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them away, they are returned without even being wiped. If he looks behind him, he will see a servant spit in the plate he is to receive, and wipe it with a dirty napkin, to remove the dust. If he ventures (which he should avoid, if he is hungry) to inspect the soup in his plate with too inquisitive an eye, he will doubtless discover living victims in distress, which a Russian, if he saw, would swallow with indifference. Is it not known to all, that Potemkin used to take vermin from his head, and kill them on the bottom of his plate at table? and beauteous princesses of Moscow do not scruple to follow his example. But vermin unknown to an Englishman, and which it is not permitted even to name, attack the stranger who incautiously approaches too near the persons of their nobility, and visit him from their sophas and chairs. If at table he regards his neighbour, he sees him picking his teeth with his fork, and then plunging it into a plate of meat which is brought round to all. The horrors of a Russian kitchen are inconceivable; and there is not a bed in the whole empire, which an English traveller, aware of its condition, would venture to approach.-There is, in fact, no degree of meanness to which a Russian nobleman will not condescend. To enumerate the things of which we were eye-witnesses, would only weary and disgust the reader. I will end with one.

"A hat had been stolen from our apartments. The servants positively asserted, that some young noblemen, who had been more lavish of their friendship and company than we desired, had gained access to the chambers in our absence, and had carried off the hat, with some other moveables, even of less value. The fact was inconceivable, and we gave no credit to it. A few days after, being upon an excursion to the convent of the New Jerusalem, forty-five versts north of Moscow, a party of the nobles, to whom our intention was made

known the preceding evening at the Club de Noblesse, overtook us on horseback. One of them, mounted on an English racer, and habited like a Newmarket jockey, rode up to the side of the carriage, but his horse being somewhat unruly, he lost his seat, and a gust of wind carried off his cap. My companion immediately descended, and ran to recover it for its owner; but what was his astonishment, to perceive his own name, and the name of his hatter, on the lining! It was no other than the identical hat which one of the party had stolen from our lodgings, now become a cap, and which, under its altered shape, might not have been recognised, but for the accident here mentioned.”

“This is amusing. The feeling it excites is similar to that which the excessive abuse of an angry man transported beyond the occasion sometimes produces. One, however, is not sure whether such extravagance deserves contempt or derision, nevertheless it is cleverly told.

"In his description of Moscow, he has had plainly in his mind the idea of the French prince, who said of that celebrated capital, that it looked like an assemblage of old chateaux come in from the country, each attended by its own particular village; but still it is very good, though here and there heightened by the general splenetic humour into which the doctor falls as often as he treats of any thing concerning the Russian nobility."

THE CITY.

"We arrived at the season of the year in which this city is most interesting to strangers. Moscow is in every thing extraordinary; as well in disappointing expectation as in surpassing it; in causing wonder and derision, pleasure and regret. Let me conduct the reader

back with me to the gate by which we entered, and thence through the streets. Numerous spires glittering with gold, amidst burnished domes and painted palaces, appear in the midst of an open plain, for several vrests before you reach this gate. Having passed, you look about and wonder what is become of the city, or where you are; and are ready to ask once more, How far is it to Moscow? They will tell you, "This is Moscow !' and you behold nothing but a wide and scattered suburb, huts, gardens, pigsties, brick walls, churches, dunghills, palaces, timber-yards, warehouses, and a refuse, as it were, of materials sufficient to stock an empire with miserable towns and miserable villages. One might imagine all the states of Europe and Asia had sent a building, by way of representative, to Moscow; and under this impression the eye is presented with deputies from all countries holding congress: timber huts from regions beyond the Arctic-plastered palaces from Sweden and Denmark, not whitewashed since their arrival-painted walls from the Tyrol-mosques from Constantinople-Tartar temples from Buchariapagados, pavilions and virandas from China-cabarets from Spain-dungeons, prisons, and public offices from France-architectural ruins from Rome-terraces and trellisses from Naples-and warehouses from Wapping. Having heard accounts of its immense population, you wander through deserted streets. Passing suddenly towards the quarter where the shops are situated, you might walk upon the heads of thousands. The daily throng is there so immense, that, unable to force a passage through it, or assign any motive that might convene such a multitude, you ask the cause, and are told that it is always the same. Nor is the costume less various than the aspect of the buildings; Greeks, Turks, Tartars, Cossacks, Chinese, Muscovites, English, French,

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Italians, Poles, Germans, all parade in the habits of their respective countries.

"We were in a Russian inn; a complete epitome of the city itself. The next room to ours was filled by ambassadors from Persia. In a chamber beyond the Persians lodged a party of Kirgisians,-a people yet unknown, and any one of whom might be exhibited in a cage, as some newly-discovered species. They had bald heads covered by conical embroidered caps, and wore sheeps' hides. Beyond the Kirgisians lodged a nidus of Bucharians, wild as the asses of Numidia. All these were ambassadors from their different districts, extremely jealous of each other, who had been to Petersburg to treat of commerce, peace, and war. The doors of all our chambers opened into one gloomy passage, so that sometimes we all encountered and formed a curious masquerade. The Kirgisians and Bucharians were best at arm's length; but the worthy old Persian, whose name was Orazai, often exchanged visits with us. He brought us presents, according to the custom of his country; and was much pleased with an English pocket knife we had given him, with which he said he should shave his head. At his devotions, he stood silent for an hour together on two small carpets, barefooted, with his face towards Mecca; holding, as he said, intellectual converse with Mahomet.

"Ambassadors of other more Oriental hordes drove into the court-yard of the inn, from Petersburg. The emperor had presented each of them with a barouche. Never was any thing more ludicrous than their appearance.—Out of respect to the sovereign, they had maintained a painful struggle to preserve their seat, sitting crosslegged like Turks. The snow having melted, they had been jolted in this manner over the trunks of trees, which form a timber causeway between Petersburg and

Moscow: so that when taken from their fine new carriages, they could harly crawl, aud made the most pitiable grimaces imaginable. A few days after coming to Moscow, they ordered all the carriages to be sold for whatever sum any person would offer."

CHAP. XXXIV.

HIGH MASS IN ST PETER'S.

WHEN the Nymph had concluded, Benedict reached his hand to a shelf behind him, and took down Eustace's Tour in Italy.

"With all Dr Clarke's merits as a traveller," said he," he has produced no two such volumes as these."

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"Yes," replied Egeria, "I agree with you; but then many of the topics which the doctor has handled freely and philosophically, Mr Eustace would not have ventured to touch. Besides, you will allow that much of the Tour in Italy derives its interest and beauty from the religious faith of the traveller. No Protestant can feel in that country like a Catholic; he will see only mummery and pageants in those rites and mysteries which elevate the other into the ecstasies of holiness and adoration. But although Mr Eustace, in this respect, often awakens the sympathy even of Protestant readers, by descriptions of sights and shows which a less reverential pilgrim to the shrine of St Peter would either have passed by unheeded or scoffingly, his good taste has

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