POPULARITY OF THE EMPEROR.

107

lection is in the hermitage which is now under repair. What interested me most were the private rooms of the emperor and empress, which were remarkable for their comfort, neatness, and simplicity. Alexander's private study and dressing-room, which, though not generally shown, we were permitted to see, was apparently just as he had left it, and answered completely my ideas of what a monarch's retirement ought to be. The table was heaped with books which we were not allowed to meddle with or take up, but among which I thought I distinguished Guichard and Folard; and round the room, which is small, were piled a great number of swords, musquets, rifles, and bayonets of different kinds and inventions; in the window-seats were some books of finance. The whole was so carelessly and naturally arranged, that I am convinced it was not intended as a show. In fact, his aversion to display of all kinds is the most striking part of his character, and it is even carried to excess. As he is now

in person with the army, and has, it is said, expressed a wish to win his spurs, before he assumes the military order of St. George, I fear we have little probability of seeing him before we leave Petersburgh. The Russians and English attempt to outdo each other in his praises; and the women in particular speak of him as the best, the most polite, and the handsomest man in the world. But after all allowance is made for their partiality, he appears to be really of a very amiable temper and manners, and a clear unperverted head; he is said, above all, to be active and attentive to his peculiar duties; he is neither a fiddler, a poet, a chemist, or a philosopher, but contents himself with being an emperor. His person, to judge by his busts and statues, is tall and strongly built; his complexion fair and pale; his hair light, and his face full and round. I have been anxious to give you some general idea of this amiable man, in whose character and conduct Europe is so deeply interested. The minuter traits in his character, which may perhaps be necessary to the shading the picture, and which are collected from the different anecdotes one picks up, will serve for fire-side talk. There is, however, one very remarkable trait which tends to illustrate his character; popular as he is, one hears very few anecdotes of him.

"I expect impatiently my mother's answer respecting Constantinople. I write but little on politics, partly because Petersburgh, from its remoteness, is out of the current of news almost as much as England; and partly because I do not choose to submit all my political observations to the chance of an inspection at the Post-office, which sometimes happens in England as well as on the continent. The war here is popular, and the people profess themselves, and I believe really are, friendly to the English cause and nation. If any thing could have diminished this feeling, it would have been, I think, the inactivity of the arms of Great Britain during the present coalition; to the want of a timely diversion in that quarter, there are many who are fond of attributing the dreadful calamities which have befallen Austria and though the presence of Englishmen was always a restraint, I have repeatedly been made half-mad by witnessing the deep and general indignation at the conduct of ministry; a conduct which I have often endeavoured to defend, at least as far as the general character of the country was at stake. You will likewise soon see the curious effect which this produced on the terms of a late offered negociation. Thank God, the victory of Trafalgar, followed up by the arrival of General Don, at Cuxhaven, has turned the scale in our favour, and the destruction of Boulogne, of which we are in daily hopes to hear, will give new spirits to the friends of England, and of what is emphatically called 'the good cause.' Pitt is, I believe, thought highly of here, though his late inactivity staggered their good opinion. The news from the Russian army continues comfortable to Europe and glorious to Russia. Bragration, of whose exploits you have heard, is a very remarkable character; he is a Georgian by birth, and chief of one of the tribes of Mount Caucasus; he was a favourite of Suwarof, and acquired great reputation in Italy."

CHAPTER IV.

PETERSBURGH TO MOSCOW.

Captain Davison's farm-entrance into Petersburgh-Russian weights and measures-Bridges-The Artelshiki-CzarskoZelo-Winter palace-Hermitage-Isaac's place—SenateIron works-Police-Washerwomen-Sledge-driving—Emperor's return to Petersburgh-Levy for the army-Emperor's court-Ramadan-Livonian peasants-Palace of Peterhof— Oranienbaum-Cronstadt-Novogorod-Valdai-Shoes made of linden bark-Abrock-Slaves-Tobolsk-Iver-AnecdoteRussian's treatment of his horses. 1805.

THE next in order among Mr. Reginald Heber's notes are the following memoranda on

PETERSBURGH.

