Please handle this volume with care. "he University of Connecticut Libraries, Storrs hbl, stx DK 25.K78 1842 Russia. It 3 T1S3 DDM733DE 00 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/russiastpetersbuOOkohl RUSSIA. ST. P E T E E S B U K G, MOSCOW, KHARKOFF, RIGA, ODESSA, THE GERMAN PROVINCES ON THE BALTIC, THE STEPPES, THE CRIMEA, AND THE INTERIOR OF THE EMPIRE. BY J. G. KOHL. LONDON: C.HAPMAN AND HALL, 186, STRAND, 1842. C. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, STRAND. PREFACE. The volume here presented to the public contains an abstract of nine closely-printed volumes, descriptive of the general features and popular manners of a large portion of the Eussian Empire. To bring the contents of those nine volumes within the compass of one, was a task of some difficulty; but the Editor flatters himself that it has been accomphshed, without omitting any of the more interesting portions of the four original works, published in quick succession by their accomplished and lively author. To the generahty of readers, this epitome will, probably, be a more welcome offering, than a more faithful, but, at the same time a far more volmninous translation, could have been. The description of St. Petersburg has been given at much greater length than any of the other portions of the work ; partly, because it was supposed that the capital would be an object of greater interest to the Enghsh public than the other parts of the empire ; and partly because, in the Editor's opinion, Mr. Kohl's description of St. Peters • burg is decidedly the best of his works on Kussia. *^;* The Maps and Plans which accompany the original works have not been given in the present translation, partly because they would materially increase the cost, and partly because such diminutive maps are very unsatisfactory. Readers who may desire them, will find the special Maps of Russia, and the Plans of St. Petersburg and Moscow belonging to the series published by the Society for tlie Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, very superior to any which could have been introduced into this work. CONTENTS. PAGE ST. PETERSBURG. Panorama of St. Petersburg 1 Architecture of St. Petersburg 5 The Neva 13 Life in the Streets 26 The IsTOshtshiks (Public Sledge- drivers) 36 The Winter 42 The Markets 48 The Black People 57 The Churches 71 The Servants of St. Petersburg 81 The Monuments 89 The Arsenals 94 The Imperial Palaces 99 The Hermitage 105 The Foundling Hospital Ill The Exchange 116 Industry and Manufactures 122 The Table aud Kitchen 133 Foreign Teachers 139 The Butter-week 149 The Gulanie 153 The Burning Theatre 155 The Great Masked Ball 157 The Great Fast 160 Pahn Sunday Fair 162 The Easter Eggs 164 The Three last Days of Passion-week 164 Easter-eve 165 The Gardens and Villas 174 The Islands 176 The Sea-coast 180 The Duderhof Huls 183 Cronstadt 184 Miscellaneous Notices 193 Statistics 194 Suicides 194 Elements of the Population 194 Movement of the Population 195 Number of Churches 196 The Rashtshiks 196 The Rasnoshtshiks 198 Dress of the Court Ladies 200 Number of Horses in an Equipage... 201 Consecration of a House 201 Bruloff's Picture of Pompeii 202 River Shipping 204 Pickpockets 205 Office for Foreigners 206 Iron Roofs 206 The Father of the Russian Fleet ... 207 Vapour-baths 207 l A Russian's Opinion of an Italian Winter 210 I PAGB Coffee-houses 210 Bolshoi Prospekt 211 MOSCOW. Plan ; Style of BuUding ; Streets 212 The Kremlin 214 The Bolshoi and Maloi Dvorez 217 The Orusheinaya Palata 219 The Arsenal 221 The Market-places 221 The Second-hand Market 224 Luchmannoff's Magazine 226 Churches 227 Pakroski Sabor, or The Church of the Protection of Mary 235 Iverskaya Boshia Mater 237 The Mosque 239 Convents 240 Devitshei Monastir, or Convent for Women • 241 Androuicus Convent .- 244 Convent of the Miracle 245 Sa Ikono Spasskoi 247 The Greek Convent 248 Divine Service in the Russian Greek Church 250 The Mass 251 ChurchMusic 254 Cursing of the Heretics 256 Consecration of the Wafer 258 Blessing the Fruit 258 Moleben 259 Making the Sign of the Cross 259 Lighting of Tapers 261 The Clergy of the Russian Church ... 263 Academies and Seminaries for the Clergy 269 The Sects of the Russian Church 271 The University 273 Public Gardens 276 The Palace in Ruins 277 Moscow a Provincial City 279 Aqueducts 281 Moscow after the Conflagration 281 The Cholera Hospital 282 Russian Thieves 282 Cucumber Water 283 Dialects 283 Trading Boys 283 Street Lighting 284 Prices of Lessons 285 New Russian Saints 286 Russian Eccentrics 286 The Pearl 293 A Russian Author 294 IV CONTENTS. PAGE THE GERMAN PEOVINCES ON THE BALTIC. Libau 298 The Interior of Courland 301 Grobin 301 Northern Hospitality 303 Sea-bathing 308 The Chase 311 From Zierauto Dondangen 313 Goldingen 314 Pilten and Windau. The Most Nor- therly Estates 317 Mtau 319 St. John's Day at INIitau 321 From Mitau to Eiga 323 RIGA 324 The Russian Suburbs 326 The Lions of Riga 329 The Trade and Shipi^ing of Riga ... 331 Society and Popular Festivities 333 The Hot'chenof Riga 335 The Island of Runoe 336 From Riga to Dorpat 340 The University of Dorpat 343 Pernau, Habsal, and Reval 346 From Dorpat to Narva 348 Narva 351 From Narva to St. Petersburg 353 Natiiral Phenomena of the Baltic 355 The Animal World in the Baltic Pro- vinces 358 The Baltic Ceres 359 The Talkus and Vakken 361 Elements of the Population 365 The Lettes— Their Origm 371 Lettish Mythology 373 National Character of the Lettes 374 Dwellings of the Lettes 377 Lettish Costume 378 The Birch-tree 379 Their Fondness for Riding 380 Wedding Customs 381 Lettish Funerals 382 The Esthonians — Their Origin and Boundaries — Their National 'Cha- racter 383 Houses, Costume, and Manner of Life 384 Manners and Customs 387 PAGE Superstitions of the Esthonians 388 Agriculture of the Esthonians 389 The Slavery and Recent Emancipation of the Esthonians and Lettes 390 The Germans and Russians — German and Russian Institutions V394 Lutheranism and the Russian Greek Chiu-ch 396 The Langaiage and Literature of Ger- many and Russia 399 SOUTH RUSSIA AND THE CRIMEA. Poltava 401 Krementshug 403 The Steppes of New Russia 406 Nikolayeff 412 Odessa 417 Public Institutions 425 Shops and Markets 426 Excursions in the Steppes — ^Envi- rons of Odessa 430 German Colonies 433 Navigation of the Dniester — Troglo- dytes 440 The Crimea 447 Simferopol 457 Baktshiserai 458 Sevastopol 461 The Baidar Valley— Alupka — The Steamboat 462 THE STEPPES OF SOUTHERN RUSSIA. General Aspect of the Steppe 466 Climate 469 Vegetation 473 The Animal Kingdom 476 Locusts 482 Herds of Horses 487 Flocks of Sheep 496 The Herds of Homed Cattle 500 The TaUow-houses 501 THE INTERIOR OF RUSSIA. Kharkoflf. 504 The Wmter Fair at Kharkoff 513 The Money-changers 515 Coimtry Life in the Ukraine 517 A Peasant Wedding in the Ukraine ... 518 Villages in the Ukraine 522 Poltava 526 ST. PETEESBURG. CHAPTER I. PANORAMA OF ST. PETERSBURG. Formed in early antiquity, and crystallized during the barbarism of the middle ages, our cities, with their narrow streets and many-cornered houses, with the hereditary inconveniences and anomalies of their archi- tecture, look often like so many labyrinths of stone, in which chance alone disposed the dwellings ; but in St. Petersburg, the offspring of a more enlightened age, every thing is arranged orderly and conveniently : the streets are broad, the open spaces regular, and the houses roomy. The fifty square versts destined for the Russian capital, allowed every house a sufficient extent of ground. In our old German towns, tall dis- torted buildings seem every where squeezing each other out of shape, and panting, as it were, for want of room to breathe in ; whereas in St. Peters- burg every house has an individuality of its own, and stands boldly forth from the mass. Yet St. Petersburg is any thing but a picturesque city. All is airy and light. There is no shade about the picture, no variety of tone. Every thing is so convenient, so good-looking, so sensibly arranged, and so very modern, that Canaletto would have found it hard to have obtained for his canvass a single poetical tableau such as would have pre- sented itself to him at every corner in our German cities, so rich in con- trasts, recollections, and variegated life. The streets in St. Petersburg are so broad, the open places so vast, the arms of the river so mighty, that large as the houses are in themselves, they are made to appear small by the gigantic plan of the whole. This effect is increased by the extreme flatness of the site on which the city stands. No buuding is raised above the other. Masses of architecture, Avorthy of mountains for their pedes- tals, are ranged side by side in endless lines- Nowhere gratified, eitlier by elevation or groupmg, the eye wanders over a monotonous sea of ^xa.- dulating palaces. ■ This sameness of aspect is at no time more striking than in winter, when the streets, the river, and the houses are all covered with one white. The white walls of the buildings seem to have no hold upon the ground, and the Palmyra of the north, under her leaden sky, looks rather like the shadow than the substance of a city. There are things in nature pleasing to look upon and gratifying to think of, and yet any thing but pictu- resque, and one of these is St. Petersburg. No other place, however, undergoes a more interesting change in spring, when the sky clears up, and the sun removes the pale shroud from the roofs and the waters. The houses seem to recover a firm footing on 2 PAX0RA3IA OF ST. PETERSBURG. the ground, the livelv green of the painted roofe,. and the aznre star- spangled cupolas or the churches, vrixh. their gilt spires, throw off their monotonous icv covering : the eye revels again in the long untasted enjoyment of colour, and the river, divested of its ■svintrr garment, flows again in unrobed majesty, and gaily mirrors the palaces ranged along its banks. As the city presents no elevated point, the spectator, to see it, must elevate h'unself. and for this purpose there is no place better suited than the tower of the Admiralty, from which the principal streets diverge, and near which the great arms of the river seem to meet. This tower is pro- vided with a series of galleries, and the delightful views from those galleries on a fine spring day are not easilv matched in anv other citr. At the foot of the tower the inner yards of the Admiralty present them- selves. There the timber from the forests of Vologda and Kostroma hes piled in huge heaps, and mighty ships of war are growing into life under the busT hands of swarms of workmen. On the other side he the splendid squares' ot plohhtshods of the Admiralty, of Peter, and of the Coint, along the sides of which are grouped the chief buildings of the capital. The Hotel de FEtat 3Iajor, whence Russia's million of soldiers receive their orders; the Senate-house, and the Palace of the Holy Synod, in which the meum and tiium, the beheving and rejectinsf, the temporal and the spiritual concerns of a hundred nations, are discussed and determined ; St. Isaac's Church, with its profiision of columns, in which each stone is of colossal magnitude : the War-office, where a thousand pens ply their peaceful labours in the service of Mars : and the mighrv Winter Palace, in a comer of which dweUs the great man to whom one-tenth of the hmnan race look up with hope or ansietr, and whose name is prized and dreaded, bevond anv other, over one-half the surface of our globe. The length of the open spaces bordered by the pubHc buildings just mentioned, is not much less than an English mile, and the spectacles, metamorphoses, tableaux vivans and ombres chinoises which daily and hourly present themselves to the spectator who keeps watch upon the tower of the Admiralty, are as varied as they are magnificent and in- teresting. At one extremity, near the Senate and the Synod, stands the colossal equestrian statue of Peter the Great trampling imderfoot the dragon of barbarism, and ever ready to dash off at a full gallop from the rock, from the summit of which his charger appears to be in the act of springing. The heads of the state and of the church — metropoHtans, senators, bishops, and judges — are constantiy amving and departing, their equipages keeping up an inc-essant movement around the im- mortal Peter. At the other extremity arises the smooth and poHshed monohth of the ■'•' Restorer of Peace to the World," on the summit of •which stands the archangel with the cross of peace, while at its foot the rattling of imperial equipages scarcely ceases for a moment. Field- marshals, generals, governors, and gentlemen of the court, are constantly coming and going. Priestly processions, military parades, pompous eqvd- pages, and funeral trains, are thronging bv at every hour of the day, and the drums and fifes are rarely silent, but continue, at brief intervals, to announce that a miofhtA- man of the earth has just passed by. To the south of the Admiralty the most important part of the city un- folds itself, the Bolshaia Storona, or Great Side. Towards the west Hes Vasiliefskoi Ostrof, or BasiHus Island, with its beautiful Exchange, its PAK0RA31A OF ST. PETERSBURG. ö Academy of Sciences, and its University. To the north is seen the Petersburgskaia Storona, or Petersburg Side, \sith its citadel stretching out into the Neva ; and towards the east arise the barracks and factories of the "\lborg Side. These are the four principal divisions of the city, formed by the Great and Little Neva, and by the Great !Xefka. The Great Side comprises bv far the most important portion of the capital, ■with the comi:, the nobilit}', and more than half the population. The least important is the Viborg Side, inhabited chiefly by gardeners, soldiers, and manufacturers. It is rapidly extending, however, for nowhere else in St. Petersburg are building speculations going on to a larger extent. The Basilius Island commerce appears to have selected for her especial residence, and the Muses have raised their temple by the side of Mercury's. The Petersburg Side, a low and marshy island, remarkable chiefly for its fortress or citadel, whose ravon drives the houses from the river-side, is inhabited bv the poorer classes of the population, and has already assumed much of the character of a metropolitan faubourg. The closelv-built masses of the Great Side — closely built in comparison •with the other quarters of the city — are divided into three semicircular divisions by the Moika, the St. Catherine, and the Fontanka canals. These divisions are called the First, Second, and Third Admiralty sections, and are again subdivided bv the three principal streets diverging from the Admiraltv : the Xeva Perspective (Xevskoi Prospekt) ; the Peas Street (Gorokhovaia OuHtza) ; and the Resurrection Perspective (Yosnosenskoi Prospekt). As these three principal streets meet at the foot of the Admiralty Tower, a man, taking his position at this central point, may look down them, and, ■with the aid of a good telescope, see what is going on iu the most remote quarters of the city. The direction of these three streets and of the canals determiae that of most of the other streets. Of these the most remarkable are the Great and Little Morskaia, the Great and Littie ^R l honava, the Meshtshanskaia, and the Sadovaia or Garden Street. All the streets without exception are broad and convenient, blind alleys and narrow lanes being wholly unknown. Thev are classed, indeed, into prospekts, ou h t zi, and peroidoks, or cross streets, but even these perouloks would in any of our older towns be thought quite spacious enough for main streets. Every street has two names, a German and a Piussian. Bevond the Fontanka, along whose banks are ranged a succession of palaces, lie the more remote portions of the citv' ; and beyond these, bor- dering on the swamps of Ingermanland mav be dimly seen, through the mists of the horizon, the suburbs on the Ligofka and Zagarodnoi canals, together with the subm-ban villages of great and Littie Okhta. Even these remote quarters, peopled by vemshtshiks, plotniks, and mushiks,* bear no resemblance to the wretched abodes of poverty in most ot our European cities. There are in London and Paris, and even in many Ger- man cities, quarters that seem the chosen domain of famine and misery, and where a filthv, rasr^ed, insolent, and demoralized race of beings, are crowded into houses as dirtr, as dilapidated, and as repulsive as them- selves. Xot so in St. Petersburg;. Beggars, rag-gatherers, and half- naked cripples, are nowhere to be seen in the city graced by the imperial residence. Indeed, in none of the large cities of Russia is there to be seen * Wasgoners, carpenters, and peasants. B 2 4 PANORAMA OF ST. PETERSBURG. a street population such as we have just described. Of this, the state of serfage in which the lower classes live is the cause. The poor are all in a condition of dependence; and that very dependence, while it impedes the workman in his attempts to raise himself, prevents the possibihty of his falling so low as may sometimes be the case with a free labourer. In no city of Russia do we see the wretched hovels of poverty offering a painful contrast to the mansions of the wealthy, as may be seen in almost every city of Western Europe. The subm-bs of St. Petersburg, where dwell the labouring classes, or the black people, as they are there called, have a desolate and uninviting air ; still there is nothing repulsive or disgusting in them. The roofs in St. Petersburg are generally flat, and few houses cart hoast of more than two floors ; indeed the majority have only one, par- ticularly in the remoter quarters. Even in the heart of the town many one-floored houses are seen, and houses of three or four floors are to be met with only in the tln^ee Admiralty sections. Now that ground-rents have risen so much, and the town is stretching itself out in every direction, loftier houses are beginning to be built, and additional floors are in some places erected over those that already exist. While I was in St. Peters- burg some hundreds of houses underwent the process of having their roofs taken oflr, for the purpose of having additional floors added. In the same way that the three prospekts diverge from the Admiralty Tower towards the south, the several arms of the Neva stretch away towards the north, and when the stranger with his telescope is tired of watching the dashing equipages on the one side, he may turn and con- template the ships and gondolas on the other. Bridges there are but few over the Neva, and a man would, therefore, often have to go a round of several versts when he wanted to cross the river, were there not aU along- the banks a multitude of boats ready, for a few copeks, to convey him to the other side. These boats are mostly uncovered, and are rowed, by two men. Covered boats, however, with six, ten, and even twelve rowers are not wanting. The watermen ply their calling with much dexterity, and sometimes even entertain their passengers with songs and music. The coiu-t, the ministers, the nobles, and many of the public institutions, have their private barges, richly ornamented, and rowed by men in handsome liveries. The canals and the several arms of the Neva are as much ani- mated by these boats as the streets by equipages ; and, on Sundays, little fleets may be seen gliding away to the enchanted islands that form the favourite resort for amusement to the citizens of the Russian capital. In the spacious arms of the Neva, the ships of war, as Avell as the mer- chant-vessels, find a spacious anchorage ; they are not, therefore, crowded together, as is the case in some large maritime places, but lie grouped and scattered along the quays. These quays, again, are Ijordered by noble buildings ; by the sumptuous mansions of the English Quay, by a range of palaces on Vassili Ostrof Quay, by the Exchange, the Corps* of Cadets, the Academy of Sciences, the University, the Academy of Arts, the Corps of Cadets of the Mines, &c. All these buddings are pompous and of vast extent. * The KadctHkfji Korpus. Tlie Russians apply the Avord " corps" not only to the young gentlemen themselves, but likewise to the building that serves them as a residence. PANORAMA OF ST. PETERSBURG. 5 Peter the Great designed Vassili Ostrof from the first for the seat of commerce, and it was his intention to have intersected it with canals, after the fashion of Amsterdam, which in his judgment presented the very- model for a commercial city. Some of these canals were actually cut, but were afterwards filled up again, and the whole plan was eventually aban- doned. Vassili Ostrof, as it now stands, looks as unlike Amsterdam as any thing can well be imagined. The houses have the air of palaces ; the clerks that move among them are all handsomely dressed, the equi- pages are elegant, and the streets unincumbered by drays or waggons. The warehouses of the merchants are either at Cronstadt, or, at all events, away from the dwelling-houses. The Petersburg Island, which is in turn divided by smaller arms of the river from the Apothecary Island, the Petrofskoi Island, &c., owes its chief interest to the citadel, wliich from the tower of the Admiralty may be examined in all its details. It is well that the people of St. Peters- burg have other things to think of, than the evident destination of this bristHng fortress imbosomed in the very centre of their city, where it can command nothing but the town itself, and would be harmless to a foreign enemy. The citadel is certainly not maintained as a means of defending, but as a means of controlling, the city ; as a refuge for the imperial family and the heads of the state, either in case of a foreign invasion, or of a domestic insurrection. Against an attack from the sea-side, St. Peters- burg has no other fortification than Cronstadt. Should this ever be forced by a maritime foe, the defenceless capital will have more cause than her assailants to tremble at the dangerous weapon that she carries in her breast. Nor is such an event beyond the range of likelihood. England is the only great power with which there seems to be any probability that Kussia will come into collision. The Russian Baltic fleet could not main- tain itself against the combined fleets of England, Denmark, and Sweden. The Russian ships, after the loss of a battle, would have to retire behind Cronstadt. Should Cronstadt then yield, either to the gold or to the artillery of the enemy, the Russian garrison would be forced to seek shelter in the citadel, the English men-of-war would enter the Neva, and in the cannonade that would probably ensue, the finest part of the capital might be laid in ashes by the fire of its own citadel. The mortification of such a catastrophe would drive the government to realize the idea frequently entertained, of returning to the ancient capital, the City of the Czars, to the Kremlin of Moscow ; Petersburg would shrink together into a mere maritime city of trade, and Vassili Ostrof would perhaps be all that would remain of it. CHAPTER II. THE ARCHITECTURE OF ST. PETERSBURG. No modern city can boast that it is so entirely composed of palaces and colossal buildings as St. Petersburg. Even the dwellings of the poor have ■& show of magnificence about them. There are several houses iu the 6 ARCHITECTURE OF ST. PETERSBURG. town in wliich thousands of human being's have their residence. The "Winter Palace, for instance, has 6000 inhabitants ; in the Infantry Hos- pital 4000 beds are made up ; in the Foundling Hospital there are 7000 children ; and in the Corps of Cadets there are some thousands of those young gentlemen. There are single houses from which their owners de- rive princely revenues. Of many the annual rental exceeds 50,000 rubles, of some 100,000. The ground occupied by the Corps of Cadets forms a square of which each side is about a quarter of an English mile in length. There are other buudings, such as the Admiralty, the Hotel de I'Etat Major, the Tauride Palace, &c., that occupy ground enough for a small town. Then come buildings of a second rank, such as the Smolnoi Convent ; the Neva Convent ; the Commercial Bank ; several hospitals and barracks ; the hemp, tallow, and other magazines ; the Custom-house ; the Senate ; the Synod ; the Marble Palace ; the Imperial Stables ; and the old palace of the Grand Duke Michael. Next come what may be called the buildings of a third rank : the large theatres, the large churches, the smaller hospitals, &c. Among the private houses also are some of enormous extent. I knew one of which the groimd-floor, on one side, was occupied by a public bazaar, in which thousands of the necessaries and conveniences of life were offered for sale. On the other side, a multitude of German, English, and French mechanics and tradesmen had hung out their signs. On the first floor dwelt two senators, and the families of various other persons of distinction. On the second floor was a school of very high repute, and a host of academicians, teachers, and professors, dwelt there with their families. In the back part of the building, not to tallc of a midtitude of obscure per- sonages, there resided several colonels and majors, a few retired generals, an Armenian priest, and a German pastor. Had all the rest of St. Petersburg gone to the ground, and this house alone remained, its in- habitants would have sufficed for the formation of a little pohtical com- munity of then own, in which every rank in society would have had its representatives. Wlien such a house is burnt down, 200 families at once become roofless. To seek any one in such a house is a real trial of patience. Ask the butshnik (the policeman at the corner of the street), and he wUl tell you perhaps that his knowledge extends only to the one side of the house, but that the names of those who live in the other half are unknown to him. There are so many holes and comers in such a house, that even those who dwell in it are unable to tell you the names of all the inmates ; and no man thinks another Ms neighbour, merely because they happen to live under the same roof. Many of these houses look unpretending enough when seen from the street, to which they always turn their smallest side ; but enter the podyasde or gateway, and you are astonished at the suc- cession of side-buddings and back-buildings, of passages and courts, some of the latter large enough to review a regiment of cavalry in them. Few of the houses in St. Petersburg, it has already been observed, ex- ceed two floors in height, except in a few of the most central streets. A speciüator some time ago built several houses of three stories, in one of the cross streets of Vassili Ostrof, and was completely ruined by the under- taking, for he could find no tenant who was willing to mount so high. On the other hand, even in the central parts of the city, there are not a few houses, of not more than one floor in height, belonging to wealthy in- dividuals, who in the spirit of their national predilection spread themselves ARCHITECTURE OF ST. PETERSBURG. 7 out upon the ground, whereas a house of two stories containing the same number of rooms would only cost them half as much. The Russians have as great a partiality for wooden houses as for low houses, and perhaps with more reason. To a Russian particularly, a wooden house holds out a multitude of recommendations. Firstly, wood is more easily fashioned into the wished-for shape than stone ; and then a wooden house is more quickly built, costs less, and is much warmer. The government discourages the erection of wooden houses in many ways ; nevertheless, the majority of the houses in St. Petersburg, perhaps two-thirds, are still of wood. The building of a house is a much more costly undertaking in St. Peters- burg than in any other part of Russia. Provisions are dear, and the price of labour always comparatively high. Then the ground brings often enormously high prices. There are private houses, the mere ground of which is valued at 200,000 rubles, a sum for which, in other parts of the empire, a man might buy an estate of several square leagues, vnth houses, woods, rivers, and lakes, and all the eagles, bears, wolves, oxen, and human creatures that inhabit them. In particularly favourable situa- tions for business as much as 1000 rubles a year has been paid by way of rent for every window looking out into the street. The next thing that renders building so costly, is the difficulty of obtaining a solid foundation. The spongy marshy nature of the soil makes it necessary for the buUder to beg^n by constructing a strong scaffolding under ground, before he can think of rearing one over it. Every building of any size rests on piles, and would vanish like a stage ghost were it not for the enormous beams that furnish it support. Such is the pedestal on which stands the citadel •with all its walls ; and even the quays along the river-side, the foot pavements, and the framework of the canals, must be secured in a similar way. The foundation alone for the Isaac's Church cost upwards of a million of rubles, a sum for which a magnificent church might have been finished in most countries. Even with all this costly precaution, the builders do not always succeed in getting a solid basis to build on. After the inundation of 1824, the walls, in many houses, burst asunder, in con- sequence of the foundation having given way. The English Palace, as it is called, which lies on the road to Peterhof, has fairly separated from the steps leading up to it ; either the palace has drawn itself back one way, or the steps the other. On all the fine quays the blocks of granite of which they are formed have settled more or less, and the street pave- ment in spring may be said to approach to a state of solution ; when car- riages drive over it the ground shakes like a bog, and, in many places, the stones rise up or sink into the earth, forming often the most dangerous holes. Pine logs, laid horizontally on each other, furnish the usual material for the construction of the wooden houses. Stone houses are buUt either of bricks or of Finland granite. The brick-walls are of extraordinary thick- ness. In our part of Europe we have frequent occasion to wonder at the great height to which our architects venture to run up their thin walls ; in Russia the wonder is reversed, for it is astonishing to see the thickness given to walls intended for so trifling an elevation. Five or six feet is no un- usual thickness for a brick- wall in St. Petersburg. Granite is less suitable to architectural ornaments than marble, and is but little used by the Russians, who seldom care much for the solidity or durability of their constructions. A handsome outside, and pompous and spacious rooms, are the chief desiderata. Wood is the favourite material, and where this is ■8 ARCHITECTURE OF ST. PETERSBURG. forbidden by the police, bricks are resorted to. Still, upon tbe wbole, a huge quantity of granite has found its way from the Finnish swamps to the banks of the Neva since St. Petersburg was founded,* and mighty blocks that had probably lain imbedded in the marshes for thousands of years, now display themselves proudly in the capital of the czars, in the shape of monoliths, piUars, cariatides, pedestals, &c. The airy sylphs of St. Petersburg, however, seem to have conspired, as much as the gnomes of the earth, against the architects of the city. It is quite afflicting to see how much the fine granite monuments frequently suffer from the effects of the atmosphere. The fi-osts of winter are particularly destructive. The moisture that finds its way dm-ing autumn into the pores of the stones, freezes in winter, and some of the largest stones are then rent and torn, and on the return of spring faU asunder. Most of the monu- ments of the capital have already suffered from this caiise, and in another centmy wiU probably be falling into ruins. Even the magnificent Alex- ander column has in this way received an ugly rent.f The Russian aristocracy, in general, do not reside in the central part of the town, in the vicinity of the imperial palace. They have been banished thence by the invasion of industry and the bustle of trade. It is in the Litanaia, and along the sides of the Fontanka canal, particularly the eastern end of it, that the most fashionable residences will be found. It is there that may be seen the palaces of the Kotshubeys, the Sheremetiefs, the Branitzkis, the Narishkins, the chancellors of the empire, the ministers, the grajadees, and the millionaires, on ground where a century ago nothing met the eye but a few huts tenanted by Ingrian fishermen. A quiet and magnificent street has since arisen there, and the Orloffs, the Dolgorukis, the Stroganoffs, &c., have, it must be owned, displayed taste and judg- ment in their choice of a quarter wherein to erect their sumptuous dwellings. Their palaces are not crowded together, as in many of our more ancient capitals ; on the contrary, nearly every house stands detached from its. neighbours, with a handsome space in front for carriages to draw iip, while the apartments within are numerous and spacious. Suites of rooms will be found in many of them fitted up as conservatories or winter gardens, a species of luxury in which the aristocracy indulge more perhaps in St. Petersburg than in any other city in the world. The largest of these winter gardens is at the imperial palace. Sometimes they are fitted up at a great expense for a single night, on the occasion of a ball, when the dancers may refresh themselves from the labours of pleasure, amid beds of flowers, or in arbours of delicious shrubs, cooled by fountains of living water. The rapidity with which buildings are run up in St. Petersburg is truly astonishing. This is partly owing to the shortness of the season, during which building operations can be carried on, but partly also to the charac- teristic impatience of the Russians to see the termination of a work they have once commenced. The new winter palace is one of the most striking * Some idea niay be formed of the immense quantity of granite brought to St. Pe- tersburg, from the fact tliat the granite quays which enclose the river and the canals occupy alone a length of nearly twenty English miles. f A note to an article on St. Petersburg in the Fvreiyn Quarterly Review (No. LVI.) says : " We have received from St. Petersburg an official report, in which it is stated that the supposed fissure has been examined, and has been found to be merely an optical illusion." ARCHITECTURE OF ST. PETERSBURG. 9 examples of tins. Within one year not less than twenty millions of rubles were expended upon the building. The operations were not even allowed to suffer interruption froni the frosts of winter, but fires were kept burning every where to prevent the materials from freezing-, and to dry the walls. The same system has been acted on with respect to many of the private mansions of the nobility. Palaces, in short, are put together with a rapidity that can be compared only to that with which theatrical decora- tions are arranged. This very rapidity, however, will make the city a more easy meal for old Father Time to devour at a fitting season. He will have ground the brittle columns of bricks and mortar to powder, some thousands of years before liis teeth will have been able to make an impres- sion on some of the monuments of Egypt. The Russians build only to prepare ruins. Indeed, it is painful, in most of their cities, to see the early decrepitude of so many buildings of a recent erection. They furnish a suitable picture of the precocious civihzation of the empire. It must, at the same time, be admitted, that similar remarks vv'iU apply to the modern architecture of other parts of Em-ope. Among- the most mag-nificent ornaments of the mansions of St. Peters- burg must not be forgotten the splendid plate glass of their windows. In most of the aristocratic saloons there is at least one large window- composed of a single pane of glass, round which the ladies delight to range their work-tables, and their ottomans, whence they gaze out upon, the animated tableaux vivans of the street. In some houses every window is fitted up on the same plan. They ought not, however, to be permitted on the ground-floor, for a poor milkmaid, or a poi'ter with a load, passing by one of these costly windows, may be ruined by a sva^Q faux pas. There is always a great desire sho\^Ti to avoid architectural disfigure- ment. A Grecian temple, or some other fanciful decoration, when more closely examined, often tm-ns out to be nothing but a set of painted boards, intended to mask some object not likely to please the eye. Sometimes, to give a more stately look to a one-floored house, the owaier will place upon the roof the complete fagade of an additional story, which, on nearer inspection, is found to be nothing but a mere wall with sham windows, the wdiole being fastened to the rest of the house with massive iron bars. Simulated floors of this kind may sometimes have been the work of the police, who occasionally order double-floored houses to be built in certain streets for the sake of uniformity ; but the same thing may be met with in all parts of Russia and Poland, and seems perfectly smted to the cha- racter of the Slavonian nations, who are always more ready to promise than perform. Even the scaffolding around a house undergoing repair must be closed up with boards, and these boards are painted over with doors and windows, to cheat the eye into a belief that they compose the front of a bona fide house. To see the profusion of pillars and porticoes expended on most of the St. Petersburg houses, a stranger might imagine himself in Greece or Italy ; but you look in vain for the peripatetics that should wander along these stately halls, or for the epicureans that ought to be sunning themselves there. Drifts of snow^ and piercing north winds howl among these Ausonian retreats during the greater part of the year, and make them as little suited for voluptuous loungers, as the stately balconies that are every where seen empty and deserted. A Russian is easily tempted to make changes in his house, and the con- sequence is, that an abundance of building and unbuilding is at all times 10 ARCHITECTURE OF ST. PETERSBURG. going on in St. Petersburg. A single dinner or a ball often causes a house to put on a new face. To augment the suite of rooms, a hole will perhaps be broken in a wall, and some additional apartments thus be gained, or a temporary room will be built over the balcony. The house of a genuine Russian rarely remains fourteen days without undergoing some change. Caprice or ennui will seldom allow him to sleep a fortnight in the same chamber ; the dining-room and the nursery wdl every now and then be made to change places, the drawing-room will be converted into a dormitoiy, and the school-room into a gaily decorated temple for Terpsichore. The Russians are essentially a nomadic race. The wealtliier among them seldom spend a year without wandering to the extremity of their vast empire ; and where circumstances deny them this enjoyment, they wiU find means to indulge their moving propensities, though it be only within the walls of their own houses. The poKce, also, is responsible for some of the modifications which the houses of St. Petersbm-g are con- stantly undergoing ; for the poKce is exceedingly fickle ia its tastes and partiaHties. Sometimes it prohibits this or that form of window ; some- times it orders that all doors shall be of a certain description of wood ; sometimes it wiU allow of trapdoors to cellars ; and sometimes it wiU order them all to be removed at a day's notice. The pavement of St. Petersburg, owing to the marshy nature of the soil, requires constant repair, and is, therefore, one of the most expensive that can be imagined. It is scarcely possible to obtain for it a firm founda- tion, whatever amount of rubbish or sand may have previously been laid down. The moisture pierces through every where. I saw a riding- school, the bottom of which had been vaulted like a cellar, and, upon the soHd masonry, sand and rubbish had been laid to the depth of two yards, and yet the horses were constantly wading through mud. It is not to be denied that the Russian pavements are in general very bad. Good-looking enough when just laid down, but calculated rather for show than wear. One kind of pavement, however, is admirable in St. Petersburg ; I mean the wooden pavement, over which the carriages roU as smoothly and as noiselessly, as ivory balls over a bUliard-table. This kind of pavement, however, which has been adopted only in a few of the principal streets, occasions great expense, on account of the constant repairs which it requires, single blocks sinking every now and then into the watery sou, and leavhig dangerous holes behind. The pavement, however, is a matter of less importance here than in most of the European capitals, where nature has not provided a spontaneous raihoad for the greater part of the year. For more than six months the streets of St. Petersburg are filled with snow and ice that form a more convenient road for man and horse than any that art has been able to construct. It is curious to observe the various metamorphoses which the snow road undergoes as the seasons advance. In autumn, vast quantities of snow begin to fall, and He at first in loose and formless masses, through which the Russian steeds dash fearlessly, scattering showers of sparkling flakes around them in their progress. Gradually the snow is beaten down, and then forms a beautiful sohd Bahn. A gentle thaw tends very much to improve its solidity ; whereas, after a long and severe frost, the constant trampling of the horses reduces the sm-face to a fine powder, that often rises in clouds like dust, to the great annoyance of pedestrians. This, of course, happens only in the Nevskoi Prospekt, the Gorokhovaia Oulitza, and a few others of ARCHITECTURE OF ST. PETERSBURG. 