant view of this sorry representative of the royal Hamlet’s abode, I turned to the surrounding prospect. The town of Elsineur on the plain beneath, presents itself ill-built, red, and without any public building, or spire, to vary its sameness. Far to the left of the city stands the castle of Kronenberg, a bold and fine feature. The waves of the Cattegut roll at its feet ; and are bounded on the opposite side, by the Swedish coast. Four hundred sail of merchant ships were lying there at anchor, which added greatly to the interest of the picture. I made a sketch on the spot, to which I refer you ; and as I go on with my description you can follow me with your eye. The small village on the distant shore is Elsenberg ; where the King of Sweden is now personally inspecting some new coal-works, which are likely to jreward his pains. When you look on the fortress of Kronen- berg, you will perceive how proudly it is situated. The form of the building, with its spires and minaurets, is nobly picturesque : the fabric is of grey stone ; and its innumerable windows, varied towers, and other architectural ornaments, make it a striking and beautiful contrast to the dull uniformity of the town. This castle being in- tended as a protection to the Sound, and to command its entrance, is well fortified on a.ll sides ; and has a very respectable provision of cannon towards the water. When Lord Nelson passed the Sound, up- wards of three hundred pieces of artillery opened upon him from this part of the works ; but they failed of effect, as every ball fell short of the mark. Since that period the inside of this edifice has been closed to the eyes of strangers. However, I was told that there was little reason to lament the prohibition, as it contains nothing worthy notice, save a the summit 1 kick mjn # < r-- ' i i . -4 y 4 \itti \,)j a small shrubbery. Not h> « wo, nmt' tjiab th* distant view of Hus •«/ .to tad •. :• of tli? fj ro aPode, C H "tier? to the sm u---os v H-* # .i oho tr>Wa of Kiriney oh the plain beneat h, present; ; . •• : .t ill-ln iUtj >• d. me. wfjtno ut-m.iv public building, or *pire, c *•:• v its sm. Fa* co li : ich. G f the city sta ids the Cits he oi k • •• u) th r -p: <>f t ■ ! made a -ketch oil the sp.d Ut wiieh \ --refer } pi • iind 'as J ?>e on with my description you *.aa kdiimyrrm with yout even The small village on the d -.Haat shore is Elsenber||) 'dhtte the King of Sweden is now personally in* ?.l lib my to reward his pains. 'Vh-m y >t lookopn the (ojetess of Kronen-* bmp, you will perceive how pror -fly it is situated Thu form of tlm fluP - bunding,' with its spires cue -mureU, Ik'- a :t h of grey stone ; inn ; • /up u me rathe wk'.dot and other an luted oral onmm< ob make it a shik contrast to the dull uni a* of Hie town . id . tended as a protection t •■> H. : v • is v/eli fortified on ail sides : ■•? ms r may resnyouddo provision of ■ . . . i ,u. . Uie varied xoye/s, g -tad beautiful e>d.b- b ; u -im cannon to needs the water. u -k- i ad Helrnc p.irp wards of fk^-e I: . o' o: cl pie . pad if - it - work - . ha, - the marie 1 Since that period the ?, * a of sfrange i p * foody cl , : ? lament the pi'olubitioig ■■ .;'V r ? ;;■ h c . as r way ft it ' CO s v.,- it C PP 1 m ! ifynp was her Sound, up- hi dc fi on ih , i) short o:; if ..! iC i- : O ij \ . ..■ [: ■ ' ; pel el ■■ f\* : ■ .tkfcvh y it.g- reason r. . i ■ . I : . r ; : ■ I ' 0 illlll || TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. £ pair of ebony doors and a few old portraits. Not being able to gain any information respecting the age of the fortress, I venture to guess it at about three hundred years. Probably, as the situation is so com- manding, on this very spot once stood the stately turrets of Hamlet the Dane. It seems better suited to a regal abode, than the poor little hill now recorded as having been its site. Considering myself now in the very haunts of Shakspeare’s northern hero, I must linger a. little longer to inform you of a few interesting circumstances relating to him, which I have gathered at the fountain- head ; from the very source whence our poet must have drawn the incidents of his tragedy. I mean the annals of Denmark, written by Saxo Grammaticus in the twelfth century. The work is in Latin ; and as you may not have met with it, I will finish my account of Hamlet’s Garden with a short abstract from that Prince’s history. It will be curious to compare the dialogues of the original, with their counter- part in the play. Florwendillus, King of Jutland, married Geruthra or Gertrude, the only daughter of Ruric King of Denmark. The produce of this union was a son called Amlettus. When he grew towards manhood, his spirit and extraordinary abilities excited the envy and hatred of his uncle, who, before the birth of Amlettus, was regarded as presumptive heir to the crown. Fengo, which was the name of this haughty Prince, conceived a passion for his sister-in-law the Queen ; and meeting with reciprocal feelings, they soon arranged a plan ; which putting into execution, he ascended the throne of his brother and espoused the widowed Princess. Amlettus (or Hamlet) suspecting that his father had died by the hand, or the devices of his uncle, determined to be revenged. But perceiving the jealousy with which the usurper eyed his superior talents ; and the better to conceal his hatred and inten- 6 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. tions, he affected a gradual derangement of reason ; and at last acted all the extravagancies of an absolute madman. Fengo’s guilt induced him to doubt the reality of a malady so favourable to his security ; and suspicious of some direful project being hidden beneath assumed insanity, he tried by different stratagems to penetrate the truth. One of these was to draw him into a confidential interview with a young damsel who had been the companion of his infancy ; but Hamlet’s sagacity, and the timely caution of his intimate friend, frustrated this design. In these two persons we may recognise the Ophelia and Horatio of Shakspeare. A second plot was attended with equal want of success. It was concerted by Fengo that the Queen should take her son to task in a private conversation ; vainly flattering himself that the Prince would not conceal his true state from the pleadings of a mother. Shakspeare has adopted every part of this scene ; not only the precise situation and circumstances, but the sentiments, and some- times the very words themselves. The Queen’s apartment was the appointed place of conference ; where the King, to secure certain testi- mony, had previously ordered one of his courtiers to conceal himself under a heap of straw : so says the historian ; and though Shakspeare, in unison with the refinement of more modern times, changes that rustic covering for the royal tapestry, yet it was even as Saxo Gram- maticus relates. In those primitive ages, straw, hay, or rushes, strewed on the floor, were the usual carpets in the chambers of the great. One of our Henrys, in making a progress to the north of England, previously sent forward a courier to order clean straw at every house where he was to take his lodging. But to return to my subject. The Prince, suspecting there might be a concealed listener, and that it was the King, pursued his wild and frantic acts ; hoping that by some lucky chance he might discover his hiding-place. Watchful of TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 7 all that passed in the room, as he dashed from side to side he de- scried a little movement of the uneasy courtier’s covering. Suddenly Hamlet sprung on his feet, began to crow like a cock, and flapping his arms against his sides, leaped upon the straw ; feeling something human under him, he snatched out his sword and thrust it through the unfortunate lord. The barbarism of the times is most shockingly displayed in the brutal manner with which he treats the dead body ; but for the honour of the Danish Prince, we must suppose that it was not a merely wanton act, but done the more decidedly to convince the King, when the strange situation of the corpse was seen, how abso- lutely he must be divested of reason. Being assured he was now alone with his mother, in a most awful manner he turns upon her and avows his madness to be assumed ; he reproaches her with her wicked deeds and incestuous marriage ; and threatens a mighty vengeance upon the instigator of her crime. I have the more particularly translated part of this speech,* as it will shew you, in its original state, the rough diamond which Shakspeare has polished to so transcendant a brightness. “ Hear me, most polluted woman ! Thou who art loathsome from thy crimes and thy hypocrisy ; whose very breath is impregnated with the falsehood of thine heart ! Thou, who only seemst to lament one, who claims and deserves thy truest tears ! — Shame ! — By what a course of folly hast thou become a common whore ! Lasciviously and unlawfully hold- ing in thy detestable soul, conditions with thy husband’s murderer — embracing in incest this bosom fiend— and staining with him, the sacred bed of that King — whose son will avenge his blood ; and destroy all the obscene allurements to thy execrable adultery, in the object of thy * The coarseness of this translation will be pardoned, as it is literal ; otherwise than literal, it would be inexpressive of the manners it is intended to represent. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. S brutal passion. — Granted, thou mare-mated, that thy victory is gained ; that thou art now linked to the sun of thy lechery — nature of brutes ! - and like them ye lose no moments of gratification, impelled but by your beastly wishes. — I had forgot — to one worn out and self-consumed by much enjoyment, these examples are excellent ; and to a married womans mind, most suitable.— Aye, forsooth/ it must be preferable too, to carry on such warm desires as far as they will extend, — that she should be a husband’s brother’s wife ! — And to add yet unto its plea- sures, she must not stand to gain the foul accomplishment, but by the bearing down her wedded lord. — Thou dam of cruelty! Yes ! I have played the mad man, raved ! — With this cloak of willing dulness I have wrapped about my reason; it is my guard, while I watch to spring upon my prey. My soul at every hour calls aloud for a mur- dered father’s revenge. — The moment is now arrived. — I waited the opportunity, and time has now given what I so impatiently desired though, alas ! not in all deserving it ! — Dwell not, mother, on the dark and secret causes which actuated thy son’s apparent madness ; wail not for my wild ravings, nor the actions of my insanity : turn thy lamen- tations on thyself ; bemoan thine own infamy, and thine own de- formed heart. — Look to thyself! — Deny not thy depravity and faulti- ness ; for these, thy sorrow is necessary indeed. — Tear such foul weeds from thy bosom, mother; and check the furor of thy crimes.— Thou hast once walked in the light of virtue ! call back to your remembrance its serenity, its joys : turn to its pure flame ; and once more let thy son see it beam upon his mother’s face !” I well know how feeble is my unpractised pen in transmitting the strength of the original : but take it as the shadow of a sublime sub- ject ; and you will see sufficient to afford you an opportunity of judg- ’TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. () ing how much the Hamlet of Saxo Grammaticus, and the Hamlet of Shakspeare thought alike. In the historian, we find that the admonitions of Hamlet awakened the conscience of the Queen, and recalled her to penitence and virtue. The King, observing the change, became doubly suspicious of the Prince ; and baffling some of the preliminary steps he took to ven- geance, Hamlet was entrapped by him into an embassy to England. He sent along with him two courtiers, who bore private letters to the English monarch, requesting him, as the greatest favour he could confer upon Denmark, to compass, by secret and sure means, the death of the Prince as soon as he landed. Hamlet, during the voyage, had reason to suspect the mission of his companions ; and by a stratagem obtaining their credentials, he found the treacherous mandate: and changing it for one wherein he ordered the execution of the two lords, he quietly proceeded with them to the' British shore. On landing, the papers were delivered ; and the King, without further parley, obeyed what he believed the request of his royal ally : and thus did treason meet the punishment due to its crime. It seems that love in those ages was very rapid in its effects ; a very summer fly, to-day revelling in sweets, to-morrow numbered with the dust ! — for the daughter of the King being charmed with the person and manners of the foreign Prince, evinced such marks of tenderness, that Hamlet could not but per- ceive the depth of his conquest. — He was not insensible to her attrac- tions ; and receiving the King’s assent, in the course of a few days led her to the nuptial altar. Fair as the lady might be, love was not sufficient for his filial heart ; still it remembered his father’s wrong, and panted for revenge. — Amidst all joys, he was like a perturbed ghost that could not rest ; and before many suns had rose and set, he obtained a hard wrung leave from his bride ; once more set sail, and c 10 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. appeared at Elsineur just in time to be a witness of the splendid rites which Fengo (supposing him now to be murdered) had prepared for his funeral. — On the proclamation of his arrival, he was welcomed with enthusiasm by the people, whose idol he was ; and who had been overwhelmed with grief, when Fengo publicly announced to them his sudden death in England. — The King, inflamed with so ruinous a dis- appointment ; and becoming doubly jealous of his growing popularity , now affected no conciliation, but openly manifested his hatred and hostility. — Hamlet again had recourse to his pretended madness ; and committed so many alarming acts, that Fengo, fearing their direction, ordered his sword to be locked in its scabbard, under a plea of guard- ing the lunatic from personal harm ; but the true reason was, he dreaded the point of it himself. — After various adventures, at last the Prince accomplishes the death of his uncle’s adherents, and vengeance on the fratricide himself, by setting fire to the palace during the debauch of a midnight banquet. — Rushing in amidst the flames, he kills Fengo with his own hand, reproaching him at the moment with his murder, adultery, and incest. — Immediately on this act of retribution, he was proclaimed lawful successor to the throne, and crowned with all due solemnity. Thus far Shakspeare treads in the steps of the annalist : the only dif- ference is in the fate of the hero ; in the one he finds a kingdom, in the other a grave. Saxo Grammaticus carries the history further ; and after the crowning of Hamlet as king, brings him again into Britain ; where, in compliment to that land of beauty, he marries a second wife, the daughter of the Scottish king. Polygamy was no crime in those days : and where person was usually the sole attraction, it is not won- derful that the heart should wander from fair to fair. The soul had then little to do in the attachments between man and woman ; she, un- TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 11 educated in every thing, but the doctrine of passive obedience and the instinct of self-preservation, bestowed her hand where policy inclined her parents to give it ; and loved the warrior she espoused, for the valour that afforded her protection : he, devoted to arms and to glory, saw in woman only the object of dalliance, and the continuer of his race. Such was the state of the most endearing band in society, till the promulgation of that religion which now happily fills the greatest part of the globe, taught woman the rank she holds in creation ; and imparted to man the power she has to bless his days. Hamlet brought both his wives to Denmark, and prepared for a long life of prosperity and peace. But the sword hung over his head ; war burst around him, and he fell in combat by the hand of Vigelotes the son of Ruric. Saxo Grammaticus sums up his character in a few words. “ He was a wise prince and a great warrior. Like Achilles he had the principal actions of his life wrought on his shield. The daughter of the king of Scotland casting her eye on it, loved him for the battles he had won, and became his bride.” So much for Hamlet. In my way from the Garden which bears his name, I came up with a regiment of Danish soldiers, exercising near the castle. They were about a thousand strong ; and with live hundred artillery, did the duty of the town and citadel. I never saw a stouter, and I may add, seldom a more awkward body of men. Their clothing was coarse and ill-made ; but had it been on the well-appointed figure of a well-drilled soldier, I could fancy its looking even elegant. The jacket is scarlet, with sleeves and tassels of light blue ; long white pantalooned gaiters ; a round hat bound with white, and turned up on the right side with a white feather. Abroad belt, to which hangs an unwieldy cartridge- box (a fashion prevalent in every country I have seen excepting Eng- land) ; another belt round the waist, carries a very long bayonet. Their c 2 12 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. muskets are lighter than those used by the French, and differ little in appearance from ours. I cannot say any thing very flattering either as to the manual exercise, manoeuvres, & c. or even of the military air of this specimen of Danish soldiery. I learnt that six years is the limited time for their constant service : after this period they are set at liberty, with no other reserve than being obliged, for two months in every year, to attend parade and go through the usual duty of a soldier. Their pay is about three pence a day, including every thing. Cloth- ing is issued to them once in three years ; and as they are not very nice disciplinarians, you can easily imagine what a Falstaffian array they are in by the time their new wardrobe comes round. Being abridged of time, I could not examine further into their merits ; else, perhaps, we might have found ef that within which passeth shew !” but, as in temporal as well as spiritual matters there is generally an outward and visible sign of the inward ability, much cannot be augured from the sur- face of the Danish corps militaire , by your obedient servant, &c^ TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 13 LETTER II. St. Petersburgh , September , 1805. On re-embarking and leaving Elsineur, the accidental disagreeables of that city were soon forgotten in the natural beauties of the view. The shore, all along the Danish side, presents the most lovely stretch of landscape I ever beheld. Mount Edgecumbe is looked upon as the paradise of England : and what Mount Edgecumbe is in one spot only, so appears the whole of Denmark from Elsineur to Copenhagen. The land is high, and undulating in various romantic and sublime forms. Rich woods, broken by park-like openings and verdant pastures, and interspersed with country-houses and villages for an extent of twenty- three miles, form the clothing of these beautiful hills. A striking con- trast to the black and naked line of the opposite coast. We were too far at sea to discern the capital as distinctly as we wished ; but by the assistance of a glass I could plainly perceive its ram- parts, and those floating batteries whose cannon bereft England of so many of her gallant sons. Since the action with Lord Nelson off this city, Denmark has been solicitous to increase its strength, by replacing all the works (and adding to them), which were destroyed by the fleet of our great Admiral. Being on this subject, I will not deny myself the pleasure of relating an anecdote of that distinguished hero ; the circumstance took place during the battle of the Sound. It at least proves that no situation, however dangerous, can disconcert the truly brave man, or render him 14 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. inactive to those minutise, which being watched by the enemy, betray our weakness, or proclaim our power. You must well remember, from the gazettes of that period, and private accounts, how tremendous was the engagement, and how dreadful the slaughter. In the midst of these horrors, surrounded by the dying and the dead, the British Admiral ordered an officer, bearing a flag of truce, to go on shore with a note to the Crown Prince. It contained a proposal to his Royal Highness to acquiesce, without further delay, in the propositions of the British go- vernment ; not only to put a stop to the present effusion of blood on both sides, but to save from total destruction Copenhagen and its arse- nals, which he would otherwise level with the water. Whilst his Lord- ship was writing with all the calmness of a man in his study, he dfesired Colonel Stewart to send some one below for a light, that he might seal his dispatch. Colonel Stewart obeyed ; but none appearing with a candle ; when Lord Nelson had nearly completed his letter, he enquired the reason of such neglect, and found that the boy who had been sent for it, was killed in his way by a cannon shot. The order was re- peated: upon which Colonel Stewart observed, “ Why should your Lordship be so particular to use wax ? why not a wafer ? The hurry of battle will be a sufficient apology for the violation of etiquette.' ” f£ It is to prove, my friend/’ replied Lord Nelson, •• -m. ci : si !:-: more iieai »'he eye, n ...... .... . 1'hf marine palace and church; ■* . fi: mo-’ rv| native., mum olxserved, and least admir* . aide of ad* i? / e f ty : * *1 ; " s om m:fadence oif the G rand-Duke v ' m • • f either in the fitting tvp or furi fto-i Tic- f cm bmibti* t : the cbutcfi inm laid by i£ki Empress Caiherilie, and UncUu, - • . - - ; C - *■' ■' «' • •• '■ •.•;■’ • b- c •'.;•• dm nonoui of - - ll ( , c ... . ! ■ : •• '. \ ; : iu: uf t.h fme-Tsc iv , nia - ■ 1 * \ ’■ r . [ Europe, indited s;.r . r> Pladfe,, :a. 1 pub imairi : . ' bratet! for containing the v V*- .. ! ' ' ti ’jl his work.' of modern art r oi i :.c ; and lifee all her pro- '••• .? t:-r..hC is Falconet ; i Itt - • i , v . 'A • - • . I ’ * ' M ■ W'.j. >: • ) ‘ ; -U • s r H ; a on, •.‘•(..abi ? n v-e -• .r- ■. .>? ; ;■ ... rjn . . . ■ ■ ■ ;. u, ih ;d ’ i. '■■. i i k.J jt ; \ .... 'I’p Di'- • :{> Of T .; 0 .r;p' l-i.v. < •;> * ■ jjiT: .' : . : : f v m n t?\i \ • it .nte execu- . -i ... . vo nor' ra ; ion. A •: • . d e: .. 'ih* v iegory is it :.- 1 ' , ; id - ? h* ol tht statue apd u mtH d... vc 'cc.n iniequalled i vi - ■: l/f'.i'riiWi # ^miw gtwE ■••tl ■ fij- p »< $ M&'&m it ’.. :thi‘ I?-' mtiMm '/ w, • J i ilip ,■4:^ $'■ ^nJj ; ;; k f|Wp ife • -. ... ff*/p^ai fci ' ■ m mk I ; I® TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 31 edifices are those of elegance and splendor. When we speak of a marble structure, and consider the costliness of the material, with the classic uses to which it has generally been appropriated, we expect to behold every beauty of architecture displayed on its splendid surface. But here we see neither the one nor the other : and I will venture to assert, that any person who was not told the palace and church in question were built of marble, might pass them by a hundred times as unworthy of his no- tice. This valuable stone, when not white, is unfit for any but small and internal decorations, where its composition will be more near the eye. Its veins, blending shades and polish, are lost in the infinite parts and height of a gigantic and extentive building. The marble palace and church are perhaps the most expensive, most observed, and least admir- able of any in the city. The first is the residence of the Grand-Duke Constantine ; but has nothing to boast of either in the fitting up or furniture. The foundation of the church was laid by the Empress Catherine, and finished wretchedly with brick by the Emperor Paul. For the honour of the empire, I hope that it will either be altered to the Empress's original design, or pulled down altogether. It stands in one of the finest squares in Europe, called Isaac’s Place, and particularly celebrated for containing the admirable equestrian statue of Peter the Great. This work of modern art was erected by the commands of the late Empress ; and like all her pro- jects bears the stamp of greatness. The name of the artist is Falconet ; he was a Frenchman : but this statue, for genius and exquisite execu- tion, would have done honour to the best sculptors of any nation. A most sublime conception is displayed in the design. The allegory is finely imagined ; and had he not sacrificed the result of the whole to the prominence of his groupe, the grand and united effect of the statue and its pedestal striking at once upon the eye, would have, been unequalled 32 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. in the works of man. A mass of granite of a size at present immense, but formerly most astonishing, is the pedestal. A steep acclivity like that of a rugged mountain carries the eye to its summit, which looks down on the opposite side to a descent nearly perpendicular. The figure of the hero is on horseback, supposed to have attained the object of his ambition, by surmounting all the apparent impossibilities which so ardu- ous an enterprise presented. The victorious animal is proudly rearing on the highest point of the rock, whilst his imperial master stretches forth his mighty arm as the father and protector of his country. A serpent, in attempting to impede his course, is trampled on by the feet of the horse, and writhing in all the agonies of expiring nature. The Emperor is seated on the skin of a bear; and habited in a tunic and a sort of toga which forms the drapery behind. His left hand guides the reins ; his right (as I before observed) is advanced straightforward on the same side of the horse s neck. The head of the statue is crowned with a laurel wreath. Having described its disposition, I shall now speak more minutely of its merits; and, if you will allow me to find any defect in so glorious a piece of workmanship, glance at the few imperfections I was able to discern. The thought seems almost sacrilege ; and yet as a mortal’s crea- tion, we have no reason to expect it should be exempted from the mark of fallibility. The design is faultless ; and executed in a style of great- ness worthy the character to whom it is dedicated. The majestic fea- tures and heroic expression of the head prove how deeply the artist was impressed with the grandeur of the soul whose outward covering he was thus called upon to pourtray. And yet I must not give the honour en- tirely to genius, for much of it belongs to love. We all know that it was this tender passion which first discovered the art of commemorating the human form. What the maid of Corinth did by her lover was done by travelling sketches IN RUSSIA. 33 & young damsel of France with regard to Peter the Great. He loved his person and adored his mind. The wonderful bust which she modelled of him, declares what a godlike image of himself he had stamped on her heart ; and the divine manner With which she has given this impression to the eyes of men, is beyond description perfect. Falconet saw this bust, and from its breathing lines formed the head of his statue. The con- tour of the face expresses the most powerful command ; and that exalted, boundless, expansion of thought which so wisely dictated his measures, and confirmed him to pursue them with unabated energy, till they met the full fruition of his wishes in the prosperity and happiness of his people. The position of his outstretched arm is rather stiff ; being almost a straight line from the shoulder to the point of the middle finger ; in some views we know not whether it be a hand or a truncheon. The waist is too long. Mr. Falconet might plead in excuse that the Em- peror was so shaped. That is true ; but the artist might have availed himself of the licence allowed to taste, and without any violation of truth a few folds of drapery would have concealed this glaring want of grace. The legs and thighs appear too short for the upper part of the figure ; and when we suppose it dismounting and standing by itself, we cannot but think that such insufficient supports would sink under the weight of so colossal a body. The horse, in my opinion, is not to be surpassed. When I was in Paris I saw those fine equestrian statues which the French took from Venice, and set up in the Place de Carrousel ; but remember nothing in them that was superior to this. To all the beauties of the ancient form, it unites the easy grace of nature, with a fire which per- vades every line, and gives such a life to the statue, that as you gaze you expect to see it leap from the pinnacle into the air. There is nothing gravitating in this sublime steed : It would not touch the ground ; but §eems framed to tread the fields of ether with those of the sun. 34 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. The difficulty of keeping so great a mass of weighty metal in so volant an attitude, has been most ingeniously and admirably overcome by the artist. The sweep of the tail, with the hinder parts of the horse, are interwoven with the curvatures of the expiring snake ; and toge- ther compose a sufficient counterpoise to the figure and fore-part of the animal. To form an adequate pedestal for so magnificent a work the Empress, at an enormous expence and expenditure of the most indefatigable labour, brought a huge rock of granite from Wyborg. It was trans- ported on large iron balls, and with other mechanical aids, safe and whole to St. Petersburgh. I saw a curious model of it, with the dimen- sions of the stone, journeying machines, and groupes of natives em- ployed about it, at the academy of arts. It was the original wish of the Empress Catherine that on this rough piece of nature the grand founder of St. Petersburgh should be placed. But the sculptor, per- haps from the reason I before hinted, decided otherwise. He said it ought to be adapted to the rules of art : and taking it under his own chissel, by fine curves and studied shapes soon robbed it of all subli- mity ; and left nothing of nature but the matter of which it was com- posed. Originally perfect for its object, its bold lines and precipitous sides were fine emblems of the country whose ruggednesses he had sub- dued, and whose prejudices of a thousand years he had surmounted and laid at his feet. The present form of the rock, lessened one half from its first dimensions, expresses nothing but the awkward bulging shape of a heavy cloud. Indeed, so bad was the business, that after all the cutting and carving, a large piece was obliged to be joined on again to replace what the jealousy or the false taste of the artist had destroyed. When Catherine beheld the erection for the first time, she expressed so much disappointment at the sight, as to ask with an air of displeased TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 35 surprise fC what had been made of the rock !” I cannot omit mention- ing an interesting circumstance which took place at the presentation of this statue. The Empress, surrounded by her court, took a station admirably adapted to behold at once the monument she had commanded to be raised to the honour of her predecessor ; her example in greatness and her brother in fame. The troops formed a barrier between the scene of action and the populace ; leaving a wide open space betwixt it and the platform on which Catherine and her nobility stood. At the discharge of cannon, and amidst the sound of drums and trumpets the scaffolding which concealed this work of art, fell to the ground, A general shout of admiration rent the air ; and while all eyes were fixed on the statue, a venerable figure burst through the ranks, and rushing towards the tower- ing image of Peter, prostrated himself before it. The confusion so strange an incident produced immediately excited the Empress’s atten- tion and made her inquire into the cause. The object of the tumult was brought before her in the form of an old athletic man, dressed in the naval uniform of the time when the victories of the Emperor she now celebrated, claimed the astonishment and admiration of all Europe. “ Who are you? What are you ?” demanded she. “ I am the servant of my old master Peter the Great, and your Ma- jesty’s faithful subject. I served many years under his command. And hearing that I should again behold him to-day, my last act of gratitude was to throw myself at his feet ; and had I there breathed out the life that has too long survived him, I should have been glad ; it being the only tribute I have now to bestow.” The Empress turned to Count Tchermachoff, and reproved him for not having informed her of the existence of this venerable seaman. 36 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. “ Ah, heaven bless your Majesty !** interrupted the veteran, and drifting snows, soon explain the mystery, and account for the surprise. During the short summer of this country, the pleasure-grounds which surround the palace, wear a very charming appearance. They are laid out in the English style ; having extensive shrubberies, romantic walks, rustic retreats, hot— houses and conservatories, as well as every other feature in a British garden. For these beauties, the imperial family are indebted to the taste and exertions of Mr. Gould, an Englishman, who has long resided in St. Petersburgh ; and who plans and superintends all its most distinguished works of this nature. He is the Repton of Russia. His true English honesty, excellent heart, and hospitality, claim the esteem of all ranks ; and add a still firmer decision to that respect for the Bi itish character already awarded to it by the generous admiration of the Russian empire. Here, the word of an Englishman is held as sacred as the bond of any other foreigner: and the veneration which the people pay to the nation at large, is most emphatically proved by the friendship they evince to every subject of Britain who lands on their shores. Cold I may have felt this country, but never the hearts of its inhabitants to your affectionate friend. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 59 LETTER VII. St. Petersburgh , September , 1805 . In a letter I received sometime ago, you desired me not to omit see- ing the church of Saint Alexander Nefsky. I have obeyed you ; and beg you to accompany me through its consecrated aisles. All that we see in this city which is interesting, must excite our veneration from circum- stance, not age. Not a stone of its present fabric was laid, much more than a century ago : so, as I cannot speak, either of the antiquity, or peculiar grandeur of this shrine to the illustrious Saint, I will first awaken your interest in giving you a little sketch of his character. He flourished about the middle of the thirteenth century, not bear- ing the title of Tzar of Russia, but that of Prince of Novgorod. The desolation of the Russian empire, brought on by the victories and ra- vages of the Tartars, prompted its neighbours to seek a share in the spoil. But Alexander, to whom his father Yaroslaf had resigned the government of Novgorod, met a formidable army of invading Danes on the banks of the Neva. He encountered them ; and not only drove them off the field with great slaughter, but compelled the fugitives to make a hasty retreat into their own country. From this signal victory, he obtained tUf surname of Nefsky. Returning a conqueror to Nov- gorod, instead of being welcomed with plaudits, jealousy and suspicions surrounded him. Fearing that his high fame should incline him to stretch his prerogative and injure their liberties, the citizens caballed amongst themselves howto limit his present power, and finding that im- i 2 60 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. practicable, most ungratefully rose in open rebellion. Alexander was forced to retire ; and full of indignation, applied to his father, who had assumed the government of Vladimir. The venerable prince assigned to him the jurisdiction of Perciaslavl, and sent another of his sons to Novgo- rod. But no sooner had Alexander withdrawn, than they found the palla- dium of their safety had departed with him. The Danes being apprised of what had happened, raised new levies, and pouring in upon Novgorod, attacked the city with great fury. The new prince was not successful in his attempts to check the enemy ; and the people in despair, sent a de- putation to the dauntless Alexander, to implore his forgiveness, and pe- tition for his return. Their treason could not be so easily forgotten ; and the embassadors brought back a refusal. Entreaties were sent a second time, with the Archbishop at their head ; upon which great humility Alexander complied ; relieved the besieged city of Novgorod ; and not only repulsed the enemy, but even pushed on to Livonia, and gained a decisive victory over the Germans, Danes, and Tchudes, on the bor- ders of the Peipus lake. The fame of these new exploits of the heroic Prince soon reached the ears of the Tartar Khan, who was then, in some measure, the dictator of all the principalities of Russia. When Alexander’s father the Grand-Prince Yaroslaf was dead, the Khan invited the young warrior to the horde ; and there, as he had before honoured Yaroslaf, created him Grand-Prince of Russia, and caused him to mount the throne in the great city of Vladimir. Secure of the friend- ship of the Khan, he now turned all his thoughts towards clearing his country of the neighbouring ravagers with a great force he under- took an expedition against Sweden, and happily acquired new laurels in every step he marched, and returned to his country laden with spoils and glory. Meanwhile the rest of the Princes of this vast empire, each in his separate territory finding himself oppressed by the idea of bearing TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA* 61 any other yoke than his own will, resolved to unite and make a general attack upon the Tartars. The Khan hearing of this plot before it was ripe, sent to all these Princes to immediatly attend him at the horde, saying he required their assistance in a matter of great consequence. It was easily perceived that this was only a feint to deprive the principa- lities of their sovereigns, and so render them more entirely under the subjection of the Khan. The Princes, therefore, all refused ; but Alex- ander apprehending dire consequences from such obstinacy, and relying on the friendship of the Khan for himself, conceived the adventurous resolution of repairing quite alone to the horde ; and there, by prudent submission appease the aroused anger of their chief. He resolved to make the dangerous attempt : and should even the Khan’s vengeance make him the victim of his wrath, provided it might end there, he would be happy so to expiate the crime of his rash country. This patriotic Prince was obliged to remain a full year amongst the Tartars, before he could appease the indignation of the Khan. At length, after many an unsuccessful application, he received the act of amnesty from the offended chief ; and was allowed to return into Russia to inform the Princes that all was forgiven. But whether the Khan repented of his clemency, or the jealousy of the Tartar Princes had prepared his fate, cannot be asertained at this period, but it is well known that he died of poison long before he reached his own principality. His life having been passed in deeds of arms and of piety, his me- mory was regarded with veneration ; and enthusiasm reported that a number of miracles had been wrought at his tomb. Oil this he was cano- nized : and Peter the First, in order to hallow his new city in the minds of the people, brought the remains of the sainted hero to a shrine within it, over which he erected the church consecrated to his name. There is an order of knighthood instituted to the honour of Alexander, which 62 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. is so highly respected as to be borne by several of the sovereigns who have been allies with Russia. The monastery which boasts the patronage of this illustrious Saint, is inhabited by sixty monks ; whose ways, I fancy, are not a little more active or useful than those of their brethren in other countries. Never having passed under the temptations of busy life, perhaps they think that escaping the sins of the world is equivalent to doing good in it ; and so they linger out their earthly pilgrimage, more like drones than mem- bers of the church militant. They are of the order of St. Basil ; as in- deed are most of the religieuse of this empire. The quadrangles and long-stretching walls, proclaim the extent of the building. It is large without being grand, and possesses no true architec- tural ornament whatever. The sides are gaily painted with red and yellow in arches and pillars ; a taste that was early prevalent in Russian cities. Strange as such a fancy appears to us/I have no doubt of its being a relief to the eye during the long season of a northern winter, when every object is cloathed in one mass of white for so many months. The edifice dedi- cated to the Saint, stands high amid the surrounding depths of clumsy buildings. It is of a peculiar architecture, composed of the Tartarian and Greek styles ; finely gilded, and as usual most gorgeously painted. The inside is in the same gusto , and a few bad copies of Italian pictures cover its walls. Their subjects are, a portrait of Peter the Great, and the achievements of Saint Alexander. The shrine of the hero is of mas- sive silver, constructed of piles of military trophies and religious de- vices, rising to an immense height. A sort of sarcophagus, covered with a rich gold and jewelled pall, silver candalabrums, and well ar- ranged relics from the Holy Land, form the decorations of this spot ; presenting a most magnificent and striking spectacle. I never have seen any thing resemble it in wealth, excepting the silver chamber in the TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 63 palace at Berlin ; which, by the way, has since been told me, is merely show and a substitute for the reality. Frederic the Great, during the seven years war, converted the largest part of this metal into dollars ; leaving wooden models of the original treasure, slightly silvered, as a deceiving representative of what once had been. Until you are told of the cheat, the imitation is so well effected, that on a merely passing view it is impossible to discover the difference. On one side of the church, being a most solemn contrast to the im- perial shrine, lie the remains of a bishop, covered with a dark canopy of crimson velvet. A gold cross is embroidered on the centre of the pall, which is spread over the coffin. Relics and golden candlesticks are also dedicated to the departed ; and the whole forms a gloom truly impres- sive and sepulchral. By giving you a description of the interior of this church, you may have a just idea of every other in the empire, as they are all fitted up according to one design. The entrance is generally through a portico, by a pair of large fold- ing doors. These lead to the main body of the building, which is a clear expanse ; excepting the columns only, which support the roof or dome. No seats of any description are admitted. Every individual stands during divine service, occasionally altering the position to kneel- ing or touching the ground with the head, according to the prescribed sacred ceremonies. About ten yards from the entrance, and directly in a line with it, is the sanctum sanctorum. It is elevated on several steps which are covered with a rich carpet, and only trodden by the holy feet of the priesthood. This inner temple is divided from the outer space, wherein the congregation assemble to their devotions, by a high screen magnificently carved and gilded, with compartments containing 64 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA, paintings from the New Testament and the legends of modern Saints. In general these pictures are very miserable ; none but professors of the ' Greek church being allowed to decorate the.churches : and you already have my opinion of the state of this branch of the arts in Russia. In the centre of the screen is a folding door of bronze fretwork, in which is variously represented the Holy Ghost with the other Divine Persons ; and through it may be seen the altar, its holy chalice, crucifix and bible ; all superbly jewelled and hung with gold fringe. Every church has this inner chapel, so similar to the Holy of Holies in the ancient ritual of Jerusalem ; and from which, according to the arrangement of the Greek ceremonies, on hallowed days the priests issue, and with much solemnity, perform divers sacred functions. There is something very impressive in the whole of this service. When the splendid habits, like the costly decorations of Aaron, and the venerable figures of the priests appear; while we observe the devotion of all around ; a peculiar emo- tion seizes the soul impossible to describe. In the boors we see a simple and devout ardor : they pray and cross themselves with an earnestness that is truly gratifying. At the moment, we conceive the most favorable sentiments of them : for however ignorant men may be in other re- spects, when once they know the nature of the Almighty Being, and are sensible of standing before his omniscient eye, a salutary awe fills their minds ; and integrity is as naturally its growth, as the corn is from the ground in which the seed has been sown. The more elevated ranks are not so religiously attentive as these humble rustics: during divine service they hold conversations with each other, at the same instant they are making the sacred signs on their persons with the two fore-fingers of the left hand. The music is fine, has much simplicity, and is all vocal. They who chant are not seen, which gives a more charming TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RIJSSIA. 