Three Cities In Russia.pdf

THREE CITIES IN

RUSSIA

Charles Piazzi Smyth

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HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

FROM THE FUND OF

CHARLES MINOT CLASS OF 1828

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THREE

CITIES IN

RUSSIA. BY

Peopessor C.

PIAZZI J^MYTH-F.R.SS.L.&E.,

ASTBONOMKB BOTAL FOB SCOTLAND, AUTHOR OF

'

TF>' EBIFFE, AJC

A8TKOKOMBBS EXPt BIMIICI,'

ETC. ETC.

IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL.

II.

^

LONDON LOVELL

REEVE &

CO.,

5,

HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 1802.

[The right of Translation

it

reservtd.

)

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CONTENTS OF THE

SECOND VOLUME. 4-

1?AIRT

—

MOSKVA

II.

continued. 1AGE

CUAPTEB

A

VT

fiT,TMATTt

Change

Monasteries Guns and Bells Anrau to Moskva

Til.

VUI. IX.

PART HI. I.

II.

III.

IV.

y VI. VII. VIII.

IX.

ST.

.

,

,

,

38 62 .

.

.

.

.

.

PETERSBURG REVIEWED.

Ti twtt >f

114 160

.

I

ation 's Day

Russian Natural,

.

Science

Somewhat

op Politics

X. Social, Extremes

177

196

Mammoth

Society

103

.

Palaces and Heroes The youKDiSG of Pllkova Observations Attempted

The Frozen

83

.

Tiie Empebor's Name-Day

^T t

3

.

,

213 .

.

.

.

.250 280 302 321

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CONTENTS.

iv

PART

IV.

NOVGOROD.

CHAPTER I.

II.

E^QJS

Summation of Reasons

fifiS

The Volchov River

373 389 4Q8

III.

Lions of Novgorod

IV.

Conversations in Novgorod

V. VI. VII.

Ways and Means

.

.

.

of Life

4

Alexander Nevski, and the End

Index to the Second Volume

34

468

RORIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS St.

.

.

.

.491

529

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ILLUSTRATIONS

TO VOL.

II.

MAPS. TAG*

Map, and Section, thb Great Russian Plain

Geological

from

Finland THBoroH 1

WOOD-ENGRAVINGS. L Ax

Embryo Artist

unmindful of bis Affle stall— Frontispiece.

II.

Approach to thb

Nikolatevbki Bridge on the Vas*

siu-Obtrov side III.

IV.

A Rainy Day

216

in a Russia* City

Reefing Topsails

in tbe

North Sea

.

.

.

.408

.

.

.517

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" It

is

a feature of tyranny to keep a country always in a state

of agitation

;

for tyrants

make

their

own

and mutual oppositions of the people. to preserve undisturbed

safety out of the discord,

But

the safety and prosperity of their subjects, of the power of

is

Kings."— Epistle of PAotius,

the Bulgarians, a.d. 869.

belongs to royalty

it

the peace of a community;

because, in

placed the fulcrum to Michael,

King of

Digitize

«

ERRATA TO VOL. Page

IT.

"and" to be inserted after "waves" and in the next line to be deleted after " distance." for f read of. 7, line 16, for in read from. 51, line J>, for Svatoslav read Sviatoslav. 115, line 4, insert "of" after "hardest." 110, line 15, for Stephenson read Stevenson. 100, foot-note, for Plate III. read Plate II. read 200, line 24, for 220, line 23, for ome read some. 239, line 11, for too read to. 274, line 16, for rooms' read rooms. 276, line 25, for lso read also. 278, foot-note, for o read to.

4, line 24,

6, line 16, ?» ?» >?

?> ••

M II

»J

,.

„

VOL.

282, 358, 462. 511,

foot-note,

for

vi. rait/ iii.

line 1, for became read become. " insert " the Baron." line 7. after " line 16, for soared read pointed. " " insert " *truve." 644, entry Ul for

He

B

II.

/

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THREE

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

PART

II.

MOSKVA.

(continued.)

tol. n.

B

"

The language of

the heavens

encompassing the city with

its

is

floating

glorious

through the sky, and

hymn."

Mouravieff.

Q.

S.

Edwabds.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

PART

II.

MOSKVA.

(continued.)

CHAPTER

VI.

A CLIMATE CHANGE. September 5th and 6th.

morning of the

The

other since

every

we had

tour,

we were met by

out

an

at

a great black coach

early-

drawn by

black horses, and accompanied by bare-headed

men in black robes.

ture

arrived in Moskva, broke

and sombre; and on going forth

dull

four

5th, strangely contrasting with

on the

No human

being was inside,

seat of honour there reposed the pic-

of the Iverskaya Mother, and

taken,

we were informed, to

it

was being

a sick and dying person.

We had

carried out our camera on this occasion,

in

order to

photograph the belfry and upper crosses

of

the

but

church of " the birth of the Virgin Mary

had to retreat presently under cover of an arch-

B

2

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

way on account heavily

Heavily and more

of sudden rain.

poured,

it

—

in so far, not

an unpleasant

fol-

lowing after the recent trying heats, but in a few

minutes the water-pipes from

all

the neighbouring

houses began to manifest themselves.

Inconceiva-

bly impudent things that these were St.

Those of

!

Petersburg had been bad enough, gushing out

at about a foot or fifteen inches

from the ground,

but those of Moskva, shot forth their charge, from

round four-inch mouths, half feet

!

A pretty

lady's dress,

at a height of three

sop they would have

and

a

made of a

had she endeavoured to walk any

dis-

tance along the pavement, unceasingly running the gauntlet of these envious spouts.

After

growing

we had watched in fuss

sity of the rain,

these cascades for a time,

and fury with any increasing intenand ever

as

it

slackened, decreasing

and only bubbling and draining downward

;

or then

once more tumbling out with headlong haste under the influence of a

new shower,

—we

presently re-

that, fed

by many such side-streams a per-

fect little rivulet

was now flowing along the middle

marked,

of the street, with something like mill-race waves, several mouzhiks

were at work in the distance, and

diverting the water from bursting into a garden.

(See Plate

3,

Vol. II.)

Near them, however, were two water-pipes much worse than any yet seen, for they discharged at a

A CLIMATE CHANGE

5

height of about seven feet from the ground, right

many passengers and Moskva, funny fellows we suppose

over and upon the heads of the plumbers of in private,

had

slit

;

up the mouth of each pipe on

either side with a wavy opening,

a crocodile's opening jaw

;

making

it

its

look like

and then just behind and

above the upper corner of the

said mouth, they

had

soldered on a couple of angular bits of tin like heraldic dragons' ears, bent

a deal of vice.

backwards and implying

And when you saw

the volumes of

water these mouths were shooting, occasionally even into innocent pedestrians' faces, you could not but

think that the ears told too true a

tale.

About the middle of the day we repaired

again,

according to the Astronomer's kind invitation, to the

Moskva

Observatory, and were most agreeably en-

tertained by his amiable family and himself up to a late

hour, though the rainy, misty weather con-

tinued

all

the time.

We were

conducted after the

early dinner into the instrument-room, to discuss

any peculiarities of arrangement there, and their

di-

rector called our attention to an unpretending yet effective

scheme

for enabling the fine spider-lines

of his meridian circle, to be seen fiducially flection in a

u

Ah

!

sighed a

if

now

Continental

by

re-

trough of mercury. only I could accomplish that,"

once

deceased, but in his day, most eminent,

astronomer,

"how

accurately could

I

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

6

adjust

my

retical

knowledge enabled him to perceive what the

But though

large telescopes !"

his theo-

consequences would be, his want of practical invention prevented

him from bringing the

The acute Dr.

about.

optical feat

Steinheil of Munich, however,

soon constructed him a special eye-piece for the

purpose

and almost every optician and every

;

nomer has what

is

since

had

own

his

all

form

particular

of,

generally called " the collimating eye-

now

piece;" some of them not a

almost

astro-

little

cumbrous, and

requiring the ordinary astronomical or

star-observing eye-piece to be removed, whenever

the collimating one

But

it

show, that a if

is

used.

was reserved little

for Professor Schweitzer to

film of

u Russian glass,"

only a few grains in weight, held for the

i.e.

talc,

moment

diagonally over any ordinary eye-piece, enables

it

to

be used as effectually as most of those specially constructed to that end.

Another work in which our host had been engaged, and here with

many

assistants,

was an

in-

quiry into the latitude of Moskva, under the influence of local attraction.

This local attraction

is

a

new and

rather strange matter, which has only been brought to light of late years with the increased accuracy

of

modern observation, and

lies in causes

which

its

explanation probably

affect equally

tronomy and geology.

geographical as-

A CLIMATE CHANGE Hitherto,

it

had been always assumed,

you were out

as

7

that, as

long

of the immediate reach of the attrac-

of visible mountains on the plumb-line, there

tion

was no other irregular action to be feared

and con-

;

sequently, the plumb-line direction, compared with the stars by astronomical observation, would always truly

was

show the

latitude of the place.

But when

this

differentially tested, as in the English arc of the

meridian,

by comparing the observed

each of a

number of

stations,

latitudes of

with the mean of the

whole, through the agency of linear measure along the surface of the

—

lo

!

ground conjoined with

calculation,

there were found errors so large at some par-

ticular stations, that the only conclusion

which could

be drawn, was, that the plumb-line was permanently deflected in its true

downward direction

at such spot,

by some cause, or causes beneath the surface.

An to

efficient

suggest;

heavy metal

and very

viz.

likely cause, is always easy

that a large mass of trap rock, or

ore,

has been exuded from the central

regions of the earth, into the specifically lighter

upper strata, in some abnormal manner as regards that special station.

But the suggestion

is

not very

satisfactory, for even its approximate proof entail

would

such extraordinary labour in observing, that

it

has never yet been accomplished thoroughly any-

where

;

and

it

indeterminate.

must in any

Hence there

practical case is

not

much

be very

to encou-

THREE CITIES IN RUSSTA.

8

rage observers, amongst us at

all

events

country so replete as Great Britain vasations of trap on the surface, what it

be to find

is,

;

for in

a

with extra-

wonder would

out, after untold scientific labour,

that

there was a high probability of something of the

same kind existing under the surface too

!

In Russia, however, the case appeared different. Its strata are nearly level, as well as its plains

are almost entirely

all

others,

;

and

of undisturbed neptu-

Here, then, seemed the country

nian formations. of

made up

where

latitude observations should ex-

perience no anomalies; and doubtless the founders of the

Moskva Observatory never dreamt

was anything

to

situation they

that there

be said against the physics of the

had chosen.

Yet, on

its

observed

latitude,

supposed to be accurate to one-tenth of a

second,

being

compared, through trigonometrical

measurement, with the latitudes of other well observed places at a distance, a difference of actually

twelve seconds was found.

This set the Astronomer and the surveying actively at work,

officers

and they have now a network of

nearly sixty stations in and about Moskva, at each of which the latitude, or what

downward carefully

is

equivalent to the

direction of the plumb-line, has been most

measured by numerous observations on stars,

repeated sometimes by two or three independent observers

;

while they are

all

(the stations) connected

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A CLIMATE CHANGE

9

with each other and with distant stations by surface linear measures.

What,

larger proportion of the stations are sibly deflected, but not

what

is

all

of

that the

them sen-

one of them so much as the

very Observatory of Moskva

And

Why,

then, has been the result ?

itself!

the conclusion as to the cause

There

?

the Professor was not able to speak so positively as

he hoped in a few months more to be able to do.

But he adventured first

so far as this, that whereas he

tried the supposition of a subterranean

extra specific gravity, he had

now given

mass of

that

up

in

favour of a void and hollow space, in a different direction under the surface, and felt pretty confident

would be borne out by the facts. " Un vide/ 9 as he expressed it, long rang

that that

ears

;

for,

could this be an instance of

commencing u

craters of elevation"?

in our

Von Buch's

Eussia cannot

expect, for ever in the world's history, to be exempt

from those volcanic commotions that have so raised

and

utterly altered almost every other part of the

earth.

So we inquired

if

signals of plutonic activity

any of those preliminary

had been

quakes, in this part of the country

" Weil, they

earth-

felt, viz.

?

are rarely or never felt in Russia ; but

history does record a most remarkable and violent

one underneath Moskva

itself."

" And are there any notable trap

€

dykes B

3

9

to

be

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

10

seen in or across the horizontal strata that form the

neighbourhood?"

" No,"

—not that our host knew of

a place close by, where, from his

judged that the elsewhere

soft,

but there

was

description,

we

;

water-formed lime-

stone must have been turned by heat into almost crystalline

Our

hair

marble in the very place where

now

all

it

a

stood.*

but stood on end when hearing'

them

these successive particulars; for, putting together, there does really

all

seem to have been here

one period something like a commencement for

at

*

A

Russian friend, writing under date September, 1861, gives

some further magnetic and comparative munication

"I

is

as follows

particulars

;

his

whole

Moskva with our

passed several days in

friend Professor

We made

Schweitzer, Director of the Astronomical Observatory.

observations of the splendid comet in July, and I saw clearly

on

my

return to

now on every account

Moskva

scopes,

in September.

in a superior condition.

cellent refractor is placed in a

support.

com-

:

This instrument

is

movable

it

again pretty

The Observatory

A great and very

turret, solidly

is

ex-

on a cast-iron

one of the most perfect refracting tele-

and has been found to

fulfil

very satisfactorily Mr. Schweit-

zer's expectations.

" In the environs of Moskva, interesting researches are being

made

concerning local deviations of the direction of gravity, exceeding even those deviations which are found in Scotland near the

Mount Sche-

h allien. " Although about Moskva, as is level,

exist

there being

r»o hills

you may have remarked, the ground

of any consequence, the said deviations

and must be ascribed to

local subterranean causes.

It

is

re-

markable that many disturbances in the direction of the compass are

found in the same places."

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A CLIMATE a

"crater

o£ elevation,"

hollow

gent\e

nearly

CHANGE.

viz.

swelling-up,

horizontal neptunian

11

an extensive, though or

blistering,

strata,

under

they at the time

becoming plastic with subterranean heat ; the same heat at

which from yet lower

high pressure

distillation

to

strata distilled the gases

form the said hollow, the

being accompanied by those quakings

of the crust

which

will occur

immediately over and

around any place where internal volcanoes are

in

activity.

Had, then,

this

growth of symptoms proceeded

from a given early age with that degree of rapidity which a

littoral, as

an Andean, or a Javan position

might have encouraged, swelling

—who can

say but that the

up might not have gone on

rapidly increas-

ing, until the elasticity of the strata should at length

have been overpassed.

Then must have commenced

a rupture of the rock, with an escape of the con-

densed gases and a

falling in of the

of the previous air-vault, giving

enormous

pit,

unsupported roof

rise

thereby to an

with precipitous internal sides and

gently sloping outside.

And if with that, a permanent

communication should have been established between the atmosphere and the internal sources of heat, then there would have been an active volcano on the present

site

of Moskva, and Russia would from that

moment have begun

to

experience roastings and

hardenings of her old strata,

and those intrusions or

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

12

overflows of lavas and greenstone of which she has

never yet had her proper geological share.* Happily, however, for the Russian nation, their entire country has sively raised

been

above the

at a distance inland, at

must be

all

for ages slowly

sea-level, that

but so exten-

Moskva

is

now

which modern volcanic action

but paralyzed, and countless ages will

elapse before her Cambrian, Silurian, and strata exhibit the

same hardened,

Permian

crystallized,

and

tormented aspect that those of our own country do

wherever we meet with them.

On

leaving the Observatory that evening about

eight p.m.,

of the air ;

we were startled at the sudden coldness and as we drove homeward, the wind blew

both without pity and through and through

all

We

woollen garments, keen, constant, and icy cold.

had no sheepskin

coats, like the

happy

our

driver,

and

our whole stock of animal heat, reduced to the lowest ebb, would have been dissipated and destroyed alto-

gether had the journey lasted did.

A

much

private droshky in Moskva,

longer than

we have

it

since

* " Russia in Europe constitutes but one huge depository basin." u Enormously wide horizontal deposits."

" The

tranquilly- formed deposits of Russia."

" Vast regions in which there never has been the smallest eruption

of plutonic or volcanic matter." ''This great Russian basin, void of

all

traces of eruptive rock."

Murchison, Verneuil, and Keyserling

A CLIMATE CHANGE.

13

heard, never goes any distance, at any season, with-

out a supply of furs to meet occasions the like of this; and verily the Kussians

show great

skill as

well as hardy constitutions in dealing with their inveterate climate.

The next morning was

clear

and

dry, but a bitter

north-east wind was blowing, in which even the

golden domes of the Kremle looked cold and

And

better proof

fast,

we chanced

still,

in our first

to pass an

walk

steely.

after break-

where we had

oil -shop,

noticed on previous days their huge glass bottles, three feet high,

filled

with limpid

oil,

but to-day each

one of them was a mass of hard opaque

fat,

frozen in

a night

At

a neighbouring shop-window was a large and

well-detailed Russian

tinized closely,

map

of the city

;

and by supplementing

we

this its

scru-

teachings

to those of the skeleton indication in the Albemarle

red-book, and adding thereto a deal of brisk walking,

rendered

all

the brisker by the unexpected cold,

we

got before long a tolerably clear idea of the symmetrical

arrangement of the

sort of

city,

—and a very

different

symmetry, too, from what prevails in

St.

Petersburg, or any of the modern Russian towns and villages.

In these, grand straight

features.

But

in

lines are the

main

Moskva, a central Kremle, wrapped

round and round with curvilinear envelopes,

germ of a plant lying

coiled

like the

up and protected

in the

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

14

midst of its seed-leaves,

Map

No. 2, Vol.

is

the ruling principle. (See

I.)

In the precise place of such a botanical germ was here of course the Kremle the whole of

seems from

it,

its

but

;

it

did not constitute

nor indeed the larger part ; for

it

shape and size to have been pushed

up into a corner, and compressed into a somewhat

by the greater bulk and strong

triangular figure vitality of its

twin sister the "Kitai Gorod

nese or Commercial city some translate

Chi-

though most Russian historians say that the name of " Ki-

tai"

it,

was given by Helena Glenskaiya, the mother of

Ivan the Terrible, in honour of the place of her birth, a city of Podolsk.

A

goodly

collection

many-domed

of

churches has the Kitai Gorod; walls too, strengthened at intervals fence,

golden

old battlemented

by towers of de-

and pierced by ornamental gateways, quite in

the Kremle

but they are of a lower and broader

style,

build generally

;

and in the space which they enclose,

about four times as large as the holy citadel, are to be found shops

packed together,

and habitations of

all

places of exchange or sale,

Dvor, that perpetual it

was into

citizens closely

the chief merchants' stores with

this Kitai

fair

and

of

all

lastly the Gostinoi

nations.

In

fact,

Gorod that we had entered,

through the medieval barbican, the

first

day of our

walking in search of the Kremle ; and no wonder

we

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A CLIMATE CHANGE

came on such

15

a scene of unseemly crowding and un-

blushing overtures to enter into mercantile transactions.

Here,

found the people reign

Gorod, was to be

historically, in the Kitai

there, in the Kremle, the sove-

;

and neither one nor the other

;

at

any time in

the progress of Russia was supposed to form in essentially or entirely, either the

nation.

tion

;

other

They were co-equal

or, if

one was

made up

itself,

government or the

in origin

and

in estima-

intrinsically the brighter, the

for that

by greater

tically neither could exist

extent,

and prac-

without the other.

These two enclosures then, the Kremle and the Kitai Gorod, having been taken in their duality to

represent the national germ, had been at an early

age protected through the maternal care of national instinct, with the

Beloi Gorod, or

nearly circular envelope of the

White

City. This

would have formed

a complete ring round the other two, but for the river

which occupies

its

about one-fifth of the

place to the south, through

circle.

In the Beloi Gorod we found the habitations of citizens,

and

the mental

institutions of a

life

of a

more advanced kind

young people

progress of the same kind

is

;

and

still

in

further

found in the Zemlianoi

Gorod, a circular envelope external to the Beloi Gorod, river

and

it is

complete in figure, for

it

crosses the

and encloses both the precious nucleus and the

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

16

Beloi Gorod, on the south, as well as on every other side.

" Zemlianoi" means the " Earthen" town, and

is

derived from a rampart of that material with which the then outward bounds of the city were sur-

rounded in 1618, by Michael Phedorovitch, the of the

Eomanov

soverigns

but there had been

;

wooden

previously on the same site a

by Phedor Ivanovitch

erected

recent invasion of

Krimea, the Asiatics.

Moskva by

Map No.

Between these two

1591, after the

in

once dread

3, Vol. I.)

dates,

what a whirlwind of

troubles in the history of Russia

Ivanovitch, the country was heirs of Rurik.

palisading,

the Tahtars of the

last expiring effort of those

(See

first

Under them

it

!

With Phedor

ruled

still

by the

had thrown

lineal

off the

Tahtar yoke, and seen the Tahtar power crumble into dust before its armies.

of the

West had then rushed

The mercantile nations in to claim

them

as

men

and brothers, and a happy era of peace and prosperity died,

seemed beaming,

—when

and his young brother, the

suddenly Phedor

last of his line,

was

murdered under the regency of Boris Godunov, a connection only by marriage.

The nation was

utterly confounded at the blow,

and unable to conclude what

had themselves,

to do.

The

free people,

in early times voluntarily called in

the lately reigning line, under Rurik, and established

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17

A CLIMATE CHANGE.

him and his descendants kings over them, standing ever by them firmly through bad and through good fortune as long as they remained to rule family having ended,

it

was

;

so now, that

theirs, the people's

duty

once more to decide what should be done. By means of statecraft and a powerful army, Boris hoped to

make

the country his own, and thought he was sue-

ceeding when he was really only barely tolerated by a people disinclined to needless

And

this

calling himself the supposed

peared

;

political confusion.

he found, when the pretender Otrepiev,

for

though when

murdered Dmitrii, ap-

this

man came

into the

country from Poland with a large army from thence to support his

claims to the Russian throne, the

Russians met and overthrew him, him Otrepiev and his

army too, and sent

Otrepiev dropped

flying back

it

;

yet the

moment

his nationally obnoxious allies the

Poles, and rested his claims solely upon the pretence

of being the real Dmitrii, the Russians flocked over-

whelmingly to his standard, Boris and

his

short-

reigned son Phedor perishing from before him.

This occurred in 1605 1606,

it

had

also

come

telling public scene

;

but long before the year

to an

;

for

though one

had been got up, wherein the

mother of Dmitrii confessed lost

end

son in the usurper

man

;

to recognize her long-

and acknowledged that

she had been compelled by force at the time of the

supposed murder at Uglitch to own the corpse of

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

18

another boy, as that of her son,

—yet the unmistake-

able instinctive feeling of a great people

now

told

them, that they had got a successful pretender on their throne,

and they discovered too surely that to

the very fibres of his heart-strings, he was Polish, or the perfect antithesis of Russian.

As

yet,

though, they

another Rurik longer

life

;

knew not where

to look for

and the usurper would have held a

had not the nobles, who had

of grace

something more immediately to gain, as well as to revenge, organized a hasty insurrection which led to Otrepiev's overthrow

and death, and seated Prince

Shuiskii on the throne.

But that did not please the

other nobles, and one got np an insurrection in one part of the country, and another in another.

land became divided against

itself,

The

as in the pre-

Tahtar period, the Poles invaded Russia on the west

and took Moskva, causing the death of Shuiskii and plundering the city cruelly;* while the Swedes ad-

* "This Bingle case," says Levesque to

(vol. iv. p. 16),

show the immense booty which was made by the

pillaged in the principal churches of

Moskva the

Christ and the twelve Apostles, as large as great

number

with pearls and diamonds.

The

They

statues of Jesus

and

cast in gold

:

a

and of vases enriched

treasure of the Tsars was carried

away, dispersed, and given to the soldiers, pay.

life

of tables silver-gilt, of ornaments,

"will suffice

Poles.

who had been without

These treasures, amassed through so many centuries, acquired

by commerce or bought of those

who

at'

the price of

much

blood,

became the prey

tore the state to pieces in these later troubles."

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A CLIMATE CHANGE.

19

vanced into the provinces of the north-west, taking the ancient city of Novgorod ; and the Teutonic knights

of the sword were delighted at an opportunity of

making In ality

inroads once again upon a paralyzed people.

fact,

had there not been a mass of true nation-

amongst the lower orders of the people, Russia

must have tumbled to in this period

ing

pieces and

become annihilated

—from 1610 to 1613

with their reign-

;

and educated

line cut short, their nobles

classes

going altogether wrong, their Western enemies

in-

vading them and profiting by the national treason

and

distress,

and

all

their chief cities,

including

holy Mother Moskva, in the hands of the domineer-

ing soldiery of Poland.

The

scenes, the agonies,

and the struggles com-

pressed into those few years, must have been more

than enough to make angels weep. Here for instance are

two days only of them, as described by an

author, Chopin,

who

is

neither Pole nor Russian.

u On Tuesday of the Holy Week, there is a rumour of fighting in the Kitai Gorod

general in

:

command of Moskva

Sigismund, was

Gossevski (the Polish ;

the

King of Poland, army

at the time with another large

besieging Smolensk) issues from the Kremle tries in vain to stop the

and

kill

:

carnage

:

;

he

the Poles pillage

the Strelitz resist at the Tverskaya gate,

while Pojarskii defends himself with courage in the

Stretenka, and often repulses the Poles.

There

THREE CITIES

20

IN RUSSIA.

were nearly one against ten

tain Marzheret,

and the

who had

false Dmitrii

;

they struggle with

:

All of a sudden the Cap-

courage but give way.

Godunov Hetman had

served faithfully

and

whom

the

received into the guard of the Polish king, sallies

by his

forth from the Kremle, reanimates the Poles intrepidity,

and makes a great

Russians.

However, numbers are on the point of

carnage

bearing him down, when an incendiary at

many

points

:

the

broke out

fire

a violent wind carried the flame

against the Muscovites, and blinded

A great

thick smoke.

of

number

them by the

of Russians quitted

Night

the combat to go and save their dwellings.

put an end to the slaughter:

all

the city was in the

greatest agitation, with the exception of the Kitai

Gorod, where the enemy had entrenched himself, supported behind by the Kremle.

" There they held and decided

at

it

to save the Poles.

Germans

set

fire

still

the pretence of a council

that they

would

to

different places,

people from street to street.

two

chiefs, Strouss, captain

Polish king,

chasing the

At the same in

instant

the service of the

and Plechtcheef, of the party of Lia-

pounof, approached the burning city

:

came the Russians and entered Moskva, by the valiant

Moskva

sacrifice

The next morning two thousand

Pojarskii

;

the

first

still

over-

defended

who, exhausted and covered

with wounds, was then conveyed by his

men

to the

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A CLIMATE CHANGE

Moskva burned during two

Troitza Monastery.

days

and

:

by the

21

this unfortunate capital, so often ruined

more than a

Tahtars, hardly offered anything

mass of cinders."

But Russia has always shown an astonishing ticity in

rising

u improving the occasion" of each calamity hence

it

elas-

from every blow, and invariably

was precisely

this

most woful

and

;

state of the

country which presently called up those patriotic energies of hers that had always existed in the peasant class, though they had slumbered somewhat, so

long as they were under the trusted guardianship of their legal Tsars. selves,

and

But now they manifested them-

in Nizhni-Novgorod,

Volga, a city

on the banks of the

much more modern

that

its

western

namesake on the Volchov, but inhabited by a truly " Great-Russian" population, the citizens were

—

called together

by Kozma Minin one of themselves,

and by

his inspiring eloquence

combine

for the preservation of their

try.

Even more

Minin, with

all

induced to

rise

common

self-denying than

and

coun-

Washington,

the surrounding cities sending their

sons to serve under him, and contributing their

wealth to his growing war, in

—had

no other object

view than to re-establish the royal

est

branch on the throne

;

line in its near-

and thereby bring back

a government, under which he or any other mere citizen-trader could never wield

much power.

22

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

With

these particular views,

everything in perfect order

Minin conducted

and, successfully re-

;

pressing the intense feeling of hatred that his coun-

trymen bore in sacred

to the Poles

when they were dominant

Moskva, from hurrying them into lawless

bandit reprisals,

—he

sought out that true old war-

rior Prince Pojarskii to take military

command

Nobly did Pojarskii answer the

force.

not only aged but

still

call,

from wounds re-

suffering

ceived in former fights with the Polish army.

rapid advances he collected

kind;

many

and, after

him

With

now moved forward with Minings

army, and continued supplies

acting under

of the

though

of every

skirmishes, Minin always

as his valorous lieutenant, de-

feated and almost exterminated the

enemy under the

very gates of Moskva.

Then, true and. loyal as another Minin, Pojarskii surrendered his

command

to

an assembly of the

people; or to clergy, nobility, and citizens, combined in the

Krasnaya Plostchad of the Kitai Gorod.

resignation received, there followed

all

His

the oratorical

.

harangues necessary to an open-air meeting of thousands of persons

still

outside the Kremle, for no loyal

Russian would enter there yet

;

and

choice of Michael Phedorovitch teral

finally

came the

Eomanov, a

colla-

branch of the house of Rurik, and one that had

suffered

much

and the Poles,

persecution both from Boris

Godunov

—to ascend the vacant throne.

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23

A CLIMATE CHANGE.

The

invitation

was sent by deputation of

to Michael at Kostroma.

citizens

much doubt

After

it

was

accepted, and hence, ever since, has flowed the imperial line of Russia's

Romanov

that grand movement, stant

by simple

results, in the

begun

sovereigns

;

so that

at the propitious in-

and even

citizen Minin, resulted,

still

most extensive and permanent con-

stitutional benefit to his country.

In fashionable of

circles,

one fears that the memory

Minin and Pojarskii was

cultivated, until

little

the rude shake which the country experienced in

1812, and which recalled after that,

its patriotic

story; for soon

a large monument to these two heroes

was designed by M. Martos and

carried out at the

expense of the Russian Government. in the

It stands

Krasnaya Plostchad of Moskva

of a colossal

;

and

group in bronze, fourteen

now

consists

feet high,

standing on a granite pedestal, also fourteen feet in height and eighteen feet long.

The weight

of the bronze-work being 239,000

pounds, and that of the granite block 420,000 pounds, there was some difficulty in sending its

it

place of origin, St. Petersburg, to

Moskva; and

it

was

straight from

its

destination

actually found easier to send

it

the long round of internal water-communication by the

Neva

to

Lake Ladoga, and thence

to the Volga,

much

and so round by the Oka

to the

some railway company

London, wishing to loan

in

Moskva

;

as

24

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

their

grand Royal carriage to another company, also

London, found

in

cheaper to send

it

down

it

to

Peterborough, and then by a cross line bring

back to London by the other company's road incur a journey of a hundred and

fifty

miles

by

it

or,

;

rail,

London

rather than five or six miles only through streets.

In the longer circuit of the Minin and Pojarskii

monument however, there was of

its

the interesting episode

passing by Minin's city of Nizhni-Novgorod

some two

centuries after his death,

and then came

the demonstration of the poor peasant people, for

they had never forgotten him.

The

sculptor's

group appeared to our earnest but

untutored gaze, a fine massive composition, in something

Minin on rise

Roman and

of

and

Michael -Angelesque style;

foot, exciting Pojarskii

liberate his country

;

who

and

is

seated, to

Pojarskii,

—with

the verum icon, or veronica, " head of our Saviour

not

made with hands," on

his shield,

—

still

some-

what in doubt whether the right moment be arrived, and

if

they

may hope to have

a blessing from Heaven

on their great emprise.

While we stood there admiring and drinking

in

the story told by the colossal bronze in the almost

shades of evening,

my

better-half wanted

me

to read

out to her Bowring's translation of the Russian poet

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A CLIMATE CHANGE.

25

But

Dmitriev^s version of the same events.

not scruple to argue — " No, no, this cold east

wind ;

some dinner, and in

let

if

you

I did

please, not in

us rather go and see about

after that is accomplished,

we can

some warm corner hear what the Moskvaite with

his lyre

Now

may have

to say or sing/'

our dinner this day,

had been already

it

ranged, was to be in

itself

Russian problem

you must know,

ing reader, that

;

for

we had

0

long-suffer-

effected a little discovery at

breakfast only that very morning, and wished to

low

up

it

further to

its

ar-

the solution of a sort of

grandest development.

fol-

We

had previously heard and read, as doubtless you have also,

a great deal of the trahtiers, or tea-shops, of

Moskva, and soon made acquaintance with some of the

more

extensive ones in the Beloi Gorod, looking

out pleasantly as they did on the western side of the

Kremle, and the gardens of the old Neglinaya.

At

once we recognized their superior size and equipment over the establishments of the same

name

tersburg, for there they were

private houses,

little

in St. Pe-

but here in Moskva the trahtiers were evidently national institutions,

dows in a row

;

showing fronts with twenty win-

and

it

was plain that the innumerable

merchants, after tiring themselves with bargaining

through the live-long day in

the

Gorod,

Kitai

trooped down here in thousands to refresh.

never had VOL.

II.

we

But

yet seen anything more than tea, unc

26

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

less it

was the

little

demanded by some

Two by

vase of vodka in place of cream,

of them.

we had

or three times

their public staircase,

pertinaciously entered

and passed through their

large public rooms, in order to observe ties of entertainment that

we knew

that the

all

the varie-

might be going on, although

moment a

lady was seen in com-

pany, one of the white-tunicked, red-belted waiters

would instantly rush up and show us into a private room.

But

still

we never witnessed anything more

than tea-drinking going on

;

which we got a passing view

and in a sort of

hundreds of porcelain tea-pots, white

ranged on shelves

like a library,

and

and gold,

little else.

Tea was accordingly always brought excellent style,

us,

when we were once enclosed

especial apartment

;

it

office

there were several

of,

and

in

in our

was moreover always stronger

and

tea than in the northern capital,

to economize,

as well as prolong, its heat, the small tea-pot with

the tea-leaves therein was always mounted on the

mouth of a

larger one with hot water.

So with good

cream, as well as sugar and lemon, a porcelain cup

and saucer

for the lady,

and a glass tumbler and

saucer for the gentleman, what sired in the

way

however, being not a cold of the

air,

more could be de-

of tea- drinking ? little

On

this

morning,

peckish with the freezing

and spying behind the door a large

printed sheet of paper, in Russian,

we

studied

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it

Google

A CLIMATE CHANGE

and presently

hard,

cabalistic-looking

its

were interpreted to indicate that current

99

of

long list

down,

articles set

spite of the

that,

it

of provisions at the house it

variety

little

letters

was a " Price;

and from the

did appear probable

we had

seen in vogue

So

something more could or should be had.

as yet,

we called the big, broad-shouldered, dark-bearded man in the white tunic and red sash,

straightway

and on asking butter,

Two

him for

x.rbn

i.

ct>

MacJOMi>,

or,

bread and

he set both before us in less than a minute.

plates of bread too; both of

first-rate,

them

fresh

and

but one wheaten and white, the other rye,

and therefore of a rich dark chocolate-brown in coblack, as Russian soldiers'

most certainly not

lour,

bread has been generally stigmatized have not tasted that for

it.

This

by those who

answered so well

we next asked, though with some

anna, or eggs, but the

nished or taken aback,

eggs

us

first trial

;

man was

all

asto-

and simply went and fetched

and when we examined,

after

he had re-

the basin he had so quickly set before us,

tired,

was found to contain the exact eggs,

trepidation,

not at

—

fresh,

all

hot,

and as

far as

number

we went

it

of twelve

into them,

well -flavoured, and boiled exactly to a turn.

This then was the house, nominally a tea-shop,

where

we were now,

at near six p.m., inclined to try,

with the assistance of a dictionary, if get

a dinner also.

we could not

So away we went through the

C2

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

28

Krasnaya Plostchad, and out of the Kitai Gorod by the Voznesenskii Gates into the Beloi Gorod, stop-

ping there however for a few minutes to witness over again the

coming

continuous streams of worshippers

still

Sometimes mili-

to the Iverskaya chapel.

tary officers, sometimes poor isvostchiks and car-

penters

;

coaches,

and sometimes,

in strange antique family

came a whole household of squirearchy from

the country

;

and there were great furnishings of wax

candles from neighbouring shops perpetually going on, for devotees to light

You

up

at the sacred shrine.

could buy these candles of

all

sizes

degrees of decoration, either plain white pletely gilded, or with stars

and

all

and

and of

wax

or

spirals only in

all

comgold

:

the while there were flocks of beautiful doves

footing about amongst the worshippers, tame, quiet,

and

fearless

both of

man and

his horse

companion.

Arrived at length, and duly conducted to our inevitable private

room

at the tea-house,

an unusually

good, self-acting barrel-organ ten feet high was set to play

we

some not bad tunes

for our edification, while

were laying our plans of conspiracy and dinner.

In charity

we

did wish that

we had had enough of

Russian language to have cautioned and prepared the innocent-looking, bearded waiting-man for the

unprecedented demand

we were

plotting to

make

both on him and his establishment ; but not having

and he evidently expecting some order,

the

gift,

just

asked him plump for some mn.

Digitized by

I

Google

A CLIMATE CHANGE. " I

What

!

never can

and

!

touch that

said the lady

moreover that

rank

it

is

it,

and

certi-

a dreadful composition of

cabbage and hvas, or sour beer ?

try the experiment, let

—say a

" oh, no,

;

Are you not duly advised

!

warned in the guide-book against

fied

will

cabbage soup "

me

Well,

if

have something

you

else,

little TCJiflTHiia."

No sooner were the words uttered than

went

off

and before we had fairly deciphered anymore in the " Price-current," he set the re-

the waiter,

thing quired the

We were thunderstruck

portions before us.

instantaneous manner in which

and with precisely

what we asked

we were

for, so

!

served,

exactly in

the folly

kot and perfectly prepared condition, was

equal to

anything in a Parisian restaurant; and

what

then,

portions they were,

—regular Benjamin's

messes that they brought us in the shop

benefit

bage,

;

how improperly

translated for the

of Englishmen into " cabbage soup"

no doubt, there was

the rich-coloured,

but, floating

5

meaty

fluid,

dived slices

!

Cab-

on the top

what you

was a very fine sausage or two, and

first

saw

when you then

downwards with your spoon, up came thick of

ham and

on a side plate little

tea-

!

The mn, too

of

Moskva

veal with small mushrooms, while

you were furnished with pirogas, or

tasty models of crab

up with

thumb and

finger.

and

fish pies, to

be taken

But then the soup

part,

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30

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

the main portion of the whole composition, shall

we

say for that ?

opinion.

Patience,

and yon

three minutes,

At an

shall

if

you

what

please, for

have some data for an

equestrian circus in Paris

many years

ago we saw a clever French rider go through, as he stood on the back of a horse galloping at all

the process of a

full

speed,

young conscript acquiring the

several successive stages of the military character,

and being turned out

at last

a finished example of a

complete Guardsman, in the style of the Old Guard

Empire.

The Empire, we might say,

for at that period there

was simply Mister President

under the

first

Louis Napoleon,

who was sending

by thousands, each

the French troops

night, to behold theatrical per-

formances at the expense of the peaceful citizens,

whose throats they were so soon particular feature, however, in the present this,

is

after to cut.

neither here nor there

matter ; but what does concern us

process of

making soup,

back of a flying steed Accordingly a

put

little

—he,

in,

it,

and

all

circling

camp

the while on the

round the arena.

camp-kettle was fixed to the

of his saddle, a fire was

up under

is

one part of the equestrian performance

that

consisted in the soldier-actor illustrating the

bow

That

made

believe to be got

various materials were supposed to be

especially

something apparently very va-

luable out of a highly-cherished cloth bag.

But when

he pretended to taste the compound with a large

Digitized by

Google

A CLIMATE CHANGE. the horse campaigner's face assumed a most

spoon,

vinegary aspect; shoulders,

and

he shook his head and shrugged plainly his

first

his

brewing wouldn't

So he emptied more, much more, of the bag's

do.

the pot, blew up the fictitious

contents into again,

he

for

and tasted once more

stamped

indignation, into

it

but

it

was wretched,

in his fury not only

inside out, but concluded with

bag in

with the well

and then

;

on the poor horse's back with emptied

the pot the whole contents of his bag, even to

turning the

his foot

fire

too,

and

stirred

it

well round and round

butt-end of his big spoon, blowing the

every

now and then

to

make

it

Then, after awhile, he tasted again, ference

ramming

of his countenance.

Now

fire

bubble, bubble.

and oh

!

the dif-

" such soup "

!

he

seemed rejoicingly to say, as he drained the spoon

down his eager mouth, and with the

left

hand com-

plimented his interior on getting such an epicurean

and he continued

living,

satisfaction his

this typifying of intense

during three rounds of the circus, while

two thousand soldier-auditors cheered him with

thunders of applause.

That is

in

man was no

France, and there

been tried at that do believe it he

doubt a good judge of soup as it is

not bad

;

it

but had he

moment with our Moskva ma, we

would have so

far transcended

anything

had ever before tasted, that he would have been

transfixed speechless with

astonishment and admira-

Digitized by

(^)Ogle

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

32 tion

and " La Belle France " would inevitably have

;

background

fallen into the

u Do just

let

me

for once.

taste a quarter of a spoonful,

not more, mind," presently said a certain lady, " for I never can touch," she ticle it

went on

to explain,

of cabbage at home, without being

for a

month."

And

then, having

'

'

made

made

a parill

by

that ex-

periment successfully, the same lady next asked for a whole spoonful, and then sent up her plate to be supplied direct out of the basin, and tried a piroga

And

too.

the basin proved so capacious that

we

could hardly afterwards, though both assisted, get

through her portion of of solid meat that

ing

;

we

it

huge block

therefore merely ordered further a bottle of

Moskva beer,

excellent

charge for the

and

brisk,

and found the final

whole to amount only to one ruble.

we had been

Truly

TejflTHHa, or veal,

was with vegetables accompany-

well dined,

and good dinner was

never furnished more quickly or economically in the

and never one tenth part as substantial. " Then being so admirably fortified," said a fair

Palais Royal,

critic,

" suppose you do

me

the favour

now

ing Dmitriev and his 'Moskva Rescued' !"

upon

I held forth obediently

"handy"

little

of read-

Where-

from Sir John Bowring's

book, as follows

:

" Receive the minstrel wanderer

Within thy

No

glades,

idle tone of joy

Nor

let e'en

thou shadowy wood

be here

;

Venus' song intrude

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A CLIMATE CHANGE.

my

Fair Moskva's smile

Her And,

fields,

her waters,

seated on her throne of

A

O

fills

hills,

glorious pile of days gone by."

And

That's good, surely ? **

vision

—towering high,

this also

;

only listen

:

Moskva, many a nation's mother,

IIow bright thy glances beam on me

Where,

like to thee,

Where, Russia's daughter,

As

!

—where stands another, like to thee ?

pearls thy thousand crowns appear,

Thy hands

a diamond sceptre hold etc. etc. etc.

So

it

goes on through

nown,

many

and then we come "

But war

has spread

lines of praise

its

The humbled faith

Now And

thee,

sceptre feeble as thy blade.

Sarmatian fraud and

Thy

re-

:

terrors o'er thee,

And thou wert once in ashes laid Thy throne seemed tottering then before Thy

and

to the Polish invasion

force, o'er-raging

world, have reached thy gate

;

with flattering smiles engaging,

threatening daggers on thee

they were drawn

wait—

—thy temples sank

Thy virgins led with fettered clank Thy sons' blood streaming to the

skies."

Thus proceeds the poet with what an accountant would

call

patriotic

the " charge."

Now we come

to

the

" discharge." Russia's saviour — where —arouse thee— thy might Moskva alarmed— surrounded there

And where

Stand up

And

?

is

in

clouded, as a winter's night.

C S

Digitized by

Gf)Ogle

34

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. Look

she awakes

!

— she knows no

And young and

old,

Their daggers flash

But who The

Of

that with

is

slave,

like boreal light,

They crowd— they crowd them "

fear,

and prince and

to the fight.

snowy hair

—that stern old man ?—the tide

first

heroes he leads onward there!

—Russia's strength and pride my lyre —my lays

Pojarskii

What

transport tunes

Seem glowing with

O

!

celestial fire

:

I will sing that old man's praise

!

Shout loudly now, thou heavenly choir " I hear

—I hear the armour's sound

The dust-clouds round the See

pillars rise

Russia's children gather round,

!

Pojarskii o'er the city

And from

flies,

death's stillness he awakes

The very 'Midst the

life

of valour.

6tars' light

He forms the

—there

Here

:

— Lo

!

and sunny glow,

firm, courageous row.

hope, joy, again appear

The burghers gather round him

And

Then

there,

range them for the combat now."

follows the consternation of the Polish usur-

pers in " Kremle's royal halls," the hurried gather-

ing of their forces, and the rushing forth to the great battle " round walls and gates."

begins

terrifically,

scenes, but its conclusion

must come.

is

a long one,

it

The

battle

and has many

" And thrice the day hath seen the strife, And thrice hath dawned Aurora blithe ;

The battle-demon Death waves untired

sports with his

life,

murderous scythe,

Digitized by

Google

35

A CLIMATE CTIANGE. Pojarskii's

thunder

He

him

speeds

heard

still is

Following his prey

—destroying —crushing,

Then on the Poles with fury

He

;

like the eagle-bird

rushing,

sands,—

scatters thein like flying

That giant of the hundred hands.

On on

!

!

*

The *

"

—What transports of delight

Hurrah

O

city joins the ecstasy

yes

Where

Who

!'

Pojarskii wins the fight

!

is

our Moskva now

!

the hero

?

—where

free

is

is

!'

he

led our sons to victory ?

List to that cry of eloquence

—what be his recompense —He who made the invaders

What Look

!

shall

?

bleed,

And Moskva and his country freed He — modest as courageous — he Takes the bright garland from his brow,

And to He bends *

4

Thou

Thy

now

a youth he bends him his old

and hero-knee.

art of royal blood,'

father

is

in foeman's

he

said,

hand

;

Wear thou And "

that garland on thy head, " bless, oh, bless our father-land !'

What !"

sible ?

exclaimed the lady listener, " is

The poem

Minin in

it

from

Nizhni-Novgorod,

finished,

first

to last

who were

so ready to raise the

roslav,

or of the peasants

;

who rushed forward

form the chief bulk of the

whom

dear old

pos-

nor of the citizens of

;

banner and contribute supplies of Yaroslav,

it

and no mention of poor

army

;

at the first call to

those

M. CBtn3Kn

men

of Ya-

told us only the

36

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

other day, are

you would think the

Moskva had done the

the finest types of true Russian

still

Why

peasants.

it all

so proud and conceited

But

themselves.

way with townspeople

that's just

the world over, they're

all

;

of

citizens

the country -people

and help them out of their

difficulties,

come

and are im-

mediately forgotten and ignored for their pains."

"Nay, be not u against their

all

so very sweeping," I suggested,

Moskvarenians, merely because one of

number has written

in the present century,

events he records

and

;

in this style.

two hundred years

was

it

be

West ; hence

his

Venus as Venus, and * Aurora

blithe/ in a Russian story

a word that

for Polovski,

lived

after the

his destiny to

highly educated, in imitation of the needless allusion to

He

:

and his

all

s

Sarmatians

the poorest of

his

countrymen would have instantly understood, and joined

him

in with *

Death

And

A student of

for death,

curses

and hate

on the

nothing except

for hate,

traitors.'

*

classical

books

;

quent translator of poems from the Latin;

a

fre-

what

could he do, but after the approved classical models ?

and

there, such a hero as

Minin would be quite

in-

admissible."

"

And why

so, I

should just like you to

tell

me ?"

* Bowring's Zhukovsky.

Digitized by

Google

A CLIMATE CHANGE.

ready

came the

reply,

and a real patriot

" was

lie

man

not a right good

one who came forth nobly at the

;

time of his country's calamity,

and

set

on foot and

organized all the grand measures which eventually

wrought out her safety ?"

may be

" That pelled to

misfortune to be Dr.

most true/'

I

was sorrowfully com-

acknowledge; "but then Minin had the

by trade

—a butcher

!

as the English

Clarke took good care to set forth in his polite

volumes

;

Russians,

and the oh

!

politely educated

" Did they ? " said

Pd rather

among

that

we

my

incorrigible spouse,

uneducated, Yaroslavian peasantry

sure,

with excellent M. CBim3Ka's

be

so kind,

" then

spent our holidays amongst the

poor,

would

the rich

didn't they writhe under the rebuke."*

we

;

and

am

I

he

assistance, if

should pick up a great deal of

good moral philosophy, and genuine patriotic feeling, with

no

little

poetry, touching

and

original,

amongst

them." *

We much

English

suspect that after

sense of the word

cattle-dealer," that

;

all,

name, conjoined to the

country he lived in, recalls to our 41

a butcher," viz.

Minin was not a butcher

mind the South African

idea of

one who carries on a sort of mercantile business

from end to end of a large colony,

and even across

drawing thereby supplies of

and sheep

"a

style of broad-spreading

independent native tribes beyond

time, to

in the

for being called in another work,

from distant

regions,

;

and having,

at

its frontiers

with

cattle

one and the same

arrange for the safety, and secure the honesty of his

many

detached parties travelling with valuable property over mountains

and across extensive plains.

Digitized by

Google

38

CHAPTER

VII.

MONASTERIES. September

By both

foes

and

friends,

every denomination,

the

and by

7.

sects of nearly

clergy of the

Anglican

Church have been allowed the great praise of possessing a degree of moderation in feeling, tempe-

rance in language, and considerate charity in judg-

ment, which the world has rarely seen combined to

an equal degree in any dominant Church. Yet there is

one subject whereon

For, lish

if

it

is

not safe to try them.

you would see a sage and venerable Eng-

Doctor of Divinity suddenly turn ungovernably

choleric,

ask him what he thinks of the monastic

system.

Thus

will

he answer.

" The notion of making the height of virtue, and the perfection of

human

and contemplation,

is

nature to consist in solitude

the most extravagant of

all

the unreasonable doctrines fanaticism and ignorance

39

MONASTERIES

have ever conceived. in speculation,

constitution of man,

duty, destructive to

if

doctrine the most absurd evils

A doctrine repugnant to the frame and

in practice.

tory to the

A

and productive of the greatest

first

subversive of every relative

human

society,

and contradic-

And,

great law of God.

therefore,

an angel from heaven had taught that doctrine,

we might

boldly say with St. Paul,

cursed/

A

theorist,

ciples of reason

who

'

him be

let

ac-

consulted only the prin-

and nature, might well think

it

impossible that such an error could be propagated

among

a race of beings like men, where the en-

dowments and

qualifications, the

of each

fections

that they were

individual, strongly demonstrate

made mutually

by each

assisted

wants and imper-

other.

to assist,

and

to

Yet has the contagion

spread over the face of the earth.

Every monastery

man

erected by a piety founded on this maxim, that

was made

be

for contemplation alone, is a

monument

of the madness of mankind."

When

so utterly condemnatory

enunciated

by a learned

was the opinion

divine,

educated in an

English university, and taught in learned halls to discuss intricate and enfolded questions with theological

acumen and

logical refinement, selecting

and

discriminating with subtlety a minute grain of truth

from

its

expect

entangling maze of error,

much

nicety

when

we

could hardly

the same question

came

40 to

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. be handled by one, who has been described

by Bishop Burnet,

as

" eminently and blunderingly

Emperor and

boorish," viz. the Russian

ship-car-

penter, Peter the Great.

Yet Peter approached

and respect

gravity

it

this subject

with

deserves; employed

than half his reign in informing himself of particulars

;

and then

finally

of improvement, which

all

is

came out with

the

more

all

the

his edict

something more than a

state paper.

He

begins by setting forth what

is,

has been,

and should be the monastic system, by reference first

to the only truly binding authority, the

Testament.

inculcation of the tenets, but, on the contrary,

that is

is

nearly incompatible with them.

therefore,

human

invention

very good intentions, he allows in

at a time

much

Monasticism

with him, no divine institution for

Christians, but a

menced

New

Therein he finds no example, and no

an age

far

;

;

originally with

yet notoriously com-

subsequent to the apostolic, and

when many other institutions of heathen na-

tions were being

borrowed from, to add to the sup-

posed lustre or required display of faith in Christ. This he thinks an important ground to lay clearly; because

man

is

down

thereupon to be allowed,

from time to time, to examine the work of his own hands, and ascertain tention.

Now

how

far it fulfils its original in-

the early idea of

monks seemed

to

MONASTERIES. arise in truly conscientious,

41

though extreme endea-

vours on the part of very devoutly disposed persons to

work out

own

their

before anything

salvation

and misled by contracted views of

else;

special paragraphs in

the

New

Testament,

rushed away singly into the wilderness, to from

fectly apart

all

eprjfjLos

avaxcoprjraL

;

and

they

live per-

Hence they were

mankind.

truly called monks, from /novo?;

mites, from

certain

hermits, or ere-

anchorites, or anachorites, from

;

stylites,

top there was certainly not

from the

room

pillar

for

on whose

more than one

to stand.

Now

this sort of thing

was

all

very well, says

the monarch of ice-girt Eussia, in the South, where

a

man

needs

little

what the earth

of either clothing or food, beyond

will

spontaneously afford him

;

but

in the North, he, the Tsar, gives us his ipse dixit,

that

men must combine

into a

community and work

hard amongst themselves, to get up the means of

keeping body and soul together; and as long as they do lead such simple and self-supporting in

lives,

mountains and desert plains he has nothing to

say against them. difference

But the point where he had

with them was,

—when they brought

his

their

communities out of the wilderness, and planted them in the

neighbourhood of large and populous

seeking to

unwise

live in ease, idleness,

cities,

and plenty, on the men. " This,"

gifts or forced labour of other

42

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

says Peter, " was a great cause of the decline of the

Greek Empire

at Constantinople

lazy priests, got about the

;

for the cunning,

weak-minded women,

them obtained

the Emperor's wives, and from

gifts

of lands and money, that were quite absurd in their

extravagance."

" Why

!" exclaims the

indignant essayist, " the

monasteries w,ere so multiplied by this hot-house cultivation, that there

were above thirty of them on

the banks of the canal of that single city

whole extent

is

not

much above

men

thousand

And

from

so exten-

through every province the Turks

came be-

Emperor could only

raise six

of the great empire, that fore the walls, the

and the

thirty versts,

the Black Sea to Constantinople. sively did the abuse spread,

;

when

for their defence.

n

This was a monstrous iniquity in the eyes of so warlike a sovereign as the Great Peter fore,

;

and there-

while he allowed his Russian monks, on ac-

count of the vehemence of a northern climate, to live

together in

them of the large acquired

;

large communities, territories

he deprived

they had by degrees

and of any power either of holding more

lands which might be given or bequeathed to them, or even of retaining any species of wealth which

members might bring with them.

new

"If," said he,

" there are it

is

men who have a decided call to the state, proper that we keep the monasteries open to

Digitized by

Google

MONASTERIES. receive

them

hind in

the world."

but

;

A modicum his

and

;

the priest,

lishment

going

;

it

leave their wealth be-

was

certainly allowed

but more than

keep the estabPeter was very

this,

liked to insist, in

on the keeping of the

by

by labour on the

if assisted

just sufficed to

and much he

jealous of;

integrity

them

of support

government

part of

let

all

their

old rules of St. Basil,

who "rejected the vain pretences of those, who would only be employed in singing psalms." were the idlers before Peter

;

their objections to

in detail

and

may

after considering

is

a kind of labour

perform, agreeable to God, and

honourable in the eyes of men.

—They

shall receive

convents invalid soldiers, those

into their

he

ordinary labour;

finally comes out with, " but there

which they

These

who have

been dismissed the service, and are not able to work,

and other truly necessitous persons, and shall pro-

them."

vide hospitals for

ordains, to

"

It shall

again he severely

be rigorously prohibited to monks

go out of their convents, except the superior, the

steward,

and the treasurer.

taken that the other since

Great care

monks do not go

they have quitted the world,

they should

With

go into

this*

inclined to tic

And

it is

all

is

to

be

In short,

not

fit

that

again."

preliminary information,

be at

luxury, or

it

out.

we were not

captious on the head of monas-

gourmand conventualism, when we

set

Digitized by

(£bogle

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

44 forth

on Wednesday morning, to

weather, Moreover, was blue, the sun bright

;

the

visit several of

principal monasteries to the south of

warm once

Moskva.

The

again, the sky-

and a thermometrical observa-

tion taken at the oilman's shop as

we

showed

passed,

the contents of his great bottles nearly two-thirds

returned from their tallowy state, and resolved into their original amber-coloured

we drove

oil.

Away

therefore

merrily and briskly enough, past the north-

east corner of the Kitai Gorod,

and then cutting

obliquely through the Beloi Gorod, and the lianoi

Zem-

Gorod, entered the more extensive, but equally

complete envelope of the Slobodii, or suburbs, which are further surrounded

by a rampart whose circum-

ference measures forty versts.

with actual town

Not however

is filled all this

came here and there

vast space

to large bare tracts

;

entirely ;

for

we

where, on

the roadside-mounds, lay creeping roots of grass that

had long since died away ; and in the road, was deep dry sand, looking very like a strip of the Sahara itself.

Splendidly did the horse come out at this difficult part; he was one of those powerful-barrelled, fine-

legged Russian horses, with both tail and mane sweeping the ground

;

and though he sank half up to his

knees at every step, he continued such an active, long-stepped walk, as

made

the droshky's wheels

hiss again in dividing the arenaceous sea.

Happy

Digitized by

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45

MONASTERIES.

though,

we

were,

when

the driver was enabled to

turn out of this so-called road, enter a sort of open piece of

common

grass-land,

and then

after passing

through a scattered grove of Siberian cedars, bring us full in view of the Simeonovskii Monastery.

A

tall

tower, a golden-headed and cross-crested

giant of one hundred and seventy feet high, rising

above the gateway of a strong-walled enclosure, the walls garnished at intervals with strange-looking anti-

Tahtar towers of defence, with steep conical roofs

and gilded angel- weathercocks, and enclosing large interior space,

with walls that

much

met the

The

tall

many golden -domed

painted,

—was

in a

churches

the general picture

eye.

tower was white, and in good architecture,

arranged with

five

arch-adorned stories, in decreasing

breadth but increasing height, as they ascended.

advanced and knocked

We

at the metal doors, but as

no

one would hear, went presently on foot round the wall

and

at the south-west angle,

gate,

we

coming

to a small open

entered there, and passing through the half-

gardens, half-graveyards,

made straight for the princi-

pal church, which exhibits rather violent painting on its

outside walls. Inside, were the grand old decora-

tions of ikonostas

and royal doors ; sacred pictures

most covered with gold and

silver plating

al-

and jewels;

candles and candlesticks innumerable ; and a faint dim light

streaming down with difficulty from the loop-hole

46

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

windows

just

entered a side chapel, where

been concluded

priest,

domes.

in the turrets of the

church we

who was

Through

this

a service

had

for a particular family

in the act of retiring

;

and the

with a sort of

primitive hand-broom, stopped short on seeing us,

and putting the instrument again with both hands into a large basin

on one side of him, asked

should give us of holy water so kindly that he could in a

head to

and with no

foot,

pleasure, to himself,

;

and seemed

moment

if

he

to imply

asperse us from

sort of trouble, but rather

—that

we were

quite pained at

having to signify a negative to the worthy man's obliging proposition. *

After

this,

we wandered about

without meeting a soul for ourselves

;

for a long

time

and had to try to make out

which was the "Church of the Assump-

tion," founded in 1404, or that of "St. Sergii the

Miracle-worker," or of the "Discovery of the Cross;" of " Ksenophont and his scent of the Holy Ghost

;"

Society;" of the

Most Holy Mother of God." For anywhere

in the grounds,

"De-

and of " Prodigies of the if

a priest was seen

he was sure to be going

quickly about some occupation which did not allow

him any spare

time.

There were here, evidently, no

professional sight- showers, each trying to

believe

that he

is

showing you something more

than he ever exhibits to ordinary visitors

were no

idlers about.

make you

At

last

;

and there

chancing to observe a

47

MONASTERIES.

certain Father called out of his house to speak to a

few rustics,

we went and

stood near to indicate our

desire for an interview also

people were disposed

of,

;

and when the country-

the old gentleman came

straight up to us, shook hands very warmly, but not

being able to speak a word of anything except Russ,

he only taught us again the lesson which we had been slowly learning ever since our

country ;

of French and

own

arrival in the

German being so universally spoken by

well educated Russians their

first

of what you hear elsewhere

viz. that spite

;

yet the smallest portion of

tongue, would be of infinitely greater ser-

vice to a traveller desiring to get at the

minds of the

people, than both those other languages put together,

with English and Dutch added to them besides.

The kindly

priest

however soon came to under-

stand one of our wants

;

and straightway sent

to unlock the door of the

that of

we might judge

Moskva," from

its

grand bell-tower,

a

man

in order

of the reputed "finest view galleries.

Up

therefore

we

climbed, high up amongst the bells, and to where large flocks of holy doves do, unfortunately for cleanliness, love to

abode.

congregate and

make

The view though was not

their nightly

satisfactory.

began well with a perspective scene of the

coming down from the

city

;

It

river

but then appeared two

powder-magazines, and ugly barracks, and after

them were some horrid, black- smoking,

factory chim-

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

48

neys only half a mile off and right in front of the

Kremle

fairylike

in the extreme distance, with its

brilliant white towers, and flashing points of gold.

From

here therefore

crossed the river by a

we drove north-westward ;

wooden bridge, and then

after

having driven nearly due west for a mile along the Zemlianoi boulevard, again struck due southward,

down long

straight streets of small houses in the

suburbs, nor stopped until

open gateway in the

we were landed

fortified wall of the still

an

at

more

celebrated Donskoi Monastery.

All the

monks

same order, on the

of Kussia are of one and the rules of Basil the Great

;

though

they have several degrees of advance or proficiency

amongst themselves; and the names of

their

mon-

asteries are as various, as are often their characteristics

and

uses.

The Donskoi,

so called from

still

containing the picture of the Donskaya Mother of Grod,

—the picture taken

to Dmitrii's great battle of

Koulikov on the Don, in 1380, by the Kozaks of that region,

and again appealed to by Phedor Ivano-

vitch, in

1591, during an invasion of the country

about Moskva by the Krimean Tahtars

how

—note

to

recent a date poor Russia was exposed without

Western assistance to Asiatic inroads, have

:

its

—seems now to

chief fame as a place of sepulture

;

the most

holy too and reputed in Russia, next to the Imperial cemeteries themselves.

Digitized by

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49

MONASTERIES

That the Tsars who have deceased since Peter Vein St. Petersburg, should there

liki,

of a fortress, has struck some persons

the walls

with astonishment in

be buried within

;

but

Russia, for what

it is

not an exceptional case

the Kremle of Moskva, in

is

which are buried the pre-Peter Tsars, but a fortress of the period, as painters

would say

and what

;

and many another Russian monastery,

the Donskoi,

but a species of fortification quite strong resist

day,

enough to

the lighter clouds of Tahtar horsemen in their

and therefore able

to secure the sacred relics of

Hence every

from many a profanation.

the dead,

being rudely

country convent, thereby a place the

is

more or

fortified,

becomes

less desired for burial

Donskoi ranks above

all

others,

and

connection with the great medieval battle

religious

from which the freedom of Russia has flowed. ligious

;

on account of its

connection

we

Re-

say advisedly, for though the

outward and visible symbol in this case, be only a

deep are the inward and

picture, yet ings, sian,

evoked by

it

noble or peasant

forefathers

spiritual feel-

in the heart of every true

may have

;

Rus-

and hard as they and their

fought with their hands and

swords against the enemy, they believe in special providences,

and gladly give to God

all

the glory of

their success.

The prices now paid in

the VOL.

Donskoi II.

for the narrowest grave with-

walls, are said to

amount

to one

D

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C4#OQle

50

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

thousand rubles

;

and not even the noblest families,

such as the Galitsins, Dolgorukies, Stcherbatovs, Trubetskois, Tolstois, Narishkins, Mestcherkiis,

and

whose names are connected with the greatest

others,

events in their country's history, are allowed to

much

nopolize

space.

mo-

Hence the monuments are

generally rather small and modest; closely together, and almost always exhibiting

packed

some choice

design in granite or marble ; but yet allowing nu-

merous shadowing trees to spread their arms kindly over the prostrate forms below.

The

was

air

at this time

still,

and the sunlight

intensely bright, yet withal deeply oppressive

solemn

;

hardly a single

where, and not a sound was heard, as respectfully each narrow

we threaded

pathway amongst the

quent memorials of the dead. it

and

human being appeared anyfre-

Amidst such a scene,

must have been, that a nameless Eussian poet

wrote so expressive a four-line composition "

What

is

living,

—dying,

shore for the troubled

wave,—

man's history

Leaving the

still

?

born,

—

:

Struggling with storm- winds, over shipwrecks flying,

And

casting anchor in the silent grave." *

The sentiment of the with

all its

last line,

appeared to us

pathos, something of a halting between

the old national Eussian idea of death, and the views of

it

imported into the higher

literature,

by the

* Bowring's Russian Poets.

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MONASTERIES

51

among

forced cultivation of Western languages

the

richer classes.

Generally, the Russian has no fear of death, he too religious in his

court

it

;

and the

way

for that, yet

statistics

less suicides, it is averred,

people's.

is

he does not

of his large

cities,

show

than almost any other

But, on a great occasion and in defence

of his country, he

remembers and

still

that fine saying of Svatoslav Igorevitch,

acts

upon

when

lead-

ing his countrymen against the outnumbering hosts

Greek Emperor, " There's no disgrace

of the

dying/'

No

disgrace indeed

still

in

echo the heroic

mouzhiks, but a something rather ineffably sweet at the conclusion of a hard-working well-spent career.

Even when painting the happy married of pastoral lovers

life

of a pair

who had long been kept

national song concludes with this stanza " Tears and sorrow,

if

apart, a

:

they come,

Shall not wear the garb of gloom Life with thee

crown'd with beauty

is

Beautiful

And

in

death!"*

Old Russia every native mind

and prepared with holy to

is

is

so attuned

feeling, that there is

them jarring against

nothing

their earthly joy in this in-

troduction of the end.

But

in other circles, unhappily, at the chief time

when Russian

scholars were instructed to take the * Bowring's Russian Poets.

D

2

52

THREE

Western nations

CITIES TN RUSSIA.

was

for their literary models, there

a dreary infidelity growing up in both

Germany and

France, while in England, even on tombs erected in Christian churches, the paganism

committed of representing death,

was customarily sinewy

visibly as a

skeleton; or an ogre-looking savage, sticking mortals

through and through with a big dart; or carrying

off

some weeping mother, amidst the wild consternation,

and from the furious muscular

husband and This

new

efforts of

children.

teaching being compelled by authority,

soon began to manifest city poets of St.

itself in

Petersburg

;

the University

:

»

that funereal toll ! loud tongue of time

!

What

woes are centred in that frightful sound

My life's first footsteps are midst yawning graves

;

A pale, teeth-clattering spectre passes nigh A scythe of lightning that pale spectre waves, ;

Mows down

man's days

like grass,

and hurries by.

" Nought his untired rapacity can cloy

Monarchs and

slaves are all the earthworm's food

Death knows no sympathy All tenderness

;

he tramples on

— extinguishes the stars

Tears from the firmament the glowing sun,

And

He

and

and hence, from one

of the best of them, such lines as these " Ah

both

blots out worlds in his gigantic wars.

wets his scythe with trophies such as these."

* Bowring'a Russian Poets.

;

53

MONASTERIES.

Not bad poetry;

their national heart of hearts in spite

how happy

yet only think

snch Russian authors

of their educated selves will be,

learn, that ideas in

when they

England are now greatly advanced

and purified; and that the

amongst

chiefest living poet

us has very recently published the following 11

Sweet

And I

With

is

true love though given in vain, in vain

sweet

in

is

death

know not which

who

is

puts an end to pain

:

j

;

sweeter, no, not I."

so high an authority before them, Eussian

writers will

now perceive

that such thoughts as their

peasants have been accustomed to think, even with

may

their characteristic iteration,

duced into

safely

be intro-

polite compositions without transgress-

ing the present canons of English verse; and shall

we

have no more therefore from them in books

about a bony teeth-clattering spectre, hour-glass,

and barbed dart

all

complete; or in the Donskoi

cemetery, another such dreadful group, as appears

on a tomb-stone there lieve,

of one of the

;

in close imitation,

—

after the

exterior towers

enclosure,

be-

many marble monuments which

so shock devotional feeling in

Again,

we

Westminster Abbey.

camera had done

and battlements of

whose walls are

thirty

its

duty on the

this picturesque

feet

high,

— we

mounted our droshky, and drove away right northwards, with the horse's five-foot tresses of black shining hair streaming out behind him.

54

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

Thus we soon reached again the Zemlianoi boule-

Moskva

vard, crossed the

bridge,

river

by another wooden

had a magnificent view of the golden glories

the

of the Kremle, here seen almost reflected in

water ; and then, after some further coursing along westward, turned down south-south-west into a long

open

tract,

once green, and rejoicing in the

the Devitchei Foil, or Virgin's Field

\

title

the approach to the Devitchei convent, with

we were

which

to conclude our day.

It could hardly

'crumbs

of

and forming

still left

have been, that there were

any

over this large area, from the pre-

sent Emperor's coronation feast, which was given

here agreeably with ancient precedent, and at tables collectively eight miles

birds

upon

it

long ; but the number of big

was as extraordinary as

for they allowed us to drive

their

their tameness,

amongst, and through

numbers without being

at

all

disconcerted.

First there were large collections of doves

those

;

sacred favourites of Russia, and the most beautiful

we thought, we met jackdaws walking about amongst

birds in creation, complete in everything,

—

until

them ; and what

clever bipeds they were, sharp-eyed

and big-brained, yet withal so impudent and confident in themselves.

By

the side of these jackdaws,

—the

doves looked soft effeminate creatures, with diminutive

heads and

little

sense, indulging in a constant

ease that neither thought nor care ever troubled

;

but

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55

MONASTERIES. contrasted

with the doves,

—the jackdaws looked very

walking incarnations of intellectuality.

anything

require

else to set

them

crows, which, had they been

the

Or, did they

we turned

off,

to

by themselves, we

might have fancied able birds, types in fact of a bird but in this

company they were degraded

at once

amongst feathered tribes, as being evidently merely for digging

j

nay, with their coarse big beaks,

small brain-pans, rudely strong legs, and broad

their

humpy

feet, they

were mere born navvies, doomed

to the coarsest of earthwork.

for life

Many magnificent on either hand

field,

sive

made

palaces are seen bordering this ;

and to the

left,

besides exten-

barracks, are the Galifcsin Hospital, an establish-

ment most generously founded for the poor by a Prince of that

name, and kept up by

an outlay of 80,000 rubles a year

at

beyond

;

and further

the once residence of Count Orlov-

still,

Chesmenskii. 1783,

his successors

It is well described as

by Archdeacon Coxe; and

it

existed in

he, a thorough

gentleman and scholar, leaves on our minds a very agreeable impression of the innate ing

men

fortunes noble ever

by

of

all

power of attach-

nations to his loyal leadership and

which must have been possessed by the

Count

;

the same

made by a Russian

man who

fleet to

way of the Atlantic, led

it

in the first visit

Mediterranean waters

also to victory.

That this noble lived in a wooden house grates

56

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

strangely on British ears, though feet of frontage

it

had a thousand

but in Moskva, and perhaps very

;

generally over Russia,

wooden houses

are thought

more wholesome to dwell in than those made of stone, particularly say,

is

A house

of wood, they also

moment

and both rich and poor

erected,

prefer

when new.

ready to dwell in the

it,

if their

still

that

it

is

intrinsically

property and the police regulations

combined, admit of the adoption.

As

in

Moskva there are

separate markets for nearly

everything needed by man, so you is

may be sure

houses, or sample parts thereof, ready to put up if

you are pleased with one,

to your plot of ground, in

there

a " wooden house market/' where you see whole

it is

;

and

either carried bodily

and you shut yourself up

your castle that same night ; or

it is

taken over

piecemeal and re-erected almost as quickly by the hosts of carpenters, or plotniks, with

whom

the city

These men, though mere peasants from

abounds.

the neighbouring villages, and with no more special

education for their trade than every Russian

mou-

zhik acquires naturally almost, and with no other

an axe,

tools than

chisel,

and sometimes a saw yet, ;

according to Haxthausen, " have admirable dexterity

and

skill,

a true feeling for

all

proportion, a practical

talent for suitable arrangement, lity

and

finally

the abi-

not only to help themselves with simple instru-

ments and slender expedients on emergencies, but

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57

MONASTERIES. also to execute

some great and

The plotniks of Moskva

substantial work.

constitute a complete

.

.

and

well-organized community, with connecting links

and

arrangements in common,

sections, household

and with leaders chosen by themselves, plicit

obedience

is

shown.

which prevail are exemplary, and effected not

whom

to

The order and all this

im-

discipline

has been

by regulations and laws on the part of

government, but has sprung from the necessities and natural sympathies and love of order

among

the

were

still

people themselves."*

On

an equally grand scale with the

size,

the general arrangements of the Count's house, in 1816, long after his death,

daughter's rule,

it

was described by

Countess Orlov-Chesmenskii was not, pear, very fond of over-large or

kept open table every day for friends

and

relations

;

yet,

all

when

and then under his

The

Lyall. it

showy

would ap-

parties,

but

her late father's old

even at those smaller en-

tertainments, as a daily rule, a band of thirty to forty

musicians played during the meal, and each guest

had two or three lacqueys to attend upon him, difficult

—no

matter to accomplish in a dwelling which,

though of wood, numbered servants.

Many

its

six

hundred men-

of these were doubtless attendants

on the horses, for the Countess was passionately fond of riding,

— as who would not be, who had the com* Robert Fane's

*

Haxthauseii's Russia.'

D3

THREE

58

mand

of

many

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

and

of these long-maned, graceful,

fine-eyed steeds of Kussia

The pomp of circum-

?

must

stance connected too with their employment

have been something remarkable, for you read that,

"when

is indifferent,

or too cold for

exercise out-of-doors, the Countess

Orlov-Chesmen-

the weather

skii frequently

amuses herself in the manege, which

is

heated in winter, and in a very imposing Eastern style.

A band of musicians take their station in the

gallery,

and continue their many performances as

long as the Countess prolongs her exercise. generally accompanied

She

is

by her companion, Miss Por-

and by her equerry.

is

sometimes

lighted up, or even illuminated for the

same pur-

ter,

The manege

pose."

A grand abode externally, though in a very different style, it

is

from the

the Devitchei Nunnery, as you approach

Ked

Foil.

brick, artistically set forth

with decorations of white,

makes

its colossal

is its

chief constituent,

walls of enclosure

mural watch-towers dark, yet

effective.

tower, nearly two hundred feet high,

is

nishing stories

it is

;

for

through

The

bell-

quite an ex-

ample of what successes may be achieved an architect of genius

and

and numerous

in brick

all its six

by

dimi-

a wonder of decorated archways,

enriched windows, balustraded passages, and houses for bells, while the

whole

is

surmounted by a gracious

golden dome, and that by the " honourable cross."

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59

MONASTERIES.