11 the most fi'equented thoroughfares ; in most of the streets, the mass re- mains compact throughout the winter. On the return of spring, all this undergoes a remarkable change. In German cities, the police usually takes care to remove the snow ; but in St. Petersburg, owing to the great accumulation in its broad streets, this would scarcely be possible. All that the pohce, therefore, does, when the thaw sets in in good earnest, is to cut trenches through the icy mass to allow the water to run off in proportion as the snow melts. It is not difficult to imagine the filthy state in which the streets necessarily remain under these circumstances. The month of May is in general far advanced, when the pavement still presents nothing to the eye but a lake of mud, with a dirty stream of water rolling through the centre, where the gutter is invariably constructed. The horses are often all but swimming, and a man may sometimes be thankful if he can get from the house-door into his carriage without an accident. This season must be a regular harvest time for the brushmakers. The lackeys and shoeblacks are heard to groan aloud over the condition of their masters' boots and cloaks, and to swear that they never hired themselves for such dirty work. A sudden return of frost often restores the whole mass to a solid substance. The streets are then covered again with ice, on wliich many an over-driven horse is doomed to break a limb. A Russian isvoshtshik prefers his sledge to every other kind of vehicle, and continues to use it as long as an apology for snow is to be found in the streets. The consequence is, that sledges will often be seen on the shady side, when on the sunny side nothing but a wheeled carriage is able to get along. The dust in summer is intolerable, as in most Russian towns, and owing to the same reasons : the immense width of the streets, and the vast, open, unpaved squares or places that every where abound, leaving the wind to exercise its power without control; If in some of our closely-built European cities the want of open spaces is felt as an evU, the Russian cities, and St. Petersburg in particular, may be said to have gone into the other extreme. The unnecessary space allowed for their streets makes it almost impossible to light them at night, or to obtain shade in them by day. During summer no lamps are necessary, the streets being then nearly as light at midnight as in London at noon, and the long days that prevail one half of the year are perhaps in part answerable for the imperfect manner in which the streets are hghted during the long winter-nights. The small oil-lamps, then lighted, are large enough to be seen themselves, but not to make other objects visible. They are placed at the sides of the street, whence their rays are scarcely able to reach the centre. They diflFuse light only to a distance of about four paces, and when seen from a more remote point look only like little stars. The broad long streets on a clear night look pretty enough with their double rows of little stars, but these serve more for ornament than use. In the Nevskoi Prospekt, indeed, there is no lack of illumination, the shops being for the most part brilliantly lighted up, but in some streets even the glimmering oil-lamps are wanting, and in such a neighbourhood the poor wanderer is grateful for the little light that may escape from some social sitting-room, of which the shutters have been charitably left unclosed. Notwithstanding this gloomy darkness the streets are not wanting in life, though it is often not without positive danger that a pedestrian can 12 ARCHITECTURE OF ST. PETERSBURG. venture from one side to the other. Sledges are every moment seen to emerge from ohscurity and to plunge again as rapidly into impenetrable gloom. Huge shadows seem to be pvirsuing each other over the snow, the incessant cry of the diivers, " Padije, padye ! heregissa !" serving them as a mutual warning. The skill and care of these drivers are really deserving of great praise ; for accidents, after all, are of rare, occurrence. The quiet character of the Russians is shown by the great rarity of murders and acts of violence during these long dark winter-nights. Not that anecdotes are wanting of the rogueries of isvoshtshiks, butshniks, and platniks ; but the darkness is so pitchy, that that alone is enough to con- jure up all sorts of stories ; and I believe that if a city with 500,000 Italians or Spaniards, or even London or Paris, were left for eight long arctic nights enveloped in a St. Petersburgian obscurity, on the ninth day there would be found so many perforated walls, and so many killed and wounded people in the streets, that the town would look as though it had been occupied by a foreign enemy after a battle. Three ineffectual attempts have been made to light the city with gas. The first was during Alexander's reign ; when, just as all the arrange- ments were complete, the buildings caught fire, and the plan was aban- doned for some years. The second attempt was made after the accession of the present emperor. The high and ungainly building intended for the gasometer was injudiciously placed near the Winter Palace, and formed so prominent a deformity, that the emperor Avas glad in 1838 to buy up the whole of the premises belonging to the company, for the pur- pose of having them pulled down. The company then went to work again, and in the autumn of 1839, when people were beginning to look forward to a light winter, the whole illumination was opened and closed on the same day by a frightful explosion, by Avhich the gasometer was destroyed, a number of people killed, and the money of the shareholders lost. Since then the attempt has not been renewed. The huge placards and the colossal letters by which the tradesmen of London and Paris seek to attract public attention, are unknown in St, Petersburg. The reading public there is extremely limited, and the merchant who wishes to recommend himself to the multitude must have recourse to a less lettered process. This accounts for the abundance of pictorial illustrations that decorate so many of the shopfronts, or advertise the passenger that such and such an artist may be found Avithln. The optician announces his calling by a profuse display of spectacles and tele- scopes ; the butcher suspends in front of his establishment a couple of painted oxen, or perhaps a portrait of himself, in the act of presenting a ruddy joint to a passing dame. These signs, that speak the only mute language inteUigible to a Russian multitude, relieve in some measure the monotony of the streets. The baker is sure to have a board over his door with a representation of ever)^ species of roll and loaf offered for sale in his shop; the tallowchandler is equally careful to suspend the portraits of all his varieties of longs and shorts destined for the enlighten- ment of mankind. The musician, the pastrycook, and in short every handicraftsman to whom the humbler classes are likely to apply, have adopted the same plan, and from the second and tliird floors huge pictures may sometimes be seen suspended, with appalhng likenesses of fiddles, flutes, tarts, sugai-plums, sausages, smoked liams, coats, caps, shoes, stockings, &c. ARCHITECTURE OF ST. PETERSBURG. 13- For a barber the customary symbol is the following' picture : A lady sits fainting- in a chair. Before her stands the man of science with a gUttering" lancet in his hand, and from her snow white arm a purple fountain springs into the air, to fall afterwards into a basin held by an attendant youth. By the side of the lady sits a phlegmatic philosopher undergoing the operation of shaving, without manifesting the slightest sympathy for tlie fair sufferer. Around the whole is a kind of arabesque border composed of black leeches and instruments for drawing teeth. This picture is of frequent occurrence in every large Russian town. The most characteristic of these signs appeared to me that of a midwife. A bed with the curtains closely drawn announced the invisible presence of the accouchee, and in front was a newly-arrived stranger on the lap of the accoucheuse, and undergoing, to his manifest discomfiture, the infliction of his first toilet. Most of these pictures are very tolerably executed, and that of a Parisian milliner is particularly entitled to commendation for the art expended on the gauze caps, and the lace trimmings. Nor must it be supposed that the merchant is content with displaying only one or two of the articles in which he deals ; no, the whole shop must figure on the board, and not only the dealer, but his customers also must be portrayed there. The coflFeehouse-keeper does not think he has done enough when he has displayed a steaming kettle and a graceful array of cups ; he must have a ■whole party making themselves comfortable over their coffee and cigars, and crying to the wavering passenger, "Go thou, and do likevdse." The jeweller must have not only rings and stars and crosses, but he must have generals and excellencies as large as life^ with their breasts blazing with orders, and at least five fingers on each hand laden vdth rings. The Russians attach great importance to these signs, and a stranger may ob- tain from them some knowledge of the manners of the people. CHAPTER III. THE NEVA. The river Neva serves to carry off the surplus waters of the Ladoga Lake. In this large reservoir, which covers a space of about 100 Ger- man (2000 English) square miles, the water has had full leisure to deposit all its impurities, and has not had time to collect any fresh ones, during the few leagues that intervene between the lake and the city. The water of the Neva., therefore, at St. Petersburg is as clear as crystal, and reminds the traveller of the appearance of the Rhine when it first issues from among the icy grottoes of the Alpine glaciers. About a league from its mouth, the Neva divides into several arms, forming thus a Httle archipelago of islands, which are either included within the city of St. Petersburg, or contribute to its embellishment by their gardens and plantations. These arms of the Neva, at least the four principal among them, are known by the names of the Great and Little Neva, and the 14 THE NEVA. Great and Little Nefka ; and tliougli there are few rivers that may not be said to benefit the cities built upon their banks, yet it may safely be said, that there is no city more indebted to its river than the Palmyra of the North. From the interior of the empire the Neva brings to her capital the native abundance of the land ; food for man, and for the animals dependent on man, materials for clothing-, housing, and warming him. At her mouth she receives the luxuries of foreign regions, and conveys them not only to the noble palaces on her own banks, but, by means of an extensive system of inland navigation, she transports them into the most central provinces of the vast Russian empire. She furnishes the first necessary of life, in the highest perfection, to the citizens of St. Petersburg, who are without any other supply of water, for a pure spring is not to be met with for many leagues around. She makes their soup, and prepares the very best of tea and coffee for them. She yields an abundance of fish for theii" banquets, and does not disdain to render them even the most menial services ; she washes their bodies and their linen, and winding through their city in a multitude of canals, carries away all its impurities. The water of the Neva is as daUy a topic with those that dwell on its banks, as the water of the NUe is to the Egyptians ; and this is the less surprising, as the Neva is a som-ce, not only of delight and enjoyment to the people of St. Petersburg, but also one of constant anxiety, and sometimes of terror. The northern vrinter imprisons the lovely nymph of the Neva in icy bands for six months in the year. It is seldom till after the beginning of April that the water acquires sufficient warmth to burst her prison. The moment is always anxiously expected, and no sooner have the dirty masses of ice advanced sufiieiently to display as much of the bright mirror of the river as may suffice to bear a boat from one side to the other, than the glad tidings are announced to the inhabitants by the artillery of the fortress. At that moment, be it day or night, the commandant of the fortress, arrayed in all the insignia of his rank, and accompanied by the officers of his suite, embarks in an elegant gondola, and repairs to the emperor's palace which Hes immediately opposite. He fiUs a large crystal goblet with the water of the Neva, and presents it to the emperor as the first and most precious tribute of returning spring. He informs his master that the force of winter has been broken, that the waters are free again, that an active navigation may now again be looked for, and points to his own gondola, as the first swan that has swum on the river that year. He then presents the goblet to the emperor, who drinks it off to the health of the dear citizens of his capital. There is not probably on the face of the globe, another glass of water that brings a better price, for it is customary for the emperor to fill the goblet with ducats before he returns it to the commandant. Such at least loas the custom ; but the goblet was found to have a sad tendency to enlarge its dimensions, so that the emperor began to perceive that he had every year a larger dose of water to drink, and a greater number of ducats to pay for it. At last he thought it high time to compromise matters with his commandant, who now receives on each occasion a fixed sum of 200 ducats. Even this, it must be admitted, is a truly imperial fee for a draught of water, but the compromise is said to have effectually arrested the alarming growth of the goblet. As the close of winter approaches, the ice of the Neva assumes a very THE NEVA. 15 remarkable appearance resolving itself into a multitude of thin bars of ice, of about an inch in diameter, and equal in length to the thickness of the crust that covers the river. These bars have at last so little adhesion, that it becomes dangerous to ventm-e on the ice, except where it is covered by a solid mass of snow. The foot, pushing down some of these bars, wUl sink at times through ice several eUs thick, and the large masses of ice apparently quite solid, that lie on the dry ground, break into a multitude of glassy bars when gently touched with a stick. Several weeks, therefore, before the ice breaks up, all driving or walking upon it is proliibited. Here and there some open spaces begin to show themselves, and a quantity of dirty snow-water collects upon the sur- face. The icy crust, that, a few weeks previously, had looked so gay and animated with its sledges and promenaders, becomes now quite op- pressive to look upon, and every one longs to see the dirty, useless, worn- out servitor take his departure. There has often been fine warm weather for several weeks before the Neva shows the least sign of recovering her liberty, for which, in the end, she is usually more indebted to rain and wind than to the rays of the sun. One good shower, at this season, has more effect upon the ice than three days of sunshine ; and it is rarely tiU. after there have been several rainy and windy days in succession, that the ice is got into motion. The sm'est symptom of an approaching break-up is the disappearance of the water from the surface. As long as there is water on the ice, nobody hesitates to venture on it, even when the horses have to wade breast high ; but as soon as the water disappears, the fact is taken as a warning that the ice has separated from the banks, and has become too porous to retain water on its surface. It is generally between the 6th and the 14tb of April (old style), or between the 18th and the 26th, according to the calendar in use in rnost parts of Europe, that the Neva throws off her icy covering. The 6th is the most general day. On that day the interesting fact is said to occur, on an average, ten times in a century, so that ten to one against the 6th is always thought a fair wager. The 30th of April (12th of May, N. S.) is considered the latest day, and the 6th of March (18th N. S.) is con- sidered the earliest day on which the ice ever breaks up. On each of these days the occurrence is supposed to take place once in a hundred years. — It is generally about the middle of November, and more frequently on the 20th (2d of Dec. N. S.) than on any other day, that the ice is brought to a stand stUl. In 1826 the river was not frozen txp before the 14th of December, and in 1805 as early as the 16th of October. The breaking up of the ice is an anxious moment to every one. A multitude of wagers are always depending upon it, and every one is more or less interested. The carpenters and workpeople long to earn an honest penny or two by the reconstruction of the bridges ; the ladies wish the Neva and the Gulf of Fuiland clear, that the steamer from Lübeck may arrive with the latest nouveatites ivova. Paris; the merchants are often in the most painful suspense, lest a protracted winter, by delaying the arrival of their vessels, should mar the finest speculations ; booksellers and students are longing for a supply of the new books that have been ushered iato life in England, France, and Germany, during the preceding sis months. The sick native, and the home-sick stranger, are alike anxious for the day that may re-estabhsh the communication with more genial climes, and almost the only subject of speculation at this season, is the day when the river 16 THE NEVA. will be free again. On Easter Sunday and Easter Monday a great num- ber of bets are sure to be laid out. One man, in 1836, had betted against every day, from the 1st to the 17th of April, and won nearly all his wagers. The departure of the ice always forms an exciting spectacle, and crowds are sure to be attracted to the quays by the first gun fired from the citadel. The golden gondola of the commandant is not long alone in its glory, for hundreds of boats are quicldy in motion, to re-establish the communication between the different quarters of the city. The first blow is more than half the battle on these occasions, but it is not all the battle. It is only that part of the ice which lies in the imme- diate vicinity of St. Petersburg that moves away on the first day. The ice from the upper part of the river frequently comes down afterwards in huge masses, and more than once forces the inhabitants of the one side to post- pone their visits to their friends of the other side. For several weeks after the first break up, the ice continues occasionally to come down in great force from the Ladoga lake. As this lake has a surface of 2000 square miles, if all the ice had to go down the Neva, which is only a verst in breadth and not very rapid in its current, it would take more than two months of incessant Eisgang. It foUows, therefore, that the greater part of the ice must melt within the lake itself ; still quite enough remains for the annoyance of the St. Petersburgers, who are often inconvenienced by the accumulation that takes place at the mouth of the river. The boat- men of St. Petersburg, however, are tolerably familiar with ice, and the navigation on the river is seldom interrupted by these later arrivals from the lake. All the other harbours of the Baltic are usually free from ice before that of St. Petersburg, and a number of vessels are almost always awaiting, in the Sound, the news that the navigation of the Russian capital has been resumed. The first spring ship that arrives in the Neva is the occasion of great rejoicing, and seldom fails to bring its cargo to an excellent market. It is mostly laden with oranges, millinery, and such articles of taste and vanity as are hkely to be most attractive to the frivolous and wealthy, who seldom fail to reward the first comer by purchasing his wares at enormous prices. The first ship is soon followed by multitudes, and the most active life succeeds to a stillness hke that of death. All the flags of Europe come floating in from the sea, and fragile rafts and rudely -built barges descend the river with the products of the interior. The contents of the ware- houses find their way on ship-board. The ships of war take their depar- tm-e for their peacefid evolutions in the Baltic. The smoking steamers are seen snorting and splashing up and down the river, where a few weeks before a seal could not have found room to air himself. Every day, every horn-, brings something new, till the disenchantment of the icy palace is complete. An immense quantity of ice is consumed in Russian housekeeping. Throughout the summer, ices are sold in the streets of every Russian town, and not only iced water. Iced wine, and iced beer, but even iced tea is drunk in immense quantities. The short but excessively hot summer would spoil most of the food brought to market, had not the winter pro- vided in abundance the means for guarding against such rapid decom- position. An icehouse is therefore looked on as an indispensable appendage not merely to the establishments of the wealthy, but even to the huts of THE NEVA. 17 the peasants. In St. Petersburg alone there are said to be ten thousand ice-houses, and it may easily be supposed that to fill all these cellars is a task of no trifling* mag-nitude. It is not too much to calculate that each ice-house, on an average, requires fifty sledge loads of ice to fill it. The fishmong-ers, butchers, and dealers in quass have such enormous cellars, that many hundreds of loads will go into them, and the breweries, dis- tilleries, &c., consume incalculable quantities. According to the above calc alation, 500,000 sledge loads of ice would have to be drawn out of the Neva every year, but this calculation is under rather than over the mark. It is certainly the merchandize in which the most extensive trafiic is car- ried on during Avinter. Whole processions of sledges laden with the glit- tering crystals may then be seen ascending from the Neva, and thousands of men are incessantly at work raising the cooling produce from its parent river. The breaking of the ice is carried on in this way. The workmen begin by clearing the snow away from the surface, that they may clearly trace out the form of the blocks to be detached. They then measure off a large parallelogram, and mark the outline with a hatchet. This parallelogram is subdivided into a number of squares of a size to suit the capacity of their sledges. When the drawing is complete, the more serious part of the work begins. A regular trench has to be formed round the parallelogram in question. This is done with hatchets, and as the ice is frequently four or five ^feet thick, the trenches become at last so deep that the work- men are as completely lost to the eye as if they had been labouring in a mine. Of course, a sufficient thickness of ice must be left in the trenches to bear the workmen, which is afterv/ards broken with bars of iron. When the parallelogram has thus been loosened, the subdi-sasion is effected with comparative ease. A number of men mount the swimming mass, and with their pointed iron ice-breakers, they all strike at the same moment upon the line that has been marked out. A few volleys of this kind make the ice break just along the wished for line, and each of the oblong slips thus obtaiiied, is broken up again into square pieces after a similar fashion. To draw the fragments out of the water, a kind of inclined raih'oad has to be made on the side of the standing ice. This done, iron hooks are fastened into the pieces that are to be landed, and, amid loud cheers, the clear, green, crystalline mass is drawn up by willing hands. As the huge lumps lie on the snow, they appear of an emerald green, and are remarkably compact, without either bubble or rent. As soon as the sledge is loaded, the driver seats himself upon his merchandize, and thus, coolly enthroned, glides away to the cellars of Ms customers, enlivening his frosty occu- pation with a merry song. It is by no means without interest to visit the ice-shafts of the Neva, and watch the Russian labourers while engaged in a task so congenial to the habits of their country. In the cellars the ice is piled up with much art and regularity, and all sorts of shelves and niches are made, for the convenience of placing- milk, meat, and similar articles there in hot weather- Such a description at least applies to what may be called a tidy orderly ice-house ; but tidiness and order do not always preside OA^er Russian arrangements, and in the majority of cellars the ice is thrown carelessly in and broken into pieces, that it may, be packed away into the corners, and that as little space as possible may be left unoccupied. The consistency and durability of the c 18 THE NEVA. ice do not appear to suffer from this breaking process ; on the contrary, the whole, if well packed, soon freezes into one compact mass, that is afterwards proof against the warmest summer. The Russians are so accustomed to these ice-houses, that they are at a loss to imderstand how a family can do without them, and their housewives are in the greatest trouble when they think they have not laid in a sufficient supply of ice during the winter, or when in summer they fancy their stock likely to run short. It may safely be estimated that the ice consumed in St. Petersburg during the summer, costs the inhabitants from two to tliree millions of rubles. Permanent bridges have been built in St. Petersburg only over the canals, the Fontanka, the Moika, the Ligofka, &c., which are called canals, and have been worked into the shape of canals, but which, in reality, are small arms of the Neva. Most of these bridges were built by the Empress Catherine. They are of stone, very solid, are all constructed after the same model, and are, absurdly enough, provided with gates and doors, for the apparent purpose of impeding the progress of pedestrians. There are upwards of thirty of them, but they are much too narrow for the increased traffic of the city, and the tide of equipages rolling through the streets generally finds itself reduced to a more moderate pace on arriving near a bridge. Policemen are therefore stationed at every bridge, to maintain order and prevent accidents ; and Avhereas in Germany a man is liable to a fine of two or three dollars for driving too fast over a bridge, a coachman in St. Petersburg exposes not only himself but his horses too to be assailed by the cane of the policeman if h6 neglects to drive over a bridge otherwise than at a quick trot. Some new bridges, and among them several elegant suspension bridges, have been added of late years, and of these there may also be about thirty, still the number is felt to be too small for this city of many islands. Over the larger arras of the river, the communication by means of bridges is in a most unsatisfactory condition. The two most important portions of the city, for instance, the Vassili Ostrof and the Great Side, are connected only by one bridge, the Isaac's Bridge ; the Trotzkoi Most is the only bridge between the Great Side and the St. Petersburg Side ; the Vassih Ostrof again has one bridge to the St. Petersburg Side ; and the Vilborg Side is connected by one bridge with the St. Petersburg Side, and by another with the Great Side. These five bridges, with four smaller onea that serve to connect the Apothecary Island, the Stone Island, Yelagin Island, and Krestofski Island, consist merely of boarded carriageways rest- ing on pontoons. The masses of ice that come down in spring from the Ladoga Lake have hitherto deterred the government from incurring the expense of building permanent bridges of stone, though scarcely a year elapses in which some plan for the construction of better bridges is not proposed, discussed, forgotten, and renewed. It sometimes happens that the ice in the gulf of Cronstadt is broken by stormy weather, while that in the Neva continues solid for some time afterwards. The immense pressure that then ensues causes the whole mass of ice in the river to glide downward in an unbroken body towards the gulf. This pressure is supposed to be so great that no bridge would be able to withstand it. Another difficulty is the marshy character of the soil, in which it would not be easy, except at enormous cost, to obtain a THE NEVA. 19 foundatioB sufficiently strong to bear the buttresses of a bridge. These are serious difficulties, no doubt, but I am satisfied they wiU some day or other be overcome. The nine pontoon bridges of St. Petersburg are so constructed that they may easily be taken to pieces, and quickly be put together again. During summer they remain undisturbed, each pontoon moored to its anchor, and fastened to huge piles ; but when the ice begins to come down the river in autumn, the bridges are taken asunder. Each bridge has its commandant Avith a hundred or two of workmen imder his command. When the bridge has thus been removed, the intercom'se between the dif- ferent j)ortions of the city can be carried on only by means of boats. As soon as the ice stands the bridges are reconstructed, for the ice on the Neva always forms a very rough surface, for which reason most people prefer using the bridges when they Avish to cross the river. Not but a number of paths, crossing each other in all directions, are soon formed in the vast snowy desert. In spring, the bridges continue to be used till the artillery of the for- tress announces the breaking up of the ice, when they rapidly disappear under the dexterous management of the commandants and their expe- rienced assistants. Preparations have usually been made some days before, by clearing a space in the river, to allow the pontoons to ghde safely down into their several havens of refuge. As soon as the ice has passed, the bridges are restored, but every succeeding arrival of ice makes another demohtion necessary. Such is the eagerness of the inhabitants of the different quarters to be able to avail themselves of the accom- modation of their bridges, that they take advantage even of the shortest interval of open water. Each time that the Isaac's bridge is put together, an expense of several hundred rubles is incm'red ; nevertheless, I have seen it taken to pieces and put together again two or tliree times on one day, and in the course of one spring it is said to have been broken up and reconstructed no less than twenty-tliree times. On these occasions, the boldness and dexterity of the workmen, the activity of the commandant, the formidable masses of ice, the bridges themselves floating down the stream, and a multitude of little occur- rences that take place, combine to form an interesting and animated spectacle. Sometimes, of course, accidents happen. Thus in the spring of 1836, the Isaac's Bridge, the most important of all, got aground and could not be brought afloat again. A violent gale from the east, it was said, had blown so much of the water out into the gulf, that the river had lost its requisite depth. Others were charitable enough to say that the commandant had accepted a bribe from the contractors who farm the boats on the river. Be this as it may, the bridge continued aground for eight days, the boats made a splendid harvest, and the commandant was tlxreatened with arrest and a court of inquiry. At last the master of poHce interfered. Tliree hundred men were sent up to their necks into the water, to pull away at the pontoons, while others worked away behind with levers and iron bars. Screaming, creaking, bending, and breaking, the bridge was at last lifted by main force, as it were, out of the marsh, and floated majestically back to its accustomed station. It may easily be supposed that St. Petersburg has to pay dearly enough for these wretched wooden bridges. The constant demolition and recon- struction soon wear the wood out, and the boards at the top are quickly c 2 20 THE NEVA. worn to dust by the carriages incessantly passing across. It is not at all impossible tliat the Isaac's Bridge, during- the short period of its existence, has cost more than the massive bridge of Dresden during the three hun- dred years that have elapsed since it was built.* When in its bridgeless condition, the city feels itself at all times very uncomfortable. St. Petersburg may then be said to be divided into as many towns as there are islands ; relations can learn as little from each other for days together, as if an ocean divided them instead of a river ; the public officers can receive no orders from the central administration, and must act on their own judgment and responsibility ; merchants cannot confer together, bills cannot be presented, teachers cannot give their les- sons, guests cannot join the festive board, and the isvoshtshiks can circulate only Avithin a limited range. Business and pleasure are alike interrupted, and every one longs to be delivered from what is felt as a species of im- prisonment. The consequence is, that in autumn, when the icy covering is yet in the weakness of its infancy, and in spring, when it begins to fall into the decrepitude of age, a number of contrivances are had recourse to, in order to strengthen it. The very moment the ice stands, straw roads are laid in every direction over the still disjoined fragments ; and in spring, boards are laid over the dangerous places, as long as the poHce will allow these supplementary bridges to be used. When the authorities consider the time is come to prohibit all passage across the ice, policemen are stationed every Avhere along the sides of the river, to enforce the pro- hibition. The messages to be carried across are, however, sometimes of such importance, and the rewards offered so great, that the Russian mushiks often venture across, in defiance of the police, even when the ice is on the move. The adventurous messenger, on such occasions, armed only with a deal board, may be seen dexterously crossing from one piece of ice to another, to the great amusement of the spectators on the quays, and generally he escapes, not only the dangers of the passage, but also the more dreaded dangers to be apprehended from the gendarmes waiting for him on the shore. Sometimes, of course, these hazardous attempts are attended by fatal consequences, and every year the Neva is sure to swal- low up her allotted number of victims ; indeed, it may be doubted whether there is another city in the world, where so many people are , yearly drowned, as at St. Petersburg. It is melancholy to think of the fate probably reserved for this beautiful youthful city, with aU its splendid creations. There are cities in the world of which a large portion might be destroyed to their manifest advantage ; but in the new and cheerful St. Petersburg, every act of destruction, whether by the hand of nature or of man, seems calcidated to awaken sorrow and regret. Yet such are the destructive powers by which its ex- istence is threatened, that no other city probably lives in such constant and imminent peril. * Tlie Dresden Bridge, known to the inhabitants under the name of the Elbe Bridge, is 1420 feet long, or 200 feet longer than Waterloo Bridge. The Elbe Bridge is considered the finest and longest structure of the kind in Germany. It rests on sixteen arches, is thirty-six feet in width, and has a foot pavement and an iron balustrade on each side. On the centre pier stands a bronze crucifix, with an inscription in commemoration of the partial destruction of the bridge in 1813, to facilitate the retreat of the rrench under Marshal Davoust, and of its restoration by the Emperor Alexander. THE NEVA. 21 The Gulf of Finland runs from St. Petersburg' in a due westerly di- rection, and it is exactly from that quarter that the heaviest storms always blow. The west wind naturally sweeps the waters up towards the city. If the gulf were broad at its termination, this would perhaps be of little consequence ; but, unfortunately, the gulf narrows gradually to a point, and that point is St. Petersburg. When a gale, therefore, blows from the west, the waters of the gulf are blown into the Neva, and oppose tlie exit of those that come rolling down from the lake. Now the Delta of the Neva, into which the palaces of St. Petersburg have struck their roots, is flat and low, and there is scarcely a spot of ground in the capital that lies more than twelve or fourteen feet above the customary level of the sea. A rise of fifteen feet is, therefore, enough to put the whole city under water, and a rise of thirty or forty feet would be enough to drown nearly the whole population. The poor inhabitants are thus in constant danger, and can seldom be certain that within the next twenty-four hours, the whole 500,000 of them will not be swept at once into a watery grave. All that is necessary to bring about such a calamity is that a storm from the west should arise just as the ice is breaking up, and that this should happen when the water in the river is at its highest. The masses of ice blown from the sea into the river would then meet those that would be coming down, and the struggle between these opposing powers would suffice to raze to the ground the whole city and all its proud palaces, and princes and beggars would be drowned promiscuously, like Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. The matter is so serious, that I don't feel cer- tain whether I ought to allow myself to speak so sportively about it. The people of St. Petersburg are quite aware of their danger, and many among them, when they reflect on it, feel their hearts heaving within them. Their only hope is that the three events, a westerly storm, high water, and Eisgang, are not likely to occur simultaneously. There are sixty- four points of the compass, they say, and v/hen it is high water, and the ice coming down, it is not very probable that an obstinate west wind should choose just that moment to blow in upon us to om* destruction. It is not the less true, hov/ever, that, during the spring, it does often blow from the west for many days together, when the swimming ice is still formidable enoiigh to excite serious alarm. It is to be regretted that the Fins, the ancient inhabitants of the Delta of the Neva, should not have kept meteorological registers, from which we might calculate how often in a thousand years, or perhaps in ten thousand years, the dreaded junction of these three circumstances has usually occurred. As it is, vf& must not be surprised, if we read one of these days in the newspapers, that St. Petersbm-g, which rose so suddenly, like a brilliant meteor frora the Finnish marshes, has sunk as suddenly, and been extinguished there like an ignis fatuus. May God have the city in his keeping. Human aid can be of no avail. Little as Russian enterprise is disposed to be deterred by difficulties, it will scarcely undertake to dam off the ocean, or to give to a mig-hty river a new course. Canals to carry away the waters of the Neva, and moles to serve as ramparts against the sea, have sometimes been spoken of, but practical men have always rejected the proposed plans as impossible of execution. Nothing, therefore, has, as yet, been done, and St. Petersburg continues exposed to the mercy of the winds and waves. In many quarters of the town, immdations are of 22 THE NEVA. frequent occurrence, and come so suddenly, that the assembled guests at a party are not unfrequently unable to leave the hospita,ble roof under which they have been entertained. Water is quite as much dreaded in St. Petersburg- as fire is in other cities, and measures are, therefore, taken to inform the inhabitants of their danger the moment the river begins to rise above its customary level. When the extreme j)oints of the islands are under water, a cannon is fired from the Admiralty, and the water-flags are hoisted on every steeple, as a signal that the Nereids have declared the city in a state of siege. This alarm-gun is repeated every hour, imtU the danger seems to be at an end. When the river rises sufficiently high to lay the lowest streets imder water, the alarm-gun is fired every quarter of an hour. In proportion as the river rises, the artillery becomes louder and more importunate, till at last minute-guns are fii-ed, and are undertsood as a cry of despair, calling upon sliips and boats to hasten to the aid of a dro"nming population. The misery that follows upon a general inundation is indescribable. Every one still talks of the sufferings and calamities broiight upon the city by the disastrous I7th of November, 1824. On that day, there occurred the highest inundation of wHch a record has been preserved, and in every street the height to which the river rose is still marked. The water rose quite quietly, as is usually the case with the inimdations of St. Petersburg, where there are no dykes to break through. Impelled by a furious west wind, the water continued to rise higher and higher, came streaming through the streets, lifted all the carts and equipages from the ground, rushed in mighty cataracts through the windows and into the cellars, and rose in huge columns from the common sewers. On Vasdief'skoi Island and on the St. Petersburg side the suffering was greatest, particularly on the latter island, where many of the poor were lodged in tenements of no very sohd construction. Some of the wooden houses were lifted from the ground and continued to swim about with all their inhabitants in them, and with- out going to pieces. Equipages were abandoned in the streets, and the horses, unable to disengage themselves from their harness, were miserably drowned, while then' masters had sought safety in some more elevated spot. The trees in the pubHc squares were as crowded with men as they had ever before been with sparrows. Still the water kept rising, and to- wards evening had attained such a height, that it was feared the stonn would tear the men of war from their moorings and drive them in among the houses. The calamity was the more destructive as it had come so noiselessly upon the city, that none had imagined the danger so g-reat as it really was. The worst effects were tliose that were operated unseen. Many houses fell in only on the following day, when the river had already returned into its accustomed bed ; but from those that remained standing, it was long before the damp could be expelled. Sickness became general, and deadly epidemics continued to rage in some quarters for many weeks afterwards. The night was terrible. The waters had continued to rise till the evening, and should they continue to do so, there seemed to be no chance of escape during the pitchy darkness that might be looked for. Thousands of families, the members of which were separated, spent the night in tor- turing anxiety. Even the most serious things have often a ludicrous side on which they may be viewed, and along with the gloomy recollections of that calamitous THE NEVA. 23 day, a variety of amusing' anecdotes have also been preserved. A gardener told me that he had been busy chppmg some trees, and had not noticed the rising of the water, till it was too late for him to attempt to seek refuge any where but on the roof of an adjoining garden paviUon, where he was soon joined by such a host of rats and mice, that he became appre- hensive of being devom'ed by them. Fortunately, however, a dog and a cat sought refuge in the same place. With these he immediately entered into an offensive and defensive alliance, and the three confederates were able to make good their position during the night. A merchant of my acquaintance was looking out of his window on the second floor, when there came floating by a fragment of a bridge, with three human beings clinging to it. They stretched out their hands to him for help. He threw out a rope, and, with the assistance of his sers'ant, succeeded in rescuing them all tlnree from their perilous position. The first whom they landed was a poor Jew who trembled hke an aspen-tree, the second Avas a bearded believer in the orthodox Russian Greek church, the third a bareheaded Mahometan Tartar. My protestant friend equipped them all tln-ee in liis Parisian coats and in hnen of the latest London fashion, for which they were all well pleased to exchange the drenched costumes of their several nations ; and after this xmexpected meta- morphosis, the host entertained liis grateful guests with a truly Chiistiau and refreshing supper. Many belicA^e that what with merchandise spoiled, houses destroyed, furniture injured, damage to the pavement, &c., this inundation cost the city more than a hundred million of rubles, and that directly and indi- rectly several thousands of the inhabitants lost theh' hves on the occasion. In every street the highest point attained by the water is marked by a Hne on the sides of the houses. God grant that the house-painters may never again be employed in so melancholy an ofiice. Every inch that they might have had to place their marks higher, would have cost the city several millions more, and would have plunged at least a hundred more families into mourning. The pm-ity of the Neva water has already been mentioned, yet it is a well-known fact, that when drunk by strangers it produces at first un- pleasant effects, for which reason persons, when they first arrive at St. Petersburg, are always advised to drink no water without mixing wine or spirit with it. This lasts, however, for a very short time ; and once accus- tomed to the Neva water, most people grow so fond of it, that they prefer it to every other water in the world. A St. Petersbm-ger, on returning from a journey, always congratulates himself on being again able to slake his thirst in the water of his beloved river, and many a Russian, no doubt, has been welcomed home again in the same way in which I once saw a young man welcomed on his return to his family, — namely, with a goblet of Neva water. The Emperor Alexander, it is said, when he travelled, always had a quantity of Neva water bottled up for his own drinking during his absence from his capital. The tea and coffee in St. Petersbm-g are excellent, and their good qualities are in part attributed to the water with which they are prepared. In the shape of beer it is drunk in every comer of the empire, and the English residents are unanimous in their testimony to the superiority of Neva water for washing linen. The Neva water is, however, the only usable water within reach of St. Petersburg. All the wells that have been sunk in and near the city 24 THE NEVA. yield nothing but a yellow disagreeable water, unfit for any domestic purposes. In none of the houses is the water laid on by means of pipes, but in each house there is a large water-butt, and the men, whose exclu- sive business it is to fill these reservoirs, are busily engaged all day long with their Avater-carts, drawn generally each by one horse. The poorer classes fetch their water from the river-side in pails. These are fastened to long poles, that the water may be drawn as far as possible from the bank, for in the middle of the stream the water is of course purer than near the side. In the winter, holes are hewn in the ice, whence the water is pumped up, and troughs are constructed of ice in the streets for the use of the horses. In spring, when the snow melts, the river, for a time, loses its accustomed purity, and the want of clean water becomes a subject of general lamentation. The water-carts plying in every direc- tion, form one of the constant decorations of the St. Petersburg streets. Perhaps one of the most useful innovations that a Russian emperor could introduce into the interior organization of his capital, would be a good water-company, that would lay down pipes throughout the city, and in- troduce a constant sujDply of so necessary an article into the interior of every dvv^elling. The wa.shing of linen is an occupation usually carried on with us in the interior of our houses. Throughout Russia it is seldom that the laundress plies her work any where but in the river itself. On all the canals and along the banks of the river, are seen floating washhouses, where the linen is undergoing the operation of being immersed in water, and then soundly beaten with a kind of flat wooden mallet. This primitive system of washing prevails throughout all the countries peopled by the Slavonian races, from St. Petersburg to Macedonia. Even during the severest winter^ when it costs some trouble to keep their ice-holes open, the hardy women engaged in these chilly labours may be seen busily at work, and though almost incrusted in ice, they are never heard to complain of the severity of the cold. There are some indeed of the luxurious St. Petersburgers, who do not content themselves with so rude a process. I have been told of some who carry their delicacy on this point so far, that they declare it is impossible to have a shirt properly washed in Russia, and therefore send their dirty linen every fortnight by the steamer to London, whence the^r receive it back, ia due course, washed and bleached to their satisfaction. The Sadoks, or floating fish-magazines, of the Neva, are an object of even more interest to a stranger than the washing-boats. The Russians are admirably skilled in all that relates to the catching, preserving, and selling of fish. The sadoks are pretty wooden houses, neatly painted, and not unlike the pavilions on the Alster at Hamburg. The sadok is fixed on a kind of raft, is moored close to the bank, Avith which it generally com- municates by means of a small wooden bridge. Within is generally a large room, where the dried and smoked fish are hung up, like the hams and sausages in the cottage of a Westphalian peasant. In the middle, by way of a protection to the establishment, there are sure to be a couple of large sacred images with lamps burning before them. Besides smoking and salting their fish, the Russians have another mode of preserving them, — namely, by freezing them. In winter large boxes may be seen, something like our German meal-chests. These boxes are filled with frozen fish : with turbot and herrings from Archangel, and with the delicate yershtshis from the Ladoga lake. At each side of the larger room, are some smaller THE NEVA. 25 ones, for the accommodation of the crew of the sadok, and one fitted up as a kind of refreshment-room for those who visit these establishments for the purpose of eating fresh caviare in perfection. Behind the sadok are al- ways large reservoirs in which a number of live fish are kept, for the Rus- sians are great gourmands in the article of fish, and make a great point of popping them alive into the pot. This species of lux ury is sometimes carried to a great excess. The fish of the Volga are brought alive to St. Peters- burg at an enormous cost. A sterlet, which, if dead, might be had for thirty or forty rubles, will bring from lUO to 300 if alive, a wealthy Rus- sian taking a pride in showing it ali'S'e to his guests, a little while before it figures on his board. In the centre of the town, the Neva is about a verst in breadth, and, owing to the great bend which the river makes, its length within the city is not less than three German (more than thirteen English) miles. It is easy to imagine the icy waste which the surface must present in winter, when, in the centre of this great capital, a man may perform journeys by night that almost make him fancy himself travelling in the wilds of Lap- land. The lamps in the houses may indeed be seen twinkling at a dis- tance, but the moon or the aurora borealis afford the only light to guide him on his way, and he will often have occasion to consult the compass and and the stars, to direct his course. People have at times been robbed and murdered on the ice, so that these night expeditions on the Neva during winter are always in very bad odour, and avoided as much as possible by all prudent people. How changed is the scene in summer, when boating on the Neva becomes a favourite amusement with all classes ! The nights then are warm and beautifully clear, and the Russians probably enjoy their gondolas the more, on account of the shortness of the period during which they cmi enjoy them. During June and July, the arms of the Neva are swarming, night and day, with gondolas and sailing-boats, and all the boasted scenes of Venice and her canals are insignificant to the animated pictures then constantly presenting themselves on this northern river. Imagine an atmosphere gently agitated by the mildest and most in- sinuating zephyrs ; the air warm but not sultry, and the night so clear that all creation seems awake, and even the birds continue to pour forth their song ; a night, in short, with ail the charms and loveliness of night, com- bined with all the convenience of day, as though the jocund day had flung over his shoulders the majestic mantle of night. Imagine then a noble river, meandering in a multitude of arms, through an archipelago of islands, crowned with magnificent palaces, or decorated with delicious gardens. The wide sea itself, close to the city, presents itself at each of the six mouths of the river. Imagine the scene animated by thousands of ships and boats. Here the saiUng-boat of the English skipper, who proudly displays his superior skill over all else that floats on the watery element ; there the German burgher with his family, abandoning himself to enjoy- ment after the labours of a busy day. On another side may be seen a congregation of Russian peasants pouring the sweet melodies of their nation over the bosom of the water, or the splendid barge of a Russian noble, attended by a magnificent band of wind Instruments, each artist the born thrall of the master he attends on. The seamen of every maritime nation may be seen rowing about, enjoying a scene to the animation of which they contribute their share. I doubt whether there be a city or* the globe that can show any thing equal to the beauty of one of these boat- excursions on the Neva, during a fine summer-night. 