65 effect to the voices. The sight of figures and faces, often nof in harmony # with the strains they produce, excites a discordancy in the feelings, very inimical to those holy aspirations, which, accom- panying the sacred breathings of the voice, raise the soul in rapture to heaven. The most celebrated church in St. Petersburgh, for fine singing, is the Maltese chapel ; and there it is of the most exquisite melodies. On entering the monastery of Alexander Nefsky, you see a small church on one side of the way leading to the grand area. It is vaulted and gloomy, and well informs the traveller that it is the man- sion of the dead. Here are several cells in which are the tombs of departed great men. These monuments are in general badly exe- cuted one only I can except, and that is of bronze, and composed and finished in a very superior manner. I could not learn the name of the artist. The primary object of my visit to this sepulchral abode, was a desire to see the grave of the renowned Suwarroff. About four feet from the pavement, on the left hand side of one of these vaults, which is used as a chapel, is placed against the wall a small brass plate, on which is engraved in the Russ language, HERE LIES suwarroff! A more comprehensive epitaph could not have been chosen, On these words meeting the eye, his greatness and extraordinary life rush at once upon the mind ; and we feel, from this sublime appeal, the whole force of his character with a conviction which a thousand volumes of eulogy could not increase nor more confirm. Many instances might be brought, to shew how happy the Russians are in this kind of short, natural, and Spartan expression. On a medal, struck in the reign of Catherine II, K 66 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. in honour of a great victory, and presented to the officers and soldiers who distinguished themslves in the battle, this was written lender the emblems of conquest. I was there. The sense of which is more pointed in the Russian tongue, it being there expressed in one word. The simplicity of this style is great as the empire, and strikes like its own gigantic rocks. Polish it with the refinements of art, and though ornament may be acquired, its sublimity would be lost. Such a mode of speech proves a certain grandeur in the minds of the peo- ple. Greatness is perceived at once ; and like faithful mirrors re- flecting what is before them, they pronounce the merit full, and in a word. What men easily feel and readily admire, they are not far from imitating. In the vaulted apartments of this dreary structure, are stoves, in order to heat them ; an accommodation which would gladly be dis- pensed with, as the penetrating vapour puts every dormant smell on the alert, filling the air with scents, musty and pestiferous, exhaled from the mouldering coffins of embalmed heroes, princes, and states- men. In one of these sepulchres was formerly deposited the body of the unfortunate Peter III, the father of the late Emperor. When Paul ascended the throne he caused the remains of this imperial victim to be taken up, in order to be re-buried in the church of the fortress, the cemetery of his ancestors. The perpetrators of the murder were sum- moned to the ceremony, and obliged to watch the coffin day and night for three weeks. There were not more than two penitents (if penitents they were!) as the rest of the assassins were all dead. I do not envy the feelings which must, in these moments have occupied their breasts. Horror of their crime, and fear of immediate death after the funeral, must have been ever before them. Indeed, if time, or hardness of heart, had not blunted their remose, the present punishment was a torture 67 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. more grievous than the most instantaneous public execution. They walked in the procession as chief mourners : a situation neither of them expected, after a lapse of so many years, to fill. There is something extraordinary and great in the mode of punishment : and also much to be admired in so strong a tes timony of Paul’s affection for the memory of his father. But there are many who do not give his heart any credit for this transaction ; considering it rather as an act of hostility against the name of his mother. If they be right, the complexion of the affair is totally changed ; and what before stood as an act of filial piety, is now abhorred as the violent caprice of an undutiful son. What supports this opinion, are the proofs he gave at different times of hatred to her memory, in the total disregard of all her public plans, and the disgrace in which he Involved her best ministers. This Prince’s actions are too well known, and have sufficiently mark- ed his extravagant character, to require my enlarging on them here. The people groaned beneath his yoke ; and few, if any tears followed him to his grave. How different is the aspect of the nation and its Sovereign at this moment! Individual safety and comfort are seen on every side. The real good of t he subject in the monarch s breast, and the firmest confidence in him on the part of the people, form the peace and security of all. A heart like that of the amiable Alexander, when guid- ed by wise counsels, cannot fail to render himself and the millions under his rule, prosperous and happy. He is now absent from his capital ; but not on a party of summer pleasure. He is gone to front the enemy of Europe ; and we have little doubt but that, if he be properly sup- ported by his allies ; he will make that far-stretching conqueror confess the might that lies in a righteous cause. Did we live in the days of super- stition, we should suppose, from the wonderful fortune which attends this k 2 68 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. scourge, that he fought under an enchanted banner ; but there is a period when success must fail the man who makes his glory the desola- tion of mankind. Interest and self-preservation are strong encitements ; they will be generally felt, and ere long he must be destroyed by those very evils recoiling on himself with which his rapacity and ambition have sought to overwhelm the world. But, as he is, men look on him with wonder ; and his most mortal foes must declare that were he as good as he is great, he would be irresistible. Doubly great must he be who ever makes this extraordinary victor lower his crest and acknow- ledge an equal, if not a superior. Alas ! that talents cannot see the noblest crown is virtue !; TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 69 LETTER VIII. MY DEAR FRIEND, St. Petersburgh , September , 1805 . Having detained you so long amongst the aisles and cloisters of the church, it is just that I should lead you to the rest within ; and having placed you at the foot of the altar, open the book containing its holy ordinances. The religion of Russia is that of the Eastern or Greek Church. It allows the most liberal toleration ; no person being excluded from any office under government on account of his religious tenets. The only restrictions are, that the Imperial family must profess the Greek faith ; and all Russians who have once entered its pale cannot, lawfully depart from it. As the church in question is of higher antiquity than any other distinction amongst Christians, so its doctrines prevail over some of the widest tracks in Christendom. They are professed through the greatest part of Greece, the Grecian Isles, Moldavia, Wallachia, Egypt, Nubia, Lybia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Cilicia, and Palestine, the whole of the Russian empire in Europe, Siberia in Asia, Astracan, Casan, Georgia, and several other countries. The Princess Olga, grandmother to Vladimir the Great, was the first person of distinction in Russia who was converted to Christianity. She went to Constantinople to be baptised ; and was led to the font by the eastern Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenneta, who gave her the name of Helen ; and sent her back to her country laden with relics and costly 70 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. presents. Her son the fierce Sviatoslaf, refused to abjure his pagan gods ; and Vladimir, her no less ferocious grandson, paid as little re- spect to her religious zeal. What parental anxiety could not effect, in the course of a few years afterwards was so ably compassed, as to cause the Prince not only to become a convert himself, but to accomplich the holy conviction of the most considerable families in the empire. He too received the seal of the Cross before the altars of Constantinople ; and from thence, with a Christian bride, the sister of the Emperor, brought priests and learned teachers to instruct the whole nation in the doctrines of the Greek church. Thus was one of the most sanguinary worshippers of idolatry transformed at once by the religion of peace, into a powerful but mild assertor of the charities of Heaven. Mark how strong is the difference between Vladimir pagan and Vladimir Christian. In the early part of his sway, while as Grand-Prince he was carrying conquest to the very extremities of Russia, he resolved to return thanks to the savage gods of his country for the victory granted to his arms, by sacrificing on their altars the prisoners whom he had taken during the war. His courtiers still more barbarous in their piety, were not content with the smoking blood of so many of their fellow-creatures, but they told Vladimir that a victim selected from amongst his own people would greatly enhance the homage paid to the propitious deities. He ap- proved the hint, and pitched on a young man, the son of a venerable Christian, and professing the same faith. The unhappy father refused to yield up the victim. The monarch, enraged at what he deemed sacri- lege, and at his commands being disputed, ordered the doors of the house to be forced. He was obeyed; and the father and son furiously immo- lated in each other’s arms. Not satisfied with this diabolical rite, Vladi- mir ordered the number of idols to be increased in the city of Kief; and erected a new and superb statue to the goddess Perune in the principa- TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 71 lity of Novgorod. Soon after those heathen acts a Greek sage appear- ed at his court ; and gaining his ear, in a very impressive manner so dis- coursed of the truth of the Christian dispensation, reasoning of righte- ousness, temperance, and judgment to come, that the Monarch trem- bled, declared his faith in what he heard ; and following the holy man to the font, received the name of Basilius, and fC leaving in the sacred water the leprosy with which his vices had covered him, came forth a character as pure as infancy/' Indeed the change which took place in him from that hour, seems almost miraculous. He broke down the idols throughout the empire. He put away his wives and concubines, to the number of eight hundred, and adhered to the Princess Anna alone, the Christian lady whom he had brought from Constantinople. He founded churches and schools ; built cities ; and drawing the famishing savages from their huts and wild pursuits, planted them in these new dwellings, under the tuition of holy men, and the protection of his choicest officers. Even his prisoners, instead of being sacrificed to bloody idols, were sent to people the wastes of his empire. Every way he conducted himself not only as a sovereign who consulted the prospe- rity of his country, but as one who considered all mankind as his bre- thren. On great festivals he entertained at his own cost the inhabitants of his capital : and to them who, from disease or infirmity, could not attend the public tables, he sent a plentiful repast to their own homes. But even in cases of blood, when we might have supposed that the san- guinary scenes to which he had so long been accustomed, must altoge- ther have blunted his feelings of compassion, we find that here too the religion of mercy had penetrated his heart. Being one day called upon to pass sentence for the immediate execution of a notorious robber, he exclaimed with much emotion, “ What am I, that I should condemn a fellow-creature to death 1" 72 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. This sketch is sufficient to shew that the lessons of the Greek sage had not been barren. They not only converted the prince, but by the mild- ness and wisdom of his reign (now that he had become Christian) the people saw by the fruit that the tree was good ; and in crowds they pressed towards the Cross to receive its mark, and express with their devotion, gratitude towards their leader. Vladimir died at Berestof in the year 1015 ; and was honoured with the testimony of canonization to his piety. I must now give you some idea of the doctrine of the Greek church. But as it is not necessary to particularise those articles in which all established churches agree, such as the propitiation, redemption, resur- rection, & c. & c. I shall mention none but distinguishing points ; as they only can shew the difference between the Greek and other creeds. This church holds the doctrine of the Trinity, with the following varia- tion from the common belief ; namely that the Holy Ghost, instead of “ proceeding from the Father and the Son,” proceeds from “ the Father only.” They admit the invocation of Saints upon a principle very refined, but sufficient, in their minds, to clear them from the charge of ido- latry. Not as gods but as intercessors, they apply to these n.i yom: mbit. upon ... paitiouki ant (a^ ; be bemolllbm of bd little workl), as on mt oi • uese figures when oehoidky tn from a height.* T'Voui the fortress-; lower /or instance ; where I have j list be©:* beholding a scene as extraordinary to an £ktgk*& eye, as :it k uv^bstn- balbe and amyytng., i.' . o * if natt-iraby r

ct a doscv rmu >f 'the Tf.*. a pc ,' ff turc in a Kussktn rfcwv It k a. taachire on vrMeh not only the* per- son,: of the people are transpose*- from pToc a; place with mipar&lleted likew ivoduct a uk! versts into the interior. The sledge is precisely a pair o.( colossal •o-a.te: joined, tops- 1 her. On these (according t» the caste of the on ner) is erected the m<: it agreeable and c Oliver mm: carriage wl-io b o: : b..b i h • ■ may afford or his situation claim. 'The sledge •order are solely forme; l of logs of worn houad togethei -witu ropes in to the betbre-mentipaied shape: on this T an even surface of Blank o< raafiing, a. i dm acctminioomio. * -of i •jrma- o-v*- *>■' on - > You wail r«~' a Russian pair in one of these conveyances, amongst my pencil memo* which-, succeed the drojeka fthe St. Potep^hurgh :oach) care gem vbllj* very neat, yet. always gaum . hen •; deco i red, green, gold axed silver, with strange carved wogk and ’Ui^couth \ hi rligigs of iron Their interior is well bespread with damp- lay, for the benefit of the lure*, in order to keep. his feel; warm . It is, so le fcl bid £ c-uer you to the more accurate delineation in my sketch -book. The sledge carriage of a prince, or a nobleman, is uncommonly hand- o v ':c 1 All tit - appmntmenfcs are magvibiceiat ; and never uU of h&rm»>;iy* s feyipid the genuine imeonfcaminated ta vte of rkita eons of German or English coach* work: are here attempted randanm.- TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 109 glare of the snow, is painful and blinding : and you might as well determine to fix your sight upon a particular ant (at the demolition of its little world), as on one of these figures when beholding them from a height. From the fortress tower for instance; where I have just been beholding a scene as extraordinary to an English eye, as it is undescri- bable and amusing. You will naturally expect a description of the sledge, a prominent feature in a Russian view. It is a machine on which not only the per- sons of the people are transported from place to place with unparalleled speed, but likewise the product of other nations is passed many thou- sand versts into the interior. The sledge is precisely a pair of colossal skates joined together. On these (according to the taste of the owner) is erected the most agreeable and convenient carriage which either his purse may afford or his situation claim. The sledges of the humbler order are solely formed of logs of wood bound together with ropes into the before-mentioned shape : on this is an even surface of plank or matting, for the accommodation of themselves or loads. You will see a Russian pair in one of these conveyances, amongst my pencil memo- randums. The sledges which succeed the drojcka (the St. Petersburgh hackney-coach), are generally very neat, yet always gaudy, being deco- rated with red, green, gold and silver, with strange carved work and uncouth whirligigs of iron. Their interior is well bespread with damp hay, for the benefit of the hirer, in order to keep his feet warm. It is so difficult to describe the precise cut of these vehicles, that I must again refer you to the more accurate delineation in my sketch-book. The sledge carriage of a prince, or a nobleman, is uncommonly hand- some. All its appointments are magnificent ; and never out of harmony. In it we behold the genuine uncontaminated taste of the country : no bad imitations of German or English coach-work are here attempted ; 110 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. all is characteristic ; and a picturesque effect, peculiarly its own, is pro- duced by the vehicle itself, its furs, its horses, their trappings, and the streaming beards of the charioteers. The nobleman's sledge is built exactly on the same principle with those of inferior people ; only differ- ing in the width of the body, which is made to hold two persons. It is warmly lined with rich furs ; and to prevent the lower extremities of the occupier from being cold, has an apron (like those of our curricles) formed of green or crimson velvet, bordered with gold lace. On a step behind, stand the servants with appropriate holders. This place is often filled by gentlemen when accompanying ladies on a sledging party. The horses attached to this conveyance are the pride of the opulent. Their beauty and value are more considered than the sledge itself. The excess of vanity amongst the young officers and nobility here, consists in driving about two animals whose exquisite elegance of form, and play- fulness of action, attract the attention of every passenger. The form of these horses is slight and Arabic, possessing the grace of an Italian grey- hound with a peculiar lightness and looseness of pace. One only, is placed in the shafts which never alters its pace from a rapid trot : the other is widely traced by its side ; and is taught to pace, curvet, and prance, in the most perfect taste of a finished manege. Their tails and manes are always of an enormous length ; a beauty so admired by the Russians that twenty horses out of thirty have false ones. Indeed this custom is so prevalent, that frequently the most rascally Rosinante and pigmy Fin-galloway have long artificial appendages, richly clothed with knots of dirt, hanging as low as the ground. But to return to the sledge horses. The harness of these creatures is curiously picturesque, being studded with polished brass or silver, hun- dreds of tassels, intermixed with embossed leather and scarlet cloth. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. Ill These strange ornaments give the trappings an air of eastern barbaric splendor, perfectly consonant with the animal’s shape. However, as every carriage in Russia (even should it be built in the excess of the British mode), is drawn by horses thus romantically caparisoned, the union is sometimes monstrous : and I have often felt the contradiction so forcibly, as to remind me of an absurd sight I once saw at home. It was an Indian chief in a London assembly. He was decorated with chains, shells, and tyger’s teeth, while all the spruce, powdered beaux around him were in the extreme of European costume. The passion of the Russians for rapid motion, has produced the sport called a sledge-race. A regular course for that purpose is kept always smooth, and railed off upon the Neva. Crowds assemble there to wit- ness the wonderful velocity with which this race is performed. The species of horse used on this occasion is an animal whose swiftest pace is a peculiar sort of trot. No race is ever run quicker. Indeed the rapidity of this is incredible, being not at all inferior to that of a gallop. The sledge-horses never step out in the usual way, but are taught to lift up both legs on the same side, which gives their motion a singular appearance. By this habit the action of the horse’s body is doubled, and their speed consequently increased twofold. I do not yet know whether regular matches are made ; or whether the spirit of sport produces bets, &c. I did not perceive any symptoms of this species of gambling, nor did I investigate that important question ; contenting my- self with surveying the tout ensemble merely as a picture of rude mag- nificence. The surrounding winter scenery; the picturesque sledges and their fine horses ; the scattered groupes of the observing multitude ; the superb dresses of the nobility, their fur cloaks, caps, and equipages, adorned with coloured velvets and gold ; with ten thousand other touches 112 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. of exquisite nature, finished the scene, and made it seem like an Olympic game from the glowing pencil of Rembrandt. I will now give you an idea of the constituent parts of the animated objects of this scene. I mean the figures and habits of the personages present. The nobility of both sexes, when not enveloped in pelisses, appear in our fashions, only a little more d la Franqaise. But it is in the dress of the peasant, the simple covering with which the unsophisticat- ed native of the snows of Russia shields himself from the cold, that we find the characteristic garb of these northern regions. The head is pro- tected from the inclemency of the weather by caps, of velvet and fur, some round, others square in the Hulan form, or varied according to the choice of the wearer. A long kaftan of blue or brown cloth reach- ing below the knees, sitting close to the shape without any cape, and crossing diagonally the breast (being fastened with cylindrical buttons of brass or white metal till it reaches the bottom of the waist), is the body's covering. Round the waist is a sash of crimson worsted net, like those worn by British officers. In this they place their gloves, or if they be labourers, their hatchets. Their necks are completely bare of any other shelter than their hair which hangs down in straight locks all around it. Their shirts and trowsers are of coarse linen striped with either red or blue. Thick swathes of rags are rolled about their legs to keep out the cold, over which they pull a pair of large and ill- construct- ed boots. Those who do not arrive at the luxury of these leathern de- fences, increase the swathings to such a bulk by wrappings and cross bandages, that their lower extremities appear more like flour sacks than the legs of men. When thus bulwarked, they stuff them into a pair of enormous shoes, made very ingeniously from the bark of the linden tree, at the expence of three halfpence. Their mode of habiliment undergoes no other alteration during the winter, than perhaps exchanging the r;-: ’'Mm ; hv P / > jpn / - / - 4 / : ... .« ■ ' : J ■ ■ • ' ' '* ■ .. t : : : • ’ 1 ■ . - * - ' 1 / /* . • : ' , , . . . ' . v» • . : .r •<; . : '• . . _ • . ■ ?•■». ’ i- : ••• ! * i *• ' ■ ** ' • • ^ ■ • ' •’ J : ; ; -• ^ . •* -r ;r ' v / J • I v - ■ - . i ff I fffiiiM v . jJi . .**• • & ; "T &) ■- .HH& - -v ‘ > ' j VMw : iilp Mi; ii’vU > *$1181 Hi J-ftSv 5.; sfM v-v:-' • 'v: ■M > of es ! arc . garni 1 fkmMtbe glomcy p« M:m*> ■ . 1 ' objects of this *-o emu • : :r *),y dw iiyiiii;;; and fcrjijvjy :•>;:• u present. The nobui • ».• ! m y\ :>??• then not I 4 . IT ■■ ■ r -- - r - . Hj- dre» of t Via peasant.. ?iW: h\%mx mwit • 5nd' the < ■ . • gi . • ■ ■ ■y.-W.d round, Olftje& * ;«’• MV: V •-•; U aUro ibv.»!J. y 0. ;.;b d]}}£ tu the choice of the w *. t a •. ••• bafo*n $£-biue or hi •» H it chu h reach- tiig'beiow the kneea, jr:d- 4. .-\ ;<;•» •'!?• shape mt ; J e y ape, and crossing diagonally da. b.- >o . id-, u. f*s tenet; with ev dudricai buttons . of brass or white room • uhs r v-h/;s the 4>c ttoim of Or. waist), i$ the "body coyertiig. )h mr waist; o- a. -a,sh of cntfcslm worsted net; , ... ilk*: diose worn by 'h < - :.»; hv--* i.u {Lv> d.) e.y place their, gloves-, or if they be la xmrer* . Hy-;! ; uu YU-ir .y-x-.ks ire completely bare of any other she -’ter tiros. Y r * : -v aid- hap#?*.. down in" ^freight lock? ail around it. T heir. d--r*t> nm& ----- - : >r . ■• 1 • 'bout keep out the cold, e^er.vHnuf) they ucOx pah of large and ill- const ruet*- ed boots, dl-ose y f-y 0 ; . r errm- e.i Y ?. h? > nrv of tlieSe leathern de~ ! \ : ; fences, inn--.- ., the: A* ■ k •. X by wn \ bandages, that their iocx - nob irn.nbcs ay* -car more like hour sacks than dlie lrps of : tie o , IT !ry? f XX X ■:!■:' x-'kvt, fh-'.- stuff the m u)to a pair of .. f *:.. • , •' . t ■ ' , the ’hidden tree,*, at the experice of i . . :'d ''e tv .Jo of hahiYaeot undergoes Rio other ac auticu ih ■ uY** than perhaps t yrhaoging the fr/jCler scrf-f TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 113 kaftan for a sheep-skin of the same form. This style of dress appertains to the commonalty alone, and it is curious to observe how closely it resembles that worn by the English in the reign of Richard the Second. I draw my ideas on this subject from our monumental remains of that period, when it was usual to commemorate the form of the deceased in the very habit he wore when alive. Any one who has considered the old tombs in our cathedrals, or has studied the costume to be seen in many illuminated manuscripts extant, will not doubt of the fact, but immediately perceive that the peasantry of Russia in the nineteenth century, are cotemporaries in fashion with those of England in the fourteenth. You will necessarily expect that my gallantry cannot overlook the personal decorations of the fair ladies of the same degree of rank : but alas ! this race of the lovely sex are such contradictions to their usual appellation, that I fear you will think me a very uncivil commentator. However, judge for yourself. They are generally stunted, clumsy, round faced, small featured, and sallow complexioned. The latter defect they strive to remedy by a profusion of paint of various hues, which they daub on with as little taste as art. The wives of the lowest classes wear a short gown of blue woollen cloth, bound with divers colours, most glaringly imitating the rain-bow interlinings on their faces. The waist is usually fastened by a close row of cylindrical but- tons. Their heads are ordinarily bound with a flowered handkerchief of the gayest pattern, terminating beneath the chin. On holidays, a little front of gold and coloured stones is added, formed like the dia- dem of Juno. In the most excessive cold this slight coeffure is the only covering for the head ; but for the shelter of the body, the ever- valu- able and customary sheep-skin is applied to, in the shape of an English 9 VOL. I. 114 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. peasant’s bed-gown. Warm stockings and boots are the defence for the legs. The wives of mechanics and Russ merchants dress with more taste and costliness. Their gowns are of rich brocade, and their heads fantasti- cally adorned with pearls. Their cloaks are shaped like the doublet of Sir JohnFalstaff, and of the same materials ; being velvet, either crimson, scarlet, 01 purple, lined and caped with sable fur of the most expensive sort. They also wear boots, made of leather or velvet, according to the pecuniary ability of the purchaser. Indeed this invention for the com- fort of the leg is so respected here, that the smallest infants, just able to crawl, arc encumbered sooner with boots than with shirts. I must not omit to mention one odd custom. As soon as a woman en- ters into the happy state of matrimony, she binds up the whole of her hair beneath the dress of her head . In the days of her maidenhood she wears it platted, like the Chinese, and tied with a bunch of ribbands at the end. I could not learn the origin of this practice : and like many un- accountable usages in other countries, I believe it is now followed merely because it is an ancient custom. Russia contains but two classes of people, the nobles and the slaves. If a third may be admitted (and such a one is rapidly creating itself), it will be the merchants. Should we mingle foreigners with the natives, we have then a decided third class already, composed of merchants and other genteel settlers from various countries. Including these, with the inhabitants and military of the city, I am told that three hundred thou- sand is nearly the population of St. Petersburgh. If we estimate the divisions of so numerous an assemblage, what a multitudinous body TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 115 must be the slaves. Probably thirty thousand may be the amount of the aliens : and if we allow seventy thousand for the court and the military, then two hundred thousand are the residue of the populace, or slaves. These latter people, who are usually slaves to the crown or the nobles, are universally good-natured, and possess a wonderful ingenuity and quickness of apprehension. At present their shrewdness is so apparent in bargains, that if in making any, you do not compel them to give written articles of agreement, you may be sure of being cheated in every possible way. A little while ago I spoke of their Spartan modes of speech ; I can also pay them the compliment of registering their Spartan mode of action, as a dextrous theft in the way of oyerr reaching, is re- garded by them as the very triumph of their genius. Formerly the whole nation was most lamentably addicted to inebriety : but the exertions and example of Peter the Great soon rooted out this detestable practice from amongst the higher orders ; and at the same time laid the exterminating axe to many other vices of similar enormity. However fond the ancient nobility may have been of mantling goblet' s sparkling juice , their modern descendants are the most abstemious with regard to wine and other strong liquids, I ever met with. Drunken- ness is no where to be seen but with the lower ranks ; and they, like the swine in the Gospel, have so potently imbibed the foul fiend, as to be carried headlong to their destruction. During the chilling blasts of winter, when the congealed blood seems to demand some generous cor- dial to dissolve its rigidity and warm the heart, it is then that we see the intoxicated native stagger forth from some open door, reel from side to side, and meet that fate which in the course of one season freezes thou- sands to death. The common career of a. poor creature thus bewildered, is truly distressing. After spending perhaps his last copeck in a dirty, Q 2 115 TRAVELLING SKETCHES in RUSSIA. hot kaback or public house, he is thrust out by the keeper as an object no longer worthy of his attention. Away the impetus carries him, till he is brought up by the opposite wall. Heedless of any injury he may have sustained by the shock, he rapidly pursues the weight of his head, by the assistance of his treacherous heels, howling discordant sounds from some incoherent Russian song ; a religious fit will frequently interrupt his harmony, when crossing himself several times, and as often muttering his gospodi pomilui, “Lord have mercy upon us!” he reels forward: whether these devout ejaculations may arise from a presenti- ment of his fate, or some faint glimpse of the danger of his situation, I cannot pretend to say : but so it is, for a few moments, at different intervals ; and then he tears the air again with his loud and national ditties : staggering and stumbling till his foot slips, and that earth re- ceives him, whence a thousand chances are, that he will never again arise. He lies just as he fell ; and sings himself gradually to that sleep from which he awakes no more. Thus, like the heroes on Hohenlmden, the snow becomes his winding-sheet ; and the bitter blast alone now fills the . air,' no longer agitated by the abrupt murmurs of his fading voice. 3 During one severe winter, that so terrible to Europe, in the year 1789, terrible to you and me, like any other tale of other times, only by tradition ; it spent its rage in the careless days of our infancy ; but, alas, how many storms of the elements and of the world have beat upon us Since !— But to return. During that winter the cold was so inveterate in Russia, that on the road between St. Petersburgh and Mosco, not less than fourteen thousand persons perished from its fury. You may imagine how certain is death to the individual who falls asleep in an open atmosphere of twenty-five degrees of frost, when I tell you that Jan 2 W0 We arrived at the Winter Palace about eleven o’clock in the forenoon, and followed the gentleman who introduced us, into a large saloon where numbers of officers and nobility were assembled, waiting the imperial family’s arrival. Not many minutes elapsed before a bustle at the lower end of the apartment announced the entrance of the court. The expect- ing crowd then opened to right and left. Thirty gentlemen in rich embroidered suits passed along : these were what they term les chamber- lains actuel ; each having a golden key and blue ribbon, the insignia of their rank, attached to his frock. The young Empress, dressed in white sattin and gold, then followed. Her person is not tall, yet it is graceful and elegantly proportioned ; and the air of it is tender and interesting. Her eyes are soft and blue ; her complexion touchingly delicate. I wished that hideous thing called a hoop devoutly at the devil, as it hid the lower part of her figure, and cruelly lengthened the confinement of her waist: this barbarous rem- TRAVELLING SKETCHES JN RUSSIA. 131 nant of Gothic taste always those graces inseparable from the female form in its natural state. However, ijotmtw^ding these dis- advantages, the shape of the young Empress was charming. There was an air of melancholy about her which added ten thousand beauties to a countenance already sufficiently lovely. This gentle sad- ness is easily accounted for. It is known to arise from the present absence of the Emperor, who is gone to meet danger, and perhaps death ; and the recollection of a sweet infant, of whom that inexorable ravager of our earthly happiness has lately deprived her, and whose loss she still deeply regrets. As she passed through the long line of military nobles, she honoured us on each side with the most smiling affability ; and her small regular features expressed a soft urbanity, almost approaching timidity. Her voice is peculiarly melodious. After the Empress, a long retinue of ladies of honour, noblemen, &c. followed : we fell into the train (for two of our countrymen accompanied me), and entered the chapel. This consecrated apartment is not very large ; and does not differ materially in form from those I have already mentioned, except that its decorations are of a more gorgeous kind and a finer taste. Gold, paintings, and bronze, form the skreen. A huge chandelier of massive silver hangs from the ceiling, and is always lighted. Numerous choristers, habited in scarlet robes richly embroidered, were ranged in opposite lines. Her Majesty (for she was the only one of the imperial family present, the rest being indisposed), was advanced several paces before her attendants, and stood the whole of the service, which lasted above an hour. s 2 132 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. When the religious rites ^er, the metropolitan bishnp, CUI .