among the peasants; gives billets for quarters to soldiers, or to government officers on a journey, and performs all the lesser public duties of a similar nature. Sometimes the proprietor of the district claims the right of his appointment. A slave can on no pretence be sold out of Russia, nor in Russia to any but a person born noble, or, if not noble, having the rank of lieutenant-colonel. (This rank is not confined to the military, but may be obtained by men in civil situations.. Professor Pallas had the rank of brigadier.) The law is, however, eluded, as 'roturiers' frequently purchase slaves by making use of the name of some privileged person; and all nobles have the right to let out their slaves for hire. Such is the political state of the peasants; with regard to their comfort and means of supporting existence, I do not think they are deficient; their houses are in tolerable repair, moderately roomy, and well adapted to the habits of the people; they have the air of being sufficiently fed, and their clothing is warm and substantial. Fuel, food, and the materials for building are very cheap, but almost all kinds of clothing are dear; for a common peasant's cloth kaftan we were asked thirty rubles; and even supposing the tradesman would have taken less, yet twenty is more than twice the price of an English peasant's coat. In summer they generally wear nankeen kaftans, one of which costs thirteen rubles. The labkas (linden bark sandals) cost nothing. They wear a blue nankeen shirt, trimmed with red, which costs two or three rubles; linen drawers, and linen or hempen rags wrapped round their feet and legs, over which the richer sort draw their boots. The sheepskin schoube costs eight rubles, but lasts a long time, as does a lamb-skin cap, which costs three; the common red cap is about the same price. To clothe a Russ peasant or soldier completely is, I apprehend, three times as chargeable as in England; their clothing, however, is strong, and, as being loose and wide, lasts longer. A Russ is very seldom seen quite in rags. With regard to the idleness of the lower classes, of which we had heard great complaints, it appears that where they have an interest in exertion, they by no means want industry, and possess the same desire for luxuries which other people do. The great VOL. I.-18 proprietors never raise their rents, and have very rich and prosperous peasants. * * * * * * The crown peasants, also, it is rea sonable to suppose, are happy, living at their ease, paying a moderate quit-rent, and choosing their own starosta; they are, however, more exposed to vexation and oppression from the petty officers of the crown.* "The time when the levies for the army are made is looked upon by the peasants with great terror. Baron Bode told me that they generally kept the levy a secret as long as possible, till they had fixed on and secured a proper number of men; these men are, for the most part, kept chained until they are sworn in; the forepart of their heads is then shaved, and they are thus easily distinguished from other peasants; after this desertion is very rare and very difficult. "The distress of one of their popular dramas, which we afterwards saw acted at Yaroslav, in the private theatre of the governor, Prince Gallitzin, consists in a young man being pressed as a soldier. In the short reign of Peter the Second, who, it is well known, transferred again the seat of government to Moscow, no man was forced to become a soldier ; the army was recruited by volunteers, and slaves were permitted to volunteer.† "Of the agriculture of the country we, of course, were unable to form a judgment; it appears from Gmelin that in this part of Russia a custom prevails of cutting the corn when it is green, and drying it afterwards in smoke. Near Valdai is found in great abundance the gordius aquaticus, a worm like a hair, which is said to eat into the flesh. In the hills coal is found resembling the Scotch; it lights with difficulty, but emits a strong heat; yet it will not support the action of the bellows, and is, consequently, useless in a forge. There are also salt springs. "The oak and ash-trees abound in the hills. The country *This account of the peasants is an abrégé from the different statements we heard at Moscow, chiefly from Prince Theodore Nicalaiovitz Gallitzin. + See Manstein. * Gmelin Recuil des Voyages, Vol. V. p. 73. TVER-RUSSIAN'S TREATMENT OF HIS HORSE. 139 people apply to wounds a powder of the dried leaf of the wild geranium; they make great use of other wild vegetables, boiling the wild angelica, the rumex obtusa, (sorrel,) the atriplex hastata, (orache,) which, boiled with fish or meat, supplies the place of sour crout; from this last plant they make a kind of treacle. Quas is made with unleavened bread allowed to ferment in water exposed to a gentle heat. "Vischnei Volotchok is famous for the canal which joins the Mesta and Twertza, and by this means the Baltic and the Caspian. "Torshok is chiefly remarkable for its leather manufactories. We here met with a famous receipt for the cure of rheumatism, which consists of an oil extracted from horse-radish, which is both taken internally and used externally. Tver is a very fine