26 CHAPTER IV. LIFE IN THE STREETS. A STK ANGER accustomed to tlie crowds and bustle of London or Paris, is struck on his arrival at St. Petersburg by the emptiness of the streets. He finds vast open spaces in which at times he beholds nothing but a soli- tary droshky, that wends its way along Hke a boat drifting on the open sea. He sees spacious streets bordered by rows of mute palaces with only here and there a human figure hovering about, like a lurking freebooter among a waste of rocks. The vastness of the plan on which the city has been laid out, shows that its founders speculated on a distant future. Rapidly as the poptdation has been increasing, it is still insufficient to fill the frame allotted to it, or to give to the streets that life and movement which we look for in the capital of a great empire. On the occasion, indeed, of great pubhc festivals and rejoicings, and at all times in the Nevskoi Prospekt and about the Admiralty, the movement is very con- siderable, but this only tends to leave the tlirong and bustle of the other quarters of the town far below the average. The population of St, Petersburg is the most varied and motley that mind can imagine. To begin with the military. We have the Caucasian guards, the Tartar guards, the Finland guards, besides a fourth and fifth division of the guards for the various tribes of Cossacks. Of these nations, the elite are thus always retained as hostages in the capital, and their several uniforms are alone sufficient to present a never-changing pic- ture to the eye of an observer. Here may be seen a Cossack trotting over one of the Platz Farads with his lance in rest, as though in his imagina- tion he were stdl pursuing a cloud of flying Frenchmen. Further on, perchance a Circassian cavalier, in his shirt of mad, and harnessed from head to foot, is going through his warlike exercises. The Moslem from the Taurus may be seen gravely moving through the throng, while the well-drilled Russian soldiers defile in long columns through the streets. Of all the endless variety of uniforms that belong to the great Russian. army, a few specimens are always to be seen in the capital. There are the Pavlov guards, the Semeonov guards, and the Pavlogradski guards ; the Sum hussars, and the Tshuguyev hussars ; then there are chasseurs ä cheval, and sharpshooters on foot ; then there are cuirassiers, and grenadiers, and pioneers, and engineers ; horse artillery, and foot ar- tillery ; to say nothing of dragoons, lancers, and those military ple- beians, the troops of the fine. All these, in their various uniforms, marching to parade, returning to their baiTacks, mounting guard, and passing through the other multifarious duties of a garrison life, are in themselves enough to give life and diversity to the streets. If then we turn to the more pacific part of the population, devoted to the less biilliant, but certainly not less useful, piirsuit of commerce, we find every nation of Europe, and almost every nation of Asia, repre- sented in the streets of St. Petersburg. Spaniards and Italians, English and French, Greeks and Scandinavians may be seen mingling together; nor will the silken garments of the Persian and the Bokliarian be wanting LIFE IN THE STREETS. 27 to the pictxire, nor the dangling tail of the Chinese, nor the pearly teeth of the Arabian. The infima plehs bears an outside as motley as the more aristocratic portion of the community. The German Baiter may be seen lounging among the noisy bearded Russians ; the slim Pole elbows the diminutive Finlander ; and Esthonians, Lettes and Jews are running up against each other, while the Mussiilman studiously avoids all contact with the Jew. Yankee sailors and dwarfish Kamtshadales, Caucasians, Moors, and Mongalians, all sects, races, and colours contribute to make up the populace of the E-ussian capital. Nowhere does the street life of St. Petersburg display itself to better ef- fect than in the Nevskoi Prospekt. This magnificent street extends from the Alexander Nevskoi Monastery to the Admiralty, a distance of four versts. Towards the end it makes a slight bend, but throughout the greater part of its length it is perfectly straight. It intersects all the rings of the city ; the suburbs of the poor, the showy regions of commerce, and the sumptuous quarters of the aristocracy. A walk along the whole length of this street, is one perhaps as interesting as any that can be made in St. Petersburg. Starting- from the extreme end, where a monastery and a cemetery remind us of death and solitude, we first arrive at low little wooden houses, which lead us to a cattle-market, where around the spirit-shops may be seen swarms of noisy singing Russian peasants, presenting a pictlire not unlike what may daily be seen in the villages of the interior. A little farther on the houses improve in appearance ; some are even of stone, and boast of an additional floor ; the houses of public entertainment are of a better description, and shops and warehouses are seen similar to those of the small provincial towns. Next follow some markets and magazines for the sale of invalided furniture and superann'aated apparel, which, having spent their youth in the service of the central quarters, are consigned in old age to the mercy of the suburbs. The houses, in the old Russian fashion, are painted yellow and red, and every man we meet displays a beard of venerable length, and a yet longer caftan. A Kttle farther on, and we see a few isvoshtshiks who have strayed by chance so far from, their more central haunts ; a shaven chin and a swallow-tailed coat may be seen at intervals, and here and there a house assumes something like an air of stateliness and splendour. On arriving at the bend already men- tioned, the huge gilt spire of the Admiralty is descried at a distance, floating apparently over the intervening mist. We cross a bridge, and ibegin to feel that we are in a mighty city. The mansions rise to three, and even to four stories, the inscriptions on the houses become larger and more numerous, carriages and four become more frequent, and every now and then the waving plume of a staff-officer dashes by. At length we arrive at the Fontanka Canal, cross the Anitshkof Bridge, and the Palace of Count B. announces at once that we have entered the aristocratic quarter of the capital. From this bridge to the Admiralty is what may be called the fashionable part of the Prospekt, and as we advance the bustle and the throng become greater and greater. Carriages-and-four at every step ; generals and princes elbowing through the crowd ; sumptuous shops, im- perial palaces, cathedrals and churches of all the various religions and sects of St. Petersburg. The scene in this portion of the street, at about midday, may challenge comparison with any street in the world, and the splendour of the spectacle 28 LIFE IN THE STREETS. is enhanced by the magnificence of the decorations. This part of the street, though fully an English mile in length, does not contain more than fifty houses, each of which, it may easily be inferred, must be of co- lossal magnitude. Most of these buildings are the property of the several churches that border the street — the Dutch, the Catholic, the Ar- menian, and others, that received from Peter the Great large grants of laud, of little value probably when first bestowed, but from which, as they are nov/ in the heart of the city, splendid revenues are at present de- rived. The street from the Anitshkof Bridge to the Admiralty is the favourite promenade with the beau monde of St. Petersburg. The buildings are magnificent, the equipages roll noiselessly over the wooden pavement of the centre, and the trottoirs on each side are broad and commodious. The people you meet are civil, and quarrels and disputes are never heard. The lower classes, from their childhood, are taught to behave respectfully to their more fortunate fellow-men, and, besides, the Slavonian is by nature more ductile and better rounded off than we of the Saxon race, who carry so many corners and crotchets about with us, that we need be careful, when we move through the streets, that we do not entangle our- selves with those we meet. The northern, being the sunny, is the fa- vourite side of the street for the promenaders, and on that side, accord- ingly, are the most magnificent shops. The garrison of St. Petersburg seldom amounts to less than 60,000 men, and constitutes, therefore, more than one-ninth of the population. ]S^either officer nor private must ever appear in public otherwise than in full uniform, and this may suffice to give some idea of the preponderance of the military over the civil costumes that one encounters in the streets. The wild Circassian, with his silver harness and his coat of mail, gaily converses and jest with the more polished Russian ofilcer, while their several kinsmen are busily engaged in cutting each other's throats in the Caucasus. Even in the streets of St, Petersburg, however, it is more safe to avoid collision with these mountaineers, who are sudden and quick in quarrel, wear sharp daggers, and always carry loaded fire-arms about them. Even at a ball or a soiree they never lay their pistols aside, and these are never othermse than ready for immediate use. Some years ago one Prince Ali acquired some notoriety by his wild pi'anks, but his hand- some person and his general popularity seem to have secured for him a considerable share of impunity. In the crowded streets he would at tim.es amuse himself with pistol practice, the sun usually serving him for a target. His faitliful steed followed him about hke a dog, and if the police offered to interfere with his diversion, he was in the saddle in a mo- ment, and galloping away at full speed to some other quarter of the town. The sun was his usual target ; but lamps and lamp-posts were sometimes selected, and occasionally, though not often, he turned the muzzle of his pistol upon those from whom he imagined himself to have received an affront. On one occasion he resented some disrespectful ex- pressions ap])lied to his mother in the Caucasus, by firing at the offender, but fortunately missed him ; not, however, from any want of skill, but be- cause an officer, who stood near him, was able, just in time, to thrust his arm aside. It Avould not be saying too much, to say that half St. Petersburg are clad in a uniform of one sort or another. For, in addition to the 60,000 LIFE IN THE STREETS. 29 soldiers, there are civil uniforms for the public officers of every grade, for the police, for the professors of the university, and not only for the teachers, but likewise for the pupils of the public schools. Nor must the private uniforms be forgotten, that are worn by the numerous servants of the noble and wealthy families. Still there remain enough of plain coats to keep up the respectability of the fraternity. The whole body of mer- chants, the English factory, the German barons from the Baltic provinces, Russian princes and landowners from the interior, foreigners, private teachers, and many others, are well pleased to be exempt from the con- straint of buttons and epaulets ; indeed, so much that is really respectable walks about in simple black and blue, that a plain coat is felt by many to be rather a desirable distinction, although the wearer is obliged on all public occasions to yield the pas to the many-coloured coats of the civil and military employes. The seasons and the variations of the weather bring about many, and often very sudden changes, in the street population of St. Petersburg, where the temperature is always capricious and unstable. In winter every one is cased in furs ; in summer light robes of gauze and silk are seen fluttering in the breeze. In the morning the costumes are perhaps all light and airy, and in the evening of the same day none will venture to stir abroad otherwise than in cloaks and mantles. The sun shines, and swarms of dandies and petites maitresses come fluttering- abroad ; it rains, and the streets are abandoned to the undisputed possession of the " Black People." One day all snow and sledges, the next all mud and clattering wheels. Nor is it merely the change of weather that alters the physiognomy of the streets. The various sects that make up the population of the town give often a pecuHar character to the day. On Friday, the holiday of the Moslems, the turbaned Turk, the black-bearded Persian, and the Tartar, with his shorn head, take their leisure in the streets. On Saturday, the black silk caftans of the Jews come abroad in great numbers ; and on the Sunday the Christians of all denominations come forth to their pious ex- ercises or their various diversions. The different sects of the Christians again tend to vary the scene. To-day the Lutherans celebrate their yearly day of penance, and German burghers, with their wives and cliildren, and with their neat black gilt-edged hymn-books under their arms, sally forth on their pilgrimage to the church ; to-morrow the Catholics are summoned to some feast or other of the immaculate Virgin, and Poles and Lithuanians, Frenchmen, and Austrians, hm-ry to their stately temples. The next day are heard the thousand bells of the Greek Kolokolniks, and the wives and daughters of the Ptussian merchants come humming and fluttering about the streets in their gaudy plumages of green, blue, yellow, and red. But the great days are the public hoUdays, the emperor's days as they are called, when all the modes and fashions current, from Paris to Pekin^ are certain to be paraded to the public gaze. It has often been remarked that there are few cities where one sees so many handsome men as in St. Petersburg. This is partly owing to the prevalence of uniforms, which certainly set off the person to advantage, partly also to the fact that all the handsomest men in the provinces are constantly in demand as recruits for the various regiments of the guards. Something must also be attributed to the constant efforts of the Russians to give themselves the most agreeable forms. In no other town are there 30 LIFE IN THE STREETS. so few cripples and deformed people ; and this is not owing merely to their being less tolerated here than elsewhere, but also, it is said, to the fact, that the Slavonian race is less apt than any other to produce deformed children. On the other hand, at every step you meet men whose exterior you cannot but admire, and a moment's reflection must fill you with regret that there should be so few fair eyes to contemplate so many handsome specimens of manhood. St. Petersburg is unfortunately a city of men, the male sex being in a majority of at least 100,000, and the women by no means equally distinguished for their charms. The chmate seems to .be unfavourable to the development of female beauty ; the tender plants quickly fade in so rude an atmosphere, and as they are so few in numbers, they are aU the more in demand for the ballroom and the soiree, and are the more quickly used up by the friction of dissipation. Whether tliis be the cause, or whether the Russian women are naturally less handsome, comparatively, than the men, certain it is, that a fresh, handsome-looking girl is but rarely to be seen at St. Petersburg. The German ladies from the Baltic provinces form the exception ; and it is from Finland, Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland, that the gay circles of the capital receive theic chief supply of beauty. To this it may be owing that the Russians have so high an opinion of German beauty that they rarely withhold from a iV^eraÄ« (German woman) the epithet of Äras«Vß?/a, or beautifuL The ladies at St. Petersbm-g, though in such gTcat demand on account of their scarcity, are liable, from the same cause, to many inconveniences. For instance, it is impossible for them to walk in the streets, even in broad daylight, without a male escort. The best hour for walking on the Prospekt is from 12 till 2, when the ladies go shopping, and the men go to look at the fair purchasers. To- wards two or three o'clock, the purchases have been made, the parade is over, the merchants are leaving the exchange, the world of promenaders wend their way to the Enghsh quay, and the real promenade for the day begins, the imperial family usually minghng with the rest of the loungers. This magnificent quay, constructed, like all the quays of St. Petersburg, of huge blocks of granite, runs along the Neva from the New to the Old Admiralty, and was built dm-ing the reign of the Empress Catherine, who caused the canals and rivers of her capital, to the length of not less than 24 English miles, to be enclosed in granite. As in all water constructions, the colossal part of the work is not that which meets the eye. The mighty scafi'olding on which the quay rests, stands deeply imbedded in the marshy soil below. Handsome steps, every here and there, lead down to the river ; and for carriages large broad descents have been constructed, and tliese in winter are usually decorated with all sorts of fancifrd columns and other ornaments, cut out of the ice. The houses along the English quay are deservedly called palaces. They were originally, for the most part, built by Englishmen, but are now, nearly all of them, the property of wealthy Russians. The favourite walk in Hambm'g is called the Jungfernstieg, or Maiden's Walk ; the English quay in St. Petersbm-g ought to be called the Princes' Walk, for there daily the elite of the Russian empire may be seen wearing away the granite with their princely and noble feet. The carriages usually stop at the New Admiralty, where their noble owners descend, and honour the quay by walking up and down it some tAVO or three times. There are no shops ; and as the English quay is not a convenient thorough- LIFE IN THE STREETS. 31 fare, the promenaders are seldom disturbed by tlie presence of any chance passengers. The Emperor and the imperial family are a centre to the groups that come to salute them and to be saluted by them. This forms a kind of connexion for the promenaders, and gives a oneness to the assembled company. The Emperor walks up and down upon an apparent footing of equality with his subjects around him ; though these, in point of fact, stand about in the same relation to him, that a child's doll does to the Colossus of Rhodes. The Englishman buttons up his hatred of des- potism in his great coat, and scarcely condescends to touch his hat when he meets the " Giant of the North ;" while to the Russian by his side, a submissive demeanour has by habit become a positive source of enjoyment, till he feels a real affection for those to whom the law gives the right of ordering him about. The elegant of the French embassy, whose connex- ions with Paris ensure to him at all times the earliest information relative to the variations of the mode, is observed with as much interest by the the native />eftY maitre, as an insect would be observed by a naturahst ; and be assured that the observations of to-day will be studiously turned to account by the observant student, when to-morrow he proceeds to the important avocations of his toilet. The baron or the reichsgraf from Germany, who can tell you his ancestors from before the times of the Hohenstaufens, and who delights to think that his great-grandchildren after him will he registered in the Gotha Almanac, walks here side by side with the Russian trader, who, like an ignis fatuiis, has suddenly sprung from some fen or other, and whose name in a few years will disappear and leave no trace behind it, either in the annals of history or the columns of an almanac. The master of some vast estate, in the Ural mountains or on the arid Steppes, where thousands of souls must labour away for his exclusive profit, walks along the quay with as little pretension as the poor shopman, who can scarcely be said to have a property in his own soul, imbodied as it is in the gay garments, which he has such evident delight in displaying to an admiring world. Among all the great men, however, that wander daily up and down the Enghsh quay, the two greatest are unquestionably the empress's footmen, who, in their purple uniform, attend the steps of their imperial mistress. These men, one of whom is said to be a Jew, are giants such as are but seldom seen at a fair. They are figures well known to every child in St. Petersburg, but they are said to be one inch shorter than another of the lions of the capital, the drum-major of the Semeneoff regiment of the guards, who may daily be admired at the Admiralty parade. Two Russian gentlemen, also well known to the St. Petersburg world, are said to dispute the palm of greatness wdth the footmen and the drum-major, but public opinion goes against their claim. Nor must Baron — n — be forgotten among the personal peculiarities of the English quay, from which he but rarely absents himself. His person is of such huge dimen- sions, that he is said not to have seen his ovav feet for thirty years, yet so dexterously and with so much elegance does he carry the enormous weight with which those feet are charged, that he passes at nearly every ball for the best dancer in the room ; so much so, that for a waltz or a gallopade the ladies are said to value him as a partnei* beyond the slenderest dandy that woos them to the merry round. Then there's Count F., as far from a sansculotte as any count can well be, but not the less a sans chapeau, for he can endure no covering on his head, and walks about without a hat 32 LIFE IN THE STREETS. even on the coldest day in winter, allowing -n-ind and snow to frolic at their leisure among the dainty cm-Is always tastefully arranged around his un- daunted summit. In endurance he is surpassed only by Peter the Great, the huge man of bronze that stands perched upon his rock, and whose equanimity remains undisturbed even when crows pour fortli their mono- tonous eloquence from his crown, or when a pair of loving sparrows chirrup forth their compliments from his nose. Another of the remarkable figures pointed out to every stranger, is a j)^tit maitre of the old school, one Mr. — g — , who figures upon the promenade in the same costume in which he figured there forty years ago, in the time of the Emperor Paul. The sta- tionary beau is said to have been one day so terrified by a rebuke from his emperor, that tlie clockwork of his understanding has stood stiU ever since, and now continues pointing to the hour Avhich it struck at the setting in of our century. Another promenade much frequented is the Summer Garden. The other gardens, as that of the Tauride Palace, and that of the Grand Duke 3Iichaers Palace, are but little visited. The Summer Garden, which lies on the Neva, close to the Trotzkoi bridge, is about one thousand eUs long and five hundred broad. It is the oldest garden in the city, contains a number of fine old trees, and is therefore of incalculable value in the centre of tlie stony masses of the city. It is laid out in a number of long- avenues, interspersed with flowerbeds, somewhat in the ancient stvle of gardening, ■R-ith an abundance of marble statues of Springs and Summers, Floras and Fauns, and other di\dnities belonging to the same coterie. On the northern side is the celebrated iron raihng, with its fanciful garlands and arabesques, which the people will tell you an Englishman once travelled all fhe ^'ay from London to see and make a sketch of, and then returned, satisfied with his journey, not deigning to cast an eye on any of the other marvels of the northern city. Tliis garden is attended to as carefully almost as those of Zarskoye Selo, where a policeman is said to run after every leaf that falls, that it may instantly be removed out of sight. In autumn all the statues are cased in wooden boxes, to protect them against the rain and snow of winter, and all the tender trees and shrubs are at the same time packed up in straw and matting, in which they remain tiU the retm-n of spring, when statues, trees, and men lay their winter gar- ments aside nearly at one and the same time. The grassplots are regularly watered in summer, and the paths are carefully cleaned and trimmed. And the garden gratefully repays the pains expended on it, for throughout the fine season it forms a delightful retreat, and its turf and its trees in spring are green and smiling, before any of the other gardens have been able to divest themselves of the chiU-liardened grin into which their features have been stiffened during a six. months' Avinter. In one corner of the Summer Garden stands the palace in which dwelt Peter the Great. It is a httle, low, white house, with a few tasteless bas- reliefs painted yellow. On the roof between the cliimneys, St. George, mounted on a tin horse, is in the act of piercing the dragon. In the in- terior, a few articles of furniture formerly used by Peter, are stiU preserved. The house seems to have grown ashamed of its littleness, for it hides itself completely among the tall linden-trees of the garden, as though fearful of intruding into the company of the stately palaces that have grown up around. Still it twinkles every now and then Avith its oldfashioned win- dows tlirough the foliage as if it took a pleasure in the proud children to LIFE IN THE STREETS. 33 •which it has given birth. How differently it must have looked when it was yet sole lord of the wilderness, when it stood there, the only elegant among a mob of fishers' huts ! The 500,000 square ells of ground which the garden occupies here in the centre of the town, would be worth at least twenty millions of rubles, if sold for buildiug on. The city may, therefore, be said to sacrifice a yearly revenue of a million of rubles, by allowing the garden to remain ; yet the city acts wisely, in submitting to the loss, from which it derives more than the value of a million of rubles in cheerfulness and health. It is particularly in the Summer Garden that the rising generation of St. Petersbm-g may be said to take their diversion. Hither it is that the little ladies repair with their governesses, the tutors with their httle embryo generals and senators, the nurses with their tender charges. It is impossi- ble to imagine a prettier spectacle than all the handsome little Cossacks, Circassians, and Mushnicks, that romp about the Summer Garden on a fine day. The Russians of all ranks are fond of dressing their cliildren, till they are seven or eight years old, ä la moujik, as it is called. The hair is cut short, as it is usually worn by the peasantry, and the Httle fellows are then arrayed in pretty caftans neatly fastened with girdles, nearly of the same fashion as those Avorn by the Gostinnoi Dvor merchants, -with high Tartar caps like those worn by the Russian coachmen. Lately the Circassian costume has been in favom- for children, and becomes them admirably, with its silver embroidery and edgings of fur. Only when children come to be nine or ten years old do they begin to dress like Europeans. Tliis, however, applies only to the boys, for Httle gu-ls, as soon as they can walk, are decked out in the fashions of Paris. The same re- marks apply to the children of the imperial family, as to those of the nobiHty generaUy. As it is from among these young frequenters of the Summer Garden, that the futm-e admirals, generals, and statesmen of the empire are probably to be chosen, it is impossible not to obsei-ve them with some degree of interest. Next to their costume, their language is the most remarkable thing about them. As they have Russian servants and nurses, English and French nur- sery-maids, and German teachers, they usuaUy learn all the four languages at the same time, and as it is not easy for them at first to keep the several ■dialects distinct, they mix them up into an idiomatic ragout, highly amusing to a stranger, but which to the children themselves must often cause a great confusion of ideas. It is nothing uncommon, for instance, to hear a child express itself in this fashion : " Papa, I have been in the letnoi sad ; Feodor s'nami buil ; est ce que vous n'irez pas." (Papa, I have been in the Summer Garden ; Feodor was with us ; wül you not go.) The adult Russians generaUy speak a yet greater number of languages, though, of course, more correctly; but it is remarkable that, Hnguists as they are, they seldom borrow a term of endearment from any language but that of their land. The Russian is indeed singularly rich in pretty, coaxing, insinuating diminutives ; such as, lubesnoi, my dear ; milinkoi, my Httle dear; dädushka, my little grandpapa; matiushka, my Httle mamma ; drushka, my Httle friend : golubtshik, my Httle dove; dushinka. my Httle soul. Nor are these expressions confined to the Russians. Few strangers are long in the country, without acquiring the habit of ingrafting upon their own languages the Russian terms of endearment. The most brilHant day in the year for the Summer Garden is Whitmon- D 34 LIFE IN THE STREETS. day, when the celebrated festival of the choosing of brides takes place. According' to the ancient customs of Russia, the sons and daughters of the traders assemble on that day, those to see, and these to be seen. The young damsels, arrayed in all their finery, are marshalled in due order along the flower-beds, and their mammas are carefully stationed behind them. Every ghttering ornament has been collected for the occasion, and not only their own wardrobes, but those of their grandmothers too, have been laid under contribution to collect decorations for the hair, the ears, the arms, the neck, the hands, the feet, the girdle, or, in short, for any part of the person to which by hook or by crook any thing in the shape of adornment can be fastened. Many of them are so laden with gold and jewellery, that scarcely any part of their natural beauty remains uncovered. It is even said that, on one of these occasions, a Russian mother, not knowing what she shoidd add to her daughter's toilet, contrived to make her a necklace of six dozen of gilt teaspoons, a girdle of an equal number of tablespoons, and then fastened a couple of punchladles behind in the form of a cross. The young men meanwhile, with their flowing caftans and curled beards, are paraded by their papas, up and down, before these rows of yoimg, mute, blushing beauties, who, in spite of their bashful looks, are evidently ambitious to please, and seem little disposed to resent the admira- tion of the swains. The papas and mammas endeavour here and there to engage their interesting charges in conversation with each other ; and in the course of these little colloquies, certain looks and emotions will betray an unsuspected inchnation, or perhaps give birth to sentiments pregnant with future moment. Eight days after this first bride -show, the Interviews take place at the houses of the parents, when, by means of family negociations, a marriage is all but concluded, and the young couple part all but betrothed to each other. Similar customs prevail among all the nations of the Slavonian races, but it is a singtdar fact that a usage of the kind should have main- tained its ground so long in a place like St. Petei'sburg, where a numerous part of the public has ever been disposed to make the bride-show an object of ridicule. Of late years, indeed, the fashion has been gradually dying away, and the description given above applies rather to former than to the pre- sent times. Nevertheless, the lads and lasses of what may be called the bour- geoisie of St. Petersburg, still muster in the Summer Garden in great force on Whitmonday, when the foundation is laid for many a matrinunial negotiation ; though the business is conducted with less form and stiflness than was wont to be the case some ten years ago. On one side of the Summer Garden is the Tzarizinskoi Lug, or Field of the Czars, which has somewhat inappropriately been translated into Champ de Mars. This place is more used than any other for exercising troojDS, though there are several other parade places in the city, and many of them much larger than the Champ de Mars. The Alexandrofskoi Platz- parad, the largest of all, occupies fully a square verst, but hes on the out- skirts of the capital. The chief parade, however, is held in the square of of the Admii'alty, and forms one of the daily enjoyments of many of the inhabitants. The Admiralty is surrounded by a boulevard and a double row of trees. Under these trees the spectators usually walk about during the time of the parade. The emperor generally commands in person ; and as there are LIFE IN THE STREETS. S'l» always present several thousand men, and a host of generals and staff officers, this simple parade forms at all times a handsome spectacle, and may, in fact, pass for a miniature review. To see the emperor ride by with his brilliant staff is itself worth seeing. He is a handsome majestic- looking man. By his side rides his eldest son, and behind him follow a cloud of cavaliers, of whom each is at the least a prince's son and a major-general. As this splendid cortege advances, the soldiers, drawn np in line, present their arms, and the spectators uncover their heads. ^' Good morning, children !" is the emperor's salutation ; " We thank your majesty," is the response that comes thundering in unison from thou- sands of throats. The parade often lasts several hours ; and whoever has witnessed a portion of it, taken a stroll down the Nevskoi Prospekt, looked into the Summer Garden, and walked up and down the English Quay, may quiet his conscience with the reflection that he has neglected no part of the -St. Petersburg promenades for that day. A stranger has no occasion, however, to go to the parade, if his object is merely to see the emperor, who may be met with on foot, on horseback, or in a droshky, in all parts of St. Petersburg, and at every hour of the day. There is no other monarch who appears to have so much business to do in the streets as the successor of Peter the Great. There are public insti- tutions to be inspected, the offices of the different departments of g-overnment to be visited, reviews to be held, national festivals at which he is expected to attend, new buildings to be superintended, not to speak of the many private visits paid to those whom he is disposed to honoiu* with so high a mark of favour. Wherever the emperor appears in pubhc, he does so in the most simple and unpretending manner that can be imagined. Plis usual vehicle, whea driving through the streets of his capital, is a sledge or a droshky, drawn by a single horse ; and when travelling, his telegue is a rude carriage, little better than those used by the serfs. This is the more remarkable, as in other respects the Russian court is one of greater pomp and magnifi- cence than any other in Europe. Yet I doubt whether the pettiest of all ihe petty princes of Germany, would not think himself affronted, if he were invited to take his place in such a small plain droshky, as the Emperor of all the Russias daily makes use of. This is not, however, a custom pecu- liar to the present emperor ; it was adopted by Peter the Great, and has been followed by all his successors. The superintendence of the street-population of St. Petersburg is en- trusted to a class of men called butshniks, a name for which they are in- debted to the butki, or boxes, in which they are stationed night and day. These little wooden boxes are to be seen at every corner, and to each box: three butshniks are assigned, who have their beds there, their kitchen, and a complete domestic establishment. One of them, wrapped up in a grey cloak faced with red, and armed with a halbert, stands sentinel outside, while another attends to the culinary department, and a third holds him- self ready to carry orders, or to convey to the Siäsh, or police-office, the unfortunates whom his comrade may have thought it his duty to arrest.- Each butshnik has a small whistle, by means of which he conveys a signal to the next post, if a fugitive is to be given chase to. The quar- talniks are a superior kind of police-officers, and these and the police- masters are constantly going their rounds, to see that the butshniks are not neglectful of their duty. By these means, excellent order is always d2 36 LIFE IN THE STREETS. maintained, and in no other capital of Europe are riotous or offensive scenes of less frequent occurrence. At night, in addition to the day- police, small detachments of mounted gens-d'armes parade the streets. The only inhabitants of the capital not liable to the inspection of the police are the crows and pigeons. These birds abound there to an asto- nishing extent. They fly about free and undisturbed every where. The crows congregate in the greatest numbers at the Anitshkoff Palace in the Nevskoi Prospekt, where many thousands often assemble in the evening to edify the passing public with their loud and earnest conversations. It has been noticed that they always perch upon a green roof in preference to a black or red one ; perhaps the green may seem to bear more affinity to the foliage of the trees they love to build among. The pigeons are sacred in the eyes of every Russian ; and as no one would dare to harm them, they become so bold, that they walk carelessly about among a crowd in search of their food, and scarcely make way either for a carriage or a foot- passenger. Nevertheless, they are in a half-wild and neglected condition, and build their nests chiefly about the roofs of the churches. They have their nests also under the roofs of the markets, and particularly among the columns of Gostinnoi Dvor, where the merchants in their hours o£ leisure take a great delight in feeding and caressing them. In the inner courts of the houses of St. Petersburg there are always large holes or boxes that serve as receptacles for every kind of dirt and rubbish which it is thought desirable to remove to the outside of the house. About these filthy boxes there may at times be seen whole swarms of pigeons feeding on all kinds of garbage, and the only wonder is that the Russians should retain any affection for bu'ds that degenerate so woefully in Russia as to fight, like so many wolves, for putrid meat and fish entrails. Never- theless, it is thought a species of sacrilege to kill a pigeon. Boys may sometimes indeed be seen running about with sticks, to the end of which cords are fastened, and to the end of the cord a button or a stone. This cord they throw dexterously round the necks of the pigeons, as the South Americans throw their lasso round the neck of an ox. The pigeons thus caught are sold to the profane Germans, who are said to convert the holy birds into heathenish ragouts, or to bake them in sacrilegious pies. CHAPTER V. THE ISVOSHTSHIKS. The vast space occupied by a Russian city, with its broad endless streets, and its wide waste public squares and places, makes it probable that the institution of hackney-carriages is one of very remote origin in Russia. In other countries, the convenience is one known only to large towns ; but in Russia, such is the aversion of the people to walking, that, as soon as a few thousand human beings have been collected into the same vicinage, a due supply of isvoshtshiks becomes one of the most urgent wants of the THE ISVOSIITSIIIKS. 