« rounded by ecclesiastics, came from the interior to salute the Em A ^css. She presented them her hand which they pressed to their lips, while she at the same moment put her right cheek to theirs (the usual mode of friendly salutation here). The contrast of this groupe was strikingly picturesque. The young Empress’s lovely lily-like form, and splendid attire, opposed to the solemn grandeur of the father’s robes (whose long and silver beard swept his bosom) ; the equally venerable appearance of the other divines ; and the gay habits and martial uni- forms of the surrounding young noblemen, formed altogether a scene of interesting and brilliant effect. Foreign officers, Cossacks, Georgians, and Princes from the interior provinces, completed this romantic picture. No sooner was the ceremony of salutation past, than all returned in the former order. I did not linger behind, for my heart loitered not with any of the courtly damsels who had passed : and yet they were passing fair ; very fair, had not the superior charms of the Empress, like those of the radiant Diana, cast all her sparkling attendants into shade. Amongst the many accomplishments boasted by the Russian ladies is one, on which the saucy prejudice against the sex might be very mala- pert : I mean their wonderful facility in learning languages. Almost all modern tongues are easy to them ; and French is even so much more familiar than their own, that they speak and write it with fluency, when they can hardly spell a word in their native Russ. The neglect of the latter language is not surprising, as it is hardly ever spoken in polite circles ; being totally confined to deeds of state, law, and ecclesiastical TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 133 acts. But with the language of France, that strange perverted nation has not exported its system of ethics, nor its superficial, glossing manners. The nobility of Russia are honest, frank and hospitable. A something about them still exists which reminds you that Muscovy and England first shook hands in the days of our good Queen Bess. There is a hardi- hood, at the same time a courtliness of deameanor, that recals to re- collection the prowess of Sir Francis Drake, the gallantry of Sir Walter Raleigh. What Elizabeth was to England, Catherine the Second was to Russia : the effects remain : after the flower is cropt and laid in the tomb, its fragrance survives and embalms the surrounding at- mosphere. Owing to the peculiar constitution of this empire, the arts and sciences are, in general, but secondary objects in the minds of the na- tives. The nobles deem no profession honourable but that of arms. Ambition would be .thought to stoop, if it sought any celebrity from excelling by the chissel, the pencil, or the pen : hence, the finest talents among the high-born are never directed towards any of these points. Military glory is all their aim : and, if it chances to be united with the spontaneous growth of any milder genius, it is well ; the possessor is pleased, and his friends delighted ; but no fame accrues from classical endowments. The study of the arts and sciences is left to slaves ; or at best, to slaves made free : and they, unhappy men ! from being de- scended from that contemned race, can never, by any exertions of their own, or by the conclusive appeal of appropriate actions, assert the in- herent nobility of the heavenly gifted mind. Slavery is a taint that can never be erased : and thus the generous ambition of genius is cankered at the very root. 134 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. The usual pastimes of the nobles, when they are not pursuing military exercises, or employed in offices of state, are the carriage or the sledge during the morning. They dine at half past two o’clock, and after that either sleep for a couple of hours (for they do not sit long at table), or play at games of cards, of which there are a great variety ; billiards is also a frequent amusement ; but the most favourite is a game called Boston, a sort of whist : it is not known with us ; and yet, strange to tell, the Russians say it was invented by the British officers during the cam- paigns in America. The evening produces the theatre, or assemblies at their own houses, when, either cards are again resorted to, or a light dance exhilarates the scene, to which the company who prefer sittings play on the piano-forte and harp. Various little pastimes, such as forfeits, the magic music, &c. &c. are brought forward. And thus wit and in- nocent mirth carry on the hours till supper is announced. This meal is generally too luxurious for the health and beauty of those who draw round the table. Soups, fish, roast and boiled meats, and savoury dishes, fill the groaning board. Good appetites are seldom wanting ; and thus, both mentally and bodily recreated, or rather over-burthened, do the parties betake themselves to rest : their stomachs fevered with the richest food, they lie down in bed-rooms where an artificial heat, like that of a hot-house, ferments their digestion, leaving them at waking, pale, languid, and spiritless. This is the common mode : but where experience has opened the eyes of some, and travel informed others, such injurious customs are set aside ; and we behold, as in England, the blooming cheek of a Hebe rising brightly with the morn ; and the athletic form of manhood moving with all the freshness of health, all the elasticity of youthful vigour. I am interrupted by a message from my friend at the Ambassador’s* TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 135 that great nezvs have arrived from England! I go to learn the tidings ; and hope, before I finish this letter, to congratulate you on some glorious event for our country and for Europe. ******************* Days have elapsed since I could return to this paper. An event in- deed ! Great and momentous to the whole world ! ce How have the mighty fallen, and weapons of war perished !” Nelson, our brave, our invincible Nelson is no more ! Heaven, then, in the moment of victory, took from England her never-failing hope. Dear has our country paid for the glory of Trafalgar : but it is a glory that will cast the Corsican star into shadow : it must shine in every British heart for ever ; and at the hour of danger, whether in the field or on the wave, go before them like a pillar of fire to light them to fame and victory. Yea, even though hosts oppose them, will not his last wprds rally their souls to stand? England expects every man to do his duty!” What a war-cry is that ! What an arousing call to those who have been his compeers ! What a summons to deeds of honour to generations yet unborn ! To dwell on the bright name of a departed hero, how does it inspire the mind to emulate his example ! To die like a Wolfe or a Nelson, is a des- tiny so great, that cold must be the heart which is not awakened to enthusiasm and patriotic zeal when it recals their life and death to re- membrance. Who would not partake their bed with joy ? Defending your country, opposing your breast as a shield between England and her enemies, let the balls come : if they strike, it is for thousands your life is given. Victory ! safety to your country, the preservation of re- lations, friends, countrymen, all are in that word ! So Wolfe died, and 136 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. so Nelson fell ! The shout of triumph arose, and the soul took its flight to Heaven ; angels receive it, and as a benefactor of mankind, it takes its happy seat amongst hosts of kindred, blissful spirits ! Here, this is the bright career of the real hero. His sword is drawn for justice alone ; to defend, not to oppress ; and thus his laurels are immortal as the fields of Paradise. But those of the mere conqueror, the invader of neighbour- ing countries, the usurper of others’ right, where are they ? What is he ? Though his exterminating brand laid the whole universe at his feet, he is still only a conqueror, a murderer of mankind ; and though fame may speak of his deeds, glory can never surround them. Glory can be attached to nothing that is not virtuous. We fear the tyrant, but it is only the hero that we revere. Where were the tears which fell for the Timurs of any age or nation? Behold those which flow for Nelson! England mourns him as a parent, as a protecting genius ravaged from her shores. And distant nations, they mingle their sighs with her’s : to every quarter where his victorious and guardian standard flew, have the news of his death been sent ; and grievous has been the lamentation. In being the champion of liberty and honour, he was the champion of all mankind ; and as such, he who fought for all, is wept by all. The account of this memorable event was transmitted to the Russian army on the frontiers, and there read to the Emperor Alexander by his surgeon, a Scotch gentleman, who is as worthy of the country in which he was born, as of the imperial confidence. The tidings struck the Em- peror in the most forcible manner ; and while his brave eyes filled with tears, he uttered such an eulogium on the merits of the departed hero, as, could he be sensible of human tribute, must be a sweet incense to his immortalized spirit. Indeed I should not do justice to the Russians TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 137 were I not to say that the general feeling they express for our Nelson is that of men regretting the loss of a dear brother. Their rejoicings for the victory of Trafalgar are chastened by the idea that the hand which won it is now disabled for ever in the grave. Such is the drawback to our triumph : and I am sorry to say, that we anticipate even another allay to our joy. It is rumoured that a battle has been fought between the combined forces of Austria and Russia, with those of France ; and that the result obliged the Emperor of Germany to make an immediate peace with the enemy. The Em- peror Alexander and his forces, indignant at what has happened, are on their return home. Long before this arrives in England, you will have received from the scene of action, more certain intelligence of this dis- astrous affair. At present the report is, that the principal failure lay on the side of the Austrains : nay, if it be true what is said, failure is too gentle an epithet for their conduct ; rather baseness and treachery, in the worst sense of the words. The rumour goes that a large body of the Austrians not only deserted to the French, but even fired upon the Russians, whom they had brought thither as their allies and protectors ; thus adding ingratitude to their deep dishonour. How must such a stigma on his countrymen pierce the heart of the Archduke Charles ! But he still exists, and virtue may yet revive in Austria. The loss which the brave Russians have sustained, they say, is very considerable. The enemy too, have had a most dear victory. But I have no doubt that in the usual style of these ci-devant republicans , it will be proudly set forth as an achievement of their arms with little damage on their side, and no infamy whatever. In those accounts which they vol. i. t 138 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. give to the world, nothing is said of their bribery, their corruptions, their deceits, their falshood : the, net is no where spoken of that is spread by wiles under the feet of monarchs ; the golden draught is no where mentioned which poisons their councillors, and lays their honesty and vigour asleep. Ministers, not their Sovereigns, often seal the misery of thousands. The public are cajoled by being told that all the conquests of France are the effects of dauntless bravery alone : hence its leader is deified as a kind of god. But look under the purple that invests him, and there you will see the serpent's wily train. He is bold, he has great talents, and insatiable ambition ; and he was placed on a stage where he might exert all. In such a situation, when once a man forgets that he is an accountable being, when he determines to live to his desires alone, how easy is it for him to glut them to the utmost. No check menaces him but that of fortune : bowing to no God but his ambition, faith, ho- nour, life, death, are as nothing in his hands : he throws them to the right or left as they impede his course ; and makes straight forward over the neck of groaning Nature to his goal. Bonaparte has now all Germany at his command. Kings, they say, are to be speedily created, and the whole of the country to be newly divided. Intermarriages between the Corsican's relations and ancient princely families are to be formed ; the better to build up the founda- tions of the universal empire he seems to meditate. He does indeed “ bestride the globe and sets its rightful sovereigns to “ peep about beneath his huge legs to find themselves dishonourable graves." There is something very awful in the idea of how great may be the fall of this TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 139 colossus. He is a tremendous object; a chastising instrument in the hand of Providence ! And, when the nations have undergone the scourge, what may then be the <£ woe to him by whom their evils came ?” These are mysteries beyond my comprehension : but they are mysteries of Heaven, and it becomes us to adore in silence. Adieu. 140 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. LETTER XIV. St. Petersburgh , December , 1805. All is too true ! The allies have been defeated, and a fearful blow has been given to the great cause of Europe. But, as I said before, you have better accounts of the affair than we can have here ; so I will no further enlarge on what must so deeply affect us all. I know the dis- aster has happened ; but I am yet ignorant of the particulars, for there are here no public national prints, except one or too in the Russ lan- guage, very sparingly communicative. Even the English newspapers which come hither, are delivered so irregularly, that the chain of their information is miserably destroyed. However, we shall learn more in a day or two, as the Emperor is hourly expected. When he arrives you shall have my sentiments of this amiable and idolized monarch. Meanwhile, I will interest you in the virtues of the illustrious widow of his predecessor, the good dowager Empress. How can I do it better than by giving you a sketch of an institution which reflects the highest honour upon its august patroness? Ever since the death of the late Emperor the occupation of this princess’s life has been to institute, protect, and advance charitable foundations of every description. In short, we have in dear England scarcely one from which she has not drawn some philanthropic hint. To the proper regulation of these charities, almost the whole of her time is dedicated. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 141 The hospital in question, was instituted forty years ago ; and is in truth but a branch of one more extensive at Mosco. It is designed for the reception of foundlings. The number of little deserted souls now within the walls of this blessed asylum at St. Petersburgh, is nearly six hundred. When I went over the house the matron shewed me eight lovely infants which had been left that very day at the place appointed for their reception. To obtain admission for her child, the mother of one of these poor little beings at a certain hour repairs secretly to a given spot, where, depositing her charge in a wicker basket, along with some relic of affectionate remembrance, (perhaps nothing but tears !) she pulls a bell, on which it is instantly taken from her sight, in all probability for ever. The infants (arranged in wards and classes according to their age), are watched during the helpless period of existence with maternal care. When their mental and bodily powers are capable of useful occupation, they are instructed in such arts or employments as may render them advantageous to that state which is so justly entitled to their filial gra- titude. The girls are taught first to make the different parts of their habiliments ; then to manufacture fringe, lace, and an exquisite embroi- dery, which is used on court dresses, funeral palls, and sacerdotal robes. The boys are made alert in tayloring, shoe-making, and similar occu- pations of public utility. By this means the capital is supplied with industrious mechanics of both sexes : by this means the humanity of the state turns private indiscretion into national benefit ; and not only thousands ©f innocent creatures are preserved in existence, but many, many a parent is saved from the most horrid of crimes. I must not omit telling you that there is a part of this institution 142 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. dedicated to females under (c a state of maternal solicitude .** The peculiar good intended by the reception of women so circumstanced, is, not only to render them assistance, but to furnish subjects of instruction for a certain number of girls who are destined to practise midwifery. After being properly qualified, these young persons are distributed through- out the most distant provinces of the empire ; and thus become bless- ings to the ignorant, suffering peasant. Cleanliness reigns in every part of the Foundling Hospital. The various wards are airy and commodious. Each foundling has a small separate bed (very clean and neat), over which is written the name of the occupier, with its supposed age, and the date of its admission. When the foundlings attain the age of twenty-one, I am told that a pecuniary donation, and a certificate of their conduct, ushers them into the wide world. This excellent charity is not only furnished with unexceptionable superintendants for the advanced classes, but anxious care is taken to supply the infants with the nourishment allotted to them by nature. For this purpose, great numbers of hale, stout women, who have newly become mothers, are brought from the villages of Ingria and Finland, in droves like milch cows ; who (after their health is ascertained), are distributed over the hospital. In my life I never saw such wretched, humiliating specimens of hu- man nature ! their odious appearance struck me the more horribly when I remembered that they were of the angelic sex. Imagination cannot paint their strange costume, their stupid countenances ; the sallow ma- hogany-coloured flesh of their uncouth flabby persons, their settled travelling SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 143 vacancy of stare, and complete non-entity of expression. The duty marked out for these poor creatures to fulfil, is the loveliest and most interesting one in which a woman can appear : but here, alas ! disgust is the only feeling excited. While surveying them, I could not help making a comparison between their aspects and the wet-nurses of Eng- land. The latter, all health and roses; their eyes beaming a simple philanthropic affection over the little helpless being thus succoured ; their persons firm as marble ; and their whole air vouching for their impart- ing the riches of a good constitution to the child whom a mother’s in- ability, perhaps, has consigned to their care. But to return to my Russians. At one period there was such a superabundance of the living fruits of love or immorality, that a suffi- cient number of these temporary parents could not be procured. To supply the deficiency goats were substituted, and for some time an- swered well ; but from unavoidable change in this animal’s food dur- ing a few months in the year, it was found that the children thus fed d la Romulus , grew sickly ; the practice was therefore discontinued. When nursed by a goat, the infant was held under the stomach of the beast to suck ; which position possibly prevented it from taking its nourishment peaceably. If (as it is said) the temper, propensities, and constitution are trans- mitted by our lacteal food, they who have been thus subsisted will make but heavy members of society ; for little of the graceful or the active in spirit can be augured from the foster-children of Fins, goats and asses. Yet perhaps the inconveniencies may not be very great ; as the destined pursuits of these oddly-nurtured mortals seldom require either very laborious or very brilliant exertions of the mind. 144 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. Being on the subject of nurses, I will dismiss those of the Foundling Hospital, and introduce to your notice such as attend upon the children of the nobility. No part in the domestic arrangement of a Russian family is more curious to a stranger. These women are selected with great care from amongst the numerous slaves of their proprietor ; and come, perhaps, from some very distant village to cherish the youthful count or prince. Their dress (which is national and characteristic), always marks their occupation. On their head they wear a wrought gold cap of stiff materials, taking an enlarged form, like the diadem usually given to Juno ; the whole of its gilded surface is profusely but awkwardly spread with pearls, foils, cut- glass, &c. Their ears and neck are loaded with showy ornaments ; and their brawny shoulders are half hidden by an exquisitely white shift, gaily worked in various colours even to the sleeves, which are loose and hang as low as the elbow. Their body is easily confined in a sort of boddice or jumps made suitably convenient for their profession, A gaudily embroidered petticoat, with coloured stockings and shoes, terminates the decoration of their person. On the whole they are clean, and do not olfac like most other Russian domestics. This latter qualification is truly estimable, as they are generally allowed a seat in the carriage whenever mama goes out; and frequently appear in the rooms des- tined for company. At the expiration of the period allotted for their attendance as nurses, they receive a liberal reward ; and are permitted to return to their village and boorish husband with all the elegances of their ward- robe. Too often does this savage ruler squander their money and sell their gaieties. While brandy (that powerful persuader to cruelty and Being on the sunk* t o* Hospital, and introdu-a- - • - or .. if-i : di:> V: | " ‘ he children o£ the nobility. IS ( ,, family is more curious w *> .•• "• •• . .. ... great care from, amor* gst, a, almn of iV- prop;:HTar ; nul come, perhaps?, fro»^ wow ver.? o . ■ ■ • - ■ • . - - always nvcrks their .. r V < l u*.ar body is. easily o »v\s%ecT in a sort of •embroidered petticoat, vothkoT Hired stock icgs awd shoes, tenui ,j.cs the decoration of their pet whole they are clean, and do not olfa like most othei It* >r - ilomesth.- . Thi latter -qualificatirn is truly estimable, as rv«; u re p?r.-r rally allowed aw- at in -the. carriage whenever mama goer wm: t/nr., opjenfly a ear r-.* t = - -rooms d.es- ' fined for company. At the expiration -:d tr ; , v ?v i ah{?H;ed ha th* : attendance a $ nurses, they receive a v •* -a , o s -j are p: emitted to return' to • ■ ... .... - - ' robe. Too Often done ; -Ah : :qu&naer ■ a snor ey and b ll their gaieties. WblW • * »d\ • : - earful poioeiuk;: : c cruelty and 2 . /80£. by S. Jjridye / •« / -. u/y?V£s ^-fi-Aia-ert duv.i TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 145 Vice !) is to be procured, the last kopeck is eagerly expended ibo pur- chase it. These uncivilized husbands are by no means patient of any refusal from their wives, or delicate in their choice of argument to enforce submission : for I have beheld such hearty drubbings dealt out upon the shoulders of the sisterhood, as would have been the death of any other woman than a Russian peasant. I am sorry to say that this mode of compelling obedience is not con- fined to the boor alone. The domestics in every family being slaves, they as much belong to their lord, as the chairs and tables of the house ; and aie, in general, treated too much like mere pieces of furniture. While they do their duty it is well ; they are quietly used according to their appropriate service ; but as fellow creatures they are seldom con- sidered. Should they transgress, they are taught better by a manege something like that our countrymen exercise on the backs of their asses. This system is so abhorred by the benevolent Alexander, that he takes every opportunity of buying the estates of the nobles, and immediately giving freedom to the peasants. By this generous policy he removes the yoke from their necks, and brings forward into freedom and occasions of earning an honest and independent subsistence, a race of men who will soon form themselves into the most useful part of the body politic ; that middle rank, which is the sinew of a nation’s strength, the source of her riches, and the guardian of her glory. We need only turn our eyes to England to see the proof of this. Look at her wealthy yeomanry, her merchants as princes; and her commons sitting at the helm of state, and equal in power with the nobility, guiding it in safety and honour through all the shocks of con- tending empires ! Blest England ! Wherever I go, I still think on mv VOL. I. u 146 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. country, as a lover of the dear mistress he has left behind. Many h£ may behold fairer and more richly attired ; but still, the heart, the heart ! The amiable qualities which produce confidence and comfort, do they not make him indeed exclaim Ci Where’er I go, whatever lands I see, My soul untravelled still returns to thee !” Farewel. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 147 LETTER XV. St. Petersburgh , January , 1806. The Emperor has arrived from the army. And the guards, as well as the Grand-Duke Constantine’s Hulan regiment, are expected erelong to march into St. Petersburgh. The peace between France and Austria is ratified. The earth has been sown with blood, and new kings are arising every day from the dragon’s teeth. The Continent, at present, seems plunged into a fearful sleep. Bonaparte is the only one awake in the desolated scene. His machinations and his arms have silenced the people who were once considered as the military oracles of Europe. Vienna has been humbled by his presence; and the Imperialists have mourned in sackcloth and ashes, their too ready credence of his belial tongue. The Louvre will now receive additional treasures ; for neither the private nor public museums of Germany can escape the vigilant pillager of Europe. This is the third of the Lord's anointed whom he has driven from their capital ; and who may be the next, which of us can pretend to say ! Though, judging of the fate of nations by their deter- mination and means of resistance, little fear is to be entertained for the independence either of England or of this country. The same amor patriot is paramount here, which so surely guarantees the freedom of our native island. Usurpation is held in equal detestation, while so amiable a monarch as Alexander fills the imperial throne. Having been presented to this interesting personage, I cannot but u 2 148 TIUVEfcLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. give you a sketch of his figure and manners. I know your eagerness to become acquainted with the great of all countries : I mean the truly great ; the illustrious in talents, and the illustrious in virtue : they alone have ever been the great to you ; and to them, while resembling them as a brother, have you not always bowed with the humility of a son ! But to return to the Emperor. He is mild in his demeanor, gentle in his motions, and particularly graceful in his address. The goodness of his heart shines forth in his eyes, and the sweetness of his temper ever embellishes his lip with a smile. So great is his benevolence, that not a day passes without bring- ing forward some instance of his attention to the welfare and comfort of his people ; and his lenity in punishing criminals is so forbearing, that in all cases the most tender mercy waits upon his justice. His figure is handsome and elegant, his air affable and engaging ; and his coun- tenance ever expresses the benignity of his mind. His height is about five feet eleven inches. He is fair with blue eyes ; and his complexion, though not florid, is beaming with health, and most interestingly tinged with the hue of a military life. On our first presentation, according to the etiquette of this court, the Emperor passed forward, only bowing to the strangers. But after that formal ceremony was once over, at every other levee he converses with all the dignified freedom which sits so gracefully upon persons of his rank; and more particularly captivates in him, from the intelligence and amiable interest of his manners. The dowager Empress, who is of a Pallas form and mien, is a most admirable woman. I have before given you an idea of her numerous TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 149 charities. She is exquisitely accomplished ; and possesses a courtesy of address that is undescribable. To her fair hand I am indebted for a dia- mond, which, in devotion to her virtues, I shall ever wear next my heart. Since the leturn of its invaluable monarch, St. Petersburgh has been a scene of continued gaiety. And as it is also the opening of the new year, a time of extraordinary festivity in Russia, there is no end to the fetes, feasts, and rejoicings. Amongst them all, I must not omit describing an evening which I lately passed at the Winter Palace. The entertainment given there was a public masquerade ; where, from the imperial family, down to the Russ tradesman, all ceremony was suspended. This immense winter residence (of which the Hermitage forms only a very small part) was thrown open : every saloon, gallery, and corridor blazed with chande- liers. The dome of the grand hall of Saint George shone like a crystal heaven. Indeed, in the luxury of light no country is so lavish as Russia ; for even the meanest houses bear witness to the truth of this observation. The crowd and heat of the masquerade was almost unbearable (fifteen hundred persons having received tickets of admission) ; and when in- volved in a vortex where mingled many of the unpurified natives, the more refined were unable to form an antidote to the effluvia. Otto of roses and the most costly perfumes, were breathed in vain through this motley and steaming groupe. The nobility present, who underwent this Saturnalian festival, were full-dressed in V enetian and other fancy habits. The lower orders were 150 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. attired after their usual manner : but the most curious objects were the wives of the rich Russian merchants (whose national costume had in itself a masquerade effect), attended by their bearded husbands dressed in dark kaftans. As they strolled about the rooms, they appeared like companies of fantastic characters, habited as magicians, and overgrown fairies clad in glittering robes of shining green!'* Amongst the orna- ments of these women, my eye was much pleased with one peculiar to their country : it is a coronet of the ducal form, composed entirely of pearls exquisitely arranged. Under this coronet the hair of the single women is bound smoothly back ; that of the married ones wholly con- cealed. Great masses of fur, gold and silver fringe, finish their gala attire. It is only to carnival days and saints 5 festivals that they pay the tribute of so sumptuous an appearance ; and then their mania for outvying a rival, often makes them forego the common comforts of existence. At eight o'clock the masquerade was filled to suffocation ; and about an hour afterwards the imperial family entered, creating a kind of cur- rent in the mob, which is elegantly termed a Polonage. This is a pro- menade in couples, with which all the maids of honoui, gentlemen of the court, nobles, &c. fall in. Thus they pass through every chamber, to the gratification of the multitude, mingling without reserve amidst the lowest of their subjects. The ladies of the imperial family were all clothed in the ancient style of Muscovy ; a habit covered with pearls, and by no means unbecoming. But to the beauty or majesty of their coeffure, my stubborn taste for simplicity refused to subscribe. The coeffure is a thing entirely formed of various coloured jewels, fixed on the head by means of a cap, from which it rises like a pyramid nearly a yard in the air : large uncouth patterns of flowers are wrought into it. 151 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. making an embroidery of precious stones. From the utmost pinnacle of this monstrous non-descript, hangs a huge square of brocaded silk, reaching to the bottom of the back. When you look at this last ap- pendage, without knowing to what it is attached, the effect is ridiculous beyond conception. After remaining more than two hours in the assembly, the imperial family withdrew into the Hermitage. This department of the palace being sacred to them and their party, became literally a heaven to retire to, from the bustle, heat, and offensive vapour of the purgatory we had left. In some former letter I have described this celebrated place : at least the pictures which form its splendid hangings. Nothing can exceed the magnificence of its various decorations. Silver candelabra of gigantic size and classic shape, blazing above vases of Siberian marble, are ranged on all sides, amidst every luxurious improvement of couch or chair in French, Turkish, or Grecian taste. These elegant trifles are not too profusely lavished ; for they all seem to have their use, and rather add to, than diminish the consequence of those nobler works of art which enrich the walls. Indeed the whole interior of this little palace is so complete, and arranged with such unity of design, that it would be injurious to its merits to attempt comparing it with St. Cloud. That boasted mansion, for the perfection of which every atom of French talent has been exerted, every touch of French taste laboured and re- peated, proved at last — but a large Magazin des Meubles ! Confused and vilely disposed, the infamous fashion of never admitting two chairs alike into one room, has rendered it the most disgustingly expensive, and vulgarly ostentatious display of fine furniture that ever yet pretended to 152 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. the name of magnificence. St. Cloud is an upholsterer’s shop, whence palaces may be fitted : the Hermitage is a palace ready fitted for the reception of kings. And here was spread a court supper, that in splendor and taste well accorded with the graces of the imperial family which adorned the ban- quet. The theatre of the Hermitage, in which operas, masquerades and balls are often given, during the winter residence of the Emperor, was adapted for the occasion in a style exquisitely beautiful and novel. The artist who has the management of these fairy phantasies is an Italian called Gonzalo ; and his genius had now imparted such charms to this little theatre as are far beyond my homely pen to describe. In the first place, the pit was boarded level with the stage. On this platform were placed tables, in all the pride of an imperial banquet, richly lighted and royally spread for feasting. The festooned curtain common to theatres, was here made of gold tissue, forming resplendent draperies, glittering with fringes of cut-glass. Immediately behind this facade rose drapery of the same magnificent materials in form of a Turkish tent; from the centre of which hung a lustre whose numberless crystal pendents produced a constellation of light. Over this fell a veil of spun-glass, woven into transparent net-work like lace, through which played the prismatic colours with indescribable brilliancy ; cords and tassels of glass in various festoons, crossed each other amongst the draperies ; beneath which stood a circular bower of rose-trees in full blow and fragrance. A range of arches (advanced some paces in front of the bower), were tastefully ornamented with arabesque devices ; and their openings filled up with a film of spun-glass apparently finer than cobweb ; on which were painted in opaque colours, sylphic figures. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 153 which thus seemed floating in air. Unseen lights were so ingeniously placed as to reflect from this glassy gauze, producing such an effect as the sun’s rays on a light-falling shower. When the whole of this enchanted spot was illuminated, it might w r ell have been mistaken for a diamond mine, destined for the banquet of genii. Nay, the charm was completed by the sound of music from a hidden instrument, which united in itself the characters of the organ and Eolian harp (I did not see it, but they say it will surprise me when I do). These soft, melodious breathings issued from the thicket of rose-trees, and finished the magical effect of this Arabian-night like scene. While “ pleasure winged the festive hours,” I almost fancied myself transported to one of the Fortunate Islands of the fabulist, or, shall I say to Mahomet’s paradise : the banquet of the senses was before me ; and around, the lovely Houris with the peerless Cadige at their head ! You must forgive my being a little in the superlative upon a subject so excessive in all the luxuries of eye, ear, taste, and smell. Thus past the evening, and in the morning new scenes of amusement presented themselves. At this season of the year the inhabitants of St. Petersburgh dedicate themselves to one continued whirl of merry-making. The streets are filled with men, women, and children in their gala dresses ; and the gay carriages and sledges of the nobility are ever passing and repassing before the eye. Religion, as well as joy for the Emperor’s return, gives rise to this extraordinary animation. It being the eve of a great fast, the people are resolved to enjoy pleasure in its utmost extravagance, before they are obliged to bid it a temporary farewel. This excess is indulged by the lower classes only ; who at this time are seen intoxicated, and perishing in the streets, a sacrifice to their mad VOL. i. x 154 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. festivity. They who survive this unrestrained debauch, live very tem- perately during the fast, on herbs, pulse, honey, and fish fried in oil ; their beverage, also miserably poor, being nothing but a sort of meagre beer diluted with water. Immediately prior to this season of penance, all St. Petersburgh, from the palace to the hut, is one crowd of activity and mirth. The Neva as well as the streets, is covered with sledges, whose gay contents are shining in silver and pearls, various coloured velvets and costly furs. Some drive up and down certain streets, for instance the Great Per- spective (which is the Bond-street of St. Petersburgh), to see and be seen in all the splendor of their winter array. Others partake of the pas- times annually exhibited on the river, very little differing from those of Bartholomew Fair. The principal amusement of this kind is the Ice Hill. It is a species of exercise very difficult to describe, as I know nothing in England that I can compare with it. The Russians are particularly fond of the amuse- ment ; and though dangerous to the ignorant, yet to the practised, from their dexterity in descending the tremendous fall, it is both safe and delightful. A temporary stage of wood is erected, about forty or fifty feet from the surface of the river ; from the perpendicular height of which is a steep descent like the side of an abrupt rock : against this is laid blocks of ice, that soon become an united mass, by means of torrents of water which are thrown along them, and that harden in a few seconds. On the level, at probably two hundred and fifty, or three hundred yards, stands a similar erection ; only placed a little on one side, in order to TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 155 clear the glassy road for the sledges darting from the summit of its op- posite neighbour. This they mount by means of a flight of stairs in its rear ; and placing their sledges on the declivity, are conveyed back to the other hill by the same method they left it. Indeed, the force gained by precipitating themselves from the top, is more than sufficient to carry such light sledges to a far greater distance than that which lies between each icy pyramid. The geometrical scratch underneath, will convey to you a general idea of this pastime. E A D A. A. the inclined planes of ice. B. the flight of steps in order to ascend. C . the flat between the opposite hills; D. people on sledges, impelled towards its base. E. E. iir-trees stuck on the top of the hills to give them a cheerful and pretty effect. The bearded natives gather a plentiful harvest of kopecks during this carnival, as a few pieces of that money is their usual charge for trans- porting individuals down the icy fall. The mode is as follows. A sort of sledge, without projections of any kind, but in shape and flatness like a butcher’s tray, is most fantastically and rudely ornamented with carving and colours, and placed on the summit of the hill. The native seats himself upon it, very far back, his legs extending in front perfectly straight. The person to be conveyed, places him or herself before him in a similar attitude, and both remaining steady, pass rapidly down the x 2 156 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. frozen torrent. The native behind guides their course with his hands, on the same principle as that of a vessel, touching the contrary side to that which they wish to go. To such nicety do they attain, that they steer round groupes of upset persons, without the chance of their giving or receiving the smallest injury. Many go down in these sledges alone ; and others on skates, both men and women, who fly forwards in a per- fectly upright position. Steadiness seems the chief accomplishment in the Russian skater : and the velocity of his motion, the object of plea- sure in the spectator. Here we no where see those graceful motions on the ice, that Mercurial sway of limbs in their volant sweep over its sur- face, which have been so much your friend’s admiration while standing a wintry day by the Serpentine in Hyde Park. You would call the Russians stout skaters ; but I fancy the utmost of your skill could not teach them elegance. Not that the generality of men in this country, who have fine forms, are radically incapable of adopting graceful at- titudes; but the cumbersomeness of their dress, and the customary modes of this exercise have never included any thing more pleasing to the eye than the simple object of rapid motion. The sensation excited in the person who descends in the sledge, is at first extremely painful ; but after a few times passing through the cutting air, it is exquisitely pleasurable. This seems strange, but it is so : as you shoot along, a sort of ethereal intoxication takes hold of the senses, that is absolutely delightful. As I am on the river, I may as well continue my cold descriptions, by giving you an account of a ceremony which I witnessed some weeks ago. It is one of the most celebrated in Russia, and is observed in that vast empire at every place on the same day. I mean the benediction of the v waters . TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 157 The Greek church has two offices for the benediction of the waters. The first may be performed at any time, when there is a want of holy water for baptism or any other religious use. The second, the great sanctification, is instituted in memory of the immersion of Jesus Christ in the Jordan ; and is of a very ancient date. It may be traced to the times of Saint Chrysostom ; and is held in such great respect, that any water so consecrated is supposed to remain for years as fresh as when drawn from the spring ; and when swallowed by sick persons, to cure them of their disease. Peter the Great, when he caused the patri- archal dignity to be laid aside in his dominions, abolished with it many useless and expensive solemnities. But this one of the waters was retained ; on what principle I cannot pretend to say, so shall con- tent myself with merely shewing to you its pageantry. Being in the Winter Palace, close to the scene of action, I had every advantage for viewing what passed. It was the sixth of January, the day appointed for the ceremony. On the ice of the Neva was erected a kind of temple, made of wood, painted and gilt, surmounted with a gold cross, and in front embellished with pictures relating to the mi- nistry of John the Baptist. The dome of this temporary building being supported by pillars only, through the vacant spaces the eye of curiosity may freely range. An enclosure of fir boughs twisted together, at some distance round the temple, keeps the mobility without, and the nobility within. This spot is carpeted with scarlet cloth, as is the temple, and the platform which reaches to the palace, whence the procession pro- ceeds. The temple is decorated with altars, crosses, relics, holy books, and every sort of sacred utensil. And in the midst of the consecrated enclosure is a hole cut in the ice, which is called the Jordan. 