"In approaching nearer to the capital no superior advances in civilization are visible; and all that gives you any idea that you are approaching it is the distant view of Cronstadt, and the palace of Oranienbaum, on the Livonian side of the gulf, which is here barely so wide as the Severn at its junction with the Avon below Bristol. There is also a high point of land not far from Oranienbaum, which arrests the attention, as being the only object which breaks the sea-like level you look down on from the last rocks of Finland. On descending these On descending these you have a magnificent view of the town, with its gilded domes and spires. Just without the barrier is a patch of land cultivated in the English manner by a Captain Davison, an English officer who came into Russia as secretary to Mr. Novosillzof; it is the only cultivated ground on this side of Petersburgh, and was reclaimed, at the expense of government, from a most unpromising morass,

where the emperor and his horse were nearly swallowed up two years ago. It is now become very tolerable ground, and being cropped and stocked in the English manner, already supplies the principal houses in Petersburgh with butter, garden-stuff, and butchers' meat, of a much better kind than they had before. Davison, who is a man of great resolution and industry, devotes himself entirely to it; he has acquired a perfect knowledge of the Russian language, and living himself on the farm, in the neighbourhood of a great capital, with a convenient water-carriage in summer, he will probably succeed in bringing it to perfection. Some slight inconveniences he complained of, such as being obliged to make his farm a show, which of course is a great interruption to his works. He hopes, by crossing the breeds of Russian cattle with those of other nations, to produce a breed more suited to the climate than any yet known. The Russ cattle and sheep are but of very imperfect qualities, except the Archangel cattle, which were originally brought there by a mere accident from Holstein. The Archangel veal is a very celebrated dainty at Petersburgh. The soil of Davison's farm he described as suited to the Norfolk system of husbandry; its chief products at present are cabbages, turnips, and a root peculiar to Russia, larger than a turnip and of the same colour, but of a conical form; it is eaten raw like a radish, which it resembles in taste. For cattle it is a very good winter provision. Potatoes are as yet scarce in Russia, and the people have not got over their prejudices against them. Mr. Jackson, of Petersburgh, told me that one of the dvornichs (house-slaves) asked him with much anxiety, if the troops sent to Germany would be well fed. On his answering in the affirmative, 'but, sir,' said the Russian, are you sure they will not give them potatoes? The only garden-stuff on which the Russians set much value are cabbages, cucumbers, water-melons, and onions; these, with hemp and linseed-oil, a few pickled sprats, rye-bread, qwass, which they generally mingle salt, and buckwheat boiled with oil, form the diet of a peasant. It does not appear a very strengthening one; yet they certainly thrive on it, and are preserved by this and their baths from the itch, scurvy, and other disorders to which the Swedes and Norwegians, though a much

cleaner race, are dreadfully subject. I need only mention the Plica Polonica to show that their southern neighbours are still worse off.

"Davison's butter is stamped with the imperial eagle, and the farm is called the imperial farm; the emperor when at Kameny Ostrof pays much attention to it, and takes great pleasure in riding about it and showing the improvements at Kameny. Ostrof is a small lodge on an island of the Nevka, adjoining the farm; the emperor and empress pass there a great part of every summer; it is a low, green, and marshy situation embosomed in trees, on the right hand entering into Petersburgh.

"We entered the city by a long suburb, then passed the Nevka by a bridge of boats to the island of the citadel, and thence by another of the same construction across the magnificent Neva. The view is here strikingly grand; in front are the summer gardens with a very high iron gilt palisade, which has a fine effect among the lime trees, over which rises the gilt spire of Paul's palace of St. Michael; on the left-hand the length of the granite quay is lined with very magnificent private houses, and is bounded in the distance by the dome of the Taurida palace; the right-hand view is filled with the marble palace, the house built by Paul for the princess Gargarin, the theatre, Hermitage, winter palace, and the admiralty with its gilded spire. On turning round you see on the other side of the river the citadel with its granite bastions, and the cottage of Peter the Great close beneath them; a little further the cadet corps, and lastly the new college of arts and sciences. On driving through the town as we did by the Isaac's place, the statue of Peter the Great, &c., to the Quai de Galerenhof, our admiration was continually on the stretch; and though it was no doubt increased by the comparison of what we saw now with what we had seen in Sweden and Norway, it is certain that, however deficient in taste, convenience, or durability, each building taken separately may appear, as a whole the plan and coup d'œil of Petersburgh may be considered as almost a standard of beauty. Its situation and distribution may be better traced by the plan than by any Its streets are generally very wide, and the houses low, nor always contiguous; the Nevska perspective is the prin

account.