37 new community. From this, some notion may be formed of the army of isvoshtshiks collected together on the pavement of the capital. They are estimated, in some statistical returns I have seen, at 8000. In some quarters you may see hundreds at one glance ; and when we consider that the length of all the streets of St. Petersburg amounts to nearly 400 versts, it cannot be an extravagant estimate to reckon twenty-five hackney-carriages to every verst. We have already seen that there are in one place in St. Petersburg three houses, side by side, to pass which on foot will occupy a man a good half hour. A morning visit, a dinner, and an evening visit, might cost him his whole day. In winter the streets are full of a deep snow dust, formed of the numberless crystals of ice that are constantly undergoing the process of being ground up into fine powder, and through which it is about as tedious to wade as through the sands of Sahara. The rude northern blast, moreover, that ranges uncontrolled through the wide airy streets, makes every man glad enough to creep into a sledge, where he may draw his mantle over his face, and wrap himself, head and all, in furs. In spring, one-half of St. Petersburg is a mere bog, and in summer the intolerable dust actually stops one's breath, and relaxes all the muscles of the feet. No wonder, therefore, that the most resolute pedestrian soon grows tired of using his own feet in St. Petersburg, and in utter despair roars out his " Davai ! Isvoshtshik !" to the first droshky stand. He will seldom have occasion to " sing out" his davai a second time. Nay, a man need not even look at the serviceable equipages, for if he only stand still for a moment, and seem to deliberate in his own mind upon the expediency of summoning a charioteer to his assistance, the hint is quite sufficient, and half-a-dozen sledges will immediately come dart- ing up to the spot where he stands. The oat-bags are quickly thrown aside, the harness drawn tight, and each of the rival candidates for favour places himself upon his box, satisfied apparently that he, and he alone, will bear away the prize. " Where to, sir ?" — " To the Admiralty." — " 111 go for two rubles " — " I for one and a half," cries another, and so they go on underbidding each other, till they come down perhaps to half a ruble. You take the cheapest, probably, but take care the cheapest be not also the worst, or you must be prepared for a volley of jokes and banter- ings from the disappointed applicants. " Ah, do but look, little father, how stingy you are !" — " To save a few copeks, you put up with that ragged rascal for your coachman." — " He and his three-legged animal wül stick fast before you get half way." — " The gray -bearded vagabond will be sure to upset you ; he's so drunk he can't stand." — " He'll take you to the shambles, and swear it's the Admiralty." — No one enjoys all this abuse, meanwhile, more than the object of it, who laughs in his sleeve, and grumbles out his "NitshevossI never fear, sir; we shall get on well enough." These men are, for the most part, Russians fi-om all the different go- vernments of the empire ; but among them there are also Finlanders, Esthonians, Lettes, Poles, and Germans. They arrive at St. Petersburg generally as little boys of ten or twelve years old, hire themselves as drivers to some owner of hackney-carriages, whom they continue to serve tOl they have saved enough to buy a horse and vehicle, when they set up in business on their own account. Their trade, as all trades are in Russia, is uncontrolled by corporation laws ; and should fodder grow dear, 38 THE ISVOSHTSHIKS. or business slack, the isvoslitsliik packs up the few worldly goods he pos- sesses, drives away to the south, and reappears in the streets of Novgorod or Moscow; thus, in pursuit of fortune, they emerge now in one town and now in another, tUl chance enable them to form a profitable and per- manent establishment in some one place. In the provincial towns, where fodder is to be had for little or nothing, they usually drive with two horses,, but in St. Petersburg, where every- thing, in comparison, is enormously dear, the public must content themselves with one. In winter the isvoshtshik uses the favourite national vehicle of a sledge^ with which he continues to grind the pavement as long as the least trace of snow is to be felt under the spring mud. A covered carriage he never uses. The cloaks and furs of the passengers must do the same service ia Hussia that the roof of the coach does with us ; and when weU wrapped up in a series of protecting folds, the warm nucleus of hfe that occupies, the centre, patiently suffers the pelting of snow, rain, and mud till the end of his journey, where the dirty rind is peeled off, and the said kernel steps forth clean and unspotted from his muddy covering. The isvoshtshiks of St. Petersburg appear to be a race of Hamaxobites,* leading a sort of nomadic life among the palaces of the capital. They encamp by day in the streets, and so do many of them during the nighty their sledge serving them at once as house and bed. Like the Bedouia Arabs, they carry the oat-bag constantly with them, and fasten it, durmg their intervals of leisure, to the noses of their steeds. In every street arrangements have been made for the convenience of the isvoshtshiks. Every here and there mangers are erected for their use ; to water their horses, there are in all parts of the town convenient descents to the canals or to the river ; and hay is sold at a number of shops in small bundles^ just sufficient for one or two horses. To still the thirst and hunger of the charioteers themselves, there are peripatetic dealers in quass, tea, and. bread, who are constantly wandering about the streets for the charitable purpose of feeding the hungry. The animals are as hardy as their masters. Neitlier care for cold or rain, both eat as opportunity serves,, and are content to take their sleep when it comes. Yet they are always cheerful, the horses ever ready to start off at a smart trot, the drivers at all times disposed for a song, a joke, or a gossip. When they are neither eating, nor engaged in any other serious occupation, they lounge about, their sledges, singing some simple melody that they have probably brought, with them from their native forests. Where several of them happen to be together at the corner of a street, they are sure to be engaged in some game or other, pelting with snow-balls, wrestling, or bantering each other, till the "' Davai, isvoshtshik !" of some chance passenger makes them all grasp their whips in a moment, and converts them into eager competitors for the expected gain. The poorest isvoshtshiks in St. Petersburg are the Finlanders. Their- droshky is often little more than a board nailed over the axles of their wheels, and their little shaggy, ragged, bony horses look like the very emblems of hunger and misery. Scai-cely covered by their tattered caftans, they station themselves in the remote quarters of the town, and themselves poor, afford the use of their four wheels to poverty for a mode- * Dwellers in waggons. THE ISVOSIITSIIIKS. 39 rate fee. In the more fashionable and central quarters, on the other hand, equipag'es of first-rate elegance offer their service to the public, with every thing about them ä quatre epingles. A fine black steed, with a coat shining" like satin, the harness glittering like a lady's ball- dress ; a light delicate sledge, with a cloth richly lined with fur, and an isvoshtshik in a magnificent beard, and a caftan fit for a Turkish pasha. Such Yehicles are not to be put in motion for any thing less than a blue note, and are intended to impress a credulous public with the behef that they are private and not hired carriages ; for in St. Petersburg it is thought tres mauvais genre for a lady to allow herself to be driven by an isvosht- shik ; and a woman above the rank of a chambermaid or a tradesman's wife would scarcely venture to make use of such a conveyance. The men are less particular. Even those of the highest station do not refuse, on an emergency, to avail themselves of the services of an isvoshtshik. It is not customary for a Russian noble to put a livery on his coachman, who is almost always clad in the old national costmne. If, therefore, you hire one of these smart isvoshtshiks, all you have to do is to order him to slip his number under his caftan, and nobody can tell whether the driver and his steed are not, bodies and soul of them, your undisputed freehold property. Indeed, these handsome equipages on the public stands are said sometimes to be the private carriag-es of individuals, who, diu-ing their absence from the capital, convert their coachmen into isvosht- shiks. St. Petersburg is at all times crowded with civil and mihtary ofiicers, who are liable without any previous notice to be sent away sud- denly to a distant part of the empire, and who are willing that their horses should earn their oats in the pubhc service while their masters are away. As there are no fixed fares, you must each time bargain with your driver when you hire him ; but the fellows are, in general, moderate enough, and will take you a tolerably long way for a few pence. Their demands indeed are apt to rise in proportion as the weather becomes less Inviting to pedestrianism, or as the calendar announces the recurrence of a pubhc hoHday. There are days when they will not bate a copek of their demands ; and in the busy part of the day they will not take less than two rubles for a course, wliich in the morning or the evening they are ready to go for half a one. On ordinary occasions they are reasonable and obliging enough, and will often carry you for nothing from one side to the other of a muddy street. You may know what countryman your irvoshtshik is, by the way in •which he treats his horses. The German is sure to be the most reasonable. He speaks httle to any body, and to his horse not at all. His reins and Lis whip form the only medium of communication between the man and the animal. The Finlander sits a quiet picture of indifference, only now and then brings out a long drawHng " JVatv! naio!" through his teeth, and from the varied intonations of the one word, the horse is expected to divine the wishes of its master. The calabistic word of the Lette is " Nooa, nooa !" but to this he has recourse only in moments of great emergency ; when, for instance, his horse manifests a disposition not to stir from the spot, or a piggish determination to go any way rather than the way he is wanted to go. The most restless of charioteers is the Pole, who wriggles incessantly about, and whistles, hisses and howls without inter- mission, while the shaking of his reins and the cracking of his whip are 40 THE ISVOSHTSHIKS. kept up with equal perseverance. The Russian coachman, on the other hand, seems to trust more to the persuasiveness of his own eloquence, than to any thing else. He seldom uses his whip, and generally only knocks with it upon the foot-board of his sledge, by way of a gentle admonition to his steed, with whom meanwhile he keeps up a running colloquy, sel- dom giving him harder words than : " my brother," " my friend," " my little father," " my sweetheart," " my little white pigeon," &c. " Come, my pretty pigeon, make use of thy legs," he will say. " What now ? art blind ? come be brisk ! Take care of that stone there. Dost not see it ? There, that's right. Bravo ! hop, hop, hop ! steady, boy, steady ! Now, what arc turning thy head aside for ? Look out boldly before thee ! Huzza! Yukh, yukh!" One very important thing to know is, that our isvoshtshik, for the period of the drive, has become our serf, and that if we are people to abuse our power, we may assume the lord and master with impunity. If we speak to him, he will never think of replying to us otherwise than bareheaded. Our scolding he receives with a cheerful and submissive smile, our com- mands with prompt obedience. If he is to drive faster, the intimation is conveyed to him in the way intimations are usually conveyed to slaves, namely, through the medium of his back, on which the hand of his tempo- rary master writes down the order in a legible character. A Russian is born with a bridle round his neck, and every man whose hand is firm enough may seize the reins, and guide at his will the harnessed serf; but he whose hand is too weak to keep a tight hold of the reins, must be pre- pared to find more self-wiU about a Russian, than about the citizen of the freest nation in the universe. These, however, are reflections too serious for our present purpose. Put your isvoshtshik into good humour by a kind word or two, and you'll have your pleasure out of the lad. Though he be but a boy, he looks briskly and boldly into the wild confusion of a St. Petersburg street, guides his horse dexterously through the throng of carriages, and keeps vip a running fire of words, addressed now to his horse, and now to those he meets. " Padyee, padyee T (Place, place!) he cries to the tedious waggon that bars his progress ; " Beregissar (Have a care !)to the inattentive pedestrian. Should the crowd not be great, he suits his words to the rank and charac- ter of those he addresses. " Old soldier, step aside there !" " My little mother, have a care !'' To those who abuse him he is not sIoav in his replies, which are generally quick and cutting ; but though he talk and jest incessantly, nothing that passes in the street escapes his attention. To one of his fraternity whom he meets, he points out any little deficiency in his harness, and to another who has not heard the call of a customer, he cries, " He, brother, art sleeping ? folks call thee, and thou hearest not ! attention, boy, attention !" Though you speak no Russian, you will seldom find it difficult to make yourself understood to your isvoshtshik, who is in general quite a cosmo- polite and a man of the world, compared to those of his calHng in other countries. He has had to deal with nearly all the nations of Asia in his time, and individuals from every country in Europe have held converse with him. Men of all orders and degrees^ from the beggar to the emperor, have sat behind his back. He knows how to demean himself suitably to each, and has a smattering of every language. He knows a little Tartar and a little French ; can understand some German, and is not altogether THE ISVOSIITSHIKS. 41- ignorant of English ; and then, as to the language of eyes, fingers, and gesticulation, in these he is sure to he at home. If he have an Italian behind him, he will abuse his horse with an " Ecco kakoi canaille, signor" and a Mahometan he will be equally certain to commend to the protection of Allah. The constant plague of the isvoshtshik is the pedestrian, who in Russia is invested with immense privileges. In other countries a man thinks him- self bound to take care that he is not run over ; but in Russia, he who walks afoot troubles himself but little about the matter, and thinks the coachman alone is bound to be careful. If the horse or carriage merely touch a foot passenger, without even throwing him down, the driver is liable to be flogged and fined ; should the pedestrian be thrown down, a flogging, Si- beria, and the confiscation of the whole equipage, are the mild penalties imposed by the law. " Have a care," cries the isvoshtshik. " Have a care thyself, and remember Siberia," is the probable reply of the leisurely wayfarer. The moment the cry is raised that a man has been run over, a brace of butshniks rush out from their watchboxes, and the carriage, Avhom- ever it may belong to, is carried away as a police prize. The poor coach- man is immediately bound, and the flattering prospect of an emigration to Siberia is immediately held forth to him, whether the accident have arisen from his own fault or not. Cases of great severity sometimes occur ; but it is difficult to point out any other way of checking the wild way of driving in which the nobles frequently indulge. As it is, they are always urging their poor fellows to go faster, and the consequence is, that, wide as the streets are, and severe as the law is, accidents are constantly occurring, and every now and then you hear that this prince's fine four-in-hand is in the clutches of the police, or that that count's coachman is undergoing an in- quiry. I was once witness myself of a ludicrous scene to which the dread of these severe enactments gave rise. The equipage of the Countess T. came rolling down the Nevskoi Prospekt, and had the misfortune to throw down a poor old woman, but, as was afterwards found, without doing her any other harm than frightening her. The ladies in the carriage fainted, but the coachman, having a lively picture of Siberia and the knout before his mind's eye, put his whip into motion immediately, and the horses dashed off at a full gallop. All the butshniks in the neighbourhood joined immedi- ately in the chase, for on these occasions they give each other a signal. To seize the spirited horses by the reins was impossible ; but a few of the servitors of the police, bolder than their fellows, clung to the carriage behind, in the hope, probably, that, as it must stop some time or other, they would be able to make good their prize in the end. Coach, coachman, and horses, appeared all irretrievably lost. Prince L., an active young man and a friend of the countess, perceiving the danger to which she was ex- posed, rushed upon the carriage, and by main force tore away the two fellows that were clinging to it, and flung them into the snow. The butshniks. furious at the loss of their prize, now fefl upon the poor prince, whom they dragged away to their wooden house; but he struggled and kept the door open till he recognised among the crowd some powerful ac- quaintance, through whose intercession he was enabled to escape the con- sequences of his good-natured infraction of the laws. The world cannot present a more singular, or, in its way, a more magnificent spectacle, than the display of carriages in the Prospekt on a ■§2- THE ISVOSHTSHIKS. fine winter's day. The street is covered by a smooth hard surface of snow^ over which the equipages rush silently along, the snorting of the steedSy and the admonishing ejaculations of the drivers, being the only sounds that are heard. There is something quite intoxicating in driving up and down, through the wild bounding sea of equipages. The palaces on both sides are gaily arrayed by the beams of the sun ; the street, though broad, is filled to overflowing ; the equipages are of aU kinds and dimensions ; here a modest isvoshtshik dashes along with a spruce clerk or a smart chambermaid behind him; there a splendid coach and four, filled with ladies, moves more leisurely along, and seems, compared to our humble sledges, a man-of-war sailing proudly among a fleet of cock-boats. Coaches and two annotmce the less ostentatious merchant. Handsome single-horse vehicles, meanwhile, are flying like lightning through the crowd, and " Shivaye, shiväye !" (Faster, faster!) is the constant cry of the well-starred magnificoes within. These are the generals and ministers hurry- ing to their offices and various appointments, and parading their diamonds in so modest an equipage, in imitation of the emperor, while their wives are using up the breatli of four steeds at least. Nay, the emperor himself, enveloped in his cloak, but unobserved by none, may pierce the throng, for his affairs are numberless in all quarters of the town. Gossudar I' gossudar ! (The lord ! the lord !) flies from mouth to mouth, and almost at the same moment the apparition has passed away. Padyee, padyee, jiadyee ! cry the Kttle postilions, in a sharp and sustained note. A stranger, though he forget all else of Russian that he learned at St. Petersburg, vdll not forget the padyee, läviyee, präviyee, and beregissa, with which the charioteers steer their course through so arduous a navi- gation: and if there be nothing else which he has learned to love in Russia, he will at least love the recollection of his sledge-promenades, and will remember, with some kindness, his dexterous and willmg isvoshtshik. CHAPTER VI. THE WINTER. In the year 1836, and in the month of December, a man threw a piece of apple-peel out of his little air window in Moscow. The peel of the apple did not reach the street, but happening to strike against the ledge of the window, froze fast to it, and remained icebound on its way from the win- dow to the street, till it was set free by a thaw somewhere in the month of February, and was enabled to complete the journey on which it had set out six weeks and three days previously. This may afford a tolerable notion of the severity and perseverance of a Moscovite winter. Such a thing could not have occurred in St. Petersburg, for in the marshy delta of the Neva the temperature is more variable than in central Russia. The icy winds that blow from Siberia are in some measure tempered by the influence of the Baltic. Rainy westwiads, freezing northeasters, thick THE WINTER, 43 fogs, and cheerful frosty days, are succeeding' each other constantly, and keep up a strug'gle for mastery throughout the whole of the six months' "winter. A man is as little secure against rain and mud in January, as against frost and snow in April. In Moscow, on the contrary, the sky Avas never known to drop a single tear of ram in December ; and neither among the records of the city, nor the traditions of its inhabitants, will you trace one instance of a pair of boots having been spotted with mud in January. In St. Petersburg, nevertheless, the thermometer falls much more fi-e- quently to a very low point than in Moscow, where the average temperature for the whole winter is considerably higher than in the newer capital. The cHmate of St. Petersbm-g oscillates continually between two ex- tremes. In summer the heat often rises to + 30° (99° of Fahrenheit), and in winter the cold as often falls to — 30° (55° below Fahren- heit's zero). This gives to the temperatm-e a range of 154° of Fahren- heit, which probably exceeds that of any other city in Europe. It is not merely in the course of the year, however, but in the course of the same twenty-four hours, that the temperature is Hable to great variations. In summer, after a hot sultry morning, a rough vnnd will set in towards evening, and drive the thermometer down 12°* immediately. In winter also there is often a difference of 12° or 18° between the temperature of the morning and that of the night. It would be impossible to jDi'cserve existence in such a cHmate, if man did not endeavour to coim- teract its fickleness by his own unchangeableness. In Germany, where the transitions are less sudden, we endeavour to follow the vagaries of the weather, by putting on a cloak one day and leaving it off the next, by putting an additional log or two into the stove, or by economising our fuel. In St. Petersburg people are less variable in their arrangements. The Tsinter is considered to begin in October and end in May, and in the beginning of October every man puts on his furs, which are calculated for the severest weather that can come, and these furs are not laid aside agaia till the winter is legitimately and confessedly at an end. The stoves, meanwhile, are always kept heated in winter, that the house may never cool. Inconsiderate foreigners attempt sometimes to follow the caprices of the climate, and often pay for their temerity with illness and death. It is only when the cold falls to an unusual degree of severity that any change takes place. When the thermometer stands at — 20*^ every man pricks up his ears, and becomes a careful observer of its risings and fallings. At — 23° or 24° the pohce are put on the alert, and the- officers go round day and night, to see that the sentinels and butshniks keep awake. Should any one be found nodding at his post, he is sum- mai-ily and severely punished, for sleep at such a time is a sure state of transition from hfe to death. At — 25° all the theatres are closed, as it is then thought impossible to adopt the necessary precautions for the safety of the actors on the stage, and of the coachmen and servants waiting iu the street. The pedestrians, who at other times are rather leisurely in their movements, now run along the streets as though they were hastening on some mission of life and death, and the sledges dash in tempo celera- tissimo over the creaking snow. I don't know the reason, but 20^^ * Tliroughout the present work, Reaumur's thermometer must always be under- stood to be the standard by which the temperature is measiured. Each degree of Keaumur is equivalent to 2|« of Eahrenheit. 44 THE WINTER. of cold in St. Petersburg- slg-nify a great deal more than in Germany, and are attended by more injurious consequences. Faces are not to be seen in the streets, for every man has drawn his fui's over his head, and leaves but little of his countenance uncovered. Everyone is uneasy about his nose and his ears ; and as the freezing of these desirable appendages to the human face divine is not preceded by any uncomfortable sensation to warn the sufferer of his danger, he has enough to think of if he wish to keep his ex- tremities in order. " Father, father, thy nose !" one man wül cry to another as he passes him, or wiU even stop and apply a handful of snow to the stranger's face, and endeavour, by briskly rubbing the nasal promi- nence, to restore the suspended circulation. These are salutations to which people are accustomed, and as no man becomes aware of the fact when his own nose has assumed the dangerous chalky hue, custom prescribes among all who venture into the streets, a kind of mutual observance of each other's noses, a custom by which many thousands of these valued organs are yearly rescued from the clutches of the Russian Boreas. A man's eyes at this season cost him some trouble hkewise, for they are apt to freeze up every now and then. On such occasions it is customary to knock at the door of the first house you come to, and ask permission to occupy a place for a few minutes by the stove. This is a favour never denied, and the stranger seldom fails to acknowledge it on his departure, by dropping a grateful tear on the hospitable floor. At twenty degrees of cold there are few St. Petersburg mothers who would allow their children to go into the open air. Ladies venture abroad only in close carriages, of which every aperture is closed by slips of fur. There are families at this season who w ill spend weeks wathout once tasting a mouthful of fresh air, and, at last, when the cold has reached its ex- treme point, none are to be seen in the streets but the poorest classes, un- less it be foreigners, people in business, or officers. As to these last^ the parades and mountings of guard are never interrupted by any degree of cold, and while the frost is hard enough to cripple a stag, generals and colonels of the guard may be seen in their glittering uniforms moving as nimbly and as unconcernedly about the windy Admiralty-square, as though they were promenading a ball-room. Not a particle of a cloak must be seen about them ; not a whisper of complaint must be heard. The em- peror's presence forbids both, for he exposes himself unhesitatingly to wind, snow, hail, and rain , and expects from his ofi&eers the same disregard of the inclemencies of the season. The Russian stoves are in their way the most complete things that can be imagined. They are built up with glazed tiles, and such are the multi- tudinous passages, ascending and descending, that before the heat emitted by the fire has found its way into the chimney, it has often a distance of a hundred feet in length to pass througli. The huge mass of stone which composes the stove is a long time before it gets warm ; but, once warm, it retains the heat for a whole day. Almost the only wood used in St. Petersburg as fuel is the wood of the birch tree. It is the cheapest to be had in the neighbourhood, and its embers are more lasting than those of the pine or fir. Now, the embers are to a Russian stove of the greatest importance, for it is from the embers, and not from the flame, that the stove is expected to derive its heat. So long as the wood continues in a blaze, whatever quantity may have been put in, the stove never gets tho- roughly warm ; it is only when by means of the yushka, (a small plate of THE WINTER. 45 iron,) the passage from the stove into the chimney has been hermetically closed, that the heat begins to be sensibly felt in the room. The Russian stove-heaters are extremely dexterous in all the details of their occupation. Tongues and shovels are unknown to them. Their only instrument is a long iron poker with a hook at the end of it. With this they keep stirring up the fiery mass, break up the embers, and pull forward the fragments of wood that are still burning, in order, by exposing them to the current of ail', to accelerate their conversion. In every great house there is at least one servant whose exclusive duty it is to look after the stoves, and to col- lect and prepare the requisite fuel. In order that the family may have a warm room to take their coffee in, in the morning, it is necessary that the stove-heater should begin his labours at an early hour of the night. In general he builds up a pile of logs w^ithin each stove the evening before, that the wood may be well dried, and then he sets fire to it early in the morning. The stoves usually open upon long passages, which are thus as effectually heated as the rooms themselves. If the yushka be closed before the wood be completely burnt into embers, a poisonous gas is emitted by the coals, and fatal consequences may ensue to those who are exposed to its influence. Such accidents do occasionally happen, and it is nothing imcommon in St. Petersburg to hear of people who have been suffocated by the fumes of their stoves ; but when the immense number of those stoves is taken into consideration, and that every floor and every part of the house have to be warmed for at least six months of the year, it must be admitted that accidents occur but rarely, and that the stove -heaters must display an admirable degree of judg- ment in thus always selecting the right moment for closing the yushka. In autumn the houses are usually damp, and in consequence cool, but in De- cember or January, after the stoves have all been in play for some months, every corner of a Russian house becomes thoroughly dry, and then behind the double Avindows and the threefold doors, there prevails throughout the day an equable, agreeable, and mild temperature of from 14° to 15°. The erecting of one of these Russian stoves is a work of art, to which it is not every man who is equal. Much consideration and no little judg- ment are required in suiting the locahty of the stove to the distribution of the apartments. The most distinguished artists in this line are almost in- variably natives of what is called Great Russia, and throughout the em- pire it is to them almost exclusively that an ofiice is assigned of such importance in a Russian estabHshment. In every Russian house the stove plays an important part, particularly so in the houses of the poor. There the stove is often of extraordinary dimensions, and serves for cooking and baking food, as well as for warm- ing the room. Round it are placed benches, where at their leisure the in- mates may enjoy the luxury of increased heat, for to these denizens of the north the imbibing of chaloric is among the highest of enjoyments. In the stove itself, a variety of niches and indentations are made, where va- rious articles are laid to dry, and wet stockings and linen are constantly hanging about it. On the platform, at the top, he beds, on which, wrapped up in their sheepskin cloaks, the inmates often abandon them- selves to the twofold luxury of idleness and perspiration. The Russian stoves, after all, however, are the most unpoetical, if not the least comfortable, of all the means by which human ingenuity has 46 THE WINTER. contrived to generate an artificial heat. The Spanish hrasero, the Italian cammino, the Enghsh fireside, and the half-open German stove, that afibrds at least a peep at the active minister within, all these form attractive centres, round which humanity congreg'ates, and aroimd which social converse is generated, and an interchange of ideas promoted, while the agreeable warmth of the flame is enjoyed. A Russian stove, on the contrary, is a mute, sulky-looking companion, whose enormous size makes it difl&cult ever to give him a graceful exterior. In general, the stove is a large, clumsy, oblong mass, that rises nearly to the ceihng of the room, to which it is a disfigurement rather than a decoration. In the houses of the rich, therefore, the stove is concealed, as much as possible, by mirrors and other articles of furniture, or is made wholly invisible by being con- structed within the partition wall. The double windovv's, which are often found even in the houses of the poorest peasants, contribute gi'eatly to the warmth of Russian houses. As «arly as October the house may be said to go into winter quarters. Double windows are affixed to every room ; every aperture through which a little air might find its way is carefully covered, and slips of paper are pasted over the edges of all the windows. Here and there a window is so constructed that a single pane may now and then be opened to let in a little air. In this close and confined atmosphere the family live and have their being, till the returning May ushers in the first fine weather, and gives the signal that fresh air may again be permitted to circulate through the interior of the mansion. In the intermediate space formed by the double -wändows, it is cus- tomary to place sand or salt, either of which, by absorbing moisture, is supposed to increase the warmth. The salt is piled up in a variety of fanciful forms, and the sand is usually formed into a kind of garden deco- rated with artificial flowers. These bloom and blossom through the winter in their glassy cases, and as in these arrangements every family displays its own httle fancies and designs, it may afford amusement, to those who are not above being amused by trifles, to walk the streets on a fine winter-morning, and admii'e the infinite variety of decorations pre- sented by the double windows. Quite as much care is expended upon the doors as upon the windows. It is a common thing to pass, not merely two, but three doors, before you enter the warmed passage of a house ; and this is the case, not only in private houses, but also in public buildings, such as theatres, churches, &c. The poor suffer far less from cold in St. Petersburg than in cities under a milder heaven. In different parts of the town there are large rooms, which are constantly kept warm, and to which every one has at all times free access. In front of the theatres, large fires are kept burning for the benefit of coachmen and servants ; but the furs and warm apparel in which even beggars are sure to be clad, and the air-and-water-tight construction. of their houses, are the chief security of all classes against the severity of their climate. As soon as the thermometer falls to — 25°, the sentinels all receive fur cloaks, in which they look grotesque enough, Avhen marching up and down in front of the palaces. With all these precautions, how- ever, the intense cold that sometimes prevails for weeks together, converts many a specimen of hving humanity into a senseless statue of ice. This THE WINTER. 47 Is owing' more to tlie manners of the people than to the want of suitable protection ; to drunkenness and idleness among the poor, and to hard- heartedness, or more properly to inconsiderateness, among the rich. The Russians, with all their liveliness of character, are by no means fond of any kind of exertion ; and all gymnastics, whether mental or bodily, are odious to them. In cold weather they creep behind the stove, or bury themselves in furs, instead of battling against the frost with their arms and legs, as those of any other nation would do. The butshnik creeps into his wooden house ; the soldier, if he dare, into his sentry-box ; and the isvoshtshik rolls himself up into a sort of 'tangled ball, under the mats of his sledge. In these positions many of them are surprised by sleep, and fall victims to the frost. The sentinel is found an inanimate statue in his box, the butshnik is drawn forth a mere mummy, and the poor driver is taken a petrified cripple from his sledge. The immoderate use of spirits in which the lower people indulge very much augments the danger. The great majority of those who are frozen to death are the victims of intoxication. A severe frost never sets in, in. St. Petersburg, without finding a number of drunken men sleeping in the streets ; and sleep on such an occasion is the usual stage of transition to death. The inconsiderate conduct of the rich towards their servants is another and a. frequent cause of death. It is incredible how much the poor coachmen, footmen, and postilions, are expected to endure. People will often go to the theatre or to a party, and leave their equipages in the street the whole evening, that they may be able to command their services at a moment's notice. The coachman then finds it difficult to resist the inclination to sleep ; and the little twelve-year-old postilions, not yet accustomed to watch tül midnight, hang slumbering on their horses, or, winding the reins round their arms, slip down and lie cowering on the frozen snow. Many a poor coachman has thus lost his nose, or has had his liands and feet disabled, while his master was feasting his palate or his ears, or indulging a voluptuous sympathy for fictitious sorrow. Fortu- nately for the Russian serf, the freezing to death is one of the easiest and least painful deaths which he is ever likely to suffer. Nay, some say that the sensation which accompanies it is not without some degree of enjoy- ment, and those who are roused from the slumber which in these cases usually precedes death, seldom show at first any thankfulness to those ■who have disturbed them in their passage to another world. Extreme cold is usually accompanied by cheerful and quiet weather, so that the magnificent city of St. Petersburg rarely appears to greater advantage than when the thermometer stands at 30^ below Reau- mm-'s zero (35 below Fahrenheit's), when the sun shines brilliantly in a clear sky, while its rays are reflected by millions of icy crystals. From houses and churches dense columns of smoke slowly ascend. The snow and ice in the streets and on the Neva are white and clean, and the whole city seems clothed in the garments of innocence. Water becomes ice almost in the act of being poured upon the ground. Every one in the streets appears to be running for his life, and indeed is literally doing so, for it is only by running that he can hope to keep life in him. The trodden snow crackles and murmurs forth the strangest melodies, and every sound seems to be modified by the influence of the atmosphere. 48 CHAPTER VII. THE MARKETS. The Russians have a custom very agreeable to one desirous of buying, namely, the custom of offering for sale within the same building almost every thing that is hkely to be bought. A stranger need not, therefore, inquire where this or that article is to be found ; all he has to do, in general, is to go to one of the great markets or bazaars, and he wUl seldom f aü to find the article he is in search of. Provisions are, of course, ex- cepted, for which there are distinct markets. The great bazaars of a Russian to^wTi, where aU the most important articles of commerce are united, are called gostinnoye dvorui. They are mostly large buildings, consisting of a ground floor and an upper floor. The upper floor is generally reserved for wholesale dealings ; the ground floor consists of a multitude of booths or shops in which the various de- scriptions of merchandise are sold by retail. The dwellings of the mer- chants are away from these markets ; and when the business hours are at an end, each merchant locks up his own stall, and commits the whole building for the night to the guardianship of watchmen and dogs. In every Russian city of any importance there is sure to be one such gostinnoi dvor, the extent of which may afford the travelling student iu statistics a very fair standard by which to measm-e the commercial activity of the place. Even in the German cities of the Baltic provinces, as in Mittau, Dorpat, &c., the Russians have established such gostinnoye dvorui, and it is only in the maritime cities, as in Odessa, Riga, Libau, &c., that they are not yet to be found. Nowhere do the pares congregate more with the paribus than in Russia. Not only are the merchants thus collected together imder one roof, but the community thus formed is again split up into a variety of fractions, those who deal in similar articles keeping closely together. This holding of like to like seems almost innate Avith the Russians, for those articles which, on account of their bulky natm'e, are excluded from the gostinnoi dvor, such as ironware, firewood, furniture, &c., have each of them separate markets of their own, which are known by the generic term oir'ddi. It is the same with the ruinoks, or provision markets, of which there are distinct ones for meat, for fish, for hay, for eggs, and so on. The gostinnoi dvor will be found, for the most part, to occupy a very central position in a Russian city, while the secondary markets are re- moved towards the outskirts. The gostinnoi dvor it must, however, be borne in mind, offers for sale only articles of domestic or of Asiatic pro- duction. The fabrics of western Europe seldom find a place there, but are usually retailed in shops situated in the most frequented streets. In the great provincial cities, the private shops are completely eclipsed by the gostinnoi dvor ; but not so in the comparatively Europeanised St. Petersburg, though even there, the goods displayed in the principal market far exceed, both in quantity and in value, those that will be found in all the private shops put together. The colossal building of which we have been speaking has one side in the Nevskoi Prospekt, and another in the Bolkhaia Sadovaia, or Great THE MARKETS. 49 Garden -street, through which, and some of the adjoining streets, it extends a number of ramifications of shops and booths, giving to that part of the town, throughout the year, the appearance of a perpetual fair. The better descriptions of Russian goods will all be found in the Gostinnoi Dvor; those of inferior value in the adjoining markets, the Apraxin Ruinok and the Tshukin Dvor, which lie a little farther on in the Bolkhaia Sadovaia. Following the last named street, which is bordered throughout its whole length by shops and booths, we at last arrive at an open place, the Sennaia Ploshtshod or hay place, which may be considered the principal provision, market of St. Petersburg. In the same way, in passing along the Prospekt, shops and booths present themselves in a constant succession to our view. When we have passed the silver shops we come to the dealers in fruit, then to the iron vaiUts ; these are followed by the carriage magazines, the depots for wood and coals, the furniture dealers, and so on, till in the vicinity of the Nevski monastery we arrive at the Simna'ia Ploshtshod or winter market, with its endless store of sledges and waggons. In the same quarter are also the horse market and the cattle market. There are a few markets in other quarters, such as the Krugloi Ruinok or round market, but these are comparatively of little importance. The gostinnoi dvor is well deserving of a stranger's attention, not merely on account of the various goods offered for sale, many of them of a kind unknown to other parts of Europe, but also on account of the mixed crowd constantly moving about, and of the characteristic civility of the dealers, and their unwearied endeavours to overreach their customers. All these things make this quarter of St. Petersburg one of the most amusing and instructive lounges for a stranger desirous to study the character of the people and their city. All the lanes and alleys that intersect the gostinnoi dvor are deluged throughout the day by a stream of sledges and droshkies, in which the cooks, the stewards, and the other servants of the great houses, come to make their daily purchases. In a city containing half a million of Inha- bitants, there must at all times be a great and urgent demand for a vast variety of articles, but there are many reasons why this should be more the case in St, Petersburg than in any other capital. In the first place, there is no other European capital where the inhabitants are con- tent to make use of goods of such inferior quality, or where consequently they have such frequent occasion to buy new articles, or to have the old ones repaired. Then there is no other capital where the j)eople are so capricious and so fond of change. The wealthy Russians are here one day, and gone the next ; now travelling for the benefit of their health, now repairing to the country, to re-establish their finances by a temporary retirement, and then reappearing on the banks of the Neva, to put their hundreds of thousands into circulation. This constant fluctuation leads daily to the dissolution and to the formation of a number of esta- blishments, and makes it necessary that there should be at all times a greater stock of all things necessary to the ou.tfit of a family, than would be requisite in a town of equal extent, but of a more stable popu- lation. A Russian seldom buys any thing tiU just when he wants to use it, and as he cannot then wait, he must have it ready to his hand. Boots, saddlery, E 50 THE MARKETS. wearing-apparel, confectionery, and other articles, wliicli -with us are gene- rally ordered beforehand from a tradesman, are here bought ready for immediate use. Each article has its separate row of shops, and the mul- titude of these rows is so great, that a stranger may often be heard to in- quire, "My little father, where is the row of fur booths?" "My little mother, where is the cap row ?" " Pray show me the stocking row ?" *' My little father, tell me the way to the petticoat row." If the throng of buyers is calculated to amuse a stranger, he will be likely to find still more diversion, as he lounges along the corridors, in observing the characteristic manners of the merchants. These gostinnoi dvor merchants are almost invariably flaxen haired, brown bearded, shrewd fellows, in blue caftans, and blue cloth caps, the costumes uniformly worn, by merchants throughout Russia. They are constantly extolling their ■wares in the most exaggerated terms to those who are passing by. " Whatr, is your pleasure, sir ? Clothes ? I have them here ; the very best, and all of the newest fashion." — " Here are hats of the first quality, and by the best makers." " Kasan boots of the choicest description ! isvoltye^ isvoltye !" — " Shto vam ugodno 'ss ? (what would suit you ?) a bear-skin^ a fox-skin, or a cloak of wolf-skin ? You will find every tiling here ; pray,, walk in." Cap in hand, they are always ready to open their doors to every passer by, and are incessant in the exercise of their eloquence, whatever may be the rank, station, or age of those they address. They will not hesitate to offer a bear-skin mantle to a little fello-sv scarcely strong enough to carry it, recommend their coarsely fashioned boots to a passing- dandy, invite an old man to purchase a child's toy, or solicit a young girl to carry away a sword or a fowlingpiece. Where the merchant does not act as his own crier, he usually entertains somebody to officiate in his place, and it may easily be imagined what life and animation these constant cries and solicitations must give to the whole market. Preachers and actors liave generally a tone peculiar to their several classes, and even so has the gostinnoi dvor merchant, whose voice may be known afar off, but who im- mediately alters that tone when a fish shows a disposition to fasten on the Ijait, for then commences a more serious discussion of the merits and quality of his merchandise. No Hght or fire is allowed in the buUding, unless it be the sacred lamps that are kept burning before the pictures of the saints, and which are sup- posed to be too holy to occasion any danger. The merchants are, in con- sequence, often exposed to intense cold, but this they endure with admir- able fortitude and cheerfulness. Over their caftans, it is true, they put on a close fur coat of white wolf-skin, a piece of apparel worn by every gos- tinnoi dvor merchant, of the same cut and material. Even without including the peasants who offer provisions for sale, there are probably not much less than 10,000 merchants and dealers of difierent degrees assembled in the gostinnoi dvor of St. Petersburg, and its dependent buildings. Of these people, few have their household establishments in the vicinity of the market, yet all have the wants of hunger to satisfy in the course of the day, and it may therefore be easily imagined, that a host of serviceable traders have attached themselves to the establishment for the mere convenience of the merchants. Among the streets and lanes of the bazaar there are constantly circulating, retailers of tea with tlieir large steaming copper urns ; quass sellers ; together with dealers in bread THE MARKETS. 