•

The Russians add to the praises of the general that

edifice,

whence

nence,

and

on a

it is delightfully situated

fine

emi-

overlooks so and so, and so and so,

it

perhaps the inhabitants of the Pampas might

agree

with them

;

but to the perceptions of any or-

dinary mortals, not skilled in discovering almost in-

a variation of a

tuitively

wide country,

it

Nor most

plains.

much service to

we

the walls

and

church,

its

found

all

been of

the pathways from church to

planked and trussed up, as

several cemete-

if

the place

must

some seasons a vasty bath of mud.

Ivanovitch,

was founded

had

ceiving a special gift in the

church

—

is

Kremle.

for there are nine of

much

in the

bore; viz. a tall cubic

1

his prede-

396 accompa-

and snow

accompanying.

;

and

Its principal

them, and three cha-

manner of the Uspenski Somass of white building, with

many Scripture paintings on

flights

in

Vassilii

holy procession returning to Poland, after re-

nied a

—

1524 by

in

on the spot whereunto one of

cessors, Vassilii Vassilievitch,

rain

site

drainage, for on entering within

to the several cottage dwellings of the

This convent

pels

flattest of

assuredly has the alleged height

and through and amongst the

ries, all

be at

in the level of a

hypsometric variation of the

or the

nuns,

two

foot or

seems established on the

five

its

walls exposed to

golden domes with crosses

In this church, entered by covered

of stairs curiously

arched

in,

are deposited the

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60

THREE CIT1E8

IN RUSSIA.

mortal remains of divers of the Tsarinas and Grand-

Duchesses of the Russian Imperial surrounding of

line,

while in the

cemeteries are the tombs

many noble

families, as well as of

White marble, red and grey

of

ladies

former nuns.

granite, cast-iron

and

bronze in ornamental Gothic tracery, were the usual materials of the

monuments, adorned with paintings and always with the " honour-

as well as sculpture,

able cross

" on the summit.

In the cathedral we found the service performing

by nuns

alone,

mena seated in

under the supervision of their hegu-

and we thought, with sympathy

state;

for them, of the invading

session of

French

resident nuns notwithstanding

;

mounting

their

St.

walls, levelling

outside, including the

John the Precursor, and making them-

selves perfectly safe

and

satisfactorily comfortable in

a military sense, as Frenchmen in so well understand

Our

from ikonostas and

cannon on the

and clearing away buildings church of

1812 taking pos-

stabling their horses

in the church, stripping off gold altar,

in

and fortifying this same convent, sixty poor

how

campaigns

to do.

attention, however,

to a sound of wheels

all their

was presently drawn

and furious galloping, and

there was our isvostchik driving straight

off lo

!

away from

us through the convent's outer gates, at the rate of

still

As our camera

picture

was

progressing under a very small aperture,

we

twelve miles an hour.

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MONASTERIES.

waited quietly, and before returned. still,

His horse,

and had

it

it

61

was

finished the

man

seemed, would not stand

in its impatience trod

foot, while he, the master,

was

on

its

master's

inattentively eating

some bread which we had furnished him with the means

of procuring

Zemlianoi Gorod.

ing

when

last

he drove through the

So on receiving such an annoy-

provocation he straightway took the horse,

golubtchik though

it

might be, into the deep sand

outside the convent, and there worked off that too intense

spirit,

ship's boiler,

which, like the vapour in a steam-

had accumulated to a dangerous ex-

tent during a stoppage of half an hour, though to-

wards the

and sun.

close of this long

day of exceeding

toil

62

CHAPTER

VIII.

GUNS AND BELLS. September.

Our is

complete day in Moskva

last

be done

to

!

The sun shines

much

Oh, how

!

gloriously again, «

and the warmer, in

too,

we

warm

it

j

their

entirely

fully

now

are

resolved

from their so recently frozen, into

normal limpid, condition.

By it

must be

said, for the three-foot bottles of oil

the shop near the trahtiers

back

is

air is genially

the way, what sort of

used for?

home,

viz.

selling

it

oil,

it?

and holding

in clean glass bottles

you want a vessel holding a gallons.

was

and what

shops rather showy than otherwise, yet

nothing but

stock of

oil

For we do not see such shops at

Be

sure then,

when

pended in keeping a material

;

gill

so

and

their this,

whole

whether

or one of twenty

much

care is ex-

in the cleanest possible

condition,

and so much expense incurred to prove

that

so, it

it is

must be intended

for the service

Digitized by

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GUNS AND BELLS. of that

nourish

consumer,

and

whom man

cherish, viz. his

does so proverbially

own body ;

i. e. it is

eating or drinking in some way or other.

for

Prac-

and native shrewdness had long ago taught the

tice

Russian peasant the importance of large quantities of soft

carbon being taken

into his animal system

important against the cold of that climate, and

;

still

more important as a corrective of the large quantity of plain

a

bread he delights

day generally, and

and above

over

consume ; three pounds pounds during harvest,

his kasha, or boiled millet, eggs,

cucumber, mushrooms, cabbage, and

milk, salted

not

to

five

unfrequently

bread he prefers

The

supplies of beef. is rye,

and prefers

it

of

sort

same

for the

reason that the acute Scottish ploughman clings to his

oaten cake and discerned long before the days

was chemically more strengthening

of Liebig, that it

to

muscular

here,

fibre

than expensive wheaten

flour.

having his dear "black" bread, as well as most

other articles of his food, fried rich linseed oil, or

sunflower

oil,

up

in

abundance of

on high days and holidays with

the hardy denizen of the woods of

Archangel, or the roamer over the steppes of bov, is able to prosecute his sons of the year in spite of

work through

Tam-

all

attracted to a

little

the pavement

;

sea-

even Siberian weather.

Just at this point of our walk our attention

of

So

was

boy selling apples on the edge

at least, that

was what

his parents

Digitized

bycboole

THREE

64

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

must have sent him there ingly,

two wooden trays

for

full,

and he had, accord-

;

placed on a broad board

mounted upon one of the Jehu stone beside him

posts, close

but, blessings on his innocent

;

head

he had at that moment no more thought about his trays and their contents, than

away.

He

they had been miles ;

and under such

He had no hat or cap, and as he

peculiar difficulties.

on the curb-stone, his long and glossy flaxen

sat there

hair

if

was engaged in drawing

was constantly

paper ; and

falling

between

his eyes

and the

paper he was holding on his knee

this

with one hand, while with the other he was working

away with a black-lead

pencil,

go$podin of his native land

seemed

to

be

bending

in

;

drawing some proud

but his chief trouble

his arms, for

he was dressed

in a long sheep- skin coat, wool inside,

arms looked as puddings

:

if

and

his little

they were encased in roly-poly

but he took

it all

so sweetly,

and was so

utterly oblivious of all the other children congrega-

ting about him

;

on the miserable tical idea that

and of everything except realizing bit of

was in

paper on his knee, the artis-

his

sketched him into our

mind, that we immediately

own

tablets, as

one of the

most interesting instances we had seen of innate genius,

under

(See Plate

From

difficulties, 1,

struggling to develope

itself.

Vol. II.)

this scene,

and the

the arid Neglinaya garden,

oil-shops,

and through

we next passed on with

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GUNS AND BELLS.

on shoulder, and entering the Kremle

camera

at the

Tverskaya Gates, were soon in front of the western end of the

name

is

Museum,

more

or Treasury

expressive, for

it is

;

a

perhaps the latter

museum

of crowns

and sceptres, thrones set with jewels innumerable,

and of

the costly paraphernalia of royalty

all

kingdoms

that have been

decorations of even of

an

in a score

while outside are

cannon on carriages of bronze,

antique

spokes

;

many

rejoicing in

Eugene and Marlborough's day or

earlier time still; with flames for the

of the wheels, dolphins for the trunnion-

and

covers,

hippogriffs prancing

spirals for the

We

amongst vegetable

main supports.

set the

camera opposite one of the most re-

markable of these pieces, a long thin gun, like an old

navy "bow-chaser," and the impression of the

picture

was going on very famously, when,

trepidation,

we saw

going forward in an clerks

office close by.

to our

movements

certain suspicious

Some

of the

looked out, and then gave information inside

whereupon two or three more advanced

officials

came forth, and gazed and discussed with growing earnestness, until at last one stern old

man, with

grey hair, spectacles, and in uniform, left the group,

and advanced straight to us.

Oh

!

then what fear

possessed our souls, lest the camera would have to

be closed before the picture's exposure was half

completed

!

for

had we not perhaps gone rather

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66

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. f

who had

too far ? and

told us that

actually into the very fort of

even

its

most sacred cannon ? and have we not seen

civilian visitors

batteries in

turned neck and heels out of certain

Edinburgh Castle

What then must

tion ?

we might come

Moskva, and picture

selves, the

embryo

for far less

befall us,

actinic impression, before the ad-

vancing genius of Russian bureaucracy. old chief closely,

The

stern

came up; he scanned our arrangements

two tubular brass cameras on mahogany

what

stand, asked

it

was

hearing the potent word quietly as he

We

presump-

and more than our-

all

about,

<W)Torpa*ifl,

and then on departed as

had advanced.

should have been sorry too, to have lost the

picture, for this

gun was the gun Yedinorog, one

of the eight great guns of Moskva, having a length of twenty feet, and a weight of 28,000 pounds.

was

It

cast in the year 1662, in the reign of Alexei-

Michaelovitch, the father of Peter the Great.

To the the

east of the

gun Drobovik,

museum was a still larger gun, known as the great gun

usually

of Moskva, with a bore three feet in diameter, and

a weight of 86,400 pounds; and informing those

who can read Russian

"By

Duke Phedor all

(according to Dr. Lyall) that,

the orthodox and Christian Tsar, and GreatIvanovitch, Gosudar and Autocrat of

Russia, in the time of the most pious and Chris-

tian Tsarina,

and Great-Duchess

Irina, this

cannon

GUNS AND BELLS

was

67

Moskva, in the

cast in the distinguished capital

year of the world 7094 (1586

a.d.)

by the ordnance-

founder Andrei Chochov."

Between the founding of these two guns, though only seventy-six years, what a world of troubles and sea of change had not Russia passed through

bovik saw her Rurik,

still

!

Dro-

under the direct descendants of

who had guided

seven hundred years;

her without a break for

but Yedinorog found that

an end, and the country, after intestine revo-

line at

lutions, invasions,

and foreign dominations, returned

new

career

of a novel and imposing, westward-pointing

civili-

to order once more,

zation,

aud about

under Romanov

How well

to enter a

chiefs.

the heads of that house have pioneered

their country through difficult as well as glorious

from Turks and

times, other great guns, taken

Swedes, lend no small testimony proofs of

all,

;

though the best

are the 874 brass field-pieces taken

army

1812.

The

ranks, and rows, and heaps of rows which this

num-

from

the

French invading

in

ber forms around the Arsenal, a building lying to the north of the

Museum,

is

one of the most re-

markable and soul-stirring sights in

its

way, that

Russia, or any other country in the world can show.

Though connected with war,

yet

may

these trophies

be viewed without any of those compunctions which the deeds of earthly conquerors too often bring with

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

68

them

for here,

\

side, of

it

was no

on the Russian's

case,

a pagan goddess called Glory

lust of conquest with

them

either ; but

nor was

;

it

it

was simply

standing up in defence of their country, their wives,

and

families, to preserve

them from men

calling

themselves followers of the religion of Christ, or pioneers of intellectual enlightenment, yet bringing

with them in a

all

those fearful guns to murder Russians

more wholesale manner than ever Tahtar inva-

ders in the dark ages had succeeded in doing.

One

might almost have expected that so immense a reverse as this loss of 874 guns implies, would have

taught the French nation to be less fond of inva-

ding others, and

less

prone to allow

itself to

be

lured through meretricious paths into final disaster,

by the seductions of Napoleonic genius half a century has passed,

we

find

:

but after

them again under

the same direction, and struggling at every nerve to

make up another u grand army

and by special

attention to its field-pieces, commissariat, and transport, to

make

ding army.

numbers of

it

a portable,

They have not their first

i.e.

quite reached the full

Emperor's gathering of the

spring of 1812, but they have soldiers

period

;

more native French

now than were under arms for his

at that former

550,000 men were drawn from many

diverse nations; let

eminently an inva-

and by what

sort of compulsion,

the following names, indelibly inscribed on the

Digitized by

Google

GUNS AND BELLS. guns at testify

Moskva, mostly by

their

former owners,

to the world. Bit ASS

PIECES OP OBDNANCB.

French

488

Austrian

188

Neapolitan

40

Bavarian

34

Westphalian

1

Saxonian

12

Hanoverian

1

70

Italian

Wurtombergian

5

Spanish

8

Polish

5

Dutch

22

A strange conceals as

tell-tale list is this, as well in

what

it

shows.

For where

is

what

She was with Bonaparte in 1812, as long as his tune

was prosperous; and

love of her sons, could

paign

by the French

succeed in carrying

tile

Russian

sian

?

for-

that country, which in

of the boasted deep thought, and patriotic

spite

to

it

Prussia

soil.

be overthrown in a Jena camin a fortnight, all its

guns

Nor were they

was not

likely

safely out of hos-

so saved, for Prus-

guns were brought in triumph to Moskva, as

well as those of other invading peoples feelings at court,

;

but family

combined with some distant

diplo-

matic ideas, are said to have caused an edict to be issued in 1818, ordering the Prussian section of these trophies to

be merged into the Austrian.

Hence

Digitized by

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

70

that very large list

number which stands second on the

to the French.

Astounding as are the expenditures of bronze in the Kremle for guns, those in the shape of bells, are

The great

even larger. Kolokol, or

and

King

worthily, for

of Bells, has passed into a proverb,

though

it is

tain of metal

which a too

pected to find

it,

does

it

not exactly the

literal traveller

exceedingly transcend

weight

that

;

moun-

had ex-

from descriptions he had read, yet

know of. Three hundred and is its

Moskva, the Tsar

bell of

is,

all

we

other bells

sixty thousand

pounds

nearly eleven times the weight

Ben

of our unfortunate Big

of the

New

Palace of

Westminster, and thirty times the weight of the great bell of St. Paul's; while encyclopaedias

may

be consulted to ascertain how many times larger than the biggest bells of France or China.

Oh, grossly barbarous idea, says the genius of the

West

!

mere bigness

!

just as a savage African

chieftain aspires to the title of

knows of nothing Nay, not

so,

"Elephant"; and

higher.

we would

expostulate, after having

heard some of the larger of the Russian bells ; for the tones, oh forth,

the exquisite tones which they give

!

and which nothing

ing to the inmost soul.

been mute ever since belfry in 1737

;

else

its fall

but there are

»

\

can equal, are ravish-

The Tsar

bell to

be sure has

and the burning of still

its

the

Digitized by

Google

GUNS AND BELLS. Bolshoi Kolokol

Reut

.

.

71

weighing 144,000 70,000

.

Vsednevnoi

„

Semisotnoi

.

27,930

„

Medved

.

.

15,750

„

Lebed

.

.

15,575

,,

14,700

„

many

others of smaller calibre, but

all

with the most musical utterances.

gifted

larger of these the year,

and announce the anniversary of

many

of

them

When

the

sound forth at particular seasons of

death of our Lord, his Cross of his

„

35,595

Novgorodekoi

and

lb*.

either the

and Passion, or some

acts of devotion to

the will of his

Father in Heaven, and the undeserved sufferings

which attended his sacrifice for the children of men,

—then every peasant who, miles pital,

hears coming

down

to

away from the

ca-

him apparently from the

clouds the inexpressibly beautiful yet saddening vibrations in the air, immediately bethinks him, for

him too the Lord

suffered,

how

and bore meekly the

taunts

and

stantly

on the holy thought and sound combined,

the in

wicked men.

buffets of

humbled mouzhik hastens up

to

So acting

Moskva

in-

to join

the universal prayer and penitence, praise and

thanksgiving, with every earnest endeavour in his soul to live for the future

hood with

all

a

life

of love and brother-

mankind.

In fact the Kussian peasant finds that for his peculiar

constitution

of

mind, the sound of the

THREE

72

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

mighty music of great

more of devotional in the

New

bells in the

feeling, as

it is

open

air,

awakes

traced out for

us

Testament, than painted glass windows

These there-

in either a Gothic or Grecian temple.

fore they comparatively neglect,

and the others they

prosecute with an earnestness intense in the extreme.

The

they care

size of the bells

little for,

except in

so far as certain noble notes are only producible

a large

size

but every bell

;

is

and

tested for its note,

at the chief private manufactories at

by

Moskva, num-

bers of bells are kept constantly suspended in order

may

that purchasers

give out.

no time

ear,

traordinary

ion

is,

them by the sound they

is lost

how

in recasting the bell ;

be taken down and

the larger bells of

and in tracing

;

not only necessary to ascertain

by

done to

its it

founder,

by

its last

Thus the Tsar

Hence few of

recast.

Moskva have escaped being cast

over and over again

cast

and it is ex-

exacting the Russian popular opin-

so frequently requiring even long established

bells to

is

try

If this be not satisfactory to a refined

i.e. first

their history, it

its

particulars as

founder, but

what was

founder.

bell

was

first

cast in 1654, in the

reign of Alexei-Michaelovitch, with the weight of

288,000

lbs.

It

began

to

announce divine service

in 1659, and continued to announce

June,

1700,

Kremle

it

when

a great

was damaged.

fire

Till

it

until

19th

occurring in the

the year 1731

it

re-

Digitized by

Google

GUNS AND BELLS.

mained mute, but

then, "

73

by order of the most pious

potent, and great Gosudarinya, the EmAnna Ivanovna, Autocratress of all Russia, in glory of God and the acknowledged Trinity, and in

and most press

honour of the Most Holy Mother of God,

was

cast

for the

(recast)

How use,

corded

lbs., in

soon after this period

and whether ;

it

on

it,

it

fire,

with

was re-erected

only that in 1737, another fall,

of cop-

the year 1734."

was used,

actually

supports, and either the

lbs.

was injured by

bell that

the addition of 72,000

of her

chief cathedral

famous Assumption, from the 288,000 per of the former

this bell

fire

is

for

not re-

destroyed

its

or water poured both

and the burning building

same time,

at the

caused a large piece to break out of the rim.

Such an

effect of fire

and water was shown pur-

posely on the Bolshoi Kolokol in 1817; bell,

—which had

when

this

been cast under the Empress

first

Elizabeth in 1760, of the weight of 127,984

lbs.,

and recast under the Empress Catherine, and had subsequently been injured by the French in 1812,

was ordered

to be recast once again of the weight

of 144,000 lbs., and as a preliminary into pieces

by being

water thrown upon

From

it

was broken

heated, and then having

it.

time immemorial Eussia appears to have

been celebrated

huge brazen VOL.

first

II.

for bells

;

Herodotus mentions a

vessel of the sort in possession of the

e

THREE

74

King of

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

Scythia; and when, after two thousand years,

the light of Christianity had assisted in revealing that land once

more

to

Western observation, behold

the people with a finer taste, and deeper feeling than

ever for these tongues of bronze.

When

Alexei-Miehaelovitch cast the great

bell,

therefore

he was de-

veloping a true endowment and a peculiar attribute of his people

;

and

his son Peter

than follow in the same

line,

might have done worse instead of showing his

usual contempt for any traditions of the lower Sla-

But the old

vonic orders.

bell-talent

tion thereto in the peasantry

guished

;

inclina-

were not to be extin-

and have since then saved the honour of

their country

;

for,

if

the British Parliament, even

backed up by Cambridge science, has with a 33,000 official

and

lb. bell,

failed twice

—we may be sure that a mere

edict in Russia in 1817,

would not of

itself

have produced the immediate success which was there obtained in a bell of

more than four times the

weight of the English one.

Nor perhaps would even

an Imperial mandate at any time since

;

but in 1817,

the reaction after French invasion called forth

much of

the native spirit of the people in mighty efforts after their kind,

The

and bell-construction was one of these.

re-erection then of

the

Bolshoi

Kolokol,

served as a remarkable national opportunity; and the people present at the founding, threw in abundantly of their gold, silver, plate, and rings.

GUNS AND BELLS

75

Nearly two years then elapsed, much of the time

being probably spent in annealing before the

was removed from the furnace where cast.

it

then we read in Lyall, that, "

And

bell

had been

On the 23rd

of February, 1819, this bell was removed on a great

oaken sledge from the foundry, Te Deum being previously celebrated.

a kind

of

stage,

In front of the bell was erected

Mr. Bogdanov (the

on which

founder) and others stood.

The Imperial

was

flag

displayed, and the motions of the machinery were

regulated by the sound of the small bells suspended

over the great

bell.

who

the crowd,

Ropes or cables were given to

disputed the honour, not to say ser-

vice, of the transportation.

was

in motion.

proceeded

At a

signal given,

all

The sledge-road being good, they

at a gentle steady pace,

by the Stretenha,

the Blacksmith's Bridge, in descending to which

the sledge was retained by the crowd behind ; by the

Makooaya where they stopped

opposite the Voslcre-

senskiya Vorotui, or Resurrection Gates, and wor-

shipped before the image of Iverskaya Mother of

The

God, with the pious feeling of Christians.

Borovitskiya Gates having been previously enlarged,

by taking down a small part of the

was drawn Ivan

uphill,

Velikii.

and soon lodged

Te Deum was again

wall, the bell

at the foot of

celebrated

;

after

which the crowd threw themselves upon Mr. Bogdanov,

and kissed

his cheeks, his breast, his hands,

£ 2

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

76

his clothes, to testify their approbation of his

ledge of his

and their content

know-

at seeing such a

once more within the precincts of the

bell

fine

art,

Mr. Bogdanov then ascended the

Kremle.

and bowed three times

to each

side,

bell,

amidst the

huzzas of the multitude."

Here then we may surely recognize much of the same deep

religious feeling

and national fervour,

with which the mediaeval Italians were animated, as

long as art was progressing among them, or was still

employed

and her as

for ennobling purposes.

architects then

worked

Her

painters

at their professions,

though they thought only of the glory of God

and what successes they used then to achieve

!

Similar success too have the Russians obtained in their line,

and

will

undoubtedly obtain

their faith is strong within them,

and

still;

for

their national

ideas are about to have a fuller opportunity of display, than at

any time during many centuries past.

A Western critic may,

we

fear,

be inclined to deride

the notion of putting a mere bell on the same foot-

ing with a picture or an architectural utterance

viewed

aesthetically,

what are the two

latter,

;

but,

even in

their highest examples, other than a fine-art language

adapted to the eye tical

thought,

;

and

if

the bell expresses artis-

and conveys meaning with pleasure

to the ear,

why

Which

the nobler organ?

is

it is

a mere case of eye versus ear.

Are our minds and

GUNS AND BELLS

improved more by what we

souls

Is the

see ?

man

hear, or

what we

of sharp sight of finer intellectual

temperament than him of quick hearing, or

Whichever way the case may be

versa ?

broad

dilettanti circles, there is the of

one group of nations

in the

prefer their aesthetical public the

sake of the eye mainly

vice

settled in

statistical fact

West who

evidently

works to be erected ;

and there

is

for

a single

nation in the east of Europe, but a giant nation,

which, while by no means neglecting the eye, considers the ear, in an abstract point of view, as

an

organ of just as noble a character, capable of com-

much

municating as instruction,

intellectual pleasure

and as high

and therefore equally worthy of having

great national erections for

Hence have

its

benefit

and delectation.

originated the magnificent bells of

Russia, which only a nation of refined hearing

have thought skill

of,

would

of peculiar mechanical and chemical

would have invented the methods of construc-

and of powerful, long-continued centralizing

ting,

energy would have completely succeeded in producing

;

and hence

of Russia, the

too, as a consequence, the belfries

most

original

and beautiful points

in

her architecture.

In

all

the older churches of Russia, and

still

in all

those to which the mass of the people adhere, the belfry is separate taller

fabric

;

from the church, and

is

generally a

in the latter feature reminding one of

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

78

the round-towers of Ireland and Scotland, so fre-

quently placed in close proximity to abbey or cathedral

and

;

in the former feature, indicating a

bility of the early

monks having on

Eussia found bells

much used

proba-

their arrival

in the

in

pagan worship

of the land (ages before they were re-invented at

Nola of Campania in

Italy),

and then allowing them

to remain to assist at, but not join in, the purer

wor-

ship of a Christian Church.

The holy and therefore,

apart

;

and as

them, we

national cathedrals of the

we may be this

Ivan belfry serves the whole of

may depend on

structure. It is in, or for,

large bells

The it is

it

finding

;

is

an exemplary all

those

of are to be found, or

and the building

chief feature

it

accordingly that

we have spoken

were prepared

Kremle,

quite sure, have their belfry

is

not unworthy.

the Ivan Velikii tower

;

but

only a feature, not the whole of the Ivanovskaya

Kolokolnya;

neither

is its

name, Ivan the Great,

derived from the Sovereign so entitled; for the Velikii is

merely added to show the superior height of

the structure, two hundred and seventy feet, and was

humble but hard-working sacred Ivan, the writer of the " Stair," i.e. " a col-

so called after a very scribe,

lection of stepeni, or steps, describing in Slavonian

the progress of a good

tower

is

life

to complete virtue."

The

the earliest existing part of the building,

and was erected u by the

will of the

Holy

Trinity,

Digitized by

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GUNS AND BELLS. and

by order of the Tsar and Great-Duke Boris Go-

dunov, in the year 1600," on the a

much

octagonal, loopholed, and then

them a second

above

site,

The lower

older structure.

doubtless, of

part

come bells

is ;

massive,

next rises

portion, of smaller diameter,

octagonal, loopholed, and then circling arches of bells

again a decrease of diameter, and the tower

;

shoots

but

up

for a third time, octagonal,

above these

becomes

last it

and with

bells

cylindric, with ele-

gant basso-rilievo ornamentation, then pierced by a ring of thin loopholes, then enclosed of gilded

by three rows

and painted inscription one over the other,

while above them flashes the pure golden exquisite form

dome

of

and symmetry, surmounted with a

cross eighteen feet high.

From all sides and

at

all

distances

we

ever admired

golden dome, so exquisitely proportioned, and,

this

by means of these three rows of writing so admirably blended into the substance and material of the walls,

and rendered an appropriate and necessary part of the whole.

Its full

and

elate figure, as it were,

was

enhanced by comparison with the gilded dome of the second portion of the building, the kolokolnya proper

;

small

a lower and broader

windows below

and loopholes of

;

with columns and

and above, over the open archwork

huge and many

aspiring tower,

pile,

in place of cyclopean panelling

bells, a

richly-ornamented but less

whose dome,

flattened

down to a

rich

Digitized

byCooole

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

80

might claim to

elliptical curve,

and yet contrast most powerfully

Velikii in beauty in figure.

Ivan

rival that of

This part of the belfry was erected long

and

after the troubled reign of Boris

his son,

or

the scenes they gave rise to with the false Dmitrii

and the Poles bells

still,

was

as

;

by pinnacles and stars to the sky,

u Erected was

bearing

also the third portion,

like the others,

but crowned and adorned

conical green roofs bearing gilded

and a cross on the

final

summit.

this," says the inscription,

" by the

grace of God, by order of the most pious and Christian Sovereign Tsar, Great- Duke,

Russia, Michael Phedorovitch,

and by the council ther,

and by

of,

spiritual

great Gospodin, the

and Autocrat of

all

by the benediction

by carnal birth

his Royal

Fa-

rank his Father and Patron the

Most Holy Patriarch of Moskva,

and of all Russia, Philaretes Nikitich."

Yet was not

this belfry, in all its

beauty and

innocence, safe from Napoleonic treatment.

dened

at the Russians depriving

him of

all its

Madown

their

winter quarters by burning the habitable houses of

Moskva, and

calling

them barbarians

great Bonaparte set bravely to

work

for so doing, the

to

blow up and

destroy the most cherished of their sacred edifices.

So the Ivanovskaya Kolokolnya was doomed, mined, and blown up ster

Abbey,

if

;

as

we may presume will be Westmin-

the English people, after having been

suddenly invaded some unexpected day, were to rally

Digitized by

Google

GUNS AND BELLS. and compel a French Emperor to retreat from Lon-

don not

i

or, as both English

and Russians certainly did

do toward Notre Dame

By

in Paris.

this pro-

ceeding the second and third portions of the Ivan building were destroyed, and the tower

itself

got a

dreadful shake, having been rent from top to bottom,

and somewhat thrown out of the

vertical.

So well though have the Russians repaired

damage

that

sight alone,

we should never have

all

such

suspected, by eye-

when we were beholding

the matchless

form of this building in September, 1859, that any such calamities had ever happened.

Indeed, as

we

looked up then to the successive bell- galleries of the great Ivan,

we

thought, not of the Soltikov swivels

which the French having mounted thereon, were ac-

customed to

fire in

order to communicate intelligence

to the different divisions of their

the city,

—but we

army

in

and around

thought of the stereoscopic and

bird's-eye photographs of

Moskva which we should

be able to procure, were our camera once safely established at the height. so

This proved to be not quite

easy a feat to accomplish, for at the entrance-door

we were met and resisted by the same

set of disrepu-

who had

de-

nied us admittance the previous evening, unless

we

table

paid

and noisy young

ruffians in black,

them some preposterous number

of rubles.

To-day they were again as clamorous, and inclined to

be insulting

;

and as they seemed to tenant the E 8

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

82

whole interior of the building and held the keys, there was no prevailing against them.

Quietly

we

deposited the photographic apparatus

by the great bell, and began

to sketch. After a while

so spent, one of the black-frocked youths, in a

what milder and

mated that

less excited tone

some-

than before, inti-

for about one-third fewer rubles

than

what he had before demanded, we might ascend with our traps.

u No,

my dear good young man," we answered, u have we not arranged to catch you this day, and is not our friend of Brigadier rank to be here within a quarter of an hour

;

and

will

he not enable us to as-

cend on our peaceful errand without being indebted anything to you ? for verily

it is

We

shall see,

depend upon

for his arrival alone that

we

are

it

now

waiting before you."

Digitized by

Google

83

CHAPTER

IX.

ADIEU TO MOSKVA. September.

To one whom

business or appointment obliges to

spend any length of time within Moskva's sainted

Kremle

enclosure, its walls

and towers stand forth

pre-eminently as objects of extraordinary interest.

Walls twelve to sixteen

feet thick

and thirty

feet

high, though unadapted to modern warfare, must surely have been capable of defence in a former day.

But then they are and

so rich in ornament,

so full of fairylike open

work and

is

the answer,

delicate archi-

tectural fancies.

True, no doubt, but observe that such work

always high up is

;

is

the lower part of every structure

invariably solid to a degree, and writers are

pretty sure that they were

all

erected,

much

now we

as

see them, on the ruins of Dmitrii Donskoi's old walls

by Ivan

Vasilievitch

I.

in 1485.

That was a

brilliant

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84

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

period for the nation j and one of the earliest employ-

ments of the freed people was, most prudently and

good walls around

necessarily, to build themselves

and palaces

their churches

;

strong ones, because

sudden Tahtar incursions might

be expected

still

;

and ornamental, because Russians are dearly fond of decorating that which they truly love. of Ivan was so towers

were

still

the day of bow-and-arrow warfare

and loopholes and

chiefly needed,

modern

The reign

—not

tall

walls were

what

the angular bastions of

which Coxe, otherwise so cor-

fortification,

rect, introduces into his large

map

of

Moskva under

At

the Empress Catherine the Great.

present,

and

to our ideas, the gateways with their tasteful sur-

mountings, look more like Gothic churches than forts,

and they now do bear the name simply of vo-

rotui, or gates

were

called

;

but at the time of their erection they

" strelnitsi,"

i.e.

towers for archers, as

recorded in certain inscriptions testifying

how from 1485

chitects, acting

still

to 1492

to

be read, and

sundry Italian ar-

we may suppose under

pretty strong

compulsion to suit their western Gothic to a Eussian air,

erected the several " strelnitsi," and completed

different lengths of the wall; is

not at

all

Being only of brick,

it

improbable that these works have under-

gone extensive repairs and renovations since they erected, but happily always in the olden

were

first

style,

unadulterated

;

and one of the towers in par-

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85

ADIEU TO MOSKVA.

which we admired perhaps more than many

ticular

and thought

others,

quite a miracle of architectural

sculpturesque in mere brick,

u the Tower

tower,

very

one of

W

of the

viz.

aters

the

south-west

" by name,

is

the

the wall- circle which the French,

all

notwithstanding the hurry of their turning out from the

Kremle, found time

mine and blow up

to

i.e.

;

the prototype of the present erection, for they suc-

ceeded in their destructive purposes only too well.

A fearful

thing truly

though a philosophic

a French invasion

is

historian,

;

and

calmly judging of

may come to the conclusion that the Romans was to destroy and trample down and kill and how well they performed their part, too V he adds; yet in our own time, and for our own benefit, we cannot so quietly contemplate this mantle of Augustan Romans de-

events long past,

mission of the ancient

'

;

'

scending on the shoulders of Bonaparte princes especially

when

these appear on the scene with half

a million of eager Gallic soldiers at their backs,

brought up in the belief that the sword agent,

lizing

countries, is the only

We black, in

the

means of making Frenchmen

at

home.

drove out that evening, after

little

a civi-

and that the ruin of neighbouring

happy or contented

some

is

all

we had had

settlement with the young gentlemen in

" eleves of the church," they were Ivan belfry,

— to

said to be,

the Vorobe'evya Gora, or

Digitized

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

86

Sparrow Hills;

and

miles and miles passed

for

Bona-

through old scenes of the burnings of 1812.

made his September, u and

parte had

public entrance on the 14th

of

in a

few hours, thousands of

merchants' shops were broken open, plundered, and

on

set

French

fire."

These doings of their own men, the

officers

described merely as a few slight indis-

cretions,

which were of no consequence at

the stern Russian people did not regard

But

all.

them

;

to destroy

by

fire

that which they determined these

Not

wholesale brigands should never, never enjoy.

much

in

and on the very next day they began

that light

preparation was necessary, for at this season

of the year, every Russian householder will have laid in his

winter's

house, as

So

for a

supply of wood, and

were,

it

own

its

arsenal and magazine.

month the burnings went

three-fourths of this

made every

immense

on,

city

till

more than

were destroyed.

Harrowing descriptions have been given of the during the period

fearful spectacles that occurred •

of the

fire

;

but more touching

still,

and more con-

vincing of the extent of the destruction, the picture

which Mr. James draws two years pairs of the city were

French had still

in 1814,

left

in the

it

The

end of October, 1812

James could

various excursions,

after.

re-

begun almost the moment the

write,

"In making

was lamentable

whatever direction we

passed,

;

but

these

to behold, in

similar

scenes

of

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ADIEU TO MOSKVA.

87

wreck and havoc were constantly before not

difficult to picture to one's

mind

It is

us.

the appearances

of an ordinary town reduced to a state of ruin

;

but

to traverse a place of thirty-five versts in circumference,

and

find everywhere the

a display of horror that

The

limits of fancy.

repairs,

is

it

true,

far

citizens

though

same

features,

was

exceeds the utmost

had been

little

diligent in

indeed could the

labour of two years produce in a city of such dimen-

The few

sions.

showed but

habitations

that

were reserved

as spots in the wide waste,

scarce to diversify this

universal

and seemed

scene of deso-

lation."

On and

on drove our droshky, through the now

well-repaired streets

passed through the whole

;

breadth of the Zemlianoi Gorod, and then through several miles of the Slobodii, or suburbs, due south-

wards, of

it,

until, before

we were

very definitely aware

the ramparts were past, and

we were

in the

true open country, toiling up a gentle ascent by

deep sandy roads.

and more westward,

Gradually these tended more disclosing our position on the

edge of the table-land that comes right

Smolensk and Poland,

to break

down

away from in a steep

slope of three hundred feet deep, to the bed of the

Moskva

river,

the alluvial

more

flat

and command a map-like view of beyond.

intelligible every

The scene was becoming

moment, and

at length

when

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

88

we had passed

humble church, with a few log-

a

built houses about,

and

artificial

and arrived

at rather a flattened

part of the escarpment,

was the whole thing before appointed as

us, as

—there and then

complete and well

every part had been duly prepared

if

by man.

On

either side, the hill curved forward like the

walls of a colossal amphitheatre; the river below,

a huge serpent of blue, followed this bend; and then, with the solar orb, as stant, exactly

it

was just

at that in-

behind our backs, there in front lay

the bright white city of Moskva, stretching along

seven miles of the horizon, glittering, twinkling,

and flashing with

The near

its

all

myriad domes of gold.

parts of the view were

full

of greenery,

the hill-steep was densely clothed with shrubs, and the vast there

flats

by

beyond the

fine

clumps of

were dotted here and

river tall

trees,

which corrected

the too uniform tints of strongly cultivated cabbage,

and other garden-produce, these

fields

;

varied also were

by an occasional church or monastery, and

especially the great Devitchei, spreading abroad its

turreted lines like a fortified

middle ages.

Beyond

plied amazingly river,

bearing

;

encampment of the

this region, buildings multi-

then came a charming bend of the

many

boats on

its

breast

;

and round

about and away from that stretched the sea of towers

and domes, and

brilliant

white architecture, which

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ADIEU TO MOSKVA.

announced " Holy Mother Moskva." but

miles only,

more nearly

for

Not

for seven

twelve, along the

northern horizon were golden-domed buildings fre-

quent; extent

and we wondered more than ever and beauty of the great

living in.

city

at the

we had been

Distance here, combined with the bril-

solar illumination, completely annihilated the

liant

special

colours

of

seemed each and

particular

now

all

edifices,

and

they

cut out of the purest

alabaster, creations of exquisite light, yet

bland and

subdued, except where a surface of gold lent vigour the reflected beams.

to

The Kremle was conspicuous, with

its

multitudi-

nous domes, and the graceful form of the Ivan Velikii

;

the Pokrovskoi Sobore, and

many

another

cathedral could be identified, but the chief beauty of the of

whole from

this point,

was the new church

our Lord and Saviour, situated in the southern

parts of the city. stone,

by a

yet quite

It is a

huge erection of fair white

native artist,

completed in

Tonn, and though not

its architecture,

exhibits a

magnificent effect of electro-plated gold, on central

first

of gathering in the

and then expanding

it

but the art

dome

after a

again, thus

is

large

Not only

dome, and four smaller cupolas.

too is the scale gigantic,

its

admirable,

manner below,

making

it

appear

an essential part of the building ; secondly, so shaping its

conical surface in angles,

and with

vertical ribs,

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90

THREE

CITIES IN RUSSIA

and where these join towards the summit, interlacing

them with other forms,

as to produce not only a

pleasing architectural effect to gazers close by, but effect also at the distance of the

Sparrow

which was to us perfectly ravishing.

There,

an optical Hills,

the very portion of the building,

i.e.

the great dome,

which under a Western architect would have been

gloomy even was most

to blackness with oxidized sheet lead,

startling in its splendour,

and that splen-

dour was endued with a deep meaning suitable to the high purpose of the building

body of the dome gave

;

for while the

glow of light,

forth a steady

as of the

Sun of Righteousness, the minuter corru-

gations of

its

upper constituent parts were reflecting

a thousand smaller lights, which, twinkling hither

and thither with never-ceasing

summit an appearance of

activity,

gave to the

living tongues of lambent,

ethereal flame, that testified to the zeal

and burning

faith of the Christian believers within.

This new church

French invasion.

is

specially connected with the

The French army did not see

it,

but what they did see of the city without this additional decoration

was glorious enough;

arrived on

edge of the

the last

hill

for

they

just about that

most witching hour of the afternoon, when the sun is

behind a spectator, and shines

spreading city before him. all

grounded

their

Then

full it

on the wide-

was that they

muskets without order, and

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ADIEU TO MOSKVA

gazed

enraptured after their manner, and

silently

overcome with admiration expected

riot

91

at the bountiful feast of

and plunder which the genius of

chief had prepared for them.

which they had

surpassing rewards of

their

This was one of those flattered

themselves there was henceforth to be a never-

ending supply, when the

bells

had proclaimed a year before Napoleon born

saw nothing

;

for in

else,

and

and guns of Paris

that there

him and in their

be nothing more holy than an

was a young

his future line they

minds there could

illimitable perspective

of European campaigns, with accompaniments of

French

soldiers enjoying themselves in every capital

" What more cheering sight

of Europe. said

an

officer in

is

u than to see some thousands of young men forth to

make war ? Their equipage

clothing gay

ment and

;

there,"

Paris to us a few years since, sallying

is brilliant, their

they conquer to themselves in a mo-

enjoy at pleasure, whatever the industry

of another country has been toiling for years to

accumulate; and when they return to their own land they are favoured by the wealthy and the

fair,

with more ovations than

who

all

the philosophers

ever lived, have together obtained."

As long

as these sort of warlike proceedings go

on prosperously, every plan of prosecuting them is

thought

fair

by

their perpetrators

French Generals merely laughed

;

and the early

at Austrian corn-

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92

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

plaints of their, the revolutionary captains, not fol-

lowing the orthodox rules of war. said

French Generals and

turer age,

ma-

came

to Russia and eventually suffered u Oh," then, " it was not fair what

disasters dire,

the

But when the

their great chief, at a

Russians did.

perfectly ready to

He, Napoleon Bonaparte, was fight

them anywhere on

ground, and was certain he would beat them

plain ;

but

he could not be expected to battle against cold and

hunger and flame." This

evidently only the old, old story, of those

is

who take

the sword perishing by the sword

gay nation which fought

for glory

during peace transcending fine

and peculiar

there are

men

qualities,

in the

;

and

and the

riches,

neighbours in

had

to discover

even

many that

world who can conduct war

on a sterner footing than genius

its

;

is

agreeable to French

and have more lasting principles as well as

better motives for exertion.

A bitter

foreboding of

doom would

it

be for Eu-

rope, were the Russian armies as prone to offensive

war, as they are reliable in defensive, and were their religion very easily convertible into a deification of

military renown.

But

so far from that, their first

proceedings after the expulsion of their invaders,

were eminently peaceful the furnishing

;

the re-building of Moskva,

homes and employments

to the multi-

tude of distressed, and then the erection of a mag-

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93

ADIEU TO MOSKVA. nificent

temple to God their Saviour.

The com-

mencement of this solemn building was made in 181 7, on this very part of the Sparrow

but the

Hill,

site

was subsequently transferred to the southern quarter of the city, or the spot whereon

we now

observe

those matchless domes of gold, crowned with their ethereal living flame of light.

Of the

spirit

this dedication,

which actuated the Russian people

in

some idea may be gathered from the

following portions of an inaugural address by the acting Metropolitan, on occasion of laying the foundation-stone.*

u What do we

?

Do we wish

to erect pyramids in

honour of our compatriots who, by immovable lity to

by

fide-

the Tsar, by burning love to their country,

their praiseworthy combats on the field of battle,

have joined their names to those worthy of our Oh, no

eternal benediction ?

out

God ?

What

!

is

man

with

God, the Lord of the wise ; God, having

ordained his undertakings, gives reason and wis-

dom.

The Lord

of Sabaoth girds the impotent with

strength, and renders futile the

Then, what do we ? earth,

bow

of the strong.

In the sight of heaven and

—confessing the unspeakable mercy and bene-

volence which the Supreme Lord of the world has

been pleased to extend over us alone

all

the success, * Lyall's

*

all

— attributing to Him

the glory of the late wars,

Travels in Russia,' vol.

ii.

p. 490.

94

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

we lay

the foundation of a temple, consecrated to our

Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ." " 0 God, with our eyes we have seen who accomplished these things in our days

by own

therefore not

;

our humble sword elevated over the enemy, our

power did not save us those

who

Thou alone savedst us from

!

despitefully fell

confusion.

O

sing of His

name through

" Thou, the self the

ruins

us praise

let

upon

God

us, all

and put them to

the day long,

capital, particularly bearest

stamp of the wonders of God

was broken the

and

eternity."

terrible

;

upon thy-

among thy

power of the destroyer;

the flames exterminating thee, also destroyed his

strength

;

inflamed the hearts of the Russians,

it

and

of other nations, for the return of peace and tranquillity.

Therefore let us exalt the Lord our God,

and standing on the bank of ship

Him in

spirit

this,

His holy

wor-

hill,

and in truth."

With such sentiments

ruling the general proceed-

ings of this nation, civilization need by no

means be

alarmed on seeing that people's development towards

being one of the greatest powers of the earth only in territory as

it

but in population and

is

acts,

for

not

already beyond compare,

wealth and influence.

Thinking thus over what the future might

we wandered

:

unroll,

an hour in the solemnity of night

over the Krasnaya Plostchad of the Kitai Gorod, with the groves of golden crosses of the Kremle between

our eyes and the moon's pale crescent.

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ADIEU TO MOSKVA.

How

quiet was the scene

have fancied that

it

nation, of a people

was

!

all

You might

at times

a dream of a departed

who having

already worked out

the ends designed for them by Providence, are gone to their final account.

But next morning, when the

whole arena was once more

filled

with interminable

crowds and streams of a busy, commercial and manufacturing population, you recognized how the previous quiet had been the healthy refreshing sleep of a strong one,

who

man only

is

yea, even of a giant,

and a strong

now beginning to run

his victorious

;

race in the world.

By noon once

of that next day

we had taken our

places

again in the railway train to return to St. Pe-

tersburg, and away sped the carriages over the un-

dulating environs of the older capital.

When

at

length some thirty miles away, black clouds were

observed to the north-east, and presently a country village was seen on

fire,

little

church and wooden

houses and everything except the poor peasants themselves.

We never

before saw

smoke

fully black, or flames so awfully red.

mense excitement

so dread-

There was im-

in our long carriage, for every one

crowded towards the windows on that

side,

and the

great tongues of flame could be heard to crackle, and the black funereal volumes of smoke were

ing over our heads.

now

roll-

Suddenly, and while this was

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96

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

precisely at its height, the train passed us in front of

a

little

platform where stood a soldier-guard signalling

the usual order of safety along the line

stood with outstretched

arm

;

and there he

like a statue,

immove-

behind him were the crimson flames

able, while close

leaping upon and devouring his homestead and his resident village

but he, like a true soldier of his na-

;

" inaccessible to

tion,

had received

fear,

his orders,

and incapable of treason/

and therefore undeviatingly

performed them to the uttermost, legionaries

Pompeii.

1

Roman

like the

overwhelmed on guard in the gates of

All this

picture in one

we saw

as an exquisite

moment, and

and

at the next

telling

we were

plunged into the trough of a deep railway cutting. It

was not a very long one, but there were high

banks beyond, and then

tall

trees,

and before we

could again look easily in the direction of either soldier or village,

we seemed

to have arrived in a completely

different part of the country

;

and

in truth

we could

never learn a word further of the fate of either the

one or the other.

A sprinkling of military with civilians of various dewe were in, and amongst many famous John-Bull kind of

grees occupied the carriage

the latter there were

countenances, and one example amongst them cially

we spe-

noted as being so utterly un-French, un-Ger-

man, un-Italian,

—unlike any nationality except Great

Britain in general,

and

in particular

a

late

lamented

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97

ADIEU TO MOSKVA.

Lord of Session in Edinburgh, who was in his earlier years u the greatest advocate that ever appeared in Parliament-house."

manding high-souled

There was the same comeye,

which could be stern

blackness, and haughty beyond

all

again could be sweet as summer in his private

beaming with wit

;

to

approach, and yet life,

generosity, or sparkling with radiant

the same, or almost the same

height and

breadth of forehead with length of head, but united with a rather stronger form of body and ruder tone of health

;

such, therefore, as the great Scottish law-

yer would perhaps have been had

fate

determined

that his days should be spent in the capacity of a

country squire, rather than in studying black-letter law, and burning midnight legal dispute

and

oil

over tangled cases of

subtile verbal difficulty.

Something

of the squire species, or rather a noble living on his

property " after six or seven years spent in the service," the Russian gentleman proved to be

was now bringing up one of Diplomatic College in

;

and he

his sons to join the

St. Petersburg.

This youth presently took the opportunity of a vacant place on the seat before us, to enter into a long conversation, and in such excellent or rather perfect

English that

we

could scarcely believe he had never

been out of Russia. on

Yet

so

it

was; and he ran

for a long time with a deal of information about

the growth of the manufactures in VOL.

II.

*

Moskva and

its

p

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THREE CITIES

08 suburbs.

The numerous

which as open-work so general

all

Englishman.

made some

IN RUSSIA.

over the

He had

iron

beautiful

staircases

owed

city,

their origin to an

arrived a poor

workman, had

invention for which the authorities paid

him handsomely, and was now worth a But the

a half of rubles. ests about

had

Moskva

million

are those of the nobles.

the city; so having first joined the in beating the cruel

own

and

chief manufacturing inter-

to retrieve their fortunes after the

to his

castings,

were now becoming

enemy back

army and

all

They

burning of assisted

through Europe

country, they found themselves, before

they were aware of

it,

made acquainted with

system of modern manufactures, wealth of the West.

On

the

—the source of the

their return, therefore, each

nobleman, in place of rebuilding his former large palace and keeping five hundred or a thousand foot-

men, erected a manufactory, and made his numerous " Jeameses " work therein. By degrees it was found that forced labour profitable for the

is

very slow, and that

it

was more

nobleman mill- master to hire work-

men than to use his own serfs. Now the workmen he hired were generally serfs to some other lord, who also had found it most profitable to allow his legal servants to hire themselves out as freemen.

And

thus in a short time

many

of the old feudal

households of the ancient Russian nobility were

broken up.

But when

this

was done, both lords

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99

ADIEU TO MOSKVA.

and

ladies found themselves better served at

home

with a few dozen hired servants, than by hosts of

own

their

serfs

;

while large profits soon began to

be derived from the various mills. u Here/' said the young man, " we are at Tver and there," he added laughing, u is a row of the mills wherewith our government

Tver

is

is

going to ruin England.

a promising site for general manufactures,

situated, as well as

Moskva, on the coal

strata,

besides that on the noble Volga stream. are there here tories,

but

all

many

and

Not only

Imperial and nobles' manufac-

the peasants of the region are so im-

pregnated with manufacturing notions, as well as infused with the principles of organization and regulation, that they club together,

one

village, or

two or

three villages, to build a great cotton-mill, or a sa-

movar manufactory,

for themselves

;

and the

affairs

of the mill are conducted so skilfully by a council of their old

'

whiteheads/ that they run the

profits of

the noble's or merchant's manufactory hard by, very close

;

profits

and have the

among

satisfaction of dividing all the

themselves.

These notions of the

habitants of a village managing their

own

in-

affairs for

themselves are of very old date."

So

far the juvenile diplomate

municative

;

but when

we

had been most com-

unfortunately asked him

further particulars about the origin of those customs of his country, he

grew suddenly very

retired,

F 2

and

THREE CITIES

100

IN RUSSIA.

answered only that they (the Eussians) did not like their early history to

Why

or wherefore

be known by other nations.

we

could not extract, only that

it is so.

At the next spiritless

station,

lump of a

when

the train stopped, a

military officer in the

huge grey

cloak and two-foot cape of a Muscovite entered, and

must needs drop down

into the vacant place of the

and well-informed diplomatic cadet

lively

;

so he,

when he entered from the refreshment-room where he had been satisfying a growing lad's appetite, was compelled to move to a distant part of the carriage,

and we had no more

talk with him.

ruminated on what he had said of

But much we real early

sian history not having yet been published,

people themselves disliking

it

to

Rus-

and the

go out of their own

keeping.

"Is

it

so good, or is

it

so

bad?" we wondered;

and as we now saw on looking out of the carriage windows, that the train was once again dashing through a country of cold marsh and grass and

wood, or in other words had reached the neighbour-

hood of second little

St. Petersburg, visit there, to

more deeply than

—we determined

to try,

on a

look into things in general a before.

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THREE CITIES

PART ST.

IN RUSSIA.

III.

PETERSBURG REVIEWED.

"

He

A

comes

— the Lord

of Victory

!

thousand bolts his hand seuds forth,

He rules

the South, he guides the North,

The Crescent and

the Lion

flee."

Dmitriet:

BOWUING.

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PART

III.

PETERSBURG REVIEWED

ST.

CHAPTER

I.

THE EMPEEOE'S NAME-DAY. September.

On

the morning of the 10th of September,

once again in the Nevski Prospekt of

we were

St. Peters-

bnrg; but the scene was unusual; the populace were crowded on either street,

side of that

most lengthy

and both military and police were present in

considerable numbers.

and the

air

The sky was gloomily

more than autumn

cold.

grey,

Suddenly there

stalked up to us the tolerably well-known figure of a radical and untoward Celt.

In general, he was

accustomed on meeting us to lay down the law on everything

;

and

in pretty nearly everything,

to find out afterwards that

mistaken

"

tell

he had been completely

now he came up

but

Do you know," he

all this is

can

;

about

?

me, or at

we used

actually inquiringly.

vouchsafed to ask, " what

Fve been

to

my

club, but

least they dare not.

no one

The country

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

104 is

in a very uneasy state, I can assure

most iniquitously

police

men by

fifties

you

active, carrying off

where to ? no one knows.

;

and the

;

educated

Why only

yesterday I asked a Russian friend of mine a question,

and before he would answer me, he looked

round about to see shot,

if

there was any one within ear-

me

and then he took

would there only

tell

me

perfectly innocent matter after

you that every man here

to

of his neighbour

my man Petrushka, —he's

town and push

is

!

I can prove

in constant all

was a

danger

fearing a general

a serf on ohrok;

i.e.

he

much a year for leave to come into

pays his master so

evening,

Oh

it

Fve been talking about many things

bodes no good.

'

Yet

This great gathering of the people fore-

explosion.

to

all.

is

and they are

;

and

into another room,

in a whisper.

his fortune,

—and I said to him one

Petrushka, don't you think the Emperor

a long time in giving you your promised freedom

?'

Well, he did not answer anything, but I could see clearly

enough that he didn't

there was a

little

water

him a cup of tea ; and trushka,

up

all

And

still

like

it.

So then, as

in the samovar, I

after that I said to him,

how hard you must have

to work, to

made '

Pe-

make

that obrok you've got to pay to your master

then didn't his teeth grind together.

there's been very

try districts;

!'

And

bad news from some of the coun-

the serfs have been rising and the

military have been

mowing them down with grape-

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THE EMPEROR'S NAME-DAY

The Government

shot.

the truth wall out

and

;

of that sort which

tries to

keep

105

it all

I dare say its

but

secret,

some rumour

making such a conspiring here

is

now." u Nay, indeed," we succeeded

just

u

it's

Emperor

see their

Alexander Nevski. that saint so

at last in putting in,

merely the worthy Petersburgers gathering to

it is,

who

is

in his transit to the shrine of

This

the especial fete-day of

is

the name-father of the

to the religiously disposed, a

own

occasion than even the Emperor's r

Emperor

more important birthday.

Hiere was a young diplomate in the railway carriage

coming from Moskva who it is

by

u Oh

his advice that !

you

told us all about

we have come

can't believe a

fellows in uniform

tell

you.

it,

and

here to see."

word that those young They're a bad

the

lot,

whole of them," returned our pertinacious alarmist. " There's a great deal more in

sinister countenances

the crowd

is

;

of men.

coming

what poor Petrushka has So

off he went,

way forward, up

than what he

and see how almost

made up

there's a revolution

it

let

Just look at some of those

out, I can warrant you.

on,

In

and

fact,

I'll

entirely

I'm sure

go and hear

to say about it."

and we being free again, pushed our

that long straight street, the Nevski

Prospekt, hoping for some decrease in the continual

crowd of people that lined past

all

the bridges

we

either pavement.

But

went, and yet there was no

F3

106

THREE C1TIE8

IN RUSSIA.

clear view of the central roadway.

balconies of public buildings were

some strangely ;

Windows and

filled,

at one of the latter

and long-robed Armenian

conical -hatted

some

gaily,

was a row of priests,

At

no small variety of costume on the pavement. length, however,

when we had

and

nearly traversed half

the long line between the Winter Palace at one

end

of the Prospekt, and Alexander Nevski's cathedral at the other,

and were beginning to fear that the

procession would pass us unseen, the crowd thinned

out in a very broad part of the street, and

we imme-

diately obtained foremost places.

Then we perceived that nearly the whole breadth of the roadway was preserved intact

by

isolated

many yards from the other ; and the middle of it was laid down with a series of platforms, that made a continuous planken carriagepolice sentries, each

path over

The

all

very patiently to

the pebbly portions of the pavement.

must have been waiting long, and

spectators

come

but just as some symptoms seemed

;

floating

upon the breeze

cession was actually beginning

then the notion took another, that

if

first

its

march lower down,

one individual, and then

they had previously been content

with being on the

left side

now run

to the

across

telling that the pro-

of the street, they

right

must

or they would see

nothing ; and similarly those on the right, thought just at the last

moment

that there was

no place to be

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THE EMPEROR'S NAME-DAY. at so

good as the

interfered,

But by-and-by the

left.

and one man was stopped

in the

police

middle

of his rapid passage across the street, and told to

back.

On

make him

go

his refusing, the policeman prepared to

and almost by magic four or

return;

more policemen were concentrated on the

spot in a

moment. Then while they were palavering and conducting the refractory spectator back to his own

above or below that particular

side, lots of people

point, took the opportunity to it,

some from

from

right to

if

make a quick run

much

of

and just about as many

The great body of

left to right.

though, did not seem

unequal fortune,

left,

spectators,

to like this exhibition of

not partial justice, so far as that

one compulsory case was concerned; yet they quieted

when the

galloping hoofs of a horse were heard, and

strained their eyes and stretched their necks Winter-

Palace -wards to see what was coming.

On came

the

sounds nearer and nearer, and presently there passed before us a liveried servant of the palace, riding

away apparently on some message Nevski Cathedral.

to

Alexander

Riding undoubtedly he was,

but on such a horse

!

we had seen or were

It

was the only sorry horse

to see in Russia.

lamentable spectacle, for

it

Oh! the

was the most miserable

hack you can imagine, of a broken-down Rozinante, forced to go against

horse canter.

No

its will

into a sort of rocking-

one seemed to know what to

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

108 think of

until a stray black dog, as

it

Skye

witty as a

shrewd and

but about twice the

terrier

size,

scampered out into the open, past the policemen, ran impudently after the Palace messenger, barked in

good honest loud tones of contempt

heels for a

stood

— turning

about,

conceitedly in the very middle of the

still

street,

few paces, and then,

at the horse's

wagging

seeming to

his tail

call for

and he called

for

it

and

either pavement,

to

approbation to his gallant deed in a

manner

cheers and laughter from

that at once elicited

beholders.

all

Shortly after things were thus again, deep-voiced "ourrahs

made

pleasant

" were heard apparently

running up the sides of the street ; and in a

brilliant

cavalcade,

came the Emperor, and

splendidly

mounted; then a golden coach drawn

by eight black horses, a groom

officers of staff

in cloth-of-gold

by

every horse's head, and an enormously fat coach-

man, a prodigy of bulk, in similar costume on the box.

The Empress and

heir apparent

were inside

the coach in court dress, and bowing to the people

Then

through the very large plate-glass windows.

followed another similar coach with six horses and six

grooms and this

fat

coachman

all

in cloth-of-gold.

came another and another bearing

the Court

;

in all, there

After

ladies of

were twelve golden coaches,

and none of them drawn by fewer than ficently caparisoned horses.

six

magni-

These passed on, and

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THE EMPEROR'S NAME-DAY were followed by detachments of

109

the cavalry re-

all

giments in the garrison, Circassians in armour of

and

silver

Persians in conical fur caps and gar-

steel,

ments striped with yellow and brown, true Kozaks Don, and Russian Imperial Guards

of the

variety of

a

more Western uniforms.

Thus they

all

passed by on their way to the

peror's shrine of worship, while the

them began to

in

to break up,

and

its

Em-

crowd behind

component members

pursue their own several avocations and destina-

These were in most cases to some one or

tions.

many golden-domed churches and in least, the Semenovski, we found an extra por-

other of the

one at

:

tion of the service usual in

any Russian church,

the shape of preparing sacred water through of the " Office of the Lesser Sanctification."

that the sanctification itself

a smaller quantity of water

is less, is

in

means

Not

but only that

concerned

for the

j

"Greater Sanctification" refers to that grand January display, ice,

in

where

at a large

opening made through the

the whole waters of the Neva are blessed at once,

presence of the Court, the military, and the peo-

ple

;

and when vast quantities of the

away in

fluid are carried

bottles to every household, to serve during

a whole twelvemonth "in curing diseases

away

On

and driving

evil spirits."

the present occasion, there was merely to be a

modicum prepared

for baptismal purposes

;

but the

Digitized

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

110

crowded congregation who had

mony, terial

all

strove at its

assisted at the cere-

conclusion to obtain

some ma-

advantage ; and immense and long-continued

was the pressure towards the doors where one priest held a crucifix -adorned Bible to be kissed, and another asperged the kisser by sprinkling

him with the

" basilke," or bunch of basil-plant wet with the sacred water.

Never before had we observed so though

clear a proof,

in a small way, that with all the splendour

of the priesthood's appointment, and the high or-

ganization of their system, Russia

ridden country.

The

priests

and

is

not a priest-

their offices are

rather a function of the will of the people

and the

;

people are present everywhere, in season and out of season, to see that they get a due performance of all

they consider meet and proper.

doubt, this

may

lead to undue restraint

zeal over learned theology

;

but

it is

tent in preventing gross abuses, ture advance this nation for it

Sometimes, no

by ignorant

at all times po-

and ensures the

fu-

and general spread of true religion in

many

generations to come.

Here, as

appeared to us, the people were evidently rather

hard on the

priests, for

though these were tired out

with their long standing services and could scarcely support themselves,

—

still

pressed on towards them

hosts and hosts of fresh devotees to kiss the sacred

book and receive aspersion.

Overstrained

human

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THE EMPEROR'S NAME-DAY.

Ill

\

nature at last grew rebellious, and after fixed deter-

mined looks and misanthropic frowns, the in

despair of their

trial

priests,

ever coming to an end,

began to push out the rasp -like surface of the orna-

mented book rather rudely against the humble

lips

and we saw one old gentleman get such an amount of asperging that

some trouble indeed

it

it

was quite a caution, and he had

A hint

in getting rid of the overplus.

proved, for soon after that the applicants

had diminished were enabled to

to such retire

and

an extent that the priests rest

them

after their

Then hastened up

hours of labour.

to

large font the devout remainder of the people; to drink the souls,

their

many

and about a

some

water with eagerness into their inmost

and others having had a few drops poured into hands from a sacred cup, to rub

rheumatic joint or any other

afflicted

upon some

it

member of their

body.

The

zeal

and ardour with which these works were

performed, indicated pretty plainly that

it

is

not on

every Sunday that such waters can be obtained here for the

Russian Church does not make that constant

use of holy-water which the

Their (the Roman) rite

is

Roman

Catholic does.

said to be descended from

the ancient custom of placing plain water at the en-

trance of a church, or even a heathen temple, to enable the poor to

wash

their

hands and

faces,

and

make themselves decently and respectably clean, before entering to

pay their devotions ; but the Russian

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THREE

112

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

seem

feeling does not

to hinge so

much on traditional

usages sanctified by Church authority, as on

New-

Testament maxims, and the belief they inculcate in the efficacy of prayer ; for, before attempting to touch

any of the water, every Russian prays that

" by the

sanctified

the Holy Ghost sanctification

;

virtue, operation,

that

it

may become

and the forgiveness of

be a well springing up unto eternal

it

may be

and descent of the gift of

may

sins; that it life."

Other prayers of a more materialist character low

fol-

and many persons object to the military forces

;

being paraded so largely during a religious cere-

mony, and

to a salute of big

No

completion of the whole. explained

;

guns being

fired at

the

doubt this has to be

but so does also the very similar grand

display which takes place in Edinburgh on the open-

ing of the General Assembly of the Church of ScotIt is strange

land.

enough then

to see the quantity

of cavalry and infantry brought into play

;

but

when

the Royal Artillery drive up to the very church doors, not only in their best clothes, but with their

new Armstrong cannon and steel-bound accompanied shell, fuses

hension of

carriages,

by ammunition- waggons, shot

and spare wheels,

it

and

passes the compre-

many

After the whole of the Church sendees of the

Nevski-name-day are peror lace,

fully

may be supposed

completed, and the

Em-

to have returned to his pa-

then begins a new demonstration by his loyal

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113

THE EMPEROR'S NAME-DAY. people

for they rush to the bakers' shops

;

mand the cakes due

we

called,

Whereupon the bakers

public, at a price often of

many

to set before both

furnish the

rubles, with

mental and delicate composition, which fit

and

believe, after his name-saint, " Alexander

Nevski cakes."

dish

and de-

to their Tsar's name-day,

an orna-

is really

a

an empress and an em-

peror.

A

peculiar St. Petersburg art,

be, the

making

it

flat,

about two inches thick, and

from two to three feet in diameter, capacious surface; where, on a

of gently solidified rich letters are

to

of these lordly and favourite "cakes."

They are round and

a

would seem

— exhibiting thus

fair

white ground

creamy material, large

initial

emblazoned with heraldic ornamentations,

which they construct in the richest quintessence of variously preserved fruits of divers brilliant colours.

You cut with then find

ease into this delicious

work of art, and

a happy agglomeration of

its interior all

honey and cream, with conserve of greengage and peach, but imbued more or less throughout with the materials of Savoy biscuits, and jelly of the rarest pine -apple

;

and, in conclusion,

and promotes

all

how

it

blends with

the finest flavour of a glass of

genuine Russian tea

Oh

!

that

Rome would

always do such things as

these, and then, what stranger gates,

who would

is

there within her

not gladly assimilate himself to

every one of her customs

!

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1H

CHAPTER

II.

PALACES AND HEROES. Returned once again to the now well-accustomed external

look of the Admiralty Quarters of

Petersburg,

we

St.

by

could not long delay to profit

those two Palace tickets which city of receiving at the

we had had

the

feli-

hands of a Russian lady,

high-minded and enthusiastic for the glory of her country; though

we

still

preferred, as to order of

visitation, to pass by the " Winter Palace

our duties

first

at the so-called

,J

and pay " Hermitage." The

latter building adjoins the

former on the eastern

side, is nearly as extensive

a pile; and, after the

miles of great plaster erections in the neighbour-

hood,

is

a notable relief to the eye

;

by

dint of not

only a solid and worked-stone construction, but

its

admirable decoration to the very utmost extent by

good statues; above, below, and wherever

classical

precedent allows a statue to appear, whether in bronze, marble, or granite.

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PALACES AND HEROES.

115

In the last-mentioned material, the most noticeable figures are a series of colossal Atlas men, up-

holding with Herculean power the roof of an enter-

ing portico.

They are

all

cut out of the hardest

the hard grey granite of Ladoga, which has here been

worked and polished as, in the previously

as admirably into artistic forms

mentioned chapel on the Niko-

layevski bridge (see Plate 3, Vol. II.),

made stiff

to

assume more

it

has been

rigid mechanical shapes

and

Such minute features

too,

masonic ornaments.

as the starting veins and sinews in the feet of these giant Telamones of the North, are given as fully in their

way

as any of the bulky muscles of their thighs,

arms, or breasts

;

and

centuries' proof of the

if

only there had been some

permanence of the present

glossy surface of the whole,

why then

the Russian

claim to have succeeded to the granite-empire of ancient

Egypt would

But we may not

really

be well established.

idle here

on the threshold of such

a palace as the Hermitage ; for see, within the fold-

ing doors of glass, there are a dozen servitors already waiting, prepared to divest us of top-coat, goloshes,

and whatever

else St.

Petersburg etiquette debars

from entry, as well into a government

office

as a

lady's private drawing-room.

Once conformed however it

seemed

as if

we were made

to the reigning usage,

agreeably free of the

whole place, though we were soon joined

in the first

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116

THREE

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

sculpture gallery by a respectful and not too obtru-

He was

sive attendant.

perhaps rather desirous oc-

casionally of pointing out a few special subjects to notice,

but did not show any indisposition to our

choosing our

own

time to them. last

in

brought

its

and taking our own

favourites

This latter sort of thing though at

own

cure, for

we were evidently now

something approaching to a British Museum-full

of antique marbles, with an equal

number of modern

ones added thereto

we traversed room

after

room of

;

well

busts, bas-reliefs,

and hence,

as

mounted and exposed

and groups, we found ourselves and unimpres-

inevitably arriving at that hardened

sionable frame of is

mind which mere museum-walking

too apt to produce.

fear,

statues,

Producing such state too,

we

not only in individuals, but in nations as well

;

their time of prosperity has arrived,

when

a nation's fine-art galleries are numerous and

filled

for

when

with works of great masters, sons from that

moment

observe nature for

how

generally do its

cease to think originally, to

themselves, and to

produce anything new

invent or

!

So now having already become, in spite of ourselves, negligent and supercilious, and, out of the sheer abun-

dance spread around on every

side,

grown sadly

deadened to the attractions of any single thing of beauty,

—we passed on to other and others such with

increasing unconcern, until

all

the statuary rooms

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PALACES AND HEROES.

Then came

were gone through.

and Etruscan which was

pottery,

all

gracefully, Grecian

amid an architecture though,

too massive for them,

though nothing could be so

we thought;

for the occasionally in-

terspersed gigantic paterae of Siberian ore, serpen-

One

tine, or jasper.

of these creations,

fit

certainly

to be a goblet for the nations, being some sixteen to nineteen feet in

mean

diameter, and of elegant

elliptic form,

was most remarkable

workmanship

;

still

figure and of a veined

taller

and rose-coloured marble.

Then we entered the room quities,

for its exquisite

more so was another of a

of the Crimean anti-

where much from that region, both

in classic

vases and golden ornaments, was exhibited;

where the

but

Kertch should have had a place

city of

there was a melancholy blank, by reason of that

Vandal work of destruction perpetrated

morning by the scientific

allied armies,

in a single

unaccompanied by any

commission such as that which shed glory

on the French invasion of Egypt more than half a century

earlier.

Then followed book-rooms,

libraries of Voltaire, Diderot,

number

and

— the

others, to

the

of a hundred and ten thousand volumes, as

well as the Russian library of the palace domestics

then print- rooms,

manuscript-rooms, and

artists'

sketches rooms, in long suite, interspersed here and there with a costly malachite vase, or a jasper patera, or a lapis-lazuli candelabrum, and continual rows of

columns of the lovely grey granite of Ladoga.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

118

Let us delay for a moment before these columns, with them there

for

country, and

and

is

something peculiar to the

we can depend on seeing old missals many another and more

black-letter printing in

appropriate locality than this bran-new capital of the

They have

Tsars.

no doubt, an

paid,

immense

amount of attention to such things here, but have happily not forgotten, amid pursuits of mediaeval verhi, their

among

own

duty to their

times, or their place

the rising empires of the world

columns

testify for

For

them.

:

and these

in the granite of its

northern plains there lay a mission for the pegple of tins city to fulfil,

up

;

indeed

and they

lost

no time in taking

it

we are not sure but that St. Petersburg, now the first beyond compare amongst

besides being

existing cities as to the gigantic size of its polished

granite works, both architectural and artistic,

is

not

likewise the pioneer in point of time.

Our long-headed countrymen

in

Aberdeen do cer-

tainly claim for one of their worthiest citizens the

merit of re-inventing amongst them the old Egyptian

methods of granite cutting and polishing, whence the fountain-basins, vases, tombstones, and bracelets

which have of

amongst

late

us, either in the

or the grey of the

"Queen

been

growing common

pink granite of Peterhead of the North,"

— the same

hard grey whereof that particular monument must

have been composed, which, according to the story

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PALACES AND HEK0ES

119

we have heard more than once, on being London for erection at Kensal Green, with

sent to certain

letters of the inscription uncut, did utterly there con-

found

all

the English masons, who, with their tools

blunted upon sion on

its

it,

and in despair of making any impres-

more than adamantine

surface,

last reduced to the necessity of imploring

more cunning Northern brethren

their

to

were at

some of

come

to

their assistance.

Yet, even granting

all

the honourable indepen-

dence of this Scottish re-invention, how recent date

!

Between twenty and

just arrived from the banks of the

and one has only

is its

thirty years, a friend

Dee informs us

to look into the quaint

and

;

parti-

cularizing volume of the late Robert Stephenson,

descriptive of the building of the Bell

Rock Light-

house, to see how, no further back than in 1807, the

mere quarrying of large rough blocks of granite building purposes, was so after excruciating delays

tious engineer

difficult

and

or limited,

for

—that

anxieties, that conscien-

was compelled against conscience to

give up his original idea of a granite lighthouse for the eastern coast of Scotland

5

and content himself

with a small portion only of the Titan rock to form a basis

and

partial casing for the rest of the building;

which was then finished up with the cheaper and softer material of sedimentary sandstone.

To

read,

we

say, of these infant efforts of our

own

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

120

times for supplying mere building blocks of granite in the ancient country of Scotland to

modern Russia and

see, if

not

;

and then

how

to

come

easily, yet

how

multitudinously she had turned out for a period of a

whole generation previously, huge monolith columns of the same substance, polished and figured like Italian alabaster,

—why,

really it

makes one begin to

suspect that our British literature does not always

represent the whole facts of scientific invention and industrial history with equal fullness in every part.

This Hermitage Palace, for instance, commenced by

Lamotte

in 1765,

and completed by Guarenghi

in

what men of the present day, and our country, would at once call " Aberdeen po-

1804, abounds in in

lished granite columns," both on the

and more

ground

especially in the first story, in

nade over the marble

staircase.

floor,

a colon-

Yet they are

all

of

a date anterior to the rise of Scottish granite works and, as

Now

we have

said before, they are nronoliths.

the virtue of this unitic formation for a co-

on be-

lumn had

so insensibly approved itself to us

holding

in St. Petersburg exemplified in pillars of

all sizes,

had

would

that

from twenty

feet to eighty feet in length,

so established itself

the only

tion,

it

way

be, or

—that we

it

in

we may

say in our minds as

which a column should be made, or

had ever been made by any mighty nawas not

until our return to

fully appreciated the

Edinburgh

improvement which

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PALACES AND HEROES.

121

the Russians have effected in this branch of

The return however

architecture.

our eyes

;

for

at

modern

once opened

when we entered a flourishing Banking-

Palace situated in one of the more fashionable squares

Modern Athens, and

of the

fitted

up gorgeously only

seven or eight years ago with, amongst its chief decorations, a

number

of columns of

Aberdeen polished

granite (which columns too, of the Corinthian order,

we had

previously been accustomed to look on as

everything that they might or should be),

lo

!

now

they hideously offended our vision, as being mere

piecemeal things

;

wretchedly constructed ; with their

shafts of several blocks in lengths of four

and a half

That very instant the charm of

or five feet each.

these columns as works of art for an advanced na-

was

tion,

to us fled for ever ;

and they then reminded

one only of a cracked pane of glass, of a leaky bowl, or of an epigram, which

to realize its point.

fails still

is

is

;

no epigram because

Nay, they were worse

they gave the idea of patchwork.

that

thing

Why

?

it is

we know

garment ; but

it

;

and

to the contrary,

for our

own rolls

made up of shreds and fine linen.

VOL.

II.

part,

all

for any-

form a warmish

reminds every one of

our coat cut out of

and

And what

a something which may,

gary, and tailors' cabbage, and

gether

it

spiritless

beg-

vulgar things to-

we would

rather have

of coarsest drugget, than

clippings of any man's purple

Patchwork, then, in a royal granite G

THREE CITIES

122

RUSSIA.