158 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. After the liturgy is finished, the priests and archimandrites (the superior of monasteries), and the bishops, apparelled in their richest habits, issue from the Winter Palace ; and bearing lighted tapers, the censer, and religious banners, proceed to the Jordan, singing their ap- propriate anthems. The imperial family and the court then follow; and while the service is performing, all the troops in the city are drawn up round the spot, with their standards waving, and the artillery plant- ed ready to fire at the conclusion of the ceremony. After several prayers for the sovereign and the people, the priest, blessing the water with his uplifted hands three times, utters this in- vocation. “ Be present, O merciful God, and by the coming of the Holy Ghost, sanctifiy this water ! Endue it with the grace of redemption, the bene- diction of Jordan. Make it the fountain of incorruption, the gift of holiness, the water of absolution, powerful to heal bodily sickness, deadly to every evil spirit, inaccessible to every adverse power ; and abounding with angelic virtue; that all who draw out and partake thereof, may receive it for the purification of their souls and bodies, for the sanctification of their houses, and for every thing good and profit- able to them. For thou art our God, who by water and the Spirit didst renew our nature grown old in sin. Thou art our God, who didst over- whelm and drown sin by water in the time of Noah. Thou art our God, who didst lead the children of Israel through the sea by Moses, and so deliver them from the bondage of Pharaoh. Thou art our God, who didst divide the stony rock in the wilderness, that the waters gushed out to give drink to thy thirsty people. Thou art our God, who by fire and water, through the ministry of Elijah, didst deliver the Israelites TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 105 from the errors of Baal ! Do thou, O Lord, now sanctify this water with thy Holy Spirit ! And grant unto all who touch it, and partake thereof, or are washed therewith, holiness, salvation, purification, and blessing !” The priest then consecrates the water with the holy cross, immerging it thrice into the stream, and chanting the benediction. This done, he takes some of the water thus rendered of divine properties, up in a dish, and touching the clergy and others with it, gives the dismission. The guns of all the troops then fire, and the solemnity concludes. The effect of the varied groupes, the military, religious, and courtly habits, as well as the characteristic accompaniments of adjacent objects, gave the whole a very splendid and interesting appearance. When all was over, we saw mothers hastening to dip their children in the open- ing made in the ice ; firmly believing, while they did so, that they ren- dered them invulnerable to all the ills of this life, both spiritual and temporal. Returning home along the river, I passed a couple of beautiful sledges drawn by rein-deer from the Samoiede country, some hundred versts be- yond Archangel. The animals were harnessed by the neck, and went extremely swift. They belonged to a nobleman of high rank ; and were brought merely as objects of curiosity ; the climate of St. Petersburgh being so much too mild for them, that they seldom outlive one season. Their appearance in the sledge was remarkably fine, harmonizing most picturesquely with the snows and ice of the surrounding view : and while I looked at them as they swept along in all the majesty of strength and grace of motion, I could not help regretting that their existence was 160 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. so prematurely shortened. You know I never was a friend to the pas- sion for novelty when it extends to animate creation, and because it is our fancy induces us to ravish poor birds and beasts from their native wilds, to languish and die in climates inimical to their natures. This letter, from its divers subjects, is a very harlequin jacket ; grave and gay; any thing, perhaps, but what it ought to be. However, as I wish you to share in all I see and hear, you must grant me some in- dulgence for throwing down my observations just as they occur. I do not pretend to be favoured with the Pegasean quill that was presented to you on entering the world : I never reached the wing of the im- mortal steed ; but nevertheless, a few hairs I plucked from his stream- ing tail, and twisting them into a pencil, with a stroke of its paint, now convey to you the visible form* of the scene I have attempted to describe. Having run you a race almost as long as my rein-deer, I shall now bid you good rest 1 Adieu ! * This, with many other sketches taken in Russia, and hereafter referred to, v/as lost in crossing the G?ulph of Bothnia. i/ C Stcuiler *adf . %/w ( / '/ w/v: * c J>ut. San. 2, VO0. fry JtjPffZZZZPS. Bridge Select, Son don J'.SCf'a'frr dd: V'"* -V'-V; ri; •ivmniso-' sk$veirns *» nutisju. . LETTER XVI. ' Si, Petersburg};, Feorumy, 18 C 5 . • x< *; y:m tfOfeder, my dear friend, that I have not yet taken notice * I Save always until this instance, si ■ merit vO tb: an iy, that t Save not given you any idea of the state of its ■ establishment in Russia It is just cliche It was, the first-born passion zti my breast ; but, #^fiag for little more on the subject '(which nothing, but the- return of part of the army from the frontier eouid ^tord me}, I nave out-staid your patience >' a a -a so d; present no >t oonhius ? ay sell. v :th ■ ■■ ■ ■ V; ■-'•••' a- ; ■ } ’i. ' uvn A * },. .. I cannot yet describe; for, as 1 -said before, the late absence of the ink htary has deprived «fi, not only of review, but of even the usual -ee- many o f an- iinper*ai parade- . i The guard? are here, jrifcfr severs.; other regiments-; and from my ac~ quahitance with fcbetii, X shall be able to send'^yojra few observations On this depan'iievl'ol ; '‘ e Russian ein pyre. r'lic troops whfch first strike the eye of a stranger on entering St. tkvemburgh, are the Cossto ; and certainly -irfdre embus objects cat- i4U * ^ Their persons, ah\ and ap-iointmcrits, and the* ani- • nuns on which they are mounted, seem so totally at variance, that you TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 161 LETTER XVI. St. Peterslurgh, February , 1805. And so you wonder, my dear friend, that I have not yet taken notice of the one subject in which I have always, until this instance, shewn so particular an interest. You ask me, what has become of my attach- ment to the army, that I have not given you any idea of the state of its establishment in Russia! It is just where it was, the first-born passion in my breast , but, waiting for little more and more information on the subject (which nothing but the return of part of the army from the frontieis could afford me), I have out-staid your patience ; and so at present must content myself with quieting your demands by sending merely my first sketch of its appearance and uniforms. Much further I cannot yet describe; for, as I said before, the late absence of the mi- litary has deprived us, not only of reviews, but of even the usual cere- mony of an imperial parade. The guards are here, with several other regiments ; and from my ac- quaintance with them, I shall be able to send you, a few observations on this department of the Russian empire. The troops which first strike the eye of a stranger on entering St. Peteisburgh, are the Cossacs ; and certainly more curious objects can- not be imagined. Their persons, air, and appointments, and the ani- mals on which they are mounted, seem so totally at variance, that you vol. i. v 162 travelling SKETCHES in RUSSIA. can hardly suppose a reason for so unequal a union. The men are ro- bust and fit for service : their horses appear completely the reverse : mean in shape, and slouching in motion, every limb speaks of languor, and every moment you expect to see them drop down dead under their heavy burthen : but so false are these shows, that there is not a more hardy animal existing ; it will travel incalculable journeys, and remain exposed to the heat or cold, day and night, without manifesting any sense of inconvenience. These little rugged beasts never, like our war horses , know the luxuiy of a snug stable and a well-littered bed, nor ever enjoy the comfort of a curry-comb or whisp of straw. Their sustenance is of the most scanty sort ; but, in spite of toil and rough fare, they endure all with unabated strength ; and are thus, of all animals, the best fitted for a soldier’s life. Indeed, when I consider their training, and also that of the Russian soldiers in general, I cannot but prefei the simplicity of their wants to the comparatively luxurious habits of our army. A man who accustoms himself to costly fare, may not be less willing than one of poorer appetites to brave all the privations of a campaign, or the famine of a siege ; but he must be less able to bear them, and so be more likely to sink in the conflict. One of the first qualifications of a soldier is that of being personally hardy : and wherever we have found the most powerful and popular Generals, we see that they accustom themselves to endure every privation which could possibly aftect a mi- litary life. Gustavus Vasa, and Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, are eminent instances of this ; and the great Suwarroff gave not a less me- ritorious example to the army of Russia. But to return to the Cossacs. Though now formed into regulai regi- TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 163 ments, they receive no other pay than the usual allowance for cavalry. The origin of this brave race, who in so many wars have been amongst the best soldiers of the empire, was a restless band of fugitives from Astrakhan, and the provinces of Polish Russia, Podolia, andVolhynia. Having left their native soil, they wandered towards the banks of the Boristhenes, where they took possession of several small islands, subsist- ing themselves by ravages, piracies, and plunder. From this double mode of depredation they soon became formidable to the Turks on the Black Sea. Their maritime adventures, and enterprises on land, formed them into excellent seamen as well as soldiers ; and their nearest neighbours regarded them with jealousy and dread. Stephen Batori, King of Poland, aware of their growing consequence, had the address to attach them to his interests ; and, to induce them to serve in his armies, gave them lands and many privileges in the Ukraine, guaranteed to them the right of being governed by their own chief, and put them in possession of the strong fort of Tretimiroff on the Boris- thenes. The succeeding Princes of Poland were not so prudent as Batori ; and, attempting to entirely subjugate their hardy allies, a sharp contention arose between them ; and the Cossacs, overwhelmed by the numbers and discipline of their treacherous friends, emigrated in vast numbers to a tract of country on the banks of the Don and Volga. Others went to the borders of the Caspian Sea, and seizing the town of Azoph, established themselves in great strength. But the Poles con- tinuing to harass them, they applied to the Muscovites for succour ; and since then have been most firmly attached to the nation. They are distinguished by the names of Donski and Ukraine Cossacs ; and the Tzar Peter, finding them so valuable an acquisition, allowed y 2 164 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. them, unrestricted, their usual government, which is a sort of military- democracy. Their chief is called the Hetman, and is elected in a ge- neral meeting of the heads of the people, leaving the confirmation of his dignity to the sovereign of Muscovy. The office is for life. Every town has its governor, also called a Hetman, who is chosen annually, and is accountable to the grand Hetman. The Tzar awarded to the Cossacs his protection in retaining to them the enjoyment of their an- cient laws and privileges, without paying any tribute to him, provided they would always hold themselves in readiness to appear in arms at their own expence, whenever he should deem it necessary to - require their services. I am told that their usual power is 16,000 men, which they can bring into the field any day that is demanded of them by the Emperor. Their riches consist in cattle and horses. Their habitations are clean, and their diet chiefly fish, flesh, and fruits, cooked in the plainest way. The men are very tall, well-proportioned, and greatly differ in the cha- racter of their heads from those of their neighbours. They are hardy, brave, active, and lively ; but, like most uncultivated nations, few of them have any idea of the refinements of honour. Their dialect is a mixture of Polish and Russ. When they first accepted the protection of Poland they were pagans ; but they now profess the Christian religion as it is established in Russia. Their dress is military and useful ; consisting of a close dark blue jacket, and very large full trowsers, under which they wear drawers and boots. Their head is covered with a high black cap of sheep-skin : a red bag hangs from its top ornamented with a chain of white worsted lace and tassels : a red stripe, rather broad, runs along the outside of ■ r C ■ , t64 T 9 k"V E U, ■ ; i it W • y.\ r m X A « them., unrest noted, their usual gor-n, >- . > a -,nt of military democracy. Their chief is calim -h :uv w-w. and i> elected ikv'rge-* nerah meeting of the .heads a w r*Pof Ms dignity to the sovereign o* ■ /' " T >■■■ wljce i ■ for hw. 1 h>vr v - town has its governor, also •• - i( dwanmg who is chosen ante and is accounted : fid = ■ (fed Cossacs his protection m ivte - .... cient law and privileges, wkfa^r p-.» ;?r an rn-?nu 10 'him, prov i• . . • . w 0; ft g. as it is established ii: ;...c . . * jacket, and v*ry large v . t boots.. Their head is coveted ^ P red bag hangs from' its tap hiw and '.wit is ‘ a el ;. ’/ ; r ■ ■ . - . - ' i. ' \]\ \ < !'• • , ••. . ■ ‘ '■•■ ■■■) : : egg: ^ ,^ u U s ■M <>>:* i u te. r “ ^ r *«■ . • ■ t • i, 1 - ' >>*« • t,: ■ 'An; a • , " ; . :|<{: ; 4 ! :: : : - • < r: i • . • .!' •' •' it','. ' 4 • .’5 » ’ \{A' ?$.- f V t* • " ; :-;mkr : {*• a i# y ®S* ■ - p- -V *•» *?* *■•' * ' ’•«* ™ ; - «» - - tj&f * . £- : ■ ... •• r.' ■ ,. : ' V Mim " n! , u- /r f ‘. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 165 the trowsers, as well as a cord of the same colour round the cape and sleeves. A single row of buttons closes the jacket at the breast. A broad leather belt, containing cartridges, and to which is suspended a light sabre, confines their waists. Their principal weapons are a pike about eight feet long, and a pair of pistols. A black belt crosses their left shoulder, to which is attached a sort of tin cartouch-box, hold- ing ammunition, and surmounted with a ramrod. An uncouth saddle is bound on the horse, somewhat like a doubled pillow, under which is a square piece of oil cloth painted in various colours. The horses are so small that they are mere ponies : their tails and manes are long, ragged, and in many cases clotted with dirt. Some of the men wear mustachios, and some dispense with that fierce appendage. Such is the dress of one order of the Cossacs. I saw another regiment, clothed in red, of much the same fashion, only their caps ran up to a greater height, and are of red velvet. Besides the usual arms, they have the additional one of a musquet. A sort of shirt, reaching to their knees, is the only material difference in their habit from that of the blue Cossacs. There is another nation, called Bashkeers, in the Russian service. They are the remains of the old Tschalmates, a people who dwelt an- ciently on the Kama, and united themselves with the Tartarian hordes. The Tartars, indeed, call them Baschkort (hence Bashkeer), that is Wolf, from their dexterity in plundering. I send you drawings of these people. Their countenances are exceedingly picturesque, being of a strong character, burnt with the sun, and wearing long beards in all the rudeness of uncultivated nature. This order of soldiery, in which there is a great variety, is generally 166 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. used in the Russian army in foraging parties, pursuits, patroles, videttes, or scouts ; its discipline not being organized on the regular cavalry system. The Russian army, taken in general, was under no improved military establishment until the reign of Peter the Great, although some par- ticular regiments, in the time of Michael Romanoff, were disciplined according to the German manner. For the better teaching of his own, he had also several thousand soldiers from the Banks of the Rhine, both infantry and cavalry. His native troops were exercised and commanded by French, German, and Scotch officers ; and thus he made foreign na- tions teach his the art of war. The Tzar Michaelovitz, the father of Peter the Great, pursued the same plan ; but while he invited expe- rienced soldiers from every country, he strictly forbad the adoption of their manners with their tactics, for fear that by such a change the established faith might be shaken. The completion of the organized state of the Russian military system was left, like almost every great achievement of the empire, to the divine genius of Peter. You are too well acquainted with his life to require me to say more on the subject ; but certainly his mind was the sun from which alone has irradiated every science that now blesses this country. He disciplined the whole of the army in the German style, officering it with foreign officers of noted experience and renown. His friend and preceptor Le Fort , shewed him what would be his future greatness by fulfilling such a design ; and awakening the generous enthusiasm of his nature, every suggestion that promised the future welfare of the country was adopted with promptitude and zeal. By his advice the Emperor formed the young nobility of Mosco into two regiments, in order to \ ' TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 167 teach them the exercise which he afterwards extended throughout his whole army. These were the foundation of the guards, now known by the name of Preobrajenski and Simenouski, and who took the place of the ancient Tzarish guards ; a body of men resembling in power the Janissaries of Turkey ; and that they did not exercise it with less wan- tonness, the bloody acts on record too horribly proclaim. It was in the year 1690 that this new military system, now so gigantic, re- ceived its birth. Before a few years had elapsed, this great monarch had regularly clothed, disciplined, and appointed pay for a vast army. In 1711, it consisted of fifty-one regiments of infantry ; thirty-nine of cavalry, and grenadiers and bombardiers to the amount of 5600 men : making a total of 109,650, Besides these there were forces in the fron- tiers and in garrison, calculated at 150,000 men ; not including the Cos- sacs, Calmucs, and Tartars, in the service of Russia, amounting to an equal number. The uniform of the irffantry was commonly green with red facings : the cavalry wore blue returned with red ; the artillery and bombardiers scarlet, with blue and black facings. The whole army was distin- guished with white cockades. Every regiment, like our own, takes its name from the district in which it was raised. The grenadiers are the only exception, and they are called by the name of their commanders. The pay, in the time of the Tzar, was not very considerable ; but, ac- cording to the period, perhaps fully adequate to the expences of the soldier. To foreign officers he gave almost one third more than he paid to those of his own country. This of course was to induce them to serve him. I by chance met with a little work on the subject (printed at Straw- 1&8 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. berry-Hill) ; it is scarce ; and as probably you may have never seen it, I shall make an extract from it relative to the pay, &c. of the Russian soldier during the year 1710. It was a memorandum of Sir Charles Whitworth’s while Embassador at this court. The whole expence for clothing and arming a foot soldier was twelve rubles. They were new equipped every two years ; and a kopeck a day was stopped for that purpose out of their pay. The nobility were obliged to furnish horses for the cavalry, for which government allowed them seven rubles for each animal. Sir Charles Whitworth says, that eleven rubles per annum was the pay of a soldier, exclusive of his monthly allowances of corn, peas, bacon, &c. Another author shews that this sum is merely nominal, as more than half of it was deducted for the purchase of clothes, medicines, flints, arms, and a hundred etcetera. As far as relates to these regulations, little difference has taken place to this day ; you may judge for yourself, as underneath I have set down the state of the pay in the time of Peter, and have added to it that of the army at the present period. In 1710. Yearly pay. Ruble t. Field-Marshal 10,000 Lieutenant-General 1,560 Major-General 1,170 Major-General, (a foreigner) 1,950 Brigadier-General 1,040 Colonel 650 Lieutenant-Colonel 390 Major 325 Clerk of the regiment 91 Surgeon ^ 130 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. ' 169 A COMPANY. Yearly pay. Rubles. Captain . ; . 234' Lieutenant . 130 Ensign .... . 104 Quarter-Master 91 The Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels 3 Sergeants . 15 had all companies, and of course would receive allowances accord- 6 Corporals .... 13 ingly* Clerk of the company ... 13 2 Drummers 11 84 Private soldiers . 11 . . In 1806 1 . Colonel .... . 900 Lieutenant-Colonel . . . 680 Major . 500 Captain .... . 415 Lieutenant .... . 300 Ensign (or 2d Lieutenant) . 240 Private of infantry . 3 and 30 kopecks. Private of Cavalry , 4 Private of artillery , 4 and 20 kopecks. The evolutions of the army remained in the state Peter the First left them, until Peter the Third, smitten by the military fame of Frederic the Second, adopted the Prussian tactics as far as his short reign would allow . Amongst other transformations he changed the generally red facings of the infantry to colours varied according to the respective re- giments. His successor the Great Catherine, had no whims in her . VOL. i, z 170 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. alterations: she laid aside all the stiffnesses premeditated by her late husband, and studied the utility and ease of the soldier more than the smartness of his appearance. It was she who gave the commodious large trouser which the Cossacs now wear. Her son Paul again embraced the Prussian passion, entirely altering the system introduced by her, and making all around him German to the most violent excess. Indeed, the martial law, dress, and parade attending every minute circumstance, civil and military, are too well known for me to descant on here. How- ever, no fault can be found with the aspect of the present Russian sol- dier. His air is martial, and his general appearance admirable. The heavy cavalry wear green uniforms, cut short in the Austrian fashion, with various facings. Their helmets are very high, crested with an enormous quantity of bristly hair ; and the effect is altogether more that of an antique casque, than of a modern invention. White pantaloons have superseded the trousers ; and so far from being on the easy plan, they girdle the wearer so tightly round the w r aist that you cannot look on him without being reminded of a wasp. This custom is not handsome ; and by no means friendly to health, as the encirclement comes up so high on the body as to subject the soldier to great incon- veniences ; and, in the course of a little time, must produce the most serious consequences. The infantry wear a similar coat with the cavalry ; and have felt caps like our own, decorated with a feather formed of hair dyed black, green, or red. The sword and bayonet are girt round their loins ; and a broad white belt, crossing their left shoulder, carries the cartouch- box. This latter appendage belongs to all the troops. White cloth pantaloons and boots complete their apparel. 1 70 T \i A V v . ' " l M - 'V .SSI A. • by . h ms band, and studied th • eTtbty&uu nus-; • the solcii^ i .. *e tfc smartrie Cfcne*'s of his appears. a*.v . '* v*‘$r ;'a^e the w*fYiuiod*cv*- hk .10 trouser which the’ Cossack «yeut. fiW &dh Pain a^.ii? ^ ■: : ' ‘ iii ? t rr du • * . and making all around Tm «: to the /:!» ••$? * : = lent excess/ i ;<>;?•••< . ^ frhowo ka om to descant op here, } ' o .. 1'Viiil t .....< he ?!“:»• iii oor: • bfk in'esVifd. Russian sob- eye r, no i i ier , II i s ai r i s m a rf 4 a * a • a: . - T -ire c> / f o 'arable. The heavy cffvah y v o ■ ..e ; ^ yn.-.-; ■ fu. ,Ar- ■ . ria? isTacini with an m&st)iQ\ih qu&htrv * ;' h • -k more that of ;m am op e c *r]v ■ vn /: ^ pantaloons have superseded rn- my plan, they girdle ill* hp caen' tiooh on »vn withal q-e 'not handsome ; and by n.- tV T comes up bo high on the 7/0 wTo '■• tv .<> in -To »• serious consequence*. . • T\k ' y Inghi costed •: :*'L k aiiog- 'J-: volution. . ^*hitc " . 0 »nr being on the •t>; waist thin y<; u y l .ais emt m is ?i;t; encin. uttem r ' t \o. i/7 great i^bon- .■ ■V- ok-; r ... -. 'occ the'?mo.s< ■ kt ■ ' > • oT The infantry wear- a u> fj: - ! iolt caps like our ovra. decormk ; ' • : ■" • ■ , , ■ ' . ' . r 1 • « pirn 'k green,- or red'. • The swoi ■ ;; • :> no a broad white belt., cross . ' u. f> ix.w This latter appear . - ' i; ;*th pantaloons and boots con—. - . - r.tesxMtr ^v- l F' Psrisr &&■ Z.A-Hv-bsrt dire#" ( l/ki/ o^y/rfe/ c ^nF^/r ui// c ymr6 ( ^//M// / i^ 6 ~ 7 ~ TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 171 The Emperor Alexander being much attached to his army, and de- lighting to mark the emulation with which the officers strive to out- strip each other in their profession, takes great pains with his guards : and I think I may venture to pronounce that they are as fine a body of men as any crowned head in Europe can boast. They are of immense stature, warlike in their air, and remarkable for steadiness in all their duties. Their dress is green, like the rest of the infantry ; shewing their pre-eminence by no other difference than their colossal height, much increased by a high horse-hair feather in their cap. Their mustaccios are nicely blacked and pinched ; and their whiskers, which are enormous, almost meet across the chin ; and being whitened with powder, impart a striking expression of ferocity to their countenances. The life-guards of his Imperial Majesty are the chevalier-guard, and the guard d cheval. They are clothed in white with red capes and sleeves, and a huge high-crested helmet, the common cavalry belt with a long strait sword, and the stiff jack-boot. The officers are generally tall, but so thin and pinched at the waist that it is painful to see them move ; as the joining of their body to their hips seems held by so slender an adhesion, that one cannot but apprehend every succeeding motion may break it in twain. One of the most superb regiments in the Russian service is that of the Hulans, commanded by the Archduke Constantine. He is particularly fond of it ; always wears the uniform, which is blue with red returns and gold ; and exercises it according to the Austrian system. The hussars, I understand, are no inconsiderable rivals to the magnificence of this corps ; but the dress of their officers I should think by much too rich : the most profusely decorated light dragoons we have in England, are z 2 m TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. plain in comparison. The custom of loading military uniforms with expensive and needless ornaments is certainly wearing out ; and a happy circumstance it is, both for the convenience and purse of the officers ; and much rejoiced will every true soldier be, when he sees the army in general more ussefully and less gaudily appointed. Indeed, so great a friend am I to the simplicity which seems so consonant with the military profession that, even where splendor is most admissible, when I have seen your full-dress of the guards at St. James’s, I have thought its ab- solutely over-laying with gold lace, more becoming a monarch’s page than one of the guardians of his safety. The most soldier-like and ser- viceable dress I have met with in any country is that of the Cossacs, for it contains every thing (excepting more appropriate arms), which is re- quisite in cavalry. I am not yet sufficiently intimate with my subject to give you a just •opinion of what may be all the virtues of a Russian soldier. The officers are in general full of high military honour ; and, if we admit obedience to be the first qualification in the private, and no attempt to argue the propriety of any order received, to be the second, then cer- tainly the Russian soldiers possess those excellences in full perfection. Taken from a state of slavery, they have no idea of acting for them- selves when any of their superiors are by ; hencfe, they are as ready to receive all outward impressions as a piece of clay in the modeller’s hands ; and that the hands of their modellers are not very idle, they daily feel on their heads and shoulders enforced by the cane. Though humbled, the spirit of this hardy race is not subdued. It shews its latent manly powers in the field against the enemy : for there is not a braver set of men any where than the Russian soldiers. The TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 17S frequent wars between them and the Persians and Turks, who are such fierce combatants, gives them a wild ferocity in action, and accustoms them to the determination never to give way. This temper they carry into other countries, as the campaigns of Suwarroff and Bagration so gloriously testify. The army is recruited by a tax on the nobility of so many slaves out of every hundred they possess. The number is regulated according to the exigencies of the state. I have not been very profuse in my remarks on national character, because, I think I might as well decide on the general effect of a statue, by seeing only its leg or arm, as write confidently of the Russian man- ners, when I have penetrated no further than this city. Indeed, I know of no study so uncertain as that of individuals ; and it is by a number of individuals that we judge of a people : and where we find it so dif- ficult to gain a true knowledge of our own characters, we ought not to consider the task so easy to comprehend that of others. Some persons have a happy facility in seizing the characteristic points of a nation : and none was more eminently gifted with this power than Peter the First. I will transcribe a specimen ; and instead of receiving the poor pittance of my opinion on one country, you shall be enriched with the judgment of so great an Emperor on several. It was his estimation of the foreigners whom he encouraged to come to his new capital. “ You may give to a Frenchman (says he) liberal pay: he never amasses money, and loves pleasure. The case nearly answers to the German ; only he spends what he labours for in good-living, not on the gay vanities of the Frenchman. To an Englishman more must be given : 174 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. he will enjoy himself at any rate ; should he even call in to his aid his own credit. A Dutchman rarely eats enough to pacify nature ; his sole object is economy : less, consequently, will serve him. An Italian is by nature inoculated with parsimony : a trifle, therefore, will do for him : almost out of nothing he will contrive to save ; making no mystery of it, but acknowledging that he serves from home with no other view than to amass money to enable him to return with affluence to the heaven of Europe, his own dear Italy .” I am now preparing to make^ a visit to Mosco, the ancient capital of this empire. There, many of the oldest families of consequence re- side ; living in a state of lordly hospitality appropriate to their rank and highly honourable to their magnificence. From thence I shall send you more satisfactory accounts ; being then enabled to speak more cor- rectly on the native and unsophisticated manners of the Muscovite na- tion. Many hundred miles shall I travel before I again subscribe my- self your faithful friend. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 175 > LETTER XVII. Mosco, February , 1806. The Russian winter is now far advanced : and as the mode of tra- velling is so different from that of summer ; and indeed from any thing practised in countries where the frost. is less severe, I shall give you a view of our accommodations before we set out. \ On February the twenty-second, Old Style, Mr. H. of Northamp- tonshire and myself proposed for our mutual comfort that the trip should be made together. With passports properly registered, and an Qrder to the post-houses to furnish us with horses to the number of seven, we began our movements. The expence of this licence is at the rate of a kopeck a verst for each animal, according to the number the traveller deems necessary to take him to the end of his journey. The receipts belong to government. To the furnisher of the horses at each stage, we afterwards pay two kopecks as his remuneration. The vehicle we purchased for ourselves was a Kabitka ; a well- con- trived and snug machine, not dear, costing only thirty-five rubles, that 'is, five guineas British. Its form is simple, being nothing more than a large wooden cradle, fixed on a double keel or skate of the same material, strongly shod with iron. Our trunks were placed at the head and foot; and filling the intermediate space at the bottom with hay, mattrasses, pillows, and other soft accompaniments, we wrapped our persons in 176 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. pelisses, furred boots, caps, &c. and laying ourselves prostrate, side by side, in the bed we had made, were ready to sally forth in as regular a northern array as any veteran of the Russian winter. Our domestics followed in a barouche, deprived of its wheels, the better to facilitate its union with the sledge ; but, like many other ill-suited matches, the connexion became so uneasy to both parties that a separation was con- stantly threatened ; and a most troublesome companion we found these, two made one in our journey. Being apprised that there were no decent inns on the road, we pro- vided all sorts of conveniences for ourselves and suite. Indeed, we had received so terrible a description of the houses we were to stop at, while the horses were changing, that I feared from heat, smells, dirt, and ver- min, that I should not be able to endure them a moment ; and so took every precaution against entering them at all if it could be possible. These places were the dwellings of the post-masters, whose only article of nourishment for the wearied traveller is coffee or tea. The mode of attaching the horses to this vehicle is different from that used on similar occasions in any other country that I have ever seen ; they being harnessed (generally six in number) abreast, like the chariots of old. The traces are of ropes ; and the driver sits on a box in front of the kabitka. The steeds , which thus imitate the fashion of the heroic ages, unfortunately in appearance are every thing that is wretched and mean : they are diminutive, with matted coats and clotted tails and manes : in- deed, their aspect is so pitiable to an English eye, that you expect to see them stretched on the snow, never to rise again, long before they have measured half a dozen versts. With such exquisite halting places in per- spective, and promising animals to draw us towards them, after a series TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 177 of inconvenient delays we at last, late in the day of the twenty- second, moved off. W e soon arrived at the barrier-gate, and producing our credentials to the officer] on guard, were allowed honourable passage ; and again put- ting our cattle to their speed, pressed forward towards the next stage with a swiftness incredible. We saw that our horses were like those of the Cossacs, of bad appearance but radical worth ; and reclining in our cradle, committed ourselves to their guidance with feelings of confidence and ease most luxuriously delightful. We had not travelled long before we found ourselves on an extensive plain of snow, bounded by black forests of birch and thick fir. The road was excellent ; and the rapidity of our carriage seemed to increase rather than diminish with the distance. Before we reached the first post, we passed many travellers embozvelled in like manner with ourselves ; and also saw several curious-looking villages. As they all resemble each other in architectural arrangement, by describing one, I shall give you a tolerably accurate idea of the whole of these rustic residences through- out the empire. Scarcely any difference is distinguishable amongst them all, unless it may be in the size or materials of the church, or in its being built with or without a steeple. The houses are constructed of wood, the walls being compiled of long round beams, or rather trunks of trees, bereft of their limbs and bark, laid horizontally one on the other with nicety and neatness. Not a nail is used in this erection ; the building being so contrived as to be taken down at pleasure, and re-erected in a few hours on any other VOL. i. A A 178 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. spot. I am told that at Mosco there is a house-market , where you may purchase small villages ready made : villas also, and houses of every size and pattern, fill up this extraordinary magazine ; so, that if any one happens to be burnt out in the morning, before night he may have a room at least erected at a cheap rate, to cover him. Most of the villages consist of one street only, pretty wide, pre- senting to the eye a row of gable ends, resembling the ancient towns in Britain, In the wall, are windows of four panes of glass, with curious carved ornaments a-top ; and on their shutters (which open out- wards) a variety of flowers, stars, and strange devices are painted in the rudest taste, and often blended with gilding. The national admiration of painting and sculpture is every w r here manifested on the facades of the cottages. The latter is certainly the best executed ; and in some of their wild carvings frequently may be discovered the germs of real talent. Every house has a gallery or ballustrading below, besides the roof projecting from the face of the building, to defend its inmates from, the sun during summer, and the weather in the severer season. I un- derstand that no habitations are cooler than these during the hot months, nor any warmer through the whole of the cold. A sort of double-gate separates each from its neighbour, and leads into a large court-yard filled with sheds, old kabitkas, and other carriages of the country ; besides an accumulation of dirt, rotten straw, jaded horses, pigs, and other nuisances ; completing a museum of nastiness scarcely to be found in any other civilized spot on the globe. I have made a sketch of one of these villages which will assist you in comprehending my description. At the post-house you observe a pole, TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 179 on which is suspended a