51 sausages, cheese, &c. ; and all these people receive constant encourage- ment from the ever hungry kupsni. Careworn looks are as little seen in this market, as grujnbUng tones are heard ; for a Russian seldom gives houseroom to care or melancholy, and yet more rarely gives utterance to a complaint. Nor indeed has he occasion ; for in this rising country, Slava Bogul (God be thanked !) be the merchandize ever so bad, trade g'oes on nevertheless. In other countries, a merchant relies upon the good- ness of his merchandize for custom; the Russian speculator, I firmly be- lieve, calculates that the worse his wares, the sooner will Ms customers want to renew their stock. The Russian is by nature a light-hearted creatiu-e, and by no means ^ven to reflection. You will seldom see the gostinnoi dvor merchant engaged with writings or calcidations. If not occupied by a customer, or busy in his endeavours to attract one, you will mostly find liim romping, playing, or jesting with his brother traders. In fine weather, draughts is their favourite game ; and for greater convenience, the chequered field is often painted on the tables or benches that stand before their booths. They eagerly thrust their heads together, examine the position of the pieces with the air of connoissem'S, bet on one player or the other, and seem completely absorbed in the game, until a purchaser makes his appear- ance, when the group is broken up in a moment, and each endeavours, •with an infinity of bowings and assurances, to gain for his own shop the honour of the stranger's custom. In winter, they often warm themselves in the roomy passages of the bazaar, with a game at football, or crowd together round the steaming samovar, and sip down cans full of hot tea. Sometimes they amuse themselves mth their nightingales and other singing birds, ,of which they have always a great number about them ; and sometimes — ^well, sometimes they fold their caftans leisurely about them, stretch forth their arms, and indulge themselves in — a yawn ; but they never neglect, every now and then, to step before their Bog, or saint, and, with a devout inclination of the body, to pray to him for success in trade. With the exception of furs, many of which are of excellent quality, there are in the gostinnoi dvor, properly so called, few but the iron and wax shops where the articles are thoroughly Russian. Most of the merchandise consists of bad imitations of foreign fabrics. As the goods, so the customers. Both are Europeanised, for there is httle in the Frenchi- fied soubrettes, the lackies in hvery, the employes in uniform, and the foreign teachers, to remind one of Russian nationality ; but a httle farther on, when you enter the gates of the Apraxin Ruinock and the Tshukin Dvor, you come to bazaars where sellers, buyers, and wares are all equally and entirely Russian ; and here, in the very centre of the palaces and plate glass of St. Petersbiu-g, in tliis capital of princes and magnates, there imfolds itself to your view, a motley dirty populace, precisely similar to what may be supposed to have thronged the fairs of Novgorod in the middle ages, or may still be seen in the bazaars of any of the pro'sdncial cities of Russia. The population of St. Petersburg, from the highest to the lowest, is constantly changing. The stationary portion is by far the least numerous, the majority look upon the city only as a temporary residence. The nobles are ever coming and going ; foreigners hope to enrich themselves that they e2 52 THE MARKETS. may return to their native countries ; the garrison, and all attached to it, must always be prepared to change their quarters ; the civil servants of the government seldom remain long at one post, hut are liable at a few days' notice to be ordered off to the most remote provinces ; and the lower classes, such as servants, mechanics, and labourers, are, for the most part, serfs, who have received only a temporary leave of absence, at the expiration of Avhich they are expected to return to the estates to which they belong. Even the isvoshtshiks in the streets are a nomadic race, plying for custom this year in St. Petersburg, the next in Moscow, and the succeeding one perhaps in Odessa or Astrakhan. St. Petersburg, in fact, like most Russian cities, is a place of rendezvous, where men con- gregate for a time ; but not Hke our German cities, a home in which families attach themselves like ivy to the stone walls, and vegetate away for centuries. The mass of the population of St. Petersburg undergoes a complete change in less than ten years ; and to this constant fluctuation I attribute the vast extent of the rag-fair, and the astonishing quantity of old furniture and old clothes, which are sold at a low price by those who take their departure, and disposed of again at a handsome profit to the newly arrived. Thousands enter the city dally, without knowing whether on the morrow they shall become cooks or carpenters, masons or musicians, or Avhether, on stripping off their village dress, they shall assume the livery of a lackey, or the caftan of a merchant. For all their wants, the Apraxin Ruinok and the Tshukin Dvor are prepared. Nay, should a Samoyede from Siberia, or a Huron from America, come naked into these ruinoks, he may leave them again in a few minutes, provided with every imagi- nable article necessary to equip him as a civiUsed Russian ; for ill as sounds the name of voshevoi ridnok, which in St. Petersburg is generally given to these markets, and which I will not here translate to my readers, lest they should conceive an unfair prejudice against the place, still it woidd be a great mistake to suppose that nothing but what was old and ragged was here exposed for sale. These two markets occupy a piece of ground about 1500 feet square, containing, therefore, a surface of rather more than two millions of square feet. The whole is so closely covered with stalls and booths, that nothing but narrow lanes are left between ; and supposing each booth, including the portion of lane in front of it, to occupy 500 square feet, which is cer- tainly making a very liberal allowance, it would follow that there must be within the two bazaars nearly 5000 booths, tents, and stalls. These form a city of themselves. The tops of the booths frequently project and meet those that are opposite to them, making the little lanes between as dark as the alleys of the Jews' quarters in some of our old German towns, or like the streets of many an oriental city at tlae present day. Through narrow gates you pass from the busy Garden-street into this gloomy throng, where a well-dressed human being might be looked for in vain ; where all are "black people ;" all bearded, furred, and thoroughly uu-European. Under the gateways are suspended large lamps and gaudy pictures of saints, and these present themselves anew at every corner as you proceed through the lanes of the market. Here and there you come to an open space in which a little chapel has been erected, and so gaily fitted up, you would fancy a Chinese pagoda had served for the model. All this, how- ever, is insufficient to content the piety of the Russians, who often build a THE MARKETS. 53 wooden bridge between two opposite bootbs, for the convenience of sus- pending a few additional lamps and saints. By the side of the chapel there is seldom wanting that other building which, next to the cliapel, is the most indispensable to a Russian, namely, the kahack or brandy- shop, which is often very gaily decorated, and where spirits, beer, and quass, may constantly be had. " Slip your arms into your fur sleeves, and button your beaver coUar close about your ears," said my companion to me, the first time I ventured into the ruinok, for I had allowed those articles of my wardrobe to hang loosely behind, as is the usual custom in Russia. " We are here," he con- tinued, " in the thieves' quarter of St. Petersburg, and every thing that is left loose is considered a fair prize. Put your rings into yoiu" pocket, for there are those who would cut off your finger for the sake of the gold ; and if it was known where you carried your pocket-book, you would have a hole in your cloak immediately." Indeed common fame says that people have sometimes been strangely cupped and cut by the hordes that occupy these wild regions ; but as far as I am concerned, I am bovmd to say that nothing of the kind ever happened to me, though I have often enough, and carelessly enough, wandered through the mazes of this great labyrinth of a fair. Here also, in the true Russian spirit, like has paired with hke. In one comer, for instance, all the dealers in sacred images have congregated. The Russians, who believe themselves abandoned by God and all good' angels; as soon as they are without His visible and tangible presence, or, rathier, who think every place the Devil's own ground, until the priest has driven him out of it, and who, therefore, decorate their bodies, their rooms, their doors, and their gates, as well as their churches, with sacred images, require, of com-se, a very large and constant supply of the article, of which, in fact, the consumption is enormous. The httle brass crosses, and the Virgins, the St. Johns, the St. Georges, and other amulets, may be seen piled up in boxes like gingerbread nuts at a fair. On the walls of the booths are hung up pictures of all sorts and sizes, radiant with mock gold and silver. Some are only a few inches in length and breadth. Of these a nobleman's footman v.'ill buy a few score at a time, as necessary to the fitting up of a new house ; for in even* room a few of these holy little articles must be nailed up against the wall. For v-illage churches, for private chapels, and for devout merchants of the old faith, there are pictures of several ells square, before which a whole household may prostrate themselves at their ease. Some are neatly set in mahogany- frames of modern fashion, others are still adorned in the good old style with pillars, doors, and temples of silver wire ; some are new, and from the pencils of students of the newly-estabhshed St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but the greater part are old, and present figm-es often nearly obliterated by the dust and smoke of centuries. To these it is, particularly when they can be warranted to have once adorned the wall of a church, that the lower orders in Russia attach the greatest value, just as our German peasants prefer an old, dirty, well-thumbed hymn-book, to one just fresh from the binder's. In another part of the market will be found a whole quarter of fruit- shops, in which an incredible quantity of dried fruit is offered for sale. Each of these shops is as oddly decorated as its fellows. In the centre, on an elevated pedestal, there stands generally a rich battery of bottles 54 THE MARKETS. and boxes of conserves, mostly manufactured at Kieflf. Round the walls, in small boxes, the cuiTants, raisins, almonds, jBgs, and oranges are ar- ranged, -vvliile huge sacks and chests of prunes, nuts, and juniper-berries, retire more modestly into corners ; and large tuns fuH of glukvi, a small red berry of which the Russians are passionately fond, stand sentinels at the door. These are mostly sold in winter, when they are generally frozen to the consistency of flint stones, and are measured out with "wooden shovels to amateurs. Inside and outside, these shops are deco- rated with large festoons of mushrooms, at aU times a favourite dish with the common people in Russia. I am surprised that no good artist should ever have chosen one of these picturesque Russian fruit-shops for the sub- ject of his pencil. Such a booth, with its bearded dealers and its no less bearded customers, woiild make an admirable tableau de genre ; but the pamters of St. Petersbm'g, I suppose, find it more profitable to cover their canvass with one insipid set of feattires after another, and to expend all the gorgeousness of their colouring on the uniforms and diamonds of the upper strata of society. Go on a little farther, and you come to whole rows of shops full of pretty bridal ornaments ; gay metal wedding-crowns, such as it is cus- tomary din-lng the ceremony to place upon the heads of bride and bride- groom, and artificial wreaths and flowers, of a very neat fabric, and aU afc very reasonable prices. A whole garland of roses, for instance, tastefully interwoven with silver wire, at 80 copeks, or little more than sixpence. A bride might here be handsomely decorated from head to foot for a few shil- lings ; and as among the humbler classes of St. Petersburg, some thirty weddings are dauy solemnized, without speaking of other festive cele- brations, it may easily be conceived what piles of ornaments of various kinds are constantly kept on hand to supply the wants of brides and bridemaids, birthday guests, and the hke. "Whole groups of shops are filled with perfumes, incense, and various articles for fumigation. Others with honey from Kasan and Tulo, neatly laid out in wooden vessels, some as clean as the mük pans in the caves of Homer's Cyclops, while others, of a less attractive look, remind one rather of Limburg cheese in an advanced state of decay. However perilous in this market may be the condition of finger-rings, and the pendant articles of a visiter's costume, the ducats and silver rubles on the tables of the money-changers must enjoy a tolerable security, for these tables are seen at every corner, with the different descriptions of coin set forth iu tempting Httle piles, while throngs are passing to and fro, among whom, one would suppose, a few Imaves might easily gratify their amor nummi by a sudden scramble, with a very fair prospect of escaping immediately afterwards in the crowded avenues of the market. An apparently acci- dental push, and all the rich garniture of the table would lie scattered in the dirt ; and while all were busy in assisting the banker in the recovery of his capital, who would be able to point out the dexterous thief who had appropriated a few rubles to his private use 1 Yet these money changers must feel secure in their avocation, or one would hardly see tables, with thousands of rubles upon them, committed to the care of boys scarcely twelve years old. The Russian rogue will pass off the worst merchandise at the highest price with an unscathed conscience ; nor will he hesitate, if opportunity serve, to transfer another's purse to his own pocket ; but the tables of these money-changers seem to stand under THE MARKETS. 55 the segls of the puLUc. I have myself seen a table accidently overthrown by the pressure of the crowd, when the sheepskin multitude around joined in aiding the juvenile banker to re-collect his scattered treasure, and all the gold and silver and cojiper coins were carefully picked up, till not a copek was missing. The pastrycooks also have their quarter in this market, where they vend the oily fish pirogas, of which the bearded Russians are so passion- ately fond. Here little benches are ranged around the table on which are placed the dainty delicacies, covered with oily pieces of canvass, for the piroga to be properly enjoyed must be eaten warm. A large pot of g-reen oü and a salt-stand of no ordinary size, are the indispensable ■accompaniments to the feast. Pass one of these shops, and throv/ an accidental glance at his wares, and the merchant will be sure to anticipate your desires ; quickly he Avill plunge his tempting cake into the oil pot, scatter a pinch of salt upon the dripping mass, and present it to you with the air of a prince. The sheepskiuned bearded Moscovite will rarely be able to resist the temptation ; he will seat himself on one of the benches, and one rich savoury piroga after the other will wend its way down his throat, till his long and well anointed beard becomes as bright and glossy as a piece of highly-polished ebony. Some of my readers may turn with dis- ^st from the picture here presented to them, btit, for my own part, I was always too much amused by the wit and politesse of these oil-lickers, to expend much indignation on their repulsive wares. Evqji the coarsest and dirtiest article of merchandise will be presented with a courtly and insinuating demeanour by these rough-looking bearded fellows ; even a greasy piroga, dripping with green oil, will be accompanied by a neatly turned compliment or a lively jest, and the few copeks paid for it will be •Bure to be received with expressions of the warmest thankfulness. Every article almost in the Tolkutshi Ruinok may be described as cheap and nasty, and yet what vistas of yet worse and worse wares unfold them- selves as you wander on to the outskirts of the market, where disbanded apparel and invahded furniture are exposed for sale. Things may be seen there, of which it is difficult to imagine that they can still retain a money value. Rags, bits of ribbon, fragments of paper, and broken glass ; clothes that the poorest isvoshtshik has dismissed from his service, and petticoats that the humblest housemaid has thought herself bound ta lay aside. Yet all these things, and others, which a gostinnoi dvor mer- chant would scarcely use except to warm his stove, are not arranged without some show of taste and elegance, nor are they offered without a multitude of civil speeches and lofty panegyrics to the barefooted beggar, to the gipsey and Jewess, who timidly hover around the rich repositories, and cast many a longing glance at the many things with which they might cover their nakedness or decorate their huts, but the possession of which they are unable to purchase with the copper coin within their grasp. The crumbs swept from the tables of the rich are here gathered together ; and though the joint stock of many of these shops be not W'orth one of the blue notes staked at a card-table in the salon of a noble, yet each article has its estimated value, below wliich it will not be parted with, — no not for one quarter of a copek. Perhaps for a stranger, the most interesting portion of this world of markets, is that of the Tshukin Dvor, where the birds are sold. Two long rows of booths are full of Hving specimens of ornithology : pigeons, fowls, geese. 66 THE MARKETS. ducks, swans, larks, bulfinches, siskins, and hundreds of other singing- birds are there collected, and form the most picturesque and variegated me- nageries that can be imagined. Each booth is of wood, and open in the front, so that the whole of its contents may be seen at once by the pass- ing stranger, who is saluted with such a concert of cackhng, crowing, chattering, cooing, piping, and warbling, as would sufl&ce to furnish the requisite supply of idyUic melodies for a hundred villages. Between the opposite booths are usually such bridges as I have already described, from. wMch the pictm-es of saints are suspended, for the edification of the de- vout. On these bridges, and on the roofs of the booths, whole swarms of pigeons are constantly fluttering about, the peaceful Russian being a great lover of this gentle bird. Each swarm knows its own roof, and the birds allow themselves to be caught without much difficulty, when a bargain is about to be concluded. The pigeon is never eaten by a Rus- sian, who would hold it a sin to harm an animal, in whose form the Holy Ghost is said to have manifested itself. Pigeons are bought, therefore, only as pets, to be fed and schooled by their masters. It is curious to see a Russian merchant directing the flight of his docile scholars. With a little flag fastened to a long staff he conveys his signals to them, makes them at his will rise liigher in the air, fly to the right or left, or drop to the ground as if struck by a bullet from a rifle. The poor little singing birds, — the larks, nightingales, linnets, bulfinches, &c., — must bg of a hai'dier race than in more southern lands ; for in spite of the bitter frost, they chirrup away merrily, and salute with their songs every straggling ray of sunshine that finds its way into their gloomy abodes. The little creatures receive during the Avhole long winter not one drop of water, for it Avould be useless to offer them what a moment after- wards would be converted into a petrified mass. Their little troughs are accordingly filled only with snow, which they must liquify in their own beaks when they "wish to assuage their thirst. Moscow is famed for its cocks, and here the Moscow cock may be seen proudly stalking about, in cages and out of them. The best pigeons are said to come from Novgorod, and Finland furnishes the chief supply of singing birds. Geese are brought even from the confines of China, to be sold as rarities in the Tshukin Dvor, after a journey of more than 4000 miles. Grey squirrels may be seen rolling about in their cages like incar- nate quicksilver ; while rabbits and guinea-pigs without number gambol their time away in their httle wooden hutches. Within the booth, a living centre of all this living merchandise, behold the merchant, closely en- sconced in his wolf-skin, and ready to dispose of his httle feathered serfs at any acceptable price. At the back of the booth, be sure, there hang» a saintly picture of some sort, its little lamp shedding a cheerful light to guard the feathered crowd against the evil influence of intruding demons ; but there are evil spirits that the good saint cannot banish. Man is there, to hold in chains or to sentence to death, according as it may suit his calculations of profit, or the caprices of his palate. On shelves around are ranged the trophies of his murderous tube, and the northern swans, the heathcocks {reptshiki), and the snow-white partridges (kurapatki),, are piled up under the very cages from which the captive larks warble their liquid notes. It is astonisbing what a quantity of these birds are yearly consumed at the luxurious tables of St. Petersburg. In winter the cold keeps the meat THE MARKETS. 57 fresh, and at the same time facilitates its conveyance to market. The partridges come mostly from Saratoff, the swans from Finland ; Livonia and Esthonia supply heath-cocks and grouse, and the wide steppes must furnish the trapp geese which flutter over their endless plains, where the Cossack hunts them on horseback, and kills them with his formidable whip. All these bu-ds, as soon as the life-blood has flown, are converted into stone by the frost, and, packed up in huge chests, are sent for sale to the capital. Whole sledge-loads of snow-white hares find their way to the market. The httle animals are usually frozen in a running position, with their ears pointed, and their legs stretched out before and behind, and, when placed on the ground, look, at the first glance, as if they were in the act of escaping from the hunter. Bear's flesh also is sometimes ofi"ered for sale in this market, aud here and there may be seen a frozen reindeer lying in the snow by the side of a booth, its hairy snout stretched forth upon the groimd, its knees doubled up tmder its body, and its antlers rising majestically into the air. It looks as if, on our approaching it, it would spring up, and dash away once more in search of its native forests. The mighty elk, likewise, is no rare guest in this market, where it pa- tiently presents its antlers as a perch for the pigeons that are fluttering about, till, httle by Httle, the axe and the saw have left no fragment of the stately animal, but every part of it has gone its way into the kitchens of the wealthy. Similar markets for birds and game vnll be found in every large Russian city. Indeed the habits and fashions of the Russian markets are com- pletely national. Those of Moscoav vary but Httle from those of Tobolsk ; and Irkhutsk, Odessa, and Archangel have shown themselves equaUy ser- vile in their imitation of the metropoHtan bazaars. CHAPTER VIII. THE BLACK PEOPLE. From the Gostinnoi Dvor, as has already been said, the booths and stalls of the merchants are planted along the sides of the Sadovaia, or Garden- street, to a considerable distance. After passing a row of toy-shops we come to the booksellers, — that is to say, to the venders of Russian litera- ture ; for the German and French booksellers, as dealers hi foreign mer- chandise, have their locality in the Prospekt. Next come the dealers in cloth, a seemingly interminable succession of booths, hung with all kinds of cloths and draperies, that the half darkness within may be less likely to betray the worthlessness of the merchant's wares. Passing these, we arrive at some hardware and clock shops, though the latter have formed their chief lodgment m the gostinnoi dvor, where the clocks are marshalled on shelves, in due order and in long lines, from the treble of the shriH-toned dwarf to the capacious bulk and voluminous voice 58 THE BLACK PEOPLE. of the double bass. " In long lines," I repeat it, for every tHng with the Russians is long. Long are tlie lines of houses in their streets, long are the Hnes of their soldiers, long — oh, how long ! — are their regiments of verst-posts {atiglice, niUe-stones) ; their buildings are long and drawn out ; and long, very long", are their caravans of waggons on the road. Breadth, depth, and elevation, indeed, are wanting. Therefore it is that every thing among them is without substance or dui-ability ; nothing is close, compact, solid or exalted ; every thing is long, flat, smooth ; the whole country is stiff and sharp-cornered, and has the air of having passed through the hands of the drill-sergeant. Last of all come the venders of wax candles, which are exhibited for sale in all forms and sizes. Some are tliick enoug'h to be placed as pulars in the facade of a temple, while others are almost as thin as spim sük. These are the merchants whose trade is, apparently, among the best in St. Peters- burg. Their deahngs augment in proportion as the Greek-Russian Church extends her dimensions. The nations that in later times have been bap- tized in the Russian name, all require a constant supply of wax, of winch their new faith teaches them to bm*n away vast quantities for the good of their souls. The recent transition of the Lithuanian Church to the na- tional faith ; the numberless proselytes whom the Russians are constantly gaining over ; the churches built and budding in all the new colonies, in Siberia, in the steppes, and in the capital itself ; all these lead to a con- stant demand for wax candles of the genuine ecclesiastical mordd. The •wax, mostly purified with great care, arrives at Moscow in cakes of two poods in weight. There it is bleached, for in St. Petersbm-g there are no Tvax bleachers, the Finnish sun being itself too well bleached to have much effect in bleaching anything else. The wax tapers themselves are often covered with ornaments. Some are gilt, others are spim roimd with gold and silver thread, and others again have small pieces of coloured glass let into them, to cheat the eye with the semblance of precious stones. Having passed the wax Hghts, we arrive at the spacious hay market (Senna'ia Ploshtshod), with its stately church. This place is remarkable as the only spot in which a barricade was ever erected in St, Petersbm-g, in consequence of a popidar insurrection. This was in 1832, when the cholera raged here, and when the mobility of the capital, who make the hay market their daily lounge, were seized with the notion that prevailed in so many other great cities of Em'ope, that not God but the doctors had brought the pestilence among them. The physicians were supposed to be poisoning the people ; and these, excited by their o^vn absurd suspicions, broke out one morning into open insurrection. The frantic mob of gray- beards ran wudly about the neighboiuing streets, seized upon the cholera carts, made the patients get out, set the horses loose, and, after breaking the vehicles, threw the fragments into the Fontanka, and then fortified the market-place by erecting barricades of hay-waggons at the several en- trances. The insurgents passed the night behind their intrenchments, resolved, on the following morning, to deal with the doctors as they had dealt with the carts. Early in the morning, accordingly, the great cholera hospital was attacked and taken by storm. The physicians, mostly Ger- mans, were thrown from the windows and torn to pieces by the mob, and the patients were conveyed to their homes, that they might be freed from the clutches of their supposed torm enters. Shortly afterwards the emperor arrived from Zarskoye Selo, and immediately repaired to the market in an THE BLACK PEOPLE. 59 open carriage, unattended by any military escort. The barricades disap- peared at liis approach. His carriage drew up at the entrance of the church, where he prayed and crossed himself, and then addressed to the multitude a few words, which were duly chronicled at the time in most of the newspapers of Europe. He bade the people kneel down and pray to God to forgive them their sins ; and all that lately so tumultuous multitude knelt down at the command of their sovereign, and imresistingly allowed the police to come among them, and quietly convey the ringleaders of the riot to prison. "Without pausing to comment on a scene so illustrative of the influence which the sovereign exercises over the minds of the Russian people, let us enter the market itself, and examine the unwashed throng, by which it is fiUed to such a degree that the poHce have some trouble to keep a passage -clear in the centre for the equipages constantly coming and going. On one side of this passage stand the sellers of hay, wood, and, in spring, of plants and shrvibs. On the other side are the peasants Avith their stores of meat, fish, butter and vegetables. Between these two rows are the sledges and equipages whose owners come to make the daily purchases, and depart laden with herbs and vegetables, the bleeding necks of the poiütry often presenting a singular contrast to the briUiant carriages from whose windows they are listlessly dangling. Along the fronts of the houses, meanwhile, are arrayed the dealers in quass and pastry, together with the beer and tea stalls, at wliich the peasants never fad. to expend a portion of their gain. The stables of St. Petersburg contain seldom less than from 30,000 to 40,000 horses, without including those of the garrison. The animal wants of some 50,000 or 60,000 horses have therefore daily to be provided for, a larger number, probably, in proportion to its extent, than in any other European metropoMs. The consumption of liay, accordingly, is enormous. In summer, whole fleets, laden mth mountains of hay, come floating down the Neva ; and in winter, caravans of hay sledges defile through the streets, and are drawn up in squadrons and regiments along the sides of the Sennaia Ploshtshod. Some of the hay is sold wholesale by the load, but the greater part is spread out oh the ground and made up into small parcels to suit the convenience of the isvoshtshiks. Poor women and children may constantly be seen hovering about, to pick up the few blades that lie scattered about, and as soon as they have collected their little harvest they run off to a neighbouring street, where they dis- pose of their gleanings to some loitering isvoshtshik, from whom in return they obtain the means of providing a mouthful for themselves. The sledges, after bringing the various commodities to market, serve their owners as stalls and counters. The matting thrown aside allows the poultry and meat to be arranged in a picturesque manner to catch the eye of the passing stranger. The geese are cut up, and the heads, necks, legs, and carcases sold separately, by the dozen or the half-dozen, strimg ready for sale upon little cords. He whose finances will not allow him to think of luxuriating on the breast of a goose, may buy himself a little rosary of frozen heads, while one still poorer must content himself with a neck-lace, or a few dozen of webbed feet, to boil down into a Sunday soup for his little ones. The most singular spectacle is furnished by the frozen oxen, calves, and goats, which stand about in ghastly rows, and look Hke bleeding spectres come to haunt the carniverous tyrants whose appetites have con- demned the poor victims to a premature death. The petrified masses can 60 THE BLACK PEOPLE. be cut up only with hatchets and saws. Sucking pigs are a favourite delicacy with the Russians. Hundreds of the little creatures, in their frozen condition, may be seen ranged about the sledges, with their tail motionless mothers by the side of them. The anatomical dissections of a Russian butcher are extremely simple. Rones and meat having been all rendered equally hard by the frost, it would be difficult to attempt to separate the several joints. The animals are, accordingly, sawn up into a number of sHces of an inch or two in thickness, and in the course of this operation a quantity of animal sawdust is scattered on the snow, whence it is eagerly gathered up by poor chUdren, of whom great numbers haunt the market. Fish, which is offered for sale in the same hard condition, is cut up in a simuar way. The little dimi- nutive snitJii are brought to market in sacks, and rattle lüce so many hazel nuts when thrown into the scale. The pikes, the salmon, and the stur- geon, so pliant and supple when alive, are now as hard as though they had been cut out of marble, and so they must be kept, for a sudden thaw •would spoil them, and to guard against this, they are constantly encased in ice or snow. Sometimes the whole mass freezes together, and the hatchet must then be liberally applied before the piscatory petrifactions can be liberated from their icy incrustations. So long as the frost keeps all liquid matter in captivity, and so long as the snow, constantly renewed, throws a charitable covering over aU the hidden sias of the place, so long the ploshtshod looks clean enough, but this very snow and frost prepare for the coming spring a spectacle which I ■would counsel no one to look upon, who wishes to keep his appetite in due order for the sumptuous banquets of St. Petersburg. Every kind of filth and garbage accumulates during the winter ; and when at last the melting influence of spring dissolves the charm, the quantities of sheep's eyes, fish tails, crab shells, goat's hairs, fragments of meat, pools of blood, not to speak of hay, dung, aad other matters, are positively frightfid. One would almost imagine that another Hercules would be required to cleanse the Augean stable ; nevertheless, the purveyors to the several kitchens are not deterred by the disgusting sight, but come to wander through the crowd, and lay in a supply for their daily wants, while the peasants eat theh- cakes and di-ink their quass, unmindful of the iniqmties around them. Those only who have some acquaintance with the atrocious shambles of Vienna, can have any conception of the frozen, thawed, and refrozen specimens of meat which are constantly imposed upon the public in the Sennaia Ploshtshod. Another of the markets in which the manners of the " lower orders " of St. Petersburg may be conveniently studied, is the Zimnaia Ploshtshod, at the end of the Nevskoi Prospekt, where the Hving cattle are disposed of, and where a quantity of sledges and country waggons are constantly offered for sale to the peasants. Thousands of specimens of the Russian telega may here be examined at leisure. It is a singular vehicle, and no descrip- tion would convey any idea of its form and construction, without the ac- companiment of some pictorial illustration. Its appearance is certainly graceful, and it may even be described as elegant, when compared to the peasant carts of many other parts of Europe. The Russian peasant's sledge is likewise a composition admirable for its lightness and its adaptation to the country. The horses sold in this market are duly imbued with the national THE BLACK PEOPLE. 61 character. Like their masters they are small, but active and supple ; with long manes and beards, ragged hair, delicate joints, andiron constitutions. In the stable they are dull and heavy, but in harness full of spirit, un- wearied in the race, and even after the hardest labour tricksy and playful. Cold, heat, hunger, and thirst, they endure with a patience truly admi- rable, and often receive their dirty straw with more apparent reHsh, than their German brethren do the golden corn. Yet after all, there is but little energy in the Russian horse. He knows not how to husband his force, and if unable to clear the hill at a gallop he remains hopelessly fixed in the mud. The Russian cannot be said to illtreat his horse. He rarely flies into a rage against his animal, and expends at aU times far more words than blows vipon it ; on the other hand, however, he bestows but httle care upon it, and spoils it as little with over cherishing as he is him- self spoiled with kindness by those in whose school he has been trained and broken in. The weekly consumption of horses at St. Petersburg is calcu- lated at about 200 ; some idea may therefore be formed of the throng and bustle that distinguish the monthly and half-yearly horse-fairs at the Zim- naia Ploshtshod. At the nones of December, however, the dead animals that arrive cause infinitely more bustle there than the " stamping steeds" of whom I have just spoken. On the 6th of December, namely, neither sooner nor later, but on the feast of St. Nicholas, it is generally assumed that the snow track must be in a firm and proper condition for the ■\vinter. Among the Russians indeed almost all actions, but particidarly those which relate to their household arrangements, are regulated, not according to nature, but according to certain festivals of the church, which are assumed to be the most suitable periods for certain arrangements to be made. Thus, for instance, the cattle is not driven out into the fields when the grass is green, but on the 17th of April, St. Stephen's day, and then the ceremony is accompanied by the benedictions of the priest, and copious besprinldings with holy water. The farmer does not begin to plough when the weather is favourable, but on St. George's day. Apples are not plucked when, they are ripe, but on the feast of Mary, in August ; and an apple eaten before the legitimite day, would be thought little better than poison ; while after that day, even an unripe apple would be given unhesitatingly to an hafant. On the Tuesday after Easter, in the south of Russia, aU the Tshumaks* sally forth, because the roads then are considered to be good, and on the 1st of October {Pakrovi) all endeavour to be home again, as after that festival the country is no longer deemed passable. On the 6th of December, accordingly, the snow track is thought to be in a fit condition for travelling. The autumn, with its rains, its storms, and its alternations of frost and thaw, is supposed to be at an end, and all the large caravans of sledges are put Into motion on this important day. In the second week of December, therefore, St. Petersbiu-g, after having perhaps been but scantily supplied during the latter part of the autumn, is all at once inundated with inconceivable masses of winter stores of every kind. A scene something like that which has been described as customary at the haymarket, takes place, but on an infinitely larger scale. The frozen oxen that stand about in all directions are not to be numbered. * Drivers of the oxen caravans. 62 THE BLACK PEOPLE. The pigs are piled up in pyramids on the snow, and the heaps of goats and sheep rise to the altitude of mountains. The winter provision market at this time is a sight which no stranger ought to miss seeing. We have thus passed in re^dew the three principal markets where the Russian populace may be said chiefly to resort ; let us now draw a little nearer, and examine more attentively, the life and manners of the class that people them, and, after aU, constitute the hulk of the nation. The aristocracy of every country have invented some contemptuous term, by wliich to designate the mass of their comitry people, whose rudeness and peculiarities it is always more easy to condemn, than it is to discover and duly estimate the qualities that are really valuable. The English expression John Bull, and the French word canaille, are ex- amples of what I mean. Now the Russians, from the earliest tunes, for the word existed even in the days of the repubhc of Novgorod, have called their canaille tshornoi narod, which means HteraUy, black people ; but as tshornoi is often used synonymously mth dirty, the expression may be taken to mean " dirty people ;" in short, " the unwashed," and to this com- prehensive class are considered to belong, the peasantry, particularly when they make their appearance in the towns, the street rabble, beggars, and the common labom'ers. — An individual belonging to the tshornoi narod is called a mushik. The tshornoi narod varies in so many respects from the mob of other countries, and have so many good and bad quahties of theh- o-w-n, that they have furnished matter for comment and wonder to all travellers who have visited Russia during the last three centuries ; and these peculiarities are the more deserving of attention inasmuch as they are often national rather than confined to a class. There are people who believe that the lower classes in Russia are a separate and oppressed caste, without a will of their own, and without influence over their superiors ; and that the civilized class floats over the mass like oil over water, neither minghng or sympathizing with the other. Now this is the very reverse of the truth. There is perhaps no country in the world where all classes are so inti- mately connected with each other as in this vast empire, or so httle di- vided into castes ; and the same peculiarities which we notice in the bearded mushik, manifest themselves with only trifling modifications among the loftiest pinnacles of that Babylonian building, the social edifice of Russia. On the haymarket of St. Petersbm-g we may examine the raw material out of which aU Russian classes have been manufactured for centuries : and a passing glance is enough to convince us that these bearded rusty fellows are of the same race as the pohshed and shaven elegants whom we meet with in the saloons. To some extent, there exists in every country, a certain affinity and family hkeness between the highest and the lowest classes ; but noAvhere is this more the case than in Russia, because, con- trary to the prevailing behef, in no country are the extremes of society brought into more frequent contact, and in few are the transitions from one class to another more frequent or more sudden. The peasant becomes a priest on the same day perhaps that an imperial mandate degrades the the noble to a peasant, or to a Siberian colonist. Degradations to the ranks is a punishment frequently inflicted on Russian officers. Hereditaiy rank is disregarded, while pubhc services often lead rapidly to the highest dignities. Even the gleb(B adscripti are often more nomadic in their habits, and less rooted to their sou, than our free peasant in Germany; aud THE BLACK PEOPLE. 