town; the old town was burnt down in the time of Catherine the Second, and rebuilt by her on a regular plan. This part of Muscovy possesses a great advantage in its quarries of freestone, which is very handsome but not very durable. "At the post after we left Klin, the drivers in order to have a good bargain by carrying us all the way to Moscow, drove us, without our knowledge, five versts beyond the post-house. We obliged them to return, and saw a singular instance of the authority of the postmaster of a petty village receiving-house, who, though his station was not more dignified than that of the lowest clerk of the post-office in England, yet ordered these two fellows to be beaten soundly with hazel sticks on the bare back, which was immediately done, the men roaring out lustily. He then took from them the money we had paid them, and put their horses in requisition to go the next stage. ઃઃ * * * * The carriers, of whom we daily met thousands, each with his 'sanky,' (small sledge) and single horse, travel many hundred versts without even allowing their horses to lie down; they feed them very liberally with corn, but only let them stand for about an hour every night in one of the serais. A small horse can draw the prodigious weight of thirty pood along a sledge-road; for carriage from Petersburgh to Moscow, which is 720 versts, the charge is from thirty-five to forty copeks the pood." CHAPTER V. MOSCOW. Aspect of the country-Russian cottages-Entrance into Moscow -Society-Greek funeral-History of Moscow-Kitai-gorod -Kremlin-Antiquities-Churches-Palaces-Foundling hospital-Theatres-College of foreign affairs-Prison—Inundation-Silk manufactories-Beauty of the women-Journey to Kostroma-Palace of Count Sheremetóf--Manners of the Russian gentry-Convent of Bethany-Monks-Clergy-Visit to Archbishop Plato--His conversation and appearance-Homilies -Rostof-Madame Vassilchikof-Yaroslav-Manufactures— Greek ordination service-Wolf hunt-Kostroma—Prison— Orphan-house-Tartar families-Return to Moscow. 1806. "MY DEAR Mother, "To Mrs. Heber. Moscow, Jan. 4, 1806. "OUR journey has been prosperous, and after about ninety hours' continued jolting, we arrived safely at Moscow about eight o'clock last night. Mr. Bayley* came with us, and we have found his knowledge of the Russian language and manners of great service to us on the road. Our method of travelling deserves describing, both as very comfortable in itself, and as being entirely different from every thing in England. We performed the journey in kibitkas, the carriages usually employed by the Russians in their winter journeys; they are nothing more than a very large cradle, well covered with leather, and placed on a sledge, with a leather curtain in front; the luggage is packed at the bottom, the portmanteaus serving for an occa * Sir Daniel Bayley, now, 1830, Consul-general of England in St. Petersburgh. -ED. ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY. 141 sional seat, and the whole covered with a mattrass, on which one or more persons can lie at full length, or sit supported by pillows. In this attitude, and well wrapped up in furs, one can scarcely conceive a more luxurious mode of getting over a country, when the roads are good, and the weather not intense; but in twenty-four or twenty-five degrees of frost, Reaumur, no wrapping can keep you quite warm; and in bad roads, of which we have had some little experience, the jolting is only equalled by the motion of a ship in a storm. "In the weather we were very fortunate, having a fine clear frost, about as mild as an English Christmas. Our first forty hours were spent in traversing an unfertile and unlovely country, the most flat and uninteresting I ever saw, with nothing but occasional patches of cultivation, and formal fir woods, without a single feature of art or nature which could attract attention. Once, indeed, from a little elevation, we saw the sun set to great advantage; it was singular to see it slowly sinking beneath the black and perfectly level horizon of the sea of land which surrounded us. The night which followed was distinguished by more jolting than usual; and about sun-rise Thornton drew the curtain, and cried out England.' I started up and found we were on the summit of a low range of stony hills, with an enclosed and populous country before us, and a large town, Valdai, which, with its neighbourhood, had some little resemblance to Oxford, as seen from the Banbury road. This is, in fact, the boundary of Ancient Russia; all beyond were the territories of Novogorod, Istria, and the other countries they have conquered. "The whole plain from Valdai to Moscow is very level, entirely arable, generally common fields with some shabby enclosures, thickly set with villages and small coppices, in which the firs begin to be relieved by birch, lime, ash and elm. Tver and Torshok are large towns, but have nothing in them to detain a traveller. During this journey I was struck by observing the very little depth of snow on the ground, which was not more, or so much as we often see in England, and no where prevented my distinguishing the meadows from the stubble fields. Mr. Bayley said he had often made the same observation, and that |