and borders of a most beautiful pattern of flowers in brilliant colours, which had been entirely made at home by a young girl, who brought it to us to exhibit, and who was then employed upon another which we saw in progress. Even the wool, the colours of which were admirable, had been dyed in the house. The shawl was valued at fifteen hundred roubles, about sixty-two pounds, and it had occupied the girl who made it about a year and a half.

In almost every house some female art is carried on, useful or ornamental; and the women are employed in spinning, weaving, knitting, carpet-making, &c.; for the raw material in Russia is worth little, and the manufactured article alone is valuable in the market.

The ladies of England, however, "who live at home at ease,” little know the disagreeable and troublesome duties of inspection and correction which thus devolve upon the mistress of a family in Russia, from all the various branches of domestic industry which she is obliged to superintend. The discipline of the estate and of the household is maintained by means of the lash, from which neither sex is exempt. The frequency and severity of its use depends on the character of the master or mistress, many of whom, like those among whom I have lived, voluntarily limit the application of this punishment to male offenders, and always resort to it with great reluctance. The system, however, is revolting in itself; and it necessarily opens the door to frequent scenes of gross oppression and cruelty, where, as sometimes happens, the power is vested in hands nearly as rude as those of the serf himself. All owners of serfs are noble, but the law cannot make them all gentle.

The following anecdote, which I am assured is true, will illustrate the results of serfdom, while it will remind you of my remarks in a former letter on the Russian system of military rank, as furnishing the universal rule of precedence. Among the serfs owned by a widow lady was a girl, who had been brought up with unusual indulgence in the household, receiving a superior education, and acquiring manners far beyond those of her class; to which advantages was added the natural gift of an attractive person. At a proper age she was apprenticed at Petersburg to a French dressmaker or milliner;

The girl conducted her

and, having attained to some skill in the business, she was after a time offered profitable employment. This her mistress permitted her to accept, on the usual payment of an obrok to herself in lieu of personal service. self well in her situation, acquiring a knowledge of French, and forming habits of some refinement. Here she attracted the notice of an officer of the rank of colonel, who in due time proved his attachment by offering her marriage. The girl accepted his proposal, and nothing remained but to obtain her freedom from her mistress, the consideration for which—or in plain words the purchase-money-the colonel was eager to pay. This ought to have been regulated by the obrok which the girl had paid, calculated at so many years' purchase. The lover, however, was not inclined to dispute the price the lady might demand, but on applying to her, and unfortunately explaining the state of affairs, he received for answer that on no terms whatever would she emancipate her slave. Every effort was used to shake her resolution, which appeared unaccountable; but argument, entreaty, and money were alike unavailing, and the lady remained inexorable; giving in the end the clue to her obstinacy, by observing that she would never see her serf take precedence of her, as she would do if married to a colonel, while she was herself but the widow of a major. The match was necessarily broken off, and the girl's prospect of happiness destroyed. To complete her misery, her mistress revoked her leave of absence, and ordered her immediately to return to her native village; an order which the system of passports and police rendered it impossible to resist or evade. Arrived in the village, the unhappy girl, accustomed to the habits and comforts of civilised life, was clothed in the coarse garments of an ordinary peasant, and was moreover ordered forthwith to marry a rough-bearded moujik, or common country labourer. Revolting at this tyranny, and refusing to obey, she was flogged, and, though she still resisted for a while, a long continuance of cruel and degrading treatment conquered her in the end; and she was forced to submit to the miserable lot entailed upon her by the wretched jealousy of her remorseless mistress. The story of this barbarity was told me with an

indignation as strong as could be felt among ourselves, but there was no redress for the sufferer. The mistress up to a certain point had the law on her side, and where she had not, as in the compulsory marriage, might overpowered right. That such a case should be possible sufficiently condemns the whole system of serfdom.

Frost White hares

LETTER XII.

Russian game-laws A wolf in a house

- The

mode in which these animals catch dogs - Anecdotes of wolves - Their haunts-Modes of destroying them-By poison, pitfalls, traps, shooting Good sport Bear-shooting

A man besieged by wolves - Bears -Mode in Novogorod of getting rid of bears respect to these animals - Lynxes-Elks.

Singular notions with

Rascazava, November 20th, 1837.

THE winter, according to our English ideas, has now fairly set in, and that with considerable severity. Since the beginning of this month, with the exception of a thaw once or twice for a day or two, we have had very severe frost, and the ice over the rivers is beginning to be passable even for horses and vehicles. Nevertheless, in Russia it is still considered as autumn; for, with the exception of a mere occasional sprinkling, we have as yet no snow, which is so far an advantage that the ground is dry and hard under foot, and we are not precluded from taking exercise and enjoying the sunshine.

Of all animals it appears to me that the hares just at present have most reason to wish for snow. They have now become perfectly white, and, as the ground is not yet of the same colour with themselves, they may be seen fifty yards off on their forms, and must fall a very easy prey to their enemies, the wolf and the eagle, to say nothing of human pursuers.

You perhaps may not be aware that there are game-laws in Russia which prohibit the destruction of game in the spring. The laws, however, on this subject are not, I believe, very rigidly enforced, and the protection therefore which they are intended to afford to the breeding of game is of little effect.

I was presented the other day with the skin of a large wolf, which was killed last winter under somewhat singular circumstances in a neighbouring gentleman's house. The house, which is small, is situated in a retired spot on the outskirts of

a large wood, extending up to the very door. There were some puppies about, which probably attracted the wolf, and, emboldened by famine, he followed one of them into the house-a step which eventually proved as fatal to himself as to his prey. The house-door opened into a small ante-room, on one side of which was the kitchen, and on the other a room in which the cook's wife happened to be employed at the time. This woman, seeing the animals indistinctly in the dusk, called out to her husband, who was in the kitchen, that a strange dog had followed one of the puppies into the house. The cook looked out of the kitchen-door, and saw, not a dog, but a wolf in the ante-room, devouring the unfortunate puppy. He called out to the people in the yard, who pulled to the house door, so that the trespasser could not escape; and then they fetched a gun which they handed in through the window to the cook. The wolf was now alarmed; and when the man opened the kitchen-door cautiously, and thrust forward the gun to shoot, the beast rushed at him, and, seizing the barrel of the gun in his teeth, almost pulled it out of the cook's hands. He however recovered it, and retreating secured the door. After a few minutes the cook ventured to look forth again, when he saw the wolf crouched against the door of his wife's room opposite. He called to her to make a noise inside to disturb him, upon which the beast got up, and moving aside he instantly received a shot in the head, which the cook followed up by beating out his brains with the butt-end of the gun.

Wolves are exceedingly fond of dog's-flesh, and they sometimes make use of a very cunning stratagem to obtain it. A wolf or two will approach a village in the day-time, upon which all the dogs run out and begin to bark at them. The wolves then pretend to be frightened and retire, upon which the dogs take courage and advance. At length, by alternately stopping and running away, the wolves entice a few of the more adventurous curs to a considerable distance from the village, when they suddenly turn round upon their foremost pursuers and carry them off.

Most parts of Russia are sadly infested by these animals, which commit great depredations among the cattle. They are, generally speaking, afraid of human beings, but they occa