IN

column we can by no means abide. Greek and Roman example for constructing a claimed, no doubt of

all it

;

their tastes

with

secondly, that

;

and geniuswere not so mechanical as those

some existing

either of the ancient Egyptians or of ;

and

them. There see,

First

?

reminds, that both those nations had gene-

rally only fissured rocks to deal

peoples

may be

pillar in pieces,

but what does that show

is

finally,

the idea

may

not have struck

nothing left, therefore, so far as we can

but to confess that Russia has effectually tran-

scended Greece and Rome, as well as several modern nations, in conquering the great granite regions of

the earth, and therein developing the only proper construction for

In

all

granite column shafts, large or small.

their mounting, there

is

still

perhaps some-

thing to be perfected in the Russian columns

;

grey

granite on white marble feet, at the Hermitage, are for interiors admirable.

on dark bronze, thing better at

The red granite of

will do,

may yet be

found.

But the red granite

Kazan church, on bright brass

forms, thick,

is

solid

in

rounded ring

The brass may be

simply abominable.

and may even be

St. Izak,

but no more, and some-

;

but

it

will persist in

reminding one of the contemptible thin curled yellowsheet-metal of which brass bedroom-candlesticks are often constructed, and of the Frenchness

of

the

French architect who perpetrated such a combination in the Russian capital.

On

the upper floor of the Hermitage, a visitor

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PALACES AND HEROES enters

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123

There are

chief picture-galleries.

still

to

be seen at intervals imperial vases of malachite; giant decorations of lapis-lazuli

;

numerable, covered with cameos

tables almost in-

thousand in

fifteen

number, they say; and others with gems, medals, and pastes; but pictures are evidently the charac-

We have heard per-

terizing feature of the region.

sons discussing as to the twentieth room or the thirtieth, full

and even the

and

forty -first,

perfect existence

generally well lighted, possess, too,

;

and we doubt not

good rooms

filled,

all

their

of them,

and arranged.

They

some things by Rembrandt, Rubens, An-

drea del Sarto, Vandyke, and others of the precious,

amongst the great masters, which have magic power enough full

to stop even a racehorse

career.

The Dutch school

well as numerous; dreadfully

while there are

many

of

its

museum- walker

likewise

is

in

strong, as

numerous however ; and canvases and panels, of

which you can find nothing to say in their praise either as to their design, colour, composition, or execution,

—there are some

low, vulgar,

few, not only showing the

and sometimes dirty scenes of Dutch-

land and Flemishdom; but indulging in such immorality of the

ours,

ing

we

same general character,

that,

should have no compunction at

them out

of the

window

into the

were they

all

in toss-

Neva below

and perhaps we might prevail on a few of the copies to follow them.

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2

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124

A

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

new

picture-room,

we

were glad

to

find,

has been fitted up, since the date of any printed

and is devoted to the details we have met with " Russian School." Its chief ornaments are, the ;

two well-known pictures (twenty

feet

by

thirty,

we

would suggest, as a guess from memory) of " Moses Raising the Serpent in the Wilderness," by Bruni

and the " Destruction of

They can hardly be

Pompeii,"

said to have

by Brulov.

any national traits

about them, and we believe they were both painted at

Rome;

yet being by Russian artists educated

there, they exhibit at least the capacity of the

sian

mind

to receive such culture

but to ascend to the very pictures

may be

first

;

Rus-

and not only

ranks of

so,

Both

it.

considered figure subjects, and in

physique as well as costume have happily escaped

from

all

traces

ment seems

modern conventionalisms and

of

everyday reminders

;

while the whole style of treat-

to combine, with the

modern Parisian

freedom, vigour, and boldness of conception, of the deeper feeling, and

more

much

perfect skill in ex-

ecution, of the true Italian school.

Hence, in the

Pompeii scene, among the young damsels and old

men, flying

in wild consternation, only to

be im-

mured in the perishing ruins of their devoted city, and their garments ceasing they were

to serve the full purposes

originally intended for,

—are to be found

model heads and example limbs that might be con-

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PALACE8 AND HEROES.

125

sidered illustrations of the very ideal type of the

human form

abstract

j

representing, with matchless

most varied

feeling for beauty,

characteristics of

age and youth, in mind and body, with every effect of foreshortening,

and

the diversified illumina-

all

tions, direct or reflected, of

Something might be

the dreadful fiery scene.

said

in favour of several

but we

other very respectable Russian pictures;

grieve to say, that the next to

most remarkable work

those of Bruni and Brulov's masterpieces,

is

a

grand sea-scape, representing ocean waves ; representing also, perhaps, the ambitious efforts of a

Muscovite mind to

trammels

superior to

and, precisely because

or Black Sea, only

Baltic

be seen,

are to artist

;

rise

territorial

its

in

the

either

"mutton" undulations

—therefore does

a St. Petersburg

delight to represent the heaving masses of the

Indian or Pacific oceans, scenes with which he can

never have any familiar acquaintance. artist of this particular picture,

make

his marine disturbances big

whole sea

is

But

he, the

was determined

to

enough; so the

arranged in three huge mountains of

and then

the received variations of tint in

water

;

aerial

perspective are lugged

rags,

in

all

pictorially

in,

and torn to positive

magnifying the

of those

size

mountain masses ; the nearest of them being painted pure grass-green furthest

;

the second rich purple

cobalt blue;

;

and the

while on the horizon

is

a

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

126

vivid sun in a crocus sky

;

and in the forewater, on

a piece of brown wreck, a red man, burning with indignation at the long mountainous climb of bright

green water the

artist

countrymen

by the painter's

for not only is it here

;

Yet the

has set before him.

picture has been doubly approved of

among

the ho-

noured and would-be immortalized works of its school, as one of the

superhuman founders of it indeed ; but

a full-sized copy of the picture

young

artist

while

we were

In another part of the

had

faithfully

was being made by a

there.

galleries, the servitor

accompanied us thus

held some

far,

secret communications with a knot of similar

found in waiting at a special passage

;

who

men

and after a

few signs and signals we were suddenly spirited into a

new apartment. The door was immediately closed

behind

us,

and we found a benignant old gentleman " the Peter the Great corridor."

for our guide in

That

is

a long narrow room, or series of rooms, in

a straight

line,

whereunto almost

all

the curiosity

memorials of the reforming Tsar have lately been gathered, from the thousand and one separate palaces they

have been hitherto scattered amongst.

Here therefore was furniture that had belonged to " Peter f his stuffed horse (a small, round-necked thing, like those which the

French Baffet

reproducing in his Bonaparte sketches)

dogs and

man

also

;

is ;

fond of

his

two

and then the stick was brought

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PALACES AND HEROES.

out

equal

"From

height,

his

to

came Peter the Great/'

their race

inscription

over six mortal

on the Naryshkin monument

Alexander Nevski; and

feet. is

the

at

St.

such an instance of

after

the advantage of a reigning family for once-in-a-way

marrying

into that of a subject,

wonderful that

it is

the experiment has not been tried again. There was a good portrait here of

this regenerator

of his country; dark in countenance, large-eyed, stern, muscular,

alas

when a

!

and vehement

curtain

and there was

also,

was drawn, a wax-work,

life-

;

sized figure of him, in the same identical court suit

of light-blue and

meet Catherine

brown

jacket,

silver,

assisted

which

his cheerful help-

him on with over

when he had suddenly

his plain

to prepare for

and

receiving the Persian ambassadors in state; she, looking on

him

in his fine toggery, could not

help laughing out in her

how

own cheery manner, to own Tsar appeared.

see

unlike his usual self her

Old palace

abounded

fittings

in this saloon

ing-glass frames and vases and caskets, silver, until

we were

all

;

look-

of filigree

perfectly tired with the uniform

thready stuff ; and jewelled snuff-boxes, and jewelled

bouquets of flowers, until we cared no more to look

on

real jewels, than

on the two-inch paste rubies

that adorned the musical peacock's

glass

house

but when the ancient butler-man showed us some of Peter's carving and turning, there

was a

subject

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

128

more

of

opened up.

interest

primitive muscular genius,

How

who

on earth that

died at the early

age of fifty-two years, could have continued to find time to execute

the pieces of handiwork attri-

all

buted to him, in every large city of the extensive Russian

empire,

and even

if

it

astonishing beyond compare;

is

he had lived the

would have been

idlest of passive reigns,

difficult.

But

we know,

he,

was a reformer, who himself and on his own ideas, reformed church and state and army too, created a navy, altered the calendar, invented an alphabet taught them and kept them

for

an immense nation

to

improved arts of peace as well as war

rebellions,

tions

;

;

and waged many wars

it

of, like

How

is laid in

man

the grave.

then, descend to

carving

holy families, and apostle groups, in ivory

box-wood

and not disgracefully neglect the

;

cares of state

;

when he took

tures

or

a

monarch of the lower Greek

like a

empire,

to painting ecclesiastical pic-

Spanish Bourbon, on manifesting a

decided turn for

making

fabric,

another conqueror's empire, falling to

could this

lilliputian

5

its

has gone on increasing ever since, instead

many

pieces the instant he

or

crushed

greatly extended the bounds of his empire,

and so consolidated and strengthened that

;

against divers na-

hemming

pastry ?

necessary artistic

dresses for the Virgin, or

The mere time skill

to

get up the

reported in Peter's works,

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PALACES AND HEROES. is

as surprising as anything, indeed quite a psycho-

logical curiosity in

;

and therefore, one object we had

bringing our photography to Russia was, to pro-

cure in that way, faithful transcripts of exactly the

degree of perfection to which the Tsar of genius had attained.

For

as to trusting to written accounts, ask

any professional painter

if

tion alone ever enabled

We

merit of a picture. ever, to culties,

The

our doubts

a literary

him

critic's descrip-

judge of the

to

and an explanation of our

;

real

obtained an answer, howdiffi-

rather unexpectedly.

benignant

guide

showed us

strange pieces of delicate turning things, such as

may be

;

first,

some

sort of fly-castle

seen at Holtzapfel's, or other

approved makers of gentlemen-amateurs' turninglathes

;

but when he showed us alsp bas-reliefs in

wood, representing not only the Scripture subjects already mentioned, but battle-pieces, with several

hundred figures admirably executed a few square inches,

in the space of

—we were mightily astonished.

Seeing however a similar one in brass, if

that were also the Tsar's doing

seemed the man to

say,

"was the

?

"

we asked

Oh

that,"

!

Tsar's model

;"

and

he turned our attention to a piece of machinery in

which rested the great Peter's still

last

undertaking,

standing in the half-finished state he

left it in.

There was the original sculptured or embossed plate in

metal on one side, with the end of a lever guide

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3

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130

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

resting upon

it

of wood, on

;

and on the other side was a block

whose surface an imitation of the figures

on the other plate had been which acted against intervention of

it,

partially cut,

by a

drill

and was connected by the

many -teethed

wheels, with the lever

guide.

In short, this was a wood-carving machine, driven in its

day by the Tsar himself ; and when we ex-

pressed an interest in to

it,

us many more with

the attendant pointed out

showing

slight variations,

that Peter must have gone largely into the chanical multiplication of works of art

;

me-

and while

he thereby, with hands and feet driving the whizzing wheels and making the chips

fly in

showers, pro-

bably relieved his mental cares of state far more effectually

than by inventing original compositions

and drapery arrangements of painter and sculptor,

for the old, old

groups

—he must, we suspect, have

forestalled in time a large part of the

" Wood-carv-

ing-by-machinery Company's works," which made so great a furor in our Crystal Palace of 1851.

The Winter Palace as to

So much chiefly the

for

its

Exterior.

the galleries of the Hermitage,

second Catherine's lordly work;

and

which, being connected by covered passages with the Winter Palace, serves as library, drawing-room,

and picture-gallery thereto.

Having seen these

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PALACES AND HEROES.

what need

then,

go and gape

to

131

at the residual fur-

The

nishings in the latter ; or mere upholstery?

Winter Palace, moreover,

is

said

not a very engaging

building externally, being of plaster painted in a

yellow clay-colour, " charming terra-cotta

admiring authoress; and as Palace which saw

says an

not the Winter

is

it

99

the varied plottings and cata-

all

and misfortunes of the second

strophes, triumphs

and third Peters, of the original Peter's graceful daughter, the Empress Elizabeth,* the successful career of Voltaire's

'

du Nord/ and the

fitoile

fitful

feverish passage of Paul, or the mild radiance of his eldest son

;

as

new erection

saw none of these things, being a

built

up

hastily in 1838,

renowned predecessor,

its

fire, it

to

it

has

little

stand upon.

When

more than

Now what

its

of

by

architectural merits

are these ?

(it is

in the general form

hollow square, three grand and two or three

smaller stories in height), there surface light tial

site

the sun comes out and strikes obliquely on

any of the palace's fronts, of a

on the

just before destroyed

and shadow ;

is

for it is

a rich effect of

no doubt a pala-

building of Louis-Quatorze style, as redundant

with columns, pilasters, porticoes, basso-rilievos, cornices,

arched and decorated windows, and statues of

half-draped ladies in the breezy neighbourhood of the

chimney-pots, and with no * L' Univere,

yol.

flat wall,

i. ;

as any French-

Russia, p. 265.

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132

man

THREE CITIES

IN RUSSIA.

of that overdone period could have desired

and as the palace shows on its three principal quite open to view, a collective length of

;

faces, all

more than

twenty thousand feet of these continued plaster enrichments, there

quite

is

enough

in the

even for an Emperor's palace. air of

a work of

way

of size

Nevertheless, the

art, certainly of

high, and thought-

inspired and inspiring, art has not been attained in

the smallest degree; nics

it is

merely an

and manufacturing, with

all

affair of

mecha-

the system of copy-

ing and multiplications by inferior hands; and chief praise

is,

that

it

was run up

of eleven months, and

by one

its

in the short space

of Nicholas's aides-

de-camp, Klein Michael, turned architect for such

The

an occasion.

full

preparation of the building

occupied to beyond the year, but the Emperor said to have

is

been enabled to accomplish his vow

of sleeping again in his Winter Palace within twelve

months of

its

So energetic can be

conflagration.

your Russian builders.

The views from the Palace south front, along which

we

are effective.

To

its

travelled in our return

from the Hermitage, the Winter Palace looks over the eastern end of the great Admiralty Square, in

whose centre hundred and

is

the huge Alexander column,

fifty feet

high in

all,

its

granite block twenty-four feet high,

many broad ; and

its shaft,

—

pedestal, a

and nearly as

another single block of

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PALACES AND HEROES

eighty feet, originally one hundred and two feet,

The angel on

in length.

mous

its

summit rears an enor-

cross, clearly visible as such to a distance of

many

miles, therewith recalling to the local

mind

the supposed holy and Christian mission of military

Russia in her

view

is

many wars

;

—while beyond

this,

the

terminated by a semicircular arrangement

government

of gigantic white

offices,

having in the

middle a triumphal arch of seventy feet span, as entrance to a street, and surmounted

quadriga and

its

by a

full-horsed

proper complement both of

classical

trumpet-blowers and naked runners on either

The cipal

Palace's western front, which seems the prin-

one architecturally, and has additional

from a retired central portion of thefacade, first,

side.

by a curious

sheet-iron,

and

a Chinese tower

is

effect

marked,

little

erection in bright painted

in shape

between a cricket-tent and

;

it is

anticipation for those

the coachman's fire-place, in awful frost-bitten nights of

Russian mid-winter, when

human

nature can no

longer contend with the other elements, unassisted

by

At a

flame.

greater distance beyond, are the

gardens, and then the gigantic building of the Old

Admiralty, rearing skies.

By

St. Izak,

its

slender gilded spire to the

a raking view to the

left,

and some of the buildings

the domes of

at the western

end of the great square, may be commanded

by looking

Neva and

similarly to the right,

its

shipping

may be

;

while

something of the

seen.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

134

Turning next to the north front of the Palace,

and

let

us notice here, that, despots though the Rus-

sian sovereigns are said to be, they fence in themselves

not in St. Petersburg, any more than in Moskva, from their people

protection

;

by

wall, railing, or

any

sort of physical

but on the contrary allow a public line of

roadway to pass quite close to the north-west corner of their Palace, and on every side foot-passengers

may walk along

almost in contact with the lower

windows,

—on

space

contracted merely to a roadway between

is

this

north front then, the ground

the palace and the quay

but there, begins the

;

grandest view of the whole, stretching across an im-

mense bifurcation of the noble

river

;

the nearer

arm

spanned by a picturesque bridge of boats, sixty feet broad and more than one thousand long; and the further one wandering

away

illimitably

past the

Bourse and the galliot-crowded neighbourhood of the Customs.

Then immediately opposite the

Palace,

over the broad, and clear as a fountain, stream, on

whose ever-gliding waters, giving 116,000 cubic feet per

second to wash the great city clean, rafts of

timber from Ladoga, and

fleets of

barges laden with

grain from distant banks of the Volga, are continually

passing; while some few vessels better built,

and occasionally a full-masted

brig, are sailing up-

wards nearly empty, with the assistance of large sails,

and a

swift west

wind

;

and river-steamers

full

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PALACE8 AND HEROES of excursionists are ploughing past, little

and some

fairy

wasps of screw steamers, hardly larger than

men-of-war to point, rial

135

galleys, are

and seem

to

whisking about from point

be connected with the Impe-

naval service ; while the gay decorations of gon-

dola-boats bringing passengers continually to the

Palace and Admiralty

where stand the two

stairs,

stone lions, and two colossal vases, of almost marblelike grey granite

stone-like, that

a substance looking so precious-

;

it

was put down

by a brace of wondering land after

all

;

at once as Siberian

travellers,

but

is

from Fin-

and forget we not the poor man

glid-

ing out of the Venetian canal, from under the vaulted connection between the Hermitage and boat with

in a large flat

which he

is

moving from

commercial and

his household

all

his old to his

in another part of the town,

Theatre,

—over

all

goods

new house this varied

social floating scene then,

and the

eternal river flowing on, flowing on, the view from

the

Winter Palace's northern

front falls full against

the fortress of St. Petersburg, occupying an island

on the further side of the

river,

hand, in the distance, by the

and flanked on flat

either

horizon of the

garden islands.

A modern resque object

and

its

fortress is not in general a very pictu;

yet

it

has, or

may have, some points

angular ramparts, like the natural cleavage of

mountain rock-strata on the edge of a table-land,

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THREE CITIES

136

witness the bastion

Maskamma mountain

of the Onder Bokkeveld

—often

Good Hope light

IN RUSSIA

"wall"

show with

in the line

at the

Cape of

and variety of

effect

and shade under the many changes of

illumination.

course

all

Then

again, whereas there

the world has heard of

is,

a certain

it,

solar

and of little

overhanging watch-tower at a corner of Edinburgh Castle,

that has been praised

by an old English

writer as the most truly picturesque object in that city's bounds,

— we

all

should mention that there

are several such watch-towers at different salient

corners of the upper and lower ramparts of the

more extensive

and they are commandable less degree,

But there

much

exterior of St. Petersburg citadel; as to visibility, in

more or

from not a few of the Palace windows. is

more

in

it

than this

;

for

above the

battlemented bastions of solid granite, there arise the summits of

many

buildings contained within the

fortress, interesting either for their reminiscences,

or their styles; such as the encasing of Peter the Great's

wooden

cottage,

and the many prominences

of the Imperial mint, where the treasures of Siberia are prepared for the

more St.

commerce of the world; but

especially the roof

and towers of the church of

Peter and St. Paul.

The

eastern

bulbous, a gilt

tower of this

dome

in fact

;

edifice is

small and

but the western

is

one

of the wonders of the world for height combined

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PALACES AND HEROES.

137

Based on the idea of the Admi-

with slenderness.

ralty spire, it carries that type vastly further,

one

is

inclined to vote

it

ample of the higher architecture of not

inapt,

modern

in its

and

the most characteristic exSt.

Petersburg

thin mast-like figure,

to

that

where the great Tsar collected the ship-

site,

carpenters of

all

nations, rejoiced in nothing so

as the erection of a ship's lifetime converted

tall

much

mast, and in half a

an inland people into the domi-

nant maritime nation of his part of the world.

The

merit of shaping the precise proportions of square

white tower below, and upper tapering spire above, is

due we believe to an

probably,

is

Italian architect

;

whose,

the elegant angel- wing wind-vane, be-

low the permanent cross that surmounts the whole.

But the whole

final

touch to the captivating

fabric, is

doubtful of at

effect of the

dependent on a feature we were

first, viz.

the

new covering

of electro-

gilded plating, prepared by a Russian galvanic-battery company, and recently applied to the conical spire,

with such perfection of mechanical

that the whole length of a hundred and

fitting,

fifty feet,

might seem to be beaten by copper or goldsmith's art,

The

out of a single sheet of brilliantly polished gold. effect varies

immensely under

different circum-

stances of light, for with a high illumination the spire is

pale and a brilliant reflection, small and

round,

thrown from the dome only ; but just come

is

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THREE CITIES

138

within view of the fortress

IN RUSSIA.

when the sun

behind you, and how you electric pillar of glory

is

low and

be startled

will

at the

which the angel-surmounted

sublime rod of gold, three hundred and ninety-three feet

high from

its

base, then forms in the sky

before which even the

with is

all its

much vaunted Admiralty

;

and

spire,

antique plates of " fine ducat " metal,

compelled to "pale

its ineffectual

fire," in

ac-

knowledgment of the more vigorous splendour of

modern

electro-gilding

To the Tsars however than

this, in

when by night

position of the

decessors

lie

humble

plot

sky

where

j

espeitself

and marks the

their stately pre-

below, and where they too must also

and lay them down

a pilgrimage once to this place of

perial sepulture

;

The north door

Im-

walking thereto over the Troitskoi

bridge, and entering the fortress

by its eastern

gate.

of the church or cathedral of St.

Peter and St. Paul, as ;

;

and narrow grave.

We made

open

much more

the golden tower rears

in their appointed course,

in the cold

more,

side of their palace

like a pale, tall spectre in the

come

is

the sight which they have daily before

them on the northern cially

there

it

is

sometimes

and visitors evidently allowed,

by

called,

was

the facility

with which a young soldier, cap in hand, detached himself from the corporars guard at the entrance

and attended as a guide.

But though good-looking

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PALACES AND HEROES.

139

and well meaning, he was rather an addle-headed youth, and went wool-gathering altogether on being

questioned merely about some of the last generation of the Imperial family

and the only thing he was

;

perfectly positive about, was, that Peter the Great in

his sarcophagus

on the

personage as St. Peter,

floor,

in

was the same

identical

a full-length picture of that

zealous apostle, on the wall.

So giving up

all

hope

of profiting by the young guardsman's explanations,

and not caring

for the

ikonostas, or the flags,

gorgeous golden doors of the

numerous military

trophies, tattered

and rusty keys of many a city and

western end of the church, derings and musings,

fortress at the

—we took to our own wan-

among

the melancholy rows of

dark-clothed and silver-labelled sarcophagi of Tsars, Tsarinas, Grand-Dukes, and Grand-Duchesses, from

Peter the Great down to the late Emperor Nicholas

and now, as we

write, his

Empress

also

;

placed on

the floor of the church, though the bodies themselves are said to be deposited in vaults underneath. Intbbiob op the Winter Palace. It

was on another day that we returned to the

Winter Palace, and tering then

its less

impressive scenes.

by a small door from the Neva

En-

side,

we

ascended by a splendacious staircase, and entered lofty

rooms of a whity

style of decoration

;

and

fur-

nished in the corners with towering plate-racks,

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THREE CITIES TN RUSSIA.

140

holding a number of gold and silver dishes that

proved on inquiry to have been the salvers on which nobles and merchants of St. Petersburg had loy allyoffered the reign,

accustomed bread and

salt to their sove-

on various public occasions.

Then

there

a ball-room, very long and white and with

was

infinite

rows of wax candles along window -tops, door-tops,

and running cornices; over and above large chandeliers all ready charged,

though the Imperial family

were absent and alterations going on, even to the extent of turning up

all

the earth in a favourite

glass-covered garden attached to this apartment.

A couple of half-servant, half-adulterating-grocer's wife sort of

women had

entered with us to see the

made

Palace fixings, and were indissolubiy

of our

party by one and the same imperial footman being told off to attend

them and ourselves

to wait for their shouts

a workman turned on the water to a in the said artificial garden, ball of brass

;

and we had

and screams of delight while

was raised on the

about for some minutes in the

and a jet,

little

fountain

light two-inch

and kept tossing

air.

Then we passed through more

pale-faced rooms,

with floors of inlaid wood ; then threaded long passages,

and beyond them entered other

ments with more signs of gliola of the walls

suites of apart-

habitability.

The

sca-

and columns, was of virgin purity

of whiteness, owing to

its

preparation from a pecu-

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PALACES AND HEROES liarly fine alabaster

found near Kazan

enrichments were frequent fully satisfied us, until

marble

walls,

141 ;

and gilded

but none of the

;

we entered

effects

room with white

a

and decorations of malachite and gold.

This was said to be the Empress's drawing-room,

and abounded with crimson

silk

sofas,

candelabra

from

of lapis-lazuli, vases of rose-coloured jasper Siberia,

and

material.

side tables of agate or similar precious

A neighbouring

room contained, besides

rich furnishings, several portraits of

members

of the

Imperial family, and exhibited them, especially the ladies, as everything

one could fancy of high descent,

noble feeling, and cultivated understanding;

and

another room was the entrance into a richly decorated chapel.

Then, we believe,

after treading

more

floors of

oak, with inlaid flowers in rose-wood and ebony,

came

St.

George's Hall, and the Gallery of the

Generals ; this being just a

Kings the

at Holyrood, but

Dutchman

little

in the style of the

by a better painter than

there employed,

better paid,

and

having to deal with either actually existing, or very lately existing

men, instead of revelling altogether

among contemporaries of Methusaleh. In fact, taking full

account of the

artistic

and mechanical

of his work, his English country

may

well be proud

of Mr. Dawe, and Russia not ungrateful. is

difficulties

His style

very effective for the main elements of character,

Digitized

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

142

and

full

of rich colour, with powerful light and shade

in every one of the innumerable portrait heads that

cover the great wall as with the closely packed squares of a chess-board.

The

history of

Dawe's engagement may be seen

in Dr. Granville's

(1827)

;

and from

'

Petersburg/

St.

vol.

i.

p.

535

his description of the contents of

the old Winter Palace, a large portion of the

more

valuable decorations must have been saved, to ap-

pear again in the new

indeed

;

suspect that the reputed great

epoch in the

city's annals,

we began

fire

at last to

of 1837, quite an

must have been a very

small and partial affair ; but on turning to his excellent

map

of St. Petersburg (the established British

guide-book has only an apology for a map, at which Russians point their jokes,) his ground-plan of the old palace

is

essentially different

from that of the

new, on each of the three fronts.

A

moderate-sized room adjoining these galleries

illustrated the

Emperor Nicholas

full-length portrait, tall

;

his person, in a

and firmly made

;

his coun-

tenance large below, strong-jawed, and stern; while his

forte,

or his taste,

was exhibited

in

several

coloured models of soldiers of different regiments,

dressed up to a minutiae of exactness that no martinet could find fault with.

Beyond

this

was a long

series of fine

rooms, uni-

formly devoted to the one grand object of expounding

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PALACES AND HEROES

143

the wars of Russia, by means of great battle-pieces

painted in

It

oil.

was weary and well-nigh

ening work to run the gauntlet of

all

merable slaughterings of unnumbered

began in time

to produce

effect; for gradually

something of

we acquired

sick-

these innu-

men its

;

yet

it

intended

larger views of

Russia's struggles to obtain both her present place in history, her

now acknowledged

civilized nations,

and

footing amongst

to bring about the

whelming preponderance of

same over-

Christianity in the east,

that has long prevailed in the west, of Europe.

The devotion of her sons everywhere conspicuous as

well

;

to advancing her cause

was

they died in pious ardour

the untutored, long-coated soldier of the

ranks, as the costly dressed officer of the middle of

the last century ; welling out his life-blood as he lay prostrate in his powdered peruque and evening cos-

tume on the winter snows of Bessarabia, but with last

his

breath signing onwards to his brothers in arms.

We

had ceased

for

some time

to inquire

what

battle each picture represented ; content merely to

know that,

that

it

was one of Russia's

battles

;

and with

endeavouring to form some idea of the physiog-

nomy and

characters of those engaged in

it.

We had

spent indeed so long a time in this employment, that the two grocer's-wife creatures attached themselves to another party

who were doing

more commendable speed, and

left

the rooms with a

us in peace and

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

144

Then

quiet.

was that we discovered in one of

it

the pictures a single man, who, through the whole

previous series, certainly had nae peer ;

we looked

and looked again, and the more extraordinary existency he appeared to us; the very incarnation he

was of mental thin,

His body was small and

ability.

but wiry and active ; and his nervous face and

untired eyes showed an ability to turn to the utmost practical account the mental

promptings of his re-

markably shaped and tensely

filled

head, in which

nature seemed to have delighted to extend to the

utmost conceivable

forward and upper

limit, all the

organs of the brain.

who

This must have been a man,

could not

fail,

could not help, could not prevent himself from being great,

we inwardly assumed ; and on going forward

to the next picture, there again

and

thin frame,

army

;

majestic

we went on

was again,

in

was that poor

little

leading a whole

head,

to a third picture,

an old whity-brown

and there he

coat,

but a dome

of brain that thought for every one, and eyes that

looked his

staff-officers

through and through,

until

they quailed before him.

We could resist no longer. dant ?

Oh

!

Where was our

atten-

he had gone on into the next room,

and was tattooing on the us a gentle hint that

time of a palace

floor

with his

feet, to

we were exceeding

visit.

But

it

give

the usual

would not do

:

we

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PALACES AND HEROES.

145

dragged him back, and pointed out mental being,

eminently

in one picture, then in another

first

and inquired by

this

signs,

and in

all

the languages

who it was ? " Suvorov," answered the Russian

we

could command,

and with evident feeling. n Suvorov," we exclaimed u and

in a

this the real

is

;

deep voice

bodily presentment of that eminent General,

whom

vulgar prejudice delineates in the West, as a mere barbarian giant, colossal as Russia herself, conquer-

ing by brute force alone, and slaughtering without

\

pity?"

But

after seeing

him

many more battle-pieces, we remembered

in

as well as in his full-length portrait,

some

that

historians have written things of him, *

which do zation.

attest

By

and exemplify

his cerebral organi-

birth a Finlander, but with his father

naturalized a Russian, he entered the vate, at the early

army

age of thirteen, and

as a pri-

after twelve

years of such servitude, at length received a junior lieutenant's commission;

him

volunteering for the

placed

him

cities,

years,

;

electrified II.

when until,

he had so

as to have a partial

in the Russian

VOL.

field,

in a fortress

fourteen more

him

here hard work awaited

but he ever cut out harder work

;

army

in

far

still,

always

routine of duty

by

1

768, or after

proved his capa-

command Poland

;

conferred on

and then, he

every one by the rapidity with which he

H

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THREE

i6

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

dispersed two Polish armies and took Cracow by

In 1773 and 1774, removed to new scenes,

storm.

he gained

department of the army four suc-

in his

cessive victories over the Turks, which finished that

war; and

this, combined

with his successful extinction

soon after of PugachePs rebellion, and his subjection of the in

1

Cuban and Budziar Tahtars,

raised

him

787, on the eve of another Turkish war, to the

Then

commander-in-chiefship. out in his

full

originality

it

was that he came

and power; while the

glorious fields of Kinbura, Fokshany,

and Rymnik,

and the storming of Ismail, before then considered impregnable, and in 1794 his second Polish victories

and the taking of Praga, attested to the excel-

lence of his methods in their invariable

and rapid

success.

But throne,

in 1 795, the

" mad Emperor 99 came to the

and he must needs deprive Suvorov of

command, and send him

first

to

to a distant country village, to

poor, or in disgrace so called. spirit ?

Not a

bit of

it.

his

Moskva and then live unknown and

Did that break

Loyal and true

he had been before, he yet preserved

still

all

his

as ever

his inde-

pendence. Never having during prosperity indulged in luxury or wealth (the booty of Ismail he

had not

touched), he could always, with ease to himself, dis-

arm the

severities

extended to him in adversity,

by proposing something

severer.

Were

four hours

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PALACES AND HEROES

awarded him

" that was

to prepare for expatriation,

too kind," was his immediate reply, " one hour was

enough

for

Suvorov f and when,

—

after several years

demanded by the

of this uncalled-for exile, he was

general voice of Europe to lead the Russian army against the French, then dominant throughout

North

Italy,

—there came a grand

official letter,

all

ad-

dressed, without explanation or apology, to " Field-

Marshal Suvorov," he, instead of jumping eagerly at this prospect of return to favour,

back the

letter

unopened ; saying, that

be for him, for were he

would be

mouzhik

at the life

still

sternly sent it

could not

a Field-Marshal he

head of his troops, and not living a

in a distant village.

Being informed, however, subsequently, that

Emperor did

to

past ways, and

some extent was

his

see the error of his

in positive

need of his ablest

General's assistance, then " Suvorov " went forward, forgot

all

the injustice he had suffered, and hastened

on with his troops to meet those " God-forgetting, windy, light-headed Frenchmen,"

long desired to chastise.

In the

whom

he had so

classic fields

of

Northern Italy they met, and history has recorded

how

rapidly Suvorov beat, one after another,

all

the

ablest of the French Republican generals; passed

on with apparent ease from one victory through a whole campaign; until at second year, when ordered by the

to another,

last,

in the

political

powers

h

2

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148

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

above

him,

amongst

to

undertake

High Alps,

the

a

movement

critical

in distant combination

with the Austrians and another Russian army under a Prince as conceited

as ignorant,

—he

(Suvorov)

heard, just as he was in the middle of the successful

performance of his own part of the scheme, that the Austrians were nowhere, the other Russian array

was completely destroyed, and rals

were

left

all

the French gene-

thereby free to attack him alone, and

had already surrounded him with overwhelming numbers

in his

Then broke

mountain

valley.

forth such despair as only an able

general, conscientiously careful of the lives of his soldiers,

can

restraint,

know

;

then, after a whole

life

of moral

he shrieked forth in unassuageable

and called on his grenadiers to bury him

grief,

alive, or

terminate his existence at once with their bayonets.

But when far

at length

more concerned

he found his devoted soldiers

at his distress than their

own

danger, he calmed down, and in a few minutes pass-

ing everything in review before his more than eaglequick mind's eye, he decided on, and began to execute

without delay, one of the most astonishing retreats ever performed in military annals. two, of a

Leaving one or

number of eagerly volunteering regiments,

to defend for a time the entrance to the valley,

led the rest of his troops over a

mere goat-paths, known only

snowy

pass,

he

by

to chamois-hunters;

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149

PAIACES AND HEROES.

and after incredible heights,

feats of

climbing along dizzy

and dreadful exposures

to the storms of

those devoted regions, succeeded in leading safe into

a friendly region, out of the

French generals and the

toils

them

which the

failures of his colleagues

had so securely been spreading around him.

No

one respected him more than did his chief

warlike opponents.

To

their

amazement they saw

an army of Russian men, accustomed to the flattest

all

their lives

and most extensive of plain countries,

suddenly, under his remarkable guidance, become the

most hardy and expert of Alpine mountaineers ; the people they had hitherto considered sluggish, and gifted only with the passive qualities of valour, they

now to

found, to their confusion on

equal, if not

excel,

movement and energy

many a battle-field,

themselves in rapidity of

of action.

And, happily

French conquests, they never found old Suvorov

it

for

again, after

was withdrawn from the army.

That remarkable being had indeed succeeded in

own character to a wonderful degree soldiers. The officers he perhaps compara-

impressing his

on

all

his

tively neglected

;

they were merely media between

him, the General, on one hand, and the privates on the other, in operations where the former had to

think and the latter to execute.

Duke

is

said to have laid

down

Our own great as one of his final

conclusions in war, that before a battle begins, the

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150

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

utmost degree of science should be employed by the

commander gun, there

but that when once the battle has be-

;

is

nothing for

it

principles

rapidity of

is

evidently similar

Suvorov had previously taught, that there

are three talents in war,

In the

except hard fighting on

And on

the part of the soldiers.

movement ;

first section,

—

1st,

the covp-d'oeil ; 2nd,

3rd, energy in combat.

that being his

own

affair,

he

very short in his " Discourse under the Trigger,"

u Catechism

or

" how

to his Soldiers

to place a

—

attack

camp

—and

to chase

—how

but he enumerates to

march

to beat the

—when

enemy."

to

How

these things were accomplished, was amongst the

of that wonderful

secrets

which every

detail

hand;

at

yet,

general's

dome of

was calculated

his brain, in

precisely before-

the same time, he possessed the

instantaneous eye so perfectly, that he

would in a moment recast

his

whole arrangements,

on perceiving at the instant of joining alteration in the

enemy's proceedings.

battle,

power armed him so completely, that he from a confidence that extract,

felt

illustrates itself in the

there-

above

when he makes attacking the enemy syno-

nymous with beating him in that confidence, tle

any

This double

;

and well was he justified

when he never

lost

a single bat-

while he gained so many.

Those gained against the French generals Suchet, Macdonald,

Moreau, and others, with their new

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PALACES AND HEROES.

151

Napoleonic* tactics, are the most remarkable stratagetically, as they

were doubtless the most

difficult

yet was he never more absolutely easy as to the re-

when on the Conqueror

sult of every encounter, than

of Italy's

own

Thus, being met at

battle-fields.

Novi by Marshal Joubert, with

Frenchmen,

of

all

lost advantages,

them burning

thousand

thirty

to recover their

Suvorov only said gaily to

his

men,

alluding to Joubert's rapid rise in his profession,

u Ah

!

he

lesson."

a lad ; come then,

is

And

let

him a

us give

the lesson they went forward and

gave, proved to be too much, not only for the lad,

but

maturer commander Moreau, who had

for the

joined in the course of the night.

On

the second score of rapidity of movement,

Suvorov well exhibited martinetism

;

entire

his

freedom from

men were on

for while his

a march,

they might do what they liked, or rather, do

it

as

they liked, and indulge in whatever they found to

have a useful

effect in

helping them on.

slacken your pace," said he

your songs

!

beat the

;

a walk on

drum

!"

distance as for speed;

bringing up the

men

for instant service,

enemy at once, "

and not only

at the

and like

fully

play

!

And

marches were accordingly performed,

tt

Never !

sing

astonishing as well

that,

for

but for

end of the march ready prepared to

fall

on the

snow on the beard," before

he expected an attack, or knew what to do.

Herein

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152

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

came and

Suvorova intimate knowledge

into operation

full

appreciation (more

rally allowed to

of.

all

gene-

Hence, he never called on

more than they could

for

and on

is

him) of what the bodily powers of

a soldier are capable

them

humane than

really accomplish,

extraordinary occasions he aided

them by

arranging the best methods of procedure; thus in the marching, there was with

him a

always carried out of work and

perfect system

rest,

leading and

following; at intervals shorter and shorter as the

march approached field

its

termination, either for the

of battle or the bivouac

;

and

at the latter,

he

always contrived so as to get the " children's" campkettles already filled

and boiling by the time that

they came up. This one point, however, of preserving and invigorating the strength of healthy supplies of food,

men by

rightly-timed

was not unknown, according to Ho-

mer, so far back as the epoch of Agamemnon Atrides

but Suvorov added thereto an equal care for the sick teaching his

men how

to cure simple diseases,

keep their bodies healthy; and

after

;

and

an original

plan of his own, which had in view the rendering a

Russian soldier a

self-reliant, self-supporting

being

always in order for work, and accompanied with the least possible amount of

baggage

camp machinery and

train.

" Have a dread of the hospital

!" therefore

he

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PALACES AND HEROES.

" German physic stinks from

began to them. is

good

for nothing,

soldier is not

and rather

used to

inestimable.

A soldier is

ants' -nests.

Take care of your health

stomach when

foul

it is

A Russian

hurtful.

Messmates, know where

it.

and

to find roots, herbs,

Hunger

!

is

Scour the

!

the best medi-

If loose bowels want food, at sunset a

cine.

gruel and bread. plant in

warm

For

afar,

costive bowels,

some purging In hot

water, or the liquorice-root.

fevers, eat nothing, even for twelve days

your soldier's hvas,

—

we may add, even

less intoxicating

little

;

and drink

that's a soldier's physic ;"

and

than the ginger-

beer of our teetotallers.

But selves,

all

these instructions, though good in them-

and remarkable from being the same means

by which the General preserved in excellent health in

up

his

own weak body

to seventy years of age, are,

Suvorov's philosophy, only means to an end,

means to the third and talents, u energy."

last of his list of military

The moment any body sight of the

enemy, they were to attack, without

considering disparity of affair,

ther

of his soldiers arrived in

numbers;

was

that

and he would always have arranged

and another reinforcing corps

his

for ano-

to arrive

on the

ground, within very short intervals after the

first.

When

they

he had specially ordered them to

were to

fire,

and

also to take

fire,

good care that the

H

3

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

154 ball

was

in their gun,

and

judgment

to shoot with

and precision ; but he did not often order them to fire ; " the ball," said he, " may lose his way ; the

The ball is a fool ; the bayonet a " push hard with the bayonet," was his hero." So " If three attack you ; stab the first, fire maxim. bayonet never

!

on the second, and bayonet the

And

stab half-a-dozen."

thus

with the bayonet.

solely

it

hero will

was that he taught

many a

the Kussian soldiers to gain

A

third.

battle almost

Under him

it

must have

been a rapid glancing weapon, as we may deduce from the whole style of the precepts in his " Cate-

" The ditch

chism."

not high.

Work again, to

Down

—the rampart

not deep

with your bayonet fi

If you see the

instantly

it

is

in the ditch

;

'em on the spot

!

jump

stab

fly

over your head

the people are yours.

pursue 'em

All this though

is

!

And

drive !"

!

match upon a gun, run up

the ball will

;

guns are yours

!

!

is

over the wall

!

'em

stab

Down

;

the with

!"

for energy, not for cruelty, as

so often causelessly brought

up ;

for after the

enemy

has ceased to fight, then, adds Suvorov with solemnity, kill

" to the remainder give quarter ;

without reason

;

they are

again, of the non-combatants,

able inhabitant

;

men

like

it's

a sin to

you."

he gives us meat and drink.

soldier is not a robber.

And

" Offend not the peace-

Booty

is

The

a holy thing;

without order never go to booty."

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PALACES AND HEROES.

The tone all

of these remarks, too, will be appreciated

the more,

before

when

remembered, that above and

it is

terrestrial

all

155

Suvorov laboured to

things

own exceeding

impress on his soldiers* minds, his

We, may

degree of observance of religious ordinances. with our more evangelical feelings and object to

some of them

:

beliefs,

as to his crossing himself

whenever he gave a military order suitably with the notions of his

;

but then

own and

it

was

his soldiers'

forms of Christianity; and while we read in the

pages of an English clergyman,* very discreditable things of what, according to him, Suvorov promised his soldiers after death,

we

" Die

:

of the Virgin ; for your Empress

The Church prays

perial family.

own

find in Suvorov's

catechism, no worse than this

;

for the

honour

for all the

Im-

who

die,

for those

and those who survive have honour and reward." f The greatest of all British Admirals, we have heard

it

private,

said,

was

by one who saw much of him

for ever talking so continually,

both

in in

season and out of season, about the particular phases

which patriotism and ambition wore to him, * "

He

shamefully revived, to stimulate their courage, a gross

piece of fanaticism, formerly prevalent '

that every one

who

among

the Russian peasantry,

died in fight for his religion, would find himself

alive again in three days, snugly ensconced at free

that,

from the obligation of military

home, and for ever

Thus

service.'

excited, the

army followed him," etc.— The Rev. T. Milner's Russia,' 1856. f Dr. Clarke's Travels. Compare Farie's Haxthausen, vol. '

ii.

p. 342.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

156

but for his eminent successes, mischievous folks

would have been inclined to say of him, as he passed

by

in the street,

" There goes old Westminster Abbey

or a Peerage !"

So

also with Suvorov:

been, through a long victorious

over every

life,

invariably

and

brilliantly

enemy he fought

there would have been a tremendous small-talk against his peculiar self

had he not

against,

amount of

ways of making him-

remarkable in the eyes of his soldiers

doing

;

things which in any one else would have been ab-

surd and even

silly,

but in his hands of genius, they

were turned into those implements of magic power,

whereby he entered deep into the heart of hearts of every Russian soldier, and drew forth love and ardour of devotion, and

veloped

faculties,

all

that

store of unde-

which no one before or since him

has equally succeeded in doing.

His

bits of criticism

and advice to old grenadiers,

on the best employment of their arms, as he walked

between their ranks, were even more pithy and

full

of

the wisdom of long experience, than those celebrated

wots of Napoleon, Emperor, under the same circumstances

;

and the French themselves have neatly de-

scribed Suvorov, as a general laconic

by one-third than

who

Caesar.

could be

But how

more

different

was he from either the Roman or Corsican genius, in that feature

which

all

Russia has prized as the

palladium of their race, ever since the great battle

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PALACES AND HEROES.

on

157

the Don, in 1380, viz. loyalty; loyalty to the Mir,

that peculiar Russian word which has to Russians

so

clear, definite,

and convincing a meaning, and

which we have already endeavoured to translate by " Majority of the Community," and of which majority the Tsar

is

the chosen head

!

As with everything good in nature, this feeling may be abused, as well with those who

for loyalty

show, as those who use

it

and on the boundaries

;

of the great wholesome mass,

all

sorts of extrava-

gance in excess or defect may be found. can be no doubt that

up with a

it

great deal

more

personal treatment from other free

men would

So there

leads Russians, often to put in the

official

way

of indignant

dogs in

generally like; and

it

office,

than

leads

them

often to punish the disloyal with too great severity.

In

fact, disloyalty is

a sin which neither Russian

ruler nor Russian people can tolerate; it

and hence

comes, that in these battle-piece pictures of the

Winter Palace, although the enemies of Russia are done excellent justice

to, for

noble bearing ; yet, when

it

handsome visages and comes to a picture of

the insurrection of Poland in 1832, and the fight-

ing against soldiers allegiance,

oh

!

who have broken

then nothing

is

too

the national horror of the deadly sin.

their oaths of

bad

to

show

The Russian

troops are accordingly represented as bayonetting

the ugly rebels,

made ugly

to a nation of short-

Digitized

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA,

158

nosed men, by having noses all

;

all

them long and

of

fat

and there the Russians are prodding them

over the picture, and with such intense satisfac-

tion in the act, as well as the for the subjects of

it

;

most utter contempt

while with every prod the

Poles are yelling in pain, and throwing up their

arms with shrieks of cowardly like

men

in

for salvation in the next.

Suvorov loyalty was extreme, and yet His whole existence was for the

unexceptionable. State

;

and looking

without energy to stand up in this world,

and without hope

Now,

fright,

he thought not of himself except to carry

out the purposes of the country

always forgive the

fallen,

and while he could

;

he was never cringing or

undignified to those above him.

This position, as

already explained, he was able in a great measure to

keep up by means of the simplicity of his

and

his

life,

moderation when in power ; which made

easier for him, if necessary, to his opinions intact,

go into

exile,

it

with

and with unbroken pride ; than

to retain wealth, position,

and courtly honours

the sacrifice of a single liberal thought.

Hence

at re-

sulted a character in which, at the last, every private soldier, as well as

each sage Imperial ruler, had

full

confidence for anything and everything, even in death, as in bier

life.

At

his funeral,

had reached the doors of

St.

when the decorated Alexander Nevski,

there was then unexpectedly found, to the utter con-

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PALACES AND HEROES.

159

fusion of the magnates presiding, insufficient width

What could be done in the emer" Brothers," exclaimed an old private to his

for its entrance.

gency.

fellow-soldiers

bearing the hero's mortal remains,

" Suvorov, when then."

And

force, until

in

life,

passed everywhere

;

forward

forward they did go, with irresistible

by some means or other they had placed

their precious charge in an equally honourable position with the shrine of that other great national hero

of the Russians, the early mediaeval conqueror of their bitter

and traitorous enemies, Swedes, Poles,

and Teutonic knights of the sword.

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160

CHAPTER

III.

THE FOUNDING OF PULKOVA. September.

Over the " plain of Izak," past the gilded statue of " Nicholas the Great," as the young cadets love to call

him, through the broad French-looking streets,

past the shops with their painted wares outside, over canals

apples

and bridges, through markets teeming with and cranberries, with

raspberries,

melons, pumpkins, and well-booted

men

water-

in tunicked

red shirts, amongst magnificent horses with flowing

manes and

tails

that would have delighted Rubens,

though what he would have made out of the great arches,

— dougas* — over

know, past

their necks,

carts with long-naved wheels,

where every window was

filled

we do not and houses

with sub-tropical

greenery, through long streets of such, and at last

roads bordered by acres of piled faggots, or wooden walls of Cyclopean panel-work, along these to the * See Plate

3,

Vol. II.

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THE FOUNDING OF PULKOVA

161

great triumphal arch, commemorating victories over

Turks, Persians, and Poles, and underneath that

along the

triple

road to the open

flat

country beyond,

past groves of the red-trunked pine, and silver stems of the lady-birch,

—we

drove, on September 13th,

to visit once again our kind friends at the Central

Observatory of Pulkova.

The scene was now somewhat changed. Without, was the cold already arrived of a northern autumn, but within was the

warm welcome

of the venerable

William von Struve, the patriarch and the astronoFormally yet with fervour, at his hospitable

mer.

board that evening, did he propose the health of his

my respected Father, and show all honour British lady my excellent wife and present

old friend to the

companion.

His

last

winter had been spent in com-

pany with Madame and Mademoiselle von Struve, on the slopes of

Mount Atlas

genial winter

;

and now restored by the

warmth of a North-African

station,

the old-man-learned prepared to enter again upon the duties of his

official life,

and maintain under the

rigour of Kussian frosts, the efficiency and

full ac-

tivity of a great astronomical establishment.

Professor of philology in his early years, and sub-

sequently

nomy

filling

the chair of mathematics and astro-

in the University of Dorpat, before

becoming

the chief geodesist and astronomer of the Russian

Empire, William von Struve

is

much more than

Digitized

THREE

162

merely the

and

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

a modern observatory

skilful director of

various as are the

;

have been as vast and

his experiences in life

many languages

in

which with the

most perfect ease to himself he can write of them, in Latin, Russian,

his

account

German, and French

eloquently and grammatically to a philological de-

gree

;

and nearly as well

in Greek, Italian, Spanish,

Portuguese, Finnish, and Esthonian. therefore were broad and grand,

His views

combining the co-

piousness

and variety of a Humboldt, with the

strictness

and mathematical power of a Bessel ; and

to

all

this

was added the

which one

interest with

listened to the teachings of a

man whose

practical

success has been as remarkable as his philosophic

depth or theoretical acumen

;

and who has been

dis-

tinguished alike as a working scientific man, and an administrator in extensive affairs of state.

The Central Observatory of Pulkova, was now speaking, but what

it

must

is

also

in

which he

eminently his creation.

Not

be considered as the realizing,

and much more, of a fond idea which the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg had cherished for generations,

—

viz.

of

removing their old astrono-

mical observatory from

its lofty

tower on the upper

story of their palace on the banks of the Neva, and in the midst of the

rebuilding the

it

Academy

chimneys of the metropolis, and

at a distance from the city,

—but then

did not advance with their scheme.

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THE FOUNDING OP PULKOVA

That scheme was approved of

163

generally,

and

all

the

Academicians were able men; but somehow the man for the special

work was wanting.

very near finding him

;

as

how

They were

often

should they not be,

when they searched for him during seventy years, and in a society bearing upon the rolls of its members such distinguished names as Joseph Nicolas de

l'lsle,

Leonard Euler, Lexell, and Schubert, besides having

many

active observers and able computers.

The Academy's learned and experienced astrono-

mer Grischov, who was appointed soon seems to have been the

first

who conceived

of removing the observatory from to a place

after 1748,

its

the idea

trembling height

more capable of affording firm foundation

he had received new instruments of very accurate construction,

by the celebrated English

optician Bird,

but hesitated to incapacitate their powers by erecting them in an unsuitable before achieving

site

;

and he died

in 1760,

much more than preparing on paper

his beau ideal of a

new

observatory.

To him succeeded Boumovsky, who attempted bravely for a time by assiduity and the devotion of all

his powers, to

make up

for the natural defects of

that unfortunate tower-placed observatory.

accordingly in a so as to

little

He lived

room of the Academy-building,

be always near his work ; and was present

there through

all

that he gradually

seasons.

But the end of

became converted

it

was,

to the faith of

Digitized

164

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

his predecessor

and when grown

;

man

continued exertion, an old also

to be,

by over-

before his time,

he

began to complain of the needless labour that

was given

to

him

up both by day and by

to climb

night, the steep winding staircase to his too elevated

observing-room.

For

thirty years did

many

as

Roumovsky, and

did the second astronomer of the

for

almost

Academy,

Inokhodtsov, recommend old Grischov's idea of the

removal of the observatory to some position where they should be on the ground floor and under the

same roof with

their instruments, but without

much

prospect of success until an unexpected opportunity

suddenly dawned upon them, in the year 1796.

It

then chanced, that George III. of Great Britain, was pleased to send as a present to the Empress Catherine of Eussia, a ten-foot reflecting telescope constructed

by

Sir William Herschel.

desired to try for

its

Her Majesty immediately

powers, and

Roumovsky was

sent

from the Academy to repair to Tsarskoe-Selo

where the court was

at the time residing.

The

tele-

scope was accordingly unpacked, and for eight long consecutive evenings the Empress employed herself ardently in observing the moon, planets, and stars

and more than

this, in

inquiring into the state of

astronomy and astronomers in her dominions. Then it

was that Roumovsky

set before the Imperial

view

the Academy's idea of removing their observatory,

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THE FOUNDING OF PULKOVA.

and the advantages of Graciously did the " Semiramis

detailing the necessity for,

such a proceeding. of the

North," the "Polar Star," enter into

all

and warmly approve of the project

particulars,

these ;

but

death closed her career within a few weeks after, and

prevented her execution of the design.

How

then

astronomers

fell

the hopes of those two unfortunate

down

to

The other Academicians tried

members,

those worthy

and never recovered

zero,

to

MM.

encourage them, and

Schubert and N. Fuss,

even tried to get up some demonstrative movements

towards the desired end sentiments,

;

but what availed mere

towards alleviating to two

well stricken in years, that daily

up that long, long series of stairs?

become

to

them by

repetition

men now

and nightly climb That labour,

more than Herculean,

was no advantage to astronomy, and was positively killing

active

them.

In their youth they had been most

amongst men, and

rejoiced to

show

their zeal

and physical powers of daring and enduring, by the speed, lightness, and frequency of their ascents to

temple of Urania.

that dreadfully elevated

A

few

hundred ascents and descents, oh! that they would a few thousand, and they

do as soon as look at

it

were

but after twenty thousand or

still

not tired

;

;

so,

then they found that they had nearly consumed

the

whole stock of corporeal energy which nature had

given

them

for the economical service of a

whole

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THREE

166

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

merely endeavouring to overcome the

lifetime, in

architectural defects of an ill-designed observatory.

How whim

who had

they prayed that the proud architect

built this astronomical observatory to suit

of his own, and in contempt of

requirements and conveniences, that he should never

fall

an

artistic

all

astronomical

—how

they prayed

under the condemnation of

having to ascend his own building more than twenty thousand times

for after such a

!

number they made

sure that he would begin to feel with every step

too painful memento mori ;

had once been so it

elastic, it

should ever die

;

now

spiritual tenant, only

it

a

the manly frame that

seemed impossible how would seem to

wonderful

how

it

its

poor

could con-

tinue to live on. Still

these two old astronomers were enthusiastic

for science,

and capable of distinguishing themselves

in its promotion

amongst other men

;

but

why were

they to be condemned to that eternal and laborious

tramp, tramp, up the winding stair to a garret rally

lite-

next to the sky; a sort of treadmill prefix to

every observation they had to make, and an infliction in its

way

or poor,

that no other

had

man

in St. Petersburg, rich

to submit to ?

So neither could they any longer, and Inokhodtsov at last built for himself a

little

private observa-

tory near the botanical garden of the Academy, on the Fontanka canal, and observed there

up to the

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THE FOUNDING OF PULKOVA.

1G7

Mercury across the sun's disk

transit of

in

1802

;

while Koumovsky, appointed Vice-President of the

Academy

and afterwards Curator of the

in 1800,

University of Kazan, continued his usefulness to generation, but not in the Academy's

up

to

The

1816.

Visnievsky; Schubert of

MM.

brilliant

and Visnievsky

astronomy,

his

tower,

places of these savants in the

observatory were supplied by

sical

tall

sharpness of eyesight in

Schubert, and

powers in phyunequalled

difficult telescopic

for

obser-

vation; but the chief part of their work too was

not performed in the untoward observatory of the

Academy. Over and over again therefore did that learned society discuss the removal

and transplantation of

their impossible observing-room to

able

and

suitable position

;

and

some more

in 1827,

avail-

when Count

A. Kouchelev-Besborodko offered them a

gift

of

three dessiatines of land to the north-west of St.

Petersburg, and

M.

Parrot, the

first

successful as-

cender of Mount Ararat, and a professor of natural philosophy, drew up a plan for an observatory build-

ing to be erected there, on the Count's land,

seemed as

if

complished.

But no

;

it

the accumulated heap of in-

tentions only continued to smoke and heat

genius requisite to still

—

something was really going to be ac-

to appear.

make them

;

for the

burst into flame was

168

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

Now

it

so happened that in 1830,

W.

von Struve,

then astronomer at Dorpat, had made a

scientific

journey through Europe, and visiting the capital on

had the honour of an audience from the

his return,

The Emperor commanded

Emperor Nicholas.

this

meeting, desiring to hear in person the results of such a journey; and though M. Struve does not say

anything about

it,

fact, that his quiet

yet there can be no doubt of the

and successful labours in

astronomy which was above anything

that the ranks of the

and

Academy could then show

some increase being made

vatory, the

ther

it

;

much thereupon.

his autocratic ruler planned

So when M. Struve brought up for

made him a name

observatory had by this time

tier

in practical

his fron-

at last a proposition

to the

Monarch met him by the

Dorpat Obserquestion,

whe-

would not be better to have a large obser-

vatory near St. Petersburg ?

There was a severe contest in M. Struve's mind at the idea of giving

up the claims of

his

beloved

alma mater, the University of Dorpat; but truth and justice prevailed over predilection,

and he not only

acknowledged the advantage of a large observatory near the metropolis, but detailed the efforts of the

Academy

to transplant theirs.

The Tsar

listened

attentively

and approvingly

but when he heard of the proposed Besborodko of land, he at once objected to the locality of

gift

it,

as

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THE FOUNDING OF PULKOVA. being so sandy and marshy that

make

to

would be

difficult

firm foundations for the instruments '

sides/' said he, its

it

169

smoke

" be-

;

with the whole city throwing up

'

close to the south of you,

your most im-

portant planetary observations would be grievously injured

try/' he added, " the hill of Pul-

why not

;

kova, further

from

off

St. Petersburg, to the south

it,

and with unusually firm

As

it

of

soil

?"

seemed that the Monarch knew the ground

better than the stranger Professor from Dorpat, the latter

was sent

examine

to

it

;

but on presently re-

turning and saying that the thing was just as his

Majesty had stated, and that Pulkova was the place

by

all

means

new Observatory,

for a

—"Ah,"

said

the Tsar, " do you not say so because I mentioned

Pulkova

to

you

St. Petersburg,

Now

?

and

go back and look

in particular

all

round

examine such and

such places," which he spoke of by name.

But the

Professor returned once more with the statement that these places had each of them sundry advantages peculiar to themselves, but none of them united so

many

as the hill of Pulkova.

So thereupon

it

should be built a

not only

fulfil all

was determined that

new

at

Pulkova

Observatory, which should

the purposes that the

Academy

of

Sciences in St. Petersburg had cherished in hope

during seventy years, but should vastly exceed them.

Thus the Academy's general plan was indeed taken VOL.

II.

I

THREE CITIES

170

up; and M. Struve being

IN RUSSIA.

now added

to their

number,

a commission of five members was appointed

to

enter immediately into the projected working details

;

and, as before long

became evident that

it

the " administration" of such an Observatory must

be

in the

mician,

hands of a single man, and he an Acade-

M. Struve was unanimously appointed

to

that position.

Thus closed

his career as Professor at Dorpat,

where he had continued to labour, from the year 1816, unceasingly for the advantages of the University,

and the promotion of astronomical science

himself no doubt making this occasion, which led those in power to consider that the opportune

ment had

the History of Practical Astronomy in Russia

thus too did a

new

mo-

making a new epoch

arrived at last, for

more extended

career of

in

and

;

influ-

ence as well as usefulness open before him.

No

time was

now

lost.

In October, 1833, the

Tsar gave his formal orders, and on the 28th of that

month empowered a hundred thousand rubles

to

be drawn as a beginning, towards the expense of instruments and building.

Backed up difficulty in

in this manner,

setting on foot

M. Struve had

all

little

those ideas of im-

provement which twenty-five years' experience in an observatory had brought prominently before him.

In place of exhibiting the so frequent example of an

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THE FOUNDING OF PULKOVA. astronomer consenting to receive whatever sort of instrument the optician chooses to make, and obtaining one, therefore,

more suited

to facility of

nufacture than high accuracy of observation,

Imperial Astronomer

now

—the

sent in his instructions to

what he wanted and must have,

the opticians for

carry out certain astronomical of

ma-

to

problems of his own,

which they did not necessarily know anything.

Not that he acted in an imperious manner towards them, for he visited

workshops in nich,

Hamburg,

sulted

them kindly

St. Petersburg,

Paris,

in their several

Vienna, Berlin,

Mu-

and London, and rather con-

with them over what was to be done ; but not

a detail,

even to a single screw, was allowed to be

constructed until approved of by him, 'who was to

be responsible for the accuracy of the future results of the instrument

;

while to ensure the performance

of all these intentions, not only

was a mechanician

embryo Observatory

Munich, to report

of the

left at

on the progress of the work there from month to

month, but M. Struve appointed a day whereon he

would

revisit each establishment,

being finished,

and see that

on the instruments

his wishes

had been

duly carried out.

Meanwhile

in St. Petersburg

came on the great

tug of war as to the architecture of the building.

When

one hundred thousand rubles appeared as a

key-note for the undertaking, some of your grand I

2

Digitized by

Coogle

I

THREE

172 architects,

made a

who

live only

finally

became competitors, and sent

The

designs.

on the erection of palaces,

upon the prey, and

stoop

particular

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

was

first

two

in

rival

in

purely

in a gothic style,

commanded general praise amongst many who were not astronomers, as being such an effective building but the second, by M. Bruloff, ornamental, and

the

;

was of a comparatively bald external look, and took the fancy of few.

Nevertheless,

pointed out to the Emperor

how

when M. Struve this architect

had

subordinated his designs to the astronomical purposes of the building,

M.

Bruloff was rewarded at

once with the charge of carrying

it

always

out,

under due supervision of the Academy's Commission,

and above

Under these

all,

the Director elect.

auspices, the foundation-stone

formally laid, on July 3rd, 1835

estimate rubles,

then

having

1,755,000 paper

reached

and the price of the instruments 270,000.

The names, from nister

was

the architect's

;

this time, of

of Public Instruction

;

M.

d'Ouvaroff, Mi-

Prince

Dondoukov

Korsakov, Vice-President of the Academy ; and Admiral Greig, President of the Commission,

became

frequent in the history of the transactions

;

the architect,

M.

Bruloff,

took

all

while

responsibility for

the mechanical excellence of the erections, and the

mind of Struve regulated the whole. Firmness of the foundations was with him a lead-

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THE FOUNDING OP PULKOVA. ing necessity

173

and the subterraneans of the Obser-

;

vatory became

its

most important

Not im-

feature.

posing externally, but, as we found on our strange effect at times soldiers

;

would vanish from view, as

into the earth, or piles of stores

ground, where brought from but they had

all

visit,

of

for occasionally half-a-dozen if

they had sunk

would appear on the

we

come through

could not imagine a

little

;

door under

a flight of steps, and that door was the entrance to these underground works of the Observatory.

For

excess of firmness, some of the instrument-piers, in solid

masonry, were made to descend 30 feet below

the floor, and formed masses 40 feet long, 15 broad,

and 35 high.

What

stir

such ponderous bulks?

The

temperature changes of Russian climate,

violent

would

could

certainly,

counteracted

;

M. Struve thought,

unless specially

therefore did he carry

down

the foun-

dation of the external walls of the building almost equally low, and in half of the annular or passage

space between the piers and surrounding walls, he

arranged a method of

flues so

communicating with

certain Russian stoves, that the included

therefore

these

within such

air,

said

instrument-piers

was preserved

all

at a nearly constant temperature,

air,

and

contained

the year through

though the out-

side walls were either roasted in the sun, or almost

rent by

frost.

174

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

These parts

came the building of the

finished,

observing-rooms,

and then above

equatorial-towers

and

latter are usually

the

their level

These

domes.

revolving

such specialities of an observatory

that the astronomer has in most cases to

manage

them

for himself,

tect

and amongst the great number of variations

;

with very

little

which have been produced on observatories,

we must

allow

most distinguished place; facility

of

movement

this

theme

in various

M.

Struve's variety a

it

excels in solidity,

for

in the

help from an archi-

way you want

it,

and

in

convenient, anti-gust-of-wind openings for the telescope.

In the case of the largest Pulkova dome, 33 feet in diameter, its easily

weight amounts to 36,000

shaken therefore

;

lbs.

;

not

yet capable, on one person

making 59 turns of a crank handle,

of being in a

minute revolved half round, or through 180°; and

more

is

never wanted on any one occasion, as the

sky-shutters open continually from one horizon to

the other, in equal breadth

all

the way.

This ease

of rotation depends mainly on the enormous weight

being supported on the rims of a

circle of true fric-

tion-wheels, and these on a circular railway accurately

and turned true

in position, after

having

been well tested as to firmness of foundation.

Then

levelled

the opening, or observing shutters in the roof, are

not only broad, so as to allow freedom to exchanges

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175

THE FOUNDING OF PULKOVA.

of air inside and out, but they have another advantage

What

not often secured.

we not

trouble, for instance,

have

seen some astronomico-mechanical inventors

give themselves, to

make

the shutters of their domes

back smooth with, or close underneath, the u Oh but if you do not outer surface of the roof

slide

!

!

accomplish that," say they, " and

you

raise the shutters

if,

on the contrary,

on a hinge, the wind acts on

that like a float-board on a horizontal windmill,

and

keeps turning your dome about when you don't

want

it."

" Then," would say M. Struve, " make your shutextend equally along on either side of the

ters

centre,

dome you

and there

will

be no tendency to turn the

about, blow the wind never so strong

moreover always have

will

this

;

while

inestimable

practical advantage in a raised line of shutter, viz.

that

by turning

it

towards the wind, the opening

you are then observing through lee

is

lying under the

of that defence, and the wind will not come

dashing in and shaking the telescope, as

it

does

miserably with the sliding shutter-openings contrived in

When

some places with so much

difficulty."

this elevated part of the Observatory

had

been completed, the opening of the establishment for regular

work, you

This was indeed the

may be sure, was nigh at hand.

case,

and the ceremonial inau-

guration took place on the 19th of August, 1839.

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

176

A

few days after came the Empress and Grand-

Duchess Olga to behold the greatest astronomical

work of the time it

;

and

finally,

on the 8th of October,

was announced that the august founder of the

Observatory, the Emperor Nicholas, was to

and inspect.

On

that day accordingly he arrived,

with the Duke of Leuchtenberg and

two hours and a

half,

Staff,

the

and during

not only did he examine the

instruments and observing-rooms, but into

come

subterraneans to

satisfy

descended

himself of the

measures taken for the solidity and invariability of

the bases; ascended

to

the roofs;

inspected

minutely the quarters prepared for the astronomers

women and

and their

assistants, in all, including

children, a

hundred and three persons, and then he

turned round and

said-

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177

CHAPTER

IV.

OBSEBVATIONS ATTEMPTED. September.

What

the Tsar Nicholas Paulovitch said on the com-

pletion of the Pulkova establishment,

was evidently

one of the circumstances in his

which M. von

life

Struve, as a loyal Russian noble and an ardent astro-

nomer, loved much to dwell upon.

Within

little

more than

six years,

and

in a

new

locality,

an observatory had been completed in a

manner

that surpassed the growth of ages in other

countries

;

and while these successful exertions had

been made to attain expedition and extent, not a

had been yielded as

to minute accuracy or

the most refined rectification.

Well therefore might

fraction

the Tsar compliment

M. d'Ouvaroff on such an un-

dertaking having been both conceived and carried out during his term of the Ministry of Public Instruction

;

and deservedly might the Tsar, when M.

d'OuvarofF brought the really efficient working-men I 3

178

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

before him, present to Admiral Greig a portrait en-

riched with diamonds, to Prince

Dondoukov Kor-

sakov the decoration of the Order of to the Director of the Observatory,

St.

Anne, and

M. von Struve,

the Order of St. Stanislaus, besides giving " gratifi-

cations" of ten thousand rubles to the Secretary of the Academy, the Architect, and the Director.

But these

things,

charming though they might be,

were not those which most impressed M. von Struve for

he more delighted to relate

Emperor

said to him, that

had been prepared so accurately

for the

how in

conclusion the

though everything which Observatory had

and completely carried

now been

out, that

they

could none of them then think of anything more that

was required

to perfect its observation-power,

—yet

he knew only too well that there existed no such thing as finality in science

;

what was sensibly perfect to

one age, proved lamentably

insufficient in the

and they could not expect even Pulkova

to

next

be free

from those laws of nature and progress, however admirable

it

might appear just now. They must there-

fore look forward to the time

science

when

the advance of

and improvement of many mechanical

arts

should have rendered obsolete the present forms of instruments, and arrange for keeping up the

effi-

ciency of the Observatory even then; and should

its

Director in such a contingency have any difficulty in carrying out those future

improvements with the

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OBSERVATIONS ATTEMPTED.

great

had

officers of

leave given

Government him now,

to

179

for the time being, he

go straight

As long

without any intermediary.

to the Tsar

as

it

was a

question, said the Tsar, of keeping up astronomical

Pulkova to the

advance of the science of the

full

time, that should be a talisman that never should

fail

in admitting the Director of the Observatory to the

private audience of his Sovereign.

" What a misfortune that you have

minded and

far-seeing an

Emperor

\"

lost so liberal-

we

could not

help ejaculating.

" Indeed we do grieve over his untimely decease," reply, " and yet, in a manner he still lives

was the

for even to this day all his various precepts

maxims

are regarded

by

and

his successor, the Court,

and the Government, with a fond regard almost amounting to veneration.

But a high appreciation

of astronomy seems inherent in the Eomanov race. It culminated as eminently in Peter the Great as in

our late Nicholas

England was

;

and though the former when in

chiefly occupied

with very different

matters of more immediate practical bearing to the general good of his people, yet he found time to the Government Observatory

;

for has not old

visit

Flam-

steed written, under date of the 6th February, 1698 '

:

Serenissimus Petrus Moscoviae Czarus observato-

rium primum visum

venit, lustratisque

habitu privato

Aderant secum Bruceus, paren-

abiit.

instruments

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

180

tibus Scotis Moscoviae natus, Legatus Militaris

under date of the 8th March, observation of

Venus

at

And

AnghY

Wolfius et Stilcus mercatores

;

J.

again,

after the entry of the

mural quadrant, an

the

observation complete in right ascension as well as zenith distance, is inscribed,

had the Tsar looked

'

Observanti Serem'ssimo

which proves that not only

Petro Muxeovice Czaro

at the planet

scope, but that he had actually

through the

and

effectively

tele-

made

a true astronomical observation of place."

" Have you ever had yet to

make use

of that license

Emperor ?"

of going from the Minister direct to the

asked one who was present.

"

It

is

a license/' returned another, " which,

though we possess to use too often.

it

It

securely,

we

careful not

are

would be unjust to the other

seventy millions of people

who

by the Tsar,

are ruled

to occupy his attention too frequently with the con-

cerns of a very small section of his subjects.

We

prefer therefore to try to persuade, and even to spend

much time They, poor they

in trying to

men

!

make a difficulty in advancing funds

some important

scientific

they put into their the

persuade, the Ministers.

are not altogether to blame

money

proceeding

offices for,

of the nation

?

And

;

when

to carry out

for

what are

except to economize as they are, like

most

of your Ministers too, not scientific men, though often literary and fine-art inclined, they judge of

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OBSERVATIONS ATTEMPTED. scientific things

counts

when they

so

;

merely by the

see an increase of expense

under any one head, they oppose increase

and

and are even

;

make a

to

d. of the ac-

s.

«£.

181

in a

because

it

manner bound

an

it is

to do so,

fight before they let it pass, lest they

should be supposed among mere

state-officials to

lukewarm in the service. " Then again our Government here

be

in St. Peters-

burg, has such a tendency to look westward and imitate

how

they manage these things in London or

Paris, in place of judging of

solute merits

you and

to

them on

amongst ourselves.

find

their

ab-

So when they turn

an astronomer's rate of Government

pay only one-tenth, possibly no more than teenth, of a successful lawyer's,

and pinch

one-fif-

a legal officer

i. e.

under Government, why they think starve

own

it

their duty to

in the former until they have

made

here also one lawyer in his rate of salary equal to

astronomers

fifteen

;

though perhaps in the college

competitive examinations the lawyer did not quite

come up

to one of the astronomers

once the astronomer

is

down

:

and then, when

in their

books as a

not only he, but the science he be-

low-paid

official,

longs

and the Government observatory he works

in,

to,

are

all

reduced

considered

still

" Great is

fair

game

to

be cut down and

further.

science, but she does not always prevail

and modern science has many hard

battles to fight.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

82 '

Science and Literature/

And

are twin sisters.'

men do

support themselves,

so, for

tunes,

Now

a judge, there novelist

then

it is

is

if,

urged,

c

they

if literary

—and see how famously they

our chief novel-writers

—why should

assistance ?

the popular cry,

is

make

large for-

science be calling out for state to

one who sets himself up as

no difference perceptible between a

and metaphysician

in literature, neither will

there be, in his eyes, any between abstract science

and applied, widely as they may be separated nature and

fact.

A glorious

in

independence

state of

must be that philosopher's who pursues

his studies

without having to furnish himself with any instru-

ments much more expensive than pens, ink, and paper

;

but how are the courses of the stars to be

ascertained with such materials only

evidently

futile,

?

The idea

is

and from the time of the Chaldean

observers on the temple of Belus to our

own

days,

the apparatus of astronomy has been beyond the

means of any

private simple

rectly or indirectly the

man

of science.

Di-

government of every country

has had to intervene to keep alive the sacred flame of progress, and promote a continual advance and increase of acquaintance with the laws of the uni-

among the sons of men. u The records of that science too," added M. von Struve, " do show that it has had magnificent verse

patrons from time to time ; and more

we cannot

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OBSERVATIONS ATTEMPTED well

expect, for a really capable, intelligent, and

liberal patron,

i. e.

a truly great patron, appears just

as seldom in a hundred years, as a really great phi-

What

losopher.

we

then shall

we

do, or

how

shall

contrive to cross these broad gulfs which exist

between the appearance of one Augustan Maecenas

and

Not

his next similar representative ?

certainly

besiege the palace doors with too often repeated re-

man who now proved

minders of the great

must accept those

is

gone.