63 the spirit of speculatipn that pervades the whole nation, is constantly making rich men poor, and poor men rich. It requires but httle poKshing to convert the raw material of the mushik into a shrewd trader ; and expend but a Kttle more pains upon liis training, and he ^vill chatter away in English, French, and German. He takes the pohsh easily, learns without much trouble to dance and dangle, and when you look at him closely, you find him a very Proteus, who ghdes at will into almost every form that he chooses to assume. On the hay- market we behold the same mob that in the middle ages at the sound of the Vetsha beU, poured into the forum of the mighty republic of Nov- gorod, the same mob that placed Boris Godmioff on the throne, tore from it the false Demetrius, and exalted the house of Romanoff, which rose to its present astonishing power, through the mighty fermentation and de- velopment of the tshornoi narod. The common man of St. Petersburg has precisely the same charac- teristics as the common man of Moscow or Odessa, or as the labourer on the confines of Cliina. All chng with the samefideHty to the customs of their ancestors, and all remam the same in mamiers, education, and tastes. Their food is the same throughout the whole of the vast empire, and centuries vnll probably pass away before any sensible change wül occur. Tliis circumstance gives to the Russian people a unity of character, which we should vainly look for in other countries, where the manners and habits of one province often present a striking contrast to those of another. At the first glance there is certahily sometliing extremely repulsive ia the Russian musliik. His hair is long and shaggy, and so is liis beaixi : his person is dirty ; he is always noisy ; and when wrapped up in his sheep- skin, he certainly presents a figm-e more suitable for a bandit or mm'derer than for a man devoted to peaceable occupations. This apparent rude- ness, however, is less a part of the man himself, than of his hair and beai'd, of Ms shaggy sheepskin, and the loud deep tone of his voices The stranger who is able to address hhn with kindness in his native language, soon discovers in the muslnk, a good-humoured, friendly, harm- less and serviceable creature. — " Sdrastvuitye brat I Good day, brother ; how goes it ?" — " Sdrastvuitye batiushha ! Good day, father ; thank God, it goes well vdth me. What is your pleasure ? How can I serve you ?" And at these words his face unbends iato a simpering smUe, the hat is taken off, the glove drawn from the hand, bow foUows bow, and he wül catch yom* hand with native pohteness and good-humoured cordiality. With admii-able patience he wül then afford the required information in its minutest details ; and this the more willingly as he feels flattered by the in- terrogation, and is pleased by the opportunity to assume the office of instructor. A few words are often enough to draw from him a torrent of eloquence. EngUshmen are too apt to attribute the com'tesy of the Russian to a slavish disposition, but the courteous manner m wiiich two Russian pea- sants are sure to salute each other when they meet, cannot be the result of fear engendered by social tyranny. On the contrary, a spirit of ge- nuine pohteness pervades all classes, the liighest as well as the lowest. Foreigners generaUy describe the Russians as rogues, with whom it is impossible to conclude a bargain Avithout being cheated, and no one can deny that the frauds daüy practised in the market places are innmnerable. Nevertheless, examples are also numerous among them of the most romantic 64 THE BLACK PEOPLE. acts of integrity. An instance of the kind came to m^ own knowledge. An English lady holding an appointment in the Winter Palace, gave 500 rubles to a poor isdavoi* to dehver to her daughter at Zarskoye Selo. On the following day he returned, kissed the lady's hand, and said : " Pardon me, I am guilty. I cannot teU how it has happened, but I have lost your money, and cannot find it again. Deal with me as you please." The lady, unwilling to ruin the man, made no mention of his offence, and after a time lost sight of him entirely. At the end of six years he came to her one day with a cheerful countenance, and returned the 500 rubles of which his carelessness had deprived her. On inquiry it turned out that during those six years he had denied himself every little enjoyment, and had saved up his wages tiU he had collected about 300 rubles. Hav- ing recently been promoted to a better situation he had been in a con- dition to marry. His -wife had brought him a dower of 100 rubles, and was besides possessed of some articles of trifling value, aU of which had been soldj in order to tranquillize the husband's conscience, who now came to reHeve himself of a debt that had so long weighed upon liis mind. No entreaty could induce him to take the money back, wliich was, how- ever, placed in a public bank, to accumulate at compound interest for the benefit of his children. Such instances of honesty are by no means rare amongst the Russians ; whether at the last day they will balance their admitted rogueries, God alone can decide. The Russian way of cheating is quite peculiar to the people ; they do it with so much adroitness, one may almost say with so much grace, that it is difficult to be angry with them. If a German cheats me, I cannot restrain my anger ; he does it with the worst con- science in the world ; he knows what he is about, has the most perfect consciousness of the shameless exorbitance of his demands, and basely abuses the confidence placed in him. The Russian on the contrary knows that every one takes him for a rogue, and in the vivacity of his fancy may really imagine that his wares are what he so loudly proclaims them samolut shize (the very best). Neither can he conceive why any one should object to pay four times any more than twice the value of a thing, and is therefore as unconcerned as a conjurer over his tricks. He laughs, jests, ogles his outwitted customer, and hona-fide thanks God and aU his saints that his work has prospered so well. One may see when a Ger- man cheats, that he knows the devil is at his elbow ; when a Russian does the same, he holds himself especially favom-ed by his good angel. The case is much the same with their temperance as with their honesty. The nation is inclined to cheating from top to bottom, and yet people most pedantically honest may be found amongst them, and a hun- dred instances might be cited in which a Russian rogue would be more punctiliously honourable than a German Herrnhuter ; the whole nation is most undeniably voluptuous and addicted to intemperance, and yet aifords examples, not only of exemplary sobriety, but there are times when the most intolerable bibber amongst them will practise the severest absti- nence. It is said that the Russians surpass all other nations in the con- * The isdavois are common mushiks, wlio act as couriers in the imperial palaces. They may be seen galloping about on their meagre steeds in all directions in and about St. Petersljurg, charged witli messages of various kinds. At first they re- ceive a few rubles monthly, as salary, but in time rise to more lucrative situations in the imperial household. THE BLACK PEOPLE. 65 sumption of brandy, and yet strange to say it does not seem to do them much injury. The fearful lessons given by Plogarth in his celebrated pic- ture " Gin Lane," are little applicable in this country ; these people who as infants ha.ve had drams administered by their depraved mothers, reach the age of eighty and a hundi-ed years, and are -uäthal as fresh and healthy as if they had swallowed so much new milk ; they may say of brandy, what Voltaire, in his eightieth year, said of coffee, — that it must be very slow poison. When they get any money, they are seen to swallow this unholy fire-water in incredible quantities, not sipping it out of thimble-sized glasses, as we do, but out of tumblers, or, yet more unceremoniously, out of the great pewter measures in which it is handed to them. Women, girls, boys, and even sucklings (literally I mean) take a share, wdiich in other countries would have the w'orst consequences. Nevertheless, there are individuals to be found who have never put their lips to brandy, and others who will sometimes make a vow against drinking, and keep it, for years together. As extremes meet, and are said to call forth each other, there are also indi\'iduals, who after exhibiting examples of sobriety in their persons, seem all at once attacked by a perfect frenzy of drimk- enness ; and for months together wall be found in a situation that assimilates them to the beast. In Lesser Russia, where the brandy idol, has his chief seat, and where on hoHdays whole villages of drimken people may be fomid, tliis strange madness has most form and substance, it would be well worth while for aU who have any cognizance of the facts there- with connected, to put the result of their observations together. The Russians look on this mania for drmilienness as a disease, and call it • Sapoi. The great sums which the government draAvs from the monopoly of brandy, the enormous wealth of the Otkuptshilss (the brandy farmers) w^ho invariably grow rich by their thrice shameful trade, the ruined circum- stances of hundreds and thousands, are the sad testimonials of the degree in which this poisonous flame-emitting idol rules this land, to whose altars all throng to offer up in sacrifice their own welfare, and the welfare of their families, and for whose insnaring gifts all pine and lust with a greediness of desh-e, that awakens at once the deepest disgust and the strong-est comj^assion. The poor tormented soldier loiows no other means of forgetting his condition for a moment but brandy ; the most fervent prayer of the beggar is for brandy ; the servants and peasants thank you for brandy as for God's best gift. In the cotmtless booths and drinking-houses m St. Petersbtu-g m the year 1827, brandy and other hquors were sold to the amount of eight miEions of rubles ; m 1833 to eight millions and a half. That gives for every inliabitant, women and cliildren mcluded, twenty rubles yearly for brandy, or about two and a quarter pailfids. If w^e exclude the cliildren, foreigners, persons of rank, and the sick, we may form an idea, what immoderate topers there must remain amongst the adults of the Tschornoi narod ! The government is endeavouring to bring beer more into use, and thereby diminish the consumption of brandy. It is therefore consolatory to hear that beer is now better made and much more drmik in St. Petersbm-g than formerly. In 1827 the amount consumed in beer and mead was mforty-two thousand rubles ; in 1832 seven himdred and sixty thousand rubles. In the last four years the consumption of brandy in St. Petersburg increased in the follo-^ong ratio : — 100, 105, 110, 115, 66 THE BLACK PEOPLE. somewhat less than the increase of the population ; the consumption of beer as 1, 3, 6, 11. The finer kinds of brandy and liquors show the gi'eatest increase ; a proof that the taste is more refined, and that the ama- teurs must be on the increase among the upper classes. Melancholy as the fact is of this enormous abuse of spirituous hquors in. Russia, yet, as before observed, it is certain that the evU consequences are not so glaringly offensive as they would be among any other people. It is perhaps a general law of Natm-e that all abuses, where they are gene- rally prevalent, shall not be injurious in a Hke proportion with their strength, because all poisons carry a certahi antidote with them, and human natm-e in its most desperate condition is yet to be saved from utter de- struction. Thus despotism depraves men less in Russia than it would do in a free country, because a miiltitude of devices have been formed for avoiding the evil. Serfdom in Russia is not half so oppressive as it would be to men who passed from a state of freedom to one of slavery ; for the people develop a great elasticity of spirit, freedom from care, and cheerful- ness in the midst of their hmnüiation, and have found out a multitude of alleviations which a people unaccustomed to slavery would not turn to ac- count. Any other nation in the bonds of Russian despotism and serfdom, among whom such roguery and cheating were m practice, who were fet- tered in such a darkness of ignorance and superstition, and so plunged in sensual excess, would be the most detestable and unbearable people on the face of the earth. The Russians, on the contrary, vdth all their faults and sufferings, are very tolerably agreeable, gay, and contented. Their roguery scarcely shoAVS amiss in them, their slavery they bear with as much ease as Atlas bore the weight of the globe, and out of then' brandy-casks they swallow the deepest potations even with a grace. A disease in an otherwise healthy body manifests itself by the most decisive symptoms, while in a thorouglily corrupted system the evü will g'Hde through all parts of the body vrithout coming to an explosion, because one evil straggles with and coimteracts the other ; so m Russia those manifold evils are not seen m the full light of day as in other lands. The whole is veued by a murky atmosphere, through which the right and the wrong cannot be clearly discerned. Every thing is compromised, smoothed over ; no sick- ness is brought mto a sti'ong light, or compelled to a palpable revelation. With us the boys in the street shout after a drunken man, and pelt him with dirt and hard names, which raises a distmbance immediately. This is never the case in Russia, and a stranger might, fi'om the absence of drrmken squabbles and noise, be led to conclude that they were a sober people, till he observed that the absence of aU attention to the fact is the cause of his mistake. To his no small astonishment he wül see two, tlu'ee, or four people, apparently in full possession of their reason, wal k i n g toge- ther ; suddenly the whole party will reel and stagger, and one or the other measure his length in the mire, where he hes unnoticed, imless by his brother or a police-officer. Our German drmikards are coarse, noisy, and obtrusive ; intoxication makes an Itahan or a Spaniard gloomy and revengeful, and an EngHsh- man brutal ; but the Russians, the more the pity, in the liighest degree humorous and cheerful : the more the pity, I say, because if the conse- quences of the evil showed themselves more offensively, the evil itself would be more energetically combated. In the first stage of drunkenness the Russians begin to gossip and teU stories, smg and fall into each other's THE BLACK PEOPLE. 67 arms ; at a more advanced stag'e even enemies embrace, abjuring' all hosti- lity amidst a thousand protestations of eternal friendship ; then all stranq-ers present are most cordially g'reeted, kissed and caressed, let them be of what age or ranlc they mJiy. It is all " little father," " little mother," " little brother," " httle grandmother," and if their friendliness be not returned with a like warmtli, then it is " Ah, little father, you are not angry that we are tipsy ? Ah, it's very true, we're all tipsy together ! All, it is abo- minable ! Pray forgive us — punish us — beat us." Then ensue new ca- resses ; they embrace your knees, kiss your feet, and entreat you to forgive- their obtrusiveness. Other nations, whose whole moral strength lies in their cultivated reason, show themselves dangerous when the abuse of spi- xituous liquors frees their passions from this restraint. But the Russian, whose reason is little cultivated, and who, when he is good is so from innate kindliness of feehng, cannot be so degraded by drink. He shows himself what he is — a child much in want of guidance. It is curious enough, how- ever, that even in drunkenness a Russian's native cunning' never forsakes him ; it is very difficult to move him, be he ever so drunk, to any baseness not to his advantage. The deeper a Russian drmks the more does the w^hole world appear to him coideur de rose, till at last his raptiu-es breik forth in a stream of song ; and, stretched upon Ms sledge, talking to him- self and all good spirits, he returns at length to his ovsti home, whither his wiser horse has found his way unguided. The inferiority of the Russians to the West Europeans is freely admitted l)y them. If their productions are found fault -with, they will often say ia excuse, " Ah, sir, it's only Russian work. I made it myself ; how should it be better ? The Germans, we know, understand every tiling better." " Prostaya rabota" (common work) is not only an expression in use among" foreigners for Russian work, but one heard frequently from the nativ3S themselves. I once asked a dealer in toys and baskets where he got his Tvares. " The toys," said he, " are German work, the baskets common" (i. e. Russian). The Russian word for common (prostoi) is regularly adopted by the German-Russians m this sense. In spealdng apologetically to a friend they will say, " You will find notliing very elegant in my household ar- rangements ; it is all very prostoi." " We are great rogues," the Russians will often add ; " each tries to outwit the other as much as he can ; and I must tell you frankly to be on your gxiard with me." They make the frankest revelations with respect to themselves, so that one feels inclined ta bold them free from fault, even wliile they are confessing that they share the failuigs of their country. " Ah, we Russians are indolent — we cheat wherever we can — om- priests permit the most outrageous rogniery to go amreproved — our people in authority are the most con-upt in the world ; we are only active when there is money to be gained ; nobler objects, knowledge and science, have no attractions for us, though we may be forced to attain them. We do nothing well or thoroughly, and are sunk in un- equalled sensuality." This very openness it is that so often misleads a stranger ; he knows not what to think of them. " What is the price of those plmns ?" Two rubles, sir ; they are excellent, real French." " Ah, you Russian rogue — they French !" " Yes, yes, I say real French. Of course, as I am a Russian, it must be a he. Oh, the Russians are rogues, sir, that all the world knows. The French and Germans never cheat — they are all honest people, and have only good things ! Well, I advise you not to buy my r2 68 THE BLACK PEOPLE. plums. I say they are French, hut they are no such tiling. See, we Russians lie and cheat wherever we can ; we have no conscience at aU, and, as the Poles say, ' he must be a cunning fellow who out\vits a Russian.' And the Poles are right, sir. Do buy sometloing of "me, sir, and I will wager what you Hke you don't go uncheated out of my shop. Ha, ha, ha, ha ! the Russian rogues ! He who is not cheated by a Russian must be a cunning feUow." Confessions of this kind are so often heard, that it is impossible to help wishing they were somewhat less wilHng to admit their weaknesses, and less ready to content themselves, as they genera,lly do, with the expression *' Shto sdalatj " (what's to be done ?) Notliing is easier than to make a Russian confess, and nothing is more common, than for him to repeat his offence after having confessed and been punished or pardoned for similar ones a dozen times. As they have immeasurably more cunning than understanding, are far more clever than rational, their own proverb " sum sa rasum sashoW (his wits have run away with his reason) is quite true ; a correct psychological glance into their own inward man has revealed to them how often exaggerated cunning and calculation has led them to most ii'rational practices. It is honourable to us Germans, that the Russians (that is the lower classes) have so much confidence in us ; would to heaveu every German justified this confidence, and did not, as unhappily many of them in Russia do, profit by the credit of the national character, and sin at the expense of thirty millions of his forefathers and fellow-countrymen. A Russian of rank will intrust a German with his secrets, or his valuables, much more readily than his own countryman. The Isvoschtshik wiU not willingly let a Russian go without having paid, or without leaving a pledge, while he will readily give a German credit. The P.,ussian of distinction makes as much difference between his own countrymen and the Germans, as the lower classes do. " Sluishi ! tui" (hark thee), says a Russian nobleman to a Russian tailor; every body who is neither a nobleman nor foreigner is thou'd in Russia, even the wealthy merchant, " padi sudi" (come here) measure me for a coat, velvet collar, bright buttons, long in the waist ; dost understand ? let it be ready the day after to-morrow, dost hear ? " Slushi" (I hear and obey) ; " stxipai" (be off then). " My dear Mr. Meyer," he will say to an Innostranez (foreigner), " excuse me that I have given you the trouble to come, pray be seated. I want a new coat, would you advise green or blue ? Pray make it in the newest fashion, and if possible, I should like to have it in a- fortnight. I know how much you have to do. If it cannot be helped I will wait three weeks. I am much obliged to you. And how go affairs with you, Gos- podin Meyer ? how do you get on with Prince R. If I can be of any seiwice to you in that business let me know. If possible, you wiU let me have the coat before the three weeks, will you, not ? adieu !" A foreign workman is paid what he asks without hesitation, even if he ask sixty rubles for the mere cutting out of a coat. With the Russian mechanic it is, " What ! twenty rubles for such a triHe as that ! Twenty strokes with a cudgel from the police ! There's ten for thee, and quite enough! take it." " Slushu" (I obey), answers the poor overborne rogue, makes a bow, and goes away quite content. The Russians are sometimes called the French of the North ; as lame a comparison, if seriously meant, as that of modern Moscow with old Rome. The differences between the two nations are endless. Something of like- THE BLACK PEOPLE. 69 ness there is, liowever, in the fact that in the demeanom- of the lowest Russian there is a certain adroitness, a savoir faire and lournure, alto- gether wanting to the Germans. Look at the cut of the commonest national garment, and in spite of dirt and coarseness, there will be a sometliing comme il faut about it. Even under the bearskins, slender and i-ounded forms may be perceived. The awkward and ridiculous vestments occa- sionally seen among us, are unknown here : to judge by his clothing, a Russian must be one of the most elegant and rational of men. Observe a couple of Russians of the lowest class : if they have a heavy burden to trans- port, how cleverly and readily it is done, in spite of the most deplorable means of carriage. In St. Petersburg, the most ordinary peasants, picked up qviite at random, will be charged with the transport of the costliest and most fragile articles ; for example, immense looking-glasses, porcelam, &.c., and will execute the commission with as much dexterity as if it had been their employment from childliood. I should like to see one quantity of glass packed and carried by German peasants, and another by Russians, and strike the balance between the relative skill and address of the two nations, according to the quantity of merchandise demohshed ! The excellent fables of Kruiloft", the lessons of prudence they contain, and the stiiking comparisons of wliich they are full, are drawoi directly from the hfe of the people ; and we may find daily opportunities of witnessing scenes, and hstening to speeches and advice, such as KruiloflF gives in his fables. As a fit conclusion to these considerations on the national cha- racter, we wUl give some of his pictures, wliich in many respects are very characteristic. The blind enthusiasm wliich often overlooks the most essential objects, is held up to ridicule in the writing of this Russian iEsop in a St. Petersburg Tshimio^aiik,* who relates to his friend, that he has been to the Musemn, and seen the most wonderfid tilings ; " birds of the most wonderful coloiu-s, beautiful butterflies, all foreign ! and gnats, flies, and golden beetles, so small, that they are scarcely to be seen with the naked eye." " But what say you to the elephant, and the mammoth, that are there also, m^y friend ?" " Elephant, mammoth, ah, the deuce ! I really did not notice them." In another of the illustrations accompanying the fables, a rich landholder is presenting to his friend his much-lauded musicians : " I have the best band in the world," he exclaims, " all excellent fellows — not one of them has robbed me, and there is not a drunkard among them." " That may be," answers the guest, holding his ears, " but for mercy's sake let them keep silence, for their music rends my A^ery sovJ ! " The pohcy of the Russian slave-master is betrayed by an uncle to his nephew thus : he takes him into his garden and shows him his fishpond, which he has filled with pilce. " But, good heavens ! " cries the inexpe- rienced nephew, " the pike wUl devour all the smaller fish I " " Ha, ha ! you young fool, can't you iniderstand ? That is just vv^hat I want ; after- wards I shall kill the fattened pike." The conversation of two Kupzi betrays how the rogues in the gostinnoi dvor cheat and circumvent each other. "See, cousin,'' says one, "how God has helped me to-day. I have sold for three hundred rubles some Polish cloth that was not worth half the money : it was to a booby of an officer, whom I persuaded it was fine Dutch. See, here is the money, tliirty fine red bank-notes, spick and span new !" " Show me the notes, friend, * Subordinate employe. 10 THE BLACK PEOPLE. they are every one bad ! Out upon you, fox, do you let yourself be so cheated by a wolf ? " In another picture the "Gout and a Spider are meeting, and questioning one another on the road. " I am just come from Prince Andi-ai Ivano- ■witsch," says the spider, " in whose house I have hved a long time ; but, heavens ! what a deplorable life ! The man is rolling in luxury, eats and di-inks all day long, lies in bed and on soft sofas, and his servants wul not let a poor insect any where alone, for fear he should disturb their master. Tliey break my fine webs every day ; and when I have, with unwearied diligence^ built up my house anew, it is as much as I can get a fly, which dainty food they wall no more suffer in the prmce's house than they will me myselL I am tired of this anxious ufe at last, and I am going to seek a more conve- nient lodging elsewhere." " And I have just come," says the Gout, " from the miserable hut of the- peasant Paul Ignatievitsli, where I was as Uttle pleased as you with the prince. The man has no rest all day long, and is constantly fighting- witk Tvind and weather. Scarcely have I made the attempt to be a little friendly with his bearslvin, than up he jumps, throws aside the skin, and threshes^ corn or chops wood tül we can't hear or see. His benches and chans are all hard oaken wood without cuslaions ; not the smallest comfort to be thought of. Then every thing is disorderly and dirty, and all sorts of creatm^es are continually flying in and out. I am tired of such domgs, and have fore- sworn all peasants' houses for ever ; and, what do you think ? I have a mind to try your Prince Andrai, of whom you have said so many agreeable^ things." " Sister dear, pray show me the way to the peasant Paul, with whom I think I could get on very weU ; for he will certainly put up witli such a smaU evU as I am in some corner of liis room." The Russian peasant is far from sparing, in Ms criticism, the rich and gi'eat, from whom he bears so much, although conscious of its injustice. In. one of these fables a nobleman gives a box on the ear to one of his serfs^ who has just saved his life from the attack of a bear, and cries out, " Stupid rascal, to tear the bear's skin so carelessly with thy clumsy axe ! Why didst not sttm him with a stone, or strangle him with a rope ? What is liis skin now worth to me at the furrier's ? Only wait, rascal, and I'U take aix opportunity of reckoning with thee for the value of it." In another, a rich man announces in the newspapers that, moved by com- passion and the love of God, he has resolved on a certain day to clothe, feed, and provide with aU necessaries, aU the poor who shall apply to liim. Here- upon he receives the praises of all his friends, of the pious, and the public ; but on the appointed day his courtyard is full of fierce dogs, whose teeth effectuaUy bar aU entrance to it. The cunning of the Mushiks, in eluding the laws and the ordinances of xehgion, surpasses the art of the de^al himself. It is said, " Ye shall eat no- flesh on fast-days ; ye shall not bod eggs in water on your hearths, nor eat. of any such eggs." A peasant, not inclined to forego the enjoyment of eggs- on a fast-day, knocks a nail into the wall, suspends the egg from it by a wire, and placing his lamp tmderneath, contrives to cook it in this manner. He defends himself to a priest who has caught him in the fact by the assurance that he did not think that any breach of the commandment. " All, the devil himself must }mve taught thee that !" cries the priest in high displea- sure. " Well then, yes, father, I must confess it — it was the devu who taugbt me." " No, that is not true," cries the devil, who, imobserved, is THE BLACK PEOPLE. 71 one of the party sitting on the stove, and laug-hing heartily as he looks at the cimning-ly-placed egg. " It is not I that taught him this trick, for I see it now for the first time myself." " There is no knowing how to get on in this world. Do a thing one ■way and it fails — try it another and that fails also," said one peasant to another. " A year ago I went a little tipsy into the loft with a hght in my hand, and, not taking heed, I set the hay on fire, and my house was bmiit to the ground. Yesterday I went into the loft again, not qiute sober ; but this time I put the hght carefully out : and now, wliile I was feeling about and forgot the door, I tumbled tlorough, and have unluckily sprained my foot, and broken two of my teeth out. You are a pradent man, lubesnoi kum (dear cou.sin), give me your advice — shall I go with or without a hght another time ? " " My advice is, dear cousin, another time not to get dinink." What the Russians think of authors is shown in another picture, repre- senting a part of hell. There are two caldrons hanging in the foreground ; in one sits a robber, in the other a wicked author. Under the caldron of the latter the de^ol is busily employed in feeding a large fire ; while imder the robber's kettle there is only a httle dry wood, wdiich seems to emit a very agreeable warmth. The author, who has lifted the hd of his kettle to look over at the thief, complains to the devil that he is worse treated than so notorious a rogue ; but the devil gives him a knock on the head, and says, " Thou wast worse than he ; liis sins have died with him, but thine will remain indestructible for ages." The presumption of mankind in striving to attain the impossible, and at the same time the ready behef of the pubhc in boasters and charlatans, is ■well satnized. A magpie gives notice that on such a day she will set fiire to the sea with a lighted match, and men and animals have crowded to the coast to see. The magpie flies with the kindled match to the sea, and as soon as she has touched it, what follows? — simply that the water extinguishes the fii'e, and the sea is 7iot burnt. " Did not I tell you it would be so?'' says a lapdog hereupon to his neighbour the sheep. The ass comes in for Ms share. The animals are assembled to tiy the pike for his crimes ; and the ass, with universal applause, pronoimces sentence, that the pike shall be drowned. The pike is carried with great rejoicing to a deep pond, where, after getting rid of the other animals, he finds himself extremely comfortable. Again : the pig and the cat swear fiiendship, and conspire against the mice. The cat gets many a good dinner thereby, but the mice eat the bacon off the pig's back. CHAPTER IX. THE CHURCHES. j\L4.DAME de Stael, when she beheld Moscow from the elevation of the Ivremhn, tm-ned to her companions and exclaimed, " Voila Rome Tataren The Russians themselves like to compare their city to that world-subduer 72 THE CHURCHES. of antiquity; and many as are tlie peculiarities tliat distinguish the one from the other, it is not to be denied, that there are points wherein they assimilate, and among them, is that of extreme toleration in the matter of religion. With whatever tenacity the Russians, like the Romans, may cling to the religion of their forefathers, they yet wiUingly admit other gods by the side of their own, and either because they tliink, like the Romans, that it can do no harm to reverence other invisible powers, or because, to give the matter a more Christianlike expression, as they well say, " Vso adin Bog''' (There is one God over all), they wUl even bow down as reverentially in foreign cluu-ches as in their own. The capital of the Russians contains places of worship for all confessions. In the finest street in St. Petersbm-g, the Nevskoi Prospekt, there are Ar- menian, Greek, Protestant, Roman Cathohc, United and Disimited, Sunnite and Sehnte places of prayer m most familiar neighbourhood ; and the street has, therefore, not inaptly received the sobriquet of Toleration-street. St. Petersburg, like Berlin, is a child of om* days ; a birth that first saw the light under the sun of a philosophical age. In opposition to Moscow, as Bei-hn in opposition to Vienna, St. Petersburg has neither so many nor such distinguished churches as Moscow, although the major part are buUt in a pleasing and tasteful style : in the modern Russian, wliich is a mix- ture of the Grecian, Byzantine, old Russian, and new European arclii- tecture, the Byzantine, which was brought from Constantinople with Christianity, being the most prominent. A builcUng in the form of a cross ; in the midst, a large cupola, and at the four ends, four small, narrow-pointed cupolas, the points surmounted by crosses ; a grand en- trance, adorned with many columns, a.nd three side entrances without columns, such is the exterior form of the greater part of the Russian churches, including the thirty churches of St. Petersburg, — about one- tenth of the number dispersed through the streets of Moscow the Holy. In the former, the interiors are fighter, brighter, more simple, more elegant ; in the latter, more overloaded with ornament, darker, more varied in colour, more grotesque. The handsomest church in St. Petersburg is Isaac's church. The exterior is finished. It wants only the last decoration for the interior, the trophies and the pictm-es of saints. This church stands in the largest and most' open place in the city, in the midst of its finest buildings and monuments : the Winter Palace, the Admiralty, the War-office, Alexander's pillar, and the rock of Peter the Great ; and will, when it has laid aside its mantle of scaffolding-, show itself worthy of such neighbours. On the spot where it stands, they have been at work upon a place of worship for the last century. A wooden church was fol- lowed by a church of briclc; a chm-ch of marble was then attempted, which failed, and was finished in brick. This half-and-half building- vanished in its turn, and, tmder Nicholas the First, the present magnificent building was erected, which will scarcely find so splendid a successor. It is entirely composed of granite blocks and polished marble. To make a firm foundation, a whole forest of piles was sunk in the swampy soil. From the level of the upper part of Peter's place, rise three broad flights of steps, which separately served the fabulous giants of the Finnish mythology for seats. They are formed from masses of granite rock brought from Finland. These steps lead from the four sides of the building to the four chief entrances, each of wliich has a superb peristyle. The pillars of these peristyles are sixty feet high, and have a diameter of seven feet. THE CHURCHES. 73 All magnificent granite monoliths from Finland, burled for centuries in its swamps, till brought to lig-lit by the triumphant power of Russia, and rounded, polished, and erected as Caryatides, to the honour of God, in his temple. The pillars are crowned with capitals of bronze, and support the enormous beam of a frieze formed of six fire -polished blocks. Over the peristyles, and at twice their height, rises the chief and central cupola, higher than it is wide, in the Byzantine proportion. It is supported also by tliirty pillars of smooth polished granite, wliich, although gigantic in themselves, look small compared to those below. The cupola is covered with copper overlaid with gold, and glitters like the sun over a moimtain. From its centre rises a small elegant rotunda, a miniatm-e repetition of the whole, looking hke a chapel on a mountain-top. The whole edifice is sur- roimded by the crowning and far-seen golden cross. Four smaller cupolas, resembhng the greater in every particular, stand around, like children round a mother, and complete the harmony visible in every part. The walls of the church are to be covered with marble, and no doubt Isaac's chui'ch, will be the most remarkable building in St. Petersburg, and super- sede the Kasan church of the Virgin for great state festivals. Tliis Kasan church, which stands on the perspective, is a monument of the so-often failing spirit of imitation in Russia. The Prussians wish to unite in their capital all that is grand or beautiful in the whole civilized world. This chui'ch is meant for a copy of St. Peter's at Rome, and unbearable as a copy, is moreover not a good copy. The puny effort is almost comic in its contrast to the mighty work of Buonarotti. It is fortunate that it lies so far from its original ; after the many lands he must pass through to reach it, the foreign spectator may have forgotten the impression of the southern prototype, and hence find the northern copy endurable. As in Rome, a portico of pillars leads from either side in a semicircle to the two entrances of the church ; but the pillars are small, and what in Rome seemed necessary and suitable to circumstances, is here a superfluous and incomprehensible appendage. The doors are of bronze coA^ered Avith a multitude of worth- less bas-reliefs. In great niches along the sides of the church stand colossal statues of the grand dukes Vladimir, and Alexander Nevsky, of St. John and St. Andrew. In the interior, which is httle suited to the wants of divine service, as performed in Russia, they were obliged to place the high altar, not opposite the chief entrance, but very awkwardly at the side. All is dark and straitened, and one cannot help pitying the fifty- six monoliths, the mighty giants who support the little roof, and lamenting that their prodigious strength is not employed in a labour more worthy of them. Apart from these architectm'al discords, the clmrch is not wanting in interest. First of all the greedy eye is attracted by the silver of the Ikonostases (the pictorial wall of the sanctuary). The balustrades, doors, and doorways of the Ikonostases are generally of v/ood, carved and gilded, but in tliis church all its beams and posts are of massive silver. The pillars of the balustrade romid the holy place, the posts of the three doors, the arches twenty feet in height above the altar, and the frames of the pictures are of fine silver. The silver beams are all highly poHshed, and reflect with dazzling brilliancy the light of the thousand tapers that bm'n before them. I could not learn how many hundi'ed weight of silver were employed, but, doubtless, many thousands of dozens of French and German spoons, and hundreds of soup-tui-eens and teapots must have been 74 THE CHURCHES. melted down to furnish the material ; for it was the Cossacks, laden with no inconsiderable booty from the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, that made an offering- of this mass of silver to the holy Mother of Kasan, for the object to which it is now appropriated. They seem to have a pecuhar veneration for this Madonna, who is half their countrywoman, for John Vassielevitsh brought her from Kasan to Moscow, whence Peter the Great transported her to St. Petersburg. Her picture set vvith pearls and precious stones hangs in the chiu-ch. It was before this picture that Kutusoff prayed be- fore he advanced to meet the enemy in 1812, for which reason she is consi- dered to be closely connected with that campaign. All the St. Petersburg churches are already adorned with trophies gained from various nations of Europe and Asia, particularly the Kasan church, the cathedral of the metropolitan ; they are hung up on the pillars and in the corners of the church. Keys of German and French towns, marshal's batons from French generals, and a number of" standards from Turks and Persians. The Persian flags are easily laiowu hy a silver hand as large as life fastened to the end. The Turkish flags^ surmounted by the crescent, are merely large, handsome unsoiled pieces, of cloth, mostly red, and so new and spotless that they might be sold again to the merchant by the eU. It looks as if both Turks and Persians had handed their flags over to the Russians out of politeness, and without striking a blow. The French colours which hang near them, offer a sad but most honourable contrast. They are rent to pieces, and to many of the eagles, only a single dusty fragment is attached. Of some the Rus- sians have only carried off the flag-staff, perhaps because the French ensign had swallowed the last rag, that it might not fall into the hands of the enemy. How many unknown deeds of heroism may not those flags have witnessed. Those eagles with their expanded wings, vnth ■which they vainly sought to cover the whole empire, look strangely enough in the places they now roost in. Amongst the field-marshals' batons is that of the Prince of Eckmühl, and among the keys suspended to all the pillars, are those of the cities of Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden, Rheims, Breda, Utrecht, and many other German, French and Netherland cities, before whose gates a Russian trumpet has once been blown. After the church of Kasan, that of Peter and Paul, in the fortress, Is the most interesting. It was built by an Itahan architect, under Peter the Great, and stands nearly in the middle of the city, opposite the "Winter Palace. Its pointed slender tower, exactly resembling that of the Admiralty, rises like a mast 340 feet in height; for the last 150 feet the tower is so small and thin, that it must be chmbed like a pine-tree. On one occasion, when the metal angel on the top wanted some repairs, an adventm'ous workman reached the summit thus : from tlie last gallery of the tower he knocked in a hook as high as he could reach from a ladder, tlu-ew a rope over it, and dragged himself up by it ; he then knocked in a second hook, which he also mounted by means of his rope, and so reached tlie top. On the gilding of this slender tower, which is seen from aU jjarts of St. Petersburg hke a golden needle hovering in the air, particularly when, as is frequently the case, the lower part is veiled in fog, 10,000 ducats have already been lavished. The Peter- Paul church in St. Petersburg, is a kind of sequel to the Arkhangelskoi Sabor in Moscow ; the one continues the register of the THE CHURCHES. 