straw wreath and four or five tassels. I must plead ignorance of this emblem ; and on enquiring, I found the post- master no wiser than myself. Nothing interesting presenting itself, we travelled onwards, through towns and villages, and over a dreary country, rendered ten thousand times more so by the season. All around was a vast wintry flat : and frequently not a vestige of man or of cultivation was seen, not even a solitary tree, to break the boundless expanse of snow . Indeed, no idea can be formed of the immense plains we traversed, unless you imagine yourself at sea, far, far from the sight of land. The Arabian deserts cannot be more awful to the eye, than the appearance of this scene. Such is the general aspect of the country during the rigors of winter; with now and then an exception of a large forest skirting the horizon for a considerable length of way. At intervals, as you shoot along, you see openings amongst its lofty trees, from which emerge pictuiesque groupes of natives and their one-horse sledges, whereon are placed the different articles of commerce, going to various parts of this empire. They travel in vast numbers, and from all quarters, seldom fewer than one hundred and fifty in a string, having a driver to every seventh hoise. The effect of this cavalcade at a distance is very curious ; and in a morning, as they advance towards you, the scene is as beautiful as strik- ing. The sun then rising, throws his rays across the snow, transform- ing it to the sight into a surface of diamonds. From the cold of the night, every man and horse is encrusted with these frosty particles ; and the beams falling on them too, seem to cover their rude faces and mooed habits with a tissue of the most dazzling brilliants. The manes of the horses, and the long beards of the men, from the quantity of con- gealed breath, have a particularly glittering effect. A A 2 180 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. Novgorod was the first place of consequence that lay upon the road. On entering from the St. Petersburgh side, a long, high range of brick wall presents itself; the ruined towers and battlements, some of which are very interesting, being quite of a different charactered fortification from that of any ancient fortress I had ever before beheld. The gilded minarets of the holy buildings, whose heads proudly shone in the heavens, form- ed a contrast, full of reflection, to this poor mutilated military cestus I never saw in any place, however wretched, such forlorn effects from time and devastation as met my eyes on entering the town : so neglect- ed, so poverty-stricken ; houses falling into ruin, and whole streets, in some parts, one wide waste of desolation. Such is the present state of a city once the capital of the country ; the residence of the earliest sove- reigns of the empire ; and a place so flourishing by grandeur and by commerce, as to give rise to the proverb : “ God and the great city of Novgorod who can withstand?” The river Volkoff divides it, run- ning into the lake Ilmen at a short distance from the town. This vast body of water was unfrozen in the centre when we crossed, owing to the extraordinary rapidity of the flood ; and I am told that under the most^severe frosts it seldom freezes. A very long bridge on boats, for the conveniency of removal on account of the ice, is thrown over the lake. As this is one of the most ancient towns in Russia, (being the native place of the great Princess Olga, who assumed the empire in the year 945 ; and the chief city of its grand Princes for many a century, we can have no difficulty in crediting the traditional accounts of what was once its magnitude. At present, within seven versts from Novgorod, stands a monastery, behind which they say formerly extended the old walls ; nay, the spot on which that church is built has been pointed out to me TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 181 as having been the centre of the <( Great City. I could not see any ruins on this quarter to bear witness to the testimony. Whilst our horses were preparing, my fellow traveller and myself paid a short visit to the cathedral of Saint Sophia. It was built near nine hundred years ago, by Vladimir, Prince of Novgorod ! The exterior is a dull collection of gloomy arches, decorated with gothically painted legends of Saints. Within, are relics, held in great veneration by the people ; monuments of departed princes, bishops, &c. : and high amidst the dim funereal light of the circling roof, the remains of silken banners 3 military, I suppose, from their form and station. We were shewn a huge mill-stone, which is regarded with the most devout reverence on account of the wonders attached to its history. It is believed that St. Anthony used it as a raft in crossing the Levant, and then made it his vehicle to Novgorod ; where the people, astonish- ed at such a miracle, were drawn to listen to his mission, and imme- diately embraced the doctrine taught by so manifest a messenger from Heaven. It is said, that in commemoration of his having introduced the Christian religion into this city, he founded the very monastery in which this precious relic now resides. A Neither my companion nor I being able to swallow the mill-stone, we took a civil leave of our expositors, and left the church. Returning 1* to the post-house, we found our carriages ready; and again placing ourselves within them, proceeded over many dreary tracks of snow till we reached Twer. This town is the capital of a province of that name ; and is built at the 182 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. conflux of the Twertza and the Volga : the latter river is now celebrated for its line fish ; once upon a day it drew its fame from the warriors who encamped on its banks : but happy is the period when peace gives leisure for those pleasures to be noticed, which in times of war are passed over as the waves that flow along unseen or unregarded. The warrior’s glory is an attractive light that we are all fond of grasping ; but if it leads not to peace, and the honour of those for whom they fight, we are but troublers of the world, and rather deserve a halter than a laureh The city is much larger than that of Novgorod ; and in ancient days was one of its proudest rivals. Yarastof the Third, the brother of Alexander Nefsky, received this principality as his inheritance ; and transmitted the succession to a long train of descendants. Twer is di- vided into the old and new town. The former, situated on the opposite side of the V olga, consists of wooden cottages, and has rather a miser- able appearance. But the latter having been burnt down in the year 1763, Catherine the Second no sooner heard of the calamity, than she or- dered it to be re-erected on one of her own healthy and beautiful plans . She was at the expence of rebuilding the governor’s house, the bishop’s palace, the courts of justice, the exchange, and other public buildings ; and to engage the inhabitants to follow her models for the new town, she gave each of them a loan of three hundred pounds for twelve years, without interest. The money advanced by her Imperial Majesty was sixty thousand pounds; and she afterwards remitted one- third of the sum. The streets are broad, open, and long; and the houses being brick stuccoed, and of a good architecture, they produce a very hand- some effect. The same beneficent Empress founded a school here for the burghers’ children ; and an academy for the young nobility. There is also an ecclesiastical college. In short nothing that could be con- TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 183 ducive to the comfort, improvement, and prosperity of her people was neglected by this august Princess. If ever Sovereign deserved to be con- sidered as the fostering parent of a nation, it was Catherine the Great. You may trace her name from one end of this vast empire to the other; not in cyphers written over doors and windows, but in acts of muni- ficence and wisdom which fill us with the most unalloyed admiration. Who can bring to remembrance that Catherine in some cases felt too much like a woman, when in every public deed of her life (and they were unceasing), you see manifested the sage, the heroine, and the affectionate guardian of millions of people ? * • . •' • • Twer is a place of considerable commerce, owing to its situation on the conflux of two such advantageous rivers. And perhaps on this ac- count we found a very good inn, which was no trifling comfort ; though we were detained, and imposed on too, bythe clumsiness and roguery of the host. Our unlucky barouche, after a variety of disasters in its journey, here broke fairly down ; and thus proved the folly of making use, in these regions, of any carriage that is not adapted to the roads and horses of the country. After much bungling we at length got the vehicle mounted on its skates ; and I enquired of the landlord his de- mand for the share he had in the repairs ; he coolly asked thirty rubles ! So exorbitant a charge occasioned me to remonstrate : at this moment my servant came up (an honest Russ, who some time before had been made free) ; he enquired what was the matter. I told him the extortion of the man, and that I wanted to beat him down. “ I’ll beat him down l” cried he, catching the poor wretch by the beard ; and laying upon his shoulders, with all his might, an immense bludgeon large enough to be called a club. As the terrified host swung round at the arm’s length of my doughty champion, the blows fell like hail upon his back, while he 184 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. kept bawling out: te twenty, fifteen, ten, & c.” till he reduced his de- mand to the more reasonable Sum of two rubles. On this cry, like the last bidding at an auction, the appraiser was satisfied, and the hammer fell. The poor battered wretch was released ; and bowing with a grateful air to his chastiser, turned to me. Almost killed with laughing at so extraordinary a sight, I paid him his rubles. I was no less amused at the stupid indifference with which the standers-by regarded the whole transaction ; and got into the kabitka to pursue our journey, debating with myself, whether the frequent drubbings these slaves endure, really reduces their flesh to the consistence of stock-fish ; or whether the friendly sheep-skins on their backs do not blunt the force of blows, which otherwise threaten not only bruises but broken bones. The bow he made to my triumphant valet entertained me as much as any thing ; and as we drove off, he repeated his obeisances with as much re- spect as if we had given him a hundred ducats, instead of a few rubles and a drubbing into the bargain. What will you say to me for stand- ing by to countenance such a scene ? But in fact, my umpire took me so by surprise, and I was so convulsed with laughter at the oddity of the groupe they formed, and the whole was performed in so short a time,- that I declare I had not power to stir from the spot or speak a word ; and so for once allowed the ridiculous to get the better of my humanity. We now hoped to proceed quietly to Mosco ; but alas ! we had not gone very far before the barouche-sledge shewed symptoms of disunion again ; and at the village of Klin our servants had the extraordinary pleasure of another summer-set in the snow. While our plague was re- fitting, I left the management to the hero who had so well acquitted himself during the last affair, and entered the post-house. By way of TUAVELLlNG SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 185 amusing my almost exhausted patience, as the apartment was rather curiois, I made a sketch of the scene within. These dwellings being all al ke, my drawing will present you with the image of their form and inhabitants ; but my pen, reluctant to be idle in your service, insists upon bringing before your mind’s-senses, its dirt, effluvia, and varieties of wretchedness. As the poet recommends pomp to take physic , perhaps it may not be less salutary now and then to give the delicacy of British organs a similar regimen ! So, without further apology, I shall, not- withstanding my “ damnable faces, begin !” ' One room is the habitation of all the inmates. Here they eat, sleep* and perform all the functions of life. One quarter of it is occupied by a large stove or peech, flat at the top ; on which many of them take their nocturnal rest ; and during the day loll over its baking warmth, for hours, by threes and fours together, in a huddle, not more decent than disgusting. Beneath, is an excavation like an oven, used for the double duty of cooking their victuals, and heating the dwelling to the desired temperature. The apartment I am describing, rendered insufferably stifling by the stove, the breaths, and other fumigations, contained the post-master, his wife, his mother, his wife’s mother, an infant, and two men, apparently attached to the post department, as they wore green uniforms. There were others besides, who being rather withdrawn in a dark corner, we could not distinctly observe. When we entered, the top of the oven was occupied by the three women and child, almost all in a state of nature. The youngest was extremely pretty, and seemed, though a mother, not more than fifteen. This is nothing surprizing ; as the warmth of these stoves act upon the human VOL. i. 6 B 186 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. constitution as hot-houses do upon exotics. A bed with dirty curtains filled one corner of the room ; a few benches and a table, completed the furniture. The walls were not quite so barren, being covered with uncouth prints and innumerable daubings. In one spot was placed a picture or effigy of our Saviour and the Virgin, decorated with silver plates, stamped most curiously. From the ceiling was suspended a lamp, which during certain holy-days is kept continually burning. Having finished my sketch, we left this cyclopean den, not only to look into the state of our carriages, but to breath a little fresh air, as its heat and stench became so pestiferous that we felt ourselves compelled to make our escape, or resign ourselves to suffocation. As we opened the door, the steam issued with us like smoke from the crater of a volcano . While we stood by the repairing barouche, a priest came forth from the house we had quitted. He was a young, healthy, and good-looking man, with long and beautiful hair divided on his forehead, and flowing gracefully on each shoulder, in the style of Raphael’s head. He ad- dressed us in his native tongue, but finding us ignorant in that point, changed his eloquence to the Latin language ; and now being under- stood, he poured forth with such vehemence and inconsistency that we soon discovered he had been paying his devotions to a certain heathen deity, from whom he had received a most spirited afflatus"; so much so, that he seemed to forget both himself and the dignity of his profession. Indeed he pestered us so adhesively that we were glad to shake him off, even by darting back into the apartment of the post-master. He fol- lowed us in, proceeding as most men do who take an enemy into their mouth to steal away their senses ; and after a most tormenting half hour, he at last said something in his native tongue, unintelligible to us, but TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 18 ? so level to the understanding of the rest, that the females made their escape as if a shot had fallen amongst them. Our host seemed extremely angry ; and, I suppose, intimated to the ecclesiastic that he desired his absence ; for he turned round with a sullen reluctance, and proceeding towards the door, cast his eye on the painted effigy of our Saviour and his Mother. He stopped suddenly, and with the greatest reverence crossed himself several times, and then left the place. I cannot say the example of this pastor was very edifying to his flock, it being now one of their most sacred fasts in the Greek calendar, when it is infamous amongst the Russians not to abstain from all strong liquors. _ This man was a secular priest ; and, I am told that many of the lower rank of that order are rather free in their modes of life. Not so with those of higher dignity : they are celebrated for qualifications quite the contrary; for purity of heart and sanctity of manners. I will evince my respect to them, by giving you the opinion of one who knew them well. “ The superior clergy at this time are men whose simplicity, can- dour, and primitive modesty, would have illustrated the first ages of Christianity. Their way of living, from the nature of their order, being all monks, is very rigid. And as it precludes them from mixing with the world, it is not to be wondered at that few of them should have that easiness of address which a frequent intercourse with society only can give. But their manners are gentle as their life is austere. Biassed by early education, they are perhaps a little too partial to the ceremonies of their own church ; but they are far from being bigoted, or thinking there can be no salvation out of the pale of their own communion. b b 2 188 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. Their studies are almost totally directed to their profession, as no instance has yet been known of any of them excelling in the arts or sciences.” Not doubting but that you are as tired of the pastor of Klin as we were, I shall bid the subject adieu ; and having once more re-entered our skating cradles, say farewel, till I again salute you from this city, with the beauties and hospitalities of Mosco. / TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 189 LETTER XVIII. Mosco , March , 1806. After six days and nights of weary travel, we arrived at Mosco on the twenty-ninth of February : but the weather being foggy, so entirely enveloped the city as to conceal a view from us which, I am told, for magnificence is not exceeded in Europe. On delivering our letters of introduction, we were welcomed with all the courtesies of friendship ; and at the first salutation, were made to forget, by the true politeness of this generous people, that we were strangers. I have heard it said that hospitality is a mark of barbarism. On what this opinion is grounded I cannot guess : but certainly it had not its foundation at Mosco ; for I never saw, in any part of the world, such general polish of manners as in this city. Their hospitality ap- pears to me to arise from a confidence in the friend who gives the in- troduction that he will not recommend any person unworthy of their notice ; not doubting this, their benevolence hesitates not to receive the introduced with kindness : and from their love of society, if he prove agreeable, he soon finds himself on the most easy and pleasant terms with a large and elegant acquaintance. Hence, I am led to consider this disqualifying remark on hospitality, as one of those common- places which the ignorant adopt on the faith of others; and those others, if they be equally unreflecting, can only promulgate the like dogmas, as an excuse for some failing in themselves. 190 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. Fortunately for us, our arrival and the Prince Bagration’s was nearly at the same time. We received cards from the English club (an asso- ciation only so in name, not three of our nation belonging to it) ; invit- ing us to a dinner which they gave to the Prince in honour of his late gallant conduct with the armies. The house appropriated to this entertainment was a palace which for- merly had been the residence of Prince Gorgorin. Its suite of splendid saloons, and the great marble hall in which dinner was served, were fitted up with the most unsparing magnificence. At half-past two o’clock the Governor, General Becklachoff, and the Prince Bagration entered. The latter was immediately surrounded by all in the room, eager to express their joy at his presence, and congratulations to their country in being yet blessed with the preservation of such a man. He is below the middle stature; of a dark complexion, deeply tinged with the climates in which he has served. His eye is small, quick and penetrating. His nose, a very high aquiline; and his face perfectly Georgian (he being of that country), expresses the most charming affa- bility and sweetness. His demeanor is in unison with his countenance, being demonstrative of a modesty as winning as it is admirable in so idolized a character. He was dressed in a uniform wholly of green, covered with the insignia of many orders, stars, and a red ribbon. The dinner was conducted with the nicest decorum ; and the healths of the Emperor and the Prince Bagration were drunk with the greatest enthusiasm. In fact, I never saw a society of Russians so animated; and more than once it reminded me of similar meetings in honour of our glorious friend and hero Sir Sidney Smith. Indeed the sentiment TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 191 was so much the same, and the idea of one great man so naturally sug- gested those of others, that several of the Russian nobility present asked me if it. were not like the fetes we dedicate to our heroes. I ac- knowledged the resemblance ; but inwardly gave them the palm of ge- neral politeness ; a grace in which this assembly far exceeded ours : I never in my life experienced so much attention as was there paid to us as strangers and Englishmen. Three quarters of an hour finished the repast ; previous to which a band of singers from a regiment quartered in the city, sung an air in honour of the prince. The words, I here pre- > sent to you in a prose translation. Friendship unites us here. Joy captivates each heart! Truth herself declares, that he is the hero who sacrifices himself to the Emperor and the empire, despising envy and malice, and who dedicates himself to justice. Chorus. — Let us entwine him a crown of laurels, for he merits to wear it. Unassisted by fortunate circumstances, he wrested honour from the arms of peril. He added not single rays to the glory of Russia, but surrounded it with a thousand beams. Hope dawned wherever his form appeared. Host? failed to make him shrink ; and with a few he overcame numbers. Chorus.— Let us entwine him a crown of laurels, for he merits to wear it. A hero’s soul is satisfied with gratitude, all other recompense is foreign to his feelings. He despises luxury and pride, and all the vanities of the world. To serve man- kind is his aim, and their happiness his reward. They who reap the renown of virtue, lose it not in the grave! Chorus. — Let us entwine him a crown of laurels, for he merits to wear it. Every regiment has its own vocal band. They sing in parts, accom- panied by an instrument resembling a guitar, called a Ballalaika. 1 he strains of this musical tribute to the prince were wild and piercing ; 192 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. something like the tones of the Eolian harp, when the wind is disturb- ed and gusty. He received the song and the plaudits with a grace which again brought our Cceurde Lion before me. The air over, part of the company withdrew to cards; and part (in which latter choice I united) preferred a saloon, where several vocal and instrumental military bands weie stationed, still further to amuse the prince during the in- tervals of conversation. We had also the horn-music ; which, as it is strange and curious, I will describe. / It was invented by a Prince Gallitzin, in the year 1762. This instru- ment consists of forty persons, whose life is spent in blowing one note. The sounds produced are precisely similar to those of an immense organ ; with this difference, that each note seems to blend with its pre- ceding and following one ; a circumstance that causes a blunt sensation to the ear, and gives a monotony to the whole. However, the effect possesses much sublimity, when the performers are unseen : but when they are visible, it is impossible to silence reflections which jar with their harmony. To see human nature reduced to such a use , calls up thoughts very inimical to admiration. of strains so awakened. I enquired who the instrument belonged to? (by that word, both pipes and men are includ- ed !) and was told it had just been purchased by a nobleman, on the recent death of its former possessor. Some of these individuals, thus destined to drag through a melancholy existence, play at different times on several pipes of various sizes which breathe the higher notes. But the base pipes have each their unchang- ing blower: they are extremely long, and are laid upon a machine or trussel, close to which the performer stands, and places his mouth to the smaller extremity of the pipe in a horizontal position. The shape TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 193 is exactly that of a hearing trumpet : a screw is inserted near the bell of the tube, to give it a sharper or flatter tone, as may be required. The performers are in general thin and pale : and I have little doubt but that the quantity of air the instrument takes, and the practice ne- cessary for perfection in execution, must subtract many years from the otherwise natural term of their lives. The instrumental military bands which I have heard in this country, are very inferior to those of England or France: two essential things are wanting, good cymbals and large drums. The latter instruments are very defective in Russia; and the fifes fall far short of ours. My introduction to Prince Bagration, who is not only one of the first of military heroes, but in his character as a man, is an honour to hu- man nature, brought me to a sight the most degrading to our species. What a difference at once before my eyes ! a great warrior, on whom all eyes were fixed with admiration ; and a set of poor mechanized wretches, reduced to the level of a child’s whistle ! Indeed, I was moved with the most distressing pity when I looked upon them. But this was not enough ; I was to see the varieties of destiny yet more manifested, in the formation and fortunes of a race of rational beings called dwarfs. They are here the pages and the play-things of the great ; and at al- most all entertainments stand for hours by their lord’s chair, holding his snuff-box, or awaiting his commands. i There is scarcely a nobleman in this country who is not possessed of one or more of these frisks of nature; but in their selection, I cannot say that the noblesse display their gallantry, as they choose none but males. Indeed, to excuse them, I must confess, that amongst all the VOL. i. c c 194 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. unappropriated dwarfs I have seen, I never met with one female of that diminutive stature. I am told that these pigmy forms are very rare witli women ; and much to the honour of nature is the exception in their favour, as you will agree with me that the charms of the lovely sex are too valuable to be so sported. How do we pity one of these tiny men, cut off from the respectabilities of his manhood by the accident of stunted growth ! What should we not then feel, to see a fairy form of the other sex shut out, by a similar misfortune, from all those varieties of happiness which belong to the tender associations of a wife and a mother ? I confess my compassion would be rather painful ; and am very glad that as yet I have seen the calamity entailed on the harder sex only, who are best able to contend with its cheerlessness and dis- comforts. These little beings are generally the gayest drest persons in the ser- vice of their lord ; and are attired in a uniform or livery of very costly materials. In the presence of their owner their usual station is at his elbow, in the character of a page ; and during his absence, they are then responsible for the cleanliness and combed-locks of their companions of the canine species. Besides these lilliputians, many of the nobility keep a fool or two, like the motleys of our court in the days of Elizabeth ; but like in name alone ; for their wit, if they ever had any, is swallowed up by indolence. Savoury sauce and rich repasts swell their bodies to the most disgust- ing size ; and lying about in the corners of some splendid saloon, they sleep profoundly, till awakened "by the command of their lord to amuse the company. Shaking their enormous bulk they rise from their trance, and supporting their unwieldy trunks against the wall, drawl out their TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 19^ heavy nonsense, with as much grace as the motions oi a sloth in the hands of a reptile-fancier. One glance was sufficient for me of these imbruted creatures ; and, with something like pleasure, I turned from them to the less humiliating view of human nature in the dwarf. The race of these unfortunates, is very diminutive in Russia, and veiy numerous. They are generally well-shaped, and their hands and feet particularly graceful. Indeed, in the proportion of their figures, we should no where discover them to be flaws in the economy of nature, were it not for a peculiarity of feature, and the size of the head, which is commonly exceedingly enlarged. Take them on the whole, they are such compact, and even pretty little beings, that no idea can be formed of them from the clumsy deformed dwarfs which are exhibited at our fairs in England. I cannot say that we need envy Russia this part of her offspring : it is very curious to observe how nearly they resemble each other ; their features are all so alike that you might easily imagine that one pair had spread their progeny over the whole country. The dwarf of the Governor-general of Mosco is about forty years of age, has a good-tempered countenance ; but his features and expression have an appearance to the eye as if he washed his face with alum water. I know not whether you can understand the effect that I mean. It is a sort of wizened, sharp look ; inconceivable, I believe, unless you saw it. However, this crudeness does not extend to his disposition ; his master assured me that he is cheerful, docile, and of a remarkably gentle temper. His height is forty-two inches. The next of his race that excited my attention, was one who measured forty inches and a quarter ; he was twenty-five years of age, gay and sensible. He was the property of a naval officer. Count Alexey Orloff has one or two, much more c c 2 196 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. juvenile, who are several inches shorter than the above. All, however, that I have yet seen are inferior in beauty and delicacy of proportion to the little Polish Count we visited last spring in London. His head was hardly too large ; and the sprightly ease of his finely turned lillipu- tian limbs was remarkably elegant. His conversation, you remember, surprized us both ; for it evinced, that the diminutiveness of his body had not crampt the growth of his mind. We thought him a very in- teresting as well as odd little personage. His Russian brethren are known to live to a great age. One (a female!) died very lately at St. Petersburgh, who had been a favourite with Peter the Great. During the reign of that monarch, his sister Natalia collected all the dwarfs from around the capital, in order to celebrate the marriage of two; and the rite was solemnized with much folly and pomp. The number of the assembly amounted to ninety-three, all displayed in open carriages, adapted to their size, and drawn by the smallest horses that could be found. Many were brought from Shetland for the purpose. A magnificent entertainment and ball were given at court ; and, to com- plete the absurdity, the Princess, attended by the nobility, conducted the little pair to a state bed. Whether the union produced any hopes and anxieties to bless or plague the pigmy couple, is not recorded. And I believe this instance is the only one known, of a marriage between these hints of men and women. Giants are also in request here : but they are not very numerous ; and in stature fall far short of those which occasionally visit England from her sister Island, Having run you through such a legend of princely banquets, fairy TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 197 revels, &c. &c. I shall leave you to your repose ; either to dream of the brave Prince Arthur and the elfin court, or to people your slum- bers with the more terrific fee-fa-fums of many an enchanted castle. I assure you, the sight of a couple of these giants standing within the superb hall of a Russian nobleman, and the oddly caparisoned dwarfs, ushering you to the presence of their lord, would not a little strike you with its resemblance to a scene in romance. Adieu ! ever in truth, your faithful friend. 198 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. LETTER XIX. Mosco , April , 1808 . Mosco is luxuriantly situated on an extent of country rather irre- gular, having in its spacious champaign a few rising grounds. Of all cities I ever beheld it is the most curious and un-European. On view- ing it from an eminence you see a vast plain, as far as the eye can reach, covered with houses, even to the very horizon ; where the lofty towers of gorgeous palaces, and the glittering steeples of churches, sparkle in the sky. The city is built on the banks of two rivers, the Moskva (whence it takes its name), and the Yausa. Mosco was anciently divided into five districts; and as they in part yet retain their distinctions, you will have a clearer idea of this colossal town by having a description of these par- titions. They lie one within the other. The interior circle is called the Kremlin, a Tartarian word for the fortress. The Kitaigorod, or Tartar town, is the second circle. The Biel-gorod called so (the white town) from a wall of that hue which surrounds it, is the third. The fourth circle is named Zemlenoi-gorod from its earthern rampart. The slobodes, or suburbs, inclose all these, and form the extremest boundary of Mosco. The Kremlin stands in the centre of the city on an elevated bank of the Moskva. Within its walls stands the ancient palace of the Tzars ; Back of Foldout Not Imaged 199 travelling SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. rendered particularly interesting from the circumstance of its having been the residence of princes, whose names need only be mentioned to command the homage of every heart loyal to true kingly virtue. Mik- haila Rofnanotf, Alexey Mikhailovitch, Feodor, and the Great Peter, once inhabited these towers ; and still sanctify them by their memories. The appearance of the palace is venerable ; but it contains nothing of any consequence to see. The cathedrals around the palace, which I understand are five in number, besides convents, parish churches, and colleges, give it rather a monastic solemnity. These are all richly endowed, and ornamented in the most costly manner. In one of the churches lie the remains of the Prince Demetrius who was so cruelly murdered, and is now regarded as a saint. Along with his relics repose those of several Grand Princes and Tzars. Their tombs are of stone, covered with palls of scarlet velvet superbly embroidered. The cathedral dedicated to the Ascension , possesses a perfect treasury of religious consecrations ; and it is distin- guished above the rest, in being the place where all the Emperors of Russia are crowned. Not far from the cathedral is the Synodal Palace, where formerly the patriarchs dwelt, and which now contains an inva- luable library. Near to that is the Senate House, a magnificent build- ing erected by Catherine the Second. And also the arsenal, a strong compact edifice. The Kremlin is parted from the Tartar town by a brick wall whitened, very high, and embattled in the eastern manner. My sketch of the city and this fortress will shew you the form of the fortification. At various distances are towers, square and round, with spiral minarets, covered with scaly tiles like the skin of fish, painted green, yellow, and crimson, surmounted with a gilded ball and tane. It is curious to observe the similarity between this turreted bulwai L and 200 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. the well-known Chinese wall, so well pourtrayed in Lord Macartney's account of his embassy to China. The resemblance is so close, that we might think the same engineer had exerted his abilities in both countries. Before I left the precincts of this interesting place, I ascended the tower of the church of Iyan the Great, which commands a view of the whole surrounding plain. Although the monotonous paleness of winter then shrouded its bosom, yet the coup-d’oeil was transcendently mag- nificent. The sun shone with unattempered splendor through an at- mosphere, whose clearness cannot be conceived in England ; the varie- gated colours on the tops of innumerable buildings; the sparkling particles of snow on the earth and palaces ; the fanes and crescents of the churches flashing their blazing gold ; and, added to all, the busy world beneath, passing and repassing in their superb dresses and decorated sledges, presented such a scene of beauty and grandeur, that I should have thought myself repaid for my disagreeable journey, had I even been obliged to return to St. Petersburgh immediately, in beholding so glo- rious a view. The Kitai-gorod, the second division, is built round the Kremlin. Some, by that term, mean to call it the Tartar city; and others, the Chinese town. I have not acquired Russ enough to tell you whether the word Kitai equally applies to China and to Tartary : but that both nations have a pretence to naming it, we all know ; the Tartars by their conquests; and the Chinese from the great commerce they once held with Mosco. This district, by way of eminence, is usually called Gorod, the City ; and is surrounded with a wall and other fortifications. I rom the number of its shops and warehouses, and the Asiatic apparel TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 201 of the buyers and sellers, it reminded me of what I had read of Bagdat in the time of the Caliphs, when the chief merchants of the East used to assemble in its populous streets. The number of shops and warehouses which compose this mart, are nearly six thousand. There are some colleges in this city, and many private residences, amongst the most spacious of which is the house of Count Tchereme- tieff. Its churches are mostly on the plan of those of St. Peteisburgh, of which, I believe, I formerly gave you a sketch. Some in this district are of the ancient architecture ; and others, built in more modern taste, are grotesque imitations of Greek and Roman temples : and yet, not- withstanding their defects, they form not an unpleasing variety with the Asiatic structures around. The effect of the latter edifices is picturesque and splendid. The great mass or body of the church is square, orna- mented with small semicircular arches and columns, similar to our Saxon architecture. This building is surmounted by five minarets, one at each end, and a larger in the middle, shaped like an inverted balloon. They are all magnificently covered with ducat gold. A high gilt cross rises from the centre, beneath which is a ciescent, a mark of triumph over Mahometanism both religious and military. When the Tartars, to whom Moscovy was subject two centuries, profaned any of the churches with their worship, they fixed the crescent, the badge of their prophet, upon its pinnacle. On Mosco being regained to the empire by the Grand Prince Ivan Basilovitch, he did not tear down the crescent, but planted the cross above it as a memorial of his victory. Not many paces from the main body. of the church stands a narrow and higher tower of a different form from the minarets, being pyramidical. This contains the bells ; and they are sounded by pulling their tongues against their sides: hence it is not difficult to toll those of the most enormous size. VOL. I. D D 202 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. These machines are at work the greater part of the day; but very lucky it is both for the steeples and the town that they are not struck in the English fashion : half the belfries would have been down by this time* and all the people in the city driven deaf. Imagine the bells of a thou- sand churches (with five at least in each), clanging all at once, without harmony or variety ; for they never ring in peals ! The noise, in quality* is as bad as marrow-bones and cleavers ; and in quantity, more up- roarious than any thing I can conceive since Big Tom at Oxford bereft the university of their hearing, and broke all the windows in the town. Over the grand entrance of the church, is usually painted the legend of the Saint to whom it is dedicated. The inside is embellished in a similar taste, with gothic ornaments, and pictures imitated from Albert Durer, in a style not likely to rescue the fame of the Russian artists. The most remarkable church in Mosco for these internal decorations* is within this circle. It was the production of an Italian architect* brought from Italy by the tyrant Ivan Basilovitch on purpose to build him a church. On his arrival* the monarch gave him orders to erect an edifice that should be unequalled in taste and splendor throughout the world. Ivan was obeyed. The fabric was finished : and all Mosco crowded to express their admiration of its perfections. The poor artist's head could not bear such a whirlwind of adulation ; and being com- plimented by a lord of the court on having produced a proof of his skill that never could be equalled, his intoxicated vanity dictated this un- fortunate reply ; . nfr wi most forcibly attract the notice of a' stranger w rb ; h * , ■ =-. ; w- aabvx tn friai ?