No

we

;

political facts, that

science cannot be always at the top of the wheel, in

In a community where

a busy, working nation.

all

others are toiling for their daily bread, or their national existence, another cannot be allowed to

stand completely apart, unaffected by the general

The

man working in science

is

no

doubt working for his country's glory; but unless

at

anxieties.

times he

is

scientific

also found descending

from his practically

Utopian abstractions, and taking part in the burden of other men, those other men,

who form

the bulk of the

upon him as a true patriot. " There are times when a nation, tired of war's

nation, will never look

alarms, and satisfied with the abundance that peace

produces and pours into her bosom, to honour

some

position where he else

special savant

may be

may be

delighted

and place him

in a

enabled to think of nothing

than entertaining them with his refined disco-

veries

;

but

it

would be a great mistake

in a long

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THREE

184

line of such savants,

IN"

RUSSIA

were they to fancy that genera-

tion after generation,

science and

CITIES

though they

charm never so

sit

on their

wisely, they will

hill

still

of

be

able with universal approval to preserve that former

of freedom from worldly troubles.

life

certain

is it,

that ever

will

break forth

who

it

;

wars are kindled between nations

was thought had thrown away the sword

from them

;

of an external despotic power

of our children. scientific

man

call for

It

is

may peril

the safety of

the services of each one

not safe therefore for any

to forget the country that

he belongs

upon

or the duties which that connection devolves

He

him. otic

and

far

and internal dissensions or the growth

the Fatherland, and

to,

For, sure and

and anon men's worser nature

should on the contrary be eminently patrifilled

with ideas of loyalty, and ought like-

wise to do something almost daily in his country's service if he

favour in his

" On

would daily be regarded by her with

own

line.

this principle

it is

that I " (M. von Struve)

" have desired that our Russian astronomers, and especially this itself

Pulkova establishment, should identify

with some of the duties required to be per-

formed to maintain the

Government of the

land.

efficiency of the

Our progress

ordinary in science

is

perhaps thereby rather slower, as part of our time

is

abstracted from high astronomical questions

it

is

rendered, I hope and believe,

all

;

but

the securer

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OBSERVATIONS ATTEMPTED

For when

in the long run.

it is

185

Pulkova that

at

the officers of the General Staff and Topographical

Corps are educated

in the

higher geodesy, and there

map-

also that questions of surveying are settled in

ping the country alike for taxation and railways, canals

and

agricultural improvements,

—no Govern-

ment of the time can ever allow our Pulkova into

a state of inefficiency

to

nomers there ever forget the traditions of their or the

perfect

fall

neither will the astro-

;

and abiding

which

loyalty

race,

is

the

distinguishing characteristic of a true Russian."

On

another occasion, for

we remained

the venerable Director for several

how

kindly set forth to us

guests of

days, he again

the connection between

the astronomers and the surveyors of Russia was no

new idea ; but had been

originated

by Peter

Veliki,

and had been carried on very perseveringly by the

Academy

of Sciences from

its

foundation in 1724,

up to the era of the birth of Pulkova Academy's labours the

new

in that line

;

when

all

the

were handed over to

establishment.

The accomplished series old Society,

who

for

is

most honourable

to the

upwards of a century had

or-

ganized yearly journeys of some one or other of their

members with

this view,

and

in the course of

them

had travelled over the burning plains of the South, undeterred by the death or capture of their parties

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THREE

186

by nomade also far

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

tribes or rebellious chiefs,

under the frozen

fixing the latitudes

turous journeys are

we were

—and reached

North and East,

and longitudes of important

by pure astronomical while

circle in the

observations.

sites

These adven-

by no means concluded, and

yet at Pulkova, an astronomer re-

ported himself there, returned from a three-years'

journey in Eastern Siberia. In the course of that time

he had travelled

in every conceivable

manner, with

horses or oxen, reindeer or dogs, and his instru-

ments had been necessarily of a very portable character.

The longitude

chiefly

depended on lunar

distances measured with a Pistor flecting-circle,

and Martin's

and now that the observer was

re-

safely

returned, he was going to compute two hundred places of the moon, direct from Hansen's

new and

improved tables of the motions of that luminary,

in

order that he might reduce his observed distances in the most accurate possible manner.

In regions nearer to the central Observatory, as already related in

Volume

are adopted for longitude

;

I.,

and

chronometric loops in

an existing great

levelling operation carrying all across Russia,

with such accuracy that

middle of the continent

its is

maximum

error in the

thought not to be above

four inches, similar loops of levels are taken.

and

also the trigonometric

and

These

operations require the

observer often to be for long periods under canvas,

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187

OBSERVATIONS ATTEMPTED.

and we were

interested to hear, that a curiosity with

which we had intended

we made much

burden ourselves had

to

of an open-air expedition into the

country, was really a proper accompaniment, and

had been

actually used with advantage

when surveying

himself,

lightning-conductor. iron wire,

was

in Finland

It

:

by M. Struve

i. e.

a portable

was composed of twisted

sixty-feet in length, thirty

pounds

in

weight, and armed at the extremity with a copper

rod pointed and tipped with exactly one guinea's-

worth of gold.

In use, one end of the conductor

was erected on a carried

wet

away

sods.

pole near the tent, and the other

to a distance

Many

a time

and there covered with it

is

supposed to have

carried off a charge of electric fluid, and one day in particular, a potent flash

j

for the

copper rod was

bent and crumpled up after a very curious fashion

and

it is

only a too frequent accident in Russia to

hear of dozens of agricultural labourers being struck

dead in the open then that

in a

field

by

lightning.

No wonder

former heathen age, they had a god

" Perune," who presided over thunder and lightning, and of whom they stood exceedingly in awe. On the night of the 1 7th September, an interesting observation, or rather series of observations, was to

be made at Pulkova

;

it

consisted in the occultation

by the moon of that group of Pleiades,

and

its

stars

which forms the

observation had been particularly

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

188

requested by the United States of America's Coast

Survey Department,

for longitude purposes.

the poor Atlantic telegraph lasted a

little

Had

longer,

it

would have offered incomparably the best method for

measuring the longitude distance from Europe to

America

;

and had

it

even entered into the heads of

the directors to be prepared, the

was

stretched, to

moment

the line

compare two astronomical clocks

on either side of the ocean, instead of sending a

message which

to thinking Christians,

however well

meant, yet must be considered to savour sadly of

blasphemy,

—then

the question of the longitude of

America would have been

settled to a degree of ac-

curacy that would have sufficed for the progress of science during several generations to come.

But when that precious period of the telegraph's activity passed

away unused

for

geography, and the

line was presently declared mute, the Americans had

to fall

back on the immensely more laborious and

less precise

formed their

was

to

far

methods of lunar observation. They perpart, though, admirably; for as there

be a series of monthly or bi-monthly occul-

tations of the Pleiades during a year or

two to come,

they not only arranged to observe them themselves,

but requested every European observatory of note record them

also

;

while to facilitate the

work

to to

each of such observatories, they sent them an approximately computed diagram of each occultation

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189

OBSERVATIONS ATTEMPTED. as

it

would appear

in these

there.

The labour of computation

diagrams must have been immense, and thev

deserved a more extended success than

At Pulkova,

they have attained.

had been

at

we

believe

at all events, as

it

Edinburgh, one of these important oc-

cupations had passed away after another with the

almost invariable accompaniment of a cloudy sky

but now, on the 17th of September of 1859, the sun set at last in a clear expanse, p.m. the observations

Under

were

and towards ten o'clock

to begin.

the superintendence of

M.

the very able assistant astronomers,

Dollen, one of

the elements

all

of the eclipse had been recomputed by some of the

young

officers of the

server was

now

time and angle of each bright,

General

and emersion

star's

at her

list

;

we had never

of the expected

immersion at the moon's

dark limb, to guide his

number a

verit-

seen anything like so

many

proceedings. The observers were in able host

before to observe an occultation

;

but they did not

interfere with or influence each other

distributed about

and each ob-

Staff,

furnished with a

separately

;

among

domes, or amongst the plots of shrubs each cil,

man

for they

the

were

different

in the garden,

with a telescope, chronometer, lamp, pen-

and paper,

all

to himself;

monarch

for the time

of everything he surveved.

From the particular position assigned to ourselves, we had a splendid view of the sublimely flat Russian

190

THREE CITIES

IN RUSSIA.

land that stretched away illimitably towards the north-east,

and on whose horizon the moon in her

third quarter,

and with high northern declination had

and was sweeping obliquely along.

recently risen

The heit,

air

was rather

but calm

cold, thirty-eight degrees

Fahren-

and the sky clear ; so surely we were

;

going to get the immersion and emersion of every star in that classical cluster

As

eighth magnitude. first

of them,

it

telescope itself

down

to observe in the

seemed indeed a very good one, but

most unastronomical

state,

looked was in a

it

making the edge of

the

the entire stars waver and tremble in most

perplexing that the

to the

the optical " definition." The

the atmosphere through which

moon and

at least to the

moon drew near

was distressing

how bad was

telescope

the

style.

But then we comforted ourselves

moon was

rising higher

and higher in the

heavens as time rolled on, and so the atmospheric imperfections should rapidly decrease.

Closer and closer to the poor little

came the big limb of the moon

star;

limb, the star seemed, as

circumstances, to pale crease in size, until point, just separated

it

and as it

it

was the bright

always will do under such

its ineffectual fire,

and to de-

was the smallest conceivable

from the moon

;

then the most

minute excrescence upon the limb, and the next stant it

it

was gone ; but then immediately

seemed

to

appear again for a

in-

after that

moment ; and

there

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191

OBSERVATIONS ATTEMPTED.

was no being

perfectly sure, for the optical disturb-

ance of the moon's edge was such as apparently to

break

up

it

which ran rapidly

into streams of light

round her circumference

in a luminous ripple.

Next, after just so many minutes and seconds very nearly as computed, the moon's bright limb came u Oh why will you grow

close to the second star.

so very small and star/'

we mentally

!

to see, wretched little

difficult

ejaculated,

to see you clear and

distinct

"just when

we want

You'll be bright

!

enough by-and-by when you emerge from behind the darkened limb."

But the

star

went on becom-

ing apparently smaller, and the moon's limb boiling

more

star

j

until just

about at the instant when the

must have vanished behind the lunar edge, the

latter's

mere undulations and

up into apparent flames of tempts "

between them de-

violently as the distance

creased

Oh

optical tremors flashed

light, that defied all at-

at reduction to accuracy. !

what a bad observation

the next will be better." Alas

next star arrived,

first

then another fastened

!

I have

came one

itself

made

on to

little

that,

cloud,

but

and

and another

and another; they thickened over each other until they

!

before the turn of the

too,

had attained a density that quite extin-

guished the moon, and they spread out until they actually covered the whole sky,

all

in the course of

a few minutes, and then remained masters of the situation.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

192

For some time we were but presently a Russian

left

alone in the dark air

who had been

officer,

all

the time with his telescope behind some bushes close to us without our

knowing

came out of

it,

concealment and began to compare notes stars observed

;

his

only two

and those so badly ; then came an-

other from a similar shelter on another side, and the definition

had been with him

really horrible

;

and

then came the astronomers out of the Observatory,

where large telescopes and small had

same story on the moon's limb, were " half :

"and who

all

a.

minute long

could observe an occultation of a small

star accurately at

such an edge?"

No

before seen such abominable definition

one had ever

What was

!

the meaning of

it

calm and quiet.

" Ay," said they, " but

cold,

told the

the " flames," as some one called them,

too, for the air

and depend upon

it

about us was it is

very

something remarkable

is

coming."

Next morning was cloudy, windy, and amazingly sharp

;

the thermometer

and when

down

I tried to speak,

to 34*0° Fahrenheit

my voice was

gone,

effect

of exposure the previous night, added to the re-

mains of that severe colding received from the Russian north-east

wind

at

Moskva.

But there was one

of the Pulkova astronomers rather worse, and they all

tried to comfort

me, by saying that these things

were very frequent in Russia

at that season of the

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OBSERVATIONS ATTEM1TED.

year

;

193

the autumn being far more severely

than

felt

the winter; and last year about this time one of

the speakers was with a party of officers in a room

where the window was incautiously opened, and half an hour they had every one of

them

in

lost their

voices.

" But

then they soon recovered them again/' the

speaker added, " and had no more trouble

wards that year ;

of Russian enjoyment light our stoves,

after-

for is not winter the true period

Then

?

it is

that

we begin

to

and make our houses impregnable,

fortresses against the cold without

a southern land,

man

therefore sometimes has a

;

and whereas

in

to the weather, and

trusts

warm

pleasant day, and

sometimes a wet and very disagreeable one

;

in

Russia, where man's winter comfort depends on his

own

exertions and careful arrangements, the uncer-

tainty of nature

is

alone, whether he

avoided, and to

is

it

rests

with himself

be comfortable every day

through the whole of the season."

While our

friends

were kindly having the stoves

lighted in our rooms,

my

wife and self ventured, in

The Ob-

the middle of the day, on a short walk. servatory

is

situated geologically just at the lower

edge of the Devonian

beyond

it,

strata

;

and a very

little

you come on the upper Silurian

;

way

where,

in a stiff green clay, along with granite boulders of all

sizes, trilohites are occasionally found.

VOL.

II.

So away K

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194

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

we must go

to search for them.

The course was

towards the north-east, the wind was from that quarter too, and oh It pierced

!

it

was such a virulent example.

through garments, and

to the bones; and though

under the shelter,

its

cold penetrated

tried to walk along

anything that could give the least

lee of

we

we

Yet

feared to be frozen nevertheless.

there was no sign of water freezing,

it

was simply

a specimen of the out and out character of a northeast

wind

quarter

is

in Russia.

In Scotland a wind from that

bad enough, and demonstrates

various qualities, to be, as indeed

it is,

itself

by

the return

atmospheric current of the air from the Polar regions

;

and

if it is

a blast, although

therefore

still

so eminently severe

much tempered by blowing

broad seas before reaching the Scottish .coast,

over

—only

think what the same wind must be near St. Petersburg,

when

it

blows in there, straight and at once

from the very regions near Nova Zembla and the

Samoyede frozen

plains without a particle of modi-

fying ocean surface between

We

had hardly regained the Observatory,

a strange whiteness appeared in

and suddenly

all

the air was

filled

the.

before

wind's eye;

with falling snow;

genuine snow on September 18th, the 6th of Russian reckoning!

Merrily danced the flakes as

congratulating each other on having arrived in their beloved land,

if

safely

and then having shaken hands

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OBSERVATIONS ATTEMPTED

195

together, they rushed round the corners of every

building in torrents and whirlwinds of groups to revisit lulled,

their ancient haunts.

and then the

fall

of

to 31° Fahrenheit,

The thermometer sank snow kept on

Gradually the wind

snow became more steady.

falling all that

and the

evening, so that to-

wards midnight, when we looked forth to see the state of things,

green,

now

—there was

white, white

;

all

the garden, late so

and the dark

figure of a

watchman-soldier pacing his weary round through the

monotone snow, appeared the only

living object.

196

CHAPTER

V.

ILLUMINATION'S DAY. September.

u

Oh

!

do not fear that you

be caught by our

will

before leaving Russia/' the kindly Struve

frosts

family urged

upon us ; "

it

is

altogether unusual to

have snow so soon in September

and you

last long,

weather again. begin, even our

;

cannot

this fall

will in a very short

time have fine

It is far too early for winter to little

winter; and as for the great

winter, that seldom appears before the end of the

year."

This was

we had

fixed previously to return this afternoon to

St. Petersburg,

somehow we well

all

very pleasant to learn

;

yet as

our arrangements went on;

fancied at the time that

it

and

must be

our hosts to be relieved for a while of

for

strangers to entertain, for the households were evi-

dently

all

of snow

;

taken by surprise at such an early arrival in

whose

train bustle

and change extra-

ordinary became the order of the day.

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197

illumination's day.

double windows had already been begun for some slowly and

time,

methodically, whenever a

now

could be spared from other work; but available

hand was

instantly set

man every

upon completing

most necessary part of Eussian domestic eco-

this

nomy

and the wonderful subterraneans of the Ob-

;

made

servatory were

and heaps

to disgorge heaps

of window-sashes, that were immediately piled up,

one over the other,

six

feet

high, in the

snowy

garden; or were carried away separately to each special

window

But the

how

formed,

that

soldiers

was

by

altered

weeks ago they were military,

still

whom

to be reduplicated. all

their

this

was being per-

mien!

scarcely to

Hardly three

be recognized as

by deviating just as much, though on the

opposite side, from the normal soldier

;

might see them snatching a mid-day

for then

you

sleep in the

shade of one of the big bushes of red-berried

elder,

in all the breezy freedom of an outside tunicked shirt

and baggy knee

into

everything

light

breeches stuffed just under the

very stylish-looking boots else,

;

but

now

even the long grey coats of their

duty-costume had disappeared under strange-looking garments,

viz.

huge,

stiff,

greasy, bulgy, sheepskin

surtouts, with the wool inside, while similar head-

pieces replaced their former

little

flat

regimental

cloth-caps.

The

superiors of the establishment were likewise

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

198

looking out their gree, but

that they

all

worn

had

furs, costly

fur inside

;

some of them to a deno

wolf-skin, or bear

for

;

on a windy day that would

have been a positive waste of caloric

idle display outside

real sable, or Siberian fox, squirrel,

resisting

medium, the

caloric

and

anti-

blowing up

blast

then to the very roots of the hair, and so coming too

into

wearer.

close

proximity with the limbs of

But outside they showed a

the

surface, accord-

ingly as lady or gentleman was in the case, of thick silk,

or velvet, or strong cloth

;

and

inside,

known

only to themselves, the untold comfort of thick and

heavy natural

fur, to

which our manufacturers have

never produced any practical approach.

Madame von

my

Struve was kind enough also to take

wife to see her " cave," as such places are gene-

rally

named

in English in this part of Russia,

are really, after

all,

very prosaic and quite

accompaniments to every house; being than

cellars,

hold

will

be

and

artificial

little

else

but cellars for everything that a housein

need of

long Eussian winter,

i.e.

in the eating

way during

a

half the year at least; and

those magnificent subterraneans of the Observatory,

prepared for quite another purpose, subserved the domestic economy admirably and without interfering

with their original destination. therefore, the princely

Right underneath,

and thick -walled office-room

of the Director of the Observatory, her lord and

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199

illumination's day.

master,

—and

that room,

it

be remembered,

will

forms the lower part of the tower of one of the equatorials,

— was

broad, and

And

Madame

lofty,

"cave/'

Struve's

amount of various

we thought what an

must be

for

housekeeping

in,

grand,

and of equal temperature.

stored already with such an

produce, that this

dry,

young

excellent country

ladies to learn the art of

on a large

scale,

with business

methods, foresight, arrangement, and organization for one

who had been

able to keep the family in

any way supplied through a six-months Muscovian winter, would never find the smallest difficulty in

managing

for

any number

we do wonder what Napoleon Bonaparte have been thinking about, Russia, without

and

in another country;

could ever

to lead 500,000

men

into

making more preparations than he

did for their winter subsistence.

On

arriving that day in St. Petersburg, oh

change of costume everywhere apparent dominant, but known to be such only or

by the tanned hide

outside.

exchanged

!

now

for sheepskin coats

;

the

furs pre-

at the edges,

The long blue

tans of the droshky drivers were rally

;

kaf-

pretty gene-

and on their

hands they had such gloves, of sheepskin

also,

made

in mitt fashion as to four fingers being together,

and conspicuous

also

by the gauntlet wristbands of

sheepskin with the wool on, that extended halfway

up

to the elbow.

Then, on reaching our hotel, there

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THREE CITIES

200

was the same

IN RUSSIA.

activity prevalent as at the

Observa-

Double windows were being brought

tory.

from u caves," where they had

lain stored

up

out

all

the

summer, and were being knocked and cemented into their places,

grown tom-cats

much

that

to the alarm of the fat, over-

had been

in the habit of bask-

ing there for so many weeks past, utilizing to the

utmost the short summer sunshine sternation of the

;

and

to the con-

modest doves who hovered about

in astonished pairs

and broken

Here though, both

flocks.

in the house

and

in the

snow-

sloppy court, there was another element of confusion, for officers of every grade in foot,

in

army, navy, and

civil service,

both horse and

were pouring

and demanding lodgment accommodation.

Five

minutes later and we ourselves should have been without a room to retreat

ments in the

to.

The expensive apart-

the dingiest hole in the entresol, or the back at the

with

street-front of the house, equally

room

end of the longest and most aromatic-of-cats

passages, or the highest attic next the drying

were

all

loft,

equally taken.

The reason September

of this gathering was, that next day,

was the coming of age of Nicholas

Alexandrovitch, the heir-apparent to the Russian

throne

;

a grand fete was therefore expected to take

place at the Palace, and wild talk was being in-

dulged in as to what would be the nature of the

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ILLUMINATION'S DAT.

201

"ukase," which every one had heard was to be published that morning by the Emperor, but no one

knew

precisely for

Many serfs it

;

thought

it

what

object.

would

freedom of the

refer to the

but that opinion was no sooner broached than

was malevolently met with the remark, that the

Emperor Alexander had been making a vast too

much

talk about

the said serfs.

Why

what he was going

course of his father Nicholas

and had

actually

deal

do

for

did ho not follow the wise

the serfs gradually, without it,

to

?

—he went on freeing

making any

by the time of

fuss about

his death freed

forty millions, leaving only twelve millions

still

to

be freed; and now, just about freeing that small residual

number there

is

such an agitating turmoil

being kept up that the empire

is

disturbed from one

end to the other. w Surely, my friend, you must be in error," said another speaker ; " Nicholas free forty millions of serfs

!

why

dominions

there were not so

and

;

if

many

of that number, don't you suppose

must have heard still

to come,

be settled

in

and

in his

of

it.

it is

we

all

too

serfs

has

momentous a question

may be coming

is,

prevent the trahtiers selling brandy.

how

should and

The freeing of the

to

a morning by a mere stroke of the pen

but what I believe

think

whole

he had freed even a tenth part

an order to

You

can't

the people are being demoralized by the

k

3

202

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

facility for

getting strong drink at the houses where

Some

they should only be furnished with tea.

them

will complain,

no doubt, but

all

of

the mass of

steady-going people in the nation will be delighted

such an exercise of autocratic power, and the

at

drunkards

will

be thankful for

Neither did this speaker all,

it

in the end."

command

the consent of

and even next morning opinions were

various as to what the

would be found to be

and unanimously

down nowed

subject of the

but the whole

in a ferment of

the Winter Palace to

to

alarmist

;

was of course in

all

city

still

quite

"ukase" was early

motion trooping see.

Our

his element,

Celtic

and " win-

he

the air with frightful phantasies;"

was quite sure that something extraordinary and dire

was going

shown by the

to

happen

troops,

Emperor amongst the serfs

were

;

disaffection

had been

and a bad feeling towards the college

cadets; while the

tired of waiting so long for their freedom.

Government was very uneasy and were taking extraordinary precautions.

We, our humble

considerately cautioned us ticular about our

selves,

he

had better be very par-

behaviour that day, for

we might

be very sure that there were police spies dogging our footsteps, and listening to every word

;

and

if

anything was seen that could be construed into a coolness towards the reigning family, ourselves arrested

we should

find

by those inscrutable myrmidons

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203

illumination's day.

and conveyed ever

known

inside doors

to issue.

Yet notwithstanding

terrors of secret agents, he

himself in a

whence no complaint

was going

nook that he knew

little

is

these

all

to establish

of,

quite close

to the chief entrance-door of the Palace, where he

who entered and he flattered himself, how

could see the face of every one

judge by

much

expression,

its

treason might there be lurking.

About 11.30

culty into the

made

a.m. we, innocent strangers,

across the " plain of St. Izak," and with

some

diffi-

Admiralty Boulevard, working up

that towards the western front of the Winter Palace,

where the

largest

The crowd had the trees

now

numbers of people were assembled.

representatives of

all

classes

;

under

nearly leafless were nurses and chil-

dren, the former displaying proudly their national

head-dress, the pavonik in green or rose-pink and gold, with bordering of pearls

over

all

their other

raphan, or the tionately u a

;

and clothed about

garments with the graceful sa-

warm

silk

and fur cloak

called affec-

soul- warmer."

But the great mass

of the

numbers present was

undoubtedly composed of country peasants, or mouzhiks

;

they were by no means

sarily agricultural,

all

of

them neces-

but they were decidedly regular

Russians, bearded, solemn, and dressed in sheepskin.

Not

sheepskins, for that would imply the

same bulky shapeless masses that

Italian shepherds

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204

THREE

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

exhibit, with a black hairy

loosely about

them

;

jumble of a cloak hung

while these Russians on the con-

trary, almost invariably

show you a smooth-surfaced

and shapely manufactured

They are

article.

great connoisseurs in the matter, and have difficulty in

evidently-

first

of

all

a

being pleased with the proper tanning

and preparation of any foreign

furs, for the best

even

from England and France they invariably re-tan before employing, and then they their

own

fashions

;

i.e.

them hide outwards

make them up

the peasants do, and

in the

form of rather dandified

and with well-

surtouts, fitting close about the waist,

shaped

skirts,

into

wear

not too long to prevent the manly-

looking boots which reach up to the knees being well seen.

When

near by, no doubt the arms of

such coats seemed bulgy, and by dint of the thick

wool

inside,

rounded pery

;

fold

formed a broad

unknown

but at a

little

sort

of crease

to painters of

and

Western dra-

distance there could not have

been a nobler or mere effective

style of dress alto-

gether, than the caps, sheepskin-coats,

and jack-

boots of the humblest of these Northern peasants.

Some

strangely old

men

too appeared

amongst

them, with eminently characteristic countenances, hair

generally white as snow,

that kept their

own

and eyes and

counsel against

all

but yet had nothing uneasy about them. the elders of the

men who form

lips

the world,

These are

the great bulk of

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205

illumination's day.

the Eussian race, and constitute the backbone of nationality

;

late literally black people, others dirty or

and

others

its

the tchomaya ludi, which some trans-

still

as dark

because their

;

unwashed,

life

of expo-

sure to severe weather darkens the countenance;

but we would rather say u dark," because they form

a human ocean of impenetrable depth, into whose mysterious recesses the vision even of their

own

statesmen has seldom been able to penetrate

far.

The Government, with

all

its

and military

civil

legions, merely forms a thin stratum of fresh water

spread out over the heavier saline depths of this dark, dark people.

Wherever you break through

the flavourless streams of that most superficial crust,

you eome on one and the same

identical

low, composed of millions and millions

end

mass be-

who from one

to the other of their vast empire speak

matically the same language, and

gram-

share amongst

themselves the same ideas and the same tactics of a

mighty reserve

and storing

;

looking on calmly and inscrutably,

their energies

—while the Westward imi-

tating upper classes are exhausting theirs, in playing all sorts

of copied antics before high heaven.

Often and often both Tsar and Ministers of State stop short in the middle of some imitative piece of legislation,

question, this ?

and ask each

what

but what

will

other, not their too frequent

England and France think of

will the Starovertsi, or the

Old Be-

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

lievers,

And

amongst themselves, think of it and them

then

many

a recreant government

has long since forgotten

officer,

too.

who

the traditions of his race,

all

looks into those deep dark waters of the national spirit,

and hears ominous forebodings from " ances-

tral voices

prophesying war;" for he knows what

keen observers and

intuitive understanders of Sla-

vonic policy these are, noting

all

his

movements, and

though they say nothing now, they forget nothing. This people

too generally supposed to be dull

is

and incapable, from what strangers may have seen of them at forced labour ungrateful to their beliefs.

But only

satisfy their ideas of legitimacy

their feelings,

which are tender and

world shall see another sight.

and almost adore; but

and reach

true,

and the

The Tsar they love

his officers

and

their

ways

of going on they are by no means so certain about.

This morning however the Tsardom only, so

doubts at

all

it is

now

an

affair

of the Tsar and

they, the people, have

no

and are thoroughly enthusiastic and

completely joyful.

At the western end it

was expected that

of the Winter Palace, where

at a gaily covered balcony the

Imperial family was presently to appear, a large space in front was kept open by troops. the cobalt

and

silver

uniforms of

the

There were Chevalier

guard present, and the almost pure cream-colour of a body-guard organized by the late Nicholas Paulo-

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I

207

illumination's day.

vitch

;

troops of the line were also drawn up, and

while we were

who, with

still

came another regiment,

looking,

their black-crested helmets

green coats faced with

red, recalled

hard fighting at Eylau, Friedland,

terrific scenes of

and other well contested fields. had too

!

Such music as they

nothing for ornament, and certainly no-

thing superfluous to

and black-

some of the

!

It

was an awful

be just two notes,

— we

din,

and seemed

speak unmusically

—

played one and two and two and one, one and two

and two and one, and so on ad infinitum, or rather

we should say in

taking up

mous

for as

its

long as the regiment occupied

position

but

;

its line

was of enor-

length, and continually as that most

but severe music beat out

its

notes, a never-ending line

humdrum

two notes, and two

of those grim-looking

infantry kept pouring in, the level of their heads rising

and

falling

with their step, and in time to

their duotonous band.

If in the period of the de-

Roman Empire, the weak successors of Constantine reduced many times the numerical strength of a " legion," hoping with many and small cadence of the

legions to have less dangerous mutinies than with

few and powerful ones, tives the Tsars,

—

their

more secure

modern representa-

in their subjects' loyalty,

have bent the bow the other way, and made each of their

modern regiments

Not

less notable

of tremendous strength.

were the horses of the

military,

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

208

They were

especially of the officers.

powerful yet refined in their exalted in general aspect s

belonging to an

officer

;

make

all

good, alike

of limb,

and

but there was one animal

on duty near the end of the

Dvorzoni bridge, which actually out-Heroded Herod, in the

way

of a battle steed.

He was

night except where he had dotted

as black as

himself with

foam-flakes, and his capacious muscles were rising

and

momentarily or alternately in every part

falling

of his

body

while, in spite of all the reining-in that

;

could be exerted, he was continually putting one or other foot foremost, and snorting, almost shouting, defiance to the whole assembled army,

whose compo-

nent members he surveyed from one side to the other with his great active piercing eyes, and then his nostrils swelled like trumpet-tubes

as

he sent

through them another loud startling alarum.

What graph of

a scene

all this

would be to get a photo-

The sun too was coming

!

out,

and on the

other side of the Neva, was the Academy's Observatory, ,

where

I

my camera.

had been so kindly allowed

Coming underneath

the faithful old servitor

it,

to establish

and seeing that

and veteran soldier Alex-

ander was out on the upper roof gazing at the Palace fete,

we

apparatus.

lightly stepped upstairs

Before

it

and got out the

was quite ready a sudden

cheering arose in the wind, the military-kept open space was broken up, and

all

the hosts of sheep-

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illumination's day.

skin -dressed mouzhiks ran in a

moment

right

The Emperor and

the Palace windows.

up

seemed had appeared, and not bearing that faithful people should

to

his son

it

their

be kept so at arm's-length, had

dissolved at once the rigid ceremonials of the day,

and converted

it

into a family meeting of the father

of the nation with

all

his dutiful

Well, this was better

still

and loving children.

for a photograph, so

we

focussed the camera, and in three seconds a couple of pictures were obtained, which gave not only the architecture of the Tsar's abode, but the crowd, microscopically minute certainly, of well-booted

mou-

zhiks under his drawing-room windows, as well as others lining

wooden

all

the

Neva Quay and the

More we might have attempted, but was evidently anxious so

it

free;

sides of the

bridge.

to

be

old Alexander

off to the Palace too

was a duty with us to pack up and leave him

and

at a later

hour in the day

warded by a Kussian family kindly at our hotel,

and taking us in

we were

calling for us

their carriage to the

Nevski Prospekt, to see the preparations illuminations less

;

in ornamental shapes,

red, green, or white, according to the

colour of the intended lamps glass

for the

every house garnished with more or

wooden framing arranged

and tinted

re-

cups half

filled

with

;

these being

little

good honest Russian

tallow and a fibrous wick in the middle.

From

here

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210 too

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

we were taken

Champs-Je-Ma rs, where

to the

the Tsar and his eldest son were supposed to be entertaining fair,

and

all

at

an immense

their birth-day-visitors at

which therefore

go-rounds, swings,

etc. etc.,

the shows, merry-

all

were furnished

free.

They were highly applauded and abundantly enjoyed at

all

events

;

for the

crowd was great and

spread like a vast sea over the plain.

was broken up figures

;

Close by,

to us, into individual groups

it

and

and amongst several other booths and stages

decorated with flags, lamps, and stars was one appropriated to national dances, composite and difficult

tasks to an excessive degree.

The

legs of one

man

in light blue twinkled in his rapid cutting of Little

Eussian capers in extraordinary

style,

well with the bashful pas of a modest

contrasting

young

suitor,

more than ever bashful when he was surrounded by a bevy of young village damsels,

and with

who hand-in-hand,

their hair plaited in long tails behind their

backs, sang Slavonic songs at

him with

all

might ; though they did not leave the victim to despair either, as his subsequent pas

one of their number

sufficiently

for the long-bearded old

tie

their final

deux with

evidenced

;

Jew who sought

but as to

by

buy

them with

his

and

tumbled without ceremony over the edge

finally

money-bags, he was jeered

at

all,

of the stage.

Presently loud cheering announced the

Emperor

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211

illumination's day.

and from our elevated

site

we saw

his carriage dri-

ving through and through the whole extent of the closely peopled plain

from one corner to the other

:

and back again and round about

his carriage

and

escort seemed to penetrate with the greatest ease

and was everywhere followed by a running fire of H ourrahs." Subsequently some of the juveniles of the Imperial family, and without any escort, visited their

numerous guests and with

ment

of demonstrations.

About seven

o'clock

p.m.

when

dark, the illumination began.

was

fill,

we walked

was decidedly

immense extent

itself.

Admiralty Square and plain of possible to

it

Its

Petersburg

like that of St.

similar accompani-

In the broad

St. Izak, spaces

freely

im-

and admired the

various devices along the English Quay, the bluelights

on men-of-war

in the

Neva, and the colossal

decorations of numerous buildings on the further

bank

;

none appearing

to

more advantage than the

extensive College of Cadets, where they had merely

followed the architectural lines of the building with

innumerable lamps palace, capacious

tances,

and

;

and thus presented a luminous

enough

to

fill

the eye at

all dis-

in a vastly purer style, than the car-

penters' Gothic of intended illumination scenery else-

where.

The same

principle

was observed

at the

Admiralty, whose grand tower and effective gate-

way, looking

all

up the long Gorokhovaya

street,

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

212

showed

their

own

fine

forms in lines of living light

not so bright certainly as

London gas would have

made them, but

and warmer

From

these

in a richer

tint.

more open regions we

tried

the

Nevski, and the great Morskaya, but the crowds there were appalling ; indeed, in the latter

immovably

for a time fixed

human

in a perfect

beings, and were only too happy at last to

escape by the

way we had come, leaving

loyal Petersburgers the duty of

and admiring tions in

we were crush of

all

to

the

running the gauntlet,

the rest, of their endless illumina-

honour of

this auspicious natal day.

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213

CHAPTER

VI.

THE FROZEN MAMMOTH. September.

Another day and

evr en

of rejoicings

another

:

gradually emptied of

began

and illuminations followed,

but after that the Morskaya hotel its

uniformed

ceeded at length

in carrying our

penetralia of the Academy's for photographing the If they

do not

still

mammoth

establishing the

;

(p.

business

in preparation

257, Vol.

offer their visitors

made

Academy, and

;

and we suc-

camera into the

Museum,

coffee or glass of wine, as Peter first

officers

to run in its ordinary channels

I.).

a cup of

the rule

when

as his successors

kept up to the end of the Empress Anne's reign, the

officials in

charge

make up

for that

by paying

strangers

much

them

manner more unexceptionably appropriate

in a

obliging attention, and indulging

to the genius of the place.

Thus we were not only

admitted within the walls, but introduced to the chief

Academician

for Natural History,

and shown

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THREE

214

by him a

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

variety of his researches in progress, his

rooms dissecting or preparing

assistants in private

in the lines of investigation indicated to them,

he himself engaged

Eu ropcrus)

ting Russian hedgehogs (Er'nuireus

The

case

is

and

in the curious inquiry of colla-

something

like this

if

:

you

collect

specimens of hedgehogs from the neighbourhood of Petersburg, and in a tract of country around as large as Great Britain, difference

our first

own

you

will

it

much

not find

amongst them, or between them and But tack on continually to the

specimens.

space you have marked out in Russia as large

as Great Britain another such,

on adding them

till

and another ; and go

you have reached Persia on the

south and the Altai on the east

and then, from

;

each of these spaces collect and compare

The

sentative hedgehogs.

though the animals native similar inter se, there

is

result

its

will

repre-

that

be,

to each space are visibly

a decided difference between

those of different spaces

;

and the

differences

go on

continually increasing from space to space, in both

longitude and latitude, until, from the typical example of the north-west, you arrive at last

among

grey ridge-backed Erinacei of Siberia.

had they been suddenly come on by a

the long

And

these,

traveller

from

the extreme west, without intervening experience,

might have been lously new,

at

once put down as being anoma-

and by means of many more zoological

Digitized by

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

215

distinctions than those which separate the Erinaceui

Grayi and Erinaceus coUaris of Indian and Himalayan zoologists.

Thus even

in a

matter of hedge-

hogs, the enormous extent of the Russian empire

comes

into

notice,

and

bounds the materials

contains within

immense

for

its

own

generalizations

in science.

The hedgehog animal

itself is

widely distributed

over the earth and seems an interesting one to

many nations " '

and hence

;

Diffusion of

it is

that the useful British

Knowledge Society,"

Penny Cyclopaedia/ take the

this animal

is—" the Riccio

in their

famous

trouble to state that

of the Italians, Erizo of

the Spanish, Ourizo of the Portuguese, L'Herisson of the French, Igel of the Germans, Eyel-varken of the

Dutch, Pin-suin of the Danes,

Br lienor) and Dracn

y coed of the ancient British, Urchin of the modern British, Echinus terrestris of Gesner, Echinus (Eri-

naceus) terrestns of Ray, and Acanthion vulgaris of Klein.

There can be

little

doubt that

it is

the Echi-

nus, 'Jj^ivo?, of Aristotle/'

Now

all

this is very well so far

having gone just that

;

but why, after

far into philological details,

did not our active British Society, headed by a

noble Lord of reputed universal learning, give us also

the

name

of the animal in Poland, and more

particularly in Russia

;

a country which contains

more hedgehogs, and more

varieties of them,

than

Digitized by

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

216 there are in

the rest of the world

all

the inhabitants

.

—as

and where

;

numerous as the populations of

several of the nations which are mentioned all put

together

—have

not only one name for a big, and

another for a small, hedgehog, but have also a verb

which like a

signifies to curl up, bristle,

hedgehog

If our scientific

men, led by that noble Lord, the

mere mention of whose from them

and

style

title

takes

away

excuse of not knowing, will continue

all

thus to ignore what diate the

and otherwise act

?

is

in existence,

and

will repu-

works both of man and of nature

in that

vast Russian empire, for no other reason apparently

than because that our

it

mere

is

— can we be surprised men copying from them, and

Russian,

literary

not looking very deeply into the real merits of the case,

but finding Russia nearly a blank in our na-

and other books,

tural history

—declaim

in nervous

"no

other em-

language, which cuts both ways,

pire than that of Russia ever succeeded in

so vast a portion of the globe a secret to the rest of Russia's,

engaged

mankind"?

who has armies in exploring

Yet whose of

keeping

and a mystery is

the fault

?

savants continually

and developing, describing

in memoirs,

and exhibiting in public museums ; and

who

and publishes annually 1861 books in or our " Diffusion of Know;

St.

prints

Petersburg alone

ledge Society/' which will persistently refuse to

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by

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'5

\\

Ml

.

•

«

•

•

ii

•

f imfi

nn]

1

other

»

it

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.

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.

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.

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.

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

217

look into any of these books, and will not conde-

scend to quote them, their authors, or their public

even in so simple, and broad, a matter as the mere vernacular

men

name by which

fifty

designate a well-known

genous over the greater part of pire

Oh

?

!

quadruped, indi-

their

immense em-

Henry Lord Brougham and Vaux,

not a Slavonian a

From

millions of Slavonic

little

man and

the tiny hedgehog, placed though

by Cuvier

at the

we must now

is

a brother it

be

head of insectivorous mammifers,

hasten into the rotunda-room of the

mammoth

skeleton of the gigantic Siberian

unique link between

fossil

;

that

remains and living ani-

mals, whose flesh was actually eaten, and good to eat, in

our own day, though

long before the period of

life

must have

man upon

left it

earth.

The neighbourhood was rather too crowded a good view, but Dr. Brandt kindly brought

number

of

soldiers,

stuffed rhinoceroses,

for in a

and they walked about the

and trotted

off the

preserved

elephants and other such very large deer, until the

camera's ground-glass presented of the monstrous bones.

a good

picture

In the forepart of the

scene to be sure there did come in the head and shoulders of a hippopotamus, but as these did not

reach up to the knees of the scured

little,

the latter' s otherwise VOL.

II.

mammoth, they ob-

and furnished an excellent

scale lor

unknown dimensions. l

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218

THREE CITIES

The tusk of a picture, like

IN RUSSIA.

stuffed elephant also entered the

and appeared puny indeed beside the war-

beams of the older animal

;

and

in fact, in

such

company, the elephant's only claim to attention was pathetic story; a story told twice over in the

its

stuffed skin

much

The once pos-

and prepared skeleton.

sessor of these

had come up

own

against his

will,

to St. Petersburg very

forming part of that

magnificent collection of animals which the Persian

envoy, Prince Khosreff Mirza, brought as an at-

tempted peace-offering to soothe the

late

mighty

Tsar for the murder of his ambassador, Griboyedov,* in Teheran.

They

South had heard, with a

in the

well-known Russian poet, " The Caspian oracle

Speak

in

a voice of thunder.

Persians! your fate

He

how

—

'

See

terrible!'

comes, the Lord of victory.

A thousand bolts

his

hand sends

forth,"

etc. etc. etc.,

and

in eager haste to avert such calamity, they

had

sent up Khosreff with trains of slaves, bearing jewels * Griboyedov was one of the most promising literary geniuses of

modern Russia, and

lamented by

all,

his early death, at thirty -five years of age,

has been variously treated by different parties.

Revolutionists say, "Behold

those are level fair

"

made away

with,

how invariably, in this unhappy Russia, who presume to rise above the medium

appointed by the Imperial sceptre." But to

this,

an eminontly

and able English author, Mr. Sutherland Edwards, has replied,

Oh

!

certainly; for

had not Griboyedov written the best comedy of

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

219

and a whole menagerie of royal animals.

and

silks,

But

as the season was winter, and the temperature

below

zero, it

became necessary

to line the dens of

both lions and tigers with the skins of comfortable

and the elephants were furnished with big kaf-

bears,

tans, like so

ing

all

many

Notwithstand-

true Muscovites.

these precautions, the animals soon died

cepting only one of the elephants,

ex-

;

who being

of a

more

docile disposition than the others, learnt to

make

better use of the

vided for him.

warm wraps

Amongst other

that were pro-

articles of clothing

he was furnished with goloshes, and wore them regularly whenever he went out for a constitutional

walk.

But,

wet one, he which

"on

a day, alack the day !" a cold and

lost

one of these goloshes at a place

in speaking of

it

to us they called the

" Blue

Bridge;" and though he was taken there again

mud and

look for what he had lost in the deep

to

vora-

cious quicksand, the only result was that in place of

finding the golosh he caught a cold

too

it

lungs,

must have been, and he died

;

for

it

;

a severe one

gradually settled on his

when he was duly prepared

for

the age, he would never hare been taken from the lowly position of clerk in a Russian country town,

and been appointed by the

Em-

peror himself his Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Teheran

and had he not exactly been character,

he would not have

at

;

Teheran in 1827, in that exalted

fallen a sacrifice to the

Persjan

during the sudden insurrection which arose there, and which

mob

after-

wards cost the Shah of Persia so dearly."

L 2

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THREE

220

museum, and

the

is

CITIES IX RUSSIA

now a standing example of

danger of promenading

in St.

the

Petersburg without

goloshes.

Contrasting the elephant's skeleton with that of

mammoth, we could not understand

the

the paltry

look of the ribs of the latter, hardly so strong as

those of the elephant, while the leg-bones, skull,

and tusks were four or

times more solid, until

five

Dr. Brandt pointed out that the ribs were

artificial,

of coloured deal, and supplied in an early day, before

much was known

the

Academy

place of

its

is

indeed

The famous mammoth of

much

of a make-up

Siberia, in 70° north latitude,

for the

was too its

difficult

to

remains being

Even the tusks seem not to be its own,

and when examined

by

;

finding on the banks of the Lena, in

allow of more than a small part of carried away.

anatomy

of the comparative

of such large creatures.

closely are

found to be held up

iron bars just in front of the cavities

where the

Yet they are true tusks,

rightful tusks should bo.

and of the same species of half-fossil mammoth, and the head, with

ome

much

of the skin hanging upon

more than one

foot are,

we

believe, the

it,

and

of the cervical vertebrae, a whole fore-leg,

genuine

Adam's mammoth. There was therefore an abundance well worth photographing; but when we looked at

dark-brown

tint,

and the

faint

its

prevailing

window-light,

we

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

were hazy

in

The

despair.

was thick and

air outside

dingy would express

;

it

221

better ; and at that sea-

son the Doctor said we need not expect any clear

come

skies for a

month

tumn and

the approach of winter were always he-

or two to

;

the end of au-

ralded in there by such dismal weather

us not be disturbed by

camera as long

as

we

that, for

;

but he bid

we might

leave the

pleased.

Three days we pleaded

for,

not more,

lest

we

should interfere with the public having their usual

view of this part of the Museum on Monday. " Let not that interfere either," said the Director u it is true that when the public enter the Museum, the cry is for ever to press forward to see 'the

moth

but

days or shall

if

a photograph

five are necessary,

be locked

He

to

be taken, and four

the door of this

room

for all that time."

then kindly showed us selected specimens of

the remains of this monster, skin,

is

mam-

and the dried

its

woolly hair,

fibres of its flesh.

its

tough

He was

con-

templating apparently a memoir upon the mammoth, in the

same masterly and erudite manner

as his pub-

lished treatise on the Rhinoceros tichorhmus, an in-

habitant of these countries at the same early period,

and similarly perished

off its surface, before the ad-

vent of man.

There were many remains of mammoths spread through other rooms in the Museum, and amongst

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

222

them a learned man skull,

called our attention to a gigantic

with one full-sized tusk, and the other one

What

could be the

shrivelled, black,

and diseased.

cause of that

Preadamite toothache on a scale

?

fearful to think of

Our teacher pointed out

!

to us a

and

fracture of the cheek-bone just under the eye,

immediately over the commencing root of the woful tusk.

There was evidently the active origin of the

mischief ; but what again had produced that colossal

smash, like the blow of a cyclopean sledge-hammer ?

What but

mammoth, with

another

huge

his

side-

sweeping tusk, as strong as the yard-arm of a manof-war ? times,

There had been fighting then

and our instructor shouted

in these early

out, as if

arrived at the most extraordinary joke, "

mammoths

he had

Combat

ties

and then he sent forth such deep-

mouthed peals of gigantic laughter as made the

room quake

We were

again. inclined

though to think

and a

that light too,

though with some

fair

it

rather a se-

daughter of Eve took

rious matter,

slightly

it

in

encouraging

circumstances; for she observed, that here seemed to

be a proof that

all evil

passions, strife, and death

in the world, did not begin with the plucking of a

certain unfortunate apple.

How many

thousand years ago would the Russian

savant put the date of the angry combat of wild beasts which he

had demonstrated

or perhaps fifteen thousand

?

—ten thousand

?

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

But therewith the laughing became the

serious

philosopher.

"

Shall I venture to tell,"

tish ears,

what

he,

me

result science has led

when Dr.

a question,

murmured

" to Bri-

to in such

book consigned a

Clarke's

Russian Empress's name to the religious anathemas of British readers, merely because she mentioned the

very

first

of the physical conclusions deducible from

mammoth

the

remains, viz. that the earth

deal older than five thousand years

"

Oh

!

if

that

was

all,"

we

said,

?

is

a great

"

"he might

pro-

ceed quite safely; for although there were many

w here well-meaning,

other natural-history points religiously-disposed persons

r

refuse to allow the

still

free application of inductive science, yet that

culty of the five thousand and

odd

diffi-

and the

years,

six

days, has been completely got over;* and savants are

now

allowed

full

much time

license to take as

they require in their physical problems.

This

as

fol-

lows from the six days of Genesis having been ascer-

we have been

tained, on reference to Sanscrit, as

informed by very conscientious Christians, who are also

good

linguists,

and withal firmly resolved to hold

geologists and others to the very text of Scripture * "

And

I visited the

skeleton, but the skin

as the Siberian

and

stupid,

Norman

Museum, and

and hair of a

Mammoth, which

and

1

known

to

all

school-bovs

trod the earth, ate, slept, grew old

finally died, before

Macleod, D.D., in

actually saw, not only the

brute,

Adam

Good Words,'

was born."

p.

49

:

— The

Rev.

18G1.

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224

THREE CITIES

in everything else,

it

in

—to mean an

and that any man " this light/

time,

'

What

the

IN RUSSIA.

is

indefinite length of

a fool

who does not

see

Cambridge Doctor would have said

thereupon, after the manner in which, in his

own

note on the Red- Sea miracle, he has answered the

" stupid bigots " of

his day,

who

laid constraint

his attempted correlation of physical Biblical events,

—we know not

;

on

phenomena and

but amongst several

gentlemen who had now joined

in the St. Petersburg a hot-headed Pole rushed in and declared u that

talk,

he saw no

difficulty in

the

mammoth problem

at all

Baron Humboldt had given a most beautiful explanation of

it.

Nature has such a power of adapta-

tion to circumstances.

Royal Bengal

tigers,

during

when

in a

colder climate acquire a wool under their hair.

Of

a hot summer, stray into central Asia, and

course then,

it

must be

so with the elephant too;

and

when the naked-skinned Indian elephant wan-

ders far enough, what does he become but the woollyclothed Siberian

mammoth?"

" Pray," said another gentleman, " do not begin just yet to use

mous

terms.

central

mammoth and If Indian

and northern

elephant as synony-

elephants wandered into

Asia,

only

during

its

un-

doubtedly hot summer, then, according to your own showing, they would have no need of a growth of

wool

;

and

if

they were prevailed on by force of any

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

summer was

sort to stop after the said hot

our poor fellow

Bridge

who

225

lost his

over,

why

golosh at tho Blue

a proof, so far as he goes, that an Indian

is

elephant gets killed by a Northern winter long before

any sensible amount of thick wool has grown But the Siberian mammoth had such an

upon him.

enormous quantity of woolly

hair, that

you must give

up the notion of his being a summer bird of passage only

;

he was evidently adapted by

his clothing to

be a constant resident in the land, just as

much

as

the bears, the elks, or the reindeer; while, that a

mammoth was different

still

further a peculiar animal,

structure of every bone, of these

and

from an Indian elephant in the form and

two skeletons

—the will

slightest

comparison

abundantly show you,

and Dr. Brandt's forthcoming memoir may prove the

same

fact,

within certain limits

mind you, even

in the construction of the minutest fibre of its body.

w The Russian mammoth then was a creature far 8ui generic,

and in point of time

it

in so

belonged not

human but to the tertiary period in geology. Some persons have indeed thought it must be much

to the

later,

on account of the Siberian specimens having

been found so admirably preserved, with their flesh soft,

or at least fleshy

tion is little

;

but that remarkable preserva-

more than the

actual consequence of the

excessive dry cold of the climate, and the perpetually frozen state of Siberian

soil.

Bury butcher's meat L

8

THREE

22(3

mud, and keep

in frozen

and

renheit,

it

always under zero Fah-

anything that has yet been proved,

for

last fresh for centuries* possibly

it will

More of these

years.

might

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

still

perfectly preserved

be discovered in the

far

was, or rather

is, still

specimens

North, but the

Samoyede natives have an untoward

mammoth

myriads of

idea, that the

a creature enjoying

a subterranean existence, that he dies the instant the light of day

is

admitted to him, and perpetual

misfortune follows that unlucky

man who becomes

immediately the cause of the giant's death.

In the

extreme south of present Russia, and of the former principal mammoth-residence, as in the lower

and amongst the Bashkir

more or

found, and always lized, chiefly

among

less

Ural

bones only are

decayed and minera-

the gold-alluvia.

mixed up with the bones tertiary animals,

tribes, the

also of

There, though

most of the other

as the Mastodon, Rhinoceros ti-

chorhinus, Trogontherium, Merycotheriuin, Elasmo-

therium, etc.

etc.,

the chief regard

;

the

mammoth

relics still excite

and with respect to them the Bash-

kirs often

prayed the early Russian miners,

our gold

you

if

will,

but leave

us, for

'

Take

heaven's sake,

the bones of our forefathers/

"Not

only over the enormous extent of Siberia,

from north to south and from east to west were the

mammoths Straits,

spread, through Kamtchatka, Behring's

and most of North America, but their remains,

Digitized by

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227

THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

more or less

dilapidated, are found

all

over European

Bussia, and extend even as far as England

There they are few, quite

itself.

in proportion to the pre-

sent really small extent of that country, which

its

inhabitants are so strangely particular in taking the trouble,

Britain '

;

whenever they speak of

we come

but whenever

charnel-houses

9

in Siberia,

plains are almost formed of

seem

to call Great

it,

to those

enormous

where whole

hills

and

mammoths' bones, these

to constitute proofs that that region

was

for

long

ages the largest subaerial portion of land in the northern hemisphere, and that for long ages also

it

was

inhabited by generations after generations of those

giant mammals."

" Well, but what

killed

them

all off

then

?

They

were so numerous and so strong, and had possessed the earth for ages between the parallels of 65° and

45° north

and

latitude,

in

longitude round more

than half the world, and now there

them

in existence.

Have they been

is

all

not one of

drowned by

a marine submergence?" we asked.

u is to

Certainly not," said the Academician, "

be any trust placed

dern field-geology

and Keyserling,

work ?

Why

" And here

;

for

vol.

let

there

names, and in mo-

what say Murchison, Verneuil, p.

i.

this is it

in great

if

499 of their magnificent

:

us say a word moro on the ancient

"physical geography of this region.

Such as are

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THREE CITIES

228

IN RUSSIA.

" the present north-flowing courses of the great Si" berian rivers, such we affirm they must have been

" from the very

"

short,

when

earliest periods,

from the time, in

the palaeozoic rocks, constituting the

" Altai and Ural Mountains and their dependencies, " were raised into dry lands, never more to be de" pressed beneath the waters of the ocean. Infinitely " the

loftiest

" Altai, with

and the grandest of these chains, the its

snowy peaks

(yet void of glaciers),

"ranging from west to east, is the great southern " watershed from whence the Siberian rivers must, "

we

say,

have flowed from south to north during

" long ages, whilst the peculiarity of

the great

all

" counterforts or advanced ridges of that mighty " chain, consists in their being composed of palae" ozoic, metamorphic,

and igneous rocks, which

" equally extend from south to north, in a

number

" of long, low, meridian, parallel ridges. These north u and south ridges, of which the Ural is the western-

" most, thus encase each

river, and,

preventing

its

" flexure to the east and west, have necessarily deter-

" mined its course to the Glacial Ocean from epochs " long anterior to the creation of a mammoth."

"That

who

is

surely distinct enough," continued

held the discourse for a time

;

" after

that,

he

you

cannot think of a Siberian deluge of any description,

and your own people have been thrown planation, on 'change of climate.'

How

for

an ex-

curiously,

Digitized by

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH

229

too, this question

has waxed and waned in the West

Here

we

in the East,

hardly had any doubt about the

mammoth having been

essentially a northern animal

but your Occidental discoverers of Southern Africa,

and your ciously

rulers of India,

jumped

have always so pertina-

at the conclusion that every large

animal with tusks must of course have been a tropical elephant,

frozen

— that your geologists,

mammoth, had

blerie, to

to deal in all

in face of

our

manner of dia-

account for the sudden conversion of an

equatorial into a polar climate, and acquired im-

mense

credit

then when

it

by building up the speculation.

But

was subsequently found that that hypo-

thesis

would not hold water, the occupation of

ing

down

it

pull-

conferred equal glory on another set of

your great names ; and thus were reduced

all

your

transcendental conclusions of a heat -loving elephant, to

where we had been

ledging the

mammoth

all

to

the time, viz. to acknow-

have been an inhabitant of

these countries at nearly their present temperature,

and a feeder on the trees they

still

produce.

All

honour though to your Dr. Fleming, of Scotland, who, we believe, was the that the

mammoth was

musk-ox is

to the buffalo;

first

to

i. e.

its

in the

skin

West,

what the

a creature of the same

general kind, excessively like in

ceedingly different in

show

to the elephant

;

its

bones, but ex-

and capable

of,

and

actually living in a climate 60° of Fahrenheit lower.

Digiti^d

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

230

"This was a great point

no doubt;

settled,

for

then, instead of French savants supposing the world

had got a knock from a comet, and had had

its

of rotation suddenly and vehemently changed,

axis

—you

had a more cautious British philosopher suggesting that the later geological extensions of Siberian land,

by

its

slow elevation out of the sea, northward to the

Frozen Ocean, and westward from the Ural Mountains to

Norway, has so

intensified its cold seasons,

as to have since rendered the country unsuitable to

mammoth existence." 'And you think that "

We

finished the creature

V

must speak respectfully of the theory," said

the Academician, " whether

we

like it or not.

It is

without doubt a vera causa, that a large continent or large island will have

small one ture, if

;

more intense seasons than a

and, on the whole, a lower

beyond the

mean tempera-

parallel of 45° of latitude.

But

then comes the question of the sufficiency of that cause.

Had

(only

mammoth

Siberia been in

island, like that island

which you

call

days a

you should evidently drop that prefix

cussions on natural questions), a

in dis-

island in the

little

midst of a great ocean, and under parallel 55° tude north,

why

then, on

its

what

it

lati-

enlarging to the size of

Siberia at present, its climate would different to

little

Great Britain

had been;

would no longer pass through

it,

its

that

become very

old isothermal is,

through any

Digitized by

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH part of

ancient limits, while droughts in

its

and snows

in winter

summer

would destroy a vegetation and

a Fauna, which had formerly depended on ture being abundant

all

fluid

mois-

through the year.

But

Mammothian

Siberia

case; for

through those ages, even supposing

all

was never

in such a small island

terminated at the Urals on the west, and at

lat.

it

65° in

the north, Siberia was an enormous continent, and

had a continental climate with plants and animals

in-

ured thereto. All therefore that would occur on those later extensions of its land surface

west and north,

would be, merely a comparatively small increase of intensification of the already intense seasons

;

and

to

a degree varying with different parts of the country.

On the whole, too, we may say that the both as to

climate effect,

mean annual temperature and semi-an-

nual range of temperature, would be entirely represented by simply moving the isothermal lines of those quantities slightly southward of their old positions

and inasmuch

;

as the country extended southwards

unlimitedly to the very tropics themselves, and the

great rivers

all

why

run north and south,

the Si-

berian animals that had been living under 65° of latitude could easily

move up

and those of

to 60°,

60° to 55°. Then too, as such change of climate would establish itself very slowly, the full development of

their food-trees would certainly follow

the change of the animals'

own habitat

if ;

not precede

and in so

far

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

232 there

is

no climate-reason why the recently and com-

paratively but slightly increased surface of dry land

on the northern and western shore of Siberia, should have decreased the number of the

mammoth

droves

upon

that formerly ranged over, and fattened

its

world-wide plains.

"That question more

illustration

mammoth

too of their food

As

still.

we

thus,

capable of

is

believe,

the

fed on the branches of birch-trees and

Siberian cedars. Well then, has the reputed change of climate actually been such as to destroy those trees out of the land ?

and cover enormous

By no means

:

they

still

exist

tracts."

Ah! but then/ put in an old gentleman with hooked nose, you know we find trees of old forests far north of where they now extend to, for there '

6

are ancient tree-trunks in the ever-frozen

now "

soil,

where

only reindeer-moss can grow/

Oh

!

for the matter of that," returned the other,

" the English navigators found beds of coal ville Island,

nearer

still

in

Mel-

to the Pole, and we have

found them in Nova Zembla, an island also do you observe,

now as

composed of once fast-growing

covered with eternal snows

what you mention,

different questions.

is

;

plants,

though

but that, as well

bound up with perfectly

The matter before us

is,

whe-

ther a slight increase in size of the old Siberian continent

is

likely to

have had any very remarkable

Digitized by

233

THE FROZEN MAMMOTH. effect in

moth for

mam-

destroying the trees on which the It certainly has not destroyed

fed.

look yon

how

modern

well the

over the greater part of

its

them

Siberia

is

all,

still,

extent, furnished forth

with the most illustrious examples of what nature can produce in the shape of lofty well-grown trees

and

if

we would

inquire whether a large or small

portion of dry land or in

has the

other words,

been

favourable for tree growth,

is

if

the increase of Siberian land

in the direction for or against increasing

mammoth's branchy

compare a present

food,

northern continent with a present small northern

own mean

land in its

eliminate

all

parallel of latitude,

secular changes

possible

mena of geology; and then, oh have you

!

my

is-

and thus

and pheno-

friends,

what

?

"Why

here, for the continent,

you have the go-

away

in

broad plains abundantly covered with larch and

fir

vernment of

and birch

;

Petersburg,

St.

and then,

Sumburgh Head

stretching

for the island,

have you not

in the Shetlands, under the

latitude to a small fraction of a degree,

island-climate,

any tree at (p.

ductions?

its

producing not the smallest species of

all ?

344, Vol.

same

and with

I.),

—and

'

Wet

grass and mournful moss/

did you not say, are if so,

what

is

branch-eating animal, like the

its

only pro-

a 'phyllophagous,' or

mammoth,

to

make

out of that ?

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by

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23i

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

" Plainly then, the old Siberian continent becoming a

more continental

little

still,

was not either the

food, or climate, cause of the destruction of the

moths

;

mam-

and so our great triumvirate of geologists,

though speaking with the utmost respect of that theory and

its

pains-taking author, must have con-

sidered in their inmost hearts; for at p. 498, vol. of their

work already quoted, they have brought

a supplementary cause of their

cause

is

no other than the

own

to assist.

i.

in

This

latest elevations of

the

north Ural chain, a disturbance which burst the

bounds of many rents

down

washed

lakes, and, sending

mouth

to the

impetuous tor-

of the Obi,

would have

any droves of mammoths who

into the sea

might have been there, on the anciently umbrageous coasts during a

summer

That

peregrination.

also is

a vera causa to a certain extent ; and there can be

no doubt that those

later elevations of the Ural,

must have been extremely inconvenient to any mammoths residing on the mountains

at the

time

;

while

the consequent floods are very likely to have carried

—the lumbering

them away sea.

brutes

—into

the Polar

But granting all this, how does it explain the

appearance also of

all

the

mammoths

dis-

of the undis-

turbed palcDozoic river systems of the Yenisei and the

Lena ? Mighty ugly

for

mammoths

near the Gulf of

Petchora, was that last elevation of unquiet Uraba

but how did

it

touch those who lived at Odessa, or

Digitized by

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235

THE FROZEN MAMMOTH. inhabited about

Moskva?

—what

had

too,

with those of Kamtchatka and Behring's

to

it

do

Straits,

and of your own Great Britain?" 'Not much,

we

directly/

begging

replied, 'but

your pardon, what a long story you are making of it,

and leading us further and further from the point

we want moth

to get at, viz.

" Nay,"

said he, " but that

have now arrived

upon

what brought

all

mam-

the

race to an end/

;

for

what

species as well as

dividual

is

is

is

precisely

what we

touched on, and are stranded

at,

but that there

it,

an individual.

The

is life

a

life

of a

of the in-

the periodical phenomenon, and the

of the species

is

life

the secular phenomenon, a neces-

sary accompaniment of the other." f

Only necessary,

if

phenomena

the periodical

of regular character, reducible to law

are

3 I

" Surely; but then what are not the circumstances of individual

life,

except most regular manifestations

of a connected series

;

in fact, laws

;

and such laws

as you need never expect to see surpassed in the

whole range of the biological world.

They may not

yet admit of geometrical demonstration, as what natural history questions do

these are

?

but in such manner as

usually held to be proved,

clearly illustrated that the death

of a species pearance.

is

The

is

it

a necessary consequence of ibis

of

the

most

and disappearance

Pharaohs and

its

ap-

their

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236

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

horses and cows, do indeed, as you say, continue to exist, just as healthy

and strong as when they were

pictured in the tombs of Luxor, so far as see

;

man can

but then for what time has he seen them ?

three thousand years perhaps in geological periods,

and

any place in geological

;

why

that

is

nothing

insufficient to give

From

history.

them

their non-

appearance in the records of that history of ancient

Egyptian

species,

the

younger

species,

animals

and should so

evidently

are

far still

be living

but of each species of bird or beast, reptile or

whose

remains prove

fossil

was

species plainly

nings,

its

it

finite; it

had

meridian plenitude, and

and death.

Hence,

if

the

fish,

been created

to have

has died out earlier;

earlier, it

of

the

life

its

of every

small begin-

its

gradual decay

mammoth

species did die

out of the world ages ago, and the elephant species is still

existing, the former

began

to exist also ages

and must from the abundance of

earlier;

its re-

mains have continued to exist for a vastly greater space of time than the elephant tribe has yet passed

upon earth

;

run out, and

by

its

of this tribe, its species-life is

vigorous yet

time will come also decay, It

far

from

but be not deceived

present vigour, for most certainly, from

may we

pala3ontological experience,

'

;

is

's

and

when its

all

expect that the

the elephantine species will

place

know it no more." You are quite wrong/

nothing of the sort

!

Digitized by

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237

THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

exclaimed a gentleman who had exhibited a growing uneasiness for some minutes past

and now with a

;

scandalized and severe, rather than an angry look,

but with a very red claimed,

'

face,

he started up, and ex-

you you're

I tell

the Holy Bible, that

all

all

wrong.

I read in

the animals of the dry land

were created on one and the same day ; and

I

draw

also from that source, which cannot be wrong, that

and when that

species are perfectly unalterable;

word has

said

must remain un-

I tell you, they

it,

altered to the end of time/

my good friend," said the other very " how then do you explain the actual facts

" But, quietly,

of the

mammoth remains?

There, was a species

created, without doubt, and after a fashion

it

has

not remained unaltered to the end of time; for

had died away of man; we

all

confess

you do not pretend in existence '

tell

it

to have died out,

that there

is

and

a single specimen

still."

No, I do not/ returned

his opponent,

" but I

you that the species was created with power

to be immortal,* as were

all

other species, and they

remained immortal just so long, * " Each species,

itself

until

fit

to remove

it, it

was

slain

pleased

Edward

;

and when

He

through the intervention of &uch

changes, and replaced by another." to his beautiful lines on

it

an aggregate of mortal individuals, came

thus from the hands of God, inherently immortal

saw

it

altogether, before the appearance

Dr. George Wilson's Preface 1

Forbes s death.

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by

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238

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

God

and

to arise

slay them.

appearances therefore are

all

Their several dis-

so

many

logical story of the existence of a

proofs in geo-

God, and of his

continued watching over the works of his hands.

Do you

me where

ask

it is

mentioned in the Bible,

that any one species was destroyed before the creation of

Adam ?

the Bible

—

and

?

that its Divine ful

I will rather ask you, if

if

you do believe

it,

you believe

can you imagine

Author would have misled his

people by anything that

is false ?

so, if

faith-

there is

any discrepancy between the Bible and geology, can there be the smallest doubt which for geology,

how is

fidel votaries

is

in error

?

As

that always changing, and its in-

would need have the Bible re-written

every few years to please them

;

but the Bible, I can

guarantee you, will for ever remain the same/

" True, most true," rejoined the other

"we

all

most gladly accept,

believe,

earnestly,

and love the

Bible with heart and soul, as the only book of re-

vealed religion "

opponent was head, and had

—more he would have

off; left

he had dashed his

said,

but his

hat upon

his

the party with an emphasis of

offended dignity. '

Who

"A they,

"

culiar.

is

he?'

we

asked.

very good and well-meaning man," replied full

He

of probity is

and

feeling,

but dreadfully pe-

a noble, though poor, and

is

the

last

of a long line. His immediate predecessors were very

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239

THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

wild and spendthrift characters, but he has turned

round on their steps

utterly,

cannot keep his fasts too

austerely or his religious observances too frequently

him by the

his conscience

is

kept

that they seek

it,

but that he presses

and then he

for

it

priests

;

not

;

upon them

tries in private teachings

among

the

poor and the young, to lead their consciences for

them.

He

subscribes to the Bible Society, teaches

in the Bible Schools, reads the Bible to the poor,

we must all way too."

struggles hard,

he can see his

The

scientific discussion

and interfered with pected episode, but

confess, to

all

and

the good

was considerably damped

for a little time it

do

by

this

unex-

was soon flowing again in

its

former channel. '

Well, I don't

know about your life of a species/ who had not spoken until now

said an individual '

it

has something in

very probably, and

it,

been educated a medical doctor have sworn by

mean

its sufficiency

to say that

it is

not

;

if I

like you, I

and mark you,

had

might I don't

sufficient, or that it

has

not performed a very large part on the theatre of this earth-ball of ours it

;

—but have

in for the present occasion, on

foundation

you not lugged

somewhat narrow

V

" Narrow foundation

\" said

the fine old physician,

"pray ex plain •

Why, before you introduced

yovr finisher-theory

240

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

you had very properly, ment, excluded

your argu-

for the force of

those of other savants; and

all

you

excluded the greater part of them at one sweep, by putting forward an assertion that Southern Siberia,

mountain chains and river-courses

its

mained

;

have re-

in statu quo from the palaeozoic ages,

have

been dry land and continental from long before the creation of the

mammoth down even to

first

our

own

times/

" Very well

and

;

is

not that exactly as written

and published by three of the greatest geologists,

Do you deny

English, French, and Kussian?

the

greatness of their names or the immense weight

everywhere attached to their opinions?" (

Of course not

that

it is

but this I

;

venture to hint,

will

the most remarkable assertion which I have

anywhere had the good fortune to meet with

in geo-

and we

it,

logical literature parallel

;

such a fact as

the wide world over. tries,

and what

is

a

it

shall

be hard put to

indicates,

anywhere

For examine

all

to

else all

other coun-

more pervading and

invariable

feature of their construction, than that they have

been above the ocean-surface and below

it

several

The heights too

times since those palaeozoic ages

?

that they have been above

and the depth of

it,

miles that they have been below raised up again

!

it,

and yet have been

Only look into Darwin's account

of the Andes, and the oscillating islands of the Pa-

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211

THE FROZEN MAMMOTH. cific.

I repeat therefore that that

is

a most remark-

able assertion which your great authors have set forth for the Altai

and other ranges of mountains,

southern sources of the great Siberian rivers; and the

more remarkable

if it

should be found that

all

its

authors were never within five hundred miles of the Altai peaks.

In their book, too, they do not seem to

claim to have been near those mountains, though they

assume a knowledge of their constitution if

;

and even

they had been on them, and had seen a great

deal,

yet they could not have by any means seen every-

thing in so extraordinarily extensive a region, and the subsequent discovery by any one else of a single

patch of secondary or tertiary sedimentary rock would greatly shake their assertion.'

u But you do not mean

to say that anything of

that sort has been discovered ? M '

Oh

no, I merely keep to the triumvirate's

own

book, and find there something like a post-tertiary

sediment deposited over the greater part of that country.

"The

Look

at their chapter 22,

and

its first title,

Black-earth, or Tchornozem, of central and

u southern Russia shown to be a subaqueous forma" tion." They prove their case too famously, I really think, (p.

and

384, vol.

this I.), is

remarkable material, Tchornozem exhibited capping

all

other strata,

and on some of them mounted up so high

as to

show

vast aud variable elevating forces to have operated VOL.

II.

M

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242

THREE CITIES

IN RUSSIA.

since its deposition; while the strata immediately

capped* are so various vious to

in age, as to prove that pre-

deposition the same forces had also been

its

active agents, in combination at times with powerful

denudation.

How

they prove the subaqueous origin

without any organic remains, I leave the triumvirs to explain,

and

though premising that they do

testify also to similar deposits

it

"on

very well

the Asiatic

" or Siberian side of the Ural Mountains, near Ka-

" mensk, and between Minsk and Troitsk," and give reports " that it spreads over considerable spaces in u the eastern,

"region" is

and southern parts of that

Now what

(the great Siberian plains). f

but

this

central,

deposit covers a

indicating that the

breadth greater than that of the Atlantic Ocean?

and

in such case

we may waive

cacy as to whether posit,

it

was a

and conclude that

all

the authors' deli-

salt or fresh

Siberia,

all

water de-

and European

Kussia too, were submerged effectually, and for long ages, subsequently to the creation of

mammoths,

» "It

lies

upon rock of

all

ages" (page 458, vol.

i.),

if

Snb-

not nearly coincidently with their extinction.

Murchison,

Verneuil and Keyserling.

f " The in

some

soil in

the settled part of Siberia

places extremely

of the so-called black

fertile.

soil,

is

universally good,

and

A great part of it is a continuation

which we

first

found in the centre of

Russia, and which stretches in a zone of greater or less extent from

the Carpathians to the Southern Siberia," etc.

(?)

Ocean.

R. Farie's Haxthausen, vol.

ii.

The ordinary

soil

of

p. 29.

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243

THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

merged with a submergence, been quite

sufficient, if

mammoths from Western Behring's

Straits,

assertion, that

—

would have

to Eastern Russia

at least to

when

all

the

and on to

weaken that Xerxeian

the palaeozoic rocks of the Altai

and their dependencies " were raised into dry

" pressed beneath

too, such as

not to have drowned

became

first

land, never

subaerial, they

more

to be de-

the waters of the ocean."

" Well, of course that was an unfortunate remark,"

we

"but you must not be too hard on a

replied,

single slip in so noble a work, and a

course of which in

page

it is

really a

work

in the

grand sensation to read,

after page, the disentangling of the multi-

tudinous surface phenomena of this enormous empire,

and the development of the true succession

its rocks.

It is a

vation and what

work which,

may be

01

for extensive obser-

called discoveries

innume-

rable through the application of appropriate theory,

has not '

its

equal in ancient or

modern times."