75 deceased rulers of Russia, from where the otlier leaves off. In Moscow are interred the Russian czars down to Peter the Great ; he, and those tliat suc- ceeded him, in the Peter- Paul church. Whoever has seen the monuments of the Polish kings at Cracow, or those of the French and EngHsh kings and Italian princes, will wonder at the simplicity and absence of ornament In this last resting-place of the Russian emperors, particularly when he thinks of the splendour of the Winter Palace. The simple coffins are placed in the vaults, and over them in the church is nothing further in the shape of a monu- ment, than a stone coffin-shaped sarcophagus, covered with a red pall. On the pall the name of the deceased emperor or emperor's son is embroidered in golden letters, quite simply, as '■' His Imperial Highness the Grand-Duke Constantlne ;" " His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Peter the First," &c. In some there is nothing but the initial letters, and here and there some unimportant trophy. On the sarcophagus of the Grand-Did'ie Constantine, lie merely the keys of some Polish fortresses. Peter the Third, to whom Catherine in her lifetime refused this place, rests there now. Paul placed both Catherine and his father there. A hundi'ed cannon, impregnable bastions, and a garrison of 3000 mea defend the place, which can be desecrated by hostile hands only when all St. Petersburg lies in ruins. The Russian princes are the only ones in Europe, as far as I know, who are buried mthln the walls of a fortress. Arovmd the sarcophagi, on the pillars, and in the corners, flags and other tropliies are suspended as in the Kasan church. Those of Persia and Turkey are particularly numerous. They lie here as in a museum ; batons of Turkish commanders and grand viziers, generally made of brass or sUver, beautifully wrought, sometliing like the small battle-axes in use in the middle ages ; the triple horse-tails of the pachas, many insignia of the Janizaries, and a collection of most singularly -formed keys of Turkish. and Persian fortresses. All the Persian flags have the outstretched silver hand at their extremities. The flag itself is an excessively long trlan- gtdar piece of double silk stuff trimmed with lace, having in the middle a panther, over whose back radiates the broad disk of a sun. They are all in as good condition as the Turkish ; in one or two a ball has passed through the sun, and on one only can be traced five bloody finger-marks of the Turldsh standard-bearer who died defending it. Three hundred of these Persian suns and Turkish crescents bend here before the cross of the Christians. Among the sacred vessels we were shown some tm'ned m wood and ivory, the work of Peter the Great. It is incomprehensible how this unwearied man could govern a great empire in all its details, establish manxifactures, build cities, dig canals, organize an army, a fleet, a host of pubHc offices, found schools, academies, universities, theatres, and withal find time to make these crosses, candelabras, and cups of ebony and ivory, and so to finish and polish every minute part, that any German guild Avould have pronomiced it a masterpiece. To show Avlth what extreme art these productions are finished, we may mention that the centre of one of these crosses is ornamented with a circular shde of ivory on which the cimcifixion, with the mourning women below, are carved in bas-relief. A multitude of rays issue from this slide as from a sun, every ray is turned in ebony, in the ornamenting of which, with all manner of carving, an enormous degree of labour must have been expended. It is impossible to withhold our astonishment at this fflfted and enthroned Proteus, and 76 THE CHURCHES. he who stands by his grave, be he who he may, will wish peace to his ashes, and blessing and prosperity to all the good that has proceeded from him. Great God ! who would not wish that Peter could, from his tomb, cast one glance upon the flourishing city, that with such unspeakable toil and difl&culty he founded amidst the swamps of the Neva. But life is so short that a man can rarely enjoy the fruits of what he has discovered, planted, or created. Perhaps Peter's prophetic spirit foresaw what here would be ; yet here, if ever, the reality must have surpassed all expectation. Among the Greek-Russian churches, that of the Smolnoi convent is distinguished for the taste of its decorations. It was finished about a year ago, and may serve strangers as a specimen of the modern Hussian style of church architectui-e . It is more spacious than Russian churches are in general, and its five cupolas are placed in harmonious I'elation with one another. They are painted deep blue, sprinkled with golden stars. A high, magnificent, beautifully-designed iron g-rating — whose rails, or rather pil- lars, are wound Avith wreaths of vine-leaves and flowers, in ironwork — surrounds the courtyards of the convent ; and above it wave the elegant birch and lime trees. Seated on a gentle elevation on a corner of land, roimd which the Neva bends to the west, this cloister, with its mysterious reserve, and the alluring colours with which it is clothed, resembles a magic palace of the Arabian Nights. From the eastern suburb of St. Petersburg, and from Sunday-street, which is two versts long, and leads directly to it, the cloister is seen far and near ; and from all quarters of the world, the orthodox believers bow and cross themselves at the sight of its cupolas. Tnis building is dedicated to the education and instruction of young girls of noble and citizen birth, of Avhom not less than 500 are brought up at the cost of the g-ovemment, and 300 at their own. The church of the cloister, which is open to the public as a place of worship, has something extremely pleasing in its style of decoration ; only two colours are to be seen, that of the gold framework of the ornamental objects, and of the white imitative marble, highly polished, and covering all the walls, pillars, and arches. Several galleries, which are illuminated on high festival-days, run like garlands round the interior of the dome. Not less than four-and-twenty stoves of gigantic dimensions are scattered about the church, which they keep at the temperature of the study, and greet all that enter, with true Christian warmth. These stoves are buut like little chapels, so that at first they are taken for church ornaments. The Russians love pomp and splendour in their churches ; in this, the balustrades surrounding the Ikonostas are of the finest glass, the doors are formed of golden columns twined and interlaced with vine leaves and ears of corn in carved and gilded wood. The pictures of this Ikonostas are all new, painted by the pupils of the St. Petersburg Academy, The faces of the apostles and saints, of the Madonna and of the Redeemer, in the old Russian pictures, have all the well-known Byzantine or Indian physiognomy on the handkercliief of St. Veronica in Boissere's collection ; small, long-cut eyes, dark complexion, excessively thin cheeks, a small mouth, thin lips, slender ringlets, and a scanty beard ; the nose uncom- monly sharp and pointed, quite vanishing at the root between the eyes, and the head very round. In the new pictures of the Russian school, they have copied tlie national physios^nomy as seen in the Russian mer- chants ; full red cheeks, a long beard, liglit and abmidant hair, large blue eyes, and a blunted nose. It is wonderful tliat the Prussian clergy have THE CHURCHES. 77 permitted this deviation from tlie old models ; the new ones, however, are held in very little respect by the people, who reverence only the old, dusty and dusky saints, and are as little inclined to accept faces they can under- stand, as to hear divine serAdce in a lang'uage they can comprehend, for the old Slavonian dialect, which continues to he used, is unintelligible to them. The Empress Maria, the foundress and benefactress of the convent, has a simple monument in the chm-ch, which is dedicated in her honom- to St. Mary. There are only two convents in St. Petersburg; this of Smolnoi, — one only in name, for the Empress Catherine's 20 nrnis have long since been dispossessed by the 800 young ladies, — and that of St. Alexander Nevskoi, for monks. The latter is one of the most celebrated in Russia, a Lavra,* and inferior in ranli only to the " Lavra of the Trinity" in Moscow, and to the Lavra of the Cave in Kiev. Its proper name is Alexander Nevskaya svätotroitzkaya Lavra (the Alexander Nevsky sacred Trinity Lavra). It is the seat of the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, and stands at the extreme end of the Nevskoi Prospekt, where it occupies a large space, enclosing witliin its walls, churches, towers, gardens, and monks' cells. Peter the Great founded it in honour of the canonized Grand-Duke Alexander, who, in a great battle here defeated the Swedes and knights of the military orders, and whose remains were brought hither in a silver coffin. Peter's successors increased the possessions and buildings of the cloister, and Catherine built its cathedral, one of the handsomest churches in St. Peters- burg. For the interior decoration, marble was brought from Italy, precious stones from Siberia, and pearls from Persia ; it is further adorned with some good copies after Guido Reni and Perugino ; the altarpiece, the Annmiciation of the Virgin, is by Rafaelle Mengs, or as the monk our guide assured as by " Arphaele" (Rafaelle) himself. In one of the chapels are some pictures by " Robinsa," that is, not Robinson, but Rubens. " On ItaliansJty''' (He was an Italian), as our worthy Father added in expla- nation. Pictures by foreign masters are otherwise something miheard of in a Russian church. From Robinson to the Cannibals is no great leap, and therefore we were the less frightened when our guide, pointing to a corner of the church said, " There lies a Cannibal." We read the inscription, it was the well-known Russia,n general Hannibal. The Russians, who have no H, change that letter almost always into K. On two great pillars opposite the altar, are two excellent portraits, Peter the Great and Catherine the Second, larger than life. These two, as " Founder' and " Finisher," are every where united in St. Petersburg, like man and wife. What might have been the result had they been really so ? Would he have driven her out as he did his sister Sophia ? or she him, as she did her husband Peter the Third? or woidd Russia have gained doubly by the union ? In a side-chapel stands the monument of Alexander Nevsky. It is of massive silver, and contains not less than five thousand poimds of pure metal ; it is a silver mountain fifteen feet high, on which stands a silver catafalco, and silver angels, as big as a man, with tnunpets, and suver flowers, and a quantity of bas-relief in silver, representing the battle of the Neva. We lighted up two wax tapers at his grave, and were pleased to see how calmly they glimmered in his honour. This kindling * The holiest convents in the empire, the seats of the Metropolitans, are caUei Lavras ; the other convents are only monastirs. 78 THE CHURCHES. of lamps and tapers in Russian cliurches is a pretty custom ; the little flame is so living a symbol of the continued life of the soul, and beyond all other material things, flame is the best representation of the spiritual. The Russians have so closely adopted this idea, that there is no interment, no baptism, no betrotliing, in short, no sacred ceremony without torch, lamp, or taper to be thought of ; fire is for them the pledge of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and hence illuminations play the most important part in their church ceremonies. The keys of Adrianople are suspended to the tomb of St. Alexander ; they are strikingly small, not much larger than the keys of a money-bos, which, in fact, Adi'ianople has in many respects been to Russia. The Nevsky cloister has profited yet more by the presents sent from. Persepohs to the northern Petropohs, when the Russian ambassador Gribo- yedofi:' was murdered in Teheran, than by the Byzantine tribute. The Persian gifts consisted of a long train of rare animals, Persian webs, gold- stuffs, and pearls. They reached St. Petersburg in the winter. The pearls, and goldstuffs, and rich shawls were carried in great silver and gold dishes by magnificently-dressed Persians. The Persian prince Khosrefif Mirza drove in an imperial state equipage with six horses ; the elephants, bearing on their backs towers fiUed v/ith Indian warriors, had leathern hoots to protect them from the cold, and the cages of the tigers and hons were provided with double skins of the northern polar bears. It was Hke a procession in the Arabian Nights, it would have been said among us, and the population of whole proräces would have run together to behold it. " It was a ti'ifling affair," they said ni St. Petersburg, " and some of the pearls were false." It excited but little attention. The elephants soon died of the cold, and a part of the pearls were given to the .Nevsky cloister. We saw whole boxes fuU of them there, besides a rich col- lection of mitres set in jewels, pontifical robes of gold brocade, and souvenirs of individual metropohtans and princes ; among them, an epis- copal staff turned by Peter the Great, and presented by him to the first St. Petersburg metropolitan, another of amber, from Catherine II., and a number of other valuables which, found elsewhere, singly, would be ad- mired and described, but here in the mass of treasure are unnoticed. The library of about ten thousand volumes, independently of a nmnber of very valuable manuscripts, concerning which many books quite un- known to us have been written, contains many rare specimens of the antiquities of Russia. The Sergieff convent, between St. Petersburg and Peterhof, contains little that is remarkable, unless we reckon as such its Archimandrite, who is a young and handsome man, and was formerly an officer in the army. The Preobrashensky church belongs to one of the oldest regi- ments of guards, founded by Peter the Great, the tenth legion of the Russian Caesars. This church, the " Spass-Preobrashenskoi-Sabor," is one of the most considerable of the city, and more than any other adorned both without and within, with trophies from conquered nations. The railing that surrounds the churchyard is formed of Turkish and French cannon. Every three of those three hundred cannon, one large and two smaller, mounted on a gi-anite pedestal, with their mouths pointed downwards, form a column. Around the cannon, chains of different thickness, gracefully twined, are hung IJke garlaiids between the columns ; on the summit of each is enthroned a Russian double eagle of iron, THE CHURCHES. 79 M-itli expancled Aving's. Within, tKe chui'ch is adomed witK flags and halberds, the pillars look like palm-trees of which every leaf is a lauce. Here also travellers are shown a production of Russian inventive talent; the work of a common peasant. It is a large, splendid piece of clock- work, made by him in his native callage, bought for 20,000 rubles by his lord, and presented to the chm'ch. The works are said to be so good as to have stood in no need of repair during the six years the clock has been in the church. Trmity church is also a modern erection like the Smolnoi convent, and very similar to it. The exterior offers an example of the very fantastic manner in which the Russians decorate their chiu'ches. Under the cor- nice of the dark blue star-bespangled cupola, an arabesque of vme-leaves and flowers rmis all round. The garlands are held up by angels, and between every pair of them a crown of thorns is mtroduced as a centre. But for this martyr-token of Christianity, we might fancy the gay temple of some Grecian god before us. The half, and certainly the more important half, of the churches of St. Petersburg are the erections of the present centiu-y. The Nicolai church, the cluxrch of the Resm-rection, and some others of the time of Cathe- rine, are not worth mention in an architectural point of view. In the church of the Resm'rection I saw some very singular offerings to the saints ; among others a patchwork qiiilt, probably the offering of some devout beggar, and containing the best of her rags. It was made out of a vast number of pieces great and small, woollen, linen, and silk, worked with ^old thread, perhaps taken from the cast off epaidets of some officer of the guards, and in the middle a golden cross was sewed on. In the Nicolai church, which is built in two stories, one for divine service dm-ing winter, and the other in summer, I fotmd the four small cupolas tenanted by a number of pigeons, who had made their nests there, and were fed by the attendants with the rice which the pious placed there for the dead. I entered the church at the same time with a splendidly- attired merchant's wife, who had just stepped out of her carriage, and called out to her French companion, " Attendez un moment, je veux faire Tides prieres." She went to all the saints' pictures one after the other, made her reverence, ogling them most graciously, and then danced out again with a well-pleased motion of the head, and di'ove to another church. Among the churches of other confessions, that built by Paul, when he assumed the protectorship of the Maltese Order, is at least interesting. It is quite in the style of the old churches of the Knights of St. John, and still contains the chair on which the emperor sat as grand-master of the order. The largest catholic church is on the Prospekt, opposite the Kasan chui'ch. The priests are Germans, and the service half German, half Latin. It is attended by the Poles and Lithuanians, to whom the chanting, by the congregation, of the " immaculate Virgin," " the Queen of Hea- ven," "the Tower of God," "the Fortress of Zion," in itself sufficiently unintelligible, must be necessarily still more so here. The Russians rarely attend the cathoHc service ; if thev go to any foreign church it is generally the protestant. The cathoKcs, Greeks, and Armenians (the latter have also a very pretty chm'ch on the Prospekt) hold to the doc- trine of the Trinity, but the Dutch as it appears to a Duality ; for, on their church stands the singular iascription, " Deo et salvatori sacrumJ* 80 THE CHURCHES. This church, with its verj^ rich dotation, dates from Peter the Great, when the Dutch were the most considerable merchants, and were endowed by the hberal czar with so much land within the city, that many a Dutch cathedral may envy the church of this little northern colony. The English are the only foreigners in St. Petersburg who keep exclusively to their own community, and form a kind of state within a state, or at least endeavour to do so. On their church on the Neva is inscribed, " Chapel of the English Factory," and the same is stamped on all their prayer-books. This factory is not one of the least interesting of all the settlements that this remarkable nation has scattered over the whole globe. Though small in numbers, (there are about 800 soids,) it is extremely rich, and in credit, power, and opulence perhaps as important as a settle- ment of 20,000 individuals of any other nation. Many Enghsh have entered the Russian service, and seem to do extremely well in it. When I visited their church I counted twenty Russian epaidets on young Enghsh officers. "Farther, farther," said a voice behind me, as I stood in the entrance, looking over the little congregation and estimating their numbers. It was an elegant, but grave and severe-looking gentleman, who directed my attention to the regulations suspended from a piUar, which forbade standing in the passages, and then gave me a seat. On one oc- casion when the Emperor Nicholas visited this church, and stood still at the entrance, he also was addressed with the " Farther, farther ! your ma- jesty," and shown to a seat. Extreme quiet, which is not the least im- portant part of public worship, and is cert?jnly more conducive to devo- tion than singing or any other exercise, reigned over the whole assembly. But it was not all alike pleasing or edifying. The English episcopal service is certainly susceptible of much reformation and improvement. The very monotonous, though not displeasing singing, (they never make such an outcry as in many German congregations,) occupies the greater part of the time. The sermon is short, the manner of delivering it mthout eloquence or fer'^'our. The St. Petersburg preacher, moreover, propped his head sometimes on his right, sometimes on his left hand, and sometimes on both tog'ether, which would have looked indecorous in a coffee-house, but in the pulpit, and from a preacher, was in the highest degree impro- per and offensive. The English clerk, Avho sits under the pulpit, constantly repeats certain words of the preacher in such ajourneyman-Iike fashion, and in so nasal and trumpeting- a tone, that it is really difficxdt to keep properly in view the gravity of the occasion, and not to be unduly excited by the very comic effect. It is strange also, and beneath the dignity of the preacher, to leave his seat so often during the prayers, and appear now hei'e and now there, now at the altar, and now in his desk. There are several German Lutheran churches in St. Petersburg, but they would not be sufficient to contain the 40,000 German protestants there settled, if they were as zealous church-goers there as in their native land. The church of St. Anne is the most important; the preachers appear much too fine in the pulpit, covered as they are with orders, whose gay colours form a glaring contrast with their black gowns. There is also a great deal of luxury and ostentation among the German con- gregations. One day I found St .Anne's church all hung with black, the pulpit decked with crape, before the altar several tapers were burn- ing as in the Greek churches, and in the midst was placed a coffin covered with silver, and before the door, carriages, some vnih. two, some with four THE CHURCHES. 81 horses, and a Avbole chorus of* black muffled torch-bearers. In great astonisliment I asked what German prince had died here. It is the confec- tioner K , of VassiU Ostroff, was the answer! We forgive luxury and ostentation in princes and nobles much more readily than in upstarts and mechanics, because to those born in the purple, it comes as some- thing of course ; they fancy it cannot be otherwise. But the others have a bad conscience in their proceedings, hide it but indifferently, and may be said to invade the rights of the public. In a foreign land, even the most insignificant appearance has an unusual interest, and if we bestow httle attention on a fruit-tree in a garden, we examine it more closely by a hermitage, or in a wilderness. Such a fruit-tree is the small brotherhood of Herrnhuters in St. Petersburg. Their small adorned house of prayer is at the end of Isaac's-street, and is entered through a light, cheerful court. There are very few of them ; not more than fifty brothers, it is said, form the centre of this congregation ; but the reputation of their piety, and the eloquence of their preachers, has spread so fai', that on every holiday many persons assemble here, high and low, Germans, Russians, . Poles, and French. The church is always so full that the people press up to the open windov/s to take part in the service, and the pastor opens the doors of his adjoining apartments to find places for the conffreffation. CHAPTER X. THE SERVANTS OF ST. PETERSBURG. From very ancient times the Russian nobles have divided their serfs into two classes ; the agricultural peasants who live on the estates and cultivate the soil, and the so-called "Dvorniye Liudi,"Avho are chosen for the per- sonal service of the lord, as footmen, gardeners, coachmen, and others. These servants soon obtained certain advantages ; were not used to dig the soU, and not given up for mihtary service. As they were no better fed in their lord's house than in their own, had their own bread and kwas to pro- vide, to be content with what remained from their lord's table, and as they had rarely any other clothing than that worn on the paternal dunghill, such servants cost very little to keep, and whole companies of stable-boys, stove - heaters, sculhons,' lamphghters, couriers, table-coverers, and housemaids, were easily admitted into a household. These thorough old Russian servants, who, with their shoes of lime-bark, and sheepskin cloaks, formed a strange contrast to the palaces they lived in, where they slept on the stoves in the kitchen, or on the chairs and floors of the rooms, are still to be met with in country houses in the interior. Even in many houses in Moscow and St. Petersburg (generally in those of the poorer nobles) the lower offices of the household are still filled by these serf sers^ants, who are provided perhaps with a better caftan and boots, but after serving for a tmie in the kitchen or the stable, are dismissed to their fields again. These people differ too httle from the rest of the peasants to form a class apart. G 82 THE SERVANTS OF ST. PETERSBURG. The observation wliicli the masters soon made, that their own serfs were much idler, slower, and more perverse in service than those who worked for hire, the increasing wants o£ a newly-civilized capital, and of luxury gromng with the growth of the empire, have called forth a numerous class of ministering spirits, consisting of natives of all nations, and of the most various relations in life, the study of which is one of the most interesting^ that a capital can oifer to the ethnograph or psychologist.* By far th& larger part are those members of the superfluous population of the estates^r who are not wanted for the CLÜtivation of the soU, and whom their lords have permitted to seek their fortune in the to^vns. They are furnished wath a pass or permit, wliich runs thus : " I permit my krepostnoi tshelovek (serf) Jephim, — on payment of a yearly sum of sixty, seventy,. eighty rubles (as the case may be) which he is to transmit half-yearly, — to seek his hvehhood in any way, in any town or village of the Russian; empire, for so many years until it be my pleasure to call him back to my estate, X., where he is registered." The serfs thus manumitted for a- time, come to the cities and engage in various occupations, in hotels^ coffee-houses, manufactories, and in wealthy private families, where, how- ever, those entirely free are preferred, on account of the dependence of the former on another master, by whom they are continually liable ta be recalled. It is curious to see with what inconceivable adroitness and rapidity these people from the plough accommodate themselves to their new position. They come up raw and unfashioned from the sheepfold, stumble over the floors of the sitting-rooms, and scarcely know how t» place a table against the wall. In a few months they are coxcombs in gay liveries, exhaling perfume, dancing on the smoothest pohshed floor with the waitinsr-maids, and assistino; their masters into their carriaa:e& "with the grace of a court page. An immense number of servants are recruited from the army. These- poor fellows, when they are dismissed after their twenty or twenty-five- years' service, have commonly forgotten during that time any mechanical art whereby they might live, have lost their relations by death, and their former masters by ha'^ing served as soldiers, for the emperor's service sets them free from all other. On the other hand, as Dentshuks (servants) to so many ofiicers, they have learned to obey to admiration, and, therefore,, naturally seek employment to attend on single gentlemen, or as porters, messengers, or watchmen in public institutions. For the latter purpose,, they are generally preferred to all others, for which reason they are met with in numbers at all hospitals, poor-houses, theatres, at the exchanges,, and in the schools as door-keepers, waiters, &c., in their old worn uniforms^ and a whole series of medals and crosses on their breasts. If any master desire a being who has absolutely no will of his own, who is ready to devote all his powers of mind and body to his ser^dce, who is yielding, submissive, and patient enough to bear all his whims and humours, even liis anger and injustice, without a miirmur ; in a word, if any one wish for the very ideal of a servant, who will bear his master, as it were, upon hi.s hands, ,i;o through fire and water for him without complaint, who neither sleeps nor wakes without permission, nor eats nor drinks but at command, who makes no other answer, and has no other thought, on the receipt of any * Accordin;? to the statistical returns, there are not less than 85,000 of such at- tendant spirits in St, Petershxirg. THE SERVANTS OF ST. PETERSBURG. 83 possible order or commission but " slushu" (I obey), let him at once cn^-age a Russian dentshuk, who, after he has endured the fiery ordeal of twenty years' service as a Russian soldier, and learnt suppleness by countless pu- nishments, will find the hardest place mild and easy. It is not possible that one who loves to rule could find a softer cushion whereon to lean than such a dentshuk — so good-tempered, so obhging, so unwearied, so attentive and obsequious as never other man can be, miless we could unbrutify our faithftd dog, and breathe his devoted spirit into a speaking, hving human form. After these three classes of Russian servants, the Germans are the most numerous in St. Petersburg, then the Finlanders, Esthonians, and Lettes. The French and Tartars fill only particular offices, but these almost exclu- sively. The English of this class are the fewest, and they, too, seem to appropriate some particular posts. To describe this division of employment by nations, it will be necessary to mention the different charges and offices in a Russian house more in detail. A review of tliis kind is, besides, well calculated to throw fight upon the domestic life of Russia, as it characterizes not only the generally-overlooked class of servants, but in many respects their masters also. A fully-appointed house of the first class in Russia, without mentioning the numerous resident relations, old aunts, cousins, adopted children, &c., without mentioning the educational staff, the German, French, and Russian masters, tutors and governesses, the family physician, companions and others, who, as majorum gentium, must of course be excluded, has so astounding a number of serving-folk of one Idnd or another, that the like is to be found in no other country in the world. The foEowing may be named as never wanting in the list : the superintendent of accounts, the secretary, the dworezki or maitre d'hotel, the valets of the lord, the valets of the lady, the dyätka or overseer of the cliildren, the footmen, the buffetshek or butler and his adjuncts, the table-decker, the head groom, the coachman and postifions of the lord, and the coachman and postilions of the lady, the attendants on the sons of the house and their tutors, the porter, the head cook and his assistant, the baker and the confectioner, the whole body of mushiks or servants minimarum gentium, the stove-heater, kwas brewer, the waiting-maids, and wardrobe-keeper of the lady, the waiting-maids of the grown-up daughters and of the governesses, the nurses in and past ser\'ice and their under-nurses, and, when a private band is maintained, the Russian kapellmeister and the musicians. K all these places are filled with free people, it may be easily supposed that the maintenance of such a household is no trifle in a city where wages are extravagantly high. The servants of the first-class, such as the maitre d'hotel, valets de chambre, and the furnitiu-e-keeper, generally have as much as 1000 rubles a year ; the head-cook, if a Frenchman, 2000, and sometimes more ; the coachman and footmen 30 to 50 rubles monthly ; the foreign waiting women 60 to 80 monthly ; and even the lowest of the house servants from 20 to 30, also monthly. Many of these posts are to be fiUed on each of the twenty estates that the family may possess under every meridian and parallel ; besides the army of stewards, gardeners, Saxon shepherds, miners, commissaries, pensioned servants, &c., who are aU to be overlooked and paid from St. Petersburg, the principal residence of the family. For the receipt and payment of money, and the management of the correspondence connected with it, some of the Russian grandees have almost as much counting-house business as a merchant in a considerable g2 84 THE SERVANTS OF ST. PETERSBURG, ■way of business. From these counting-houses the servants receive their wages, the pensioners of the family their allowance, and the heads of the house themselves the money for their personal expenses. The head of the finaneial department — often an intimate friend, or near relation of the family — lays at times an account before the chief, of the hundreds of thou- sands which he has received from the gold and platina mines of the Ural mountains, from the corn-fields of Moscow, the vineyards of the Crimea and Caucasus, for the wool and tallow from the herds and flocks on the Steppes, or from the salt-mines of Biarmia ; and of the hundreds of thousands he has paid for sturgeons and pine-apples, bonnes, lackeys, and cliambermaids. The dvorezld, who is considered as the head of the whole tribe of serving- men, and who generally possesses the full confidence of his lord and lady, is usually a Russian, has entered the house a boy, and risen by degrees to his important post. Of course he is a great man in the eyes of the other servants, most of whom he retains or dismisses at liis pleasure ; and as keeper of the keys to all the stores of tlie house, all pay their com't to him, and even the foreign waiting- maids dare not refuse liim at Easter the " Christohs woskress" and the attendant salute. Of valets and footmen there are often from twelve to twenty in one house, and as they are paraded more than any other before the eyes of the public, the youngest and best-looldng men are ahvays picked out. They are dressed with great elegance, and have one livery for the house and another for the promenade — a state livery for balls and visits at court, Avhere they are glorious in velvet and silk, and a mourning suit for the deaths that in families so extensively connected are of frequent occiu-rence. All these gentry are the supplest, most adroit fellows in the world — born Figaros — • and in their maimer, and in their very eom-teous and dancing-master-like demeanour, leave the lackeys of other countries far behind. They are generally great draughts and chess players, and, with the little capital amassed from their wag-es, often carry on smaU money speculations within the house itself, where from time to time ready money is at a premium. There are no hussars and Jägers in a Russian household, but Cossacks and Circassians in their national costume are numerous ; and Albanians, Servians, and Armenians are also sometimes seen in their rich native dresses ; nor are even negroes wanting in this rendezvous of nations. The dätka, or overseer of the little boys of the family, is an attendant rarely wanting in a Russian house. Very often he is some veteran soldier, who takes upon himself to meddle a ■ little with education. As this branch of service is very well paid, better qualified persons sometimes pursue it. He is to the boys what the bonnes are to the g'irls. He carries them about, takes them out to walk, tends them in sickness ; and it is really admirable to see the patience of these old child-loving veterans with their spoiled charges. Some families take a pride in having the Avhole service of the house performed by French domestics, and some have among the first class of attendants, Germans, Swedes, and even Polish Shlakhtltzi (inferior nobles) ; but in the stables, and all thereunto belonging, all are national, oriental, and long-bearded. A Tartar coachman is the most fashionable. It is plain that the whole form and essence of the Russian equipage is of Mongul- Tartar origin ; the numerous technical Tartar words in use may be cited in proof of tins. According to a Russian's belief, this kind of equipage is so fit and proper that he would not exchange it for any THE SERVANTS OF ST. PETERSBURG. 85 otlier ; in fact it is so generally liked, that in St. Petersburg it is adopted by all nations, the English excepted, whilst in other points it is the Rus- sians who adopt foreign modes. Tiie coachman, therefore, and certainly not to his disadvantage, clothes himself in the old national dress. A fine blue cloth caftan, fastened under the left arm Avith three silver buttons, and girded round his middle by a coloured silk sash, invests his upper man strait and tightly, leaving- the handsome throat bare, and falling in long, rich folds over the lower limbs. On his head he Avears a high four-cornered cap, covered Avith some costly fur, and a handsome bushy beard falls hke a rich bordering of fur over liis breast. The carriage of the man is Avorthy of his pictm-esque costume ; both he and his horses seem to be conscious that they are admired. The postilions, clad like the coachman, are pretty boys, from tAvelve to fom'teen years of age. This is a great point ; long lads of sixteen or eighteen on the leaders AA'ould offend every Russian eye. As no person of rank, in the majority of the Russian cities, ever di-ives Avith less than four horses ; as not only the master of the family, but the mistress also has a coach-and-four for her own use, AA^hile in some there is another carriage for the children ; the number of horses and di'iA^ers in many private establishments may be easily imagined ; their studs often emulate those of princes. The most celebrated Russian coachman, Avho, although a common bearded Russ, is become almost an historical personage, was Iha, the coachman of the Emperor Alexander. He served the emperor, faithful as his shadoAA', for thirty years, and was much in favour with him from his experience and originality of character. He accompanied the czar in all his travels, and is therefore a well knoAA-n person, not only at all the hundred thousand post stations of the Russian dominions, but throughout the capitals of Europe. He adhered to liis master even in death, and slept, during the whole journey, wrapt in his furs, under the hearse that brought the imperial corpse from Taganrog to St. Petersburg. As dming the Hfe time of Alexander, Ilia Avas often alone with liim, the words spoken from the box into the carriage were not Avithout Aveight, and many a courtier tried, Avith very little reserA^e, to gain the favour of the Avitty coachman. He now lives, rewarded with the rank of a counsellor of state, in a palace in St. Petersbui-g, where he gives enter- tainments to his friends and kindred, and relates anecdotes of the deceased emperor. ■• In the kitchen department — no insignificant one any where, but least of all in Russia, all is French, or Frenchified. The majority of the Rus- sian nobles are quite happy Avhen they can find a Frenchman who, for some 2000 or 3000 rubles yearly, will have the goodness to direct then- kitchens, and to Avhose humours and caprices they are wilhng in return to accommo- date themselves. " We poor fellows," said a Russian cook to me once, " if we do not do every thing properly it's v'polizie (to the police) directly, or v" Slibir (to Siberia), palki nada (stripes are AA^anted here) ! But if a French cook is found fault v>'ith for spoiling a dish, he answers, " No one need mind eating that. It is not nice perhaps, but it is wholesome." These cooks, who are A^ery great gentlemen, and di'iA^e to market in elegant equipages, make out most incredible bills. In some houses the cost of the table amounts to some hundreds of thousands of rubles. 86 THE SERVANTS OF ST, PETERSBURG. Many people have found it advisable to make an arrangement •with the cook to furnish the dinner at so much a head. Ten rubles is an average sum. On extraordinary occasions it will be fifty, a Inmdred, and even more. The hospitality maintained in some of the houses, vyhere every day a number of strangers find their places at the host's table, is not therefore quite so cheap as some travellers represent it. St. Petersbm-g is the liigh school for all the cooks of the empire. Every noble of the interior has a number of young men, en pension, in the Idtchens of the great houses in St. Petersburg, who are to return accompUshed cooks ; and a family from the capital removing into the interior with the whole corps of Frenchified servants, soon have their kitchen swarming with a multitude of candidates striviug to acqmre new and piquant recipes from the initiated. Although there is a post-office in St. Petersburg, there are stUl so many commissions to be executed in a great house wliich do not fall exactly within any one's department, that it is thought necessary to keep a "house courier" to drive out every morning, noon, and evening, to deHver let- ters, parcels, and so forth. The merchants on Vassih Ostroff have a similar figm'ant in their houses to carry out letters and money, whom they call " Artelshtsliik." He is generally a long-bearded Russ, and by vir- tue of his beard a trustworthy man, for he is often employed to carry hun- dreds of thousands, without any uneasiness being felt for their safety. When we consider the numbers already mentioned, the servants, and the servants' servants, and that many of them are married, and live in the house with aU then- et caetera, it wUl be admitted that a Russian house must be tolerably well filled, and swarming in every corner. The whole of the lower regions is commonly given up to them, where they pack themselves as weU as they can with bag and baggage, home-made furni- tm-e, and household utensils, not forgetting the pictures of saints, and their everlasting lamps. Yet it is well known that a Russian nobleman, in spite of liis train of servants, or perhaps because of his train of servants, is very badly served. As no one wall do what is " not in his place," a conmiission has a vast nmnber of hands to go through before it is executed. A valet is asked for a glass of water, he tells a footman, who calls to a sculhon ; he is foimd sleeping about somewhere, and after a long search after a decanter, runs to the spring, and the water comes, perhaps, at last, when his master is no longer thirsty. " Sluga ! pasluish!" (Here, servant, here), is called from a door. " Sei tshas ! sei tshas ! sei minut !" (Directly, directly, this miniite), is an- swered from above and below, from staircase and coiutyard. The caller waits a quarter of an hour, but no one comes ; for Paid supposes that Ivan is gone, and Matwei knows that Vanka heard as well as he. The call is repeated. " Sluga pasluishi," and " Sei tshas," is echoed back, but no servant comes ; and a hundred times a day a man may be convinced of the truth of the Russian proverb, which says, " Sei tshas" means to-morrow jnorning, and " Sei minut" this day week. Yet they fancy there is no doing without a retmue of servants. " Ah! you really embarrass me with your kind visit," said Prince N— to a friend who came unexpectedly to dine with him. " I must apologize to you, for you will be very badly attended to. One-half of my servants are gone hunting witli my son ; I have sent out some on busmess myself. tup: servants of st. Petersburg. 