- They are dressed in ail the riches f fr bee- ;e. , .froth. i ; a -.fr hfrn hot. stiff and most discordant with timr. ;-v ' pettiest *A brocade TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 229 silk gaudily flowered, and slung on their shoulders by a kind of gallowses thick with embroidery. The body is covered with a jacket either of velvet or stuff, bound with gold lace and colours. A shift sleeve reaches to the elbow. Their neck and arms are bare, hung with beads, neck- laces, ear and finger rings innumerable. Some wear diadems of gold set with coloured stones and pearls ; others, a large square handkerchief richly shot with silver and various hues, and thrown down their backs, one corner being ingeniously wound round their heads, making a simple and pretty coeffun. On an elegant woman this habit might be be- coming, but with the present wearers, it only makes deformity more hideous. Every point about these dames is the opposite of beauty. Their eyes are tolerable, but totally divested of expression. Their complexions are besmeared with white and red paint, and their teeth most perversely stained with black, not a muscle of their face ever moves : and in ge- neral their usual attitude being* stationary (hardly ever walking) with their hands knit together across their persons, they stand like a string of waxen figures, gazing on the passing groupes of the higher orders. From an extraordinary mode of tying their girdle they all look as women wish to be who love their lords ! Married or single, it is just the same. You, who are so great an admirer of the exquisite symmetry of Greece and Rome, how would you start to meet a front view of one of these ladies ! Relaxing stoves, warm baths, loose dresses, and negligent habits, with perhaps other causes into which I cannot penetrate, have so transformed one of the loveliest parts of the female person, that what in others is the very throne of beauty, with them is the monstrous, that I defy any but a Russian boor not to turn from them with the most loathing disgust. I have no doubt but that did we see them stripped 230 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. of their gilded jackets we should find that they equal the Hottentots in this burthened and most wondrously elongated feature in their shapes. However, I shall be better able to decide, as I am going this afternoon to see them bathe, which, I am told they do in public without either ceremony or shame. You shall have a faithful report, I pledge you my word. I have made a sketch of their dressed appearance, by which you may judge how ill they suit what might be a very becoming apparel on a lealiy pretty woman. On looking at their faces you easily discern the Tartar and Kalmuc ingraftation upon the old Moscovite stock. The visage is short, the bones of the cheeks high, the forehead projecting, and the eye small. Their stature is commonly of the middle size ; and from their habits of life, both men and women are inclined to be more than abundantly fat. When a tinge of the Georgian Poles and Circas- sians mingles with the Russian blood, the result is the most exquisite beauty. But this is generally confined to the higher ranks ; and, as I said before, there is such perfect specimens of female loveliness amongst the nobility at Mosco, that were I a Praxiteles, I need go no further to form my Venus. It is now midnight ! According to my promise, before I sleep I shall give you a description of the baths of Mosco ; and as they are not at all like those of Diana, you need not fear any share of Actseon’s fate for daring to peep at the robeless goddesses. Having dined at the house of Count P in the neighbourhood of the scene, after dinner I took my course, accompanied by a friend as curious as myself, along the banks of the river which flows through the TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 23 1 Summer-garden. The spirit of investigation led us to the foot of the hospital, where we found a couple of baths for the reception of the bathers. These purifying reservoirs being the hot-baths, consisted of low wooden buildings with small openings in their sides, whence issued a thick muddy stream, flowing from the first washings of the natives, and in which they still laved their grease-incrusted bodies as they sallied forth to enjoy the cooling waves of the river. As we approached these cleansing elevations, we beheld the waters that rolled from under their foundations filled with naked persons of both sexes, who waded or swam out from the bath in great numbers, without any consideration of de- licacy or decency. From motives of gallantry we posted ourselves op- posite the ladies, the better to observe the grace and nymph-like beauty of their groupes. To say that they did not blush, would be to belie them ; for certainly their skins were of the brightest pink : but it was a spontaneous glow ; not the sensitive flush of shame ; for they look around with all the sangfroid of females fully apparelled. And in this Eve-ish state, with a wooden pail in one hand, and a huge bunch of umbrageous birch twigs in the other, they descended the steps into the river. This vernal collection was a very convenient substitute for the fig-leaves of Paradise ; but that ancient and primitive use was not the only one to which it was appropriated. Being of the size and shape of a broom, it was intended for the more coercive exercise of creating, while in the warm vapour, a rapid perspiration from the pores, by a sort of Sancho-like flagellation on the hide of the fair or foul bather. As soon as any of these nymphs lost sight of her lower extremities in the stream, she instantly applied herself with no small degree of vigour to pour cold water on the top of her head, by the help of the wooden utensil she had carried with her into the river ; the refreshing and brac- ing torrents thus streaming over her smoaking person, soon brought it 232 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. to a more delicate tint than the boiling hue with which she had issued from the stream. Picture to yourself nearly a hundred naked naiads, flapping, splash- ing, and sporting in the wave with all the grace of a shoal of porpoises ! No idea of exposure ever crossed their minds, no thought of shame ever flushed their checks ; but floundering about they enjoyed themselves with as much indifference as when standing in all their trim array star- ing at the gay groupes in the Summer-garden. Even on the confines of their bath j nay, in the very midst of it, lusty boors were seen filling their casks for the use of the city. So many masses of granite would have been regarded with equal attention by either party. With the women bathed many men ; all mingled together, just as they do in the hot springs at Bath, where both sexes boil in one cistern, looking more like sodden beef-steaks than human beings. Bad as they are in Bladud’s pool, they are ten thousand times more hideous in that of the Summer- garden : for the men are almost all bearded, or grinning grimly through horrible whiskers and fierce mustaccios. The bathers are of every age, form, and size; Don Quixotes, Sanchos, Sampsons, &c. as well as of all the misshapen figures that ever came from the hand of nature, or suffered the ill effects of maims, bandy, or other foes to the beauty of man. And as to the gentler sex, I can witness they were more like the real than the fancied Dulcinea ; more like the buxom Maritomes, than either the agile Diana, or the beauteous Susannah, who charmed the elders of Israel to folly. My allusion to the Hottentots was not ill-conceived ; for in my life I never beheld any thing so disgusting. Women of twenty years old, with a pretty symmetrized face, possessed a bosom which a painter TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 233 would have given to the haggard attendants of Hecate. I will not pro- ceed farther in my observations on this delicate part of creation ; but lament that custom, fashion, and mistaken habits, have so much power to spoil what was originally the most lovely work of nature. Amidst this superabundant groupe, in which the female form had indeed run to weeds, we descried a few young virgins (whose twisted hair declared them to have pretensions to that title) ; and their slender and serpentine figures gave us some hint that the female form divine was not quite obliterated from their race. Whatever admiration was called forth during this scene, fell to their share ; though that they did appeal fair, arose rather from comparison with their Hottentot companions, than from any real beauty in themselves. I know not how to account for the extraordinary and quiet exposure which these ladies make of their persons ; except we derive it from the old explanation use : and that, we find able to reconcile the most pre- posterous practices to our minds. That the indelicacj does not pene- trate to their morals, is seen in their conduct. She who would not take the smallest trouble to hide any part of her person from the ob- server’s eye, would, a few minutes afterwards, when she was dressed, resent to the highest pitch of indignation any liberty taken with her charms. A ukase issued at St. Petersburgh forbids the sexes using, in that capital, the same baths : but, as the interdict did not extend to Mosco, here I had the pleasure of seeing so extraordinary an exhibition. And, indeed, had I not witnessed the scene, I could hardly have believed the possibility of there being in existence such objects as I then beheld. VOL. i. H H 234 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. The Russian women swim like geese ; they bathe every Saturday, and on the eve of every holiday. Sleep being reluctant to displace from my eyes the images of these water-nymphs, I am too wide awake to go to bed ; and having kept you so long in the company of one set of belles , I shall introduce you to another of a somewhat different appearance. I mean those that adorn the churches ; not the belles of the cloister, but the bells of the steeple. Every religious building is provided with eight or nine at least. But the most celebrated in all Mosco are those of St. Ivan in the Kremlin, whose size and weight are equal to the biggest tom that ever a bell- foundry produced. There is one, now deeply sunk in the ground, of an enormous bulk. Mr. R gave me the following estimate of its dimensions. Its weight is 432,000 pounds ; its circumference at the base, twenty yards ; and the thickness of its metal twenty-three inches, or perhaps two feet. Its height, to the place where the clapper is sus- pended, is nineteen feet. The tongue lies not far from the spot in which this mass of metal is sunk : it is of iron, and seventeen feet in length. The bell is encircled with many rims of embossed work ; and was in- tended, when finished, to be a present from the Empress Ann to the great church. I am told that it was never elevated from this spot, in which it was cast, but in cooling cracked, and so became useless. Others say, that it was raised to a very great height, but that the beam to which it was suspended taking fire, it again fell into its original bed, and sustained the present fracture in its fall. The chasm made in its side by the accident, is about the size of an ordinary door ; into which the curious may enter if they have any wish to penetrate into this huge pyramid of metal. The bell cannot be seen but by a special order ; the place being boarded over, you make your entrance through a trap- TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 235 door. This mutilated work has a sister of a greater size in China, which, I understand, is the largest in the known world. Having now given you a peal, or rather cheated you of one, as I have introduced you to none but silent bells, I will bid you good night, well aware that you have had lullaby enough in this letter. To-morrow I will speak to you further of the churches. #**********'****** May 8 th. O. S. Noon. I have not time to resume my subject ; but before I close my letter I must inform you of an event that I have just been told : the widow of the great Suwarroff died this day at eleven o’clock ! She was of the illus- trious Prosorowski family ; and bore to her renowned husband two children; Natolia who married Count Nicolas Zouboff; and Arcadius, a brave young man, emulous of his father’s glory. So pass away the great and the interesting of this earth ! While the widow, or the children of a venerated character remain, we do not seem to have lost all of the person we lament : they are living monuments to his memory. His image revives whenever we look on objects that were so dear to him, and which, in a manner, once formed a part of himself. But when they are gone ; when the race soon follows its founder to the grave, time rapidly draws its dimming flood over the past ; and see- ins the hero’s actions as in a darkened mirror, remembrance involves O him with the cloud of departed greatness; and making one with the groupe of Thermopylae, Cressy and Blenheim, he loses that pre-eminence in our regrets which the memorials of his person, while living, ever re- h h 2 236 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA . newed. Thus have many of our own brave men, within a few years, passed into the world of spirits ; and are now named by Britons with as nuieh indifference as they would speak of Talbot, of Hotspur, or of any other of our departed worthies. The observation you yourself made on seeing Mr. West’s design of the death of Lord Nelson, not a little influenced me in these reflections. You tell me that “ the picture of the death of General Wolfe stood by “ that of Nelson. Hardly a single person looked on the first; all eyes were turned to the last : not a tear was spared for the gallant Wolfe ; “ not a sigh; not a word of encomium on his merits ; not a regret for f his untimely fall ! I thought it strangely unthinking : for the very “ sensibility I felt on looking at Nelson, turned my eyes to Wolfe, and “ divided my sorrow.” . It is true, my friend ; you felt so because you always think when you feel. But the feelings of many are merely the effect of infection; or are awakened by a narrow concern for themselves at being deprived of some recent good. Thoughtless of others, they acknowledge no bene- factors but their own ; and never having experienced in their own per- sons the protection which arose from the courage of some hero slain a few years before their time, they have no sympathies to excite concern for his loss; they have no generous regrets for the noble creature him- self; for his being cut off in the meridian of life and of honours ; for the tender relations who mourned his fall ; nor for the country at large which was thus rifled of one of its best defenders. The death and triumph of a hero are equally short-lived in the hearts of any but his personal friends. Sorrow for the one is obliterated by some TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 237 more recent loss ; and pride in the other superseded by the victories of some brother in fame. Few, like you, can give an equal homage to the great and good of all times. But it is a delightful sensibility, for in proportion as you feel their virtues, you enjoy them ; they become en- deared to you ; and thus you make to yourself a second kind of ex- istence ; a sort of mental intimacy and relationship with the noblest beings of every age. In this friendship may you ever associate the idea of your faithful friend . 238 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. LETTER XXII. Mosco , May, 1806. Amongst the illustrious residents in Mosco from whom I have re- ceived the most gratifying attentions, is the Prince U . I have lately had the honour of being his visitor at a fine mansion which he recently purchased near the Sparrow-hills, a beautiful spot three miles from the city. This palace was built by Prince Dolgorouky as a country seat ; and if it does not shew the skill of the architect, its situation at least bears witness to the taste of the prince. It stands on a very high ground richly wooded ; at the base of which flows the Moskva in Thames-like meanders through a luxuriant plain, varied with innumerable gardens and superb structures. On the right, terminating the view of the river, rises Mosco in all its ancient Asiatic pomp. Its myriads of glittering minarets and lofty palaces, as well as the pale citadel, form an object of transcendent grandeur ; and then as a back-ground, the black and distant woods skirting the horizon, give an effect to the splendor of the city which can hardly be described. I have attempted a sketch, which will give you some idea of its outline ; but without the aid of colours it is impossible to depict the burnished glow of the whole, when opposed to this forest, like an evening sky of fluid gold, shining through the breaks of a thunder-cloud. On pursuing the prospect towards the left, the antiquated walls of the £38 fit A . . ■ ■! : >; 5 {■■ . ■ • ■ , V - ! ; ; Ah i:sjr 5'/ 05 cc , M a;/., I 806 * Amo nust the die ■ A ceived the most goal if A. -a • had the honour of being i pru-ehased near the Tpa; - city. This palace was b mo. meats in .Mosco from whdm I. Imre re* n 'Ota; ns. i r the ?nnec U % I have fatolv •ifor at: o. fine mansion which he recentl;- - A lev a beantifa'i spot three robes from the. 1 by Prince Dolgoroufcy as a country seat: and if it does not shew tie > a [j oft! t. architect, its situation at least bca i witness to U>e taste of Ln. .... ,.oce . O -..0 0 #.. ; '• • It stands on a very h; J\ ;; — no richly wooded , at & n&se ofVlmeh lows the Moskva in Tha ' , .wmrb r* a fu. A; riant / . varied with irunimeXabic s .• ; ;i ; .supevB Or t.L right terminating the view of th it ,y 4 rises MhOo in alt iH ancient .Asiatic; - pomp. Its myriads v,l g!,o- tg minaret: rd ! :>f\y paAoes, a* iodi as tlie pale citadel, form ■ A M-iuscenbtm gym. a .. . and Oicc nc f a back-ground, the. black A Asfani 'woods shirting coe bwizor*, give ah effect to the splendor o winch: can hardly be described, I have attempted skeinl? iddlyl • of r: - on Tins ; bar. without 1 he aid of * h . ■ bu had glow of foe whole. vb- : ! • • . to . ■ like -■ evening; sky of fluid gold, shining thre at- *■>* •: 1 ! ' : ie f- 0 !>; 1 On pursuing the pro >;v u - ■ ; ed wails of ;b.- 1 3 i. « V 239 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. Divitchy convent is no less striking. The many turrets which form a security to the holy dwellings within ; the long extent of the battle- ments ; the high and slender spires, and golden domes of the chapels ; and the crescents and sacred crosses rising amid the trees, marking the situation of the Andrefsky monastery ; produce, altogether, a very in- teresting scene. The monastery is a perfect specimen of the old architecture. Its style and ornaments resemble the Hindoo temples. I was struck with the likeness the moment I observed the building. During my visit to the Prince, I crossed the water to take a nearer view of the Divitchy. Its form is quadrangular : the walls extremely high and embattled in the eastern fashion, with many square towers at short distances. Its gates are strongly defended; and in days of old, a garrison always did duty here. It contains several churches, and the houses for the religieuses, which are spacious and convenient; besides places dedicated to the use of those whom accident or necessity may have forced to take sheltei within the monastery. One of the nuns was so kind as to attend me through the aisles of the great church, particularly to shew me the tomb of Princess Sophia, the ambitious sister of Peter the First. The outside of the edifice is of the Asiatic architecture, with gilded domes and minarets. The walls and gates are curiously painted with holy personages and miracles : but un- fortunately the interior was repairing, so I was disappointed of seeing it to its usual advantage. The finest object within, was a high and rich screen overlaid with gold, interspersed with the emblazoned histones of Saints and Virgins.. On entering the grand portico to the right, a tomb 240 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. Of a very simple shape was pointed out tome as the burying place of the Princess Sophia. It is constructed of a large stone raised a little above the pavement, and upon it is a kind of sarcophagus, flat at the sides and tapering towards the top, like the roof of a house : it is very small, is whitened over, and generally is covered with a black pall. At the head is this inscription. A. M. 7212. ; C. ae. 1704. On the 3d of July, O.S. died Sophia Alexovna, Aged 46 years, 9 months and 6 days. Her religious name was Susannah ; She was a Nun for 5 years, 8 months and 12 days; And was buried on the 4th of July, In this Holy Church of Smolinsko. &c. &c. &c. So low lies that Princess, whose ambition held this empire in com- motion for sixteen years 1 Here, shut out from all eyes, lies that ex- quisite beauty with which she enslaved the wise Galitzin, and beguiled the unfortunate Strelitzes to their ruin. It was an awful moment thus to stand over the tomb of a woman who, by her actions, seemed to think that she of all creation was alone exempt from the penalty of death. To reign was her wish ; and to that end she sacrificed every law of nature : thousands were slain in the contest between her party and that of Peter ; by false accusations she compassed the murder of sixty loyal nobles : she plotted the death of her half-brother Peter, and finding its accom- plishment impracticable, to exclude him entirely from the throne, force- ed her own brother the idiot Ivan and declared Tzar, to marry her. What a sea of blood seemed to encompass her grave ! I shuddered TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 241 when I looked at the end of all this guilt — a stone bed of six feet square ! Forty-six years terminated this career of ambition, murder and incest ! and all for what ? — a throne ! Surely there is magic in that word. For, it is to the word alone, usurpers immolate all that is valuable in the kingly dignity ; the power of dispensing good and of enjoying happiness ! What a bastard sort of power is that which, built upon destruction, commands a few sordid wretches, who, perhaps, only await a favourable moment to free them- selves of their tyrant ! It is the power of a Turk over the slaves of his seraglio ; not the generous sway of a good monarch over the hearts of a vast empire. And then for happiness; the meed which every hu- man creature seeks as the reward of his labours ; how can it exist in the bosom of the traitor, the murderer, and the fratricide ? All then was sacrificed by this unhappy woman to a shadow ; to a shadow that vanished the moment she thought it within her grasp, and left her to a grave of guilt, and dreadful impending judgment ! The convent in which she terminated her life, contains about one hundred and fifty females ; seventy-five only of whom have yet taken the veil. An appendage which, by the bye, they never wear ; but as a mark of their vow have their heads shaved. This they do at the age of fifty, the time when they are allowed to make their holy profession. Until that period they remain novices, and may marry if they please. To facilitate opportunities of preferring the matrimonial to the monastic vows, they have perfect liberty ; the gates of the monastery being open all day, and permission granted them to go out and receive visitors without restraint. They have each a separate apartment and every rea- sonable comfort. The abbess is chosen from amongst the widows of the i i VOL. I. 242 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. Russ merchants, and provided she be of an unexceptionable character* may be elected without having been previously attached to any religious institution. In short, there is no law belonging to the Russian convents that does not demonstrate the rationality which dictated their establish- ment. As these ordinances are rather curious, I think you will not find a copy of them uninteresting. I shall give them to you as they relate both to monks and nuns. 1. No person to be received as a monk who is under Ihe age of thirty. 2. No military person to be admitted as a monk. 3. No slave to be admitted as a monk without being emancipated by his master, or bearing an express order from the sovereign or synod. He must be able to read and write. 4. No married man who has a wife living, to be admitted as a monk, especially if in parting he gave her a licence to marry again. If a hus- band and wife are both desirous to embrace the monastic profession, their cases must be maturely considered before permission be granted them ; namely, whether they are of the lawful age, whether they have children or not, and if they have, in what situation they leave them. 5. No one having any civil employment, or who runs away for debt, nr to escape punishment for any offence, to be admitted as a monk. 6. No one charged with a particular commission, unless he has dis- ipissory letters, to be admitted as a monk. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 243 7. No person to be admitted as a monk for money, unless he pro- mises never to boast of it, and makes a formal renunciation of any claim to privileges beyond his brethren. 8. Nor shall any person, against whom there is no objection, be im- mediately admitted to the tonsure upon his entance into the convent; but remain three years under the inspection of an approved monk ; during which time the superior shall enjoin him various services to prove his obedience. After this novitiate of three years, it is necessary to have the permission of the bishop of the diocese before he takes the habit ; which permission the bishop is not to grant without the superior and monks of the convent present a certificate of the novice’s efficiency . Should the novice, after the term of three years, change his mind, he shall be at liberty to depart from the monastery, and no one has a right to reproach him on that account : but should he afterwards desire to return, he must serve his novitiate over again. 9. Novices, during their novitiate, and especially near the time of their reception, shall diligently read the monastic vows, in order to examine whether they have resolution to undertake them. 10. All monks are to confess and receive the communion four times in the year. 11. They are to avoid idleness; employing themselves in reading, painting, & c. 12. They are not allowed servants, at least none but the superior, and the aged and infirm. 1 1 2 244 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 13. An hospital and proper persons to attend the sick and aged, to be provided in every convent. 14. Monks are not to invite guests without permission of the superior. 15. No monk may pay visits without permission ; and then he must be accompanied by another monk. They must not visit in secular houses, but upon solid and lawful reasons. 16. They are to eat and drink in common in the refectory : no one is. permitted to carry any thing to his own cell. 17. Neither money nor goods of other persons to be kept in a mo- nastery ; whatever is so found shall be forfeited to the monastery. 18. Neither the superior nor monks shall admit women into their cells. They are to be received in the parlour where strangers are ad- mitted ; and in eveiy case there must be more than one monk present. 19. The monks shall strictly study the Bible. The most learned amongst them shall explain it ; and such only shall be promoted to ecclesiastical dignities. OF NUNNERIES. 1. Nuns shall never, on any pretext whatever, go out of their con- vent. Not even from motives of devotion, or to assist at processions or the feasts of churches. In monasteries where the church is not conti- 245 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. guous, secret and covered ways are to be made from the convent to the church, for the nuns to pass through. 2. No nun shall receive the tonsure before she is fifty years old. If a young woman declares an inclination to become a nun, the circum- stances of her resolution shall be strictly examined ; and then she may be allowed to reside in the convent, being always under the inspection of an aged and discreet nun until she has attained the prescribed age : she may then take the vows. But should she in the mean time change her mind, and be inclined to marry, she is at full liberty. 3. Nuns must not. pass their time in idleness; but must always be employed in some work, as spinning, sewing, making lace, &c. For which purpose proper teachers shall be provided to each monastery. RULES FOR THE ARCHIMANDRITES, OR SUPERIORS. 1. The heads of monasteries shall be chosen from those monks whose manners are irreproachable, and who are distinguished by their know- ledge of the duties of the monastic life. Besides which, they must be intimately conversant with the Scriptures, and with the rules of their order, and labour, not only for their own salvation, but for that of their brethren. d 2. They shall admonish those who desire to be admitted against the will of their relations ; as husbands who forsake their wives, wives who forsake their husbands ; parents, who by imprudent vows would sacri- fice their children to a monastic life ; reminding them such resolutions are displeasing to God, and contrary to the doctrine of Christ. A 246 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. We are struck at once with the excellence of these regulations, when compared with those which relate to monasteries in the Latin church ; and cannot but particularly approve of the care with which the su- perstition of celibacy is guarded against in the young and inex- perienced. To the immortal Tzar Peter are they indebted for this liberal code. The dress of the nuns of the Divitchy is a black habit with wide sleeves ; the whole lined with reddish brown. A black velvet cap fitting close to their shaven heads, coming down over the ears, and under the _ chin in a sort of bandage. The novices have a cap pointed at the top. Their hair is plaited, and hangs down behind an immense length : it is fastened in the pole of the neck by a piece of brown taffeta which shades half the queue as a sort of curtain. Their robe is of black cloth with tight sleeves, and has also a cape. The fashion of the hair marks the unsworn vestal state, as the vowed nuns are deprived of theirs. My tonsured conductress shewed me several cases of holy relics. They consisted of bones, wood, teeth, and pieces jof wearing apparel, curiously preserved and highly venerated. She also led me into the apartments which had been inhabited by the Princess Sophia. I en- tered the cell wherein her haughty mind so often brooded in disappoint- ment over her fallen greatness ; I looked through the very windows from which she had beheld the execution, of numbers of her party, and par- ticularly of three of her most intimate confederates, who were hanged on gibbets within a few yards of the convent wall. Peter ordered this hor- rible scene to be performed before her own eyes, as a small punishment for the ambition which had conspired against his life, and drawn his subjects into rebellion. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 247 These gloomy rooms have lately been newly filled up ; but mueh of their old furniture remains ; particularly the religious pictures which adorned the walls in her time ; and other holy articles necessary to a nun’s cell. Having gone through the whole of the church, I took my leave of my saintly conductress, thanking her most sinceiely foi the trouble she had taken in walking so long, and for the patience with which she answered my numerous questions. Soon after I left the vicinity of the Divitchy, I was invited by Prince to go down to his country residence on the day of the Holy Trinity. It being they’re cle village of the Prince, I expected much rustic festivity ; for general entertainment, I could be at no loss, as my illustrious host is not only master of all the graces of hospitality, but eminent for learning and talents. His palace is finely situated, and built of stone with great taste and splendor ; possessing every accom- modation for the gayest amusements and the profoundest study. When I arrived, the whole family, visitors and vassals, were assem- bled in the church ; and when I joined the party, were arranged in a circle before the holy screen. The pavement was strewn with flowers and green herbs, each person holding in his hand a bouquet. One was also presented to me on my entrance. All the peasantry were dressed in their best, and decorated with this vernal ornament. Three priests officiated, the superior of them being a man of a most venerable aspect. Many prayers were read and anthems sung ; after which a sermon was delivered with great judgment and feeling : at least so it seemed to me, from the energy of the preacher and the rivetted attention of the con- gregation. Towards the conclusion the whole party, as well as the two assistant ecclesiastics knelt down, holding the flowers up to theii faces. 248 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. I could not learn any satisfactory explanation of the religious use of these nosegays ; some telling me they were brought as the first offerings ofspiing, others, that they were meant to wipe away the tears which they shed during the service. I fancy that this practice, like that of giving eggs at Easter, is now known by the custom only, the origin being entirely lost in the lapse of time. The ceremony finished by the congregation kissing the cross, and receiving the benediction and holy water. The sacred duties of the day over, the villagers prepared to adjourn to their vernal sports ; but alas, both I and they were disappointed in this ! It rained heavily, and continued so unremittingly, that this part of the entertainment was obliged to be given up, and the peasantry, aftei giving a few blank looks to the watery heavens, feasted plenti- fully within doors. Well charged with brandy, and covered with gay ribbons, at an early hour, they very joyously and contentedly re- turned home. A splendid dinner, and a most delightful ball, closed the day in the hospitable halls of the Prince. Amongst the guests I met with a gen- tleman of extraordinary mental acquirements. His name was so difficult of pronunciation that I cannot recollect it ; but, in our conversation, he gave me a little account of the origin of Mosco, which I have remem- bered rather more correctly. It was founded by the son of Vladimir, on some confiscated lands ori- ginally belonging to an imperious nobleman who had offended this prince. They consisted of morasses intersected with branches, or TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 24 $ stream-like ditches from the rivers Moskva and the Neglia ; near the conflux of which rose a hill, commanding the surrounding country, and well protected by the encircling marshes. It was richly covered with trees ; and its environs of plain and forest rendered the situation doubly romantic. The young Prince saw and became enamoured of the spot, and immediately ordered a mansion to be built there ; in which he after- wards passed the greatest part of his time. Few advances towards its becoming a city, took place during his life. But undoubtedly to this palace is Moscovy indebted for its capital. It was a point of attraction around which houses and streets gradually assembled until they spread themselves to a large town. Daniel, the son of the sainted Alexander Nefsky, was also enraptured with the situation ; and not only increased his predecessor’s buildings, but added, for its security, palisadoes and a deep ditch. Thus did it continue, growing by degrees within its own boundary, till the succes- sion of Dimitri Ivanovitch Donskoy, who employed an Italian architect to erect a strong and well-defended wall. This was accomplished to- wards the close of the fifteenth century. The same Prince embellished the city with several new and noble churches. Mosco has often felt the miseries of war. In the year 1384, Tamerlane stormed the place, and held it for some time. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Tartars again overran the greater part of Russia; and the old capital with the rest. But Ivan Vassilovitch drove them thence : and to him much of its succeeding splendor and conse- quence may be attributed. From this period it became the residence of the Tzars. I fancy few empires have had the seat of government so frequently changed as Russia ; for few empires were ever so extensive. VOL. I. K K 250 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. From its magnitude it comprised many independent principalities ; each of which, according to the ambition or genius of their respective sovereigns, at different times held all the others in subjection. Thus Kief, Valdimir, Twer, Novgorod, Mosco, and St. Petersburgh, may all boast of having governed the country. The whole extent of this vast empire being now firmly fixed under the sceptre of the Romanoff family ; and as it aspires to naval consequence, St. Petersburgh is likely to remain for ever the capital of Russia ; unless some political earth- quake shake the north with as dire a fury as it has done the south. And, to avert which from our old ally, every honest Englishman will unite his prayers with those of, your faithful friend. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 251 LETTER XXIII. Mosco, June , 1806. It being a most sultry day, the prominent object of my present feel- ings (I will not dignify bodily perceptions by the name of thoughts) is the weather. And, as I write to you as I would speak, you must take the subjects, dull or entertaining, just as they rise. The weather, then, being a very interesting investigation to us English, I shall indulge you with a few observations on the climate of Russia. Having passed both a winter and a summer under its skies, I consider myself tolerably learn- ed on my proposed theme. St. Petersburgh is in lat. 59° 56' N. Although surrounded by flat and marshy lands, that city is by no means unhealthy. The air is uncon- taminated by pestilential vapours, as care is taken to drain the swamps ; which otherwise, with the Augean additions from the cleanliness of the lower inhabitants, might prove dreadfully noxious. The police ma- nages all this with admirable diligence ; and maugre the natural love which the canaille seem to have to wallow in an uncleansed stye, I never saw a race more healthy than the common people are in Russia ; and were it not for their excessive use of brandy, I believe the rigour of the climate, and their constant exercise, would prolong their days to an almost patriarchal date. The higher orders, from indulgence, luxurious living, little exercise k k 2 252 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. and hot stoves, are very susceptible of colds: indigestions, unwieldiness, and shortened lives, are the natural consequence. This is the case with most ; but many, who are aware of the ill effects of such customs, discard them ; and are as active and hale as the stoutest of our countrymen. Hence you will observe, that a climate is not to be judged by the ge- neral appearance of the people of fortune residing under its influence ; habits of their own counteract its effects. It is from the peasantry we must draw our judgment: and I will venture to say, that in no country I ever saw more robust men than I met with in the natives of Russia. There are only five degrees between Mosco and St. Petersburgh. The climate of the old capital is even more salubrious than the new. Being situated on high grounds, it has a great advantage. Two fine rivers run through its centre. The streets are all so spacious that no foul air can stagnate in any one of them. The atmosphere is generally clear, and the weather settled. In summer, though it is hot, there are no noxious vapours to. render it dangerous ; and in winter the air is so pure, so bright and exhilarating, that you seem to inhale the very elixir of life into your lungs. It is impossible to describe the animating feelings which these ethereal breathings excite in the breast: and as the bath of ether, through which we move, embraces every part, it seems to brace each nerve* and fill us with a spring of life enchanting and exhaustless. In the following table I give you the length of the days at the sum- mer and winter solstice. For instance, when in winter the day is the shortest, the sun rises and sets, according to this calculation ; differing only in the summer, by the day being of' the greatest length when this order is reversed.. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 253 Sun rises. Sun sets. Archangel Hours. 10 Minutes. 24 Hours. 1 Minutes. 36 St. Petersburgh 9 15 2 45 Tobolsk 8 56 3 4 Riga 8 47 3 19 Mosco 8 37 3 23 Kief . . . 8 7 3 53 Astracan . 