Certainly, certainly/ responded the Russian,

respect the book and

own

it

'

we

as quite a storehouse

of geological knowledge, and honour

all

the authors,

but none more than your British Murchison,

for

he

certainly has an eye for a country, a general's acu-

men among

the rank and

file

of geologists

;

but that

need not prevent us from paying due attention to a great natural fully

phenomenon which has never been

studied yet, and wherein he himself will be

M

2

244

THREE

CITIES IN RUSSIA

suro to gain in the end his usual renown.

nomenon

too of the

Tchornozem

is

now

This pheso evidently

mixed up with the disappearance of the mammoths, so distinctly proves that those

who

that those

too, if they

pass

it

who

did not die

a

death must have been drowned out, and

natural

did so die would have been

had lived long enough,

and indeed

over,

it is

drowned

—that we cannot

almost incumbent on

us to show that the submergence of the land of the

mammoth, may have taken quicker than any rise or that

is

place very considerably

fall

of the land and sea

presently anywhere observable/'

" Now,"

said the

hooked-nosed gentleman, crook-

ing his finger at the same time at the

" don't be bringing geology

;

in

last

speaker,

any of the old cataclysms of

modern philosophers

for the greatest

all

hold and teach that the most immense effects of past times have

all

been produced by the continued re-

petitions of the

we

see going

little,

almost infinitely

on about us

little

effects

and therefore they

;

will

allow no other actions than these to be employed in

explaining ancient phenomena." '

And who

are these

modern philosophers/

stantly retorted the former,

thing that it

is

now going on

'

who can

in the earth,

on through time to come, and trace

time that tions,

is

past,

through

all its

in-

perceive every-

it

and follow

back through

changes, accelera-

and retardations ? Let them prove

their

powers

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

by

245

predicting to us the occurrence of earthquakes,

or the breaking out anew of old and long quiescent volcanoes.

Meanwhile you should know that the

submergence of the mammoth kingdom

means an

isolated

phenomenon

;

it

is

by no

belongs to those

general effects of elevation and depression (page 9, vol.

ii.)

which are common to

and

all

times, but are

all

parts of the earth

nowhere seen so well and con-

vincingly and to the point as in European Kussia.

This country has indeed well been said to form one

huge depository

basin,

whose bottom has been sub-

ject to repeated alterations of level

triumvirate write

u

We

;

and our worthy

—

dwell on the fact, that such enormously

" wide horizontal deposits of different ages are nearly " all conformable in superposition, and yet all clearly " separable from each other by mineral character " and organic remains thus decisively showing, ;

—

"that old races of animals have disappeared and €t

have been succeeded by others over vast regions,

"

in which there never has been the smallest eruption " of plutonic or volcanic matter/' g

Fire then was not present, but water was, and

secular immersions

and emersions of the land would

produce those observed

effects

;

and combined with

them, as additionally showing the grandeur of scale

on which the phenomena were acted, you may note

what the same great authors say of the bearing of

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246

THREE

new Russian

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

chains of mountains on one of the

leading speculations of

M.

filie

relative directions of great

dicative of the age in

"

No

de Beaumont,

—that

mountain -chains are in-

which they were thrown up.

one can look/' say they, "*at our general map,

" without seeing that

exhibits three grand natural

it

" features which support

this portion of the

w our eminent contemporary.

theory of

Thus, the Scandina-

" vian mountains, along which the older palaeozoic

" rocks only have been elevated, range from south" west to north-east.

In the Ural, where the chief

" disturbances have taken place after the Carboni" ferous and Permian deposits (neither of which

"mations

exist

in

" north and south.

"which no

for-

Scandinavia), the direction

And

is

thirdly, in the Caucasus, in

vestige of palaeozoic

life

has been de-

fected, and where the mightiest upheavals have " occurred posterior to the oolite and the chalk, the " range is distinctly from west-north-west to east" south-east. The data, therefore, as established by " geological labours, compel us to believe that there " is a connection between certain great lines of elew vation of the earth's surface, and the periods at

" which they were produced."

'The laws of the phenomena being thus

made

out, they only

clearly

need their law of causation to be

arrived at, to be put into intelligent and necessary series

;

and

this

seems on the point of being done

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THE FROZEN MAMMOTH.

by an eminent English Colonel

247

of Engineers, who,

starting from a proposition in Newton's

not

much

(

Principia,'

noticed hitherto, and applying

teach-

its

ing to the manifest irregularities in thickness of the earth's hard crust,

evidenced by well-known

as

mountains, table-lands, and seas

;

and

its

nowhere

very great thickness, as indicated by temperature observations in mines, and nearly demonstrated by

Mr. Airy's explanation of Archdeacon Pratt's abnormal

attraction of the Himalayas,

mathematico-mechanical

result,

—obtains

long ages, the lopsided figure of the earth it

to tumble over in a manner,

tion remaining in the

same

at last a

showing, that after

and the

will

cause

axis of rota-

direction in space will

occur in a different part of the surface of the earth.

Then, oh then

and

its

!

will occur the

rendings of

its crust,

crumpling up into ridges of mountains when

the equatorial protuberance re-forms itself about the

new

relative position of the axis of rotation

some lands

will

depressed as

;

when

be pushed up miles high, and others

much

below, and the materials of

all

get squeezed, and slaty cleavage originated throughout the mightiest rock-masses.

The greater part of

these changes must take place very rapidly, and then will ensue long periods of quiet, perhaps

hundreds

of thousands of years, until another scene occurs of

the earth's throes, another turning over of the crust,

with a crumpling up of new mountain ranges in

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248

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

new

directions

;

gigantic oozings out of the internal

molten matter, and a complete alteration of the levels of

all

lands and seas, except in the neighbourhood

of certain nodes of quiescence. '

This must have passed through

its

several phases

over and over again in geological times, and

now

doubtless going on

;

as

able to prove astronomically

not just at present in

its

we if

is

should probably be

the

phenomenon were

nearly quiescent interval,

and

accurate observations of the latitude of any observatory do not extend backwards a sufficient

number of

hundreds, not to say anything of the thousands, of years which might be required. '

When

the

acme

last

came, and the greater part of

the shift of the earth's axis took place in something like three

hundred days, the rush and confusion

amongst the great mammals must have been extraordinary

under

and as they found the earth's crust

;

their feet rending

ternaturally, floods

and sinking, or rising pre-

must have menaced them

first

on

one hand, and then on another ; so no wonder they accumulated only to perish in those inconceivable

numbers, both of indviduals and species, whose bones have recently been discovered into a

little

the Pyrenees

south foot of '

all

collected

corner at Sansan, on the north foot of ;

and others again

Mount

at Pikermi,

on the

Pentelicus in Greece.

Only to think what a world of poetry as well

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219

THE FROZEN MAMMOTH. insight

as

into true

natural

Greeks had there beneath

history

the ancient

their feet, only twelve

miles east from Athens and four miles from the

iEgean Sea ; and yet and of

the huge

all

adamite grave

Yet

land !* after

lived in perfect ignorance of

mammals who had found

in that since beautiful

I don't

still

classical

know," mused the Academician

a pause, u whether there

interesting

and

it,

a pre-

to the

is

human

not a story more

race connected with

the origin of our Uralian gold/

" '

And what

Well,

it

is

that?"

we

eagerly asked.

has some connection, too/

'with the mammoths; but otherwise

it

with things inorganic, and as the account

said

he,

deals only is

rather a

long one, had we not better adjourn to a more appropriate time and place

V

* Although nothing was said of the celebrated Professor Pallas during the above discussion, yet

it

presented in his

own

me proper to recall Mammoth problem, as

seems to

attention to his published opinions on the

time; and more particularly to the change which

he made in them, when, after having previously only examined speci-

mens

in

a Museum, he began to travel in Siberia, and observe

attendant circumstances of the bones in

situ.

The

all

ideas of that day, wherewith the Professor connected his facts,

be wrong

;

differences

but the facts themselves, local

between

Museum and

field

facts of observation,

may

and the

deductions, by such a

are not likely to be altogether overturned.

the

chronological

man,

250

CHAPTER

m

RUSSIAN SOCIETY. September.

It was not with a

little

curiosity that

of the 23rd of September

we

on the evening

crossed over, by the

Nikolayevski bridge, into the Vassili Ostrov, to take tea

by

invitation with an elderly Russian couple,

whose acquaintance we had

in a

manner picked up

in the streets.

Now

a quaint old bachelor, of a literary turn,

Edinburgh, was accustomed to relate there,

how

in

he

preferred always to travel in a third-class railwaycarriage, rather than in one of higher grade; for

" in a

first-class,"

tawdry-dressed are tion

men who it

said he, u I

women

;

can talk."

meet only

silent,

but in the third-class there

A very

unpolite observa-

was, no doubt, but so true

;

for not only in

Scotland, but in every other country as well, does

conversation in public places seem to be friendly,

more

free,

and abundant among the lower, than any

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251

RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

of the upper,

Hence you may be pretty

classes.

sure that this acquaintanceship of ours which began

among

St.

Petersburg streets in a conversational

manner, was not of the very highest order of

society.

No, indeed; but then what matter of that, so long as to inquiring travellers tation of a

it

more numerous

should afford a represenclass in society,

Something

decidedly Russian?

in this

and one

way

at all

was, that the formal ice got broken through.

events

it

On an

evening in the beginning of August,

we were

seated on a bench in the Izak boulevard, sketching

one of the bold groups of bronze angels near the

summit

of the cathedral, holding forth their gigantic

cressets,

—when an elderly gentleman and lady, who

had previously been walking quite in the middle of the

we

roadway, must,

leave that open arena

bench with

thought, very needlessly

and sk down on the very same

ourselves. Then, after a few minutes, the

gentleman addressed us in English ; and being, after a

little

general talk, allowed to look at the wretched

sketch-book, oh,

"And

how he devoured

was the sunset

the Gulf of Finland

;

it

with his eyes

!

really so richly coloured in

and were the waves so very

large?" he earnestly asked; and in truth he detained us rather longer than was convenient, putting

manner of artistic and literary questions. Then on another occasion, we

fell

in

all

again,

with that same pair

quite accidentally on the Annitchkoff bridge in the

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THREE CITIES

252

Nevski Prospekt

;

IX RUSSIA.

and how the old gentleman im-

mediately rushed at us, and produced

all

his

English

again, and inquired after divers and sundry English

books, and their authors public,

;

their lives, private

and

How

and everything we knew about them.

much longer he would have kept us there standing when we could, his queries for information, in the crowded thoroughfare, we don't know answering,

for

he had already pooh-poohed

and advices that

it

and that he ought most as a

to return

his wife's hints

all

was long past

his dinner hour,

home ; but when,

forlorn hope, she whispered to

al-

him that

he might be detaining us from our dinner too, then

he immediately adjourned the rest of his talk to another time.

That other time was when he called one evening at our hotel with the anxious

and pressing invitation

which we were now accepting. therefore

we went, and

Over the bridge

in at the palatial doors of

an

Educational Institution, and up, up the long stairs to the topmost flat; for there,

it

seemed, in low-

ceilinged, but clean-kept, rooms, lived the poorest

but not least worthy blishment.

moirs

;

He was

official

of the whole esta-

their translator of foreign

and much he delighted to

tell

massed together the information on tries in a general digest of the

during so

many

years,

me-

how he had

different

coun-

progress of research

and to indicate the leading

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253

RUSSIAN SOCIETY. characteristics which he

had assigned

to the natives

of each quarter of the globe, and his illustrations of the reality of those characteristics in the works he

had methodically above his

official

and abounding

tiring

All this

translated.

was over and

duty, and had been a labour of unlove.

Yet, although so fond of his shop, he did not bore

one with

it,

and

ligent

for

he was not prosy, but always

interesting,

intel-

and had many other subjects There was

of conversation besides.

his wife, too,

doing the duties of the tea-table, with a homely earnestness of desire that

was famous

justice to, that

servant seemed to think life

come

to

it

it

should be done hearty

to behold

;

and their one

the proudest day of her

in with the samovar,

and show the

side,

how brightly she had made it shine outand how glowingly it burned inside, and what

neat

little

visitors

hands

teacakes she had prepared with her

at their

own

stove, without

own

having to ask the

baker, at the corner of the street, for anything.

Before

it

was quite dark, the old gentleman pointed

out to us from his elevated windows, his view of the

Neva and

the southern side of St. Petersburg, than

which he thought nothing in the world could be

more

glorious.

Yet he had been once

and Scotland, on a mission from the

in

England

Emperor Alex-

ander, to examine into the working of the Bell and

Lancasterian system of schools.

This was before his

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254

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

marriage, and his wife never Laving been out of her

own

country, he

now

described to her with raptures

his reminiscences of Great Britain, but before

and

above all, his astonishment at seeing a shepherd in the

He

Highlands reading Homer.

instantly

jumped to

the conclusion that every Highlander could do the

same, and he

left

the country with the impression

that every single Scot

was a most highly educated

man, and the whole country advanced

to the

plus

916

ultra of civilization.

But the poor

frail little

man, now nearly seventy

years of age, was brimming with loving admiration for

everything;

just as

was

his

staid

and

well-

strieken-in-years partner overstocked with excellent

domestic feeling; and they both enlarged in patriotic

terms on one good quality after another in either

the people or their customs in divers governments of their great Empire.

" Oh, could not we," they

asked, " go to Yaroslav, to have ocular proof of

how

advanced the peasants of a large Russian govern-

ment may be

;

not so highly educated as the Scots,

but yet very respectably, and then they have so

many

We

other fine qualities?"

pleaded the winter, and our alarm of being

caught by

it,

like tardy sailors at Cronstadt.

Where-

upon they followed with a long enumeration of the dates

when the Neva had been

first

seen frozen

over from those very windows; and by these dates

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255

RUSSIAN SOCIETY. it

appeared that we had three,

still

if

not four weeks

But then they argued, even

quite secure.

were caught and had

to remain with

them

if

we

a winter,

should we not find out, as the Russians do, the bless"

ings of winter ?

How

else

but through the

facili-

ties of winter time could Russian peasants carry on

the chief commercial business of their lives

?

How

else could those at great distances bring their pro-

duce to market, unless nature cently laid

down

at that season benefi-

a universal level railway of snow

over the whole country?

How

too were they, the

inhabitants of St. Petersburg, to enjoy their winter

dinners of grouse and ptarmigan from Archangel, unless the kindly cold preserved the animals for an

unlimited length of time after they had been shot,

and allowed them

be conveyed cheaply and econo-

to

mically over more than six hundred miles."

u Oh, lated,

surely a Russian has occasion," they ejacu-

" to bless the cold of

grateful for

Hence

it is

indeed, to

it

his country,

and he

the Author of

all

is

good.

that the grateful feeling continually re-

sounds though

the

all

dearest and best of our

poetry.

"Thus has sung southern land "

1

a Russian prisoner of war in a

:

Come, winds

!

come

hither from the

Come in your freshness, come And thou, bright Pole-star, blazon Memento of my home

North

;

forth,

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

25G

"

1

Deep

is

snow around

the

The joy and

my

door,

love that bless our sands,

'Midst forests, and 'midst snow,

me my freedom— let me

Give

tread

Once more my country's strand

With

"Ay,

frost

and storm

all

overspread,'*—

this," said the old gentleman,

Russian feeling, that

is,

"is the true

of Great Russia; a Great

Russian poet loves the winter-time, with

When

and snow.

its

icicles

and where do you suppose Zhu-

kovsky would lay the scene of his touching and

poem

beautiful

of Svaetlana, except in such a period

and with such surroundings ? Sir

John Bowring thought

It is a pity that

his

your

countrymen would

not appreciate the feminine charm of our name '

Svaetlana/ or

'

He

Catherine.

holy/ and therefore changed

make

did

that alteration

translated the lines, but he could not delicious

time,

little

and

snowy

its

"

bits of

1

it

into

when he

knock out

all

the

imagery depending on winter-

plains.

Catherine smiled,

According to him,

— her lover led

;

O'er the snow-clad court they sped,

And

the portals gain

There a ready sledge they found,

Two fleet

horses stamp the ground,

Struggling with the

* Bowring's

4

rein.'

"

Batiushkov.'

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RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

'That rings famously of the true metal there and driving

;

none of your

;

the sledge

Russian Ko-

Little

saks riding now *

"

On

the lea so sandy,

Sunny, wanting dew !"

9

some one remarked, but was not attended " * Onwards

When

!

to.

winds they go,

like the

the storm awakes,

Scattering round

them clouds of snow,

While the pathway shakes.

Through the snow,

—a mountain's height,

Next the wild steeds passed,

And

a church appeared in sight,

'Midst a gloomy waste

Then a whirlwind burst the door

"

*

Clouds of snow ascend again.

Lo And a !

the coursers

fly

raven on the plain

Croaks and passes by.

Swifter, swifter flew the car,

Whirled the snow around

But no "

*

At

«

far,

it

farther sped.

the door they stopped anon,

There

;

a

moment

stood

:

Steeds, sledge, bridegroom, all are gone

All

is

:

solitude.

Catherine on the waste was

left,

'Midst dense clouds of snow.

But she hears a

footstep now,

Turns, and sees a taper glow,

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258

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. "

'

Crosses her, and stalks

Trembling to the door. There, upon a winding sheet,

Lay a mortal

bier

;

image at

Christ's bright

Shone resplendent

its feet

there.

Catherine to the image

flies,

Wipes the snow-dust from her Bends her down and weeps

List

what gentle

!

rustlings sweep

Through the hallowed room

Lo

;

a dove of silvery white,

!

and

Soft

still,

with eyes of

Towards the mourner

light,

springs.

Trembling she— she dared not

But

eyes,

;

move-

the bright and silver dove

On

her bosom played,

Fanned her with

To Then

its

gentle wing.

the dead man's breast

she saw her sweet dove spring.

Heaved that

'Well! but

icy corpse a sigh,'

isn't all that

"-—

very dreadful?' sug-

gested another person.

"

It's serious

man; "but

and thought-inspiring," said the old

contrast

its

emblems and reminders

of

Christian love, gentleness, and hope, with the Ger-

man

edition of the

poor Leonora

is

same

lover's night -ride

handed over

to

;

where

a dire confede-

ration of heathen hobgoblins of the

most repulsive

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259

RUSSIAN SOCIETY. conceivable aspects,

And

evermore.

for

and

heard of the Russian course,

to

be tormented by them

besides that,

poem

when the young

still/

you have yet

Of

lady, Barishna Svaetlana first

awakes from such a dream, she and

all

a dream only.

is

very 'sorrowful

is

but presently starts up with, "

'

Tell

me—tell me what is

Mist-cloud on the

that ?

hill

In the sunbeams shines the snow

Leaps the frozen dew, List

!

I hear the bells below,

And Lo

!

th*»

horses too,

they come, the sledge

Now

is

near,

the isvostehik's voice I hear,

They have pass'd the grove Fling the gates wide open,— fling—

Who's

the guest tho coursers bring ?

Who ? u

And now

'Tis thou,

my

that they have

love

"

!

come

'

to so

happy a

ter-

mination," said our host, " let us drink their healths in

your English manner, and wish them a long and

happy

life

together ; M whereupon

we turned

about,

and then saw that the clever handmaid, with a

little

assistance from her mistress, had, while the recitation

was going

on, quickly

table with as nice a to enjoy.

little

and

silently relaid the

supper as any one need care

There were delicate preserved

fishes

from

the Gulf of Riga and St. Petersburg tongue, delicious raspberries with like

cream, and great rosy apples

cheeks of Bacchus, besides an intersprinkling of

260

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

varied miniature cakes and fancy biscuits. too, all this

was not

show, for

for

Certainly,

we were

to try fully every article of food, nominally

called on

on account

of some national reason or other, and then to it

down with two samples Towards the end of

evening,

this

we remarked on

apples/'

we had

second feast in our one

the beauty of the Russian

week

apples; and how, every

wash

of Crimean wine.

since the "feast of

noticed the fruit-stalls at the corners

and rud-

of the streets continually exhibiting larger

we passed them,

dier apples every time

they were become perfect

until

magnum -bonums

now

in their

way. "

Oh

!

but wait only until the snow comes," ejacu-

lated the old ' '

man

and then you

will see

all

ardour again,

his winter

them

far finer

still,

and much

What a blessing snow is to

more numerous.

Where would

with

Russia

she be without her snow, and even her

When

regions of frozen soil?

peoples rather carpingly say,

'

westward-dwelling

Oh

yes

!

Russia

very large country, but more than half of

is

a

its soil is

an icy desert, bordering on the Polar Ocean, and useful to

no man,

extent the very

'

life

how

little

do they

of our country

is

know

to what

owing to

possession of those same repudiated regions

!

the

When

Napoleon Bonaparte advanced against such a country as

German

whole of

it

Prussia,

why he

cleared

in six weeks' time ; not a corner

out the

was

left

Digitized by

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RCSSTAN SOCIETY.

His tactics were better than the Germans',

unvisited.

so theirs went

down

at once,

and the country was

utterly subjugated without having any place to re-

But with our Russia what a

treat to.

difference

He

!

came here with the same improved tactics and they ;

were better than most men's

compete with Nature

?

;

but were they able to

No, no

and

;

after a year's

campaigning, he suddenly made the discovery that he had committed an egregious blunder in trying to apply his tactics to our country at country,' said he,

pays sans fond)

'

into

whole campaign, beating the enemy

make

they

but

in the

after six

Why it

without any bottom to

you may advance

;

€

all.

most approved

it

a

is

it

(un

through a

at every stand

scientific

manner

months of such a victorious march, you

are no sensibly nearer the further side of their country,

though you may have got a precious long way

from your own resources.

Even

if

you penetrate

through their inhabited regions, they

still

all

have un-

limited broad wildernesses of ice and snow behind

them

to retreat into as far as they like

was very

true,

!

'

All this

and great was the pity that that

towering genius, with him, did not find

it

all

the French

Academy to back

out theoretically, instead of

by

the too practical and blundering method of sacrificing

400,000

how

lives of his

own people

in the operation;

they must thank him for that.

But there was

another subject, too, connected with the Russian

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262

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

people which Bonaparte never could comprehend it

:

was, their patriotism and love for their Emperor,

and

In every

their deep, abiding religious feeling.

other European country that he attacked, there was

always some party ready to hail his advent and assist but in Russia no one joined him.

his approach;

The Poles indeed

flocked to his standard, of course

;

from the time of the Tahtars those Polovski have

for

never been happy except when, under cover of some stronger power, they could treacherously ravage and slay,

hold in subjection and persecute us neighbour-

ing Russians

;

enacting their barbarous cruelties in

Holy Mother Moskva ligion

herself, equally against

our re-

and ourselves."

Then we asked

Kosaks of

as to the origin of the

the Ukraine, were they of Polish descent, for they

seemed much inclined that way

in spirit,

and so

ready at any time to join an invader against Russia

;

as witness the long southward circumbendibus that

Charles XII. took, in order to

from their

side,

and with

make

his invasion

their assistance ?

" Oh no " said the ancient speaker, warming !

with the subject, "they are not Poles; and were just as

much

inclined to rise

up against Poland when

they were under her ; or even more are

now

Russia.

against the juster and

But then they are not

They came

to us of their

own

still

than they

more orderly reign full

of

Russians either.

accord out of Poland,

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RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

and we accepted them.

They promised

well for a

time, but within a few years they wanted to go

back, as soon as our laws restrained them in some of

Of course

their forays. said,

'

No

that would not do,

secession allowed,

if

So then they were very indignant; yet are

us/

vastly better

off,

on the whole,

tight rein held over them. fellows,

we always

from them

now

having rather a

for

They are very brave Goths were partly

allow; the

but there are not enough of their race

;

to form a

kingdom by themselves; and beno notion of law

sides that, they have of themselves

and

and we

you please, amongst

order,

except for as long as they find such

things convenient to their individual propensities.

Their ancient parliament was held actually sitting

on horseback, with drawn swords

was too small fancy tell,

to form a

quorum.

;

and no number

So then you can

how any one man, who had a

tale of

blood to

though the blood might have been very righ-

teously spilt by the public executioner, could easily

get up a few mounted companions, and thereby give to his hasty

vow

of revenge the appearance of a

healthful deliberation and parliamentary sanction of

Thus have

a free people.

sented such a case tt *

"

O

their

own

poets repre-

:

eagle,

young grey

eagle,

— He's their young hero, you know, who has come

to grief,

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264

TIIREE CITIES IN RUSSIA M

Oh

4

young grey

eagle,

Thy The

eagle,

brethren are eagles too old ones and the young ones

Their custom well they knew "

The

1

!

old ones and the young ones

In council graye they meet

They

On "

On

1

on coal-black

sit

steeds so brave

They are

Like lightning they

this

and

love

;

castles

will strike.'*

their then parent State

tomers, truly

fice

fleet

was the way they treated the supreme go-

vernment of

of the

fleet.

flying eagle-like

In Polish towns and

"And

steeds,

and

steeds so braye

Don

!

Now, how

!

They have been ever ready

themselves to the public weal

them

for

Pretty cus-

!

different are our

it.

Nay

this love

country as well, and no river

and how we

;

clearly that

banks

it is

whom

it,

all

has embraced their is

so celebrated in

poetry throughout Russia as the Don. the mentions of

Kosaks

to sacri-

But

in

all

you can generally make out

the good people and true upon

its

Thus

in

every writer

is

thinking

of.

your Sorrow's translation of Boris Theodorov

:

"« Silent Don!

Azure Don

Who dost glide Deep and wide, * Norwich Pamphlet, p. 22.

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265

RUSSIAN SOCIETY "'Glory be

To thy

sons,

Kosak

free 1

Warrior ones etc., etc.

" Bowring's Shatrov " Moskva *

is

more decided

Don

has sprung over

'gainst the foe in fury

Crowd

Arm

and

its

battle,

for the right fight.'

" The funeral sermon on the death of

rattle,

banks,

to the ranks,

Strong in the

man

:

stunned with the thunder-storm's

See, for the

Armed

is still

of the great Het-

modern times began, 'From the smooth-

flowing Don, the news like thunder,

—Platov

fly like

is

lightning and strike

dead/*

" So can you wonder we have deep

feelings con-

nected with the Don, or that in Bowring's

'

Batiush-

kov' the Russian condemned to pine on the banks of the beautiful southern Rhone, mourns "

'

Oh,

roll

Rush

!

he sang, ye waters in

your glory on

roll

;

Your waves still waken on my The memory of the Don ?'

" Yet not even the Kosaks of the

soul

Don can

deserve

better of their country than do the general peasantry of Great Russia ; they form the bulk of our armies,

and amongst them you see both the appreciation of • Lyall's Travels, vol.

VOL.

II.

ii.

N

*

266

THREE CITIES

IN RUSSIA

order and obedience to supreme authority, carried to the highest pitch, and

all

out of a loving soul and

religious disposition.

They would in general

not join the army at

all,

arts of peace is

called

up

and would

far rather

cultivate only the

but yet when one of these peasants

;

for his

Emperor, and informed that

his duty to his country requires

it,

he assumes the uni-

form at once; with tears often, but without repining; with tears, but with a stout heart, for his sorrow

And

how touching

comes from deep

feeling.

and beautiful

afterwards to see his quiet 'demea-

is it

then

nour as the good soldier ; obedient to

commander and

loving both to his

with this latter feeling, which

is

command and

to his duty

;

and

semi-religious love,

devoting his life-blood as freely and bravely as ever did the most hectoring knight-errant that

made the

welkin ring to his boastings.

So that

truly the

well be

compared

Great Russian foot-soldier

may

with one of your Cromwell's invincible men, though

without the acidity and opiniativeness of that school moral, as religious, but not so

as courageous, as

bitterly sectarian, or falsely puritanical.

How

well

the calm, placid, devoted nature of the Great Russian soldier first

siege of

represented in those old lines on the

is

Azof

!

" The poor '

soldiers

have no

rest,

Neither night nor day. All night long their weapons cleaning,

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RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

Were Ready

the soldiers good,

in the

morning dawn,

All in ranks they stood.

"

*

Not a golden trumpet

is it,

That now sounds so

Nor the

silver flute's

That thou now dost "

*

*

'Tis the great white

the soonest,

Fort Azoffmay *

Tsar who speaketh

Like a

all,

how

voice at once they spake

:

Father dear, great Tsar!

Fall

it

must

!

and

all

Thereon we gladly

Such then was the little

of bees,

soldiers spake,

With one

on, with

the quickest,

fa.ll!'

humming swarm

So the

«

:

dragoons,

consider and invent

Brave advice, ye

How

is it,

hear.

Come my children, good And my soldiers all,

Now

"

clear

tone

our

lives

stake.'

"*

style of conversation that

went

intermission, until near the time of

our departure ; and then a slight variety was given to

it

by the old gentleman confessing,

an un-

in

guarded moment, that he had a great delight in drawing, as a pleasant employment for his leisure

hours

;

and presently he produced a

portfolio full of

sketches more or less complete, on half-sheets of

drawing-paper. particular one

The execution was nothing very

way

or the other, but the subject

• Norwich Pamphlet.

N

2

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THREE CITIES

268

were so

IN

RUSSIA.

delightful, considering the

age of the

artist.

One-third of them was composed of excessively chivalrous scenes

;

Russian knights riding down Tahtar

warriors in single combat, something in the st3'le

of English school-boys' old Christmas-pieces, with

Emperor

scenes of Richard C\eur-de-Lion and the Saladin

but the other two-thirds were heads of

;

charming young damsels, with golden hair and blue

One

eyes.

of

them we thought we had seen some-

thing like before, and then the artist explained that they were mostly painted up from engravings, ac-

cording to a manner of his

amount

working that out according

Most refreshing was man's

own

;

taking a certain

of foundation from the plate,

still

it

and then

to ideals of his

own.

to hear the old gentle-

youthful fervour, capable of taking the

utmost pleasure in innocent educational employ-

ments

;

and we

about ten

and not

p.m.,

left

with

him and

many new

less charity in

his

excellent

wife

ideas in our heads,

our hearts towards mankind

in general.

Quite another style of society, and not less worthy

was

it,

in

this time,

one of the Admiralty quarters; where,

we had

the Russian custom

a dinner invitation is

;

and whereas

to dine early, say three p.m.,

and

for the guests to leave immediately after, (a single

draught of milk in place of long sippings of wine,

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269

RUSSIAN 80CIETY.

being often the termination, and a most

intellectual-

occupation-promoting termination too, of the banquet)

;

we, as strangers, were kindly taken a drive

in our entertainer's carriage, to see divers city and

"island"

sights,

and brought back again

Then was produced

for tea.

such tea as has not been im-

ported into England since the time of our greatgreat-grand mothers

when

;

they,

young and disobe-

dient damsels at the time, would persist in drink-

ing the then novel beverage out of those well-known curiosities, the little

two-thimble cups; but which,

small as they were, diffused from their contents an

aromatic odour through the whole house.

The Russian rooms and

lofty;

of entertainment are large

and afforded another kind friend and

hospitable entertainer, on an evening occasion, the

opportunity of showing us the Russian idea of being comfortable at tea-time. This notion seemed to consist

much

withdrawn into

in the party being

more than a corner of the

saloon, but a corner

little

where

the silk-covered divans were more than usually luxurious,

—as

also the soft

Turkey carpet with which

favoured spot was laid

down

;

this

the floor elsewhere

being of brightly polished wood.

Here

it

was that

they placed the tea-table, illuminated immediately in front

by a warm shaded

and enhanced

light, pleasant to the eyes

in the distance

by the greenery of

large branching leaves of bananas, and the darker

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

270

and myrtles

tints of camellias

;

amidst such drawing-

room scenery conversation never could

Among and

flag.

the ladies, enthusiasm for Russia's glory,

accomplishment of

the

that glory through

means of continued and unceasing high aspirations and great performances, seemed to be the ruling

Whatever was the branch of

service

which

their fathers, or brothers, or husbands, or sons

might

idea.

be

in, their souls

dour that

it

were inflamed with

fine

feminine ar-

should progress, advance, improve, and

be something

to spread through

fit

and command in

There was no loud proclaiming of such

the world.

sentiments,

—

from

far

fectly concealed

it;

they were in general per-

under some

fashionable society

;

little glacial

hauteur of

but when the conversation was

not shared in by too many, and did seriously turn

on their country's history, or the grand problem

still

to

its

future prospects, or

be worked out in the edu-

cation and civilization of the world, plainly

how

before any

whole minds

their

moving episodes

great spirits of their land.

—then you saw

thrilled in

thought

in the past career of the

How

conscious too they

were and savingly impressed with the sentiment that their nation

was

in the

hands of the Almighty,

already providentially preserved and brought

Him

victoriously

intended

some

still,

great,

through so

many

in His wisdom, to be

and

at

by

dangers, and

employed

for

present inscrutable purpose

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271

RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

and whatever

out to be, oh that

this should turn

they might be found, when the day of trial c^mes on,

have well

to

By

humble part

fulfilled their

of preparation for

it

in the course

!

no means either was

their interest confined

own country ;

solely to the worthies of their

for

individual character, or generous and original doings

wherever they had manifested themselves

seemed

Thus

to attract their attention.

in Europe, it

was, that

when we mentioned the very small affair of a desire we had had of taking, if possible, a photograph of an illuminated manuscript that had belonged to

Mary, Queen of Scots, and was believed to be now in

St. Petersburg,

oh what admiration they kindly

expressed at the mere mention it

so

was

" It was charming,

!

delightful to think," said they,

many

"that

after

years (nearly three hundred years) of ab-

sence, a nature-printed copy of every letter which that clever little to

her

own

hand had

traced, should

go back

country, and be treasured up there in

the city where she reigned so long, and left behind

her so undying a name."

The

lady of the house was specially fascinated

with the idea, and at the

name

which she pronounced with she kindly undertook to cations that

make

of " Marie Stuart,"

affectionate all

the

warmth,

official appli-

might be necessary towards ensuring

us leave for taking tins much-desired photograph;

272

THREE CITIES

IN RUSSIA

and she commenced her proceedings the very next day.

*

Her

first

movements proved unsuccessful,

book was no longer

for the

in the Imperial Library of the

Nevski Prospekt. But having soon after ascertained that

it

had been removed to the Museum of the Her-

mitage Palace on the Neva, the lady made formal

Within those marble

application there. ever, the officials

were not a

little

halls,

how-

high and mighty

and exhibiting a well-feigned astonishment at the

mere pretension of the proposal, clinched their

mer

refusal

for-

by saying, that no such matter as a pho-

tograph could be taken in that department without the Emperor's express permission being asked.

To

which the undaunted lady immediately replied, "Then the Emperor's permission shall be asked."

when we next had the

This was the state of things

privilege of calling at that friendly house, where,

the way,

it

by

was always impressed on us that we had

a carte blanche to spend any or every evening with their social circle; for giving so

and when we rather apologized

much

trouble,

thanked the lady

what she had done, but begged that

for

in the face of

these unexpected difficulties she would leave the

" Oh no by no means/' said its fate, u the matter must now be more than ever fol-

matter to she,

lowed up

;

!

for, that

a mere decorated

prevent the carrying out of a fine idea,

official is

should

insufferable

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273

RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

and

that a

modern keeper of a museum, a man who

need not have any vent

soul or head either, should pre-

intelligent researches

being made into the men-

tal features or literary remains of

eney of former

Oh

most

!

times,

come from

So

it

any great

exist-

a thing not to be tolerated.

certainly the Emperor's leave shall be

asked ; and a very will

is

different

answer you may be sure

that high quarter."

proved too ; for in a few days

after, the lady's

son-in-law kindly called on us to say that the requisite leave

had been obtained ; and that he was ready

then and there to conduct us to the Hermitage

a

first

for

view of the book and for arrangement of

ulterior proceedings.

On

receiving this joyful news,

ment's time

bade the

we

lost

and jumping into a droshky

;

not a mo-

at the door,

isvostchik, as he valued his character,

up with our guide and

friend

who

keep

led in his private

by

vehicle, whirled along with dizzy rapidity

its

magnificent high-trotting coal-black horse.

In a very few minutes we were the Hermitage of

its portico,

;

at the entrance of

passed under the colossal Atlantes

and entering the double glass folding

doors, were immediately divested of our outer coats

by the semi-military attendants, ously obliging

government

way you always

offices.

Really,

in that pertinaci-

find in St. Petersburg

we hardly thanked their

delay, but hastening on after our friend, we had

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THREE CITIES

274

IN RUSSIA

about

crossed the polished marble hall, and were just

to ascend the grand staircase with noiseless tread,

when he looked down

my

at

feet,

and started as

if

" Goodness defend ns, what is shot to the heart. u Your goloshes M he ejaculated with the matter? " !

a pitious groan to take

off,

!

And

and the

soldiers

new

glossy shine of the

deed

sure

enough had

I

had omitted

failed to see,

india-rubber, which

the

we

in-

minds were inclined to think

in our private

the most proper, because the least injurious possible

mode

of walking over other people's floors of

But there was no dis-

precious polished marble.

cussing the question here; fashion lute;

and whereas we,

at seeing in

men

in

always abso-

is

England, would be horrified

and cloaks on

sitting with their hats

our drawing-rooms' as the Italians do in theirs

during winter-time,

we must not complain

etiquette is stricter

exacting than

still

than ours.

the Italians,

if

We

Russian

are

more

because without doubt

our rooms with carpets and large coal

fires

are

more

comfortable in winter with the thermometer at 32° Fahrenheit, than theirs without side temperature not

find Russian interiors

warmed

still

for a

common

and the outso then if

we

more uniformly and perfectly

than the British rooms, though the

cold outside be far

only

fires,

much below 52° ;

more

severe,

why

plainly it is

sense to drop the superfluous wraps

Russian out-of-doors whenever we enter within.

RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

Having conformed

then, the instant

out, to this custom of Northern

it

was pointed

Rome, away we went

again on our errand, and after much wandering

about from

were brought

immense

to office in the

office

into the Missal-room

palace,

by one of the

at-

tendants of that department, and were desired to

wait there until duly visited by the keeper-general

A

of the Museum.

great

man

who

he,

presently

appeared in a court-dress of bright blue with

gilt

buttons, a large diamond star on his coat, and several crosses and orders about his neck

;

but being

happily of few words, he caused the book to be extracted at once out of the locked glass case

contained

in,

and

it

was

after that left us alone to inquire

at our leisure.

Then did we take the book fully

examine

it

inside

to a table

and out

;

and care-

a small quarto of

between two and three hundred vellum pages, bound in

dark crimson velvet, "Mary, Queen of Scots,

But the more we looked

her mattins book." the less satisfaction

we

what was the matter,

I

into

it,

when asked

had, and at

last,

was obliged

to confess,

'

that

was not by any means the sort of thing I had expected. " Queen Mary's missal," had said some per-

this

own illuminated manuscript," cried others, how exquisitely performed "and Oh this indeed is

son; "her

!

!

a proof that true genius exists only in Royal

What young lady

lines.

of the present day, though ever so

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THREE CITIES

276

IN RUSSIA

medievally inclined, conld illuminate so beautifully nay, what artist

as this

?

ranks,

who has shown such

ing invention

there,

is

sprung from the

and never-end-

exquisite

no such thing

If there be perchance

?

power in a

as divine right, there

is

at least a divi ae

hand whenever

it

does take up the ennobling

royal

pencil." is

So they used

to cry in our ears, but

now

it

evidently nothing of the sort.'

u Well, but is not the illumination ve ry beautiful ?" Certainly

'

it

thoroughly and uniformly

is;

so,

from one end of the book to the other ; but that does not

make

it

anywhere. live, to

And

is

no mention made of its being so

look,

if

you

please,

Now

so talented, do

without doubt

;

?

Ce

livre est

was when

that

but then she

!

many ways,

Yes, in

but not in caligraphy

actual performance, it

you say

1 :

Oh

she was only twelve years of age.

Is

on page twenty-

what she herself has written

a moi, Marie Royne, 1554/

was

own hand.

the work of the Queen's

Moreover, there

:

behold the

and give an impartial judgment.

not absolutely impossible that the hand which

perpetrated those shaky isolated letters, could have delineated the admirable curves of flowery ornamentation in the neighbouring lso,

how contemptuously

drawing ?

Queen's entries are generally made. at a

more mature period

And

of and for the

of her

life,

observe,

book the

Here are some

and which Prince

Alexander Labanoff, in his important seven-volume

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27

RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

work, 'Recueil des Lettres de Marie

Stuart, Reine

(TEcosse/ considers must without doubt have been written during the time of her captivity,

—see how

they are scratched and scrawled, and dug

in, to

the

disfigurement and destruction of a beautiful book.

And

then the contents of the lines of writing

they such as to inspire respect

responsibilities,

much

No

for her ?

remem-

any token of feeling

for her country, or gratitude to her people, sacrificed so

are

for the sovereign?

Is there any thought of a Queen's duties, any

brance of her

:

!

who had

nothing but

self,

self, self/

" Oh

!

but then what a

was

self she

put in a

I"

lady admirer, " and what ecstatic poetry she expresses herself

in.

you never heard

Did you ever hear

—no, Fm sure

—her misfortunes more exquisitely

set forth than in this stanza, which she has signed

with her own dear

name?—

" c Qui iamais davantage eust contraire Si la vie mest

Et

moins

utile

pluatost que chager de

que

le

le sort

mort

mes maus ladvcnture

Chacun change pour moi dhumcur

et

de nature

Marie

' '

See, too, that final

e

e

'

does not that show that first

scratched out in if

'

R.'

chacun

in her haste she

had at

accused her ladies of falling away from her in

adversity, she afterwards, on maturer reflection, ex-

THREE CITIES

278

punged

on her own sex

that libel

abandon her, but

IN RUSSIA

faithful

woman, never

say that the poor

Queen

one but

here she writes a

herself, for

in sideways "

" Oh

!

Men might And don't

any memorandum

does not think about

:

1

Escrire

you

!

?

ail

segretaire

pour Douglas.'

must make a photograph of this

really

most interesting page,

for every stroke of the

pen

and accident of writing have a meaning in them which cannot be conveyed by the mere types of the

What

printer.

say on seeing

will

its

not the people of Edinburgh

suggestive lines ?* and what will

they not say, too, of the kindly care and terest

shown by the Russian people

warm

in thus

in-

honour-

ably preserving those precious relics that have fallen

through fate and destiny into their excellent hands

and keeping ?

Oh

!

surely

it

must have been from a

prescience of the fond care the Russians would take

of her

Mary

memory on the banks among her

cherished

of the Neva, that poor

other jewels, that de-

lightful conceit so duly chronicled in the

* In the

*

Fotheringay

Scotsman* newspaper, of November 14, 1861, amongst

accounts of preparations for a grand Exhibition of Industrial and

Decorative Art, honourable mention

is

made of a book which once

belonged to Queen Mary, and contained her initials and arms; while the further statement

known

to

is

ventured, that the only other book extant,

have belonged o the Queen of Scots,

is

one in the British

Museum

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279

RUSSIAN SOCIETY.

Inventarye* of her belongings,

enamelled white/

as,

—

'

a

little

Must he not have been M

Beare, quite a

tjolubtchik of a bear?

*

Inventarye of the jewells, plate, money, and other goods found

in the custody of the several servantes of the late Quene of Scottes.

Fotheringhay, 20 February, 1586-7.

Digitized by

280

CHAPTER

VIII.

NATURAL SCIENCE. October.

It was on rather a dark morning, but with great hopes, that

we went over

to Professor Savitch's

Ob-

servatory,

on the top of the adjoined building of the

Academy

of Sciences, to prepare photographicals

for the

experiment of the old Missal at the Hermi-

tage.

The Professor had been

so obliging as to

give us permanent right of entry to the principal

room, and shown us how to custodian, Alexander

duty.

call

up the

old-soldier

by name, whether on or

A famous example was

this

man

minded veteran of the Russian ranks.

off

of a simple-

Just turned

eighty years of age, and having served in the wars of the early part of the century, he might well have

claimed entire immunity from labour

he could tion

still

work, and he would.

by day was

at the

head of a

now

;

but no,

His usual

posi-

tall staircase lead-

ing into the Observatory apartments

;

and

his house

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281

NATURAL SCIENCE. to retreat

to,

when

his hours of

were terminated, was basement

age

floor,

where his

rooms on the

wife, of the respectable

seventy-seven, kept a

of

mounting guard

in a couple of

little

fire

burning

and had everything neat and clean

cheerfully,

greet his return from

to

aloft.

Old Alexander was not one of those over trouble-

some Eussian doorkeepers, who

will insist

on

re-

lieving you, whether you will or no, of hat and top-

coat

and

goloshes,

and every

particle of street rai-

ment, before you enter further

;

but he was always

ready exactly when wanted, and was never in the

way when not wanted. needed

for

If a

washing the glass

water might be

little

plates, the call of his

name brought him instantly from some unknown stronghold; and when we, fearing to tax the old

—

man's powers too much, and knowing that he would have to bring the burden up from the river below,

by the corkscrew very

little

would

staircase, suffice

say in Russian, "

if

not be stinted in

—

tried to explain that a

" Tut, tut/' he seemed to

;

you want water it

and

in a

at

all,

you

shall

few minutes he

would come up with two large buckets which he had filled

out of the Neva, after scrupulously cleaning

them both

inside

and

out.

Astonishingly quick too was he in appreciating precisely

what was needed according

of the service.

to the nature

Thus, having had an instrument-

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THREE CITIES

282

RUSSIA

IN

box broken one evening, we

pantomime and drawing how he was and get

carpenter,

it

him by

set forth to

mended

to take it to a

such and such a

in

manner, with peculiar cross-pieces in certain positions, lo

and fastened on by screws, not by

nails

and

;

next day he produced the box repaired exactly

!

and each cham-

as directed, even to every screw

fering

or bevelling, of the bars applied.

off,

Having accomplished then thus much on a former occasion in a scientific matter,

it

was perfectly easy

now, though we could not exchange a word of any mutual language, to inform the old

man

were wanting him not only to go out with

that

us,

we

but to

carry the camera to the marble Hermitage; wherefore,

a

little

polishing up of his appearance might be de-

" Ay, ay," he instantly

sirable.

and going to

said, or

something

his peculiar

nook out-

equivalent to

it,

side the door

on the elevated landing, he took

long grey great-coat, folded

drew

it

up

forth a green one, as long,

decorations about the collar. his well

neatly,

off his

and then

and with some

So then, with

little

this

and

brushed number-one military cap, extracted

from the same place of hiding, he was perfectly ready to face in our service nials of

any number of pampered me-

even an Imperial Palace.

After accomplishing this Hermitage affair,* and * See the

'

Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,'

vol. vi. p. 304.

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NATURAL SCIENCE.

then taking a

where

near the quay of the Bourse,

stroll

the numerous blocks of Carrara marble were

the most remarkable imported goods, we went to

make

a

call

on our ancient translator-friend and his

They were

wife.

they would

insist

a feast, that we

at

home

and, alack the day

;

!

on instantly extemporizing such

felt

bound afterwards

great walk on the strength of

it

;

some

to take

so started off pre-

sently over the Chouchkov bridge in search of the

Botanic Gardens.

This was an establishment

had long been desirous in

to

pay our respects

at

;

we for

a city where every house displays exotic plants

we were

flourishing in almost every room, and where

meeting every now and then

mouzhik men

young

trees

carrying

of

groups of South African

more

home more

magnificent

Fieux clasticus, and

huge-leaved

twenty years before,

in the streets rude

aloe,

than

we had

desirous of finding out where, and

and in what manner, such treasures were Alas

!

how

seen for

— we were rendered more

by whom, raised.

extensive are these " garden islands,"

through which we had to direct our steps planken pathways, though charming things way,

and

may become

nuisances

at last,

away we went

lerated pace along the broad,

flat

at

and

in their

when they extend

miles without any prospect of termination.

gaging a droshky

;

for

So, en-

an acce-

roads, now, in the

advanced autumn, covered everywhere with a thin

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284

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

layer of

St.

mud, and

and versts of house-

after versts

and then as many more of tree-shaded road

lined,

Petersburg Island

thecaries' Island,

we

and from

;

finally

that, in the

in

Apo-

reached our desired esta-

blishment of the Botanic Gardens.

A

most

extensive place

acres, says Dr. Granville, in

so carefully eschewing

all

appears,

it 1

sixty-five

829, and not less

now we

the more open parts,

walked on, and gates were everywhere open, to the

most promising appearance of glass houses. There were not any of them very showy

them

all,

in

ex-

and we had rather undervalued

character,

ternal

when we entered a

sort of central

oflfice-

room, in which veteran-soldier custodians were on guard.

They seemed

day

for

any one to begin the round, but neverthe-

less

showed us in

glass house.

to think

at the

it

rather late in the

end of a long rustic-looking

So proceed we did by a winding

gravel path amongst

ferns

of

every description,

some lowly and spreading, some arborescent and lofty

;

but everywhere flourishing and dense, until

last this density

reached

its

acme

surrounded with a matted shrubbery of divers so thick that there

at

in a rock-spring, ferns,

was no seeing the colour of

the

ground ; and we had long since completely forgotten that

we were under

glass or

amongst exotic

rarities,

not having seen a single pot or tub of any kind, or

anything but natural landscape,

until,

on a sudden,

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NATURAL SCIENCE.

285

a glass door presented itself for entry into another house.

Here we were joined by a very obliging Swiss

who kindly

botanical assistant,

notice the rarer plants

we went

through, the

ful feature

;

pointed out to our

but house after house that

first

and

last

and most grate-

with each and every one, whether con-

taining the Flora of Ceylon or Australia, the Canaries or Persia, was, the absence of pots, buckets, tubs, or any visible boxes, large or small, of wood,

metal, or stone, for holding the roots and earth of

the various plants effect of

;

whence

it

came that the natural

being in those very countries, enjoying the

beauties of their plant-scenery, was realized to a

remarkable degree; and in certain nooks where there were imitation Arabian kiosks, and luxurious seats

overshadowed by bananas and orange-trees,

you might

recline in the fragrant air,

and almost

fancy that the " fine

old times of the golden prime,

of good Haroon

Rascheed," had returned once

more self

al

and that you your-

to the gardens of Bagdad,

were veritably there.

If such effect nation, then

was sensibly

you may

also

realized to the imagi-

be sure there was not any

of that steamy, Brazilian, decaying odour so com-

mon case

in our English hot-houses ;

both

air

;

and that was the

and plants being dry to a degree we

could not understand, and the temperature very

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286

THREE CITIES

Even

moderate.

IN RUSSIA.

palm-house they said

in the

was only 72*5° Fahrenheit

Under

Fahrenheit in winter.

it

summer, and 61*0°

in

the

this treatment,

growth of their succulent plants was gratifying in the extreme

;

for all their varieties

with their leaves as

stiff

and

seemed

to

grow

erect as in their native

African deserts or Mexican highlands, instead of in the pendent

manner

so distressing to behold in all

other civilized countries

and that such comparative

;

dry cold did not stint the growth of the plant, a Cereus nearly sixty feet high sufficiently attested.

The gardens were founded, in 1823,

and when

visited

of their present size,

by Dr.

Granville, in 1827,

could already boast, under the learned Professor Fischer, of cess

;

some remarkable

thus in 1826, they had a

six feet in eighteen days

;

feats of practical suc-

bamboo grow twenty-

and

in the short space of

two years, they had not only an Acacia speciosa of Australia grow eighteen feet in height, but a Eucalyptus, or gum-tree, five

feet;

from the same quarter, twenty-

and a creeper, Lobaia candens maxima,

thirty-five feet,

from a cutting struck under glass, be-

sides covering

an area of several hundred

the gardens are under now, or what their chief purpose,

we

is

feet.

Who

considered

did not ascertain; but our

attendant seemed to say that the principal part of their expenses sale of

was repaid

in the winter-time

bouquets of flowers.

by the

Those treasures, rich

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NATURAL SCIENCE.

and

glorious in colour, being raised in a country

where

the outside air at that season

zero of Fahrenheit, must

of the gardener

may

;

sufficiently

is

at or about

prove the

skill

and where a single camellia flower

bring as much as seven rubles, and a bunch of

flowers

fifty rubles, it

seemed almost worth any one's

while to enter into the

On

lists

with zeal.

we

another of these cold autumn days

the School of Mines

;

visited

one of those numerous palace-

establishments, so characteristic of St. Petersburg, for teaching

some

useful branch of practical science

to several hundred

young

officers

;

who,

through the course are to be scattered over the great empire to develope

The building

capabilities.

the Greater Neva, and far

is

after

far

its

going

and wide

productive

on the north bank of

down towards

its

mouth,

almost hid from the more fashionable parts of the city

by the frequent ranks of merchantmen imme-

diately in front; yet site

commands one

when

these do thin out, the

of the finest panoramic views of

St. Petersburg.

Not much

trouble did they

make about our

enter-

ing the street-doors; but once inside them, those previously obliging

would there from

all

insist

warm

soldiers

in

the interior hall,

to such a degree in freeing us

superfluities of clothing,

some evening party we were going stairs,

—

that

we expected

—as

if it

was

to assist at up-

at the very least

some

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

288

member of the Imperial family must be present in the Museum at the time. Yet on entering the cabinetrooms, we found one and

and oh

so cold, cold

!

through the

commenced.

;

all

for

of

them

silent,

deserted,

autumn had penetrated

and no stove-lighting was yet

walls,

This must have been some drawback

to our satisfaction

;

and, in consequence, the long

cases of minerals, chiefly Russian, appeared dull and

dreary

;

although too, when

materials, there

man

;

for the

monstrous

we came

to the precious

was enough to excite the cupidity of

nuggets of gold were some of them

in size, those of

platinum almost as large,

and the malachite stood there

in

masses of several

thousand pounds in weight, and the value of each of

them was pronounced

to us afterwards in a

ing sort of way, by a Polish savant, as

if

mouth-

he could

never give sufficient dignity or proper volume to the

money-bearing words. Varieties of precious stones were

enough

in a similar

all

interesting

manner, and in their due places

but we could not understand what business long

rows of pearls had there too,

;

such pearls as they were

chosen apparently to show that while they

themselves are the produce of a disease of their parent shell-fish, they, the pearls,

own

special diseases,

and be tortured

may have

their

into every con-

ceivable abnormal shape.

Mining

tools,

from pickaxes to underground theo-

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NATURAL SCIENCE. dolites,

were abundantly represented; and mining

machinery, illustrated by models,

filled

more than one

extensive apartment, exhibiting everything from a portable prospecting apparatus for trying auriferous sands, to the most extensive steam-engines,

and winding apparatus, and metallurgic ments of many kinds, often as

pumping establish-

actually existing in situ

at various celebrated mines.

The

art of mining,

though new to the Eussians,

has been taken up by them enthusiastically, and

with extraordinary success. almost

all

the sites for

It

must be new,

for

prosecution are on the

its

slopes of the Ural, or further eastward

;

countries

to which they had no access until after the days of

Tahtar domination had passed away; and as for practical success, let

be an example.

the

now noble family of Demidov earliest known Demidov was

The

a working miner on the Ural,

whom Peter

the Great

found so very industrious and improving a

man, that he gave him ground round about a

style of

in perpetuity a tract of

little

iron-mine which he had

already successfully opened.

This enabled the calculating workman not only to

become a master, and extend

own

property, but to save up

his operations

money

until

on his

he could

purchase a certain adjoining tract of land;

when he had accomplished

and

that desirable event, he

straightway opened there a gold-mine, which alone vol.

II.

0

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290

THREE

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

soon yielded him £100,000 per annum.

Demidov, according

called original

This so-

to Dr. Granville,

was succeeded by an only son; and when and the property was divided

his turn died

lie in

among

three grandsons, each of them became possessed of

£150,000 per annum ; and by

come

as refined in mind,

this

time they had be-

and princely

in soul,

and

as devoted to accumulating art-treasures and to ho-

nouring real

artists in music, painting,

and poetry, as any long-established

sculpture,

the longest recorded line of descent, and the

numerous quarterings

Oh

that gold

!

gold

with

aristocrat

most

in his shield. !

it

does produce some magni-

ficent effects in the world, write the moralists

what

will. Yea, though even the chemists join issue and contend, " What the golden age, the age of

they

!

human

every perfection in

society

pooh

?

being the least oxidizable of metals,

is

!

—gold

therefore

found, though in soft earth, yet in a purely metallic condition,

and consequently mere cannibal savages

can both collect and fashion purposes

;

so be

you

the earliest of ages,

at once to all their

sure, that the age of gold

and marked man

intellectual condition.

their ores

it

was

in his lowest

The separation of metals from

and oxides demands the growth of no small

amount of chemical science; and when man had copper in use besides gold, therein was proof of his

advancing

civilization.

When,

too.

man had

NATURAL SCIENCE. further learned to free iron from the

by which the oxygen of primaeval up, that in ciety

;

itself indicated

and what

shall

still

firmer grip

ages held

it

locked

a yet higher stage of so-

be said of us in future days,"

continues the chemist, pluming himself not a

" when we

—metals ordinary

shall

until within these

man

little,

have made aluminium and silicium few years never seen by

except as most unmitigated oxides

more abundantly employed even than Such, a chemist's theory

;

iron itself?"

but the actual history

of the metals in order of creation, as far as yet made

out by Russian geology,

is different,

though not

less

attractive, or

even exciting; for there, in the book

of nature,

seems surely indicated not only that

it

the iron was older than the copper, and the copper

than the gold, but that

this latter is quite a recent

production of the earth, and

its

appearance on the

surface must have been nearly coincident with the

time of the destruction of many Siberian mammoths.

There

is

at first sight, a

pretty in this idea, that

mammoth was

something almost too

when

the brute force of the

about to cease upon earth, and the

intellectual being

man

to appear, that precisely then

should have been produced a material of which the

mammoths

with

all their

whatever, and with which thing,

power could make no use

man

can do almost every-

—but yet the case does appear very well

monstrated in

its

de-

general character by the three

o

2

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THREE

292

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

work on the

philosophic authors* of the important

geology of Russia, which

we have quoted

and our poor earth-ball

is

so often

therefore not that old,

and used-up clod of barren matter that some

effete,

would make

it

out to be in these later times,

but

is

now, on the contrary, producing richer mineral and metallic fruits than ever

Of these

fruits,

it

did of old.

the Ural Mountains have in their

way borne the most prodigious

Along their

crops.

whole extent, stretching nearly in a meridian line from latitude 48° to 70°, there have prevailed

through long

geological Jiges, roastings and burnings from internal plutonic

fire,

which have metamorphosed the old

palaeozoic sedimentary strata with their half-formed

mud-stones, into the richest and most crystalline rocks

;

but at the same time twisting, elevating, in-

verting them, charging

them

in clefts

and veins with

igneous rocks, and causing the geological

map

of the

Uralsf to become one of the modern wonders of the world, as well as giving abundant employment to the

magnificent Imperial

factory at Ekaterineburg

on

the Siberian side of the mountains, to be constantly

employing unnumbered horse-power in cutting and polishing vases in a greater series of

mineral materials than

all

more

beautiful

Western Europe has ever

yet seen brought together. * Murchison, Verneuil, and Keyserling.

f See largo

Map

in

Murchison, Verneuil, and Keyserling.

NATURAL SCIENCE

Whether the earth's

the metals are simply exudations from

when exposed

strata

cooking

among

from the surface

interior, or secretions

mineralogists

;

ages to these enormous

for

we

influences,

believe

is

unsettled

still

but the relative dates of ma-

and the gold are under order of superposition " is

nifestations of the copper

no

The

sort of doubt.

' '

the most certain thing in geology

;

and

this

shows

that in the Permian period, the rocks of the Ural were

charged with copper ore alone

nothing therefore

;

besides the rocks and copper ores abraded, or salts

of copper, were washed down from their sides into the old Permian

sea,

and nothing

in its dried-up strata

by miners now.

existed in the rocks then,

been washed down

else is

in the

it

must

same

found there If gold

had

inevitably have

direction as the cop-

per,

and would have remained there as securely

our

own

times

;

but there

is

not a trace of

it

to

in all

those pre-tertiary strata.

In the post-tertiary washings of the Urals, on the contrary, gold per,

and

is

is

found conspicuously along with cop-

derived from rocks evidently intruded by

plu tonic force in that later age. So at least our greatest geologists fore,

when

have

settled.

In the

first

period there-

the Urals were seething under one degree

of heat, they gave off coppery exhalations

;

but when

a more violent degree was experienced in the second period,

and the watershed of the mountains was

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

294

greatly turned from Permia to Siberia, gold appeared

on the scene.

Whether longer plu tonic will

roas tings of the Ural

produce more gold or something

luable than gold,

is

of Russia,

more va-

really a question for the future

of geology to discuss

up another meridian

still

;

or, will

strip

nature prefer to open

through the

and by treating

it

alluvial plains

in a similar

manner

to

the Urals, produce supplies ofjron and copper, pla-

tinum and gold, marbles, jaspers, and precious stones, for

many

still

unborn races of men, and empires of

other tongues ?

All that

we

absolutely

know

is,

on

one hand, that these substances have come to light in the only strip so treated

many

to the present time,

of the products being positively the very fos-

siliferous strata altered

hand, almost fectly

up

all

by heat

;

while, on the other

Russia in Europe

is

a basin of per-

raw matter which has never yet been exposed

to this grandest of culinary operations.

Judging merely from Wernerian mineralogical

as-

pects, the materials of the under-stratum of the soil

and south and east of

at St. Petersburg,

it,

ought

from their bog-like softness to be the most recent possible formation

them

to have

;

yet do the fossils contained show

been of the

lurian periods.

A

earliest

Cambrian and

Si-

splendid result this of the English

zoological geology, as opposed to the

neralogic form of the same science

;

German mi-

and

it

was

in-

teresting in the Russian School of Mines, to find that

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NATURAL SCIENCE. in their

fossil

department,

their

all

295 exemplary series

had been brought from England, and seemed to be fully appreciated by the head men as in that coun-

as

try

itself.

The

existence too of native early fossils about St.

Petersburg, especially when so well preserved as they are,

a further proof that the Russian strata have

is

not been exposed to any notable degree of plutonic heat, which must have obliterated such remains, and

then have been softened again by the action of water ;

but

that,

sheets,

though elevated and depressed

broad

in

many times above and below the level

of some

antique ocean, they have never yet been really touched

by

the earth's internal

No.

With

4, Frontispiece to Vol. II.).

its

nary broad and flat plains therefore, and penetrable a condition, Russia it

may be all

is

and

at present, whatever

many

kinds.

the north and north-east of the country

decidedly a forest-producing region there

extraordi-

in so soft

in future geological ages, eminently a land

for agricultural pursuits of

Thus

Map,

(see Geological

fires

know

full well

;

is

and peasants

that nothing they can do

is

so profitable as attend to the woods, and supply

other parts of the empire therewith.

south again, with

its

shallow

soil

In the extreme

and steppe

plains,

trees will not grow, but grass does abundantly

therefore has horses, oxen,

them

;

that

become the grazing region, equally and sheep, and

to raising them,

for

and

alone, the inhabitants will confine themselves

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THREE

296

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

even in spite of Imperial enactments endeavouring to turn their attention to ploughing the land

and

raising cereal crops.

But

between the extreme north

in certain tracts

and south,

is

the region of the Blacksoil or Tchor-

nozem, and there the peasant requires no inducement to take to corn-growing

;

and indeed every single

peasant in Russia understands the Great Empire well as a whole,

and how to

several capacities, each

subservience to the other. in the north

utilize to

the utmost its

one in assistance of and

Hence he

what might be more

will

plished in the middle or the south, and

its

own utmost

accom-

vice versa;

intuitively prefers that the speciality of

should produce

never do

profitably

fruit,

but

each region

and then he

encourages commerce to step in between and bind Russians of

all

regions together by their mutual de-

pendence on each other's industry.

So

far as

mouzhik he

is

is

corn-growing

has not indeed

and

is

concerned, evidently the

right in attending to

on the tchornozem,

tile soil, level, rootless, it

is

its

it fully,

only

when

for that is a region of fer-

and

stoneless for the plough;

equal anywhere in the world,

only approached by the somewhat similar for-

mation of the prairies of Iowa and

Illinois in

North

America.

A

famous account of these

1859, by James Caird, M.P.,

was given

latter

in his

'

Prairie

in

Farm-

ing in America;' but while he has been eager in

NATURAL SCIENCE*

297

praising their fertility as well as their suitability to instant and unlimited corn-raising, and has compared

them

to the plains of

Scotland, their

—

still

Russia.

it is

Lombardy and

the carsen of

strange that he has not mentioned

closer resemblance to the

Yet when he

is

tchornozem of

describing "the millions

of acres of land more or less undulating, covered

with grass only, not

and the

mould, with

trees, inexhaustible in fertility,

consisting externally of a rich black

soil

sand to make

sufficient

it

friable,

the

'surface' varying in depth from twelve inches to se-

veral feet," he seems to be describing the Russian prairie territory itself;

closer

when he comes

and the resemblance

is

even

to the chemical constituents

for thus he writes at p. 77

" The chemical com-

:

position has been ascertained for me, by Professor

Vcelcker, consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England, to

ples of prairie different

and

whom

soil for analysis,

I sent four

brought by

sam-

me from

distant points of the land belonging

to the Illinois Central Railway Company, and bears

out completely the high character for practice

fertility

which

and experience had already proved these

soils to possess.

analysis, as it

The most

appears to me,

noticeable feature in the is

the very large quantity

of nitrogen which each of the soils contains, nearly twice as

much

as the

most fertile

soils in Britain.

In

each case, taking the soil at an average depth of ten o 3

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298

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

inches, an acre of these prairies will contain

of three tons of nitrogen

wheat with

its

;

straw contains about fifty-two pounds

of nitrogen, there

is

thus a natural store of

in this soil sufficient for

ammonia

more than a hundred wheat-

In Dr. Vcelcker's words,

crops.

upwards

and as a heavy crop of

amount of nitrogen, and the

'it is this

large

beautiful state of divi-

sion, that imparts a peculiar character to these soils,

and distinguish them so favourably. before analysed soils

nor do I find any record of than

I

have never

which contain so much nitrogen, soils richer in

nitrogen

these.'

Yet

it is

precisely this

same richness

in nitrogen

as well as the beautiful state of subdivision of the particles,

which M. Payen, in

his analysis of the

sian tchornozem, chiefly dwells on, results of the tally

thus

two chemists on

Rus-

and the numerical

their respective soils

:

American Pbairie

Soil.

* Organic matter and water of combination

7*54.

Alumina

280

Oxides of Iron

4*95

Lime

0*44

Magnesia

0*45

065

Potash

Soda

trace

Phosphoric Acid

0 08

Sulphuric Acid

0 07

Carbonic Acid, traces of Ciilorine, and loss Soluble

074 17-72

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NATURAL SCIENCE.

299 17-72

Soluble

Alumina

3*87

Lime

093

Magnesia

0*58

Potash

104 082

Soda

75-04

Silica

82 28

Insoluble

10000 * Containing Nitrogen Equal

to

....

0*30

Ammonia

0*36

Russian Tchoenozem. Organic and combustible matter

.

.

.

Alumina

6*95

5'04

Oxides of Iron

5 62

Lime

082

Magnesia

0*98 1-21

Chls. Alcals

20 62

Soluble

636

Alumina

Lime

v

.

traces

024

Magnesia

71*56

Silica

78*16

Insoluble

98-78

Azote in

1000.

Normal Matter

1*66

Dry Matter

1*74

Organic Matter

To which add

:

MM.

24*99

Murchison, Verneuil, and Keyserling

" The analysis of M. Payen

indicates the pre-

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

300

sence in a hundred parts of the original earth, of

combustible organic matter 6*95

containing 2*45 of

;

nitrogen! or in other words, 4*140 grammes of the

earth yield 9*498 cubic centimetres of nitrogen or azotic

gas,"

And

to this

immense amount of nitrogen,

combined with the extremely

they emphatically attribute the productiveness

silica,

of the is

fine levigation of the

Perhaps

soil.

owing

too,

no

little

of

to that latter element of the

its

blackness

more than mi-

croscopic levigation of the particles, just as Sir Da-

vid Brewster's broken crystal of quartz exhibited by

made up

reflected light a black surface

;

fibres or particles too small in

diameter to reflect any

because

of

rays of light.

Such then

is this

remarkable agricultural quint-

Europe has so much

essence, of which Russia in as " a good-sized

European kingdom," and southern

Siberia probably

much more

its

;

adapted, too, often by

In the

subsoil as well for fruit-trees as for corn.

case of the trans-Ural region, that eminent authority

on farming

statistics,

Baron Haxthausen, in the pages

of R. Farie, delivers himself thus soil

:

—" The

ordinary

of Siberia yields a return of six to ten times the

seed; but particularly

fertile districts,

such as the

southern parts of the government of Tomsk, yield

from

fifteen to

twenty ; the country near Nertchinsk

even produces sometimes sixty times the seed. cultivation of the

ground requires very

little

The

trouble

i

NATURAL SCIENCE. or care, a small one-horsed plough in most districts

hardly scratching the ground

;

but this

to produce the most splendid crops. soils

no manure can be used.

are cultivated, are

the best

The products which

summer wheat

rye, barley, oats, peas, poppies,

is sufficient

On

in great quantities,

hemp, and

flax."

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302

CHAPTER SOMEWHAT OF

IX.

POLITICS. October.

On

a dull October afternoon

we were expecting

pleasure of several St. Petersburg friends

take tea with us, and rations

my wife had made all

and got everything ready

and except one

little

no lucifer-matches, to

The

the candles. front

item, for

the

coming

to

her prepa-

fully in time, save

—there

light, alike

were found

the samovar and

old French garcon of the hotel in

had received the day previous

full

twenty-four

kopeiks, and had promised to bring us no less than

twelve boxes of matches, but he had perfectly scarce ever since,

!

just step straight."

it

was

up the

And

and looked in

himself

and there was not a

match left in all our rooms. u Oh if that's all you're whose duty

made

in

want

single

street

he

of," said

to assist at such a juncture,

and buy you a box

'c

Pll

full,

with that, he went out of the house

at a druggist's not

very far

off,

where

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SOMEWHAT OF

303

POLITICS

on previous occasions there had been so in

making them understand what

little

trouble

particular photo-

graphical chemical might be needed, and obtaining it,

good, cheap, and in abundance, that he

them plump cernedly as

But oh

!

for a

box of

had been

if it

!

was

It

London

in

now asked

almost as unconor Edinburgh.

to see the absurd confusion so simple a

demand made among shop

lucifers

fuse amongst

the

young men

throwing a

like

them

;

shell

in the large

with a lighted

and they mostly

sidled off as

quick as they conveniently could out of reach of the unpropitious question, and one only

on being

specially forced for

among them,

an explanation, conde-

scended to impart some oracular sentences about

" the points of the

streets,

and times and seasons/*

which only made the matter darker than

So pondering over

this

ever.

unexpected trouble, and go-

ing on further to the Nevski Prospekt, the applicant entered a tobacconist's. u Surely here, where they sell cigars, they will furnish

means

for lighting the

same."

Blandly advanced the proprietor from a group of friends with

whom

he was conversing, and wished to

know how he could serve his customer? u By being so obliging as to let him have

a

little

box of lucifers."

But

lo

!

how

his face blackened, as he

went back

indignant to his friends in the back shop without

deigning the smallest reply

!

Yet what was there

to

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

304 offend

for as far as the

?

had only asked a

humble stranger knew, he

perfectly civil question.

A grocer was then tried with bad fortune ; then a

stationer's

;

equal and strangely

then a toy-maker's

;

and more than one wax-candlemaker ; but everywhere offended looks were returned.

Was

the Nevski then too fashionable a region?

Side streets were tried next, and every likely-looking

shop was entered, but without the smallest success.

So

in desperation with the

advance of evening, the

would-be domestic helper rushed on the Gostinoi Dvor

Russia fers

is sold,

;

for there,

all

the

way

to

where everything in

so simple a matter as a

box of

But on

ought positively to be had.

luci-

arriving,

rows and rows of shops were examined without finding anything of the sort.

Next, examining the

heterogeneous collections of the arcade, candlesticks

met the

match, emblazoned thereon. but

it

to nil

was empty, and as it,

and

at last a

stalls,

lit-

lucifer-

Hastily he opened

it,

to anything being required

the boy in charge pretended the most per-

fect innocence.

in

eye,

outside the

box with the happy name of cnniKa or

tle

all

stalls

and with

Other boys there were at other their

boxes also marked cmriua, but

empty, and not a single

lucifer

the greatest market-place of

seemed procurable all

the north of

Europe.

In despair and wonder the unhappy being turned

.

SOMEWHAT OP

305

1'0L1TIC8.

homewards, but made one more, quite a tempt, determining that general grocer's.

It

it

was a

should be the

civil

last, at

cellar establishment,

of a very omnium gatherum description.

was

forlorn at-

The man

So making a com-

and perfect Russian.

mencement by buying some sugar first, and its

whiteness

then put the

;

Alas!

fearful question.

man must box of

moment

ceive no

But the long-

a private drawer,

in a piece of paper, pressed

stranger's acceptance, and would re*

payment whatever

By now

seemed

afterwards he took a

lucifers out of

wrapped half its contents

them on the

!

it

have been touched at the visible

disappointment, for a partly used

praising

the wanderer paid him his price, and

now

as inopportune here as anywhere else

bearded

a

and

hastening

samovar-fire was

lit

for

them.

home with

this rare prize, the

just in time,

and when some

twenty minutes afterwards most of our friends had arrived

;

and, seated about the tea-table, were ap-

plauding the vigorous jets of steam rushing out from

under the brazen charcoal

what

fire

lid,

beneath,

and the

—we

brilliant glare of the

asked them quietly in

sort of shops a resident for the time being in

St. Petersburg, could purchase lucifer-matches ?

question though easier asked than answered after

;

A for

a general pause, one said he did not know, and

another that he had never thought about

it,

and

another that he had never heard the question asked before.

The

universal

explanation

however ap-

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THREE CTTIES

IN RUSSIA.

peared in the end to be, that while there are some police regulations restricting to a certain extent the sale of combustibles, there is a special

feeling

among

all

and powerful

Russian men, that trading even in

the best lucifer-matches of the present day,

though they may be power,

at large manufactories

by steam-

a feminine occupation, and ought to be

is

a peculiar preserved

left

made

field,

to poor old

women;

who, visiting from house to house with their stock, always contrive to

keep every family of per-

manent residents supplied with ful fire-producers as

little

as

many

of the use-

they can consume, at a cost of

never more than half-a-dozen kopeiks at a time, and in a

manner that enables the private circumstances

of the poor tottering old sellers, as cessitous, to

When

ladies of the higher classes.

our friends had

first

arrived, there

talking about the weather,

its

England

first

itself,

was some

dark drizzly cha-

racter in this October time, just as if in

less ne-

be inquired into at frequent intervals

by benevolent

little

more or

we had been

but they also interspersed these

beginnings of conversation with truly Russian

notice of the pigeons,

had some

i.e.

the doves.

special flock they

Each person

were so fond of feeding;

and through the fortichka, or the in the double windows, they

little

opening pane

had no sooner thrown

out on the ledge the crumbs of breakfast, than the beautiful birds ters,

came flying down from all distant quar-

showing their iridescent and grey feathers and

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SOMEWHAT OP

307

POLITICS.

ruby-red feet most charmingly to advantage, close

by through the transparent

glass

;

but then to think

of their stupidity, for while they were very unpolitely

pushing each other on one

side,

and clambering over

each other's backs on the window-sill, to get

some

at

of the crumbs, they seemed to have no notion

many

how

valuable scraps they were kicking over the

edge of the

to the

sill

The

ground below.

clever

jackdaws did though ; and while not daring to compete with the sacred birds of Kussia, for

human hands

direct,

gifts

from

they just alighted on the ground

immediately under the happy window, and there usually had

all

the biggest of the crumbs uncon-

sciously dropped

down

to them.

w By the bye," we asked, during a pause of questions that had been administered to us for a time, con-

cerning sundry great literary characters of Scotland,

" what was the

result of the recent f6te, as to the

edict which every one

lished that

was expecting would be pub-

morning; though no two persons were

then agreed as to what likely to

u Ah

!

prove?"

its

contents or purport were

(see p. 201, Vol. II.)

do you remember

all

that talk ?