87 and ray good motlier, who has driven out of toAvn to pay a visit, has taken away nearly all the rest." Nevertheless, there were five diligent pair of hands to wait on twelve persons. It is singular that the male sers'ants should be much more numerous than the female. Generally the rooms are swept and the beds made by men, and the ladies, in addition to their waiting-maids, have a chamberlain who attends them every where. The waiting damsels are of all nations : ai'ch Parisian grisettes ; Swiss maidens pining with home sickness ; Swedes from Stockholm come to seek a better fortune, i. e. more money ; German Amalias, or Matildas, v/ho write sentimental verses ; Russian Sofinkas or Olgas, very discontented at the number of foreigners they see prefeiTcd to ■themselves ; and over all this pot pourri of nationality, the same Russian ■sauce is poured. They speak a jargon half Russian, half French, g-ar- nished with many other words from many other languages ; they must ■dress gaily and fashionably to please their mistresses, try to make them- selves agreeable, and fall in with the prevailing tone. The nurses occupy a remarkable position in Russia, the same or nearly •so that they do \n%\\ all the Caucasian nations, among whom the nui'se« remains often for life, the fiiend and adviser of her foster-child, and where a noble or princely house is siu-e to contain a whole chorus of nvu'ses, •as well those of the gro^\Ti up, as of the younger childi'en, and of the master and mistress of the family. So long as she remains in the house, the nurse is always an object of distinguished regard to all her housemates ; she is flattered and spoiled on all sides, and as every thing is done to please her for the sake of the child, she seldom fails to turn out a very capricious, l)old, obtrusive, and particularly well-fed person. Intrusted with the mother's costhest treasure, the nurse accompanies her lady every where, — to 'chiu-ch, to the promenade, to the boudoir, and in the carriage. As these nurses are peasant-women who have not laid aside the habits of their Tiomes, and yet whose places demand a certain richness of di'ess, the national female costume is seen in them in its fullest splendour, as the male costume is with the coachmen. The Russian nurses are seen on the pubhc walks in rich gold brocaded stuffs, and high kakoslmiks of false and Teal pearls on their head ; the joyous look, the red cheeks of these gaudy peacocks, the boldness and assm^ance of their demeanour, explain at once "the relation in. wMch they stand. Long after their period of service has •expired, they receive abundance of presents from the family, whose favour is extended also to the foster-children. Sometlnng of superstition is Tningled with this kindness, as in almost every custom of the Russians, for they ascribe to the nurse and her children all manner of mysterious infl^u- «nce over the niu^sling. The Germans resident in Russia relate terrible stories of these Russiau nm'ses. Then- childlike gaiety and humour fit them peculiarly for spor t and merriment with children ; but on the other hand, when they get out o f patience, they have recourse to the most barbarous and inhuman means to qmet their noisy httle charges. For instance, striking them on the head till they are stupified, holding them by the feet Tvith their heads down- wards till the blood momits to the head, and shaking them so violently as to throw them into comnilsions, besides frightening the elder cliildi-en. I)y di-essing themselves up as ghosts. Other tricks so detestable have l)een attributed to them, that they will not bear repetition. A lady who had had a Russian nurse told me friorhtful stories of what she had endured 88 THE 5ERTAXTS Or ST. PETERSBURG. from Ber, and seemed to think it little short of a miracle, that she had escaped A\"ith so much health and understanding' after such ti'eatnient. The fallowing anecdote is not the onlv one of the kind I have heard in St. Petersburg-. A family of rank came to St. Petersburg from Moscow on business. Going one day to pay a visit ia the city, they left their daughter, a child five vears of age, at home with her nurse. On their retui-n in the evening the half -intoxicated nurse feU at their feet shedding a torrent of tears, and exclaiming, '• Pamüuitve, vuiriovat, vuinovat" (Have compassion on me, I am guilty, I am guilty) I and told them how she had left the child a few minutes alone, and that when she came back it was no- where to be found, it had been stolen. The despairing parents made every possible search but in vain, and were at length compelled to return child- less to 3I0SCOW. The nurse appeared so wretched that she was forgiven. About three vears afterwards the father came again to St. Petersburg, and while passing- one day through the streets, thinking of his lost Anninka, he heard a feeble voice cr^Tng out, " Papinka, papioka" fPapa, papa)! He turned and saw his little daughter muffled in rags, miserable and sickly, sitting in a cart drawn by a filthy beggar-woman. " Woman, where did you g-et that child ?" cried he. seizhig- her and snatching- the child who sunk scbbuig and half-nalced in his arms. On examination, it appeared that the beggai* had bought the poor httle creature from the nurse for 20 rubles, and reduced her to the state in which she was fotmd, purposely to excite compassion. Begging is no longer permitted by the pohce, and such things are now more likely to happen in London or Paris than in St. Petersburg. In many wealthy families a good music master is often retained, and in some, particularly in the provinces, a private band. In fact, it is easy enough for a nobleman to get one together, his peasants are always at hand, and learn as easily to play on the viohn as to clean his boots. It is only necessary to have a German musician iu the hotise, which is indeed somewhat expensive, and to let him tutor them for a time, till a band is formed, and then at a ball, or any such occasion, the lord has only to- muster the stove-heaters and superfluous table-deckers to have a very tolerable orchestra. Here and there, where the taste is more refined, three or four well-paid German musicians will be foimd on the establishment ; but tliis is rare, and so are the private horn-bands, which foreigners on their first arrival at St. Petersburg seem to expect to hear from every hotise. On some of the estates schools have been established, where a select number of peasant-youths are taught reading, vnitiag, &c., in order to render them serviceable afterwards, as gardeners and bailiils, or in St. Petersburg as grooms of the chamber and secretaries. These youths bring T\-ith them the capacity for further improvement. Many of them^ acquire the arts of reading and -vvriting, they themselves scarcely know how, and even the httle postilions may often be seen in a comer of the stables diligentlv forming the letters with their frozen fingers. Xotliing can excite the siu^iise of a stranger, more than the extraordinary passion for reading now prevalent among senants in Russia. The greater part of the antechambers of the nobles, where there are always a number of ser- vants assembled, are regidar reading-rooms ; those who are not playing at draughts, the favom-ite game, are generally reading. It is no rare thing to see six or eight in difi'erent comers thus engaged ; and if their occupa- THE SERVANTS OF ST. PETERSBURG. 89 tion stiikcs a foreigner, wlio expects nothing' but laziness and barbarism, ■vA'itli admiration, a^ indicative of advancing civilization, liis admiration will rise to astonishment if he give himself the trouble of inquiring into the na- ture of their studies. A Translation of Bourrlenne's jNIemoires, Karamsin's History of Russia, the Fables of Kruilotf, the Novels of Prince Odo- jevsky, the Tales of Baron Brambäres, Bantysh Kamensky's History of Lesser Russia, Polevoy's Outlines of the History of the ^yorId, a trans- lation of the ^neid, and others of the same hmd, are the works he will find. I know not whether oiu* domestics have yet risen to Luden's His- tory of the Germans, or Raumer's Hohenstaufen ? It is worthy of remark, that the vomig* literatm-e of Russia, wlaich has already produced much that is excellent, as vet entirely imkuoT\"n to us, has hitherto thro%vn off none of a base and spurious kind. That with the good much that is wortliless exists, is imdeniable, particularly in the scientific branches, where all is s^ood for nothing- ; but as it was calcu- lated for tlie educated classes, it contains nothing vulgar, insipid, or common. The sen-ants, and such of the lower classes as are more and more becoming readers, are compelled to satisfy their Hterary appetite ■with wholesome food. Their taste will refine itself in consequence, and enough has ah-eady been Avi-itten in Russia to keep a zealous reader in breath. Circulating libraries abound m St. Petersbm'g. In the provinces, of course, it is more difficult to obtain books, and there, many really touclmig examples of the literary yearnings of the people are related. I knew an old chamberlain, who in his leism-e hom-s had learned Ivrui- loff 's Fables by heai-t, and had read Karamsin's Histoiy of Russia, six times tlu'ough, because he coidd get no other books All that is written about Napoleon among us, is translated directly into Russian, and read hy all classes, in the antechambers paiticidarh', with imcommon ai'dour. CHAPTER XL THE 3I0NUIMENTS. It is remarkable that neither Vienna, nor Berlin, nor London, nor Paris, cities v.'liich for centuries ha\'e been the centres of a stirring national lite, and the theatres of many extraordinary events, operating powerfiüly ou the hmnanity of the middle ages as on om* o^\-n, can \ie %vith yoimg un- historical St. Petersbm-g in the mimber of their liistorical monuments. The most nmiaerous, and iii some measure the gi-andest, monuments of modern times, at least according to the plan laid do^^-n for their execution, have been erected in St. Petersbm-g. Rocks, columns, obelisks, statues, triumphal arches, have been brought \\-ithin her gates, and such magnificent positions and accessories appointed, as have seldom fallen to the lot of monuments. Xo pains or expense is spared on the fit arrangement of those memorials, the best ai'tists have 90 THE MONUMENTS. been consulted on the plans, drawing-, and placing of them. Nevertheless, scarcely one has escaped some arch-blunder, which strikes every spectator at once, and yet escaped the notice of the many founders and rearers who reflected so long and so deeply about the matter. The largest and most interesting monuments of St. Petersbm'g, are the Alexander PiUar, Peter's Rock, the Rumanzoff Obehsk, the statues of Kutusoff, Barclay de Tolly, and Suvaroff, the equestrian statue of Peter the Great, and the Triumphal Arch.* When we examine the hst of Russian monuments, it is not a little striking, that far more have been raised to distinguished subjects than to the emperors themselves. Contrary to the practice of the Roman empe- Tors, and of so many ancient and modem princes, the Russian emperors have shown a great disinclination to the erection of monuments in their own honour dm'mg their lifetime, and keepmg themselves in the back- ground, they have put their subjects forwa,rd. The only monarch who has yet been honom^ed with statues is Peter the Great. Even the proud and vain Catherine has no memorial to her honour, either in the capital or else- where. Tiie greater part of the Russian monuments refer to the three chief epochs of their history ; to the period of the elevation of the Roma- noffs and the shaking off the Polish yoke ; (to them the memorials of 3Iimn, Posharski, and some others, are devoted ;) to the time of Peter the Great, and the reduction of the Swedish power ; and to the time of the struggle with the French Revolution and Napoleon, or rather against the whole of Western Europe, to which belong the Pyramids of Boradino, the Goddess of Victory, at Riga, the Alexander Colmnn, and the statues of a number of g'enerals. So much has been written in newspapers and books of travels of the Rock of Peter and Alexander's Pillar, that m spite of their size they might be hterally bm-ied under the load of praise and blame already bestowed, yet every one finds something new in them to laud or find fault with. Among trifling objections, the first to be made is to the inscription, *' Petro Primo, Catherina Secunda," or in Russian, equally short, " Petramu Pervoniu, Catherina Vtovaya.'" It is chiselled on the two long sides of the rock. To us, it seemed, decidedly, the proper place would have been in front, for every thing should have its inscription conspicuously on its fore- head. We do not indicate the intent of a building on the wings, but as a frontispiece over the cliief entrance. Enormous is the vanity displayed m this inscription. The allusion contained in the opposition of " the first " and " the second" is easUy comprehended, when we bear in mind that Catherme always looked on herself as the finisher of what Peter had begun. By tlois inscription, she not only places herself on a level with Peter, but above him as a judge, a goddess to acknowledge and reward merit. But tliis is easier forgotten than the bad treatment which the rock on winch the statue stands has experienced. The idea of a rider springmg up a rock, on both sides of which steep precipices threaten destruction, and of representing him at the moment when he has reached * The passion for monuments has gained the complete mastery over the Russians. By searching in their history, a numbur of remarkable men and events have been found whicli are held worthy of monuments. Witness the Pyramids on the battle- field of Boradino, tlieCohmm at Pultava, the Goddess of Victory, in Eiga, for 1813, the statues of Prince Posharski and the citizen Minin in Moscow, and several monuments in Zarskoye ISelo, and some other places. THE MONUMENTS. 91 the summit, and victoriously contemplates the land beyond, is as poetical and grand a one as ever was breathed by a sculptor on his work, and it were difficult not to find the parade-stepping- horses in our equestrian sta- tues of princes, feeble and sleepy, after seeing Peter galloping on his rock. The emperor's face is tm-ned towards the Neva, his hand outstretched as if lie would grasp land and water, at once riding and blessing. This idea was fine, bold, and amply sufficient ; and it is therefore inconceivable why the artist did not rest contented with it, and why to the rock-cHmbing he has superadded the subduing of a serpent, which the emperor encounters on the rock, and which is trodden under his horse's hoof. The great nde of art, the unity of idea and action, is sinned against ; and it is almost impossible to sympathize at the same moment with the emperor's joy at the wide prospect from the surmounted rock, and mth his effisrt in overcoming the dragon. St. George, in his fight with the dragon, is wholly employed in his work, has his eyes riveted to the devoiu'ing monster, and aims with his unerring lance at the head ; he has clearly no leisure to enjoy the pro- spect from the moimtaia. Peter's dragon is not threatening, but crawls like a slow worm, as if accidentally, over the path, where, accidentally also, the horse sets his foot on liim ; or does the artist mean us to understand that Peter, like a skdful horseman, causes him so to plant his hoof? Peter then does too much if he is blessing in the front and fighting in the rear : moreover, the issue of the fight is very uncertain. St. George's sharp, bright weapon threatens not in vain ; and if he pierce the creatiu^e's Lead, it is fixed to the ground for ever. Eut it is extremely improbable that the passing kick from the horse's hoof shoiJd put an end to the serpent at once. This incident disturbs the effect, but only in some measiu'e ; for the artist has felt that the two ideas were not very reconcUeable, and has therefore voluntarily, or involuntarily, made the one predominant. The serpent is so small, and Peter, who, hke Columbus, looking far beyond, with head and hand upraised, cries " Land ! land !" or rather, " Water ! water !" on beholding the Neva and the longed-for sea, seems to trouble liimself so little about the animal, that it may be overlooked, or might be fiJedj^ away to restore the unity. Perhaps the artist placed it here, only to obtain, by one of its contortions, a point of support for the horse. The animal springs forward quite freely in the air, and rests behind on thi-ee points, the two hind-legs and the tail, winch apparently only just touches the serpent, but is in reality strongly fastened to it ; it is pillar, prop, and cramp-iron. The bold air-bome position of the whole statue rendered necessary some particular precautions to preserve the centre of gravity. The tliickness of the bronze in front is therefore very trifling, only a few lines, but behind it increases to several inches : 10,000 poimds weight of ü'on is Kkevdse cast in the liind-quarters and tau of the horse — a tolerable aplomb ! The spring of the horse, the carriage of the rider, his well-chosen old Russian costume, are above all blame. But the treatment the rocky pedestal has xmdergone is terrible ; and here the artist's proceeding is quite incompre- hensible. This wonderfully fine block, Avhicli may have been torn by the Deluge from the Swedish mountains, Avas fomid in the morass of St. Pe- tersburg in one piece, 45 feet long, 30 high, and 25 in width. Seldom have the Titans been so obhging as to loosen so magnificent a mass from. its primeval rock, and deposit it in the neighbom'hood of an imperial city. The hint was only half understood. Vulcan himself had sent it away, 92 THE MONUMENTS. Neptune bore it Mther on Ms crystal waA^es, and Jupiter wrought it with his lightning, — its marks were yet apparent on the surface. As it -n^as, it offered the noblest pedestal for a statue of Peter the Great : they should even have hesitated to remove the stains and moss that Flora had planted on it. But, far from tliis observance, the cliisel was set to work after the lightning. They censured and criticised, and turned and scraped, tül the rock became so attenuated that the same thing occurred as befel the ehUd with liis scraped hon, in GeUert's fable — it broke in two. The two pieces were patched together, and it now looks as unnatural as the imitation rocks we see upon the stage. Some work may have been necessary on the brow of the stone to make a footing for the horse ; but it is certain it was not done with due precaution, and the value of the block is injiued three- fold by depriving it of a third of its size. It is now only 14 feet high, 20 broad, and 35 feet long. What is more remarkable is, that they did not begin to break it till after they had, with unspeakable labour, brought hither the whole mass, and buut a shi|) and a road for the purpose ! Peter's statue stands in the centre of the city he created, but not, un- fortmiately, in the centre of the noble place it adorns. They have hit the point better wth the i\lexander pillar. Before the chief front of the Winter Palace the vast edifice of the Generalty expands its enormous bow, to wliich the strait lure of the palace front forms the string. Between the bow and the string, at a hke distance from either, the stately cohmm rears itself. It is the greatest monolith raised in modern times — above SO feet in height, and, v/ith the angel on its summit, and the cubic block that supports it, 150 feet. The eye is delighted v^^ith the slender form of tliis giant ; it is highly pohshed, and reflects the outlines of the surrounding buildings in its cylindrical mirror. In any other city its enormous size would make a greater impression. Here in St. Petersburg, where the eye expands with the vast surrounding spaces, it is seen under a smaller angle of vision. The place m wliich it stands is so vast in its dimensions, the houses around are so high and massive, that even this giant requires its whole himdred and eighty feet not to disappear. But when we approach and become aware of its circumference, wliile its head seems to reach the heavens, the impression is strong and overpoweruag. The best points of view are the gateways of the Generalty and the Winter Palace ; from them it is contemplated as in a frame, and a point of measurement gained for the eye by which the height may be estimated. It is incomprehen- sible why the crown of the pillar has been made so wide and heavy. It extends so far over the shaft that the large angel "with the cross is not to be seen from beneath, and might as well not be there. To look at it pro- perly we must ascend the second story of the Palace, or go the distance of a verst on the Admiralty Place to observe it thence with a telescope. The thick -headedness of the pillar injures the effect of the height. This can be proved by a little experiment under the arch of the Palace. Place yourself so that the arch hides the top of the pillar, and it appears enor- mous : step forward, and let the tliick head of it come in sight, and it looks as if it had faUen on it and was pressing the colunui dowTi, whereas it ought to raise it. The worst of all is, that aheady an abominable womi is gnawing at this beautiful and still so new monolith. It has already received a very sad and offensive rent from above towards the middle. It may be that tlie stone was at first badly chosen, or that the cold of St. Petersbm-g will not tolerate such monuments of human art. There ai'8 THE MONUMENTS. 93 people in St. Petersbiu;!!- who hold it for a patriotic duty to deny the existence of the rent, Avhich has been artfully filled with a cement of gra- nite frag-meuts. But in the sunshine, when the polish of the rent shows differently^ from that of the stone ; or in the winter, Avhen the hoar-frost forms in icicles on the cold stone, but not on the warmer cement, the wicked line is but too apparent.* The idea of tins column is, hke every thing else in Russia, religio- political. It was erected in honoiu- of the Emperor Alexander, and is meant to eternalize, with his memory, that of the re-confirmation of the political constitution and of the secmity of religion. The attack of the irrehgious, vmbelieving Napoleon, is considered in Russia, not only as an attack on the state, but also as one on the faith. Hence the erection of the angel Avith the cross on the summit. This column, whose capital and ornaments on the pedestal vrere formed from Turkish cannon, tln-ows into one category all the enemies of Russia, the Tinks, the French, &c., and is the seahng, ratification, and immortahzation of all the modern victories of the Russian eagle. Till the present time this monument is the summit of Russian glory. God luiows what catastrophe will next give occasion to surpass those 150 feet. Will the inscription on the next monument run thus ? " The victorious Slavonian nations, united mider the Russian sceptre, erected this monument ingratitude for the conquest of the German races whose centmy of injustice has been at last atoned for, the dominions wrested from the Slavonians having been again incorporated with the Sla- vonian empire.'' Some people maintain that the Russian eagle has long brooded over the project of such an inscription, and that the embryo is akeady formed in the €gg. Only the date of the year is yet wanting. The memorial in the worst taste is that to Field-marshal Romanzoflf, for his victories over the Turks, with the inscription " Romantzowa pobaedam" (To the victories of Romanzoff). The Russian language is capable of the conciseness of the Latin. This monument is composed of half-a-dozen diiterent-coloured stones, and is ornamented with patches of metal besides. The obelisk itself is of black granite. It stands in a socket of red marble, whose base is of another coloiu", in addition to wliich there are several strata of vrhite marble ; and the whole bears on its extreme point a golden baE, with an eagle hovering- over it. In vain we ask what harmony the artist could find in all these various colom'S and materials. Fortunately this artistical abortion Avill not last long. There are already several rents and splits in. it, and so many pieces broken from all corners, that it looks as if it had stood for centm'ies. It will soon sinli luider its own weight. The eight Eg}^3tian Sphinxes, wliich lie not far from this mommient before the Academy of Ai't, seem to look deridingly on the unimposing obelisk. In defiance of the thousand years of warlilie tumult — in defiance of the countless burning suns, of the endless series of days and nights that have passed over their heads — they look as youthful as if newly born ; their skin as smooth and poHshed as when they came from the chisel. If ever a Russian commander deserved a monument it was SuvarofF, who, as is well kno\Aai, w^as a man of genius and an original, but who was also, what is not so well known, a wit and a good-hearted man. He has got the feeblest and worst of all. Certainly if SuvarofF could see his * See note at i^age 8. ,S4 THE MONUMENTS. owii statue he would make many an epigram upon it. It is a bronze statue, on foot, wielding a sword in the right-hand and holding a shield in the left, in defence over a few crovras — those of the Pope, Naples, and Sardinia. The crowns lie at his feet, on the pedestal of the statue. The position of the figure is that of a fencing-master, who has just quietly- drawn, and is about to show Ms pupU a thrust. The costume is Roman, and the whole so small that it is quite lost on the field of Mars, where it stands. The daily drumming and clash of arms that Suvaroff must hsten to here are the only things about the place that can be pleasing to him. What have people elsewhere, that St. Petersbm'g should not have ? Egypt had its obehsks. St. Petersburg has hers also. Paris and Rome are adorned with columns and triumphant arches ; so is St. Petersburg ; there are two triumphant arches there ah-eady. They span the two roads which connect the city with her most unportant territories ; the one, the road to Riga, leading to the West of Europe, the other, the Moscow road, leading to the heart of the empire. The former was raised by the city in honour of the Emperor Alexander when he returned in triumph from. Paris, the latter was built by the Emperor Nicholas. The fii-st is called " Triumphahiaya Vorota," or, by the people who know nothing about tri- umphs, " Triugolnaya" (The tliree-angled gate). It is built after the Roman model, but overladen mth inscriptions and a multitude of statues in niches, of old Russian warriors. On the platform of the gate the goddess of victory, in a car dravsm by four horses, gallops to meet the advancing emperor, and bestow on him a laurel crown. On the return of the em- peror, it was only in plaster and wood, and was afterwards executed in stone and metal. The car has really but four horses, and not five, like the quadriga of Mars on the Hotel de I'Etat Major. They say that four horses would not have sufficiently filled the space, and therefore a fitftli was added, to give greater size and effect to the mass. Thus, every fijae monument in St. Petersburg, with peculiar beauties, has also peculiar faults. One of its mythological groups has, contrary to every ride of art, a horse too much ; the second is faulty in design, the third is broken up and spoiled ha the execution, the fourth has a huge split, and another in scarcely the fortieth year of its existence threatens to become a heap of ruins and rubbish. What will remam for posterity ? These are our modern cities ! In the time of her glory, Rome boasted other mo- numents than these I Her stately ruuis prove it after a lapse of two thousand years. CHAPTER XII. THE ARSENALS. At no time are the streets of St. Petersburg wanting in soldiers and military processions ; but most uninterruptedly and diligently is the rush and roll of drums and flag, and the steady tramp of the military in the streets of that part of the city called by the Russians Liteinaya, which the troops must pass through on entering the city from the Viborg side, THE ARSENALS. 95 over Sunday bridge, and which moreover contains a number of military in- stitutions ; the barracks and stables for the artillery, amd the two arsenals, the new, and the old. The old arsenal, an enormous building, was erected by Count Orloff at liis own cost, and presented to the Empress Catherine.* The new one was built by the Em.peror Alexander, in a very magnificent style. Both are filled with glittering weapons, trophies, old military engines, and antiquities of importance in Russian history. A short account of them will not be unmteresting to the reader, particularly as this subject has been much neglected in the different works on St. Peters- bm-g, wliich is the more remai-kable as every thing here is open to every body. The endless ranges of apartments in both arsenals are adorned with comitless numbers of trophies formed of different weapons, innumerable flags, and instruments of mmxler, elegantly arranged into garlands, tapes- tries, and chamber arabesques, as if they were flowers and fruit, children of Pomona and Flora, and not the work of the Cyclops, the implements of Mars and the Furies. Man loves to sport poetically with the serious. Among all nations the military di'ess is variegated, gay, gUttering, and adorned. Wliile our citizens go about their peaceful employments in sad- colom'ed garments, om* warriors g'o to battle shining in all the colours of the rainbow. One would tliink black were a more fitting coloiu", the better to remind them of the melancholy nature of their trade ; to diminish their thirst for slaughter, to wxiich the outv/ard pomp of their business seems almost to invite. Their weapons should not be displayed in ele- gant ornamental compositions in arsenals, but kept piled up in the vaults of their churches ; perhaps wars would then be less frequent, and arms not be taken up lightly, biit only in the name of God and our native land. Among the trophies, there stands in one of the halls in the new arsenal a large Russian eagle, whose neck, body, and legs are composed of gun- flints ; the pinions of swords ; every feather on the breast and belly is a dagger ; every tail feather a yataghan ; the eyes, the muzzles of two black pistols ; the gullet, the bore of a cannon ; a terrible " oioli me län- gere,'" a proper symbol of the Russian state, which has soared to its pre- sent hight on the pinions of swords and bayonets. Woe to those who meet the lightning of that eagle's eyes, or the thunder of that terrible throat! Woe to those who rumple his sharp pinions, and whom his sabre claws shaU. tear. In another hall is a statue of Catherine in white marble, throned in a royal chair, and surrounded by all the emblems of imperial power. The statue was erected by Orloff in her lifetime, and presented with the building. Her horse, a white one stuffed, stands near her ; it should rather have been copied in marble ; such a bridled and saddled ghost makes too unmajestic a figure here. The saddle is not a lady's side-saddle, but an ordinary man's saddle ; Catherine must therefore have sat on horseback like one of her generals. Some of the historical souvenirs and antiquities are liighly interesting ; * Such patriotic gifts are not rare among the wealthy subjects of the Eussian em- perors. We often hear, Count has given a milhon to raise a corps of cadets ; that Prince has built a barrack at his own expense ; or that the merchant has given to some pubhc hbrary a hundred thousand rubles. In the year 1812, magiiificent ofFermgs of tliis kind were made ; but even in times of peace, not only legacies are left to the state, but, what is more remarkable, donations inter vivos, are made. 96 THE ARSENALS. for example, the standards of the Strelitz, huge thmgs made of pieces of silk sewed together, and adorned with many highly original pictm'es cha- racteristic of that fanatical Russian praetorian band, who may be justly called the Janizaries of Christianity. They are greatly deserving of the attention of historians, although, as far as I know, they have not yet been noticed by any. In the middle of the flag sits God the Father, holding the last judgment ; over his head is the azure sky of Paradise, beneath him blaze the flames of the infernal gulf ; at his right hand stand the just, that is, a chorus of Russian priests, a division of Strehtzes, and a number of bearded Russians ; to his left the unbelievers and the wicked, that is, a tribe of Jews, Turks, and Tartars, negroes, and another crowd in the dresses of Nyemtzi, or German West Europeans. Under each group the national name is inscribed ; and so, also, by those tormented in the flames of heU. " A Turban, a German, a Sliser, a Mm'derer," &c. Many angels, armed with iron rods, are busied in delivermg the rest of the un- believers, the shrieking Jews, Mahomedans, and other uifidels, to the custody of the devils. Such unnoticed pictm-es as these often speak more plainly than any thing else what is passing in the secret soiil. Near the flags lie a niunber of the accoutrements of the Strehtzes, and the hriages of their patron saints ; each saint has its own httle case, of which a whole row, fastened to straps, were worn on the breast, in a fashion similar to the Circassians. Some Russian cannon of the period are also placed here ; they are very large, cast in iron, and ornamented with silver and gold. To every emperor and empress since Peter the Great a separate apart- ment is devoted, containing the clothes, weapons, and utensils belonging to them, with the instruments of war in use at that time, uniforms, &c. &c. The uniforms of distinguished generals, A\itli all their orders, crosses, and ribbons, are here deposited in glass cases ; many thousand ells of histori- cally interestmg ribbons figm'e among them. With the help of this ca- binet a very good history of the Russian army might be composed. We .may here learn that the Semeonoff and Preobrashansld regiments of the guards, the most important and celebrated legions, the core of the Russian pretorian bands, diu-ing their century of existence have changed their uniform five-and-twenty times ; and that it does not now in the least resemble what it was a hmidred years ago. The changes of the Russian soldier from white to black, from red to green, from long to short, and from wide to narrow, are more manifold than those from caterpillar to chrysalis — from chrysalis to butterfly. In the chamber of Alexander there are not less than sixty orders that he wore : the broad ribbon of the order of St. George, however, is not among them ; the emperor would not accept it, although it was decreed him several times by the chapter of the order and the senate. Tliis order is only given for a great battle won, for the pre- servation of the empire, or the restoration of peace by a series of mihtary exploits ; and the emperor, who could not ascribe one of these deeds to himself personally, refused the honom', m order to maintain the credit of the order and its laws. Ever since Peter the Great, the Russian emperors have voluntarily sub- jected themselves to their own laws and ordinances, and thereby given their subjects a great example. The pike which Peter carried as a vo- lunteer in his own army, the uniforms he wore as sergeant, captain, and colonel, the leathern shirt he wore as a carpenter, all of which are pre- served in the arsenal, constantly warn his successors to follow his example. THE ARSENALS. 97 In Peter's apartment there is still kept the cabriolet he made use of to measure the roads ; the number of revolutions made by the wheels are shown by the machinery contained in the box behind. On the Hd of this box is a curious old pictm-e representing Peter's method of ti-avelling-. It is a portrait of the cabriolet itself, drawn by one horse, and driven by Peter. Behind him are newly-built houses, and gardens laid out ; before him a forest and a wilderness, to the annihilation of which he is boldly proceeding ; behind him the heavens are serene, before him the clouds are heaped up like rocks. As this pictm'e was probably designed by Peter himself, it shows what he thought of himself. In remarkable contrast with the little modest cabriolet of the road- analdng and measuring emperor is the great tiiumphant car, with its flags and kettle-drums, which Peter the Second drove before the band of his guards, at the time when the ladies wore hoop -petticoats and the gen- tlemen long perriwigs. Paul's rocking-horse ; Peter the Third's Hol- stein cuirassiers, who were so great a cause of vexation to the native Kussians ; Senka Rasin's state chair of ebony, garnished with rude pistols instead of lace ; the uniform of General Miloradovitsh,* m which the hole made by the bullet that pierced his heart in the revolt of the 14th of December, is yet to be seen — all furnish employment for the imagination of the historian. In this collection, the accou.trements of neighbouring states have not been neglected ; even the equipments of the Japanese and Chinese may here be studied. The cuirasses and coats of mail of the Japanese guards are made of tortoiseshell, wliich cover the whole body, and are put together in small scales : the face is concealed in a black mask representing an open-mouthed dragon. The Chinese soldier is clothed from head to foot in thickly-wadded cotton : if he cannot move about much in battle he must be, at all events, in some measure protected against arrows and cudgels. Grimacing masks are also in use among them. The timid have every where a great wish to infuse into others, by means of disguises, that terror which they cannot inspire by their ovm coiu'age. The Chinese weapons appear to have the same aim : among them is a halberd, of which the edge of the axe is nearly six feet long, an instrument of murder which would require a free space of ten feet diameter for every soldier to wield properly ; it seems destined for the destruction of giants, but a Roman soldier with his short sword would have been quite safe from them. Countless as are the uniforms, there is scarcely one to which the Russians have not once been opposed, the Japanese not excepted — and scarcely one from which they have not torn some trophy of victory. Those in the arsenals of St. Petersburg are splendid silver shields of Turkish leaders ; Polish, Prussian, French, and Persian flags ; and at least a thousand ells of silk in Turkish standards, besides a whole heap of crescents taken from the mosques. In one room we have an opportunity of admiring the singular forms of keys among various nations belonging to Persian, Grusinian, and Turkish fortresses stormed by the Russians. By every bunch of keys is a view of the city that stu-rendered them. A cannon-foundry is annexed to the new arsenal, where a powerful * The command of the emperor to deposit the uniform of a general or commander in a public place, the arsenals of St. Petersburg or Moscow, or in any cliiurch, is a peculiar distinction which has only fallen to the lot of a few patriots. H 98 THE ARSENALS. steam-engine is at work. The borers are held firm, and the heavy metal pieces o£ ordnance are made to tm-n on them by steam-engine ; more force is thus gi^'en to the tln-ust by their own weight than the hghter borer could impart. I should like to see the man who has now and then cast a glance on the dial-plate of time, and could walk among these fire vomiters without emotion. Truly, in the schools, in the workshops, they are labour- ing also at the grandem* of the empire : the merchant in liis speculations^ and the mechanic improving in his manipulations, are toihng indirectly to increase its power and extent ; but the cannon-founder stands iu more immediate reference to future battle, and all his work betrays too evidently Ms hostile purpose. Every touchhole that he bores, every gim's mouth that he polishes, excites, in a warhlce and growing state like Russia, hope fear, compassion, and the lust of battle. From tliis foundry, the marine as weU as the land artUlery is supplied ; we saw here gvtns to carry 1 20 pound balls. God give these monsters fdl draughts from Ocean's beakers and sink them to his lowest depths, where, obKvious of their fires, they may become the life-bowls of the shark, and a, safe dweUing and deposit for the oyster and its brood ! Such must, in fact, be the destiny of many. The workman knows not whether he toils at a fire-vomiter or a water-di-iolcer — at a giver of death or a protector of life — at a hurler of thunder or a house for a mute fish. Wlien the cannon are cast, bored, and finished, amid the songs of the workmen — a Russian workman is always singing, whether in the service of Ceres or of Mai's — they are brought to the place of trial, where they are thorouglily examined by the engineers and masters of the works, till at last the master sets his stamp upon them and baptizes them. The heavy birth is accompHshed. " Go on thy bloody path, thou giant chud, and let thy first stammering be in thunder ! Scare the enemy from the paternal fields ! Be thy country's truest friend and turn thy forehead to the foe, that her temples may stand, her gardens bloom, and her childi'en flourish in peace !" The finished camion are piled up in the spacious inner courts of the arsenal. We saw as many here, ready to the last nad, Tvith rammer, match, and sponge, as would have sufficed to give the spectacle of the battle of Leipsic over again. We counted 800 in one place, as yet all free from crime and blood ; but they bear evil in their hearts, and but await the wave of one mighty hand to begin, mth the aid of a thousand willing ones, their destructive flight. The veil that hangs over Em-ope's futiu-e is unpenetrable, and the West looks with terror for the moment when it shaU be raised. Where will be the theatre — what the parts that wiU be played by those actors, now ready pamted and dressed ? Wliose is the burning city — whose the host at which they are to aim ? To whom will Victory give the pahn ? WiU they enter Vienna, or Berlin, or Paris ? Triumphant, to threaten yet further, or captive and fettered, as silent trophies to adorn their pubKc buildings ? The courts of the arsenals are filled v/ith balls, the doors and passages adoi'ned 'v^'ith them in pyramids. They are black, and no prophetic or fate- proclaiming spirit hand has yet inscribed upon them " The — of No- vember, 18 — , to appear in the market-places ofOlmiitz;" or "in the spring of 18 — , with the first swallows, in Constantinople ;" or " to awaken up the English sauors at Wliitsuntide ;" or " to greet the Parisians on New Year's Eve ;" or " in 19 — , to brmg the rebellious Swedes to sub- THE ARSENALS. 99 mission;" or " in 1910, to make the Chinese pliant." In fact, so large a future lies before the Russian cannon-balls, their destiny is so adventurous, tliat fancy is tamed when she ponders on all the possible events in their existence, and on all the pens and printing-presses to which the description of their exploits may give employment. CHAPTER XIII. THE IMPERIAL, PALACES. When the Emperor Paul began to be afraid of his subjects, he in- trenched himself behind the strong walls of the Michailow Samok (fort). He pulled down the old suramer palace* on the Fontanlca, and built in its stead one of granite, siuroimded by walls and ditches, and bristling Avith cannon, and dedicated it to the archangel JMicbael according to Russian custom, which dedicates to protecting saints and angels not only chiu'ches, but fortresses, castles, and other buildings. The castle has a more gloomy exterior than the other palaces of St. Petersbm-g, and an extraordinary style of architecture. It is an immense, high, strong, massive square, whose four fa9ades all differ the one from the other. The ditches are again partly filled up, and laid out ia gardens, but the main entrance is still reached over several drawbridges, like a knightly castle in the middle ages. In the square before the chief gate stands a monument, msignificant enough as a work of art, which Paul erected to Peter the Great -n-ith the inscription, " Prodädu Pravnuk" (the grandson to the grandfather). Over the principal door, which is over-loaded -n-ith architectural ornaments, is inscribed in golden letters a passage from the Bible in the old Slavonian language. " On thy house, vrill the blessing of the Lord rest for ever- more." This prophecy was badly fulfilled, for the emperor had only inha- bited the house tlu-ee months when he met his death from a hand that his cannon could not protect him against. The palace was built v^ith extraordinary rapidity, five thousand men were employed on it daily tül its completion. To dry the walls more quickly, large iron plates were made red-hot, and fastened to the walls for a time. Nevertheless, the masses of stone and lime were not to be dried so rapidly, and very soon after the death of the emperor the palace was abandoned as quite uninhabitable. Although it has been completely re- pahed ; it has never been dwelt in since, but apphed to other purposes. The expense of the building was not less than 18,000,000 mbles. By taking sufficient time to it, it might easily have been done for six millions. The haUs and spaces of the castle are large and labj-rinth-like. A splendid marble stone staircase leads to the first story," and the vestibules and cor- * In opposition to tliis old summer palace, the usual residence of the Emperor is called the Winter Palace, which name, since the disappeararice of the " Summer palace," is meaningless. h2 100 THE IMPERIAL PALACES. ridors are paved with beautiful kinds of marble. The floorings of the saloons were taken from the Tauride palace, because the new ones could not be waited for. They have since been restored to their old places. The rooms where Paul was murdered are sealed and walled up. The Russians generally do this with the room in which then' parents die. They have a certain dread of them and never enter them wUlingly. The Emperor Alexander never entered them. The present emperor, who dreaded neither the cholera in Moscow, nor revolt in St. Petersburg, nor the dagger in Warsaw, but shows a bold countenance every v/here, has viewed them several times. These rooms, easily recognizable from without by their darkened and dusty windows, are on the second story. The apartments of the beautifid Lapuchin are directly under, on the first floor. They are now inhabited by the keeper of the castle. The stairs which led down from them are broken away. Dm'ing the reig-n of Alexander, the castle fell so much into decay, that when Nicholas caused it to be restored, it cost 62,000 rubles merely to remove the dirt and rubbish. The painted ceilings have considerable interest. In one is represented the revival of the order of Malta. Ruthenia, a beautifid virgm, with the features of Paul, is seated on a mountain. Near her, the mighty eagle. Fame flying from the south in terror announces the injustice done her in the Mediterranean, and entreats the mighty eagle to shelter her under his wing. In the distance is seen the island tlireatened by the waves and the hostile fleets. In another hall all the gods of Greece are assembled, whose various physiognomies are those of persons of the court at that time. The architect whose purse profited considerably by the building of the castle, appears among them as a flying Mercuiy. When Paul, who was a ready punster, and who knew very well that all the money he paid was not changed into stone and wood, caused the different faces to be pointed out to him, he recognised the face of the Mercury directly, and said laughing to his com'tiers, " Ah ! voila I'architecte, qui vole." The old Michaeloff palace is now the abode of the school of engineers. One hundred and fifty young persons here receive their mathematical and physical education. Its gardens are filled with blooming young cadets, who play and exercise there ; and the former audience and ban- queting-rooms are partly used as school, examination, sleeping, and eat- ing-rooms, for the pupils, and partly to hold collections of various objects of a very attractive kind, of the highest interest for Russian engineering, and the science of fortification. It is wonderfiü what progress they have already made in this branch. Russia, witli reference to its mihtary fortifications, is divided into ten circles. To the objects relating to the fortification of each circle, a sepa- rate hall is devoted. In large presses, in the halls, are kept all the plans, general and special, of already existing or projected fortresses. Each fortress has its own press for the materiel, in Avliich are specimens of the bric]