7 48 4 12 By this also may be seen the degrees of heat and cold, according to Rheamur, andFarenheit. To me the northern winter is far preferable to its summer . I mean at Mosco or St. Petersburgh, the (to Russians) milder regions, though with you, they would be deemed so penetrating, that were it not for furs, and the exercise the rigour of the climate compels us to take, we English might, if as thinly clad as the warmest of ye all in Britain, stand a good chance of becoming stationary, like poor Mrs. Lot, not a pillar of salt, but a huge erect icicle. If the cold be then so intense in the degree of Mosco, what must it be in the latitude of Archangel ! The inconveniences of so rigorous a climate, the want of society, and having many days when the sun is scarcely seen, rising at ten o’clock and setting at one ; with the addition of being so far from all knowledge of what is passing in the rest of the world, must make a rational creature find such a life a very sorry pil- grimage, or rather an anchoritism, worse than that amid the arid deserts of Egypt. Yet to these apparently accursed spots, we find interest lead 254 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. men, as merchants, to pass many a year of their lives, shut out from every comfort of existence. Strange infatuation of man, to waste his days in providing for a period which he never seeks 1 From youth to age he suffers every privation that inclement elements, cheerless labours, and joyless society can inflict, to amass a hoard of wealth, useless to him there : yet there he lives, gathering more and more, daily intend- ing to return home tojiis native country and enjoy his riches ; and yet putting it off for another bag of gold, till death surprises him. Then on his cold bed, he finds that he has suffered and toiled in vain : a kindred, who had perhaps forgotten all of him but his name, were to reap the reward of his labours, while he filled a dismal grave beneath the frozen pole ! This terrible country, which seems as if it really lay under an inter- dict from Heaven, is formed of sterile rocks, morasses, and naked moun- tains. Rarely a living soul is seen to animate the dreary solitude ; not an ear of corn ever ripens there ; and the utmost of their harvest is a little poor barley : not a fruit tree of any sort ever cheers the eye ; all is one wide waste of desolation. It is in these iron regions that we hear of travellers, nay whole families, being frozen to death. Water freezes as it falls ; and birds drop from the heavens hard as marble. Often groupes of men and horses have been discovered on the high roads, in various attitudes, dead, and stiff, and petrified to ice. Instances have been known of boors being brought by their horses into villages and towns, lifeless, sitting upright with every appearance of existence, holding their whip and reins. This happens even between Mosco and St. Peters- burgh, when the winters are particularly severe. It is a very common thing for the nose, ears, or any other extremity exposed to the air, to be frost-bitten, which effect takes place unfelt by TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 255 the sufferer himself ; and if some friendly person is not passing by early in the operation to give notice of its seizure, the consequence is inevit- able. If on the instant the part congealed be not well-rubbed with snow, to recal circulation, the result is obvious ; a few moments places the afflicted in a most mortifying situation, and a* few hours deprive him of ears, fingers, or nose; a circumstance not enviable, although he has the consolation that he runs no risk of its ever happening again. Having brought you to Archangel, though rather mysteriously, as I never was there myself! I shall give you a little insight into the interest- ing particulars of the place. I gained them from a merchant of great respectability, who had often visited that corner of the empire ; so you may be satisfied of seeing as truly through his eyes as through mine. Archangel is the capital of a province of the same name. It is so called from a monastery dedicated to the Archangel Michael, which is near the principal town. You may judge how cold the province is from its being bounded on the north by the Frozen Ocean. Amid these ter- rible rocks of ice. Sir Hugh Willoughby, the famous commander of our Queen Elizabeth, in seeking a north-east passage to China, was impri- soned with his whole fleet and perished. Chancellor, who commanded a small squadron under him, chanced to be driven by stress of weather into a bay near the mouth of the Dwina ; there he landed : and so became the first Briton that ever was known to set foot on the Rus- sian shore. This very haven that gave him shelter, was that of Ar- changel : and soon after his arrival, such communications were made to the Tzar Ivan Vasilovitch II, that a trade was commenced between the two countries . 256 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. The principal articles of export were then potash, caviar, tallow, wax, hides, hemp, feathers, tar, yarn, beef, rhubarb, Chinese and Per- sian silks, cork, bacon, cordage, furs, &c. a curious assemblage \ The commerce rapidly increased ; and Archangel continued the sole port of any consequence in Russia, till the building of St. Petersburgh removed the principal trade to the havens of the Baltic. The town of Archangel is comprised in one long street of wooden houses. It has a court of admiralty, dock-yard, and a fine monastery, which is the residence of its bishop. Extensive forests, the timber of which is a great article of traffic, grow in this government, and in that of Olonetz, its near neighbour. The exportation of larch being ex- pressly prohibited, deal and masts of fir are the only timber the mer- chants can send to sea. Very few of our nation are now there ; the founding of St. Petersburgh drawing from those inclement regions all those whose fortunes were not as barren as the soil. So much for Arch- angel ! which, if I were to consult my own feelings, I would rather denominate Arch-devil ! And considering the poet’s description of the frozen as well as the burning hell, I do not think that I should name the borders of the polar sea amiss. I shall now thaw your congealed veins, and bring you back to the vernal months of summer. During tliis season, Mosco, like most other great cities, loses most of its gay inhabitants. As soon as the sultry weather sets in, they take their flight to their respective country seats. From this cause the population varies almost incalculably in the two seasons of winter and summer ; as each of the noble families seldom de- parts or arrives without sixty or seventy persons in its suite, besides TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. &57 two or three hundred slaves. This exit and entrance make an altera- tion of nearly 50,000 souls. The multitude who people this metropolis in the colder months amounting to 359,000, and in the warmer to 300,000. This does not include the villages close to the city, as they contain souls to the number of 60,000, or more. I have already mentioned to you some of the most delightful country residences of the nobility around Mosco: a few others I shall here notice, in which I have enjoyed some of the pleasantest moments of my northern travels. One in particular, Ostanknia, a mansion of Count Tcheremetoff is magnificent in its structure, and most romantically situated. It is furnished in the finest taste, and possesses many valuable antiques; amongst the most excellent is a statue, named on the pe- destal the goddess of health. Its drapery is exquisite, and the form of the figure of the first Grecian mould. The feet and one hand are modern, o and the head seems to have been also restored ; but the rest is in good preservation, and fully declare it to have been the work of the classic ages. The Count gave 1200 rubles for it. Indeed all that belongs to this nobleman is of the best in taste and costliness. Besides Ostanknia he has other fine residences, but the most admired is that of Kuscova, about seven versts from Mosco. The buildings and gardens are in a princely style, having a superb theatre, banqueting hotise, and her- mitage. The noble owner frequently gives entertainments here, every way harmonizing with his own fine taste, and the elegance of his habita- tion. Cards, and all sorts of games of chance, are in great request. “ Surely, (you will cry) this is no very happy instance of the tasteful entertainments of Kuscova !” True ; though it may be of their fashion. The nobility, in general, are so enamoured of what they term the fas- cinating suspence of these amusements, that the want of them would VOL. i. L L TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. be worse than a penance. However, as suspence of any kind is purga- tory to me, I have not yet learnt their art ; and as you hold the whole in contempt from spade-ace down to a te-totum, I will make my bow to the card- table, and turn to more congenial subjects. However, you will perceive by all that I have formerly said, that the Russians are also particularly fond of pleasures out of doors. Their cavalcades, promenades, fetes champetres in the summer ; and their sledging parties in the winter, are not a little friendly to hilarity and health. A thousand gay excuses are formed to take them into the air ; and so, for once, fashion is favourable to the wholesome. For instance^ I went the other afternoon to a spectacle where all the beauty and rank of Mosco were assembled. It was to see a Frenchman ascend in a balloon, (for there is hardly a nation in the known world whom their flights do not set agape !) here I had an opportunity of not only enjoy- ing the fresh air, the sight of so many lovely women, but also of observ- ing the excellence of that police I before spoke of : multitudes of people, and a crowd of carriages, not to be numbered, were on the spot. Not an altercation ensued ; every vehicle moved on and off in rotation, re- maining perhaps for the space of a minute until the soldiers of the police had ascertained whether its proprietor was ready to re-enter. If not, the next drove up, and so the rest in order. It is a military arrange- ment; and as such all its officers and soldiers are regimentally cloathed. They are well mounted, and also well vested with authority; which I have frequently seen applied to the heads and backs of the boors and coachmen. One amusement I must not omit noticing, which they call coursing, in my mind, when managed with even the most plausible address, it TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 259 can never be a humane pastime ; and as it is ordered here it is a cruel one. With us it has an apology in the health produced by its attend- ant exercise, and the delights of a pleasurable suspence. But here the recreation is so simplified, that it hardly seems to contain any thing but the murder of the animal. In England we have the social anxiety of beating an interesting and extensive country, and of following the game, when sprung, for several hours, in swift and jocund pursuit. The at- tention kept awake, the spirits exhilarated, and life imbibed in every coming gale, gives an intoxication to the senses which may very readily make the huntsmen forget the sufferings of the chace. But here all is the reverse. A few days ago I was invited to be a spectator of one of these scenes ; and obeying the summons, soon found myself on the extensive plain which extends along one side of the city. A concourse of people of all ranks was assembled, with about a hundred and twenty greyhounds in couples. These animals are formed with the nicest symmetry, and they are so strong and powerful in their hold, that nothing they once strike their teeth into ever escapes. Their coats are uncommonly beautiful, and the hair on their tails so redundant, that they are usually called fan-< tailed greyhounds. On the same spot where the groupe had met, were boxes placed at certain distances, each containing a hare which had been previously snared and cooped in this solitary habitation till the day of the sport. At an appointed moment the amateur , to whom the dogs belonged, and for whose entertainment this lively and humane pastime was prepared, gave the word ! when suddenly one of the little creatures was let loose from its prison.; and almost as soon, two of the hounds were untied and l l 2 260 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. allowed to pursue it. The start the poor hare had was probably not more than three hundred yards ; of course the chace was very brief. The terrified animal was soon overtaken, and after a few doubles the canine pair buried their teeth in the heart of the panting fugitive. About thirty of these miserable little creatures fell in this manner; each coursed by fresh dogs ; and each destroyed almost immediately on being started. The promoter of the diversion did not seem to enjoy it greatly, and* as small a degree of animation appeared in the faces of the spectators. Indeed, from what I have seen of this amusement, as well as of Russian horse-racing, I must suppose that the habits of this country are inimical to the activity of blood which rushes through the veins of . an English hunter, shooter, or racer. Our early education to exercise of all sorts, gives a stimulus to mind and body that impels Englishmen to undertake every enterprise with intrepidity, and confirms him to pursue it with an undaunted resolution to overcome. The severity of the Russian winter is a sufficient excuse for the want I observe : an iron frost, with the threatened loss of toes or fingers, being a no very attractive season for the sportsman to take the field. The extreme heat of sum^ mer is, equally a foe to the vigorous exercise which such amusements demand ; and as for the temperate days of spring or autumn, they know them not. The heat sets in as rapidly as the cold disappears ; and the summer months, though not many, are scorching to an intolerable degree. The peasant sows his corn with little labour, often without the trouble of a plough, and reaps his harvest in less than three months. During the summer the very plagues of Egypt are let loose upon you, in the shape of flies, that fill the air like dust, and musquitoes whose TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 261 bites cover the skin with inflammation, and raise itching to perfect agony. These are a few of the annoyances which a little disturbed my pleasure during the delicious hours I have enjoy ed in this hospitable, and to me, ever dear country. I was glad to make my escape from the murder of the poor hares ; for, as I looked on their writhing limbs, I could not but think that this little animal in corporal sufferance feels a pang as great as when a giant dies ; and marvelling at the contradictory nature of man, I directed my course towards some of the public edifices I had not yet seen ; and taking sanc- tuary first in the church, felt my meditations more reconciled to my brethren of mankind, when I found my self within the consecrated walls of St. Martinus Pravidnick. This fabr ic was reared at the sole charge of Mr. Shagaroff, a Russian China merc hant of great goodness and piety, ’who expended 250,000 rubles in its completion. The portico is extremely beautiful, and the general style of the architecture pure and elegant. It is the finest modern building in the whole city, and in every respect does honour to the taste and devotion of the founder. Its simplicity made a striking contrast in my mind with the gorgeous magnificence of the Troitza (or monastery of the Trinity) at some distance from Mosco ; and which, for splendor and riches, is one of the most wonderful places in the empire. It is a Golconda in itself ; a Peiu , such a treasure-house is it of gold, diamonds, pearls, /and every piecious en- dowment with which piety could adorn the holy place. Besides the in- terest attached to it as containing the shrine of St. Sergius, it has another of a more secular stamp. This was the sanctuary in which the young Tzar Peter when a boy, and his brother Tzar Ivan, with his sister-wife the turbulent Sophia, embattled themselves against the rebellious Stie~ 2 62 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. litzes. To these necessities of Princes, we must attribute so many of the religious buildings in Russia being regularly fortified. The tomb of St. Sergius is decorated with a canopy of massy silver, supported by large pillars of the same metal. The screen is of the most magnificent workmanship, and the hallowed utensils are covered with jewels. Most churches have several costly dresses for the bishops and officiating priests. These are generally made out of the embroidered palls which are brought into the church with the bodies of deceased nobles buried there. But the sacred habiliments of the Troitza are of the most superb order. There are fifteen different magnificent vestments for the Archimandrite of this monastery, and as many mitres of gold en- riched with jewels. One of the ornaments of this priest, worn on his breast instead of a cross, was given to the church by the Empress Eliza- beth, and cost 16,000 pounds. One of his robes which he wears on Easter-day, made of crimson velvet embroidered with pearls, is valued at 14,000 pounds. Were I to describe the other vestments, and the variety of crucifixes, mitres, pyxes, golden-cased relics, &c. glittering with gems, I should tire your patience to read and mine to write. Suf- fice it to say, that Aladin himself, when his wonderful lamp introduced him into the treasury of the Genii, never saw a greater assemblage of riches in one spot, than may be beheld in the Troitza monastery. Such ornaments to a church certainly dazzle the senses ; and I am afraid, too much engage them to allow the heart to have any share in the scene : and if it had, I fear it would be too much employed in ad- miring the rich productions of the earth to think of the brighter splen- dors of Heaven. A noble simplicity, appears to me to be the proper character of a building devoted to the worship of the Creator. The TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 263 mean, barn-like plan of some modern churches in England, and the bare walls and bald timber-galleries of the generality of the chapels, are equally excessive on the other side. There is a medium between the gorgeous decorations in one country, and the penurious plainness in the other ; a sort of structure, in which we might recognise the beauty of holiness, and worship the Giver of All, in a place harmonious with his simplicity and greatness. I cannot leave you in a better place than the church ; so, bidding God bless you, shall for the present say farewel ! 264 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. LETTER XXIV. I Mosco, J une , 1806c Having heard much of the particular gloom, the sort of inquisi^ tonal terrors of the prisons on this side the Baltic, my curiosity was not a little excited to penetrate beyond their grates. On expressing my wish to his Excellency the military Governor, he was so obliging as to send an orderly officer with me to one of these iron securities of the public safety ; having previously given notice to the keeper that I should see every thing within the gates. The building is of brick, encircled by a high wall flanked with round towers, like an ancient fortress. An officer’s guard does duty there, which turned out on my arrival and presented arms. I was conducted through the several passages, apartments or dungeons ; and was shewn all the persons confined for crimes and misdemeanors. Debtors are in a different place. During my walk I had frequent occasion for a hand^ kerchief to pass betxveen the wind and my olfactory nerves, as smells, some- what different from the pouncet-box of Harry Percy’s popinjay , ever and anon assailed my nose ! — But it was a jail ! and they who have ever been induced to visit, even in our country, these neglected receptacles for guilt and misery, will not be surprised that in Russia they should be still more noisome. The squalid poverty of the unhappy creatures en- gendering diseases, their uncleansed persons, filthy garments, and more filthy habits ; and then so many inhabiting one chamber, so impregnates TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 2 65 the air with pestilence, that I only wonder they do not all die of the plague in the course of a month. There were no cells where a prisoner might have the comfort of being alone : all, whatever might be the individuals crimes, without any dis- crimination are stuffed into one apartment, inhaling in every breath a double infection of polluted air and polluted morals. In the midst of this distress there was a single room which bore a less intolerable ap- pearance. It was the hospital, in which lay about sixteen persons. Here I saw something like beds ; but in the other chambers the pri- soners had no other couches than bare wooden benches. When I view the wretchedness of these places, I cannot but suppose that the sen- tence of death is no increase of punishment to their inmates. Here they drag on a dying-life, or rather a tortured one : miserable fare, mi- serable sleep, (for rest we cannot call it on so hard a pillow) and an atmosphere fraught with every calamity which foulness can inflict; what are we to say to such an existence ? I would not thrust my vilest enemy into this pit of horrors, for all the security his imprisonment might offer. Long dark and narrow passages, without ventilation, led to the dif- ferent rooms. In the centre of the building stood the chapel; the only place in which it was possible to breathe with any safety. It was plainly fitted up and decently clean. Turning from this temporary asylum from the surrounding pestilential vapours, I drew in a most lengthened respiration to serve me during my next exploring, and plac- ing my glove up to my nostrils, followed my conductors along a very gloomy aisle which brought me to what they called the state part of the prison. I found seven persons here, apparently more comfortably ap- vol. i. M M 266 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. pointed than the forlorn wretches in the humbler department. I was told that these distinguished culprits were officers, committed for the offence of forging notes on the imperial bank. They were condemned to the prison for a certain time ; after which their earthly career is to be run, and to terminate, in the mines of Siberia ; that they may have ample communion with the specie, and enjoy it for ever in its virgin purity ! There is something in this judgement strikingly just ; and assuredly it seems more adapted to the crime than the summary punishment of death. It serves the country on the very point against which the in- jury was directed ; and so while the delinquent is punished, and his example warns others, the government is benefited by his labour. Sir William Meredith, a worthy member of our own senate, speaks so well to this purpose, and his observations have made such an impression on me, that I canot forbear sanctioning my antipathy to death as a general punishment, by repeating a few of his sentiments. The Mosaic law (he remarks) ordained that for a sheep or an ox, four and five fold should be restored ; and for robbing a house, double ; that is, one fold for reparation, the rest for example and punishment : and the forfeiture was the greater as the property was more exposed, so mak- ing the preservation of their own a sure guardian of their neighbour’s. If the thief came by night it was lawful to kill him in the act ; but if he came by day he was only to make restitution ; and if he had no- thing, he was to be sold for his theft. This is all that God required in felonies, and who can be a better judge of the human heart than He ? Indeed, so much is moderation in these cases the universal sentiment, that I cannot find in history any sample of such laws as the British penal TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 26? code excepting that which was framed at Athens by Draco. He made every offence capital upon the modern way of reasoning, “ that petty crimes deserve death, and he knew nothing worse for the greatest.” His laws, it was said, were written with blood ; but they were of short duration, being all, excepting one against murder, repealed by the wise Solon. When the great Alfred came to the English throne he found the kingdom over-run with robbers : what did he do ? Not make his country a forest of gibbets ; the expedient of hanging never entered his head* He instituted a police which was to render every township responsible for the felonies committed within its precincts. Thus, pro- perty became the guardian of property ; and robbery was so effectually stopped that in a very short time a man might travel through the king- dom, unarmed, with his purse in his hand. Treason, murder, rape, and burning a dwelling-house, were all the crimes that were punishable with death by our good old common law : and such was its reluctance to shed blood, that if recompense could possibly be made, life was not to be touched. Treason being against the King, the remission of that crime lay in the Sovereign’s breast. If a ravisher could satisfy the indignation of the injured woman, she might marry him even under the gallows, and take him from death to life. But now, no restitution can appease the law if it once seizes its victim. A man is hanged for treason, for murder, for forgery, for theft, for stealing half-a-crown ! I cannot but recount one instance of many, which shews the iron severity of these Draco laws. About the time of a great British armament the husband of a poor mm2 268 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. woman was pressed and sent to sea, her goods were seized for some debts of his, and she, with two infant children, turned into the streets to beg. She was young, not nineteen, and very handsome. Her beauty might have furnished another woman with ample stores of subsistence : here was at least something to praise as well as pity in the poor unfortunate. She went to a linen-draper’s shop, took some coarse linen off the counter and slipped it under her cloak ; the shopman saw her, and she laid it dozm: here was restitution ; yet for this she was hanged. Her defence was, “ that she had lived in credit, and wanted for nothing till the press- gang stole her husband from her ; but since then she had no bed to lie on, nothing to give her children to eat, and they were almost naked ; and perhaps she might have done something wrong, for she hardly knew what she did.” The parish- officers testified the truth of this story : but it seems there had been much shop-lifting about Ludgate ; and example was thought necessary, and this unhappy mother was hanged for the satisfaction of a few shop-keepers. When brought to receive sentence she behaved in so frantic a manner, that none could doubt her distracted state of mind.: and, O pitiless fate! When she set out for Tyburn the youngest child was sucking at her breast ! There does not occur to my thoughts a proposition more abhorrent to nature and to reason, than that in a matter of property, when restitution is, or can be made, blood should still be required. But in regard to our whole system of criminal law, and much more to our habits of think- ing and reasoning upon it, there is a sentence of the Roman orator which would be very aptly addressed to those who can yet reduce the British code to its original purity. — Nolite, quirites , hanc soevitiam diutius pati ; quce non modo tot cives atrocissime sustulit t sed humanitatem ipsam ademit consuetudine incommodorum . TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 269 But, as punishment of crimes is necessary for the sake of deterring others by example, of all modes of punishment, I should prefer that which is productive of the most example. Death is momentary, labour permanent : an execution is soon forgotten ; but hard toil is beheld every day, for perhaps a long course of years, and is thus an hourly warning to the commonalty at large. On these principles I approved the condemnation of the Russian forgers to the mines : and as you are equally a friend to humanity with the good Sir William, I will not apologise for leading you such a sweep from the Moscovite dungeons, to hear a few pleadings for the miserable inmates of our own. But now to return. A little gentleman issued from this state apart- ment (and in a most sorry state it was, when I had a nearer view !) and addressed me in French. The superintendant who walked with us speaking nothing but Russ, I received the salutation with due courtesy and accepted his offer to become our interpreter. My friend Mr. B , who was with me, asked him if he were one of the inhabitants of the room before us ; he replied no, and added, that his crime was nothing more than taking a servant without a passport. There was an evidence in his look and manner that contradicted his statement, and very clearly demonstrated to us, that we were in the company of an idle vagabond, who probably never had a servant to pass, and who most likely had found his way to the prison for want of a creditable credential for him- self. He said he was like ourselves (we were obliged to him for the compliment!) a foreigner, a Pole. Poor, unhappy Poland, how weit thou degraded by thy claimant ! He was to be confined for nine months, so long was this prison to travail with its precious burthen ; and then he might return to his own country, if he were not stopped again at 270 travelling SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. the baniers tor want of a passport ! However, he was very civil ; and explained and interpreted for us with all the action and volubility of a Frenchman. Thiough him we learnt that the male prisoners labour all day in fi- ling bark into a dust ; for tanning I suppose ; for here our Pole’s inter- pretations failed us ; he either did not know its use, or so bungled at the interpretation, or we were so obtuse in understanding, that we could not at all comprehend what he meant. As we proceeded farther over the prison I could not find any who were confined for any extraordinary crime. One man alone was shewn to me who was a prisoner for a species of murder : he had quarrelled with his neighbour at cards, and by an unlucky blow killed him on the spot. His sentence was soon to be executed ; the knout and banishment to Siberia. I was very curious to see the apparatus for this dreadful punishment, as well as the dreadful he who so dextrously executes it on the backs of the wretched mortals whose ill fate lays claim to his abilities. As no one was then immediately in waiting for the ceremony, we requested that the mode of inflicting the knout might be shewn to us. The exe- cutioner was a man of huge and herculean aspect, of a dark and sallow complexion, with a determined and ferocious face, having black hair and a grisly beard. When I saw him come forth from his wooden hut in the court-yard of the prison, he reminded me of the Abelino of Venice. His dress was the usual striped shirt of the country, with loose trowsers of a similar linen. He receives ten rubles yearly ; and, they say, is the very first practitioner in his line. On an average, one unfortunate wretch a month, suffers, in different degrees of severity ac- cording to his offence, under the horrid flail of this tormentor. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 271 Being called upon to exhibit his apparatus and prowess to us, which we the more readily demanded as his victim was to be only a block of wood, he untied a leathern wallet which hung before him, and drew out a pair of iron pincers, constructed for the purpose of slitting the nose ; which was done at a snip, taking out a very large piece. Another in- strument he exhibited for marking the forehead, or any other part, ac- cording to the direction of the sentence. It was shaped like a round brush, being strongly set with iron teeth. The knout (or whip) is form- ed thus: its handle is of wood, about a foot in length, very strong, and hard woven round with leather. To this is attached a stout and weighty thong, much longer than the handle, fastened in the manner of a flail. Next comes a well-dried strip of Buffalo's hide, much like pliable horn. This the executioner puts on the knout afresh every twenty lashes. Its shape is tapering to a point ; being full a quarter of an inch thick, and every long. Having adjusted this efficient part of the grand instrument of his vocation, he placed himself about four paces from where the supposed culprit was to stand or kneel, and putting the thong fast between his legs, he drew it up behind him, and then seized the handle with both hands ; and stepping two paces forward, raising the terrible machine over his head, he made a straight down cut, which fell on a thick board, making a hollow deep enough to bury your finger. This he repeated three or four times. If he knouts every individual with the same force he did the piece of wood, each stroke must find the bone. I omitted to see the thing to which the sufferer is bound ; but I was told by one who had witnessed the punishment, that it is a sort of upright block of wood, to which the neck, wrists, and knees are strongly fastened. It is deemed reproachful to touch the knout. An opinion that maiks the 272 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. horror in which it is held, that even any voluntary contact with the instrument is thought an abomination. I shuddered at the apparatus ; yet, should there happen any execution during my stay i n Russia, I shall certainly contrive to be present at the terrific scene. On the evening of the day in which I had visited the prison, my friend and myself received an invitation from Prince G who was going to be encamped at a short distance from Mosco. His regiment consisted of three battalions, and being on the peace establishment, contained about seven hundred men in each. We overtook it on its march, and found it proceeding in fine military order, with waggons for transporting the camp equipage, ammunition, &c. &c. The regiment and ourselves arrived on the ground about eight o’clock in the evening. The men halted and wheeled into line. After piling their arms, they commenced, with great regularity, to pitch their tents ; each being set in order by the number that were to inhabit it, eleven being the complement. Of course the regiments which formed the encampment were divided into wings. The colours and drums were in the centre, leaving a wide street in a direct line through the camp. The privates’ tents were in three rows ; those of the officers were in a street to the rear ; and in the rear of them again, were the field-officers’, and those belonging to the staff, with the tent of the commanding ge- neral. A rear and a quarter guard were planted ; similar to ours, but at a much greater distance. The form of the tents is the same that used to be made in England many years ago, but which gave place to the more commodious shape now adopted. Their height is not more than four feet ; however, the TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 273 wood-work is light and easy of conveyance. The men, in the great General Suwarroff’s style, have no other paillasse than the earth and their military coats. Small bell tents are placed in pairs in front of each com- pany, for the security of the arms, which are piled around its pole ; and here they remain, if not wanted for use, day and night. I do not approve this practice for many reasons. In the first place, the men are separated from their arms : a disunion which ought to be considered by the soldier as great a breach of his martial vows, as a similar parting from his lady would be of his matrimonial ones. Se- condly, the uncertainty of the weather renders such a disposition very unfavourable to their being in a good state when they are really wanted. And thirdly, the separation takes from the soldier that religious attach- ment to his arms which is the best friend of his duty. Like the Ro- man’s adherence to his shield, he ought to look upon the quitting his Lrms, and the losing his life, as much the same thing. And lastly, in cases of surprise, or sudden summons, what confusion must arise from every man running to a particular spot to seize his weapons ! A good soldier should be ever on the alert : and, sleeping with his hand on his musquet, his wedded wife and dear brown Bess , be ready at a moment s call to spring upon his feet, and take her in his arms. That the pieces of the Russians might sustain injury by the tenting plan, is clear; but I must do them the justice to say that thy take precautions against the evil ; the locks being carefully cased, not only in their quarters, but often in the hands of the sentries. At nine o’clock the whole line turned out, in their foraging caps and great coats, and without arms. The officers fell in two paces in front. The drums kept their station in the centre of each battalion. The vol. 1 . N N 274 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. band was in the rear. The retreat, or tattoo was beat. The band then played a sacred piece of music extremely solemn, which the stillness of the evening additionally favoured. A signal was given by the com- manding officer, when the whole became uncovered. A silence of a minute took place : it was a pause, so extremely still, as to create an expecting awe in the spectator ; and it was broken by the softest, and I may say the most angelic breathings from the choral band, who, ac- companied by the music, sung a delightful and simple hymn. During this, each soldier crossed himself with the utmost devotion ; and the behaviour of the officers was not less devout. The scene was new to me, and differing widely from the closing of the day in a British camp. I must acknowledge I never witnessed a ceremony so impressive on the feelings, nor an address to the Deity so awful and sublime. As soon as the holy rite was finished, the men put on their caps, faced to the right, and were dismissed. We passed the remainder of the evening with the Prince, who gave us a very elegant supper, and treated us with a respect and attention which made a comparison the more extreme that I could not help draw- ing : I mean the immense distance at which personages of his rank hold even the officers serving under them. While we sat round the table, the subalterns and captains of his regiment stood at one end, and in that position partook of the repast. As it is the custom of the country, they did not appear humiliated ; but enjoyed their share of the passing dishes with sufficient gout and good humour. Regiments, here, do not mess as we do in England ; but every man eats his morsel alone : and frequently it is but a morsel ; as the scantiness of their pay will not admit a very ample provision. I may dine pleasantly with individuals of these northern corps ; but no where amongst them can we find gay, TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 27^ social dinners, as such those I have enjoyed with you on the Bank- guard, or on that of St. James's. I think, in one of my former letters, I animadverted on the tightened varments of the Russian soldiers. But at this encampment they seemed so much more excessive in their smallness, that I must needs reiterate my indignation against the abominable mode. Their waists are so pinched by cloaths and a leathern belt, that part of their inward man must be dislodged from his original quarters, and forced, either up into the higher chest or down into their lower one. You will not find it difficult to understand what I mean by this appellation of the baser repository of the human machinery ! I took my hint from the fair sex, whom I have frequently heard dignify with the name of a pain in the chest , any complaint from the throat down to the knee ; and as with us the shape, Small by degrees, and beautifully less, From the full bosom to the slender waist, is entirely appropriated to the ladies, you must not be surprised that I should denominate things according to their vocabulary, when I am writing of fashions which seem, by nature, attributable to them only. Knowing the bravery of the Russian officers, it frets me to see them case their manliness in such maidenly ligatures. Some carry it to such a pitch as to sport a waist of hardly more than a few inches in circum- ference. Indeed, so consequential do they think it, that when on my first arrival at St. Petersburgh I expressed my wonder at their unmartial shapes, I was told an anecdote that explained to me how they were formed . Previous to the battle of Austerlitz, when the army marched out to N N 2 276 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. join the Austrians, a female having occasion for art to support nature, applied to one of the first boddice-makers in the city for the requisite encirclements. But he frankly told her he could not obey her com- mands, having a large order then in hands, to follow the army which had just passed the frontiers. I will not vouch for the veracity of this histoire ; but I scarcely doubt it, as it cannot be possible to bring any shape, bad or good, into the form here in fashion, without compresses as strong as those which used to be drawn on the ladies of old by the help of their staymaker’s foot. On the sight of a Russian officer, what first strikes the eye of a stranger is his wasp-like waist and enlarged thigh. The girded belt above, in- creases the swell of the limb, and the shortened coat displays the whole of its magnitude. Their high hats and feathers so overburthen the slender adhesion of the body to the hip, that you only wonder the in- adequate support does not break in twain. You may form some idea of the oddity of their appearance : but when you add to this feminine part of their toilet, their fierce and military countenances, the contrast is as strange as it is surprising. They allow their whiskers to grow to such length as to meet along the edge of their chin : the effect is ter- rific, giving a wild ferocity to their aspects. This Mars-like beard, with the immense breadth of their chests, is well calculated for war ; and were it not for the absurd disproportion in their middles, I should say that, in all points, I never saw a nobler body of officers as well as men. They are all as erect as an arrow, and carry themselves with the most exact military attention. I hope I may one day see these fine fellows dressed to the advantage of which their really excellent figures are capable ; as I understand that 277 travelling SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. the Emperor, being informed of the inconveniencies of the present mode, and of its injurious effects on the health, intends speedily to issue an order to change this part of their uniform ; and so, both for grace and utility, once more set the body at liberty. Boots and loose pantaloons are in general use throughout the army. The climate forbids gaiters ; and certainly in all cold countries, the former are preferable. Every private soldier wears a sword ; but for what reason I could not learn, as they are never taught the use of one. A musquet and a good bayonet are all the weapons a foot soldier should carry. On them he should depend. More divides his attention, and is very apt to make him negligent of the whole. I was much indebted to the Prince G for Ins politeness in explain- ing many objects of my military curiosity. Indeed the kindness that I have received from the most illustrious residents of this hospitable ca- pital, is beyond my thanks: but they used me after their own honour and dignity ; and so generous a consciousness must speak my sense of obli- gation. To the Governor-general I am particularly indebted for a thousand marks of friendship : and one token of his esteem I shall ever preserve as an expressive emblem of his warm and cherishing heart. I mean a valuable pelisse, with which his Excellency presented me the other day. That it was his gift, makes it estimable to me : but inde- pendent of that value with which my respect for his worth would have stampt a shoub of the commonest bear, had it come from him ; this pelisse is of the rarest and most costly materials, being lined with the skins of unborn lambs. It is difficult to obtain them at any price, as they are cut from the side of their heaving mother, just at the moment preceding that which would have given them birth. There is some- 278 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. thing terribly shocking to humanity in this relation : and it makes one shudder to think that nature does not groan under man’s wants only, but under his luxuries too. The wool of these little victims is beautifully soft, and in small silky curls of a silvery grey. The skins are brought from Persia, Bucharia, and the Kalmuc territory. The vegetable lamb, which is said to grow between the Volga and the Don, has had the reputation of furnishing these furs (if so tender a material may be so called?) however, the im- position was not long believed ; their less blameless origin is now too well known. From description, the plant called the vegetable-lamb (if any such there be !) has a coat resembling the wool in question, and used to be prepared by the natives where it grew, into warm clothing for themselves. But even this account is now discredited ; as of all the tra- vellers into those countries, none remember having ever seen this strange plant, or of knowing any one who had. The Tartars, who vend the skin of the real lamb, still persist in de- claring it to be a produce of the earth ; but so rare, that they exact the most exorbitant prices for a pelisse. And that they make it rare, by very seldom applying the Cesarean operation to the innocent victims of their avarice, is a happy circumstance. By the story they invented to conceal their cruelty, human nature has the comfort of seeing that they are ashamed of it. Perhaps it is politic too ; for certainly, in wearing the skins, it would be more pleasant to think that they were plucked from an herb, than from the panting side of a poor sacrificed animal. Besides these rarities from Persia, the most valuable furs of a more TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 279 redundant growth come from Siberia and the adjoining provinces. The black fox and sables are in the highest esteem ; but all are extremely expensive, being used in every winter dress of the rich. There are other fine furs from the Kalmuc country. But for the bear, racoon, &c. which are brought in such quantities from America to England, you have them infinitely better in quality, and cheaper in price, than we can find those of their hairy brethren in Russia. It is a very mistaken idea that these defences from the cold are as reasonable in this country as they are necessary. A man may expend a very decent fortune upon the wardrobe of his wife and daughters, before he sees them properly be- furred for the winter. This is rather a malapropos subject in the month of June ! And for fear the doctrine of sympathies should be so strong with you as to throw your blood into a boil at the contemplation of such suffocating habili- ments, I shall very wisely withdraw, before you consign me and my furs to a still hotter region ! Adieu !