Well

then," said one of the guests, " there came out a

something which none of us had expected least

;

it

took us completely by surprise

!

it

in the

was,

a

Why

should

we not have expected so liberal and merciful an

ukase,

general amnesty to all convicted Poles

!

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308

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

do you ask served

it,

Why,

?

because the Poles have not de-

and they never

make

use they will

And

plottings.

of

it,

say

!

deserve

be to enter into

it.

more

then what would they be at with

their eternal conspiracies

not

The only

will will

?

Regain their

Well that sounds very

liberty,

well to those

know and have never experienced

you

who do own

in their

proper persons, how these northern sons of Ishmael

used the said liberty when they had of liberty

it

it,

and what sort

But without pursuing that any fur-

was.

moment to look how would you like

ther at present, and agreeing for the at things only as they

now

stand,

us Russians always to be taking the side of your out-

and-out repealers in Ireland, and insisting on

it

that

they should be allowed to form an independent Euro-

pean State liberty

in

Connaught or Munster ; where sacred

would then have an

altar erected to

her at

last, for in

England, Scotland, and Protestant Ire-

land there

is

nothing but rampant tyranny?

Oh,

what horrid things we have read from time to time of England and the English in some of the Irish

newspapers

One

!

Heaven does not Such things as

is

fall

only surprised that the

fire

of

on your wicked Saxon people.

Irish orators in their public speeches

have denounced against English Kings and Queens

and how they have prayed French armies and American sympathizers, to come and free them, the brave

and suffering

Irish,

from the cursed bondage in which

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SOMEWHAT OP the rule of

down

309

POLITICS.

Queen Victoria keeps them, grinding

their souls to the earth

!

Why

don't you let

those long-suffering angels go out of your clutches,

and permit them

kingdom

to form a free

for themselves,

and independent

where cruel Britain

will

cease from troubling ?"

" Oh

that would be absurd," said the English

!

champion ; "

who

it is

only a section of the Irish people

are raising those cries,

steady section too

shown any

a section who have never yet

;

capacity for ruling themselves, or under-

standing what liberty

power

and a very noisy and un-

into their

own

is

when they have got a

hands.

little

In the present day we

want large and self-defending kingdoms everywhere,

and

if

the Irish don't like forming part of the Bri-

tish empire, they should have fought better

centuries ago

but they lost

when

it

some

was a question of fighting

fairly then,

and must take the conse-

quences now, just as the Burgundians, or they of

Normandy in France so quietly do. And I cannot see why you should be more interested in these vain and

baseless attempts at Limerick or Cork, to esta-

blish

what would do the world so

Irish liberty in

English liberty

little

good

efforts to

promote the

if

in

fair tree of British

which spreads over half the world

" Then,

as wild

Connemara, and take no interest

you think that that

is

for us to do," replied the Eussian,

99 !

the right thing

"pray explain

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

310

why it our

is

that you never

efforts to secure

seem

to take

any interest

in

something so grand and stable

as Russian liberty, but are always for the small and

impracticable assisted by

kingdom of Poland. When the

Poles,

pagan Lithuanians and Mohammedan

Tahtars, were dominant over Christian Russia, you

never gave us any assistance in rising against them

you never protested against their persecutions and cruelties of us,

even as

valrous Crusaders never left

and your

came our way

at

all,

chi-

but

us single-handed to cope with the real bulk of

Yet the moment that our strug-

Asiatic warriors. gles

late as 1612,

for

liberty

were crowned with success, then

you immediately found so much to say

for

*

the poor

Poles/ and have been ever since almost deifying them

They

as solely identified with the idea of freedom.

paid you certainly, and of falling sistance

down

your

at

still

feet

and countenance

pay you the compliment

and begging

in every little

for

We trusted to our good cause

anything.

and to God, who pro-

and nerves the hand of those strug-

gling for freedom occasion, a

as-

matter ; but

we did not flatter you by asking your help in tects the right,

your

mere

'

;

and behold, how on many an

men/

has

field in their

own

handful of Muscovia's

beaten whole armies of Poles in the

country, and stormed their strongest defences.

If

we

have lately been obliged to restrain the insurrectionary

amongst them with

severity, did not

you

also use

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SOMEWHAT OP

311

POLITICS.

severe measures with your Irish rebels, at an equal

length of time after their too,

first

subjugation

?

you never had the same pith and marrow

in the

—

in that

necessity of your proceedings which we had, free Irishmen having sacked, burned,

your

and destroyed

London, and massacred

capital of

tants age after age, might do so again in

Though,

wholesome

its if

inhabi-

not kept

Yet, notwithstanding they

restraint.

never did you any such cruel mischief, you nearly exterminated them in early times, the Irish say."

u But you

can't

depend

returned the other ;

does

all

"

has nothing in

though

that noisy minority which

it is

the sayings you hear

bluster has two meanings it

it,

on what they say,"

at all

;

Their language of

of.

for themselves privately,

and no intention whatever,

to the world outside

and

in

struction, or in its ordinary sense tion, it

seems to threaten such

when by chance

grammatical con-

and usual accepta-

terrible things.

Why,

staying in France a few years since, I

tried as a serious problem, to eliminate from

French

papers quoting Irish ones, what might be the real events going on in the United Kingdom, but was

obliged to give

not

much

mans

it

up

as hopeless.

The French were

disturbed by what they read, but the Ger-

in Paris could not

amongst them

comprehend

it

at all

;

and

I used to hear of dreadful revolutions

having broken out in Hyde Park, the whole of the bishops being slaughtered, the churches demolished,

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

312

and a reign of anarchy and atheism commenced, merely because Parliament had closed the publichouses of the poor on Sunday

;

'

and

it

added one

is/

of our informants, as he quoted his journal-authority, %

the most signal and remarkable feature of England,

that not the smallest question even of police-obser-

vances can be raised there, without agitating society to

its

very foundations/

Gallo-Irish tales, fian

After a week or two of such

mixed up with rumours of the

English soldiery in the

slaughtered to a

man by

sister-isle,

ruf-

having been

the indignant peasantry

rising in mass, for the defence of their

homes and

recognition of their ancient Celtic kings,

—I

in

really

began to think sometimes, that perhaps there had been a serious disturbance

to the extent

of a few

broken heads."

"And

a very philosophical conclusion to

come to

on

the interpretation of words that have been passed

u All

through a hostile medium," said the Russian.

that modification, you confess to have found neces-

sary

when

straits of

the news had merely travelled across the

Dover, to a country where English

strange language to yourself,

!

Only be pleased then to

what would have become of the

is

no

figure

tale,

had

the English language been utterly un-understood in

France, even to

its

very letters

;

and

distance of twenty-two miles, there

if,

instead of a

had been

fifteen

hundred miles intervening, occupied by many

dif-

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SOMEWHAT OF

313

POLITICS.

ferent nations, each receiving the news from the other, and adding to or subtracting from

ing to their several

Yet that

tastes.

is

it

accord-

precisely the

case with our Russian news as reported in English

newspapers.

What

English editor knows Rus-

sian, or even pretends to it?

Moskva

The name of any

journal obliged to be quoted by you being

almost invariably given in French,

sufficiently

shows

that French papers have in reality been extracted

from; and have not they their own purposes and views in politics to represent ? received their news through the

and who are so frightened

all ?

medium of Germans

to their inmost souls at

the mere mention of Russians, as

Germans above

But they again only

Germans,— Prussian

Talk to them,

men

or boys, of

Russian soldiers, and they tremble from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet j* and what

between palpitating with vasion,

and even

to herself

still,

though Russia has conquered

some seaboard

# In the shape of

'*

fear at the prospect of in,

at last, striving in an under-

History for the Volunteers," a Philo- German

has recently recounted to a public meeting in Scotland,

when the national defence was

left to

how in

Prussia,

the regular army, the country was

subjected by the French in a single battle; but that

when the people

afterwards rose a* Volunteers, they beat the French back to their country.

This

is

own

evidently only another form of the innumerable

deductions from "Jena and 1813;" from which, says Baron Haxthausen, what has not been deduced has ventured to the above extent, the question,

VOL.

IT.

that between Jena

!

But we hope no

true Prussian

and baa altogether

left

out of

and 1813, took place the not

P

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I

I

314

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

hand manner

keep her out of

to

and

full

free

commu-

nion with Western people, they spin the most horri-

European neigh-

ble moral accounts of their Eastern

bours

and in that way contrive to retain a very profit-

;

able trade as

much as possible in their own hands.

not even the Germans get first

hand ;

for,

all

their Russian

But

news at

learned people though they be consi-

know so seldom anything of our language, that our common people call them, on comingamongst us, Nyemtsi, or the dumb and hence they dered, they

;

are induced, too often, to copy their Russian infor-

mation from versions thereof prepared by the Poles.

Thus you

English news of Russia goes through

see,

many more

perverting mediums and a longer round

than French news of England can ever do/' '

Oh

!

we put

but then/

'

in,

consider what our

friend said of the embellishing faculty possessed

that very small fourths of the fl

istic

Very

party of Irish,

news and

well,

and

is

all

who make

the noise

by

three-

J !

not that precisely a character-

of the noisy Polish faction also

of the steady-going there, have

all

?

The majority

of

them entered

long since with zeal into the promotion of Russian unknown Russian campaign

of 1812, whose conclusion as regarded

the French, was announced by Bonaparte's December Bulletin, "

The Grand Army

is

no more!"

diers then to fight against,

ing on their

French

own

easier in

side,

With 400,000

fewer hostile sol-

and with the victorious Russians combat-

no wonder the Prussians found beating the

1813 than at Jena.

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SOMEWHAT OP liberty

;

315

POLITICS.

and the development, through

that, of the

grand Slavonian destiny. You saw General Chodzko Well, was he

here, did not you, a few months ago

?

working

and her glorious

for the greatness of Russia

future of Christianizing and civilizing Asia, as a good

Russian subject ;

or,

was he wearing black clothes

for

the very bad stand-up fight which his countrymen

made an age since at Praga was he breaking the Warsaw shop -windows at night wherever coloured ;

garments had been exhibited during the day; and

was he writing slimy letters of thanks

to the English

Parliament, and to English ladies for noticing some

highly decorated accounts of those gallant street proceedings, and of various other matters which so few

of your M.P.s understand, or would be able to read

a genuine report

of,

even

if

printed and put into

their hands in the language of the country where the

events occurred ?

Nor

is

our eminent Surveyor-Ge-

neral of the Caucasus a solitary example, for

we had

many whole regiments of Poles in the Crimea how many went over to you ? None V

;

and

3

'

Ah, but you yourself proved

an Iberian guest,

by

all

'

how you

the nations of Europe.

just

now/

retorted

are hated and detested

Fifteen hundred miles

separate you from ourselves, and exactly fifteen hun-

dred miles of hostile peoples protest against you.

You may when

colour up the Polish affair as you like, but

the voice of

all

the free nations of the earth

-

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316 is

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

against your rule, you must have something very

tyrannical about vou/

" French and Germans may whisper such tales into your ears," said the Russian, " about us ; but then they come here and against you

;

us exactly the

blame or merit on either

as to

settled, there is

of

tell

all

same things

so that pretty well cancels their opinion side.

And

that being

another free nation, in fact the freest

nations and not the least civilized, viz. the

United States of America, who take kindly to Russia, but declare on oath that you are the greatest tyrants

under the sun ; nay what to

your

face,

rebellion it

again.

and

is

more, they

and have held to in war,

If there

in you, would so

it

you so

tell

through a successful

and are perfectly ready to prove

was not something

many

millions of

lineage and speaking your

own

radically

bad

of your

own

men

language, be thus

with hatred and detestation of you

filled

this is a feeling

there,

too,

And

?

if

which your proceedings have excited

and you have had other insurrections against

your rule in Canada, at the Cape of Good Hope,

and

in India, are

you exactly the persons

ing off attention to your

to

be

own improvement in

and meekness and favour with mankind,

to

leav-

grace

come and

-

throw stones at us in every step we take internal

Government?"

for our

A reply to this was

own

duly

at-

tempted, but degenerated before long into mere question

and answer about minutiae of Polish character.

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SOMEWHAT OF

"Are

POLITICS.

men of "Well

the Poles as good troops as the

Russia, do you ask?" said the Muscovite.

there are some very fine fellows amongst them

;

but

as a whole they are specifically opposed to Russians

whether

in so far they

you would

prefer

them

yourself shall judge.

;

Irish,

and

as comrades or subjects,

you

become

your

like

The Poles then

are warlike,

inasmuch as they are fond of war, devoting themfor pleasurable excitement,

many know-

ing of no other occupation; fighting too,

for fighting's

selves to

sake.

it

Hence, while every Russian peasant dislikes

war, and

flies

from a summons to join the army

whenever he possibly can, the Poles are ready, both to furnish the prescribed quota of selves,

and to be substitutes

mouzhik,

if

Yet when

it

for

men

many

for

them-

a Russian

the latter can pay handsomely therefor.

comes

to the final rub in actual fight-

ing between the voluntary Polish, and the forcibly enlisted Russian, troops, the latter are found to be

composed of the sterner

stuff of the

two

;

and, just

as Cromwell, with a small English army went smash-

ing through Ireland, and

all

its

from one end of their green land

native fire-eaters

to the other, so did

Suvorov, with a small body of Russian soldiers, carve his

way with

ease through

you think we can take those

all

Poland.

fortifications

V

'Do said a

young Russian soldier to an elder one on piquet-guard the night before the storming of Praga.

'

I think

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318

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

not,'

answered the old one 'they are very strong.'

'But

if

;

other.

we '

are ordered to take them?' returned

That

alters the question/ said the old

' if we are ordered to take them, of course.' n

we

shall take

the

man, them

'Oh! but then, you are a nation of slaves/ broke in the Iberian disturber of the peace; 'and your soldier's talk quite proves flat, dull,

it

who

for

;

ever heard such a tame,

earthy speech, from freeborn

men

!

Where

the vivacity, the sparkling wit, which in Ireland

is

would have made such a sentiment overpoweringly delightful

The

!

stick,* that

fact

is,

your

men were

was the fountain of

freeing you, he

may

carry

rise at last,

tell

them that

on too long ; and the

serfs will

But, however, I can it

and

comedy. They'll

his Ministers are playing a beautiful

they

the

You're

and though your

slaves all of you, complete niggers,

Emperor has been talking about

never free you.

afraid of

their valour.

and then

you'll see bloody scenes indeed.

The French Revolution

will

be nothing to your Rus-

sian Revolution that is to be.

The

serfs will all rise

with their great axes and cleave you in twain, and

burn you

in your

wooden houses; and

only day of freedom which will ever

that's the

dawn

for

your

unfortunate bondsmen.' * See Dr. Granville's full

St. Petersburg, vol.

ii.

pp. 437-444, for a

account of the pros and cons of the Russian knout, and the

British cat-o'-nine-tails, in theory

and

practice.

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SOMEWHAT OP

319

POLITICS.

This speech was so out-and-out, that our Russian friends were not a

seeming

to think

little

pained for

its

was quite useless

it

utterly foregone conclusions, remained

speaker

Whereupon we stepped

M.

and began,

in,

and

to reason with silent,

the wild man, unopposed, go on hurling

vengeance against both them* and

;

and

all sorts

let

of

their country. ' '

By the way,

Iberianus, talking of being burnt to death in a

wooden

house, has

extreme danger

it

ever occurred to you, what an

we

all

dwellers in this hotel are con-

stantly threatened with,

blishment should take

if

the front part of the esta-

Here we are numerously

fire ?

populating an interior court, backed up both on either side

walls of

and behind, by the high and unscaleable

much

larger buildings

munication with the

and our only com-

;

street, is that

long low passage

through the house which forms the front of the

So

if

that takes fire

first,

choked up with burning beams and the as

it is

then sure to do, to

hotel.

and the passage gets

all

fire

spreads,

our tenements sur-

rounding the court, and to that great block of lodgings which almost

fills

its

centre,

—how

are

we

to

escape?" * Russia herself, as a nation, behaves very similarly. political writers in

Western lands have been most

misrepresentations of

all

When

frantic in their

her proceedings, and denouncing every act of

progressive reform in her constitutional government as savage acta of

unmitigated despotism, or barbarous cruelty,

—she merely " stands on

!" the opposite shore, and looks at the waves and the sky

320

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

M. Iberianus admitted would be very '

that the

difficult for

flower,

safety,

other lodgers to pluck;

but for myself/ said he, chuckling at his own

sweet prospect amid the general destruction,

manage

;

I

it

inside,

I can

my

would just twist the sheets from

into a rope, fasten one end of

(

bed

and then

let

myself down outside through the window/

"

And how would

that help ?

99

instantly replied a

" You would, with a great

quick-witted lady.

of trouble, have let yourself into the very into

same

deal

court

which you might have descended with perfect

by the stone

simplicity,

rooms

;

into

which court

have similarly descended

staircase of all ;

your suite of

the other lodgers must

but to escape from which,

with the whole of the buildings confining

it

on

fire,

and the blocked-up passage of the front of the house already in flames,— is precisely the problem

you

a

we

wish

to solve."

On hearing this, M. Iberianus was doubled up in moment had a typical hat knocked over his eyes

and

;

flattened

down

;

and then and there became

in a dismal reverie, trying to find out

some

lost

private

common to all. we took the op-

escape for himself, from the danger

So during the

lull

thus afforded,

portunity of asking one of our Eussian friends, what

were the main

facts concerning this tangled ques-

tion of Russian serfdom, as understood in their local politics ?

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321

CHAPTER

X.

SOCIAL EXTREMES. October.

There was no

hesitation

on the Russian's part in

telling of serfs and serfdom

come

but the subject did not

;

simply as had u If we should reply to you," said

to its conclusion so shortly or so

been expected.

he, "that Russian serfdom*

is

not slavery,

system which has remained in force turies

and that a

many cen-

for so

amongst a people who are continually reform-

ing and advancing, cannot be altogether bad,

—you

might be inclined with another of your countrymen to hint, that that

is

very indifferent logic

dom of the people and their power made pute.

in their favour,

;

the free-

to get enactments

being the very question in dis-

Let us therefore take

it

in another manner,

and inquire of the peasants themselves how they find,

and what they think

they are

in.

* In Poland, the old serf law, sive

of,

the condition which

'Whose property still

are you, Serf Ivan

in force,

is

mucli more oppres-

than that of Russia proper.

P 3

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

322 Ivanovitch

Boyar who

V — My

master's/ he replies,

'

lives in the

wooden palace

the village/ — 'Then could he you — Not without the land. belong sell

1

I

me

land belongs to

the great

at the

in the

to

head of

market?'

him ; but the

—

am his serf.' 'That Now there, you see, is

because I

Ivan Ivanovitch!'

will do,

'

something very different from slavery ; and indicating rather an intricately enfolded condition of the social state,

based on what are considered the rights

of each order; and

the

you

serf,

will

if

you converse

still

further with

by degrees perceive that he

much

very far from having as

practical

is

not

freedom as

your English peasant, though the nomenclature of his constitutional forms

" Don't be indignant,

may be if

altered.

assume that you in Eng-

I

land are not wholly free; for surely every one in

your nation

is

a subject of

Queen

Victoria,

and not

being able of himself to free himself from that peculiar

bondage, he in so far cannot be an absolutely

free

man

dutifully

liament

;

and

I suspect too, that

he must not only

obey the laws which the Queen and her Par-

may make

sent, but

for him, with or without his con-

he must be perfectly subservient also

to

whatever rules and regulations any municipality of his

neighbourhood may further enact.

"All that, you say, ment.

is

the basis of good govern-

Very well then, only

transfer your reasoning

to Russia, and you will soon find,

if

you had to apply

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SOCIAL EXTREMES.

it

there, considerable modification necessary in prac-

from the enormous difference of

tice,

countries.

*

God

is

size of the

high, and the Tsar far off/

two is

a

Kussian proverb often quoted against us by foreigners,

who

ment

see in

yet

;

it is

only a

it

phical fact which there

Some

facilitation

manner

viz.,

:

we have

symptom

of bad govern-

nothing but the plain and geograis

no possibility of evading.

however we have established in this

that

if

the Tsar himself be so far

multiplied his representatives,

by

off,

establish-

ing the same relationship between peasant and noble, that there

is

already between the noble and the Tsar.

This then is serfship, the peasant becoming the subject of the noble; even as the noble

is

the subject of the

Under such a system the peasant has no taxes

Tsar.

to pay to the Tsar

j

only to his so-called proprietor

but he has in return to act as a Tsar to the peasant defending him, so far as bles are not allowed to

civil

processes can go, for no-

make war on

their

own

ac-

count, from injustice and oppression in case of need.

u Thus there are bilities

duties

on one

side,

and responsi-

on the other ; and when they are both perfectly

attended

to,

—and

either party

may

appeal to the Im-

perial

Government, if the other does not

of

requirements,

its

—you

fulfil

the law

find all sides well pleased;

the peasant, on the broad plains of our extensive empire, in

being in a manner always near head-quarters

the proprietor, in being a

little

;

monarch, supported

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324

THREE

CITIES IN RUSSIA. *

by taxes on

at his ease

his serf subjects, taxes laid

on according to the law

in that case provided

the Imperial Government, in having greatly simplified

peasant in his

;

own

its

;

and

own tasks

for instead of dealing with

every

village thousands of

miles

little

away, where finding him would be like looking for a needle in a truss of hay, smaller

it

merely has to do with the

numbers and more

proprietors;

and

lays

visible figures of

great

crown taxes on them according-

number of their peasants. " You may then consider our nobles somewhat in

to the

the light of your Colonial Governors their colonial subjects

norship

is

;

hereditary,

;

and the

serfs as

though in our case the gover-

and endued with a power of

re-arranging the size and shape of the colony, the estate with

all its

people upon

it,

only your Imperial Government can

i. e.

which with you effect.

" This system was borrowed from the Poles, Hungarians,

and Germans of the day, no

the reign of Boris

later since than

Godunov ; and it became the law of

our country, even in spite of

its

being introduced by

that suspected monarch, because

be positively advantageous.

it

was perceived

to

Once that the Tahtars on

one side and Poles on the other had been conquered or expelled,

all

our nation combined to establish such

institutions, as should

never again expose Russia to

the chance of similar bondage, to that which she

had endured throughout the mediaeval age ; and chief

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325

SOCIAL EXTREMES.

among

these

efficient

means was acknowledged

to be,

method of counteracting the inveterate ten-

dency which Russian peasants have, of being prone

to travel about, seeking

For they

selves.

—an

will

how

for ever

to better

them-

accumulate numerously in

special fertile localities, and leave vast intervening

many an

spaces wholly unoccupied; thus offering

opportunity to warlike invaders for splitting them

up once more

"The

into

mere fragments of a people.

peasants then, cried the popular voice in

1600, must be attached to the

soil

and attached to

;

they therefore immediately were by the law of

it

serf-

dom, so that no one but the Emperor himself could

remove them. The proprietor at

He

could

sell

all

events could not.

the estate, but not without the serfs.

They might consequently change masters, but could never be carried away from their native villages.

u In the day of Boris Godunov cessary,

this plan

was ne-

and it worked well, for it has reference purely

to agriculture,

and then agriculture was the only oc-

For three days

cupation of Russia.

week the

in the

peasants worked on land which the proprietor allowed

them

for their

own

benefit,

they worked in his

muted

and

for other three

fields for his benefit

that service for an annual

;

days

or com-

payment of money.

The proprietor on the other hand was bound

in re-

turn for this forced labour and head-money, to furnish

them with

many

seed, food in times of scarcity,

and

other helps.

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326

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

" So

far all

went well

but

;

when

the reforms of

Peter the Great added manufactures to the industry

make use

of the country, mill-masters tried to

of our

purely agricultural institution of serfdom, to supply

Then

themselves with labourers. a removing of

many poor

and complaints

arose.

there did ensue

peasants from their land

;

They were met by severe

enactments, but that did not

mend

the mistake

;

for

mistake and misapplication of the original serf-law

undoubtedly was, and has since been proved.

It

it

was

only however subsequent to 1812, that manufactures

became largely the object of attention amongst us and

in precise proportion as they extended, so

came more and more clear to

all

its first

homesteads over

all

;

now nearly

object of sprinkling permanent

Russia proper, forming our very

and

diverse regions of steppe,

one grand whole

be-

men, that the days of

the serf-law were numbered. That law has

accomplished

it

field,

and that whole

is

and

forest into

no longer a mere

agricultural country. All the circumstances therefore for

which the measure was once enacted, being now

—

people

you may be perfectly sure that the same who made the law for their own good, and

placed

it

changed,

when

on their own necks,

will take it off again

quite satisfied that the right time

" That time has arrived parts of the country, but

is

and many a broad region

to the

is

come.

most commercial

not yet realized in

far

away from the

many larger

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SOCIAL EXTREMES.

In such

cities.

districts the peasants still think that

their claims as serfs on the attentions and services of

the proprietor for the time being, are well worth being paid

for

by serfdom, and would not therefore hear of

its abolition.

They

to have a

little

Tsar close by, than a great one a long

way

and when our Russian peasants once get a

off ;

prefer in their remote provinces

notion into their heads, there

mined people under the every obstacle. It to

make one law

even to

more

all

not a more deter-

sun, to keep to

is difficult

that

is

it

in spite of

therefore on the instant,

would be equally acceptable

the poorer classes of the country

difficult still, to adjust

;

much

the conflicting claims of

both rich and poor. If on one hand proprietors have latterly

been oppressing peasants by carrying them

off to cotton-mills,

the other

and even on European

tours,

—on

hand the peasants have been growing up

under serfdom more and more to an idea of their having, exclusive of the proprietor, a sort of com-

munist right to the ground where they have long

been lodged.

In this they are vastly more advanced

than any of the Socialistic clubs of Paris.

heard Frenchmen say,

how soon we

We have

could destroy

Russia ; a single printing-press, spreading a few of our doctrines of

communism and

socialism,

would

at

once raise a revolution in every part of the empire.

But we

replied,

my

friend,

bears of yours in practice

we have had those bugamong us for many and

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THREE CITIE8 IN RUSSIA

328

many a

century, and they agree perfectly well with

our constitution and our people.

Russian peasants, serf or tuitively

council

whom whom all

elders, to

Every village of

spontaneously and in-

forms a government to

and

and through

paid,

free,

chooses

itself,

its

implicit obedience is

communications with

the noble proprietor, or the mother city, or the Imperial

Government, as the case may be, are kept up.

And while

in every village they similarly hold a theo-

retical opinion, of every soul

born amongst them

having an equal right to share in the land of the

whole commune,

—one

village varies in the practice

of carrying out the idea, by annually dividing their

land according to the exact number of souls

;

another

perhaps, according to the number of households, or rather knots of people setting up in an independent

way

in the world;

crops which

all

and another

still,

divides the

have assisted in common to

cultivate.

Do you remember how on the road to Pulkova you saw no large cultivation ?

fields,

but only long parallel strips of

Well, that was the result of our pea-

sants'

own

duced

to practice

self-government, and their theories re-

by themselves.

which has descended to them before the

It is

intact,

a something

not only from

Western reforming times of Peter the

Great, but from before

all

our Tsars, and

all

our Grand

Dukes, and dates from those early periods when,

as

a republican and patriarchal people, we went forth

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329

SOCIAL EXTREMES.

into the silent wilderness of early Europe to colonize

and

settle its Eastern and Northern plains. " This land question then is evidently a very

deli-

cate adjudication to have to manage between nobles

and

peasants.

once

say,

made

'

Oh,

A

Gallicized

paupers of ; they deserve

lorded

it

at

it,

because they have

But you would not say the same

so long.'

I feel sure,

would

republican

the nobles go to the wall, and be

let

because that has not been the manner of

practice in England,

and

in English politics.

Your

native proceedings indeed, in reforming and govern-

ing yourselves, to

;

they

we

are exceeding fond of looking

we do not trust to French accounts, for would distort you nor to German books, for

and

there,

;

they would almost ignore your very existence off the face of the earth, except

danger from France

;

when they think they are in

but

we import abundantly

your literature direct, and study

it

deeply.

of

Then

too our peasants are of an eminently practical dispotion,

knowing

full

well the importance of both high

and low, rich and poor, nobles and populace, an entire and a strong community. ple

who of their own

Rurik with

his

perfect their

to form

Indeed the peo-

counsel and in peace introduced

Norwegian Varangians to head and

body

politic,

and did

this

more than

two hundred years before Normanized England

showed the world involuntarily the same are not

now

a senseless

mob

result,

wilfully to destroy or

330

THREE CITIES

knowingly to

lose,

IN RUSSIA

a class which savingly leavens the

whole nation." <

Then you

"

are not expecting any great insur-

on the freeing of the

rection

It will

V

said we.

be an anxious time," replied the Russian

who had spoken of 1832

serfs

was

amongst us

so long

;

"just as your Reform Bill

England reaped great glory

to you.

for effecting that

immense change

in,

her constitution, without the shedding of a drop of

We have now a greater constitutional

blood. still

to

merous people ; so what we pray troduction and establishment

degree bloodless.

We

for

is,

that its in-

may be

in

an English

have great hopes too in the

sound sense and good feeling of people.

They

religious,

and

tually

change

be made, and amongst a much more nu-

all

the mass of our

are eminently charitable;

their religion teaches

forbearing and

them

forgiving to

they are

mu-

to be

one another;

while their political sagacity enables them thoroughly to understand the advantages of that peculiar doctrine of self-reforming

* By a

letter

England, i the compromise.' M *

from a Russian Professor, dated

pears that the land question was carried out after

by the writes,

proprietors,

all in

1861,

it

ap-

a kindly spirit

and thankfully accepted by the peasants.

He

— " During the whole summer I was far away from St. Peters-

burg, and arrived lately from It was very interesting for

me

my

travels in the Interior of Russia.

to be there at a time

and benevolent reform was put in for

S q^I

when the

great

practice, the abolition of serfage,

which Russia has to thank the magnanimity of our present

Digitized by

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SOCIAL EXTREMES

So

had been

far there

little

interruption to the

Russian's steady current of instructive discourse, but

now that

man

dreadful

Iberianus, recovered from his

stupor of alarm, in the

of sharing

last chapter, at the

common

in a

calamity,

prospect

began to rage

again.

Oh

'

!

I dare say you're very

he commenced,

'

for

fond of the peasants/

wanting to be

free,

and they have

quite an affection towards you, for having enslaved

them

so long

;

difficulty, that

but neither of you can get over this there are only two classes in your

empire ; abject and ignorant peasants on one Emperor, Alexander their former sis tenee.

II.

The peasants

are

side,

not only free from

dependence, but receive land enough for their sub-

Nowhere has

so great a reform passed so satisfactorily

with the exception of some quietly and pcacably."

of the Serfs," in

*

insignificant cases, everything goes

See also

Good Words/

M.

;

on

Orischinsky's " Emancipation

for 1861, p. 617.

Respecting "the compromise" which has recently been com-

mended by Lord Brougham

to the study of

American

legislators, as

the peculiar means by which Great Britain has passed through

many

dangers, and become consolidated, the following extract from

a Synodal writing of the Russian Church, dated Moskva, 1723, and dealing with the question of a proposed joining together of the

churches of two separate and independent countries, clearly implies their use of the

same powerful instrument of pacification.

" Hereby

may be more and it may be

the opinions, arguments, and persuasions of each party sincerely produced,

more

easily

and more

known what may

clearly

other; what, on the other hand, to be absolutely denied."

understood

j

be yielded and given up by one to the

—Rev.

may and ought for conscience sake W, Blackmore's 'Doctrine of the

JR.

Russian Church.'

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332

THREE CITIES

and the proud

aristocrats,

what we have

"but

Russian,

land's was,

and

class is

into

like

V

not numerous," returned the

probably

is

when she

it is

class,

as a free nation

first

larger than

Eng-

free institutions

given

much

had

momentarily increasing, as our pea-

show extraordinary aptitude

sants

way

your middle

England ? and without such a middle

in

" Our middle

;

is

how can you ever get on

class,

her

headed by their Emperor,

Where then

on the other.

IN RUSSIA.

new employments and

for

pushing their

larger spheres of

action, with every opportunity that

is

afforded them.

Thus they become merchants and master-manufacturers while

serfs; and, even in a

still

European degree, leading geniuses rise

he,

those lines

in

up amongst them, no one knows how

who was a few

man on 'change

with millions of rubles in possession. other quality too,

is

to say of a

'

sive affairs

;

German workman, he

which

is

precisely

no

yearly adding so

what we find so

own people and it many wealthy men

to the class between the poor peasantry aristocracy.

is

and cannot take charge of exten-

yet that

is

often

an ex-

is

but he has no head, he

large a capacity for amongst our is this

How

administrating.'

cellent artist in his line,

administrator,'

Before every

found most frequently amongst

our people a talent for

we have

so that

;

years ago a miserable pig-driver,

presently becomes a commercial

<

more than

;

and the old

Exactly too as this new class

rises, so

do

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»

333

SOCIAL EXTREMES. its

members develope and apply the self-government

of each village

its

commune

to their advancing circum-

In this manner

stances.

it is

that every

town has

elected municipality, called the Gradshiia dooma,

from doomed, to think inhabitants what

is

because they think for the

necessary to be done within their

funds and apply them, besides ge-

limits, raise the

managing

nerally

;

all

their

communications with the

Imperial Government, just as the noble used to do for the serf.

They have even some

further duties,

for they overlook the administration of police justice, are always

ready to receive and inquire in-

and complaints of any kind

stantly into grievances

and

for that, sessors,

'

juries, still the

by appointing

to each

to

make up

judge a bench of as-

man

is tried

but in presence of his peers."

That sounds very pretty/ broke in the Iberian, it, if

you have not a free press,

liberal journals

can only be disseminated

but what's the use of

and

dooma tends

chosen from every class in the community

so that no '

j

though we may not yet have your British

finally,

system of

and

if

your

under cover of the darkness of night

1

" Are you not mixing up perfectly different matters ?" asked the Russian ; " our press has great and discusses without reserve

latitude allowed

it,

sorts of reforms

and improvements of even the Im-

all

perial laws, often with a very considerable abuse of • See Granville's

*

St. Petersburg,' vol.

ii.

p. 432.

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334

THREE

Imperial servants titan

;

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

with far more freedom, indeed,

allowed against their respective govern-

is

ments in France, Prussia, Austria, or any country but England

itself ;

and these journals of ours you reading-rooms, in shops, and

will find in all public

your own table

if

you

like to order

them.

on

But the

one particular paper, of which some copies are said

by

to be distributed

volution for liberalism

think

—

London

and re-

night, mistakes treason ;

and

and

printed,

is

where do you

smuggled

here.

It is

printed there easily enough, I suppose, for

who of

?

in

;

is

put into their hands

the Londoners could read

it if

But woujfl they allow the

free publication of a ver-

?

nacular paper amongst themselves, which spoke similarly of their

Sovereign as that bloodthirsty broad-

sheet of ours, or rather yours, does of killing our

Emperor, making away with the Imperial Family,

and establishing a new form of government ? and

politics.

Certainly

they practise

To

it

in

it

is

not English liberalism as

England

this representation,

for English

M.

purposes

narch, to

whom

he, Iberianus,

finding that his argument off into a general '

They were

gracefully kicked

V*

Iberianus attempted to

say something about the Tsar being a despotic

ters.

all

introducing English liberalism into Eussian

this, as

owed no

was rather

fealty

loose,

;

mobut

he went

denunciation of the Tsar's Minisall

rude military men, and get dis-

by

their

Emperor; and then

in

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335

SOCIAL EXTREMES.

down to

return they went

their offices,

huge military jack-boots on, kicked

and with their

all

the

officials

below them, whether belonging to the Church, the Senate, or the

"I

Law/

fear," said the Russian,

u that you have rather

mistaken the status of rank assigned to

an actual military

position,

civilians, for

and have considerably

And we

romanced on that erroneous assumption. should be as

much

astonished at seeing, say our

Minister of Public Instruction, in these said soldier's jack-boots, as you would be to see your Attorney-

General in a red coat and cocked hat with feathers.

What we

look to most in our Ministers

is,

that they

should be perfectly conversant with the

affairs of

their office, thorough masters indeed of their profession, in theory

very best pire.

slyly to it,

men

But

and

in these lines

is it

offensive,

" is

it

true as

we hear

England the head of your English Ad-

miralty need not

He must

through the whole em-

true," and here the Russian began

assume the

that in

practice, and, if possible, the

know anything

of naval affairs?

be a member either of Lords' or Commons'

house, but he need never have been to sea, or have

had any experience

either of sailors or of ships ?"

Iberianus looked at

first

rather annoyed at the

question, but immediately rising superior to

it,

with rather an outward curl on his upper

lip,

proceeded to set forth sententiously

that,

and he

whatever

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336

THREE CITIES

IN RUSSIA.

inexperienced persons might think of the theory, the practice of the system answered to admiration; 'for, is

not our British navy the very best in the world V

" Thanks at large,

to the sailor-like qualities of your people

from the time of Alfred the Great down-

wards/' said the Russian. '

Oh but it is also owing to our system of ruling/ !

'

sisted Iberianus, culiarly neatly

be not a

;

and

scientific

advisers,

some

at his elbow,

for

it is

if

the First Lord of the Admiralty

man

himself, he has his scientific

old Captains or Lieutenants always

and they

tell

him what he should an-

swer when any special question

"But

in-

a system which works so pe-

is

put to him/

a great deal better," rather smartly re-

turned the Russian, u that he should answer from his

own knowledge." '

Not

at all/

doggedly persisted the Iberian

the chief himself was to

quences might be

make

serious

entific pointer-dogs,

;

;

*

if

a mistake, the conse-

but when

it is

only his

the captains or lieutenants,

sci-

why

they can be sent about their business at a moment's notice

great least.

and others taken on

man at the head You say indeed

of

in their place, without the all

being disturbed in the

that a Captain or Lieutenant

can only see things from a Captain's or Lieutenant's point of view, and not from that of the chief of the

whole profession of an

army

if

;

and you ask what would become

the General

knew nothing

of military

Digitized by

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SOCIAL EXTREMES.

matters, and trusted for every subalterns,

— but

move

to the advice of

then there, come into play, the

extraordinary mental qualities of our upper classes.

They

receive the hard, dry, exact opinion of the

workmen under them,

pass

it

in a

the alembic of their ethereal minds, and lo forth as oracular

wisdom from the

either a live lord, or a I daresay

year.

science;

and so

man

you think

it is

to

with

mere

moment through !

it

issues

chief himself,

many thousands a

legislation a very difficult

most of us. At

heard, that even with a good reading

all

events I've

man

at

Cam-

bridge, he would need several years' hard study to qualify himself for

no more than beginning upon

but our splendid young aristocrats,

seem to study

at all

;

why they

it

don't

they distinguish themselves not

particularly at either school or college, except

hunting, and feeding on private supplies of

by

game,—

yet no sooner have they attained the age of twenty one, than they step into the house of Peers, complete, finished legislators, without anything

That's what any of them

does

much more; he

year he

is

will

do

;

more

to learn.

but a thorough one

enters the Ministry,

and one

great as a Secretary for the Colonies

;

the

next perhaps, he comes on the soene in the Board of Trade, talking so glib about the market prices of

American cotton or Russian tallow that you'd think he had been to that manner of thing born and bred

;

but behold, a third year has hardly arrived, before the VOL.

II.

Q

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338

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

British

Army

is

confided to his rule

and the next,

;

he may not impossibly wield the destinies of the

Navy.

a low plebeian belief that a

It's

keep to one trade, and have served a ticeship to

it, if

he would excel

that

;

man must

full

appren-

may do

for

a

Saxon hound, but our Norman nobles have vastly

more

liberal ideas,

and

ticeship whatever is

insist

on

it

that no appren-

needed; and that a nobleman

can take up at pleasure the different professions, just as a very complaisant king puts

on the costume

member of any calling of among whom he is to appear. Before he wears a full General's uniform; among

each day, of the highest his subjects

the soldier,

the academicians he appears in University honours

and amongst the lawyers scruple to

"

;

do believe he would not

I

mount a wig!'

And you

find that to act well in official life ¥*

murmured the Russian. '

Nothing can be better/ shouted Iberianus

that's the

up

way to have every working man kept

to the collar.

amongst

his

If the

head of an

men, and shared the

office

toil

man for their now and then in their

endeavours.

if

fully

and fatigue of

would

pains,

lax

for

went ©ut

the day with them, he would be wearied also feeling as a

'

;

let

;

them

and re-

Equally too,

he understood the inherent difficulties of any scien-

tific

work which he had

content with mere

set

them

to,

he might be

efforts after accuracy, instead of

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339

SOCIAL EXTREMES.

insisting on their absolutely laying hold of accuracy

But

itself.

and the

he takes things easy, sitting indoors,

if

men

neither works with his

they have to contend against,

difficulties

has only to look in the evening performances

and

;

if

knows

outside, nor

—why, he

at a return of actual

the fellows have not done just

whatever he ordered them to do, possible or impossible,

—he discharges them, and can always procure

others to take their place. scientific place

j

for

it is

Especially so,

a fact in

that any situation for learned

political

be a

if it

economy,

men under Government,

even with a salary no higher than a scavenger's, never without '

its

many competing

Surely and certainly also, as I can

no matter what one

nounced on any

scientific

it

On

them. tician

with

;

man may have

a really

it

;

pro-

be another

and that

young Ministers

difficult subject,

too,

is

what

to rule

one mathema-

might be a rather awkward authority to meddle but introduce another on the scene to tackle

him, and yers

so easy for our

you

tell

topic, there will always

ready to quarrel with him about

makes

is

applicants.

now

imperial

lo,

a

little

child

may

lead

are a very different class

Rome, and,

like old

;

them

!

The law-

they come of old

Romans, they hang

to-

gether in one great commonwealth, defending each other,

and securing

most princely

salaries

but the absurd

to themselves, one

and

all,

the

and pensions and rates of pay

scientific

men are just

like the ancient

Q2

THREE CITIES

SiO Greeks, little

up

split

IN RUSSIA.

into a lot of mutually antagonistic

republican cities

and they are

;

much more ready

ever so

to fly at

and

for ever

each other's

combine against the barbarians, that

throats, than

they have long since got completely over-ridden by these too-much despised men, and must

with monkey's allowance.

our compliant savants get,

with that of either the

now put up

Verily too that if

Law

what

is

you compare their pay

or the Church, the

Army

Navy/

or the

" But are there no occasions," urged the Russian,

" where a

scientific

matter must be competently and

absolutely inquired into i

That

other

;

'

will occur

but

it is

has a secretary,

by a Government

office

?"

now and then/ responded The

tided over very easily.

who

the

chief

prints a series of questions

about the matter in hand, and sends them about at

Government expense, and to every

known

to be

able scientific

answered in writing,

man

Then when the post has brought

—

for scientific

fee, or

in the country.

in all the

answers,

men, bless them, they never want a

a second asking either, before giving their ad-

vice to public or private patient,

—they are

classified

as to their degrees of negative or affirmative,

the opinion with most vouchers to back to

be the right one.

ceeding

is

it, is

and

reported

In fact that method of pro-

based on a rich bit of wisdom which

have been taught by our lawyers

;

and

you'll

we

never

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SOCIAL EXTREMES.

be happy in Russia until you become,

like

Great

But

Britain, a thoroughly lawyer-ridden country.

the bit of wisdom, do you ask, what is this

;

is it ?

Why

it

never mind about understanding a book, do

not even be at the trouble of reading

it,

dence as to what

will

it

contains

;

then you

far higher platform than even the

but take

evi-

stand on a

man who wrote

it

and you may go and hold forth on the general subject in the lecturing style, if you are an aristocrat, at

some

popular meeting for social improvement, or a foundation-stone laying of one of the so-called scienceschools for the working classes, where you will be

hailed by

most

all

the ladies and gentlemen present as the

scientific

genius in the kingdom/

"Impossible!" ejaculated the unsophisticated Slavonian. 1

Not a bit/ returned Iberianus

quite true what you said

;

'

and

if it

was

you had heard before,

that the head of the English Admiralty need not

know anything

of naval affairs, is

ordinary that the Minister

should not be really quite

it

anything extra-

who manages for science at home in his branch of

administration? That is but turn and turn about; and

you may be sure

in the end, that our excellent prac-

system

render the science of Great Britain

tical

will

as thoroughly pre-eminent, as her naval affairs have

long been your navy.

;

and how I wish I could say as much

Mushroom

affair

that

it is

!

for

Why two

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

3*2

hundred years ago you had not a single or a yard of seacoast

sailor,

ship, or

among you/

But the Russian had not another word

left

and asked, " if I also condemned the Russian

principle of appointing a head of the Admiralty

To which

I could only reply,

seen anything of

But there

is

no reason now

my

was going

That I had not yet

same time

find

privately,

who

it

esteem

will only

be worth,

to

—and

impart the

for refusing to

faithful reader,

what he may

for

f

?"

and was not a naval man/

it,

I thought at the

thought to it

for

me somewhat mourn-

argument, and only turned to fully

one

—of how I

on the very next day, an unusual

to have,

opportunity for seeing something of the system al-

luded

to,

and by means of an interview with the Lord

High Admiral over, I

him

of Russia.

At

this interview

more-

was to have the honour of bringing before

precisely the

same

scientific

matter in improved

nautical astronomy, which I

had already been the

means of putting before the

ruler of the English

Thereby had

the

navy.

been obtained

altitude

pretty exactly of this latter noble lord, in so far as

concerned that particular department of his

affairs

and now there would be an opportunity for applying precisely the

An

same

scale to the Russian naval leader.

intensely exciting experiment surely

of the two

chiefs is

destined to

I

for

which

come out the better

man?

Digitized by

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SOCIAL EXTREMES Filled with this idea,

it

was, that I proceeded by

appointment, on the morning of the 4th of October, to Strelna, a distance of about nineteen versts from St. Petersburg

miralty, the

and

this

the

way

In a

for there

;

was residing

Grand Duke Constantine Nikolaievitch ;

was the matter to be in

at the time

hard by, the head of the Russian Ad-

in his palace

which

it

book,

little

set before him,

and

came about. " Teneriffe, an Astronomer's

Experiment," already before the public, I have described, at

page

1

7,

the

trial

of a certain

method of

steadying a small table or a telescope at sea, by means of free rotatory motion,and in such a manner,as to

minate from

entirely all the "rolling

it

eli-

and pitching"

motions of a ship. That apparatus I had since further advanced, so as in principle at least to correct for every possible angular movement of a ship;

had introduced an arrangement upon

it

and lastly,

allowing, or

intended to allow, of altitudes of any heavenly object

being observed securely from an instrumental zero, quite independent of the visibility of the sea horizon.

This was the machine then which I had been trying

on board the

'

Edinburgh'

(see p. 35, Vol. I.), in the

voyage from Scotland to Cronstadt; and the machine

also,

show, though fect,

its

which on

arrival I

this

was

had ventured to

construction was rude and imper-

but for the sake of its principle, to the Russian

astronomers at Pulkova. These gentlemen examined

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344

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

with

it

much

in various

interest,

and

action

after trying its

ways upon sundry contrivances which had

been extemporized by them in haste, to represent the motions of a ship, they said that the naval de-

partment must see

Two Admirals tory, the

it.

accordingly came to the Observa-

one a courtly

scientific circles for

officer,

but well known in

a famous voyage of circumnavi-

gation performed more than thirty years ago the other a younger man, and one

who had

;

raised

himself from being a mere pilot, to entering the

Navy, passing through

perial

all its

and Im-

grades up to

Admiral, writing a work on Practical Astronomy, and finally

becoming charged with the direction of Rus-

sian hydrography;

and this

real genius

was a regular

The

Russian, unable to speak any other language.

opinion of the diverse admirals agreeing however together, all

and with that of the astronomers

decided that the Grand

ter laid before him.

Duke's)

first

On

Duke must have

also,

they

the mat-

that being done, his (the

idea appeared to be, to try the instru-

ment on board

his

own yacht

in the Gulf of Finland

but the season being thought by most persons rather too far advanced for that, his final conclusion

was, to have an illustration of the intended action of the apparatus at the Palace of Strelna.

To

Strelna accordingly also that morning

other road across the

flat

country,

by an-

came our trusty

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345

SOCIAL EXTREMES.

M. Otto Struve ; and

friend

there had previously ar-

rived the two Pulkova soldiers,

who had been long

since drilled in to working the multiplying wheels of

the apparatus;

all

which

brought with them

in its several

in a telega

boxes they

packed with straw,

and with an extra horse tacked on outside and now ;

all

the party having collected together at the post-

station,

woods

we

entered in procession the ornamental

When

of the Palace.

nearly through these,

the soldiers dropped behind for a moment to exchange their rude grey coats of the journey, for brilliant

green and gold uniforms

;

and then we opened out

upon a lawn with beds of flowery masses, generally either dahlias or hollyhocks, with

spersed, marble, bronze, and

many statues

gilt.

The Palace

interitself

rose just beyond, not very large, but delightfully ap-

pointed in every respect, and looking down on the other side over woods, quaintly touched here and there

by

glorious tints of autumn, to the Gulf of Fin-

land and the Cronstadt

fleet.

In a large glass recess, with the assistance of an aide-de-camp,

we began

to erect the apparatus as if

about to be used on board a ship, and before we had quite finished these preliminaries the

peared. little

He opened

Grand Duke ap-

the door for himself ; one of his

sons was already with us, and he, the father,

came now unattended naval uniform

;

;

he wore a very quiet undress

but was an erect, energetic, style of

Q8

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346

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

man, of handsome lineaments, with

and im-

aquiline

To M. Struve he spoke Ger-

perial cast of feature.

man, to myself English, and

in the English

manner.

After some light and pleasant talk on several ordinary topics, the Grand

Duke came

in hand.

I hear for obtaining such

I

had

;

is

matter

intended

it is

;

what then are

enabled to act ?"

to speak of free rotation, of the sepa-

rating of angular translation

t€

and such observations under

such and such circumstances at sea the principles on which

Then

to the

" This instrument/' said he,

movements from changes

in bodily

and of level arrangements to meet either

And

the one or the other.

after

having been ques-

tioned on one or two points therein, was next re-

quested to show those mechanical principles in action.

Whereupon had learned

the faithful veterans of Pulkova

—who

their assistant parts as quickly as

always performed them satisfactorily

they

—had the honour

of exhibiting in the presence of one so near their own Tsar, how they could

first set

the two internal revolver

wheels spinning at the rate of one hundred and revolutions in a second

;

mounting of the machine

movements cated

how

;

and then give certain rolling

fifty

whole

and rocking

while an observer at the telescope, indi-

steadily all the time, a distant tree

Finland coast was remaining in the

how

to the

field

on the

of view,

and

tolerably quiescent were the bubbles of the se-

veral levels.

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SOCIAL EXTREMES.

" Will you allow me

to see that,

and try the work-

ing ?" presently ejaculated the Grand Duke $ so try it

he did, both under the perfectly free action of the

revolver, and under different degrees of constraint

and he the

provisionally expressed himself astonished at

Next he turned

result.

to

M.

Struve, discussed

with him for a time the theoretical principles, and

then came back to the instrument to

how

far,

had had

under fair

its

play

satisfy himself

sorry workmanship, the principles

and

;

to

endeavour to form some

idea of what sort of higher results might be hoped for in a future instrument, with the details better

worked

out.

When all these several and

over, then the

final opinion,

"

It

points had been turned over

Grand Duke came out with

his

was the best and most promising

thing by far that he had yet seen, to supply a real

desideratum in nautical astronomy.

had

tried to get his latitude at sea

How

often he

by the Pole-star

with sextant, but found both the star too dim and the night horizon of the sea too uncertain in that in-

strument.

After having had practice in observing

with the equatorial at Pulkova, and having there

with ease operated upon stars so small as to be far

far,

below anything that the unassisted human eye

could ever see,

on board

how amazed he was when he went was no instrument known

ship, that there

there with which he could

make good

altitude obser-

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348

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

vations,

and

On

on a dark night, of even the brightest stars

sailors

were perfectly content that

shore he could enjoy

all

it

;

should be so.

the advantages of

modern

astronomy, but on board ship he had instantly to revert to something which, as to optical power,

was very

like the operations of primitive navigators in the early

ages of the world; and he had therefore inwardly settled in his until there

—as to

own mind,

that he

was some apparatus

light

would never rest which,

for use at sea,

and space-penetrating power, should

enable any star of the same moderate brightness as

the Pole-star, to be satisfactorily observed whenever in

any degree

visible to the

altitude measure, should

within two minutes for

naked eye ; and,

be

all

—as

definitely accurate

to to

ordinary observers, per-

sonal equation included.* * Such an instrument was evidently not on board either of those magnificent steam-men-of-war, the

*

Hero,' and

our British Navy, when they were bringing

Walea and

suite, in

*

Ariadne,' of

the Prince of

October and November, 1860, from the courtly

North American tour of that summer. sea-fogs

home

During their passage back,

had generally obscured the sun, whose low path

in the hea-

vens at so late an autumn season, did not allow his disc to rise into the thinner part of the mists overhead; and hence, towards the end of their voyage, the latitude and longitude positions of both ships had become dangerously uncertain, " both, as to where the vessels were,"

says the 'Times' Correspondent writing under date November 15th, " and consequently, whither they were going. There had been no ob* servations for some days, and when there had been any, the Hero's

u differed from the Ariadne's, and the dead-reckoning from both.

" Observationsfrom stars only made matters worse again.

So, as the

" weather was thickening, and the wind in shore, both vessels short" ened

sail at

one o'clock, and hove

to, to

sound."

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349

SOCIAL EXTREMES. t€

Wh&t

things/' said Constantine Nikolaievitch,

u I have had

But you

shall

see one of them that I bought some years ago."

And

to put

up with hitherto

!

therewith he gave directions to his aide-de-camp,

who,

after

a few minutes' absence, brought in a ma-

hogany box, from which the Grand Duke

extracted,

with practised hand, a curious brazen semicircle

showing how

with pendulum attached

;

was intended

and saying that

to be used,

know

wanted

to

grees

might do very

it

and

after

if

the altitude within six or seven dewell,

of his former discourse, "

he continued

Now

in the train

the free revolver ap-

paratus promises to be the very thing for me. cause,

you can mount on

what you can hold star direct,

two

it

you only

in the

it

Be-

a larger telescope than

hand

you can look

;

at the

and therefore undimmed by the sextant's

reflections

;

and

in proportion to the perfection

of the revolver arrangements, your principle of levels

enables you to approximate continually to accuracy for the altitude zero. if

any succeed,

This will surely be the plan,

for enabling us to get the astrono-

mical position of a ship as accurately by night as by

day

;

and

for sailors at sea,

no longer trusting to the

sun alone, to add thereto half the stars of heaven, and then compete in precision with

on land.

scientific travellers

Oh, I must certainly have one of these in-

struments constructed forthwith

more expensive than a sextant

!

!

Talk of its being

Why

this instru-

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350

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

ment

is

to accomplish a

something which a sextant

cannot pretend even to look at to have one

I

!

know,

good instrument made now,

early stage of the question, will cost far

too, that

in this very

more money

than to wait for some years until they are being

manufactured on a large scale

but

;

the mean-

if in

time, the instrument supplies an additional element

of safety to a large ship with Upwards of a thou-

sand living souls on board, that

be to

will

me

an

abundant recompense."

So the conclusion was, that a modified copy of the machine should be made at Pulkova, in the highest style of accurate optician's

workmanship

Grand Duke would not only pay of

and

the

actual construction, but reimburse the artists

its

for every preliminary able,

;

for all the expenses

and

for

experiment that might be desir-

any amount of care and labour in select-

ing the best steel or other required material that could be had in the country

them

to take their

own

time,

him have a good instrument It

was about an hour

;

if

he would also allow they would only

let

at last.

after this, as

my

friend and

were driving homeward that he asked me, " Well what do you think of our Grand Duke ?" self

;

!

I did not decline to answer this question,

should have no objection in confidence to reader

who has

kindly accompanied

me

—and

I

tell the

thus far ; but

he may be better satisfied to have instead, an opinion

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351

SOCIAL EXTREMES.

written quite independently, and so recently as October, 1861,

Museum

by a head of a department

London ; a

in

in a public

private opinion, on matters

of professional learning, running thus

:

—" We have

" just had a

visit from the Grand Duke Constantine " he stayed more than two hours, and during that

" time exhibited a degree of ability, and displayed " a knowledge of chemistry, mineralogy, and mining a which would have rather astonished some of our "autocrats."

So the Eussian astronomer turned roads meet, to his

home

where two

off,

at Pulkova, (not a little glad

probably at a new line of usefulness being opened

up

for his establishment),

and I returned to

St.

Pe-

tersburg hardly less happy j not only because the

development of a favourite subject was now in such able hands* and cultivated under favourable circum* The following extract from a Russian ber, 1861,

in

its

new home

being followed out

is

:

" The construction of the free»revolver horizon but I

dated 4th Novem-

letter,

shows how pcrseveringly the subject

am sorry to say that Mr. B

the present navigation

closes.

the circumstance that in

St.

will not

He

is

in

good progress

be able to

has been very

finish it before

much

retarded by

Petersburg he could not find driving

wheels, or sufficiently good engines to cut them. In fact, he has been

compelled to construct for himself those wheels.

any great (as I trust

shall

Now,

difficulties

he

all

this being done, I

more.

will), it is

the machinery for cutting

hope he

will

not encounter

If he succeeds well during the winter

not quite out of prospect that perhaps I

make myself next spring an experimental excursion

land, to try the instrument

to Scot-

on board a steamer."

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352

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

stances official

;

but because now, this privately rr ranged

meeting which had in secret been tying

me to

the capital for weeks past, having been happily ac-

complished, self

—nothing

now prevented my

wife

and

during the rest of the time that must elapse, be-

fore the

good steamer

'

Edinburgh * could reappear

on the scene, from plunging into the Russian land and penetrating into Russian in

life,

in

any quarter and

whatever direction we were disposed to make the

essay ; to probe alike, in as far as

we

possible, their facts, their mysteries,

should find

and

it

their early

beliefs.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

PART

IV.

NOVGOROD.

" The Baltic was the

first

scene of their naval achievements

visited the Eastern shores, the silent residence of Fennic

vonian

tribes,

;

they

and Scla-

and the primitive Russians of Lake Ladoga paid a

#

tribute, the skins of white squirrels, to these strangers,

saluted with the title of Varangians or Corsairs."

whom

they

(a.d. 800.)

Gibbon.

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PART

IV.

NOVGOROD.

CHAPTER

I.

SUMMATION OF REASONS. October.

If there was a very sensible difference visibly pre-

sented to our eyes by the appearance of Moskva,

when we

arrived there from St. Petersburg, vastly

greater seemed the reverse change on returning to St. Petersburg from It flat

Moskva.

was not merely that

St.

Petersburg

ground and Moskva on uneven

("

is built

on

upon moun-

tains," say the inhabitants of the northern plains) or, that the

former

is

constructed and arranged in

regular city style, and the latter in very irregular fashion indeed, so as to induce the Kussians to call it

u a great

village,

1'

and no

city

something which was radically

;

but there was a

different in the very

ideas of the two places, and which

we

did not fully

understand or appreciate until after some experience of the older capital.

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350

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

On

first

arriving

by

sea, St.

Petersburg had ap-

peared to our Western eyes, by comparison with places

more west ;

how

it

woefully

still,

a city of abundant religious

but on returning there from the East,

demonstration

was found below Moskva in that

we had commended itself

Besides which too, what

important aspect.

seen in Moskva, had so invariably

by

its

voluntary character,

its

earnestness, appro-

priateness to time and place, and

and charity,—*-that so inmense amount,

it

far

by

its

tolerance

by

from ever offending

its

had quickly and insensibly es-

tablished itself in our minds, as the right standard to expect everywhere in a Russian Christian

com-

munity.

Not

too, that

Moskva was a type

ecclesiastical city,

for

of an idle, silent,

given up to solitude and the priests;

on the contrary, with

population dotting

all

its

energetic Great Russian

the suburbs with

tall

steam-

engine and factory chimneys, and iron-works, and cotton-mills,

and with the old women of the sur-

rounding villages trooping in every morning to the

Krasnaya Plostchad on the east of the Kremle, dispose of their wool- spinning to the factors

tended that early open-air market, real business

who

to at-

—there was more

and self-supporting work going on

there, than in St. Petersburg.

But

that self-sustaining faculty, which

it

was

precisely

was the essence of

everything in Moskva, as well of the religion, as of

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357

SUMMATION OF REASONS

the commerce and manufactures of the

Thus

place.

in Moskva, you saw plainly that the people had built their churches for themselves, and according to their

own

idea of what was right

and

;

after another of them, you soon

in looking over one

came

to appreciate

the decorations which, with their principles end beliefs,

were truly decorous

as well as those which

;

were doubtful, deceptive, and might mislead the

weaker brethren.

Any number

therefore, but a symbolical

amount

of golden crosses

;

domes

of golden

number

preferred; any

or any quantity too of

paintings on the outside walls, was perfectly allowable, but not a single sculptured figure.

Well

!

that

is

different

from the Western

idea,

but

equally capable of being wrought by the hands of

genius into all

events

people.

artistic architectural

it is

deemed the

expressions

rigid thing

Then why, oh why

!

tinacious attempts continually

;

and

at

by the Russian

do we find such per-

made

Govern-

in the

ment-erected churches of St. Petersburg, to introduce carved and sculptured outside figures

thou boasted cathedral of St. Izak,

Oh

?

!

how temptest

thou daily the blows of a sacred iconoclast ?

But the reason

for this wilful flying in the face

conscience of a whole nation, and a religious ?

because the wretched educated

officers of

ment, who, poorer than the peasants, have traditions,

and have got instead only a

and

Why,

Govern-

lost their

little

school

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

358 learning,

when ordered

spiritless copiers in

fear that

everything

Western nations

chitecture, unless

it is

became and they fancy and

to copy one thing,

built

;

will jeer their

Chnrch ar-

So

on the Western type.

then, instead of employing a native,

and one whose

whole mind and soul are absorbed in glorifying the religion of his fathers,

—the

St.

Petersburg Govern-

ment must needs employ a French a

Roman

And how

Catholic.

every stage to

make

and

architect,

has he struggled at

the poor Eastern Church subor-

dinate to the West, so that at last you should not

know

the difference between the two.

One Russian feature has indeed been preserved, viz. the golden domes, and carried out at an enormous

expense; but fine

how? When we looked

at St. Izak one

day in October, from the northern side of the

Neva, after our minds had been enriched by Kremle experience,

we were

horror-struck.

He, the French-

man, think he could make a golden dome

!

He

has

put £50,000 worth of noble metal on the top of the church, just as you would put a nightcap on a man's head, and

left it

there exactly as incongruous, as

much

a thing visibly pulled on, and not amalga-

mated

in feeling with the lower structure;

how he

and then,

has contrived to dwarf the four evangelist

domes, and to starve the church of that proper

dependent belfry which was

and which, had

it

its

in-

own indigenous due

been properly carried

out, as

good

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359

SUMMATION OF REASONS. Alexei Michailovitch would have had

now

day, would have formed chitectural

wonder

it

done in his

a perfectly unique ar-

to the whole world.

Russian Church architecture, even amongst the Eussians, has not yet reached

its fullest

development

that

we

freely allow; but

and

its

several examples from early to late times, if

collected,

modern

it is

would form a

architects

continually advancing

series not unlike that

;

which

have brought together, of the va-

rious early proportions successively given to a Doric

column by the Greeks,

in all their interesting ap-

proximations from rude ungainly tals either too big or too little little shaft-swell

until

;

by

;

trial

pillars,

or over

with capi-

much or over

and error

alone, they

reached the matchless external columns of the Par-

thenon at

Yet though the Russians are

last.

far from their Pericleian age,

churches precisely

alike,

in their course from

Commend

its

still

and seldom build two

—they are

also far

advanced

early unscientific beginnings.

us therefore to a Russian architect, and no

other, for realizing

golden dome ; attachment

its

all

form,

its surface,

and above

all its

to, and identification with the masonry

of the building.

Examine pray,

several points in the

Moskva, or

the best characteristics of a

new

all

who

can, these

church of the Saviour, in

in the old Pokrovskoi Sobore, also in

the Ivan Veliki and his companion, and then turn to

Monsieur Montferrand's

St. Izak, in St. Petersburg.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

3G0 Alas

!

and fashionably educated must

that the rich

therefore so generally fancy themselves entitled to

teach the lower classes in taste and morals, patriotism

and

The Court of

practical science.

St.

Petersburg

would try some years ago, during the period

of

achromatic Church architecture in the West, to wean the people from their old ideas of richly decorated teriors

and hence

;

at the

at vast expense in lining the

whole building with the

finest scagliola, looking like polished

Under an

and

Italian sun,

in-

Smolnoi Church, they were

white marble.

in fervid heat, this ar-

rangement would perhaps have been bearable

but

;

during the characteristic season of Russia, the winter,

when you have

plains, white

snowy white,

how

travelled over hundreds of miles of

snow on every

—and then enter

it

this

makes one shudder

side,

nothing but

improved church,

—hu

!

to look at its polished

glaring cold whiteness inside, a freezing cavern

and

;

though we are told that certain groups of white pillars in divers corners are stoves in disguise,

we

gather no pleasurable feelings of warmth on looking at them.

This

is

the result of

modern Government

science,

of the social science order, in St. Petersburg if

you would wish

to

know on

;

and

the other hand, what

the steady growth of mere native feeling, left to

its

own spontaneous development would have produced in its place,

— drive

over the snow-fields again to a

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1

SUMMATION OF REASONS

Moskva

361

church, and you will find the white snow

heaped upon

its

exterior;

but

its interior,

richly

glowing with warm gold and dark ruby-red paintings from floor to ceiling and lining of domes, a revivifying luxury to be then permitted to behold.

An

ancient

naval hero, of the Nelson

British

warn our

school,

was accustomed

tion, to

beware of the French

than war ; in the

and were

able to

latter,

meet

to

far

rising genera-

more during peace,

we knew what they it

;

could do,

but in the former, who

could fathom the depth of their wiles? instruction the Russians

when

must have partly

To such listened,

they declined their friendly Gaul's advice, to

take down their 874 captive French cannon from the simple yet telling heap which they form in the

Kremle, and have them melted into mere bronze material for

a commemorative monument; but their

ears must have been heavy and dull of hearing at the erection of

many and many an

St. Petersburg. classic

The

architectural

in

tricked-out plaster figures of

gods and goddesses, which Frenchmen have

furnished to divers of the Government

zing

work

all

offices, reali-

the absurdities of those scratchy copper-

plate engravings in French books about Moliere's

time

!

Yet such things, being

perishable, leave

very permanent disgrace behind. in the granite

columns of

II.

cruel cut, is

St. Izak.

These we have praised, and VOL.

The

no

will praise again, so

R

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THREE CITIES

362

IN RUSSIA.

and workmanship are concerned

far as material

greatest monoliths that have been erected in

times (see Dr. Granville's

'

St.

the

Petersburg/ vol.

p. 196, for the particulars of their erection)

design, and for their

;

modern

employment

but

;

ii.

for

in the building,

how have they been murdered In the

first place,

objection might well be taken to

making any Corinthian

pillars of granite

;

for granite,

especially so coarse-grained as the Finland,

is

too

rude and primitive a rock to be cut into those overflowery forms which the later degenerate Greeks invented, to suit alike, the delicate material of their

fan-

white marble, and the latter-day luxury or crowded streets of their

granite

wealthy-grown

cities.

The Egyptian

monuments would never have commanded

their world-wide fame,

had they not adopted a much

more

substantial style of architecture

style,

though

still

and such

;

a

not exactly the Egyptian, would

have been eminently appropriate here, as well for the Boreal climate of St. Petersburg, as to the isolated position of St. Izak's Church in the midst of

its

broad wilderness of a plain. Appropriate however to the occasion, or not, Corinthian pillars are ordered, there

is

harmony and proportion which must be observed,

we would

realize their particular species of

for that is

certainly not accomplished,

imitating in a general

manner the

florid

if

a certain if

beauty

;

by merely ornamenta-

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SUMMATION OP REASONS. tion of the

And

capitals.

if

any one would see how

truly ugly Corinthian columns

and how the

may be at the

from

may be made

biggest series of monoliths in the world

dwarfed, and rendered puny,

Izak structure and

St.

to look,

the opposite side of the

—

him gaze

let

nearest buildings,

its

Neva

and then he

;

will

observe those vaunted columns so overpowered by their huge bronze-adorned, frizzled-wig-like capitals,

that the really giant shafts stand veritably like a row

of mop-sticks.

Nor

is

Column erected by

the mighty Alexander

the same foreign architect much better fails

on a

different score.

We

;

though

it

do not allude to the

crack at the summit, which other nations who never

made

a monolith the twentieth part the size of

so frequently crow over, and declare that

it

pletely destroys the value of this great pillar

this,

comfor

;

it

a triflingly minute mark, only to be seen from

is

below, and on one

side,

with

terfere with the contour,

much

faster than it is

strength for ages.

difficulty

and

never increases

if it

doing now,

will

terial,

In

its

Cyclopean

size

it

to the

want

look far and

and Titanic ma-

a mere bit of unartistic carpenters' wood-work. fact

no part of the Frenchman's share

play could full

not impair the

But we would allude

of swell in the shaft, which makes near, in spite of

does not in-

;

meed

we

in the

admire, though compelled to give

of praise to Russian material and Russian

E

2

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

364

These had many points of interest about

workmen.

them, but most of

were we taken with the

all

count related to us by an old noble, of how,

ac-

—when

the huge shaft 84 feet long, and 14 feet in diameter,

had been brought on a tect, fall

raft into the

while trying to get

into the water

his raft

and the

it

Neva,

—the

archi-

on shore, contrived to

let

it

and quicksand-mud just between

Then what despair seized

river bank.

him, and what expensive contrivances to recover the lost column were tried and failed,

—until at

last

an old bearded mouzhik stepped forward out of the crowd, and offered to raise

His

own

offer

it

for a very

was accepted, and he

set to

small sum.

work with

his

people; and, making some dexterous use of

very simple apparatus, he did presently raise the

monster block of stone, and place

it

on firm ground,

where the more ornamental machines of the educated architect

were able to tackle

Could Peter the Great scenes of travel,

it

once again.

revisit his nation

and

how annoyed he would be

his

to find

the complete alteration which Western peoples have

made, in many of those manners and customs, which they were wearing in his time, and which he tried therefore to

make

his subjects adopt.

What

tussles

he had with the mouzhiks, trying to make them shave off their

beards

;

and was obliged

at last, with ordering the

more

to content himself

servile

upper

classes

to adopt that anti-national, and, in Russian climate,

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SUMMATION OF KEASONS. a/nti-salutary measure

;

and then when he had done

that, he thought he had both saved them from being isolated or peculiar in Europe, and put them into

the

become learned

only trim in which they could

men

after the

manner of the West.

But

one

it is

tiling to see what other people are doing externally

at any epoch and imitate ascertain the

it,

and quite another to

way they are going, and the bearing of

their external signs on their internal ideas

;

so

it is

no great wonder that Peter Veliki' s moderate acumen did not perceive, that the shaving period was the anomaly

in

Western countries; and that

in 1862, all

the nations there would be returning so extensively to the customs of their

of Shakespeare

in

ancestor's,

England, and Napier of the loga-

rithms in Scotland, that Russian close shaving are

and the example

now

officers

with their

the isolated beings in polite

society, and mouzhiks the admired of

Again we have seen what was done

all

beholders.

to whiten the

interior of Russian churches, subserviently to the

Hanoverian epoch westward ; and now, there ting up there, in

improved church

is

general rage for

Both Peter and

his successors too, half Germanized themselves

of their subjects

an

directions, together with

all

architecture, a

painted and emblazoned interiors.

all

get-

whom

zealously assisting the

they could force to

Germans

the very best blood of

and

in their

it,

wars with

the Russian nation; and

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

306

when Russia herself

since then they have found,

attacked, the

Germans

is

either join in the attack, or

so completely in the lurch, as quite to

leave her

realize those ideas of

them which the mass of the

mouzhiks had long ago formed.

The sympathies and

feelings of a

mighty people

would evidently have been a truer guide herein to

and

their rulers, than a little academical learning;

when

and feelings have lived

sympathies

those

through long periods of time, have withstood the

and

persecution of tyrants, the adversities of war,

the prosperity of peace, they become 'ennobled and worthy of

these ideas penetrating us,

it

was, that

one day to some of our friends in that off we

must go

positively

So with

men's study.

all

we intimated

St.

Petersburg,

Novgorod, Western

to the City of

Novgorod on Lake Ilmen, or the Great Novgorod of former times, and there attempt to

make

closer ac-

quaintance with the true Russian people.

"And going so

much

at

what occasion

Moskva ?

is

What

"for

there," said they,

purpose ?

far for that

Could you not do as

did the Tsar Nicholas

tell

Dr. Granville: why, 'here in St. Petersburg/ said he,* '

you see us

'

to us,

'

Moskva you

'

that,

in our foreign garments,

which are

and which we wear as well as we can

you

will

will see us as

we

;

really are.

new

but

in

From

be able to discover what we have been

• Dr. Granville's

1

St.

Petersburg;

vol.

ii.,

p. 334.

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SUMMATION OF REASONS '

and may then judge what we

are likely to

become/

Is not such an opinion of such a politician enough to

guide you '

V9

Nicholas Paulovitch/ we replied respectfully, c was

an extraordinary man, and an Emperor; and we do not presume to compare our miserable powers with

He might

his.

be

able, standing

on two points only,

to find the curve passing through them

but a mere

;

astronomer must have three separate points in any curve given to him, before he can attempt to com-

pute whence will proceed.

it

has come, and whither or

On

this principle therefore, it

having already got Moskva, the medieval

how is,

it

that

capital,

for one point in the curve of Russian progress,

and

Petersburg, the modern capital, for another

St.

point,

—we

have now need of a third

situated, if possible, chronologically

side of

place

and

For such a purpose then, what

Moskva.

is likely to

station,

on the other

be so appropriate or so powerful,

as your ancient capital, or the great

Novgorod of

Lake Ilmen and the Volchov?'

"And what do you expect to see there now?" rather "a wretched testily returned the Petersburgher ;

little

country town, of the third or fourth class only

with no more than

five or six

thousand inhabitants,

and without any mark of antiquity about one or two old churches. '

it,

save

99

All that forms precisely one of the most touching

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368

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

of spectacles, which any

see/

we answered

'

;

man may

well ambition to

and a most remarkable spectacle

Novgorod to be presenting ; the city

too, for the Great

which once raised

itself in

greatness to a level with is

brought low \"

" Well but how will you ever be able

to get there?"

God,* grew fat, and kicked, but now

continued to remonstrate the citizen of the existing

u Even

metropolis.

days

warm and long,

if it

were

summer and the

still

you, as strangers, would be get-

ting into trouble and danger on the road in the

month of October, when we have

and the weather be a heavy

fall

wet and

is

of snow

know where we are

—

;

but now,

so little light,

and there may

cold,

come down on us before

w^e

even we natives would hesitate

ere setting out." It

was of

little

use for us to

tell

a

man

in his

own

country, that he magnified the dangers of a short

and simple journey ;

upon going

to

for as such

we

could alone look

Novgorod, only about one hundred

and twenty miles south and by east of St. Petersburg,

and the greater part of that distance by the Moskva railway us.

especially as he

;

seemed bent on dissuading

So then, we visited a more learned, though

national resident;

together,

but he opposed the project

and seemed

less al-

to think its very conception

was quite unworthy of a person of liberal education. * The old proverb reads, in Russian

Novgorod ? In Latin In English

:

Who

:

can

:

Kto

Quis contra Deos resist

God and

et

protiv Boga, e Velikayo

magnani Novgorodiam ?

the Great Novgorod

?

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SUMMATION OP REASONS.

u

If

you want something

visit," said he,

institutions

in

all

;

fS

employ your time,

to

some of our admirable educational

how

there you will see

well

the latest developments of science.

much

really find

we are up You will

to admire in the teaching at the

College of Cadets, the Naval School, and special seminaries.

Look

many other

in at our General Staff,

and Topographical Corps, and

see their very

com-

plete system of photographical copying and printing

of maps

;

and then do take back to so important a

medical university as Edinburgh, some account of

our numerous

hospitals, military

alike admirable

and numerous.

the Guards has

man is cared and

for as if

own

civil

;

they are

Every rogiment of

hospital,

where each sick

he had been a gentleman born

army regiments, the

for the

tals is

its

and

scale of their hospi-

enormous. But whatever you do, don't go and

judge of us by looking

at such a horrid little place

as Novgorod, which cannot institution of

show a

any degree of

and therewith he

called

single scientific

size or

importance

up a German savant

to give *

his opinion.

Whereupon the

said savant declared that he

would

not think of going the journey, though he had had

two years* experience of the country.

And how

far in the interior,

had

his experience

been gathered ? In Moskva ? u Oh no he had never been to Moskva, and !

B 3

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THREE CITIE8 IN RUSSIA.

370

would not go there

for

He

any number of rubles.

bad known of several men who had gone

there,

He would

had never been heard of again.

and

not run

a chance of such an end as that implied, for of course

they had been cruelly murdered.

Oh no

!

he would

just keep to his office in St. Petersburg until

he had

home

obtained a pension, and then he would return to his dear Fatherland,

and never quit

had not learned a word of Russian intend to

for

;

it

was not necessary

again.

it

yet,

He

and did not

in his profession,

and he did thoroughly despise Russia, and hated the Russians and everything about them.

They were

a

barbarous people, and savage, the whole of them

we only knew all that we did not know, he was sure we would not stay in such a horrible country a moment longer than we could help." and

if

Finding ter,

it

profitless to

apply further in that quar-

we examined books and maps

again,

and in the

course of a call next day on a Russian lady of position,

my wife

mentioned the scheme and some of the

objected difficulties

;

and then to see how the

difficulties

were made to vanish into thin

the finer

spirit,

u

air,

said

before

and administrating powers of the

was quite an easy and not an unpleasant journey," she declared ; H and though we noble lady.

.

It

might not be able to speak their language, we should find the people

on the road most ready to serve,

as

well as obliging and quick at understanding; and

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SUMMATION OF REASONS

she had a young

relation in the civil

Novgorod, and she would give us a

department of

letter of intro-

There was however very

duction to him.

see," that she also confessed diately added,

371

;

to

little

but then again imme-

" how she could quite appreciate the

sentiment of our wishing to stand on that ground

where

so

little is

now

left to tell its tale to

the eye,

but to believe and say to our inmost mind, that there once spread the breadth of the ancient

city of

Nov-

gorod, and there once flourished in hundreds of •

thousands

and

its

sturdy inhabitants

;

the rich merchants

stout warriors, the holy priests and the indus-

trious peasants, all clustering over that very spot.

They

are

all

gone now, the rich and the poor, the

oppressors and the oppressed; revolutions,

and

their

wars, their

their commercial treaties, are alike

passed away, and no

man knows where

But those men fought a good fight

in their

they

lie.

day ; they

performed their work zealously as to the Lord, and before

Him

they are not forgotten."

So the end of 7th of October, the

Moskva

it

was, that on the morning of the

my

wife and self found our

along in the train through described, between the

jumped out

way

to

railway station in St. Petersburg ; raced all

that

flat

country before

numerous breakfast-stations

at Volchovah,

descended through a

building of several stories to the bank of the river

Volchov; and there entering with a number of

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372

THREE

mouzhiks and a few little

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

officers,

embarked on a

fussy-

steamer, which was already panting and snort-

ing in extremest anxiety to be

Away

rattled

the

train

off.

through the long level

railway bridge, disappearing before into the flat

many

seconds

wooded country of the South and then ;

elegantly curving out from her diminutive dock, our

country steamer took the middle of the fine open river,

and headed right away westward

for

Nov-

gorod.

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373

CHAPTER

II.

THE VOLCHOV EIYER. For some length

of time after the steamer had

begun ploughing

its

open Volehov

frothy career

river, the

up the broad

town of Volchovah on the

northern bank was the most interesting object any-

where about

to gaze upon.

A wooden town, and in

the veriest Russian manner ; separate houses, built of round logs as to their walls, and very thick planks as to their steep, sloping roofs, and effective gable-

ends ; but oil,

all

perfectly innocent of paint, or drying

or any such refined inventions, of Westward-

living people, to economize ligneous material

increase

and

its durability.

Here, on the Volehov, in a government where cover the chief portion of

forests

still

cost of

wood

is

at a

minimum

;

its

ground, the

so in place of taking

a flimsy, saw-prepared plank and varnishing or dryleading

it,

the Volchovian cuts with his axe what an

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

374

American would

call

an indelicate plank

verse of delicate or thin, leaving thick

if

you

like

it

;

i. e.

the re-

six or seven inches

and allowing the weather to eat

;

through that depth of

So thereupon the

solid material if

it

can.

said weather attacks the surface

with sunshine and shower, with frost and lichen-

growth, beautifying rather than destroying;

for

every wooden house puts on in only a few years a dark, aged complexion, hoary with moss, rable with

shadowy

and vene-

Though too the archi-

colour.

tecture be not regular, though one bouse inclines in one direction,

and another

opposite side, three times as

tower of Pisa, yet you

feel

is

leaning over to the

much

as the celebrated

no more inclined to carp

at these things as defects, than

you would

at

any

what the mathematician expected as a necessary feature of beauty, viz. the u similar

tree for not having

:

sides" of his loved triangles.

Grand old age, then, was the ruling idea of

this

weather-beaten Eussian wooden town of Volcho-

vah; and

wanted

it

little

to enable us to realize

the Drevlien city of Korosten as year 946 a.d.,

when

straitly

it

appeared in the

besiged by the cruelly-

widowed Queen Olga and her

faithful

Their siege had already lasted

many months, and

Russian army. the

horrors of famine had begun to be experienced by

the townspeople, faction at the

when

the Queen, simulating

satis-

amount of punishment which she had

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THE VOLCHOV RIVER already exacted for their treacherous and repulsive

murder

King

of her husband,

merely asked from the

Igor, son of Kurik,

citizens as a

nominal tribute,

three live pigeons and three starlings for every

These received, and distributed to her own

family.

people,

all

them

of

firmly holding the secret,

and

sacredly obeying the orders of their injured Queen,

were sent

flying

back to the town at midnight, with

lighted matches fastened to their tails; and what

with the pigeons,

them thus become incen-

of

all

seeking their dove-cotes, and the starlings

diaries,

creeping into their holes under the roofs, behold the

whole town that was built of perishable wood,

deemably blazing up

Yet

it

was

in a

moment

of time

!

justice according to the spirit of the

Queen so

times, rather than vengeance, which the sternly exacted for her

irre-

:

because,

when once

murdered husband (and

it

the dread price

was not

that she valued him) had been paid in

full,

lightly

then she

thought only of kindness and mercy, and beneficent dealings to the remnant of her Drevlien people.

There was nothing of the implacable about her ; she had, as a ruler, and as all

it

proved when her

trial

came,

the virtues but none of the vices of a tyrant;

while beyond

abounded in

When

that

still,

true

her, rich, pure,

the news

first

husband having been

womanly

affection

and overflowing.

arrived from Korosten of her killed,

and with studied

tor-

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

376 tures of the

most revolting kind, the grief of Olga

was appalling

Her maidens

to behold.

in the

Palace

of Kiev were overwhelmed with fear, and watched

by

her in silence and tears until her grief should break

and while

this

was going on

in her lonely tower,

:

the

bravest of the Boyards congregated in the court

below, to offer their arms and their lives in her service

and

But

for her revenge.

sorrow for the husband prehensions for their

still

who was

little

son

her vehement

gone, and her ap-

left at

a tender age in

her weak hands in the midst of wars and turbulent times,

—that

little

now remained

son, the only representative

of the

House of

overpower her every sense.

and for the

fturik,

hope of a future united Russia,

—

who

seemed quite

to

But when the Koros-

and sent a

tenians added insult to her deep injury,

deputation, vilifying the late Igor, defending their

barbarous murder of him, praising their

own

Princes,

and proposing that she should go there and marry one of them,

agony of

—then

tears,

and

she suddenly awoke from her all

her subsequent proceedings

from that moment were such as to show her people, that she

Two

was equal

faithful

to the whole occasion.

successive embassies from the guilty city, she

disposed of so that not a

man

escaped

;

and then

with astonishing hardihood and self-reliance, she set out with merely a small retinue for Korosten itself;

allowing

it

to

be implied thereby, that she had quite

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THE VOLCHOV KIVER

given in to the proposal made to her.

her mind was not

set

on

far other things;

But

really,

and she did

care, or rather boldly dared, even

when thus

placing herself temporarily in the rebels' power, to let

them know by frequent pungent remarks, how

dearly she

"I

shall

still

cherished her husband's memory.

be among you to-morrow," said she

message to the Korostenians ; vast quantity of

mead near

the entry of your city, at

the exact spot where you killed I

must weep over

after that

we can

my husband.

tomb and pray

his

in a

" prepare therefore a

First,

for his soul

give ourselves up to joy."

The Drevliens having done

as they were desired,

Olga arrived and wept over the tomb of Igor. Then

began the drinking ; that was the Drevliens' but

was not Olga's

it

calm and collected.

;

she only looked on at them,

All of a sudden in the midst of

their cups, the Drevliens asked her,

brethren of the two embassies ?" the guards of

my

joy,

" Where are our

" They come with

husband," significantly replied

Olga; and the Drevliens drank away again at the

mead

to

that,

Olga contrived to

drown

their conscience stings. retire

;

Soon

and then sent

small, but trusty retinue of soldiers,

who made

work with

tomb

The

all

siege

the drinkers over the

after

in

her

short

of Igor.

and burning of the town of Korosten,

as already described,

came next ; and concluded the

punishments for the murder of a King, and the tor-

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

378

No more

taring to death of a good husband.

was required were

for

;

by what was

inflicted, evil-doers

effectually terror-struck over the

the authority of the

name

in the

either

whole nation

Grand Prince was re-established

of her son, with herself as regent

the land had peace under the ruling of

and

;

Olga

for

But that was not the last, or the least, of Olga ;

for

many she,

years.

though sprung from the lower orders of the

Russian people, and in the early,

not primitive

if

pre-Christian period, was yet of a magnificent

nature

;

human

with a wealth of feeling and a sensitive soul

that had a capacity for development, which continued to demonstrate itself cessive position she it

more and more with every

was

called

suc-

on to occupy. Hence

came, that during the above-mentioned period of

quiet

and freedom from war's alarms, while she

cupied herself in private with loving parental tion, to instruct

only son dinary

and

;

and form the mind of her in

skill to all

public, attended

affec-

fatherless

with extraor-

many

the interests of the

people

even then contained within the bounds of Russia,

own mental and dawn upon her.

saving sense of her ciencies

began to

"I

called

am

on to teach

all

oc-

—

spiritual defi-

these living souls/'

she would say, " and what shall I teach them or how, unless I

am

aided by a higher power ?"

So thought

Olga the Pagan, and Queen of a Pagan nation:

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379

THE VOLCHOV RIVER.

acting therefore soon after under this influence,

she boldly essayed the long and dangerous journey

from her out-of-the-way abode in Central, and even Northern Russia, to the distant Constantinople, then the great Eastern centre of the Christian church end faith,

—hoping there

to attain, not only to

human, but

divine wisdom.

Received in state by the Court of " Tsaragrad," Olga's most earnest desire was, to be immediately in-

Her

structed in the religion of the South. peaceful,

suite

was

and consisted of her uncle, two interpreters,

sixteen damsels of a higher, and eighteen of a lower

rank, twenty-two domestics or ministers, and fortyAll these attended, and

four Russian merchants.

many

of

them paid heed

to the

words of the teach-

ing; but Olga was distinguished before them

all

when

the

by her

humility,

and her earnestness ;

for

preacher discoursed on repentance, and prayer, and the appointed mediation between

she bowed her head low

God and man,

before the sacred words,

and listened with an avidity of

attention,

"

like a

dry

sponge, greedy of moisture." Nevertheless,

danger and distraction beset her

path; the widowed Queen, though stricken in years,

still

bore the traces of having been

once the most beautiful tall

now somewhat

woman

of her time

;

rather

of stature, and blooming in look, her address was

always captivating, for her

spirit

was

as exquisite

and

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

380

her perceptions were quick, and her un-

brilliant as

"You

derstanding sound.

are worthy," took an

opportunity of saying to her one day in his Golden Palace, the haughty Greek Emperor, u to share

us the Government of our States."

w ith r

Olga understood

the meaning of this speech perfectly well; but, steady to her sacred purpose in off

with, u I

fore

am

coming there

a Pagan

;

at

all,

put him

you must baptize

me

be-

you can think of marrying me."

Thereupon, with the highest priests of the Eastern church, and in the most formal manner, did the

peror hasten to baptize and

who so But when

the applicant,

and

soul.

pressed his suit think

now

eagerly desired

me

the

in her heart

was accomplished, and he M again, Oh how can you dare to !

me?"

Olga, baptized Helena,

given

it

Em-

Christianize

that

of marrying

answered for

officially

me

instantly replied to

"when you

yourself have

at the baptismal font,

name

him

and have

of daughter; that does not ac-

cord with the laws of Christianity, as you perfectly well

know ?"

So Olga was allowed to go again

in peace

;

but then

immediately her feminine fears came up upon her, for she

was a true and genuine woman, than which

what praise

is

greater for a

woman

;

and before

set-

ting out on her return, she sought the assistance and advice of the holy Patriarch, the good Polyeuctes.

"Oh, my Father!"

said she,

"my

people are

all

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381

THE VOLCHOV RIVER. Pagans, and

my

son

is

Bless me, oh

the same.

my

Father! that I may resist the assaults of the evil one." " Child full of faith," responded the Patriarch,

u thou

hast been baptized in the

name

thee, as he saved in the early ages

in the

Ark; and

;

and Daniel

thee from the

in the lions'

evil spirit

Then returned Olga

and

Enoch and Noah ;

Abraham from Abi-

as he saved

meleeh ; and Moses from Pharaoh Saul

of Christ, and

Christ then will save

Christ has called thee to him.

and David from

;

den

;

all his

— so

will

he save

snares."

to her Russian empire with

the light and healing of religion in her soul

;

and she

laboured more than ever to rule righteously, progressing frequently through the country, and mak-

ing wise ordinances for the administration of justice

and the protection of commerce,

settling the taxation,

building villages and establishing schools.

But

in

private and at home, what grief she ever had in her heart, that her only child, Prince Sviatoslav,

not listen to Christian teaching.

son in everything else ; of a position, but he all

would

He was an excellent

fine, free,

generous dis-

would continue Pagan together with

the people, and ridiculed the notion of being any-

thing

else.

Often did Olga say to him, " son

!

I have learned to

knowledge.

If

0

know God, and

you would only,

my

Sviatoslav,

like

rejoice in

me, seek

His

after

the truth, you would not be long in experiencing similar joy."

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

382

Then

Sviatoslav would answer restively, "

My

" can I embrace a foreign religion ?

How

people

" would laugh at me."

" If you would only be baptized, they would soon

" do the same," replied Olga, who knew already the entire loyalty

and abiding love of the then young Rus-

sian people for their sovereigns of the line of Rurik.

But Sviatoslav was

still

obstinate,

and even

at last

refused to listen any more, and then poor Olga would say, "

The

will of

God be

done.

When

it

shall please

" Him to show grace on my family and my country " of Russia, He will touch the hearts of all, and in" spire them with His holy fear, even as He has

" shown mercy on me." not to pray to

God

And

secretly,

therewith she ceased

both by night and by

day, for the conversion of her son and his compatriots

for she loved

;

him

continued to watch over until

So time

still

all

as

much

as ever, and

his education earnestly,

he at length grew up to man's

estate.

relates the faithful chronicler Nestor,* in

1091) they

(a.d.

this river

still

whose

showed near the banks

of

Volchov, the very sledge in which Olga had

* The ter,

name of this laborious priest stands in the Russian characHectop and has originated some literary curiosities. His ac;

counts of facts transacted amongst Russians, are generally of extreme accuracy

:

but some slight alteration of dates and names of distant

potentates, appears occasionally to be required.

has quite prepared his readers for

;

as,

This, however, he

when speaking

of an early

Russian chieftain going to Constantinople, he expressly says, "I

Digitized by

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THE VOLCHOV EIVER travelled through the province, in one of her administrative journeys.*

The

said province did not look to us very inviting

from the

be

river,

which continued hour

after

hour to

hun-

in itself a fine stretch of blue water, seven

dred to one thousand rocks or

broad, without either

feet

shoals, shallows or rapids, but also without

reeds or trees, or even grass upon

don't

know which

of the Emperors

it

its

wa9 who received him there

I only know what friends our chief took with him

what he said that.

to them,

and what they

For

banks.

said to him,

and

;

generally,

and what he did after

— Compare Gibbon, L. Paris, and Black more's Mouravieff. The Emperor of the Greek-Romans appeared on the scene in the person of deputies and must have been an essen-

•

once again,

;

tially mean-spirited creature,

who, having

failed to entrap the

Queen

on the first occasion, tried it on soon after in a different manner. But the fair and feminine Olga had taken his measure to a fraction for

it is

related that

when she was once

again, after all the manifold

perils of the barbarous way, safely returned to Kiev,

Emperor me,

sent messengers to her, saying

I loaded

you with presents

;

and the Greek

:— " When you

and then, did not you

were with

say,

*

When

I return to Kiev, I will send you counter-presents, slaves, and wax,

and

furs;

and troops to aid you

in

your expeditions?' " that there-

upon Ohra answered to the messengers, " Are those really the words which your Emperor has ordered you to speak in my hearing ? Then tell him from me, Come you and make a like appearance in Rus*

sia, to

what I made

will give

bowed

in

your presence at the baptismal

you the presents you ask

out the messengers, and no

for."

With

and I

Emperor of Constantinople, much

less the recreant godfather, ever ventured to equal her

and

font,

those words she

calm courage

sustaining faith in journeying in the year A.D. 957, throughout

those wild countries and stormy seas which separate Kiev from the later capital of the Ca?sars.

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334

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

on either

side, the sloping surface

tract of yellow barrenness, clay little

sea-beach

village with a

haps a few

Yet

and only occasionally did a humble

modest single-domed church, and per-

trees,

appear above the level

for all that, agriculturists get very

off the soil

bread, of

people

;

for, first

;

and foremost,

rye plant of

ful to the

and

;

showed rather a

and sand, like a

all

breads

is

all

line of earth.

good pickings

it is

most grate-

the cereal grains

;

and rye

the great delight of the Russian

and secondly,

it is

equally suitable to

hemp

and what standard supports of Russia are

flax,

those plants

!

Of hemp and

flax therefore,

be sure,

they raise enough both for themselves and have large quantities for exportation too. in quantity

;

and

after barley

and

Peas are next oats,

then come

turnips, cabbages, and cucumbers.

Cranberries abound in the woods, as also do

many

other edible matters, affording food to elks, deer, squirrels

;

and these

and martens

in such

and

in their turn to bears, wolves,

number, that we are no longer

surprised at the tribute levied on these countries in

former times, consisting so largely in skins and furs of the said animals.

Minerals abound in the southern part of the province,

which contains carboniferous rocks ; and the

iron stove of our steamer, and other

and useful

articles about,

little

ornamental

were said to be specimens

of the bog-iron ore of the neighbourhood

worked up

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385

THE VOLCHOV RIVER.

in small furnaces, and then cast into these forms

with a degree of grace and beauty; which, cups

in the

on the steamer's cabin-table,

for cigar-ashes

were of the shape and almost the

delicacy of natural

shells themselves.

But cold blew the wind

all this

time, dead ahead

The steersman on the paddle-box bridge was

of ns.

dressed in sheepskin, yet dapper withal in cut and his well-made

tall

boots

;

but the captain by

his side was a mis-shapen mass in a

whose

collar of fur

shapely

its

mammoth cloak,

about a foot high, rose several

inches above the top of his head.

At

the railway-

stations in the land part of the journey that ing,

we had

just for a

moment caught

morn-

a glimpse of

engineer and stoker in similar collared cloaks, and

thought at

first

they were bears.

cognized colossal fur collars as

But now we

human

apparel;

re-

and

admirably complete was the protection they gave their

happy owners'

faces,

from being touched by

even the smallest particle of a cutting side wind.

In one of Chopin's views of mediseval Tahtars, riding dominant in their day over the winter-frozen plains of Central Asia, he gives

them

similar gigantic

turned-up collars to their coats ; inside the curved

rampart of which, their heads and caps look quite small, but amazingly comfortable.

present day, and in our

own

Fashion in the

country, persists in the

dangerous practice of exposingthe base of every man's VOL.

II.

s

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

38G

brain, or, what is next to

nal cord, bare

ever

number

it,

and the summit of the spi-

What-

and naked

to the cutting blast.

of coats a

modern Englishman wears,

and whatever quality of hat, there

is

always a staring

space of separation between the top of his coat-collar

and though

and the bottom of his hat

;

over the most penetrable

vital part in

yet to endeavour to protect as effeminate.

all classes

their day,

it, is

Our

;

and here,

tars of their heroic

be

beings,

usually ridiculed

fathers

and wore wigs or querns

of the neck

this space

human

by

were wiser in

to cover the

nape

in Chopin's plates, are the

Tah-

day of fighting, when

all

Europe

quailed before them, and put up lamentably abject

prayers to be delivered from their arms and their swords,

—indulging themselves with

tary protection.

Now who

most salu-

this

would dare to

call

those

Tahtar destroyers effeminate, or to hint anything similar of their

modern conquerors, the Kussians;

when, daily overcoming and climates than any that their

own

we have to do

rule of conduct,

Evening

keep

for themselves

own fashion,

and the continuity of their

still

severer

with, they

and form

in this particular thing their their comfort

utilizing far

happily for race.

found us ploughing up fussily the

abundant waters of the Volchov; the cloudy sky lowered yet more, and threatened to rain ; the banks of the river gradually

became

less visible

;

and from

time to time great Kussian boats came floating by on

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THE VOLCHOV RIVER.

387

their toilsome passage of the vast Continent, from

south-east to north-west. tures they were, of the

Kude, picturesque strucroughest wood;

usually

fastened together two and two, like twin boats

spreading out

its

and thus unitedly

broad boom-sail to

;

own

its

each side,

most appropriate form

offering a

wherewith to invite further the favouring

gale, that

was already sending them sweeping along with

glo-

rious power to their destination, near Great Ladoga's

Lake and the Neva's queenly stream. castle of each of these boats

residence of the crew

deck gleamed ruddy

;

was a

and

On

little

the fore-

hut for the

their open-air fires

in the distance,

on

and when near,

lent a strange illumination to their antique cordage

backed against the darkness of night.

Our own steamer

assisted not a little to

terest to the drizzling

gloom ;

add

for the furnace

in-

being

fed by wood in place of coal, there rushed up the

chimney every now and then whole legions of burning sparks

;

but at the summit thereof they were

all

caught by a network of iron gauze, and looked like

a cloud of

struggling to escape from the

fire-flies

bars of their cage,

and gradually dying out one

the other, when their Occasionally

efforts

after

proved in vain.

some petty village station was stopped

at by the light of small lamps

;

and then on we went

for another long distance of river flowing through

unknown darkness

;

but at last twinkling lines S 2

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

383

of distant lights were

made

out,

and then they gar-

nished either bank, and Novgorod

Then of course ensued

bustle

itself

was reached.

and some confusion,

every one anxious to hasten to his quarters in the

town, before houses should be quite shut up for the night

;

but the same worthy Russian dame, a small

farmer's wife,

who had

previously

when on board

taken an interest in trying to teach us to pronounce

we were bound,

the

name

the

manner wherein Russians could alone appreciate

it,

of the hotel to which

—not " Beresina,"

tempting

it,

as

we had been mincingly

but "Berezzina,"

—kindly

in

at-

appeared

again on terra firma beyond the passage of planks, ticket-taking,

and baggage securing,

to give

both

the droshky-driver and ourselves final instructions,

which were soon proved to be both exact and

ef-

fective.

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389

CHAPTER

III.

LIONS OF NOVGOROD. October.

A

room with doubled windows,

little

situated in the

little

High

in a little inn,

Street of the once Great

Novgorod, was where we found ourselves very comfortably settled the next

morning

There were two

arrival.

after our night

boys most ready and

anxious to do their best in serving us ; and

if their

good Russian and our bad, was not always mutually intelligible, little

one of them wonld go and bring the

mite of a daughter of the innkeeper, who, the

daughter, in a pretty white frock and with her backhair braided in long

tails

behind her head, bashfully

confessed to some knowledge of French ; and then

a fairy

little

interpreter she made, as she

commu-

nicated the expression of our wishes into the pliant

Russian tongue.

But

it

morning

was not much we wanted indoors ;

for sallying forth

this first

immediately after break-

Digitized

390 fast

THREE CITIES

IN RUSSIA.

we planted our letter of introduction

successfully,

and were not only most obligingly received and vited

for

droshky engaged for

With

isvostchiks.

very

and with the most clever of

man too, we were sent to office who was of old experience

hean about

its notabilities

;

and then,

an hour, behold the strangers quite free

to ride about

A

us,

this

the head of another in the city, to after half

in-

the evening, but also supplied with a

anywhere and everywhere. driving brought us through two or

little

three short streets to the bank of the river, and there plain

enough on

East

side,

its

we were

East or more exactly

South-

its

in the commercial quarter

;

while

on the North- West was an ancient Kremle, or great fortified enclosure,

containing within

domed churches and ornamental

its area,

bell

golden-

towers; but

displaying, without the same,

grim and ancient battle-

mented

of brick,

walls.

Such walls

!

and with every

battlement washed by rain or crumbled by frost into a mere rounded hillock. The river was a noble stream, not slow

;

in breadth

of perhaps one thousand five hundred feet j

and giving the

sort of satisfaction capabilities,

on beholding

much

the

same

mercantile

its real

—as compared with those of the Moskva

river belonging to the

Kussia,

traveller

— which

our

showy middle-age

own more

capacious

imparts to every one, on returning to

its

capital of

Thames

warehouse-

loaded banks, after spending a few weeks on those

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LIONS OP NOVGOROD.

most

artificial

borders of the poor

391 little

Seine in

Paris, with its ambition to do such very great things,

but condemnation by the

Not by any means

fiat

of Nature to small.

so large as the

Neva

in St.

Petersburg, yet the Yolchov in Novgorod excites

more

one's regard

;

for,

while equally flowing con-

stantly in one direction with a grand cleansing current,

it

occupies

its

proper place, in a tolerably deep

bed below the houses, and not on a above them

;

below her head not above

by

level with or

in so far like the feet of a classic damsel,

it

in

walking or dancing

as with the

modern

the opera-going classes.

either,

ballet so

admired

Commercial barks were

at intervals floating past, and whole fleets of

seemed moored

and

off certain parts of the

fluttering their wind-vane pennants in

them

town, gaily

remembrance

of the Hanseatic trade which once so flourished here others again seemed busy in landing supplies of

wood, and piling them in stacks on shore. their crews were,

Kremle

wall, a

fire-

That

is

and had already built up under the

mass of something

like

an acre of

glittering birch- wood faggots; supply surely large

enough

for all the inhabitants thereof, during

winter that could be coming.

engaged

in trundling

Other

men

still

any were

up long spars from the water-

level to the high-banks,

by an ingenious process of

running down the bank with a rope over a pulley

^

the spar lying in a lower bend of the rope and rolling

Digitized

392

up

TIIREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

hill

on wooden

whenever

it felt

Of stone

rails

as pleasantly as possible

the pressure of the rope.

or stones, the supply seemed to be scanty

indeed, and several garden -walls terminating on the river bank, indicated that travelled boulders of

Scan-

dinavian or Finland granite,* laboriously picked out of the soft

soil

around Novgorod, formed the only

variety to be had.

But of clay there was abundance,

manufactured and for manufacture

Kremle

walls, together with

;

and though the

sundry old houses, indi-

cated that the art of burning bricks hard and glassy like those of ancient Babylon,

here,

had not been attained

—yet the turrets of many churches

the inhabitants possessed not a

testified,

little artistical

that

know-

ledge as to the power of bricks for producing orna-

mental open-work decorations. place

we were

standing

too,

in,

And

the market-

was distinguished

by the number of pottery- stalls,

selling a native

greenish-glazed earthenware, evidently intended to

stand the

fire,

and replace saucepans and stewpans of

every size and degree.

To these things we paid

so

much attention, because

there, in a corner of the said market-place, almost

overhanging the bank of the river we had erected our camera, and had to wait under a cloudy sky with spitting rain until the scene

on the opposite bank

* See Archdeacon Coxe's account of the boulders on the Bronitza, twenty miles south of Novgorod, vol.

i.

lull

of

p. 432.

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LIONS OF NOVGOROD

should choose to impress

A

plate.

scene not a

itself

little

393

on the dry collodion on the

interesting, for

summit of that bank, were not only the old Kremle and more distant domes of the cathedral of

wall,

St. Sophia, of Novgorod, but also, more immediately

in front and almost on the very top of the wall, a

grand belfry worthy of the old republic of the North,

and the days of bell.*

its

Vetchevoi Kulokol, or assembly

Five large bells each in a separate open arch-

way, and twelve smaller ones packed away in the corners, (there

number

that

may be

more, but to the existence of

at least our

photograph

ing under the microscope),

all

is

now

testify-

of brilliant looking

yellow metal, and delicately varied in gradations of

and

size

notes.

figure for producing the required musical

The long

horizontal metal-roof over this

of resounding arched,

is

and that of course with the " honourable the purpose of the whole tical,

but

cross

may be deemed more

poli-

or rather social, than purely religious and eccle-

siastical *

row

crowned with a golden dome,

;

for while its position just

on the edge of

A Western traveller and a reverend, mistaking this word for its

nearly similar one in Russian vetchnoi, meaning eternal

(*

LyalTs

Russia,' p. 233), convicts the early Novgorodian merchants of im-

pious assurance in giving an attribute of the Deity alone as a

name

now gono

so far

to one of the bells of their city

from

;

a

city,

her, while the bell in question

whose glory

is

was carried away with

triumph to Moskva nearly three hundred years ago.

New

insulting

May our

future

Zealander's philology be more perfect, and his condemnation

not so ready. S 3

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

394

the river-bank, between the two chief quarters of the

was admirably adapted of old to

city,

democracy together, terval St.

from

all

—

it is

call

a fierce

separated by a wide in-

the Kremle churches

;

and they, with

Sophia gracefully crowning their group, have

their

own

unattached, yet neighbouring belfry, an

elegant and lofty construction, of the Ivan-Veliki description in Moskva.

The truth is, that nothing great, potent, or even particular,

has ever been done in Russia,

ized Russia, without religious beliefs

arms of the

some reference

in Christian-

to the people's

and hopes of salvation; hence the

city of

in arrangement

i. e.

Novgorod, while perfectly heraldic

and technically quite worthy of the

Varangian brethren of our William the Conqueror's *

NormanS, exhibit as the shield, a sacred picture with J the metallic u riz/ or plating of the vestments, resting on an

altar,

and two

while the crest Trinity.

is

crucifixes crossed in front of

it

a triple candlestick typifying the

There are side supporters, in two bears

plantigrade

;

and the whole arrangement

on a triangular basis of

solid ice

is

mounted

with frozen

fishes

enclosed.

Now this ice being represented immediately to one's eyes or understanding, by the winter-frozen waters of the Volchov,

—the bears being

still

found in

the

country, and being by nature plantigrade animals,

and the

religious

symbolisms being precisely what

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LIONS OF NOVGOROD.

do move, and ever have moved, the Eussians heart

and

soul,

— there

is

evidently

whole arrangement.

Yet

much

foundation for the

taste is a curious thing,

and those very Nov; u gorod arms have been voted ludicrous M * and quite

national as well as individual

unworthy the geographical and zoological knowledge of modern times, by precisely one of those persons

who

consider a rampant and grinning Lion, and a

Unicorn the same, as most

natural, respectful,

dignified supporters for the arms Island.

'But

still/

and

of a Northern

says the American, 'what are

those strange-looking animals on the shield putting

out their tongues so

far, for ?

Air they Britishers ?

Across the river next by a noble level bridge, with stone piers and

wood and iron upper-works, and then

into Novgorod's ancient

Kremle we went ; but not

without some delay at the chapeled gateway, where pilgrims were worshipping

in

hempen garments, with

;

poor laborious pilgrims

their feet

shod with birch-

bark, and legs bound about with cloths and twine

both men and women were

:

there, equally with the

traces of long and weary travel upon them, but with

the signs in their countenances of striving after the

accomplishment of a righteous work. Inside the Kremle not a few Government Offices,

with telegraph wires and posts, and other modern

accompaniments; but oh! the old weather-beaten * Clarke's TraYels, vol.

i.

p. 38, fourth edition.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

396 walls

and the mysteriously ruined brick-towers

intervals along

They were lady,

them, like

built,

we

at

towers of Babel.

little

are informed

by a Russian

"at the order of Alexis Alexandrovitch, son

of the hero of Nevsky, in the thirteenth century

by Ivan

repaired

and one hundred and in

1500

III., in

stroyed by the Swedes,

in 1611 nearly de-

;

who burned eighteen churches

fifty

houses, but repaired again

A

1699 by Peter the Great."

more modern

entrance to a garden, with colonnade upon colonnade, as likewise the older erection of the belfry already

mentioned, suggested Indian architecture, supposed to have

been introduced into Russia

times; the bulbous

in pre-christian

domes too on most of the churches,

are thought to be thence derived

;

for

although the

only pattern of early Russian church architecture confessed to in Russia, nople,

—yet there are all

name

and is said

;

indeed

also to

it

to

have been, no

dome

principal

is

flat.

Novgorod, however, received

after the great

at

temple of the south,

show some general resemblance on This

a small scale in the interior.

and found

and its

the world to be comparatively

St. Sophia's of

least its

Sophia's of Constanti-

said to be,

such decorations there

known by

is St.

we now

entered,

gloomy and solemn to a degree, covered

everywhere with antique and smoke-tinged paintings, silver decorated shrines

on the

ikonostas on the eastern wall

but chiefly

;

floor,

golden

filling the

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397

LIONS OF NOVGOROD.

whole square space of the building, were the four colossal piers of

dome.

The

masonry supporting the roof and

superlative strength of these piers, in-

voluntarily convinced us that

much

of the

early

building must remain here inside, though the outside

be fresh plastered and white-washed from top

to bottom, the

as

if

the

domes only excepted, and

as brilliantly

work had only been a few weeks completed.

Among

the several churches claiming to be, in

their bodily presence

still,

" the

first

ever erected in

Kussia," this Novgorodian St. Sophia, puts in a better claim than perhaps any other; for though Vladimir

the Great, did superintend the destruction of the old idols in Kiev,

on the ruined

and commence a church or churches* sites of their

temples or

weeks before he did the same sequently, Poles,

at

altars,

a few

Novgorod ; yet sub-

Petchenagues, Lithuanians, and

Tahtars, destroyed the Kiev churches so frequently

century after century, that what necessarily almost

tions of

Novgorod

tian shrine;

and

all

little

is

seen there now,

very modern.

fell

But the

is

visita-

lighter on her earliest Chris-

but a

fire

in 1340 ever injured

it,

was unable to touch the awful

this probably

massiveness of those four interior

pillars

and their

surrounding walls. * The very to St. Basil.

first

church which Vladimir began at Kiev, was dedicated

The present

4

St.

Sophia' of Kiev was the erection of a sub-

sequent monarch, to commemorate the defeat and extermination of

an army of Petchenagues under the walls of Kiev, A.D. 1036, by the

Grand Prince

Yaroslav.

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THREE CITIES

308

Certainly the

memory

IN RUSSIA.

of the Great Vladimir L,

lingers about the Volchovian neighbourhood;

still

and though the completion of the church and above-ground masonry between the years

and 1051, was due slaviteh,*

(who

to his

the post of tributary chief of

filled

is

it

who

his father Yaroslav

confidently asserted, that the

Great Vladimir, with the the monarch

1045

a.d.

grandson Vladimir Yaro-

Novgorod under the reign of at Kiev), yet,

Bishop Ioakim, was

first

very

laid the foundations of this

church in the year

its

a.d. 988.

Tradition too further

asserts that to this, rather than to any Kiev, church

did the same Vladimir bring his prize of conquest

and of baptism, the brazen gates of Cherson ; with which famous gates, what reader of our own immortal Gibbon does not feel perfectly familiar ? After leaving the interior of the church,

dodge

for a time several

archways outside

we had

to

showers of rain under divers

and from one of them, pushing

;

forwards into a court of ecclesiastical buildings to see

what might be

that

met our

there, behold

eyes, proved to

—the very

first

thing

be the western entrance

of St. Sophia, with nothing less than the brazen

They

gates of Cherson set prominently therein. * This Vladimir never came having died in 1052

A.D.,

to the

Grand-Princedom of Russia,

two years before

fore to be carefully distinguished

and surnamed Monomachus,

his father

from Vladimir

II.,

;

and

is

there-

son of VseVolod,

a.d. 1113-1125.

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LIONS OF NOVGOROD.

were unmistakeable,

the very gates or doors which

Gibbon has described; about eleven seven broad

;

two of them

;

feet high,

by

constructed in a half gold-

coloured bronze ; each door in twelve small compart-

ments, and one large one Trinitarially into three

at the

summit

divisible

minutely carved alto-rilievo

;

figures in every compartment;

rich floreated

and

grottesque divisions running through the whole; and

towards the middle, two snake-handles set in the

mouths

of lions,

whose aspect

manes must have been fashion of

is

mournful, and whose

and curled

oiled

after the

him of Assyria.

What joy to set up the camera

before these famous

gates or doors; the only piece of genuine outside antiquity which

we had

brilliant in colour,

yet met with in Russia ; so

and so admirably preserved. Two

glass doors were there to close over those of brass

in

bad weather, and

of the metal.

Yet

tradition is here,

partly explained the fair surface let

us confess at once, that local

somewhat

at variance with anti-

quarian reading, or rather vice versa.

Coxe, in 1783, seems to have been the writer and observer

who

Archdeacon first

English

detected a Latin inscrip-

tion on the doors, indicating

them

not from the Greek empire, but

to

have come,

from the

city

of Magdeburg, in Germany; and an old Russian

book, though calling them the Korsunskie dveri, or

Cherson doors agreeably with popular

belief,

very

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400

THREE CITIES IN RU8SIA.

were imported by the citizens

quietly adds, that they

of

Novgorod

from Magdeburg.

in the twelth century

Old however, even in that case they evidently are, especially for Russia,

and exceedingly quaint ; con-

taining not unexpressive representations of

many

the more notable events in both the Old and

of

New

Testaments, and some other supplementary symbolical scenes exceedingly difficult of interpretation.*

Yellow bronze of seven hundred years* weathering

and on a cloudy day, required long photographic exposure, while the exquisite detail of the* figure-

work demanded the smallest of apertures; so our *

On

recently examining the photograph procured

on this occasion

under a high magnifying power, many inscriptions were seen divers of the compartments, and as the following examples will 8.

show

:

PETEU8, IUDA8 TRADIDITX-P-M.,

HE BODES

IMP.,

MARIA

'

7.

ELISABET,

these being evidently the descriptive titles to as figures.

many

sculptured

I have not been able to verify Archdeacon Coxe's

quotation, viz.

in

some of them were decided Latin,

Wicmannus Megideburgeims but y

first

his second, which

he gives thus

ALEXANDER epe DEBLVCICH., can hardly

fail to

be the following

:

+ ALEXAN DEBEPCDE BLV-CICH viz.,

a sentence written on one side of a big archbishop's head, and

above a

little

deacon's,

m the

lion-headed handle of the

left

compartment immediately under the door.

But

it is

perhaps worthy of

mention, that there are symptoms here, as elsewhere about the doors,

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401

LIONS OF NOVGOROD.

camera was ascend the

heads

work

left to its quiet

quarters of an hour, while

divers efforts to

now almost

bell-tower,

tall

and exhibiting, though

;

for nearly three-

we made in

over our

humble and pro-

vincial architecture, a form as beautiful as the

tall

Ivan of the South.

Here

the isvostchik

assistance, for he

came out splendidly

went from door

to door,

to our

and from

chorister boys to priests, until he seemed to have

reached the very Archbishop himself; and then in

our hearing, spun him such a long and eloquent yarn of our regard about the

for everything great

city, that his

and glorious

Reverence gave instructions

at last to an out-of-door man-servant, to take us of a double

set

up

of inscriptions, the second being in a species of Greek-

founded characters

;

and accordingly on the

hand of

other, or right

the archbishop's head, there stands as clearly,

€ t(kT\ £\C* K Elsewhere

Z

N -I and un-

too, there are letters very like the old Slavonic,

less

we had

tion

an unfair advantage

we could

0

these types at hand, in

it

would be giving the Latin

inscrip-

an English book, to insert merely what

at present print of each of them.

Moreover, every pannel

or compartment of the doors being a separate slab of metal rudely fastened to the general frame;

and the lower right-hand corner

panel of the right door, being evidently a modern interpolation

and the

inscriptions being everywhere merely

or cut into the

flat surface,

considerable judgment

tached to any of

is

little letters

;

punched

just as might be done again to-morrow,

needed in assigning the weight to be

them.— Edinburgh,

at-

1862.

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402

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

to as high in the tower as

camera

in hand,

we cared

So then

to go.

and following our leader we passed

through several stories of attached buildings, from thence entering height

;

midway

the tower about

stairs past the greater bells,

and

in

its

wooden

next up by short zigzag flights of

to a sort of

cupola

roof under the small final spire where the lesser bells are hung.

Magnificent then the view over

Novgorod. St.

all

the realm of

Round the golden domes and

crosses of

Sophia as a centre, circled the old ruined walls

of the Kremle, and round about them again clustered

many houses and not a few churches of the town, even now distinguished by extensive colonnades of

the

a Gostinoi Dvor. But then beyond them out on every side the sublimely

ended

in

flat

all,

stretched

Russian land, till

a horizon as level as that of the sea;

interfered with only in one direction,

or,

it

was

where a narrow

gleam of light betrayed the waters of Lake Ilmen the very lake Ilmen of our early school-books of

geography.

And

from

this

same Lake, came down

with a sweep and rush as of gigantic, wide-spread

power the noble Volchov

river,

curving and winding

with a majesty more like an arm of the sea than a current of fresh water.

The country around was grassy and green, and first

at

sight quite gay with its sprinkling of isolated

churches bearing golden domes. But then what was

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403

LIONS OF NOVGOROD.

their meaning

Why

?

they indicated that old Nov-

gorod of the Middle Ages, once extended enclosed them

and

so far,

within her parental circuit; and

all

there, through the fields and far in the country

we

could jast trace one of the old circular earthen ramparts of the

The

city.

by a

position which has once been occupied

Christian shrine, the Russian people never allows to

be

forgotten

began

;

city

to retreat far within her ancient borders, the

churches were like the

how

and hence when the decaying

still

kept up

and remain behind now,

;

*

wreck stranded high on a sea-beach, to mark

far the tide

once extended.

In a country where the people build their dwelling-houses of wood, and their tombs of wood, a rainy and a

damp

lamentably soon of millions of

land,

cold

and

material traces of

all

men

alluvial, how men and even

pass away, and leave not the

smallest visible fragment behind

:

except therefore,

for these churches of their better hours,

we should

look in vain for proofs of the former multitudes

The present

dwelt in Novgorod.

and so smart with

its

claim, to the eyesight only, to be

and growing ; yea indeed, unconscious of the

around

it.

city too, so small

new whitewashed houses and

whitewashed barracks on every

all

who

soil

it

side,

might well

young and

seems precisely

fresh

so,

and

impregnated with humanity

In vain then we looked from the height

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40i

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

for old

burying-grounds, and

Private burying-grounds have

even more than Moskva

times been

at all

Russians, and

favourites with the

dead.

of the

cities

Novgorod was

present, a city of sepa-

is at

by

rate houses, each surrounded

its

own garden;

but now, houses and gardens and tombs of wood,

and even the very bones of their old proprietors, the

Novgorod the Great, have

best and the bravest of

all

sunk down and been dissolved again into the earth from whence they came.

The most

panorama

interesting part of the whole

to us,

was perhaps, that looking towards the south-

west,

up the broad surface of the noble

its great floats

of

commerce

and

rafts of

on

floating

river,

with

wood, and many boats its

numerous

breast;

churches dotted the neighbouring country, and an unusually splendid collection of golden domes on the

northern

bank, announced the Monastery of St.

George; but the

man

attendant with us,

rather

pointed our attention to a humble church and village

on the opposite bank of the with

much emphasis under

river,

the

and spoke of

name

of

it

"Gorod-

itsche."

As

the camera, however, was taking

of everything in that quarter,

tion rather to the speaker himself, a

dressed in sheepskin

body and a build

fit

full

atten-

young peasant,

leather, but with a

for

account

we turned our

form of

any hero of olden time. His

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405

LIONS OP NOVGOROD.

thorax exhibited admirable strength and wind ; his

neck was

like a

marble column for strength; and his

face, rather pale than otherwise,

was both firm and

muscular ; the chin was massive as of cast-iron ; the were

lips

thin, the

nose aquiline, and the nostrils

like those of a high-bred horse, indicating

immense

power

and

of activity; while the eyes, not large,

light

blue or dove-grey, were vigorous and penetrating the hair was long, abundant, of a flaxen blond in

worn parted on one

colour, and

side,

not in the mid-

dle as with the mouzhiks in general.

" Well," said

we

half aloud, " how long we have been asking

where

in vain,

Varangians

At

the

;

else-

who was Rurik and who were

and here behold

name

is

of Rurik, the

the

one of them."

young man again

pointed excitedly to the direction of Goroditsche;

but we

tried to explain to

him how the camera was

doing perfect justice to that favourite village of his,

and we were wishing only, then and

own

there, to take his

He was

portrait in our note book.

a

little

sur-

prised, but presently consented with a really gentle-

manly

air that did

careless

him great

was he nor conceited

inclined to smile

;

;

credit

;

for,

neither

neither annoyed nor

but having just given a regulating

stroke to his abundant locks, he took up his position

under one of the

bells

on that

lofty tower-top,

and

gazed forth placidly, with the calm resolve of innate dignity.

Conscious

he seemed of being treated

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400

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

with honour, but of having something to give in return

and thoughts of

;

his

own appeared

fully to

occupy his mind, while consenting for a while to stand

still,

to please strangers ignorant of his lan-

guage.

From its

the Kremle, our isvostchik drove us

Western

fosse

gate,

away by

and by a bridge crossing the old

and gardens of the town, where the burghers

of former times used to disport themselves of an

evening with wives and children

:

and where now, the

silver-stemmed birch-tree showed leaves that were

orange and golden in this advancing stage of a Russian autumn,

and the

was flushed with the birch-tree

foliage of the

mountain ash

richest of crimson; the

same

and the same rowan-tree that we have in

Scotland, but ripened into these most glorious tints

by the

severities of a continental climate.

Away was of to

again from those scenes of the citadel that

old,

man and

and then horse.

to a trahtier's for refreshment

We left the choice altogether to

our isvostchik, and he took us to an establishment patronized by the gentry of his their vehicles

own

craft

;

several of

were outside, and though themselves

were inside and in considerable numbers, they were only quietly taking tea with each other, and there

was a private room up

stairs for the strangers.

But

the isvostchik* s hall looked far the more picturesque,

and

in contemplation for

some coming

feast, there

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LIONS OF NOVGOROD.

was a row

of roasted geese, large, plump, and nicely

browned, ranged along a side-board, that was quite ravishing to behold.

Away again from these delights, and past barracks, more

churches, and then barracks again

green

fields

;

then past

and through the ancient rampart of

earth, that encircled the city, once thirty-six versts

in its outward bounds.

town and

After that, back into the

out again into the open country through

another portion of the rampart ; and then " Goroditsehe,"

and " Goroditsche," the driver would

course about, as

gorod

itself.

if it

were more important than Nov-

But evening had by

and the decreasing sight-seeing was

dis-

this time arrived,

daylight warned us, that distant

now

to give

way

to

more

polite oc-

cupations.

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408

CHAPTER

IV.

CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD. October.

The

friendly

itself

furnished forth as gracefully as anything could

little

be in the modern Russian

tea,

tea-party in

capital,

Novgorod proved

and the flavour of the

was as usual in Russia, imperially fine

yet the tendencies of the talk which accompanied

were decidedly been in

different

St. Petersburg,

it,

from what they would have

and

particularly so,

when-

ever the credit of Novgorod was concerned.

Now

we heard so much in favour of we wondered what the great St.

accordingly,

this city, that

Petersburgers could have meant by their silence or depreciatory comments.

Not even

in points

of mo-

dern progress would the Novgorodians give in, and cited their schools, orphan institutions, Bible society,

and many manufactories of native products ; their extensive military colonies too they claimed to be of

extraordinary national importance

;

and when their

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mu

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i

ho

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»'

i

j-f

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.

.

.»

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NV p

*

*

in Russia, imperially fine;

talk

and

*<»nder
»»e lit!

c

extra

.

>rd.

.

\

.

when-

So,

so

much

in

favour of

what the great

St.

in

points of mo-

NwVffon aliaus

irive in,

and

institutions, Bible so<Me ? \,

of native products

;

their

colonics too they claimed to

of

»orit»8

v%U

particular]}

Not even

:»ha»»

1

it,

im.«\t by their silence or

lij-ve

.•lif ts.

#nid the

which accompanied

rod was concerned.

we hoard

ordii r

anything could

and the flavour of the

from what they would have

\\\, tibxivft

* d;t

•

<

t'ltf

.""•••m


Novgorod proved

gi.'iivfully n<

o«J

.

••'

te*-.:

Si.

-.s

ca';£t;il,

:i

tea,

-\

tea-party in

?*!c

!

,u

J

importance: and when their

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CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

409

conversation diverged to the poetry or history of

past or present, then there was no restraining their civic, if not patriotic, enthusiasm.

There had been a gorod, they

St.

said, all that

Petersburg

artist in

Nov-

summer, and he had vowed

to them, that he had never been in so picturesque a city before

;

every single thing he had seen there he

maintained "would paint," and he had returned,

home

only a few days before our arrival, to his Yassili Ostrov, with as as

many

sketches for pictures

would nearly serve him during the

time to work up.

He had

in the

been

rest of his life-

for

weeks on the

top of St. Sophia's bell-tower in the Kremle, and

there had painted the entire panorama; and then

what scenes he had secured below of

workmen, and good landscape

bits,

soldiers;

with

pilgrims, all

and

manner of

wherein figured isolated churches, and

antique golden domes rising amongst clusters of trees,

and crazy windmills on the

Then

too,

how

river's

bank.

gloriously ruled in his sketches the

sun by day or the moon by night.

" You need,"

said our entertainers, " a country with a level hori-

zon on every full,

side, in

order to appreciate to their

the majesty of the diurnal movements of the

heavens.

Not

in the

mountains of Palestine, but in

the plains of Chaldasa, did astronomy the notice of

man

;

for

on such level

first attract

plains,

you learn

soonest to eliminate the accidental effects of slopes VOL.

II.

T

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410

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

and crags of the

and

hills rising

up

in front of the sky,

to perceive the splendour of the whole earth's

eastward

What

roll.

a careful look-out for

all ce-

phenomena, our old chronicler, Nestor, ever

lestial

kept up from his cloisters of the Monastery of Petcherski

;

although too,

duties to keep

such

it

was no part of his

Yet

vigils.

daily

in truth neither

comet, nor aurora, nor haloes round either sun or

moon seemed "

How

ever to escape him."

grandly, moreover, above the plains about

Novgorod, do the

electric

powers of the

No

together at times in terrific combat.

air

meet

little

petty

whirlwinds from a mountain valley, ever trouble the scene

but at intervals in our normal fine weather,

;

eager clouds gather together from

all

quarters under

heaven ; the influences of the Western sea advance to dispute the aerial domination of

tinent

:

an Eastern con-

sighing gusts of wind sweep over the tree-

tops, while the antagonistic forces are marshalling,

and then suddenly they

clash, lightning flashing

and

thunder re-echoing so loudly, that you would fancy three volcanoes had broken out into activity close

Momentarily the tempest grows in fierceness,

by. as

it

but

strikes, first

finally,

on one

and then on the

side,

the wrath of nature

is

other;

assuaged in copious

floods of her beneficent tears." r

" These thunder storms of our country," continued Novgorodiensis, " have been as mighty promoters of

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411

CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

military successes or defeats as even the darkest of solar eclipses from the time of

And

of Norwegian Haco.

me

let

ask you,

if

King Darius

to that

in this point of view,

any of your great painters

in the

West, have ever thought of representing on canvas the

terrific

We

night aspects of the battle of Litsven?"

were compelled to confess sad ignorance not

only about the said painters' paintings, but respect-

ing the battle of Litsven

itself.

" Well," said the Russian, with noteworthy moderation, it

si

perhaps we make rather too

was a heroic

and no disgrace principals in it is

much

battle, well fought out

it,

but

side,

One of the

to the vanquished.

was our revered

of

on either

ruler Yaroslav,

who

second only to Rurik himself for the good he did

first

and

last to

Novgorod.

Yaroslav, as son to the

Great Vladimir, the Charlemagne of Russia, was

endued with no mean share of courageous

qualities

but then he who met him on that occasion, was

own

;

his

brother, Mstislav.

" Now

this Mstislav also inherited

some remark-

able features in his father's character

;

not indeed

the turn for building up a powerful and comprehensive state, or working very hard at anything ; but

he was endued nevertheless, with even more than Vladimir's genius for wielding the most stubborn

of

men

to

work out

his

own

purposes, and leading

them apparently without any

exertion to himself. T 2

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

412

Mstislav was in truth too while,

full

of genius to

for enjoyment, his

grand care seemed ever to

style of worshipful luxury suitable to

he should

if

would

easily rise

be,

and comfort, but yet in a certain

to live with ease

that

work

endued by nature with an immense capacity

at

one who

felt,

any time choose to labour, he

above

all

his fellow

men.

"Yaroslav, on the contrary, exhibited whatever there was of the plodding nature in his father's composition

being moreover quiet, studious, and eccle-

;

siastically inclined.

to

Indeed, Nestor sets him forth

have been always taken up with such pious mat-

ters as the rules

was then,

and

in 1037 a.d., quite

quaintly describes

of the church, which

offices

him

new in the land ; and who had a singular 1

as one

and a penchant

1

love for priests,

(

seeing them multiply over the

for

monks, and

land, that

for

was

ex-

traordinary beyond anything; in short, a prince '

€

whose joy increased exactly with the number of the churches.

'an

He

read too night and day, employed

infinity of learned

people to translate Greek

'books into the Slavonian language, and excited 4

them

also to

compose new ones/

But being

at

the same time no mere bookworm, he hastened, on

the

news of

first

his brother Mstislav's approach

with a large army, to marshal the Novgorodians to

meet him; taking care

also,

according to the tra-

ditions of his father's policy, to strengthen his *

army

#

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413

CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

by a

strong body of Varangian warriors from the

otber

side of the Baltic.

"Well, of course

all

knows

the world

that our

revered Yaroslav was lame, but so has been many

another great potentate ; and the

head

of the Varangians,

was

chief

blind, but

Iakun at the

he was brave

to a degree, of immense genius in conducting war,

and made

rather a boast of his blindness by conspi-

cuously displaying a bandage which the

fair fingers

of noble Scandinavian damsels had worked with His Varangian troops too were pre-

thread of gold. cisely of that

Norman breed, which was then carrying

victory wherever they appeared in France and England, Apulia, Sicily, and the East

Novgorodians of those days and after, never fought badly.

be

while the sturdy

;

for

many a long year may

Laboriously too you

sure, did Yaroslav overlook all the commissariat

and marching arrangements that when at last he came troops, everything

was

for his

whole army

;

so

in sight of Mstislav^s

in perfect order, thoroughly

computed out beforehand, and duly

supplied, that

calculation or precedent could possibly foresee.

u

Now Mstislav,

you may be equally

such trouble ; or at suspicion of

it

;

in sight, he was

least if

he

and even with still

did,

sure, took

his powerful

enemies

the same light-hearted, careless

hon-vivant that he ever showed himself to be at

other times

;

no

no one had any

amazingly fond of good cheer

;

all

taking

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414

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

plenty of

it,

but always in a pleasant way, for he had

an excellent heart and really loved his soldiers and their good, as

right well.

much

But those large eyes of

most transcendent

tall

his

showed

a

and any one who

soul of genius,

had the fortune to observe his clear

and that they knew

as himself,

well-made figure,

brown complexion, and the eagle glance with

which that evening, he lightly scanned the enemy's arrangements, or turned for a

moment

to the dark

cloud banks on the western horizon, just beginning to send their thin scud flying hither

and thither over-

head ; and then watched him as he simply indicated to his troops a certain line of bivouac for the night,

—might was

have guessed that something unexpected,

in preparation.

"Well; the night came on

dreadfully dark, for

not a star could pierce through any aperture between the thick clouds that soon covered

all

the heavens.

The darkness grew appalling; then came howling blasts of

wind

a sudden,

circling

around the armies ; while on

the very flood-gates of the sky were

opened, rain came pouring

down

in cataracts

der crashed, and lightning shot forth

;

thun-

terrifically.

moment/ then shouted

Mstislav to his

army, r up men and at them/ u So the whole army rose like one

man and moved

1

This

is

the

steadily forward in its line of bivouac;

and

that

turned out from the result, to have been so arranged,

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CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

415

that the Severians, foreign troops of Mstislav, had

come

to close quarters with the Varangians of Yaro-

slav, long before any of the others had arrived near

their

own

destined opponents.

At

that one parti-

cular point, therefore, the action commenced, Seve-

rian against Varangian; veritable Greek meeting

Greek

;

for they attacked each other

c

with an ani-

mosity without any parallel/ and killed each other '

But

in huge numbers.

of

all

with a chosen party of his

this shock, Mstislav,

men,

fell

of a sudden in the midst

on the flank of the Varangians who were

already so hard pressed in front.

grew

Then the carnage

Every now and then the lightning

frightful.

blazed forth, and in

its

blue unearthly light, the arms

of the warriors with their ranks of steel reflected a menacing flame, as though they were avengers just

tomb

risen from the

peals

at the

;

same time deafening

of thunder reverberated

heaven to the other

;

from one side of

in a word, as the old chronicle

remarks, 'the battle was beyond 1

all

comparison

murderous and truly fearful/ "

What

then, if our Novgorodian hero, Yaroslav,

was conquered

!

Both

Varangians had to

up

in

fly

;

he,

and Prince Iakun of the

the former soon shut himself

Novgorod, but the

latter did not stop until

he had reached his ships, which carried him to the other side of the Baltic

;

and he never came again to

claim the golden embroidered bandage, which had

been dropped in his hurry by the way.

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

M They need not have run

so very fast though, for

Mstislav, good fellow, never

had any rancour in his

heart;

no tendency had he to indulge either an

Asiatic conqueror's wholesale slaughtering, or a Ger-

man Emperor's

cruelties

on dungeoned victims

he

;

merely wanted to do just as much in the fighting line as

would

gain him, for that occasion, his

suffice to

comfortable point.

He was

a perfect epicurean,

was

Mstislav,

and of a high order ; weighing

to a nicety

the

of any acquisition, against the

amount of

toils

pleasure to be derived from

it

when acquired

;

and

having a very exalted ideal too, of the amount of plea-

To be Grand Prince or

sure he could enjoy.

Kniaz of

all

and throned

Russia,

have suited him

at

in such a position

;

all,

there were too

or

1

So from

field of Litsven,

Yaroslav,

many anxieties

and have the taxation of

whence were the means of his enjoy-

ments to come ? the

saying,

'Come and occupy again ;

of Russia west of the Dnieper ; but do

'

the other half/

this

two brothers continued

ous ways

;

;

the

and retain

'

So

on

his victorious position

he merely sent to his brother

throne of Kiev, as you are the elder

pleasant accord

Veliki

would not

but then he must rule over a con-

siderable extent of country,

many people,

at Kiev,

let

me

all

have

was agreed upon, and the

to live ever after in

most

Yaroslav plodding on in his studi-

and Mstislav attending to

his refined and

exalted pleasures, until one day, at a hunting, he

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417

CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

took a severe cold and died in the year 1036

when '

his

How

kingdom reverted happy

a.d.,

to Yaroslav."

for Russia that

it

did not

other way/ said one of the listeners,

e

out the

fall

and the whole

country get into the possession of a mere pleasureseeker

!

"That

is

what the Novgorodians would have

thought, no doubt/' replied the host, " for they were

a peculiar people, and didn't

be too

Governors to

like their

and easy

clever, at least in the free

Hence, Yaroslav suited them to a turn

style.

he was

al-

ways at work, and they could always see him at

it,

just as

if

;

he had been an upper clerk to them, and

they with the power of looking at him quill-driving in their for

office,

through their own private peep-hole

you see they carried

and they were government.

all

their customs of the shop,

shopkeepers, into their political

They served him

had served them,

fighting for

faithfully too, as

him

firstly

he

against

that disgraceful Tiberius of a brother of his, Yara-

polk ; secondly, against Boleslas the Brave of Poland thirdly against Mstislav;

and

finally

against that

provoking scourge of early Russia, the Petchenagues.

These savages were besieging Kiev

in

1036

a.d.

with

an innumerable army, while Yaroslav was absent

Novgorod ; but he marched the soldiers of the

district,

off

immediately with

at all

reached Kiev, penetrated

through the besieging host, entered the town, conT

8

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

418

the inhabitants, and then

ferred with forces

all

in

a pitched battle with the enemy. struggle

all

with

their

company, went ont on the hill and fought

the day long, but

It

was a

hard

by evening the Petchen-

agues were utterly beaten, and so cut up in their flight,

that they never recovered as a people.

" Yaroslav

also

subdued many of the neighbouring

and reigned with a deal of wisdom.

tribes,

Russia

has to thank him for translating the Bible into her vernacular at that early period, and he also prepared

a code of laws

still

His family

tion.

quoted with respect and admira-

circle too,

appears to have been

very refined, and the general menage faultless; this led to his daughters

riages, for the notion

all

making distinguished mar-

went abroad

into every reign-

ing family in Europe, that no young Prince could ever

go wrong

in choosing a wife out of that household.

Accordingly, Elizabeth, the eldest, married with Harold,

Henry

King

I.

of

Norway

of France

;

;

while

Anne, the second, with

Agmunda, the

came the spouse of Andrei

Then

too, he, Yaroslav,

riage to Casimir,

King

I.,

third, be-

King of Hungary.

had given

his sister in mar-

of the Leckes

;

while his son

Vladimir, the builder of our St. Sophia of Novgorod,

had married the daughter of Harold, the

last of

your Saxon Kings of England ; his third son married the sister of the Prince of Treves

;

and his

fourth

son married a daughter of Constantine Monomachus,

Emperor of Constantinople.

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419

CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

" Thus

there was no

alliances; and whether

end of Yaroslav's royal

was

it

this sort of success

that made him think more of the progress of his family, and less of the welfare of the state; or whether,

his continual poring over dusty books of past times,

had knocked

out of his head

power of

original

all

thinking, and of appreciating for himself the rightful policy of Russia,

we

don't know,

—but

his very

learned and too literary latter-day instructions to his children, instead of a blessing to the country,

became a

fruitful source of intestine

wars and mur-

derous confusion for centuries afterwards.

u Now

Mstislav would never have done anything

either so foolish on one side, or so selfish on the

other ; he knew almost intuitively and without study-

ing so hard as Yaroslav would have been obliged to do,

what

steps ought to be taken in any case even

of the most intricate political action

;

and

in all his

subsequent proceedings, he never was found at any

time very

far

from the true direction of the Pole-star

of Russia, though he had no visible lines for his guidance.

How well

on the morning paced over the tive melee,

this quality of his

field

and saw

satisfied

'

I

'

all

'

perfectly safe/

;

for, as

he

of the previous night's destrucall

the ground strewed with Se-

verians and Varangians,

ought to be

mind was shown

after the battle of Litsven

;

i

Well

!

'

said he,

'

I think

the dead on either side are

those dear auxiliaries, and

my own

people are

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

420

"

How

would have

his old father, Vladimir,

ap-

plauded both the speech and the previous disposal of the line of battle in such a manner, as to bring about

apparently quite naturally, the effects that followed

but he would have expressed

in fewer

it

words,

for

man to throw himmatter. Ho had had

Vladimir the Great was never the self

away even

in the smallest

in his time, great trouble also in controlling these

fighting Varangian auxiliaries

;

might be

for as

ex-

pected, they always wanted, after gaining the country for the rightful heir, to rule in

after

it

themselves.

overthrowing Yarapolk, and placing Vladimir

on the throne of Kiev, these turbulent to 1

Hence,

came

spirits

him one morning with the impertinent statement,

This city belongs to us, for

we conquered

it

;

we

'have therefore determined that you pay us two '

grivnas* as a ransom for each individual contained

'in

it.'

t€ '

Wait another month until the marten

in/ said Vladimir.

But month

after

furs

come

month passed

away, and in fact the usual winter crop of marten skins never

came

in at all that winter.

So then

the

Varangians rushed in to Vladimir when the spring

was now far advanced, declaring 'that he had deceived

and

'

them ;

'

poor, and detestably wretched to *

that his people

The "grivna"

of

Novgorod

his city

were odiously

them who were

in later times

was thirteen ounces

of silver.— L. Pabxs.

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CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

421

€

Varangian heroes ; and that they knew the way to

€

Greece, (Constantinople), and there they would be

€

treated as befitted their style.

€

to that rich

"

'

They knew the way

and imperial city/

Set out for

it

then/ said Vladimir, and in truth

they presently found themselves looking so

foolish,

that they were obliged for very shame to start

off

southward to receive the boasted rewards worthy of

such

lions as themselves.

them with

there,

and had

sent,

But Vladimir was before

more quickly than they

their load of dignity cared to travel, a little

message by one of his own people peror:

c

A

troop of Varangians

to the is

Greek Em-

coming

to you.

'

Don't expose yourself to the danger of letting them

'

unite in your city, or they will do there as

'

chief as they have been doing here.

'

destroy them

€

them come back

;

and

in

much mis-

Divide them,

any case don't

let

any one of

this way/ " So then had acted Mstislav, and so had acted

Vladimir, to ward off a Hengwt-and-Horsa danger to

the Eussian state

;

but Yaroslav had

see so far ahead, and do so

few words

;

much

it

not in him to

national

he would on the contrary,

good

in so

for ever pore

over his old books and gather from thence

all

sorts

of wordy wisdom, suitable to other times and places,

never seeing that case.

And

it

did not properly apply to his

therefore

it

own

was, that on his death-bed

on the 20th of February, 1054

a.d.,

he not a

little

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

422

himself practically, by

stultified

giving his sons

first

a long homily on the importance and beauty of

making each and

brotherly concord, and then

them

and independent Princes

rival

in different parts

of Russia; which poor country he cut

purpose, into as

many fragments

of

all

up

as he

the

for

had sons

giving Kiev to Isiaslav, Tchernigov to Sviatoslav, Periaslavle

Vsevolod,* Vladimir to Igor, and

to

Smolensk to Viatcheslav. who ascended the throne of Kiev in 1078 A.D., who added the name of his father to that

* This Prince,

was the

first

of himself;

.Russian ruler

Vsevolod- Yaroslavitch.

as,

Probably the distinctive

patronymic had become by that time abundantly necessary, amidst the multiplication of sons and grandsons of reigning Princes

;

for

with only a few favourite national names distributed amongst them,

Not many years

they were so often repeated. part of Russia

made war on the

of having to say simply,

'

later,

when only a

Polovtzi, the old chronicler, instead

Tear such a one, did so and

labour of particularizing that

'

so,' lias

the

Sviatopolk-Isiaslavitch, Yladimir-

4

Vsevolodovitch, David-Sviaioslavitch, and his son Rostislav, David-

*

Iporovitch, Vsevolod-Olgovitch,

1

Yaroslav-Sviatoslavitch,

*

and

Mstislav

their relatives Sviatoslav

and

and Yarapolk-Vkdimirovitch,

united themselves anew against the enemy.'

In the course of the next three sovereign Princes of Russia

had

centuries, the

numbers of these

so immensely increased, that at the

notable battle of Koulikov, no less than 513 of them are said to

have

lost their lives.

After that clearance, Russian history becomes easier to follow

but previous to

which the

it

j

is

actually confounding

and we can only compare

;

little girl

couldn't do

minor

the study

it,

plication of lines

viz.

it,

by the multi-

to that question

asked a great astronomer the other day, and he repeat off-hand, a.d. 1862, the

planets, in the order of their distance

names of

all

the

from the sun.

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CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

423

" Now whether these well-lectured young men had forgotten

all

the lecturing they had received before a

twelve-month was

and were already quarrelling

out,

or whether King Bratislav of Bohemia was previously

an

absolutely wiser

now

to ascertain,

man

—but

then Yaroslav, certain

it is,

it is difficult

that he,

King

Bratislav on his death -bed on January 10th, 1055 A.D.,

made ' God

a very different disposition of his kingdom.

has given

'them

me/

said he,

'

five

sons and I love

but yet I do not see any advantage in

all;

Bohemia amongst them,

'

dividing

'

divided against

'

And

itself, will

for every

kingdom

be exposed to desolation.

because from the origin of the world and the

Roman

empire down to these

*

beginning of the

c

times, the love of brothers has ever been scanty, let

'

us take warning from

known examples.

For

if in

my

'

Cain and Abel, in Romulus and Remus, and in

'

ancestors Boleslaus and the sacred Vinceslaus, you

(

see

what two brothers have been, only fancy what

'

five

brothers would soon be doing/

"In

fact the confusion

amongst Yaroslav* s

dren, soon became horrible

;

chil-

and the case of poor

Vassilko with his eyes stabbed out of his head, while four

men

held him

on a plank

down on

the ground by mounting

laid over his breast

until they

had broken

that even

among

and pressing on

in his ribs,

—affords

it

a proof

brethren, the most innocent

sometimes fare the worst. Poor blind Vassilko,

may who

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424

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

when he came

to himself after a long death-like

swoon, only asked them to give him back his bloodstained shirt, because he wished to have

it

on when

he should appear before God."

Being

able to enter into

little

full

appreciation of

these biographical, rather than historical,* particulars of indigenous worthies, however interesting they

might be

to Russians, the strangers took

an early

opportunity of asking a question or two for their

own more

particular information

broader matters of easy to talk of

satisfaction in

For instance, "

fact.

how

and

great

It is very

Novgorod was once, but

what proofs can you show ?"

To

this the

Novgorodian answered

like a Scot,

by

putting another question, thus, " What idea have you

got already in your minds, as to

its

once reputed

size ?"

Very indistinct the strangers were obliged to con" But we have been told that it was perfectly

fess.

stupendous, and that Nestor in his chronicles even affirms

how

market

place,

the carriers

had on

who brought goods

to the

their return to bait their horses

seven times before they

left

the environs of the city

behind them."

" And who told you that now?" returned Novgow An Iberian, Fll undertake to say rodiensis. !

To which cisely

;

the strangers replied,

" That

is it

pre-

no other than a very Iberian."

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425

CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD. £t

Well then," continued the Novgorodians, " we

can't prove for you such a size as that tale implies, for

it is

a pure invention in every way.

did not reach

Novgorod

prime until the fourteenth and

its

fif-

teenth centuries, and as Nestor's own chronicle ends a.d. 1113, and his continuators in a.d. 1206,

it is

not

there that you need expect to find any particulars

of

its

extreme vastness.

It

was growing no doubt,

and

the continuators occasionally gave

of

Great/ towards the conclusion of their labours.

*

But that term

is

it

the epithet

comparative, and there was not, and

could not have been, in

the far North in that

all

day any such large amount of

agriculture, manufac-

and wealth, as could have enabled a truly

tures, trade,

Babylonian congregation of houses to grow up and support

itself,

in one spot of the thinly inhabited

But then

wilderness.

it is

a grand cry for a certain

class of politicians to get up,

'

Oh

see

how commerce

'

invariably withers under the blighting domination

'

of Russia ; here

€

of independence, was as large as three Londons

is

a town which in

'put together; now behold

it

its

ancient days

'

shade of a Upas Government to so scanty a

1

that merely to see

'.stirs 1

1

r

up the

good man

;

grief

it

in its misery

village,

and desolation,

and kindles the anger of every

Europe

is horrified at

exampled within her borders ; have absolutely to

all

reduced under the

visit

a scene so un-

and you would

scenes of African warfare

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

426 '

or Asiatic cruelty, before you could parallel any-

'

thing so grievous to

'

terial

" it

No

progress/

doubt Novgorod

is

now a mere ghost

of

not more,

and

could never think of comparing in

any

Moskva a century and a

certainly

it

bined. for

viz.

Moskva and

So, the comparison

when

it

half ago

;

with the present duplex-capital sys-

its statistics,

tem of Russia,

was the

must

St.

Petersburg com-

in fairness

capital of the country,

be made,

Novgorod

had to serve the present purpose of both these

Of course on the mencing

in

also

seat of

Government,

after

cities.

com-

Novgorod, being subsequently and after

many migrations to

what

once was, and that was probably about as populous

as

of

human hopes and ma-

all

established in Moskva,

and that city

overcoming the long Tahtar oppression, began

grow

rich

and wax commercial,

—Novgorod, no

longer the capital of the nation, lost a great sources of wealth which

it

once possessed.

many

It

still

retained however, for a season, the traffic of the Baltic Sea.

The

was not given

final

blow therefore to

until, as

its

prosperity,

your Archdeacon Coxe justly

observes, the founding of St. Petersburg in 1700.

And how was

the blow dealt

?

"Why simply by the

opening up elsewhere of a straighter communication from the heart of the country, direct to the sea ; and

by having an

actual seaport belonging to Russia, in

place of an inland port, attainable only

by a long and

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42?

CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD. intricate navigation of fresh-water streams

must say

that of

it,

;

for

we

though our magnificent Volchov

formed part of the system.

" To

howl therefore over the

raise a

Novgorod, and

for a

man who

is

latter fate of

a stranger, to

feel

a

sickening sensation come over him on seeing how

very small are

its circuits

now,

simply to bewail

is

an improvement and expansion of the channels of commerce.