♦ Adieu ! 280 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. LETTER XXV. Mosco , June , 1806 . It is now deep mid-summer ! Mosco, deserted by its most amiable inhabitants, has no charms for me. All are gone to their country seats, there to court the breezes until the season of frost and gaiety recals them to this social scene. What then have I to do in this place ! You know I never was fond of the sentimental amusement of haunting places deserted by former joys. To me it is distracting ; memory is too busy, regret too poignant, to allow your friend to sigh romantically over the walks of Mosco. I must off. For to me it is now a tomb; nay emptier than a tomb, for both the soul and body of what I best love, have left it. But, if Heaven grants me life, next winter hither shall I return ; and then, my indulgent correspondent, you shall have a few more records of the happy, thrice happy days, I pass in this ever dear city. When I entered it, little was I aware of the sentiments with which I quit it : sentiments, which give me a joy in all around ; and an interest in every thing which belongs to the country that gave the object of them birth. To-morrow I shall set out for St. Petersburgh, and in the course of a few days be so much the nearer you. That at least is some comfort in passing from the region which contains one dear friend, that I am approaching the confines of another. But only approaching ! Many a sun and moon must roll over my head before I shake hands with you 281 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. in England. Yet while writing thus, I almost feel myself close to you : and in our usual manner of recounting the events of the day to each other, shall draw in my chair, and tell you how admirably my sagacity has blessed me with a companion for to-morrow’s travel, or travail! which you like ; for, I am sure I shall have pains enough before I am delivered of my burthen. Mr. B and I had settled to keep the road together ; he in his carriage and I in mine. That he is not the object of my present lamen- tations you can easily believe. But my evil stars brought an addition to our party, who I am now going to introduce to you, merely by cha- racter ; for I would sooner condemn myself to trudge with him from here to Jericho, than do such an injury to my friend as to present him in propria persona. The Marquis de is the gentleman. And the lesson I have learnt from the method in which this personage authorized himself to become one of our party will, during my continental tour and for ever after, teach me to be careful of suddenly saying yes ; and of believing that all noblemen, are noble ; and that smooth manners do not often con- ceal a very rugged heart. In short, my noviceship was most egregiously taken in by the titled Italian ; and I fear from what I have seen, and more that I have heard, that I shall have no trifling reasons to increase my repentance for my over hasty yea. My Marquis, heaven knows ! may be honest ; but I am too feelingly -convinced that he is poor. And yet that is no crime, as I can bear witness, who am myself, perhaps, not many whits more worthy in that respect ; and assuredly much poorer in the knowledge of making my way through the world. However the old adage experientia fyc. will profit me a little. VOL. i. o o 282 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. The mode in which I became encumbered with this gentleman was, I must do him the justice to say, as much owing to my own folly as to his- wisdom. As soon as he delivered his silver-tongued wish; had I taken a moment's thought, he might as easily have been civilly answered in the negative, as most stupidly greeted with an assent. But, as I said before, my evil star ruled : and having been hailed by an angel on my arrival at Mosco, it was decreed as a small service to the city, that I should take a devil out of it. This said demon, who was fated to become my familiar, I had met at dinner at the Prince V 's. He there learnt that I was shortly going to St. Petersburgh, and had a vacant place in my carriage. Presuming on the popular notion that every Englishman who is seen in a foreign country, must be rich and a lord , he surprised me next morning with a visit; and with many polite speeches conferred on me that honourable title. I soon undeceived him with regard to my right to the coronet, but with the utmost of my elo- quence, I could not persuade him that my purse was not as full as he seemed determined to think it. He had travelled, appeared intelligent, spoke several languages, possessed an excellent address, and in so easy a manner requested the favour of being allowed to be my companion to St. Petersburgh, that I instantly consented. In the first place, I was pleased with his conversation, as far as it went ; it was agreeable to me to do a civility to any gentleman ; and as he was a nobleman, and talk- ed carelessly of expences, I could not doubt that he had sufficient to pay his own. But I was very green, my friend ! and have to thank him for bring- ing my experience to so rapid a ripening. A few visits from my Mar- quis, added to some enquiries I made, soon told me how precipitate I had been : however, information came too late ; to retract was im- 233 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. possible ; I must take him. In vain, I now see that his fund of intelli- gence is of similar extent with that of the Sharper in the Vicar of Wakefield, whose cosmogony of the world talked Moses Primrose out of his father's horse. My Marquis has talked me out of horses, and carriage, and patience into the bargain ; and to-morrow, I must set him and all his estates, viz. his uniform and decorations! by my side for a long tete-a-tete of five or six days ! I confess the blockhead part I acted in the affair deserves the punishment : and so being resigned to suffer for my folly, I shall bid you good night ; promising to finish my letter at the first halting place. Voskresensky, June 19th. Thursday night. Well ! Our disasters with my amiable companion are begun : but how they will end, I cannot guess. Perhaps conduct us back to the same prison we so lately explored, in a different style from our last visit. Indeed, my poor friend B and I have no contemptible chance, by the vagaries of our third, of being marched retrogradely, to make a happy triumvirate with the captive Pole. But you shall know all in order. Having arranged every thing this morning for our journey, and made an agreement with the Istvostchicks for horses to Voskiesensky, we were preparing to enter our carriages, when the postilions refused to tbuch the reins, saying the whole of their fare had not been paid. Knowing to the contrary, we insisted on their mounting ; they were ob* stinate : and turning to the Marquis who could speak Russ, we request- ed him to express our remonstrances more plainly to the men than we had done. But applying at once to my ci-devant servant’s argument, o o 2 284 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA, lie started forward, and made such active use of a huge stick upon the backs of the poor devils, that he soon compelled them to seek refuge on their boxes. Having brought them to their duty, we were just going to proceed, when a detention arose from his side. Though victor, he had not escaped quite clear ; his shoulder knot and coat flap were nearly torn off in the scuffle, and hung dangling in a most pitiable plight. Un- doubtedly his raiment was none of the newest. ; and in repairing the present fractures we perceived that they had not been the first : our Hector had been in civil wars before. Some way or other our servants got the gaping apertures stitched up ; and at a little distance, I defy the best eyes to discover that his cloaths look any thing the worse. He treated the accident with his usual nonchalance ; “ it was a trifle, an old coat !" True, for it was a uniform of the Emperor Paul's ; and con- sequently could not be very juvenile. However, all mishaps being remedied, we set forwards at about three o’olock. We travelled very quietly for twenty-five versts, which brought us into the centre of a village, where the drivers stopped, we supposed merely to refresh the horses. But our heroes of the whip had been all this time chewing the cud of their flagellation ; and seizing the moment for revenge, they began to take off the horses, declaring that they would not stir a step further. We stopped this manoeuvre , holding the animals in the harness. This produced a violent altercation ; ourselves, and the vociferous Marquis, all talking at once ; the drivers bawling their ac- cusations, resolution, and even threats ; our servants defending our cause with part of the villagers who, incensed by the representations of the drivers, poured on us the most abusive language ; others, standing TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 285 aghast, with their hatchets in their hands, as undecided how to act. In short, the disturbance was so great as to menace every thing tremendous. .(’< :;.iat gained him the title of fne *crv-n> of 'the Lard. 'fr.e Scrip \ii c account of. this tponarch , insteao of being considered with captious remark , is, next to the Gospel, Abe most, gracious history that • an $ for it declares, that -though (lie sins of a man [];■-■ v,ed us ?»cariet,in r<$peafcar4e ihdy shall he washed w) ite as snow: and thus, this promised mere,, of God is made evident by tl\e example ■ ■ = the - v . a ivill , .•>• ' su, prised that I have can ■;! f a little ot the *pint' of ser- monising li it ih trui-c 'w.bea mi, a aiding- dock. attached r.o ihe chaiacter of the “ sweet songster of ilsraeF’ fdl m my path,- 1 OQulti v?hh ft safe conscience, pass by, without putting forth • the'wa’ 1 'be mcsiks of this foundation are thirty-two; All habited lu black <*<'-• formed 1? :,e the ixAc-rof tlr ‘.ect'.lar priests. They wear on thar .. . bad an* wvimmim £ in two points; ijic Aren ^ ?u&nd.t.L?.c. w as ciaii. in s.uk, wit! Kb-, 'tofee of some sacred c/xior suspended from his neck. St. Band as ,-.u epuatpp, 'irdc: these dedicated people. W<. ■ --•■*■*■ . . .. ■ V &90 TEA VELL I.N« SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. W’oukl^av:. been its prm.cipal tieasmv,. fch< curious arid valuable mBb- scr.f .is collected, by Nichoa during .has-supu^arv, are' i;ow, I believe, it, Emperor's possession. None are tee.., Two rate were shewn to ' h the other a copy .of the sacred Scriptures with his revisions and /cnjarhs. We saw several large portrait e, I -dot - ' : ' ■ ( . ■ , ■ ■ n ii li g. ■ | - sed i>u ii a little gothic gat:-, and shaped cmr course atom foot of the embattled walls, .and th s 1 . • We soon found ourselves on an sv^nevo pin >, ; v.antifoby. ei-t.r.hei with trees, and watered by the Jordan arc! Euphrev, ■. . Tb ?x i-uh: ike i&Uer rivet' hapmadt -other aiinep born -he plains of ?. -by- r L? the Judea;- i dood under the w alb of this min a&tefy - But' bhb PMmu’th could bring the Jordan from its native springs so far, it required volt little more si retch of power to tramp ort tire Euphrates also ; r eid be ■• - dower ib-e two famous rites of Palestine &uci Assyria 4 \;>n ibovrh in a miniature, the effect was fine and solemn. The consent rose wta' ■ ■• e 1 i< . . . . ■ ' . .■ ■■ high minarets shone hr • reiigtoc ; magnificence horn that ■ enrnarandmp spot. My sketch will give you a -light idea of ii> bold and 1 itioif l ' 1 ■ that I have not the pencil of^a Lo uiherbourgh 'hr a Wilfoiq ip ore sub*. ^ * * *; ,yj. . -;Ln •. , - b;* - !p .•' ;h limcly to pourtray the grand objects of this country , TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 291 After dwelling for some time on its extent and grandeur, and on the associating ideas which ought to present themselves on this consecrated place ; our pious abbot conducted us through another avenue in the wood to a little white building embosomed amid drooping larches ; trees whose heads towered far above the minarets of the Hermitage : for so this retreat was named. In this secluded spot did the austere Nichon spend most of the days in twenty years : not days of greatness and of splendor; they, like Wolsey’s, had passed away: but days of silence, solitude, and voluntary punishment. Here he led a life of pains and fatigues, inflicting on himself the severest penalties for the offences of the past. When we recall this man's capacious mind, with the mag- nitude of his plans, and the strength of his understanding ; we are struck with wonder that all this reason should become the slave of superstition. Is it possible that he who copied out the Scriptures with his own hand, and commented on their contents, could see any utility to the soul in whips and scourges? But so the fact was. And I saw one instance, that proved he did not inflict this penitential chastisement with a sparing hand. It was an immense iron chain, of a weight so enormous as is hardly credible ; to which was suspended a huge cross of the same pon- derous metal. This terrible load he always wore during his fasts and humiliations, hanging from his neck. His bed consisted of a single stone, with one of a smaller size for a pillow : both were fixed in a low and confined cell. In the Hermitage are two small chapels. The stair- case leading to them is spiral, and so narrow, that with difficulty one person can squeeze up at a time. Our friend the abbot told us that the Patriarch did not always dwell here; but at the short intervals between the long fasts and other peni- p p 2 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 29 % tential periods, resided in the monastery. On the commencement of the fasts he returned hither again ; and they saw no more of him till the time expired ; and then he re-appeared ; exhausted and worn with watching and penance, but uttering no uneasiness for aught but, what he termed, his inexpiable offences. Can we imagine a more pitiable state of mind ? Immediately after Nichon’s abdication of his rank of Father of the Russian church, in 1658, he retired to this his favourite place of New Jerusalem. He remained here until the machinations of his enemies caused him to be removed to the convent of Therapont, in the cells of which he suffered the most rigorous treatment. However, with the death of the Tzar Alexey Michaelovitch ceased his imprisonment ; and he gained the imperial permission to pass the rest of his days in this Heiv mitage. Unfortunately he never had the comfort of seeing so dear a spot again, which, though watered by his tears, was yet the place he had consecrated to the Deity, and where he found consolation in pouring out his soul in penitence and prayer. He died on the road in the year 1684. But his remains were brought to the monastery, and buried with due solemnity in one of the chapels of the great church. His tomb is covered with dark velvet ; and over it hangs the chain and cross I have already described, A very fit emblem of the more iron bonds his mis- taken judgment had laid upon his reason and his life. Having performed the whole of our pilgrimage, and even ended it at the shrine of the Patriarch, we bid a grateful adieu to the Archimandrite our attentive conductor ; and returned to our village, proposing imme- diately to press forward towards St. Petersburgh. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 293 Monday , June 23c?. We proposed , my good friend ; but alas ! during the visit to New Jeru-< salem, our characters had travelled after us from the last stage ; and not a man nor a horse was allowed to approach our carriages. Boors had arrived, who gave such a terrific account of our behaviour, positively affirming that the postilions were dead of the wounds we had inflicted on them ; and that others of the broken headed villagers were in an ex- piring state. In short the story spread so widely, and was believed so currently, that all Voskresensky threatened to rise at once and rid the world of such tyrants. Indeed the business became so serious im- mediately after I last closed this paper, and finding it impossible to appease the clamour, or secure ourselves any other way, we literally fortified our abode ; and placed regular watches for four days and nights, until a courier could return, who, on this danger, we had sent express to the Governor-general at Mosco for redress. After a most inconvenient suspence of another twenty-four hours, our messenger arrived with credentials, investing us with full authority to command all we required ; and what was not the least agreeable part of his embassy, he brought along with him the very drivers whom report had murdered. His Excellency had given orders that he should take them up in his way : and after having seen them receive an additional disciplining from the police, for their behaviour, they were made to de- clare their penitence at our feet. The sight of the Governor’s order, and the appearance of the pos- tilions, immediately quieted the villagers ; and mounting our carriages, we left Voskresensky, drawn by the very horses with which we had en- 294 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. tered, and driven by our late rebellious charioteers, now all attention and obsequiousness. ■ Barouche , Tuesday , #c. Sfc. Determining to make up for lost time, we soon got into the high road, and bowled along as swiftly as if we had had Pegasus himself yoked to our car. I travelled this very road but a few months ago. In vain I now look round to recognise any object of my former observations : it seems totally a new scene. When I last beheld it, it was covered with snow ; now, all is one wide stretch of green landscape. The one shewed Winter in his direst reign ; the other Summer, though I am sorry to say, not in her sweetest charms. All is flat and uninteresting. The villages boast no little spots cultivated with Swiss beauty and comfort. No tree, or creeping tendril grows near the doors and windows of these habitations. The russet cottages of England, overgrown with the blushing rose and fragrant honey-suckle ; their pretty gardens, and domesticated animals, all are wanting here. The absence of the snow, and the unveiling of the grass, seem the only marks that winter has disappeared : at least the only pleasing assurance, for as to disagree- able proofs, 'in the forms of heat and dust, we have enough of them. A burning sun continually over our heads, scorching our very souls ; and the dust, by way of soothing our pride, while it torments our skin, eyes, and lungs, makes us like so many Eneases, always move in a cloud ! The natives are no less sensible of the heat than we Englishmen. They change the fashion and the substance of their dress with the sea- son : and as I have already pictured their winter costume, I shall now give you a sketch of their summer attire. The men go with naked feet, did? ? /SCp.tp S.d’ridae Street, dondon- i.'F'r r > rv 1 1 ttiKili;; ihf® TU dyp i bo si onufer boo tid dean brougb with a aiit '. ? r li) : U ; r'V. [\)l { >:■■■ vi 3 ■■■• - * .» . ..... i i ;■■ ; vikerefaiblV •>? wo-; ir;,< of 305 ; kiig ware Ilitui .... h. i -• a ; k i _•• Hasp used b) r ■ ' • won a prrmy. • - ; ■ >i!i \: ore ;>’ ■ • ••• ; i»o you Toe and T. a ■ ’ *'X • 1 ’°t. ' ■ • ■ n ;..*?$ ' uti a, glass beads 4 , ■ ... • • * v . ??. Ww :/ ■•' . -'O'; ' ''r : ',,.ao x v.,)S y- : a^iht\y T *Ffi4*:ngs ; of thco- ww ; ;. w tp: ... Kw.fe . : fe, sales.. \;W v.J.iU* • yr T . Wu )Cv . ... Vw ho/T” a -« ; a? y. ouk jui 'h .die 1 in , , .. . ■ ■ ■ :: - ’ ema to • .»c:.| -No nKTg gid in i he vibage at a - ry -y:Ay , ~wrl iotist r i' ' ■•' 0 . .. ..■ ivwwt, feavkg bco i rides a few days wider tly.w tnai Nayy* to. the nie cf bi the expiration of sowwyearw w! • ? a tU "•'• r = 'Thor of several children;' |ik b e parrot i who hnd dimmed it. VJfM:** Vr a husband t*>: the young • Ife . ‘Tljis -*s don<- luvff eon*ybTRd a ba.rdahi a by the parties. In* i fu ;: - to the ofFspnogi to sitpj)ly al! over Kus$ I i mn Jy-r-: TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 295 Seldom any covering on their head, and literally wear nothing more than a shirt and trowsers of striped linen. The shirt is closed at the neck in a peculiar manner, with a round buckle precisely like the clasp used by the ancients. These people are particularly fond of children ; a proof, I think, of the natural goodness of their hearts. You will more fre- quently see the men, when returning from toil, taking their infants in their arms and caressing them, than seeking the company of their wives. The women during the warm season, wear a blue and yellow dress of dyed linen, closed down the front with buttons, and fastened on the shoulders with clasps. It is called a serrafan. Their heads are usually bound with handkerchiefs of various colors : and when more gay, a ban- deau of gold lace and beads encircles their foreheads. The hair is brought to knot on the top of the head, and its back part is ornamented with a fanciful sort of net-work, tassels and fringe of bugles, glass beads and different colored silks or worsted, resembling the decoration which the American Chiefs wear in the place of a Highland Scot’s philabeg. I enclose you drawings of these lightly attired males and females. But while I am on the subject, I cannot omit mentioning a strange custom which they have amongst them ; one very repugnant to nature, and to British feelings, even shocking to think on. Fathers marry their sons to some blooming girl in the village at a very early age, and then send the young men either to Mosco or St. Petersburgh to seek employ- ment, leaving their brides a few days after their marriage to the care of their parents. At the expiration of some years, when the son returns to his cottage, he finds himself the nominal father of several children, the offspring of his own parent ! who had deemed it his duty thus to supply the place of a husband to the young wife. This is done all over Russia, and is never considered a hardship by the parties. In- 296’ TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. deed so far from it, the fashion continues ; and when the son becomes a resident in his native village, if he have a numerous stock thus raised to him, he marries them off, sends them a packing ; and then enjoys him- self, like a Turk in his seraglio, amongst their wives. Whether this horrid, unnatural, and immoral custom arose from any policy in the nobles, who might issue an order to this effect, to com- pensate to themselves for perhaps some great mortality amongst their young serfs in the case of long and destructive wars, I cannot tell ; but I think it very likely ; as no propensity in nature could ever dictate so abominable a perversion of nature. As it is the interest of the owner of slaves to increase their population, it is also to his advantage to allow of the emigration of the young men to the cities as much as possible ; for, as he receives an annual pecuniary acknowledgment from all who leave his village to pursue their own plans, in proportion as they amass money, he may raise the rent they pay him for themselves ; and so im- prove his revenue by their fortune. On these grounds, I suppose the horrid practice I have just mentioned, is permitted to pass uncensured. The nobleman finds his lands stocked with a growing generation of slaves, and he cares not by what means they were planted. This absorbing passion of self-interest, how does it possess the whole world ; — how does it even alloy natures which otherwise might not be far from heaven ! There exists an old law, happily now obsolete, which empowered the proprietor of a slave, not only to receive his yearly rent, but on any pretence, to seize the harvest of his industry. Such is not tolerated now : on the reverse, a part of the hard-earned riches of the serf is appropriated to purchase his freedom. Many of these industrious vas- sals are possessed of wealth to the amount of 30,000/., and sometimes more. TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 297 The country, for the greater part of the way, now became very woody ; and after travelling over the first hundred versts from Mosco, like passing through the first village, the fac-simile of all the rest, the monotony was so unbroken that I might safely have slept the remainder of my journey without missing any very interesting view. Near Valdaia the ground certainly rises a little, gives you a few undulations which, like a flattering ripple on the sea, seems to promise something stronger, but smooths again. All the varieties we met, were here and there a marsh in which a huge piece of granite reared its head, and a few passing groupes of natives driving their merchandize to distant markets. Amongst our scanty complement of entertainment (for our titled com- panion having gained his point, and perhaps exhausted his powers in the last affray, very sagaciously sought to replenish them with the sweet interchange of food and sleep), the canal and falls of Borovitsky struck across our recollection. B and I being pretty well wearied of our dull drive, determined to visit them, and ordered the postilions ac- cordingly. At Yislina Valochock the canal is first descried, laden with vessels full of productions from the interior ; human industry having here united the river Twertza with the Meutza ; connecting, by an inland navigation, the Caspian with the Baltic Sea. We enquired whether there were any barks collected at the falls, in one of which we might descend ; and being answered in the affirmative, we hired horses to take us to these torrents, and afterwards bring us round to the great road at Valdaia. The. circuit we made by this detour , might be about a hundred and se- venty versts. On reaching Speckinskoy, the prestan (or port), we dis- patched our vehicles to Borovitsky . Q Q VOL. I. 298 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. We found numbers of craft on the eve of going down, and placing our- selves in one of them, soon entered on the descent, which was by no means tremendous, although the rapidity of the motion was surprising. This torrent is a long inclining surface of water of about thirty versts : and to give you an idea of the velocity with which the barks moved, we went twenty-five versts in three-quarters of an hour. The most alarming circumstance in the exploit, is to see the constant changes the vessels make in their shapes from the violence of the waters. They bend like paper, and are so admirably constructed, as to take the undu- lating form of the rising wave. Were they of firmer texture they must inevitably be dashed to pieces. As it is, they bound like a feather on the water, and are carried by its impetuosity safely to the bottom of the fall. With all this, it requires some nerve to make the excursion ; yet by no means so much as to shoot London-bridge before an ebb tide. Around this place the country assumes a more interesting air ; and independent of the canal, very well repaid us for the sweep we had taken to approach it. The remainder of the road from Borovitsky to Valdaia, is by no means unpicturesque, and gradually becomes more so as we advance to the Valdaia hills and lake. The banks of this piece of water are unquestionably beautiful ; and the centre is not less charm- ing, being magnificently adorned with a fine island containing a mo- nastery. As we drove along, peeping into every copse, dingle, and alley green of the glowing landscape, I was much pleased with the numerous bands of Ukrane peasants and their droves, as they crossed our path. At night their appearance was still more picturesque. Formed into little cir- cles, in various attitudes, around a rustic fire which they had lighted on TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 299 the earth, they would sit and sing, while their cattle grazed amongst the herbage of the trees. There was something very cheerful in these mid- night groupes and we were not sorry to find, that as they were travel- ling to St. Petersburg!!, we should have this moving scenery the whole way. Another species of itinerant picturesque, but in smaller herds, oc- cured. They are called Gypsies with you, but here, and generally over the continent, they are known by the appellation of Bohemians. The wives of this strange race, whose origin is so uncertain, are celebrated for their extraordinary mode of dancing and singing. Many little colo- nies of them are established near Mosco, whence they occasionally visit the city, and are hired by the nobility to add to the amusements of the evening. It is pleasing to observe the comfort, ease, and regularity with which they transport themselves from place to place. They have excellent tents to pitch at the time of rest, and the cradles in which the camp-furniture is conveyed, form good beds. We passed many of theii canvass villages, the disposition of which was wild and Arabic to the most romantic degree ; and the inhabitants, employed in sundry domes- tic and culinary concerns, presented the most interesting scenes, either for the pencil or the heart. The children who ran by the side of our carriage, were extremely beautiful, as the eastern character was finely marked in their counte- nance, besides their copper complexions, raven hair, and large black eyes. Beards and mustaccios increased the ferocious looks of the men, as well as did the wide caftan and Asiatic cap. But there was majesty blended with this fierceness ; a something that strongly declared their consciousness of- independence : and, when you viewed their strength, q q 2 300 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. their air, and the fearless penetration of their glances ; and united with these, their probable wants, the result produced sensations not very favourable to the idea of falling in with them in the depth of night. However, I believe that any alarm of the sort would be groundless ; as I understand their depredations seldom extend beyond a stray lamb from the farmer’s flock, and a few poultry ; or any other thing calculated to supply their uncertain meals. The women devote their wits to reading the hands of the village lasses, and gather a copeck or two as their reward. There is something very extraordinary in these wandering people ; and an obscurity envelopes their origin that appears almost impossible to penetrate. That they are called Gypsies, we are told in England, arises from a tradition of their springing from Egypt. How then do they derive the name of Bohemians ; which it seems they bear over almost all the continent ? They shew no resemblance to the present natives of Bohemia : neither are their features in the least like those of the real Egyptians. Will you allow me to form a conjecture respecting them? And when delivered, if you think my antiquarianism as bad as Martinus Scriblerus’s blue-rusted shield, laugh and welcome ; I am ready enough to surrender my doctor’s cap, and join most heartily in your mirth. That they came originally from the East, I do not doubt ; their com- plexion, dancing girls, customs, and Bedouin way of life, affirm the same. Their wide dispersion, throughout the whole of the known world, de- clares them to have been a persecuted people. There are none whom they resemble in this latter respect but the Jews : and it is from the Jews that I date them. Now do not make an outcry at this, but hear TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 301 me to the end, and you shall see how I will prove it anon. Memory ! Memory ! She is apt to play me many a jade’s trick, and now she threatens to throw me again ! But I have somewhere read (I think it was in a large work, of several folio volumes on the different reli- gions) of a great dispersion of the Jews which took place immediately on the sacking of the Holy City by the Homans. Part fled into Egypt ; and from thence, as they increased in population, subdivided again, and wandered into otner countries ; living separate from the people of the nations they visited, but subsisting by an affected power of foretelling future events. Does not this description tally with the present vocation of the Gypsies? Do not the symmetry of features, hair, complexion, and eyes, of these itinerant tribes, all agree with the peculiar aspects of the sons of Israel ? And beyond these evidences, if you require internal as well as external ; is not the obstinacy with which they adhere to their own customs, and keep themselves distinct from the governments of the countries in which they sojourn, the very spirit of the Jews? The Jews are a separate people in every nation : and who at all resemble them in this respect but the Gypsies ? I therefore consider them as one and the same race originally. But since their emigrating from Egypt, their first place of refuge (whence foreign nations gave them the name of Egyptians, or Gypsies), it is likely to suppose that many persons whom desperate fortunes or persecution might make homeless, would attach themselves to these free though houseless tribes. Hence would gra- dually arise that improvement in their posterity which now renders them in stature and expression a finer people than the modern Jews. Length of time, and wide dispersion, with their unsettled mode of life* by degrees taking from them all exercise of the rites of their religion ; . 302 TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. we can easily comprehend how, in the progress of a few centuries, the marking points should be forgotten by them ; and that they should feel no repugnance to marrying with the strangers who joined their bands ; or to admit adventurers of all persuasions into their fraternity. From a reason of this kind, I account for their continental name of Bohemians. During the terrible persecution of the Christians in the tenth century, under Boleslaus the Cruel, who expelled them Bohemia, many were driven from their native homes to perish amid the trackless forests of Poland, Germany and Russia. Travellers could no where go without meeting hordes of these unhappy people, sitting by the road sides, and feeding themselves and children on the wild pulse. Some- times they moved in larger bodies, and sometimes in less ; every where overspreading the countries in such multitudes, as to cause every itine- rant, groupe that appeared to be supposed a Bohemian. Hence the fewer tribes of Gypsies were confounded in the general swarm, and called Bohemians, In a succeeding and more happy period the greater number of the persecuted Christians were recalled to their country by the pious suc- cessor of the tyrant of Bohemia : but some of them, preferring even a necessitous liberty to a chance of similar suffering, most likely would join themselves with the Gypsies, now called by their appellation ; and so, though independent of their country, these adventurers found them- selves acknowledged as Bohemians still. Less innocent associates, out- laws from their nations, might insinuate themselves amongst the hordes ; perverting the original blamelessness of the poor wandering Israelites, and so initiating them into the several accomplishments of cheating, stealing, &c. Jiu-r. Jan''. 2 . 7 K. JJTJT.LjIPS. Sn J * a P A.t&ivt direx ' xtadle* !:*; more wearied than edified by my researches after the r pedigree,!, shal- make some little compensation by sending a portrait of one of the .. .. people The laea- is an exact copy fro t handsome j The dresi, which is .just as she wore it, will strike you with ite reseiu- me/. k : % have learnt to write So you will not be surprised , in sight i In a few hours, I shall ompatuo , , and epistle, shall be dispatched to you by your very faithful friend. UNO OF ?HB. FlUST VOXOMfcf TRAVELLING SKETCHES IN RUSSIA. 303 So far my hypothesis regarding the Gypsies : and for fear you should be more wearied than edified by my researches after their pedigree, I shall make some little compensation by sending a portrait of one of the fair belonging to this brown people. The face is an exact copy from a very handsome prophetess of their tribe, who stood by the carriage side. The dress, which is just as she wore it, will strike you with its resem- blance to the drapery of a Roman toga. I have learnt to write in my barouche. So you will not be surprised to find me exclaim, St. Petersburgh is in sight! In a few hours, I shall be relieved from my noble companion ; and this, almost measureless epistle, shall be dispatched to you by your very faithful friend. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME, T. Gillet, Printer, Crown-court, Fleet-street. mm ^v fj mwmJt 5E3BTF