However,

of such a case

gentlemen there,

;

for,

it

is

not the only example

are there not certain of the old

England who lament and groan over

in

when they behold nowadays

the silence that

reigns in the streets of some ancient posting-town

on their own North-road

;

and where

fifty

years ago,

every hour of the day and night used to be enlivened

by a four-in-hand mail-coach

arriving in

all its

glory

;

but long since then, the insatiable railway has swal-

lowed them (t

all.

It is not

though so much for its former mere

size

that

we

and

early partakings in the historical events of our

country.

appreciate Novgorod, as for

The

circuit,

its

great age,

and the number of the old

churches, will give you some idea of both these fea-

tures; but for a more certain illustration of the

length of time during which the city stood regarded in

a primal light by Kussians, we would point you to

the

number of

shrines in the cathedral.

of this proof depends chiefly, upon

its

The strength being such an

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THREE CITIES TN

428

RUSSIA..

excessively rare tiling in the course of ages, for any

man

in Russia, ruler or subject, to acquire that ex-

would lead

alted degree of religious fame which

countrymen either

to canonize

him

his

after death, or to

erect a costly shrine to cover his remains, in the Imperial

Sobore for the time being.

Hence, where you

have in St. Petersburg one such testimony, there are three in the Uspenski Sobore of

seven in St.

This

mode

tive repute,

so

Moskva, and

Sophia of Novgorod." of reckoning, though evidently of. na-

was not very

intelligible to the strangers,

they presently remarked, as a provocative to

something further, ' that the town of Kiev had the putation amongst learned men, of being

than Novgorod

much

re-

older

!'

u Oh, of course," the Novgorodians

said,

a French philosopher, Voltaire, wrote

out of the depths of his

own

it

"because

in a

book

;

imaginings, indeed;

but then merely because such a statement was written in a book, every other literary

man seems

to

think himself bound to recognize, quote, and refer to

That

it.

school

;

is

way with your literary may have been actually trans-

the provoking

great events

acted amongst the sons of men, but

been printed to

also,

make reference

if

they have not

no one considers himself obliged to

them ; the event does not come,

say they, within the pale of civilized letters

done

so,

how

all

;

had

it

the writing genus would have

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429

CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

worried the librarians of every library

Lad got hold

of the account, pat

;

which of them would stop the regular

they

until

but otherwise, delivery of his

proof-sheets revised for press, gird up his loins, and

run to and

fro

tioning both

over the surface of the earth, ques-

men and

nature until the real facts of

history should be extorted out of the past

" The

one of those very it,

?

case you have put before us, however, ;

not

begin with

for, to

know

already that Kiev was

Kii, a Polish or

Leckish chief ; whereas

does not every one

founded by

ones

difficult

is

Novgorod was Russian."

"Does

make

that necessarily

it

older?" asked a

stranger, innocently.

u

Oceteris paribus,

greater

member

you may

safely infer that the

of the Slavonian family existed be-

fore the smaller," replied the Novgorodian;

stock before the branch.

"the

Moreover, Kiev only came

to be of importance, after Rurik and his brethren

Novgorod

had established themselves

at

was found convenient

and subsidiary

for,

purpose in the nation,

Empire.

viz.

;

for then to,

a

it

new

plundering the Greek

The Russian people of themselves had

been ever the most peaceable under the sun, or frost either;

but when they got Varangian rulers

over them, of a verity they were taught how to suck

eggs; and grandest of

for establishing the all

operation on that

eggs, Tsaragrad or Constantinople,

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THREE CITIES

430 the

more southern

IN RUSSIA.

position of Kiev, on the

banks

of

the mighty Dnieper, flowing with a broad navigable

stream straight to the south, was the most suitable

To Kiev, accordingly,

that could be imagined.

the

Novgorod-born descendants of Rurik soon found

it

expedient to migrate, and once there, quickly raised the

town

to importance

theirs, there *

;

but before that arrival of

were certainly

€

no churches, no caves

of saints or hermits dug, with penance

ings, in the dry soil

and wateh-

no great walls of Voltaire, hun-

;

dreds of feet high, and covered with inscriptions/

"What,

too, says so early

an authority as the

sacred St. Andrew, brother of St. Peter, according to the faithful testimony, eight

now, of Nestor, monastery

!

monk

Why he

hundred years old

of a Kiev, not a Novgorod, says, that

'

when

St.

Andrew

'

came northward on the Dnieper from

c

known

'

disembarked, in his river voyage, at the foot of a

tour on the borders of the Black Sea, he

and

'

certain mountain,

'

accompanied him, " Regard

'

is

said

mountain, for

God

here will shine an immense

where the Lord

will

who

to the disciples this

here that in a future day the grace of

'burst forth; (

his well-

have numerous altars."

it

will city,

Then

'

having ascended to the summit of the mountain,

'

he made the sign of the

'

was

'

wards founded and

in truth at the

and prayed.

This

same place where was

after-

cross,

built the city of

Kiev/

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CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD.

u But when the Apostle, continuing

had

at length reached the Volchov 1

added, *

his voyage, 1

;

there/

it is

he disembarked amongst the Slavonians

Not only

Novgorod/

them

431

firmly

at

but he evidently found

so,

and he sojourned some

established,

time amongst them, studying their manners. r

visited/ says the ancient chronicler,

1

'

He

their baths,

*

and saw with

1

these people consisted chiefly in scourging them-

€

selves

(

himself to Varangia, and from thence to Rome,

'

where he spoke of the people

'

doctrinated, and related

with

surprise this exercise, which

little

twigs.

amongst

After that he betook

whom

he had

what he had observed

in-

in

" I have seen," said he, "the admi-

'

his travels.

€

rable country of Slavonians, and I was

'

with their stove-baths

'

wood

'

them

g

clothes

'

they have twigs with which they mutually

'

late each other, in order to

'

after

'

exercise which they repeat

6

Behold then, how, sheltered from tyranny, the

€

Slavonians torment themselves, and

;

;

and the men are

as hot as possible

and pass

all

;

much taken

they are constructed in at great pains to

make

then they throw off their

naked through soapy water flagel-

promote perspiration

which they plunge into cold water.

many

It is

an

times a day.

make

of the

'

bath, not a pleasure, but a veritable punishment."

'

This account surprised every one/

done, but does

it

So

it

may have

not describe the national Russian

Digitized by

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432

THREE CITIES

bath with twigs

its

accompaniments of birch

inevitable

and can you now

;

IN RUSSIA

retain

any possible doubt,

by Kiev was

but that Novgorod was built and inhabited Russians, at a time

when the

site

of

true still

merely a wilderness, of which better things were

hoped ?" " Well, you may be a

little

older than Kiev," an-

swered the rather pertinacious stranger, " but then

you yourselves, by the very name of Novgorod, or the new

city,

other place,

confess that

you are outdone by some

with regard to whose superior age,

Novgorod is but a stripling." " Certainly," replied the Russian, " exactly

And

the city you refer to was here also

;

so.

so close

by, that you must in justice consider

Novgorod

and fame.

Slavenko

to be a continuation of its

was

it

life

called in the days of its glory

now known of the old

little

but the site the

listeners,

"why

the very word the isvostchik was always

mering away about ; and the sheepskin-dressed

on the bell-tower, also got so excited about little

village

is

site

city."

u Goroditche," exclaimed the is

;

chiefly as Starai Goroditche, or

down by

that

ham-

man it; a

the bank of the river towards

Lake Ilmen, it seemed to apply to." " It's small enough now," said the Russian, u but it

was

still

respectable

when Rurik came over ; and

he established himself there in a sort of Windsor

Digitized by

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433

CONVERSATIONS IN NOVGOROD. Castle residence, or a Camelot of all

King Arthur, with

the halo of antiquity about him

;

while he

visited the London-like business place of occasionally, or as often as

amongst

More

its

only-

Novgorod

needed to keep order

busy and turbulent traders.

the Novgorodian would have added, but

there was no occasion

only thought of

;

for

from that moment we

how we might

visit

next day the

remnants or traces or former scene of that most loyal order of things in Russia, which Rurik the

Va-

rangian established so successfully, almost exactly

one thousand years ago.

VOL.

II

v

434

CHAPTER

V.

WAYS AND MEANS OF

LIFE. October.

An

utterly rainy morning, with east

wind too, cold

and complaining, and under an oppressive leaden sky

We

!

gorod, and

look up the empty High Street of Nov-

down the length

of the same, but there is

nothing else of interest or activity than

merely

the

water pipes of all the houses, spouting their supplies at mid-leg height along (see Plate 3, Vol. II.,)

and over the pavement,

and while thus mischievous

and even vicious below, not a Is

it

ludicrous above.

little

that the Russians, accustomed in general to

see water only in its frozen condition, hardly

how to

deal with

when once

in a

it

when

way

fluid

or, are

;

know

they so proud

their climate relaxes in rigour

and allows them to see moisture in a pourable that they therefore wish to

show

fact as extensively as possible,

off

state,

the happy

—we wonder

verily to see the round-about processes

by

But

!

which

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WAYS AND MEANS OP

LIFE.

they contrive to get the rain from a roof to run

down

a wall-pipe to the ground below,

machinery

and

most surprising

is

;

—

truly, the

the twisting hither

thither of an elephant's trunk before he puts a

gingerbread nut into his mouth,

At

is

nothing to

it.

the upper corners of public buildings you see

strange things going on

;

queer long metal arms

sticking out and shaking hands with each other for

want time.

of something

But the

more exciting

reality of it

is,

away the

to pass

that there, the drain-

ings of the roof are carried away by an almost horizontal pipe, right away from the corner of the house,

about three

feet or so.

ings would be then and

a

And whereas at that point

the said drain-

poured out

free libation into thin air before the eyes of

holders, were

it

all

like

be-

not for some other contrivance,

behold the ingenuity with which the wall-pipe comes up, and away, from the wall; and then with an elbow

bend and making tal

a long arm, presents an ornamen-

cup just underneath the projecting roof pipe's

termination, to catch whatever the wind shall not

succeed in blowing sheer away. So before the operaover, these roof-drainings

must get as well

aerated, as does the milk which a

Hindoo servant

tion

is all

pours backwards and forwards from one jug to another, both of

them held out

at arm's length,

and with

the express object of producing a frothy refreshing beverage

for his

nabob master. u

2

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

436 Another

sight,

and even more remarkable, because

utterly un-Russian, presently passed before

morning ; nothing

this dismal

we had

alone been seeing for months,

whenever hot-water was wanted

Western

kettle.

gent in

its

man with a

than a

Not a samovar, proper or im-

kettle in his hand.

proper, such as

less

our eyes

;

but a regular

A trifling sign, no

doubt, yet pun-

indications of a something

somewhere

wanting in the nationality of Great Novgorod thorn in their sides which

all real

;

a

know

Muscovites

a great deal more about.

The windows through which we were looking

at

these portents were double, and they successfully

kept out both the whistling blast and driving raindrops

;

stove

though

hour ;

room

the

had been its

too lit

supply of

or, as

was pleasantly warm, for the the previous afternoon

wood had

we would have

gone out almost as soon as

had been flowing

off

it

all

said in the

West, had

was

—the heat

lighted,

from the brick -work in a con-

tinually increasing degree ever since, its

and

;

burnt out in an

—was

now

summit of genial glow, and would not cease

at

alto-

ther for two or three days to come.

So great a thermotic sumption of effect too,

fuel,

effect

from so small a con-

and such a human labour-saving

from the remarkable length of time that

one exertion of the servant continues to

warm

the

v.

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WAYS AND MEANS OP house,

—

is

a feature of Kussian stoves that well

deserves more attention than

amongst of

ourselves

;

has yet received

it

where, though economy both

and of attendance

fuel

LIFE

so continually

is

and

ear-

nestly prosecuted in our factories of every kind and

degree,

it

warming

has not yet attained

much

Hence, while an

of our private dwellings.

English house in winter

is,

place in the

at night,

hours, cold and dreary, without a

and

in the small

fire at all

;

in the

early morning, a scene of ashes and turmoil, dust,

bellows-blowing, and black coals smoking in the day, cheery and warm,

to every few minutes,

—

if

the

fire

;

and

later

be attended

in a Russian abode,

on the

contrary, an equal temperature reigns both by night

and by

day, an Italian temperature in every

and every work

passage, dust

are rarely heard,

is

room

unknown, bustle and

and the assistance of a

vant never wanted in the private apartments at to keep up to the

full

their desirable

the cold outside whatever

u But how

it

serall,

warmth, be

may.

rooms must be then," says the lover of open English fires ; " for

how

could

out the

we

and choky

their

exist comfortably in our houses with-

free ventilation secured

sumption of

away

close

fuel,

by our

liberal con.

and large-sized chimneys

to carry

the used-up air of the rooms, together with

all

the products of combustion."

True no doubt, we own, that there

is

not so

much

Digitized by

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438

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

an English house

ventilation in a Russian as

then again there

is

not so

much

East or West Indian house so

much

is

and we may add,

;

that

not required; the amount demanded,

evidently being for

all

people, in inverse proportion

Take an

to the outside temperature at the place.

With

example.

but

;

in an English, as an

all

our doors and windows wide

open, and the wind blowing through and through as in tropical fashion, but during an English winter,

what English

fire-place could

keep our rooms warm

The notion

plainly absurd;

and Englishmen would

is

never allow themselves to be dictated to at home, to

what amount of fresh

air

was required

as

for each

individual in their houses, per day, per hour, or per

minute, by any of the natives of the torrid zone

from their experience in that region

;

judged by

which alone, the present English practice would be thoroughly condemned as unwholesome, uncleanly,

and uncongenial

to the

human

constitution.

Yet

notwithstanding that the theory of the equator be thus completely against us, the in

England than there ; and

of

it,

life

coal-fires,

man

is better

society, to say the least

not less advanced or refined

British houses of solid build,

of

and

;

so that in truth

their grates of open

and the moderate amount of

determined on by Englishmen,

—have

ventilation

much more

than made up for British want of sun, and have

enabled a prosperous empire to flourish where In-

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WAYS AND MEANS OF

LIFE.

dians, with their too breezy rooms, could only have

existed in misery:

Do

then

let us,

when claiming

on account of our

practical results,

sonable with a nation, which

than we

are,

is

be just and rea-

further

The Russians

they, in their winter temperature, of twenty

likely to be better judges of

much more

how much

ventilation

rooms need, than inhabitants of

oceanic

isles,

unusually cold

who ;

think twenty degrees above zero

sian winter were to entitled to is,

demand

only one-third part of a Rus-

if

fall

upon them.

we must

human

All that

of the Russians to

that their civilization

longevity good; and points,

Britain's

and who would be perfectly perished

in their best houses,

side

still

are in that state;

degrees below zero Fahrenheit, are

their

removed

from a tropical condition of comfortable

natural warmth.

and

credit for ourselves

leave

if

is

we

show on

are

their

advancing, and their

they can prove these two

them undiminished the great

honour, not only of making two blades of

grass grow where only one grew before, but of

causing

all

the fairest flowers of

human

progress to

blossom and multiply in snowy deserts, which would

have been alcogether untenanted, but

for their

hardy

race and ingenious contrivances.

In place of reviling them, then, because their country

is

cold and naturally untoward,

we cannot

help thinking that they deserve the thanks and

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440

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. the rest of the more comfortable

world

for increasing the inhabited area of the earth.

The

praise of

all

more that can be

of the Russians, the

humbly deem,

country

said naturally against the

more

is

really established,

in their favour;

against the Russian country " a

we

and thus inveighs

German nobleman of " Spring, sum-

thirty-three years residence " there.

" mer, and autumn, concentrated into June and July. " Even then, how frequently a deception

" the winter,

I freeze in the dog-days,

" think of the

icy cerecloth.

Hu and

!

!

when

The whole

"frozen, and the entire firmament,

I

merely

creation is

by day and

" night, looks down without any feeling of com" passion upon the misery beneath. After nine " o'clock the daylight grows dim, and by midday, " the sun has sunk " consoles

itself

far

beneath the meridian, and

with the idea that there

" w orld beyond.

When

is

a brighter

spring has long ago opened

" the buds in northern Germany, and the trees there

" are studded with white blossoms, like swansdown, " the October and November snow is still quietly u slumbering in the unawakened pine-forests of

" Russia." Lamentably true

weeks cities,

!

and the worst of

only of such a winter, were

it

it is,

that six

to befall our

would burst our water-pipes, freeze our gaso-

meters, render streets impassable, annihilate canals,

impede railways,

frost-bite the British farmer's root-

Digitized by

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WAYS AND MEANS OP crops,

kill his stock,

and

fill

441

LIFE.

our towns with frozen-

out masons, gardeners, and workmen of crafts

our

bringing, in fact,

;

all

divers

the chief machinery of

civilization to a perfect standstill.

Yet in Russia, a period of seven months of the same severity produces no stoppage, no distress. At the same time, that Muscovite city-civilization is high and

luxury illustrious;* and that they are

its

advancing with extraordinary rapidity,

still

parison of what

—a com-

now, with the style of things de-

is

scribed by Dr. Clarke at the beginning of the century, will abundantly demonstrate.

that Russian longevity under

finally,

these circumstances

good, the number of old persons seen actively

is

walking about

"

all

While

Now

let

me

on the day

I

the

sufficiently

introduce you to a lady

indicates.

who saw me

was born," said an old gentleman of

about seventy to us

way he

streets,

in a Russian city,

and straight-

presented us to a lady of the age of above

ninety years, whose complexion was quite fresh and clear, her cheeks

eyes

brilliant

rounded and muscular, and her

and vigorous still. for " incurable

In an institution

narians, and widows," several

diseases, octoge-

women w ere r

pointed

* Dr. Granville describes the library in the mansion of Count Potochi, at St. Petersburg, as magnificently fitted up, one hundred feet

in

length,

and

forty in width;

vaulted ceiling about sixty feet high. «

while the ball-room had a

—Vol.

ii.

p. 359, Granville's

St. Petersburg.*

u

3

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442

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. •

out to Dr. Granville as being above one years old

;

Imperial Academy,

" males who died 11

hundred

and a Report, which he quotes, of the states

in 1827,

"606,881

that out of

2785 had passed the age

of ninety years, 1432 that of ninety-five,

and 818

Among the latter 38 were " more than one hundred and fifteen years of age, u 24 more than one hundred and twenty, 7 more "that of one hundred.

" than one hundred and twenty-five, and one was

w one hundred and sixty years old

Now

arrived at is

at his

death."*

then evidently the desired data have been ;

for

though the country of the Russians

proved cold beyond example, yet their practical

results in dealing with

it

are both socially

hints then that

we may

and

bio-

Are there any

logically successful in the extreme.

usefully derive

from their

methods of proceeding ? If

we could bring

about, in the

houses, the cleanliness of Russian

firing,

the

little

for,

and the long steady heating given

—advantages

would evidently follow to both

labour called out,

warming of our

master and servant, mistress and maid, over the

whole extent of Great Britain. firing is

but that

Now

the Muscovite

performed in stoves, generally brick stoves, is

not their national peculiarity.

stoves in our

own

halls,

We

have

and Germany has them

in

every apartment, sometimes of metal and sometimes * Dr. Granville's

*

St.

Petersburg/ vol.

ii.

p. 455.

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WAYS AND MEANS OP of

413

LIFE.

earthenware, sometimes small and sometimes

large, and serving two or more rooms or passages

but in

all

these cases, the fires in

like our open

kept

fires,

L

e.

by

them are fed

coals, or billets of

just

wood,

in the room, or wherever the door of the stove

and thrown on ever the

the embers from time to time,

when-

would otherwise be in danger of dying

fire

out for want of

Now

is,

that

sian stove at

fuel.

not the essential principle of a Rus-

is

all,

either of the largest or smallest

and whether they be cased externally with

size,

metal, china, brick, or stone. trary, the burning of the fuel

With is

on the con-

it,

merely a short pre-

liminary operation, and the proper or chronic action of the stove

is

that of a large fixed chafing-dish,

without combustion, but with heated matter cooling inside

it,

manner

and giving

to the

off its

heat in a graduated

room or rooms requiring

Every such stove has three doors, place door, for introducing the fuel

— ;

it.

1st,

the

fire-

2nd, the hot-

air

escape for the room; and 3rd, the chimney.

The

servant begins by religiously closing No. 2, and

opening Nos.

1

and

3.

The

fire-place is then filled

with faggots of young tree-trunks cut to a suitable length, and

by a due them.

all

prepared for blazing

fiercely at once,

distribution of dry birch-bark

The

lighted

match

is

put

in,

amongst

and

in

instant the fire crackles and roars with fury,

an

and

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444

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

the heat of the chimney during the few minutes the

smoke must ascend and

such, that the

fire lasts, is

Hence comes advantage A,

escape.

smoky chimneys

trouble with

viz.

in Russia;

for

little

you

only want their use for a few minutes each day, or every other day, and during those few minutes

you are laying on such a tremendous heat-power, that the

against

outside

wind can by no means prevail

Russian chimney-stacks have seldom

it.

therefore any occasion for extra height, or wonder-

cunning tin-smiths; and are,

ful cowls, the art of

on the contrary, low, clean, bright-white blocks of

masonry on the dark

roofs of the houses

in a stereoscopic view of Hills

now

before us,

it

;

so that

Moskva from the Sparrow interesting to note

is

how

the brilliant and sparkling character of the city

is

assisted by the hundreds and thousands of those

shining

little

elevated cubes

;

the only case of black

about any chimney-top, being at a factory where they are burning coal in the English manner.

When

the

first

blaze of the

wood

is

over, say in

some ten minutes, the ashes are raked up, and everything that

is

combustible

another ten minutes

;

made

to burn off during

after which, only red-hot ashes,

perfectly innocent of noxious gas or volatile odours,

are

left.

Then doors Nos.

use of the chimney

day or two

;

but

1

and 3 are closed,

all

is

dispensed with for the next

little

door, No. 2, is opened, and

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WATS AND MEANS OP

445

LIFE.

then begins advantage B, by the cold

room

falling

down

air of the

and

into the hot stove-chamber

rising again warmed, in a gentle, almost imperceptible current for days together.

During that time, or let

at least the earlier part of

no incautious stranger throw

ashes anything that

then he

will

burn

amongst the hot

in

for if

;

it

does burn,

will infallibly get all the carbonic acid it

A

produces, for himself and friends to breathe.

native would never do anything so unscientific

on

would

at once send for the servant,

from the beginning methodically door No.

2,

:

but,

room getting cold and wanting more

finding the

fire,

it,

opening Nos.

ceeding with a new

fire,

1

and

viz.,

;

3,

and begin

by closing

and then pro-

as already described with

the former one.

Thus

and not

far, evidently, it is

a case of principle in use,

of size or material of the stove.

Indeed, on

board the river steamer on the Volchov, the principle complete was applied to a

with a thin metallic chimney

;

little

cast-iron stove,

but the result was

then, as might have been expected, that one firing

did not produce such long heating

calorific effects as

with the ordinary massive brick stoves of the houses. Considerable economy of fuel

is

obtainable there, by

increasing the surface and substance of the stoves

and

there, too,

waste

all

we ought to mention,

the heat of the inflamed

;

that they do not

wood during

the

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446

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA burning, by throwing

few minntes

it is

into the air

by a short straight chimney

it

travel

once out

at ;

but make

about up and down winding and labyrin-

thine brick passages before

manner the

light

it lasts,

its

is

In

escape.

its final

wood flame

considerable portion of

while

it

made

this

to give out a

excessive heat of ignition

masses ; and these are

to large brick

afterwards compelled to radiate, only into the

room

requiring to be warmed. Size and substance then are plainly important ad-

juncts to the principle of the Russian stove,

and

it is

not uninteresting to observe, that these features ap-

pear to be most appreciated

among

the great

mass of

the lower order of Russians; or those who, though

stigmatized by Western schoolmasters as "barbarians," because not versed in their rules of

grammar,

are nevertheless self-cultivated on traces of an ancient Oriental civilization,

which

is

often pregnant

with remarkable wisdom, and has deep significance for the

whole human race.

Accordingly, while in

the palatial residences of St. Petersburg, Moskva,

and our own dear Novgorod as

well,

there

is

a

lamentable tendency to multiply the number, but decrease the

size,

of the stoves, and to tamper with

their true indigenous principle, by offering half-open fire-places in imitation of the

West,

—in the cottages

of Russian peasants on the contrary, the stove

and

indivisible.

It is there,

is

one

a huge structure; a

Digitized by

Google

WAYS AND MEANS OP vital heart,

about which the whole house

as an envelope to

LIFE.

and calculated

;

is

formed

in its arrangements

be worked with the utmost economy of wood and

labour

;

and thus, indeed,

in its all in

all,

vividly im-

pressing on the minds of the rising generation, their all-essential fact of

temperature

is

the

Russian climate,

first,

that low

viz.,

and grandest, and most ur-

gent natural defect to be corrected by Muscovite man. Agreeably with the characteristic humility of cottage architecture generally, the Russian peasant's stove

is

long rather than high ; not unlike a reverba-

tory furnace, or a locomotive boiler ; but cooler, and fitted with reclining surfaces

;

so

no wonder when

the mediaeval Tsar, called to his privileged servant

Ivan Ivanovitch to take Ivanovitch found

the

warm

it

off his boots, the said

Ivan

so comfortable to be lying on

stove, that he did not stir,

told the stove to take him,

I. I.,

and merely

to the Tsar,

and

then awaited the stove's own convenient time for

performing the order. tive

was seen

But when the

in the land,

— and that

is

first

locomo-

a sight which

usually calls forth something racy, and of the nation in every country, as witness that wickedly transcen-

dental American colonel it

—

was the "d

1

down South, who

in harness,"

—why then

Russian peasant beheld in the same

way

first

declared

the loyal

rushing rail-

engine, only a sign of constitutional law trium-

phant after ages, and exclaimed, u There goes Ivan Ivanovitch on his stove at last to serve the Tsar."

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448

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

But whatever the defalcations of the north-west, from science,

indigenous

faith

;

practice

them truer

and in the heart of

to their national

Siberia, the stove

what

is,

Should

should be, in every house large or small.

there be for instance a dwelling of two stories, four is

rooms

made

in each story

to abut

;

is

on one internal tower of massive ma-

the stove or Amossor; the

St. Petersburg,

and

every one of these rooms

sonry, extending from bottom to top of house,

tower

the

heating

— in the east of Russia, the increased severity

of their seasons keeps

it

rich in

in

being called Peitch.

little

which

things in

The amossor has

but one fire-place, and that for convenience of feeding, is

on the basement

floor

;

and

it is

fed but once

a day even in the severest Siberian winter, with the outside cold no less than 60° below zero Fahrenheit ;

and the feeding, or rather the whole and

total

burn-

ing away of the feed with the attention of the servant thereto,

is

all

confined within one hour.

But

yet,

the fire-door below, and the chimney door above, or

Nos.

1

and

3,

being then closed, and each room in

the house having a No. 2 door or a valve to

let

the

heat from the internal stove chamber issue in quantity as desired,

—behold the entire house warmed to

as high a degree as pleasant to any one's feelings,

by merely one hour's burning of one moderate

fire.

The usual time for lighting the amossor is the evening, because not only does the actual burning of the

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WAYS AND MEANS OF

wood necessitate

a using up and carrying away of the

old and breathed

air of the

leave them purer

for the night;

ing

449

LIFE.

effect of the fire only

rooms, and consequently

but as the

full

heat-

comes through the amossor

*

eight hours

after it is lighted, the night is left the

coolest part of the twenty-four hours

;

and when the

inhabitants get up in the morning, they have a stock

of heat ready formed under the valves to their hand,

and prepared

may turn

to issue forth hither or thither as they

and adjust the appropriate screws. So com-

pletely too

is

the whole thing effected, and precisely

as desired, that sundry persons have declared they felt the cold less in a Siberian

house in a Siberian

winter, than in an English house during a season

when snow was never once seen on the ground. To secure the whole of this economy of fuel,

the

Siberians do, as indeed already mentioned, keep their

chimney passages closed during twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four, and in that way prevent the

shocking waste of heat which takes place in every British parlour

chimney

;

and they

also prevent that

greater waste which tropical manners would introduce,

if

open windows and doors were allowed

in place of that, they establish double

windows, and as

Thus are bances,

many

and temperature

for

and even treble

both mechanical distur-

influences,

but with considerable liberty ;

for

reduplications of the doors.

effectually cured

mical changes

;

when the

still

to

from without;

wholesome che-

air outside is so

low as

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450

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

60° or 70° below zero Fahrenheit, and that inside 65° or 67° above the same point, the power of the

former

dense oxygenated medium to penetrate and ooze

through the pores of even thickest wood, and to

commingle with the gas astounding degree.

inside, is exalted to

Hence there

is

though gentle

to be, on the whole, such a decided

current upwards of old and

a most

found in practice

warmed

air all

the day

and night through, that every Russian householder finds the loft or space

between their highest ceiling

and the actual

make through

roof, to

time, a famous drying-ground for

the long winter the laundry

all

work of the family; and where the wet

linen is never

frozen like a board, as would instantly be the case

were

it

exposed even in the sun outside.

Equally, water-pipes, gas-meters, and other such

arrangements once brought within the walls by a deep trench, never freeze or burst inside a Russian

house for a

;

because the interior thereof never descends

moment, throughout all the trying seven months

of winter, to any temperature at

all

near the congela-

tion of water.

" But the surface ground outside must freeze," a

worthy friend reminds me; " and how,

therefore, can

Russian gardeners and farmers too,

fail

most miserably frozen out

and bricklayers prevent

;

or

how can

of being

the masons

their occupation then being

gone"?

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WAYS AND MEANS OF

The answer

is,

the earth being nature

LIFE.

that of course they cannot prevent

and cannot

frozen,

against

fight

but by observing her ways, and directing

;

themselves accordingly, they can prevent much of

the alleged misery

may

Herein

befalling themselves.

you see the peculiar wisdom and brave

support of the Russian that there

;

people.

self-

They know

a suitable time for everything, and that

is

the only real

ing her

common

mode

so the

of overcoming nature

man who

takes up the trade

is

is

by obey-

a gardener in summer,

winter of a carpenter and

in

joiner, or a sledge-driver, or anything that flourishes

in winter, and asks help from, and shows off his dis-

He

tresses to, no one.

both

in winter

is

thus a self-supporting

and summer, and through

man

the se-

all

verely varying phases of the cycle of a year in Russia.

Every labouring man

two

there, has in consequence,

trades at least, which he can

by not keeping

all

work

at

and

;

if,

the year through at one thing in

particular, he is not so finished in his work, as a

Western craftsman,

—he shows the other almost ne-

cessary result, of being less of a boor or a mere ma-

chine

;

not being rude or ungainly in polite society,

or out of his element except identical

youth upwards.

little

to

The Russian peasant has

none of these things, but not a

when engaged

work which he was apprenticed

is

at the

from his little

or

polished in his language,

gentlemanly in his bearing, and always

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452

THREE CITIES

capable of taking up self to

new

IN RUSSIA.

ideas,

him-

and adapting

unexpected circumstances or novel currents

His foresight

of events.

remarkable

is

and

;

other Europeans, as theirs

pru-

his

dence and economy as much beyond that of

most

beyond the menage of

is

inhabitants of tropical islands with the equivalent

of

bread growing.on the trees before them, every day of

What months

the year.

of savings

must the poor

mouzhik accumulat e, before he can purchase a sheep skin coat

and how much more, before he can provide

;

himself with his big boots, his fur cap, and his gauntlet

gloves

;

and yet when winter breaks

mouzhik appears without

all

forth,

what

these important ac-

cessories.

We

speak here of the genuine Russian peasant,

rich in his traditions

of those

whom Europe

sants forced to fession or,

and his native education

become

chiefly

knows,

soldiers,

summer and winter, and all

their

with the very pith and marrow of

ideas of

work and

living, violently

at

life

all

not

the pea-

viz.,

and kept

;

one pro-

through

their native

broken through

;

broken, too, so generally, by foreign task-masters,

and they

insisting sternly

what surprise then, last

if

a mere machine;

many

on passive obedience.

for,

the very fineness and

him

capacities of his temperament cause

the sooner to lose his natural elasticity, and utterly shattered

So

the soldier-Russian becomes at

under circumstances that

all

fall

would

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WAYS AND MEANS OP

not

a

453

LIFE.

perhaps have had any very pernicious

effect

on

coarse-grained Saxon hind.

Yet

in early times, the

or formal,

or slow

in many of the continuators,

is

;

Russian soldier was not

stiff,

on the contrary, the chief feature

battles described

by Nestor and

his

"the extraordinary impetuosity of the

shock f or perhaps, the ingenious and daring manner in which a small

body of men would suddenly

the enemy, disconcerting and routing him

fall

on

at last,

by

astonishing activity and never-ending resources in

plan and manner of attack.

All this, ages of routine

and pipe-clay have wellnigh

obliterated from sight

and memory, but have not altogether destroyed Suvorov partly

lifted

the

veil,

mirable natural qualities of the Russian still.

;

for

and found these ad-

men existing

Yet, since his time, the pall has fallen denser

than ever

;

and now,

and uni-

collegiate institutions

versal competitive examinations are fast converting all

the upper classes as well as the lower, into dull

regimental wheel work.

" The

real

hope of the country,

therefore,

and the

kernel of future progress are in that great mass of the

poorer population, which forced government regulations can never fully reach

;

for their liberal ideas are

even more than European ; they are American rather, or as

much exceeding

Among

us, as

we transcend

Asiatics.

true Asians, the hereditary principle

is

over-

whelming; and the son must always follow the trade

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454

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

of his father self,

:

but Europeanism

manifested

first

it-

by insisting on the right of every soul that is born

own sphere of action. one son of a ploughman

into the world, to choose its

On this principle therefore, may become a sailor, another

a carpenter, and an-

power

other a blacksmith, or whatever he has the

But

undertake. after the

there, old

pected to abide by gulations confine

on him

up

to

if

he

;

it

;

his election,

he

and ex-

apprentice laws and trade re-

him thereto,and society itself frowns

he abandons whatever he was brought is

a waif and a stray, they say then

stone which gathers no moss;

rolling

;

is

Europeanism stops

boy has once made

to

man; he

screw loose in that

dangerous character, and

is

there

;

a

is

a

an uncertain and

not to be trusted even

is

though he makes ever so specious an appearance. " But in America tively

not

it is

There,

so.

considered a favourable trait

character, that

changed his should

now be

;

posi-

a man's

in

he should some time or other have profession;

that

a

once merchant

a lawyer, or vice versa to any extent.

Such too would seem opinion

it is

to

be the native Russian

manifesting itself however in a

more

or-

ganized and deeply-rooted manner ; for the principle is

there formally maintained, that every soul has not

only a right to enter any, but every, profession, trade, or occupation; all,

as a proof of

and that no apprenticeship

what a man was brought up

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J

WAYS AND MEANS OF

ought

to

455

LIFE.

be demanded. This accordingly

nic belief in every Eussian village

\

and

is

an orga-

will

be in a

future day the leaven which, in the then greatest na-

tion of the earth, will qualify the constitution of society,

and prevent the whole world becoming a mere

Manchester

mill of

born machines.

" The Asianisms and are impressive and

the Anti- Asianisms of Russia

She has some

of study.

difficult

Asianisms, and so has every nation of Europe

what

are they

all

except Indo-European, originally from

for

centre of divergence.

high

the

lands of Asia, near the north of India, as a

from a common

;

according to the best ethnologists,

Yet though they

common come

all

stock, time and circumstances have

produced such a growth and persistence of

special

features in different races, that hardly any difference

amongst the minds of men can now be knowledged or more atic

better ac-

easily distinguished, than Asi-

and European.

" The Russians are probably the that central Asian stock

;

last offset

seeds of the most advanced Europeanism. therefore, as with language

itself,

more than human invention and

there

may

cultivate to a fair

whatever was

is

Surely,

something

school cultivation in

the tendencies of any national mind. tutions

from

but yet have within them

These

head and

originally implanted

full

insti-

growth

by a higher power,

but where and when the seed was sown, none knows

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

450 but

God

The

himself.

early sproutings of the fu-

ture Russian tree are, however, most signal of their

kind

;

and Bonaparte never made a greater mistake,

than in enunciating his shallow remark of 1

1

scraping

a Russian and finding a Tahtar f for there are

two races of men more antagonistic in their their histories, '

and

their mental ideas

;

Moskva is the Tahtar Rome/ according

French lady,

is

very

the abode of the

much

King

not

lives,

while, that

to a learned

like declaring Paris to

of the Cannibal Islands

clenching the assertion with a

'

Voila

;

be

and

V

" The Russians are undoubtedly a young people and while

all

Chevalier Bunsen's researches in

;

Egypt

have shown that nation to have been a highly civilized people at the very earliest date

was able to ascend, touching

—every

the Russians,

up

which he

to

inquiry, on the contrary,

carries

them back most

rapidly to a very rude condition of society, with

some well-marked Indian customs.

Thus, in their

pre-Christian times they had widow-burning

amongst

them, and admired a funeral pile for their dead

more than any other mode of sepulture ; said they,

c

how

effective our plan

;

'

for see/

when you bury

c

a man, you leave him for months and years to be

€

the earth-worm's food

c

'

1

is off

to Paradise in a

;

but when you burn him, he

moment. Heaven itself sends

a wind to urge the flame, and

make

his translation

more speedy/

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WAYS AND MEANS OF

u Judging

457

LIFE.

too from recent Russian poetry,

lingering feeling of the same kind

still

some

exists, a late

poet seeming

so impressed with the notion of his

remains

and shrinking in the spicy flame/

'lapt

rather than being buried

ing

civilized nation,

in the

manner of any exist-

and with any

sort of

monument

erected over his grave, marble, stone, or bronze; public, private, or ecclesiastic.

" But

the civilization of the Egyptian began so

if

early, where

is it

early created

And

go.

very

— Gone as completely as the

mammoths

of Siberia. First come,

the civilization of Russia

recently,

expected

we

if

now ?

first

commenced

so

what a long continued future may be

for her

;

and how magnificent a one, when

look to the unexampled numbers of the Slavo-

nians as a human family, their rapid advance in

re-

finement and learning, their remarkable unanimity, appreciation of loyalty, and innate vital vigour.

u Herein how favourably they

German

races near them.

contrast with the

It is for these

denizens of St. Petersburg, that

all

western

those innume-

rable dentists' shops, which abound there, exist

the Russian mouzhiks having magnificent dentition. Civilization

may

furnish false teeth,

and render

all

sorts of food easy of mastication, to a certain extent

but through how many generations has any family lasted on the earth, after

all its

members, male and

female, had lost every tooth in their heads before VOL.

II.

x

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458

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

the age of twenty

What amount

?

of learning can

bear up against such a break in the natural laws

progeny ?

In a matter of living and prospering

what University distinctions can

future,

health that

soon

make up for

After the ordinary style of rapid driving

Great Russians delight

all

nobleman "

'

in

always breaking down, and muscles that

is

tire.

which

(

of

or against statistical returns of a decreasing

life,

bones of

writes,

'

My entire system

the "

at length the Russian,

jumped down

steel,

in,

actively

G erman with

his

from his box.

seemed threatened with collapse/

" These are only small items in a nation's qualities,

but more important are yet to be told

though the Germans themselves boast sided minds/ there

and which

is

ominous of their

but

now

had

it

f<

So

fate.

They have no

come from their Asian

where they are

at present located

;

the period of European history.

all

there, are the ;

many-

they have not the faculty, and never have

during

colonies

to

and

;

They must have had once,

or they would hardly have

home

'

one side they absolutely want,

is

notion of colonization.

highland

their

though

Germans now, without any

British, French,

Dutch, Danes, and

have theirs in abundance.

Russians above

all,

Germans would

like colonies too,

The

but have not

vi-

gour to establish them ; they merely creep miserably into other nations' colonies, into the

of America

and

Brazil, Australia

United States

and the Cape

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WAYS AND MEANS OF

Good Hope,

459

LIFE.

trying to get the material advantage

for awhile, without any of the higher responsibility

and then

returning to their loved Fatherland. Their

Fatherland family

;

is like

it is

the mansion of an old and decaying

the height of their establishment upon

earth, and they cling despondingly about that possession, which they

may never advance

or extend

;

and which is merely to be their honourable grave. " The Russians, on the other hand, with even more got none of

nationality than the Germans, have

their love-sick sighings about Fatherland.

the land,

men

it is

It is not

his relations, his friends, his country-

not the houses, but the laws, traditions, and

;

which make up the national feelings

religious beliefs,

of a Russian; and these feelings are so eminently

and

perfectly portable, that he can

them with him

and does carry

to any part of the world ; to the fur-

thest colony, for instance, in the ocean-broad steppes

of Asia, and there makes himself quite as much at

home

as in old Russia

Russians have

In a future day, when

itself.

their appointed

filled

boundaries,

they may then get up a cry about Fatherland ; but

now, beyond a Mother-city or two, they know 9

1

not

;

and

which

in its place, there is

exists without

any school

cultivation,

they are in the youthful condition of a nation it

is

their duty at this stage of their national

go out

far into the

it

an active impression,

;

that that

life

to

open world, and carve out new X

2

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4G0

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

homes and houses

strength and the spirit for it

They have the

for themselves.

and they are carrying

it,

on every day, to the astonishment of the world

in

a coming age.

u If the Russians be unlettered as compared with

Germans, the main reason

that their faculties are

is,

otherwise employed in colonizing and governing half the nations of the earth, their

own

magnificent future.

the contrary,

who

now

are

and preparing

for

The Germans, on

existing only

on

suffer-

ance between France and Russia, have no prospect

but to perish; no duty to cultivate learning

left

them

and teach

in this

it

rising generation, before their place

more.

but

life,

out to the real

knows them no

Every German schoolmaster therefore, found

European country,

in another

is

an additional proof

of the latter age of Germanism being arrived, and of the nation following

young man,

is

its

inclined for

A

appointed course.

work and

action

;

but an

old man, becomes garrulous and a teacher to the

vigorous growing children around him the stock of

should be

human

so.

With

;

and well for

experience in the world, that

it-

propriety then and dignity does

Germany obey the laws

of

life

laid out for the races

of men."

Thus had discoursed gorod, but a '

to us a Scandinavian in

German screamed

that everything

at

good and great

Nov-

him ; and declared in Russia,

was

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WAYS AND MEANS OP

461

LIFE. •

c

owing

•

at

to the

German

residents

their superior learning

€€

look

:

only look/ said he,

and refinement/

Yes, indeed," retorted the Scandinavian, " only

them and

at

refinement and

which

they

poses of

fulfil

see, together

merely paid servitors for the pur-

a Eussian Bureaucracy

vouring by miserable vances

paltry national part

delicacy, the ;

to avoid

with that superior

shifts

;

and always endea-

and deceptive

contri-

becoming standard men of Russia.

There, in every Government they go on propagating, generation

after generation,

Russian pay

never

to

scheming to

on rich

live

in the opprobrious civil service

;

but

have any Russian responsibility of defend-

ing" the country of their adoption

few years a ukase comes

by arms.

Every

out, ordering all these

resident, and even Russian-born,

long

Germans to become

naturalized, and range themselves with Russians for

furnishing the quota of military service,

—but then

to see the hurry-scurry with which they

fly

hiding, and do not re-appear again.

Thus they manage

to

till

away

to

matters are quiet

go on from father to

son, and even the son's son, natives of Russia, and

living on the fat of the land, but anti-Russian in their hearts te

and

souls.

Some few amongst them, are

of noble and honest

dispositions; these do naturalize and

make

in the

end most valuable subjects of Russia ; but precisely because they do act thus honestly, are they abomi-

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

462

nated in turn by all the outstanding mass of Russiandwelling Germans in the land.

Says

'

German

the

nobleman of thirty-three years' residence in Russia/ '

one of the most disgusting creatures in existence is

a Russified prosperous

German

artisan

and the most

j

German who has joined the Russians

outre a literary

He would always rather hear such a am a Mecklenburger, or I am a Prus-

body and soul/ one saying, I sian,

though the creature was never in those counnor even his parents' parents before

tries in his life,

him

for

many

generations.

But yet

in the eyes

impartial observers, the said Russified his generous ther,

of

German, by

sympathy becomes a man and a bro-

and acquires a right to think as one of a great

nation; while his un-Russified companions have after all

no

real

German

script animals,

nationality,

employment of a boy, children

women

and remain nonde-

with the form of a all

the days of their

grow up without national

rise not

household

man and the

virtue,

life

;

their

and their

above the level of attending to mere

affairs."

" Atrocious

!" cried the

German

;

u why

all

the

superiority of the Great Russians over Little, Red,

White, and every known colour of Russians, tirely

owing to their early

alliances with

the beginning of the very Russian

is

en-

Germans

monarchy

itself,

was only when Rurik the German came amongst these rude Slavonians."

digitized

by

Google

WAYS AND MEANS OP " Rurik a German

!

463

LIFE.

w returned

the other ; "

why

knows that he was Scandinavian." " And what is that but German ?" tauntingly replied the Teutonic champion*; " everything good

all the world

and improving throughout Europe civilization of the present

its learning is so too

;

is

is

German

;

the

German

entirely

and the Scandinavians are so

completely Germans, that

them anything

day

it is

waste of time to

call

else."

" Then what's the meaning

German Fatherland

is

of

all

that fighting the

carrying on just now, or wants

to carry on, in Schleswig-Holstein?" asked the Scandinavian

they are there repelling the notion of

anything Danish, as being utterly strange and antagonistic to the stitution.

Prussia

:

German mind and the German conKing

There, too, stands that awful

when he rages again with

all

the sons of

Fatherland armed and ready at his back, he

never

rest content until

in Danish blood.

he

is

wading up

of

to his

will

knees

His natural antipathies to a Dane

are something frightful to behold. cisely because he wants

now

to

And

it is

pre-

be enclosing and

completing the German House, that he

is

breathing

forth burnings and slaughter against those of his

neighbours, who, by the very

gifts

them, can never combine in his family

of

nature to

circle.

Don't

fancy that Scandinavia was colonized from Germany .

for the inhabitants arrived there

by quite a

different

464

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

road, a Northern one ;

by

it

and not

until they

had marched

extreme South, and begun to cross

to their

over the Straits and spread into Zealand, did they

come

into contact with

any specimen of a German

man. ts

The Danish language, you

Germanized.

Well,

say, is

Scandinavian

the Danes, an out-

:

by contact with the Germans

partly altered

But

dern times.

is

be so

Scandinavian people, have been

post of the true

is

let it

cross over to Sweden,

and

in if

mo-

there

any influence on Scandinavian language there, the French: and go on further

and then you

will find the

;

they

all

think

it

:

polite to

however,

it

Norway,

amongst

at least,

for as to the upper,

subservience to the rule of

A new feeling,

to

noble speech of the Nor-

therner pure and unadulterated the lower classes

still

Denmark

from long

in their land,

know nothing but Danish. is

just beginning to spring

up among learned Norwegians, and many of them

now studying the peasant language ; find it to be the genuine medium of the Scandinavian Sagas

are

are astonished at its beauty and richness translating into

it

;

and are

Homer, Shakspeare, Milton, and

the greater of the manly poets of the world, to test its

grand

capacities.

"Together with also

this inquiry,

Norwegians have

been pursuing that of the early migration of the

Scandinavian races

;

and

all

their archaeological dis-

)igitized

by

Google

WAYS AND MEANS OF

465

LIFE.

coveries, especially the greater amount of bronze and

memorials

flint

the North, incontestably prove

in

them to have come from thence Southward

now

it is

;

though

in the fertile South that their chief cities

Through the Russian land then, the

are found.

Scandinavian must have come, and

original

ethnological

similarities

would indicate

many

them an

adventurous offshoot of the Russian People;* who boldly struck out in primaeval ages to penetrate the

darkness and mystery of the North. for

long periods

in these

snowy

deserts, schooled

by adversity and ever-present danger

own

in their

Wandering

;

left to trust

strong arms, and clear understanding

alone; conquering the wilderness step by step as

they

went

on,

unheard-of peace,

—they gradually became those

fortitude,

and smiled

who u sighed

chiefs of

in the laziness of

in the agonies of death

whose

superiority in arms, discipline^ and renown, com-

manded everywhere the fear and reverence of the natives and when at length they had penetrated ;

through Lapland and round into the Scandinavian peninsula, they suddenly burst on maritime Europe in the eighth

and ninth centuries as Varangians and

Normans. "

When

they, the

mere freebooters of the North,

had in a few years established themselves in Nor-

mandy

of France, and then turned their attention *

Compare Gibbon,

vol. x. p. 220.

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. quickly to agricultural pursuits lords in stone-built castles in '

how

faring

;

'

feudal

Oh Norman/ ;

'

how soon he abandons

see

!

said

a sea-

and actually excels the natives of other

life

'

countries in their

1

versatility*

or, in

for

became

England

versatile is the Scandinavian

many beholders 1

or

;

own

inland pursuits/

But the

had already begun long before

that,

the Scandinavians being a seafaring people

at all; for that only

commenced with them, when

they had attained after long ages of continental explorations, to the

convenient coast of Norway,

having previously been regular inland continental Russians

:

though they then had, by very reason of

such an origin, that which

still

distinguishes the

pliant Eussian peasant, as separated

from the

stolid

German workman. " fore

When came

Rurik the Varangian Scandinavian there-

he was only coming

to Russia in a.d. 862,

again to his

own

original people

;

and amalgamated

with them easily, as his countrymen have ever been able to do since

;

and

if

there were want of any fur-

ther data, the archaeology of that peculiar institution the Russian bath, might be referred to, for at once establishing

the original connection of Scandina-

vians with Russians, by

and cutting people.

off the

way

Germans

of Lapland

and Finland,

as an isolated Southern

Baths are many and various in the world

but for daily use, and amongst

all

classes of people,

Digitized

by

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WAYS AND MEANS OP

Germany

has none.

467

LIFE.

The Germans,

in fact, are the

great unwashed among the nations." Fearing at this point, some dire explosion of un-

forgiving nationality, we suggested to the speaker

very

quietly,

u Never mind about the baths

if you please;

let

us

just

now,

rather hear something of

Rurik."

Digitized by

Google

468

CHAPTER

VI.

RUKIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS. October.

"Rurik,"

said the

mounting

his

we would

Rurik, was what

call

We

a most respectable man.

such a word, that he had so or

grivruxs, or

money

Scandinavian, on

Russianized

"the Great

historiography hobby, a

'

respectable

don't

mean

9

man

here, by

many thousand

rubles,

any other quantity or description

of

a year; though, no doubt, being a king's

he had plenty.

But we intend by the phrase

to indicate that he

was an honest, honourable, and

son,

fully

trustworthy

man

Some ambition he had let it

in

every relation of

run away with his better sense

more brains than one of his sage sideration

life.

unquestionably, but he never

ballast

;

;

he had

not

and whenever he took any

political steps forward,

mature con-

had prepared the way before, while

destinies of a great nation

the

budded and blossomed

behind, him.

igitized

by

Googl

RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

u

Still

469

you ask, who was Rurik ? and you want to

know

something more than that he was a Varan-

gian.

Well then, Rurik was the son of the Swedish

monarch Ludbrat and born

his consort Oumila,

There

at Upsal, a.d. 830.

he might have remained but which he received from

and was

too, or thereabouts,

for the peculiar call

Bloodless revolu-

Russia.

tions have always been favourites with the true

Russian people;

and

hand

the matter in

if

capable of being reasoned out,

why

is

should not a

whole nation of reasoning beings be guided by argument, rather than the sword

than brute-force?

by reason rather

;

Not but what

useful thing enough in

its

way,

brute-force

is

a

—to push a stranded

vessel off the rocks for instance

;

but a vast deal

better that the crew had previously brought up in

time, and had taken a pilot or a captain on board, if

they had not one already.

"That now, was

precisely the

Russian people about the year

then bowling along with

all

a.d.

position of this

860

;

they were

their canvas spread,

enjoying the sweet air of republicanism; and,

—in

the midst of the abundant material prosperity, which that form of government often brings with

a time,

—they were

tical confusion,

gether, and arrived

cussion at the

fast

when

for

nearing the rocks of poli-

their old white-heads

by peaceful and

same

it

result,

met

to-

theoretical dis-

which other countries

470

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

have only reached through the rude practice and cruel inflictions of war.

"You

have a governing race to make

must

strong country. it

was a

workmen,

All

will

a

And

not do.

truly merciful dispensation of Providence,

which sent abroad the Norman races in the ninth century, to

every sea-coast of Europe, to supply

new

the then

countries forming thereupon,

hitherto peopled

by a popular material

embers of a decayed

civilization,

—and

only, or the

— with

a higher

France, England, and Russia

order of humanity.

have received most largely of this Norman infusion

and what nations of Europe hold any position in the world comparable with theirs

" The Germans do indeed

?

say, that they are Ger-

manizing every reigning family in Europe, and converting

all

peoples to believe in the superiority of the

German mind. *

And

there can be

that the existence of their innumerable

Mightinesses' and

f

is

little

e

High

Serene Grand Dukes' assisted

by the laws of other countries against marrying subjects,

doubt, but

little

turning

all

their princes

the rulers of those

other European powers fast into pure Germans. But

then that

is

these times. spiritless

to a certain extent

Constitutional kings should

creatures, without either the

heart to originate anything

good and

what we want

new

in

be poor

head or the

or great

docile withal, eating, drinking,

;

but very

and sleep-

Digitized

by

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JEtURJK

ing with due

471

AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

regularity

and decorum ;

for then their

subjects can go on with the business of govern-

ment, self-government too

in their

can warrant you that

in Russia,

elsewhere, the people

is

own way; and

whatever

I

may be

it

not becoming German.

u No, no, indeed, or where were the hopes advancing future to Russia

for

Whenever the

!

an

desti-

nies of our country need a special step in develop-

ment

to

be accomplished

for

them,

brought about by giving the national

How

vonic element, more play.

Perhaps

powerfully this

is

it

It

and Vladimir the Great.

Sviatoslav,

may be

politic

method too often ;

gently.

the Sla-

shown by the example of Peter the Great,

Queen Olga, that

will,

always

by the reigning family marrying with a sub-

effected ject, is

is

it

not to have recourse to

its spiriting

should be done

must have a beginning, too ; and

particular epoch, a.d. 860, of which

we

at that

now

are

speaking, the very groundwork of such a line of policy for future times to profit by, laid ; for a line of kings

was

to

had

still

to

be

be established in a

hitherto republican and patriarchal government.

" Where, then, was such a

Not

line to

in the country itself, for that

be sought?

would have

re-

sulted in merely raising one family against another

but from abroad somewhere

and as

in those early

stitutional

it

must be procured

times heroic, rather than con-

kings were required, the Russian people

Digitized by

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472

THREE CITIES

IN RUSSIA

turned them at once intuitively to the Scandinavians.

"Our

city

Novgorod had the merit of

of

first

bringing these discussions to a practical conclusion ;

but her citizens were soon joined warmly therein by deputies from those'

the Slavonic races around, not only

all

who were then

already called Russians, but

the Tchudes, the Slaves, and the Krivitches.

These

sent a powerful embassy to the court of

all

King

Ludbrat and to the princes his sons, setting forth in

few and simple words,

everything

and soil,

justice

is ;

1

Our country

is

great,

and

there in abundance, save only order

come, then, and take possession of the

and rule over us/

" Then

in the

year a.d. 862 did Rurik and two of

his brothers, together with a large party of their friends, Varangians,

whatever other

Normans, Scandinavians, or by

name

or synonymous term

prefer to call them, accept the invitation

became

;

you may

and at once

possessed of Russia, as completely, or

much

more so, as though they had been military conquerors.

The people agreed

to

obey them

;

and they, the Va-

rangians, agreed to execute the ruling

appointed supreme to

;

Rurik being

chief, or Veliki Kniaz, equivalent

King, and indicating much more than the Teutonic

term of 1 Grand Duke/ which we do not

"

Now

in that position of trusted

sponsibility

it

was, that what

like at all.

honour and re-

we would

call

Rurik's

Digitized

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RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS. '

473

He

respectability/ appeared most conspicuous.

was a man who was

loyalty itself;

and when he had

once accepted the charge of Russia, there was with

him no looking back

came a

thoughts than

but on the contrary he be-

and perfect welfare of

for the full

adopted country. all

;

Russian entirely, without having any other

wanting him

to find nice places for them, in the

country they half considered they had conquered

tney

tried to instil into his

he had a

his

His old friends of Varangia were

mind the

;

and

idea, that unless

an aristocracy, of his own

plebs, as well as

nation, he could never control the Russian multi-

tudes. it

Nor was

this

all,

or indeed the least part of

for besides his friends

;

whole

tribes of unruly

and

followers, there

were

Varangians ; who, owing no

allegiance to him, but seeing what a good thing he

had

got, prepared either to get for themselves as

good by force, or to eject him from his possessions. " These troublesome spirits were ever ready for any adventure ; and a whole race of chivalrous is

chiefs

not to be produced, but in a country, where war-

riors of a free

and independent turn of mind are the

growth of the

soil

;

occasionally, too, in crops rather

over abundant and rank.

With

these wild heroes,

ancient Varangia swarmed at this time; and they

looked very innocent, no doubt, with their blond hair, blue eyes,

and rosy cheeks, but awful

I can assure you,

when

it

came

fellows,

to blows, either in a

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. land or sea fight; and, besides going off warfaring

on their own account every now and then, they had a terrible notion of marrying king's daughters, generally

without asking the parents' consent, and some-

times against the idea of the young lady too,

was so

more

foolish as to think

of rank

if she

and wealth

than warlike deeds.

M Of such a school were the

chieftains

Oskold and

Dir; who, as Nestor relates, were not of Rurik's family; and though they

came over with him,

yet,

without asking his permission, went off with a num-

ber of companions, prospecting for empire in the

When,

South, a.d. 863.

selves at Kiev, they

besides establishing them-

went down the Dnieper, crossed

the Black Sea, reached the neighbourhood of Constantinople during the absence of the peror,

and began

to

Greek Em-

slaughter and pillage in the

environs of the city, until both the Emperor's return

and a sudden storm made them

fly

Northward

again,

with the loss of most of their ships and people.

"Now all,

Rurik did not

like that style of

thing

at

but he could not effectually interfere, having

as

much

as he could attend to

on the Volchov, in

ing after the consolidation of his power.

look-

He had first

established himself near Ladoga, but on the death of his

two brothers he chose Novgorod as a more

tral situation.

It

was not indeed

precisely the present site, but

at that

was a

little

cen-

time on

higher up

Digitized by

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RURIK AND HIS 6UCCESSOR8. the river, near where Goroditche

venko was then; but the self see,

now and

is

situation, as

475

you may your-

must have been unhealthily low

there had

;

been many pestilences and contagious diseases the

number

no military allow

of the inhabitants, and, above

much time

to pass, before

is

same

there the

is

a

'

had

Novgorod,

river

and same

commercial strand, but the broad Kremle

" What

all, it

he had removed the

city to the present site of

where not only

to thin

So Rurik did not

qualities for defence.

mass of the

Sla-

fine

hill.

Kremle/ do you ask ? Why,

it is

an

extensive fortification, which the Varangians were

always expeditious

in building at every

town where

In France and Eng-

they established themselves.

land some surprise has been expressed, at the rapidity with

which the pirate sea-captains learned to

build land-castles for themselves ones, too,

and not unornamental.

exactly the same with our for

they had the same

same

— amazing

strong

Well, then,

it

was

Normans or Varangians

versatility of genius,

and the

talent for doing always the right thing in the

right place.

By

reason of that, too,

castles they built in Russia,

from the

'

Falaise

suitable to the

type of

broad and

were

it

at once

Normandy to flat

was, that the

expanded

the Kremles,

country which Russia

so sublimely offers to the view.

"Attending thus

to the

central district of his

solid

interests

of the

government, Rurik laboured

476

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

until the year 879,

when he died.

(

What killed him

so

soon V do you inquire ; and you say ' that he was only forty-nine years of age, off

by poison V

Not

and must have been carried

at all

The accusation of poison in

by

though does that

is far

too readily indulged

historians of early times, as a

account for

all

follow.

means by which

to

sudden or premature deaths. Are there

no deaths of princes now occasionally occurring their

younger or middle

it is

quite the contrary

consumption

malady

;

and

;

Have

life ?

all

great geniuses

Surely you must know

been very long-lived ? ;

for,

in

how many are

that

cut off by

—consumption a peculiarly Varangian its

next most

fatal

age after eighteen

is precisely about forty-nine or fifty. u But Rurik had lived to excellent purpose for

or nineteen,

adopted country, and not only

;

but a brother-in-

who became Regent during

law, Oleg, rity,

behind him a little

left

son, Igor, nearly three years old

and was

loyal

his

Igor's mino-

and true to the uttermost degree.

" Oleg was, however, either a bolder turn of man than Rurik solidation it

;

or,

thought the

latter' s

had been going on long enough, and

was time

to

commence the next

lishment of a great kingdom. that trade

tected

;

process of con-

To

must be secured and

but then

how was

that

step for the estabthis end, its

he

said,

channels pro-

that to be accomplished

with those rebels, Oskold and Dir, seated on the only river of

communication with the then great

digitized

by

Googl

477

RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

centre of

So

the civilized world, Constantinople.

all

an army was

collected,

towns on the

road, taken possession

finally gained

which served

;

Smolensk and other small

and Kiev

of,

by much that description of ruse the Scots to retake their castles

too,

more

than once.

" Novgorod, with enough

saw, was

fitter for

ment; round

made

its

many merchants, was

as a counting-house

all

well

but Kiev, Oleg soon

;

the seat of an Imperial Govern-

that city, therefore, as a centre, he

his military expeditions of conquest or organi-

zation, reforming there

and greatly extending Rurik'e

original domain, so as to include, besides Russians,

other Slavonians, the Krivitches, Meriens, Drevliens, Severiens, Tchudes, Radimitches, Polaniens,

Yiatiches, Chrovates, Doulebes, and Tivertses.*

due subjugation and

firm amalgamation of

The these

all

peoples, occupied the whole attention of the Regent, until his charge Igor

had grown old enough

entrusted with the governorship of Kiev

Oleg started

from

all his

* As lands,

off

with a large army and

be

but then, gathered

various Scythian subjects, to extort both

indicating the antiquity of law

we may mention,

one of

;

fleet,

to

that

and order

when Oleg met any

his distant journeys, his

first

in the Slavonic

race

new

to

question was, not "

him

in

Whence

"from?" or "How long have you been governing yourselves and n taking possession of the wilderness?" but "Whom do you pay tri" bute to?" and in no case was there found any tribe, even then, unvisited by some tax-gatherer.

478

THIvEE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

an acknowledgment from the proud Greek Empire,

and a commercial treaty

for the benefit of his sub-

jects.

" Passionately did the Greeks fications

the Bosphorus

;

but Oleg was so ready with

ner of resources for every of the

resist in their forti-

along the coast, approaching the mouth of

difficulty, that

all

man-

the legions

Emperor were soon driven from each place

strength; and after trying and failing in that resource of an enervated nation, offering the

of

last

enemv

poisoned food, they were compelled to receive the

Northern conqueror's own terms, craving only that he would spare their

This, however, he was

city.

ready enough to do, with his views of the really profitable for his

own

nation in the long-run

;

and while

he was therefore arranging a treaty to such

outside the walls of great

men

effect,

new race Byzantium, read much like

the proceedings of his energetic

the doings of the English

army

at

of a

Canton or Pekin

only the other day.

"

Firstly, there

silver, just like

was

to

be an

'

indemnity/ and

in

the Chinese ; twelve grivnas or about

nine pounds' weight to every

man

in the fleet, there

being two thousand so-called ships, and forty men in each of them.

Secondly, there was to be a com-

mercial treaty for the future

;

and the wily Greeks

wanted amazingly to enter at once into the cies of its

intrica-

paper regulations, to the shirking of

their

Digitized

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RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS. first

479

But when they had applied

stipulation.

for

deputies to discuss this matter, and Oleg sent them his friends Karl, Pharloff,

Veremond, Rulov, and

Stemidov, they brought only the words,

Pay me

the indemnity/

" Then the Greeks saw so the silver was paid

was no escape,

that there

and that being done, the

;

heads of the treaty were soon agreed fleet

Oleg says,

'

to

;

the hostile

induced to return northwards, and the comple-

tion of the articles of stipulation

plomatic corps,

left to

who drew them up

a small di-

afterwards with

every formality, securing great advantages in trade for Russian merchants

on paper,

;

while both parties declared,

their desire to love each other exceedingly

and keep their treaty for ever and ever. " It is worth your while, too," continued the Scandinavian, " to note that Oleg and the Russians did

keep the

treaty,

and prosecuted

visions diligently

its

commercial pro-

the same, too, did they with

;

all

their other surrounding nations, indicating thus early, a.d. 912,

how peaceful and improving

are the natural

inclinations of a true Slavonian monarchy.

" Things

in fact

that Oleg soon had

went on so smoothly little

or nothing to do

he bethought him on a morning, has duly recorded the

after this, ;

so then

as the old chronicler

story, of a certain horse

which

he had given out to be kept, but without wishing

mount him again

;

to

and that was because, seeing a

480

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

sorcerer one day, he said to him, aiid received for answer,

'

1

How

shall I die

?

Prince, this horse, which

thou lovest so much, and on which thou art mounted,

said to himself,

see

whereupon Oleg

be the cause of thy death

will

him again

I will neither

'

mount the horse

long time/

for a

nor

and accordingly

gave him to an old servant, with orders to feed him well,

but never to bring him near the palace.

veral years

had thus passed away, without Oleg

ing or thinking about the horse, particular

servant,

(

morning

By

He

it

at last

you

how

is

claimed Oleg,

€

and

to take such

I in

life

!

of V

Dead V

ex-

'

why, what abominable

may go and

that was to have been horse,

this

good care

those sorcerers must be!

horse quick, that I

see-

on

that fine horse getting

dead/ answered the man.

is

liars all

him a

when

occurred to him to ask his old

the way,

on, which I gave 6

Se-

my

Saddle

me

a

look at the creature

death/

So they saddled

and away rode the Prince

to

where

lay

the skeleton of his old favourite, bleaching in the

sun and wind.

who was

to

*

See there/ said he,

have caused

me

to die

!'

s

the animal

and with

that

having dismounted, he struck his foot on the white skull,

bit

but instantly a venomous snake darted

him

in the instep,

w Died from such a

out,

and he died." little

matter as that ?"

" Yes, indeed," said the Scandinavian, "and greatly to the grief of all the Russian people,

who lamented

digitized

by

Google

RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS. his demise exceedingly

for

;

481

he had ruled them most

admirably, and for their peaceful good during thirty-

one years." " Thirty-one years

exclaimed a listener, w

!"

why

I

thought he was only a Regent during the minority of young Igor, son of Rurik

summary

his tender charge in

"

You run on

Had he

?

disposed of

Oriental fashion ?"

a great deal too quickly, and not <e

over kindly," returned the Scandinavian,

and Igor were former's

life

;

but the truth

was possessed

of

such

is,

Indeed he was not

have been

;

Oleg

that while he, Oleg,

remarkable

ability, Igor,

though the son of the Great Rurik, was deficient.

for

excellent friends to the last of the

but then he

knew

it

all

just a

little

he should

that

himself ; and being

happily of an excellent good disposition, he was only too happy to

manage

let

accustomed guardian, Oleg,

his

everything for him, and indeed be the very

sovereign.

But when

this

most worthy man and

great hero died, Igor had to govern the land for himself, and got into

one who came fingers

;

all

sorts of trouble

;

for every

near him, could turn him round their

and thus he was drawn

into

many unpro-

fitable wars, as that with the Ouglitches and other

neighbouring

tribes.

Then

too, led

away by

certain

designing men, he must presently break the treaty

with Greece, and go on a plundering and massacring expedition to the coasts of Asia Minor VOL.

II.

;

from which Y

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

482

however he was soon very ignominioiisly expelled, being beaten both by land and sea, with the of almost

"In

all his

ships

a second expedition indeed,

better luck

;

for the

loss

and men. Igor was

in

Greek usurper on the throne

the time, was only too happy to

come

to

at

terms with-

own ill-gotten made up a new

out any fighting, so as not to risk his position.

Whereupon

treaty of peace

these worthies

between Russia and Byzantium

they said " that

was

it

to

endure for as long as the

sun should shine, or the earth exist

who should seek

Russian or Greek

and

;

:

and that anv m to break

it, if

a Christian, should be damned for ever; but

if a

Pagan, he should in vain implore the name of Perune, should find his shield no protection, should fall

pierced by his

and be

for

ticulars for the

seals of

slave,

his

own sword,

both in this

life

Then followed some curions par-

and the next."

and

own arrows and

ever and ever a

day

gold or

(a.d.

944) about the passports

silver, to

be shown by the

ferent envoys or merchants from Russia in Constantinople

;

dif-

on arriving

the particular custom-house re-

gulations their trade

was

to pass through

;

and then,

the chief terms repeated, of Oleg's old treaty.

" Whenever he followed Oleg's advice or tion,

Igor generally went right

;

and never

instrucbetter,

than when he married Olga,—originally a young country damsel of lowly birth, and in charge of a

Digitized

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RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

483

ferry-boat on a broad river; but a damsel of be-

witching beauty, and, better

still,

of doing what was right

exactly fitted indeed

;

an indomitable idea

by

nature, to supply whatever was most wanting in the vacillating character of her high-born husband, heir

many

of

An

failings.

inestimable blessing accord-

ingly she proved to him, with her love, her wisdom,

and her admirable firmness

;

for as long as she

was

near him, though the world saw nothing of her at

and

seemed

it

still

only Igor

who was doing

all,

every-

thing, she contrived to keep him constant to his traditions and the laws of his country.

" But

after

the birth of

their*

son

Sviatoslav

(seventeen years subsequent to the marriage), Olga

could not be so constantly with Igor as before

;

and

then, on one unhappy day, in the year a.d. 945, he let

himself be over-persuaded by some discontented

troops, to go off on very slight pretence, and levy

extra imposts for their, the soldiers', benefit, on the

Drevlien people

;

when he began

which ended in

dition,

his

that foolish expe-

being taken in an am-

buscade by the townspeople of Korosten ; and they, after divers

minor tortures, fastened him to two

young trees and rent him asunder. u When this sad news was brought Olga,*

what

—but

sort

to

Queen

you would rather hear, do you

of a

young

fellow the

* See pp. 374-378, Vol.

say,

son Sviatoslav

II.

Y

8

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA. Well,

turned out.

ever a mother's affectionate

if

care in overlooking the growth of the mental

and forming the character of her

culties

fa-

son, from

infancy up to youth, could of itself have secured a

good

greatest of princes

but he was in reality a curious

;

mixture, and united

his

mother Olga's resolution

little

of his father Igor's want

all

of character, to not a

of

have been the

should

Sviatoslav

result,

capacity to know, very exactly,

full

Yet

that resolution upon.

no bad

what to employ

as they, the parents, had

qualities, either of

them, so there was no-

thing of evil tendency in Sviatoslav;

was almost carried away

in spirit,

indeed, he

by self-denying

enthusiasm for the right and the noble way, as

seemed to him what for

;

pity therefore that his

really constituted that right

kings to move

in,

it

ideas of

and noble walk

were not always of the most

capacious order.

" At

first,

no one remarked anything very

dedly wanting in a

;

and

it

seemed indeed a

young prince of a new

nation, that

deci-

fine trait

he should

scorn luxury as effeminate, and daily be practising

himself and battle. like,

and

notion at

his

chosen companions in miniature

So he did 1

;

and thus grew up brave, war-

active as a panther/

all

He had

too a great

times of making himself tough, and on

his expeditions would have nothing to do with tents,

luggage, or cooks.

His saddle was his pillow, the

Digitized

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RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS. horse-cloth

covering,

his

and

485

the meat of any

freshly-killed animals, just passed through the

was

all

fire,

the food he thought a real soldier should

wish for. " Perhaps

though a most affectionate

in secret,

son, he did not quite like so very much of his mother's attention whenever he was indoors

;

and be-

sides that, with his quality of mind, he never could

see a question

in

might

really have,

him.

'

man

If a

is

bearings which

a

why

fool,

not

dear mother,

try back,

I didn't

and

him

tell

mean

really, so far as I can see,

say,

(

if,

for example,

of you

and then

;

you would

first

and

Well, but

that exactly

but

;

you have such a roundI

do

you were merely going

out of the room, you could not go straight life

so

his argu-

about way of doing anything you take up; believe that

it

set before

This would grieve the Lady Queen:

then Sviatoslav would

my

many

knock him down too V was

straight, and

ment.

the

all

and which she could

bend round

curve round that table, and

all

for the

this stool,

to get at

the door which

is

time/ " But then

would begin to glimmer upon him

all of

it

right in front of you the whole

a sudden, that he had rather trespassed on

the propriety and soberness of description, though

he did not

exactly see where

;

and he would then

sally out hastily to quiet his confused thoughts, in

480

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

the open

air,

most probably by having a wooden

sword combat with one of his strongest 99

At

last

soldiers.

however, Sviatoslav having attained his

majority, Olga retired from the regency

her son was able to carry out

all his

notions to his heart's content. excellent trim for active work,

and then

;

straightforward

His army was in

and he kept them

at

There was with him no manoeuvring, no plan

it.

of a campaign deeply laid

up

fight.

*

Hoh

V,

nothing but a

;

he would send to some neigh-

bouring tribe or people,

am coming

I

'

prepare for the battle / and then he

quick as

fate,

fair stand-

with his

lithe

against you,

w ould T

arrive

and vigorous warriors

when, every arrow they shot was sent with such superior speed, and every sword

fell

with such

in-

creased weight, that the victory always in the end

remained to his 99

side.

Years and years passed away thus, in constant

fighting.

The warlike young King descended

Oka and

the Volga;

overcame the Khozars, the

Yases, and the Kasogues

war

to

Bulgaria,

the

;

and then transferred the

on the banks of the Danube.

Meanwhile he had both married and widower; but three

little

become

a

sons remained, and they

were kindly taken care of by his good mother, Olga

who, day by day, fervently prayed that she might

be enabled to lead them

in a better

way, and see

them grow up somewhat wiser and more

cautious,

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RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS

though not

less valiant,

487

than their too adventurous

father.

"While

the venerable Queen-mother was thus

quietly occupied in Kiev, and Sviatoslav far away in

the South, the

first

great irruption of the Petchen-

ague people from

their Asian steppes took place;

and they

time in laying siege to Kiev

The

968).

gour

lost little

inhabitants defended themselves with vi-

for several

weeks

;

but, completely blockaded

by land and water, would have been

obliged to yield,

Olga, Sviatoslav' s children, and every one in the

by

famine,

the

last

(a.d.

—had

it

city,

not been for a desperate ruse at

moment, inducing the invaders

to depart.

" The moment they were gone, the Kievians sent to Sviatoslav, saying,

'

Prince, you prefer the country

of foreigners to your own, which you have aban-

doned ; and

it

has very nearly happened that your

mother and children have the Petchenagues. turn,

we

shall

protect us ?

If

fallen into the

hands of

you do not hasten your

be again attacked.

Who

will

re-

then

Will you have no pity either on your

country, your old mother, or your children

V

"On

hearing this message, Sviatoslav instantly

mounts

his horse, orders his attendants to imitate

him

;

and returning quickly to Kiev, throws himself

into the

of

arms of his mother and children. The recital

what they have

suffered

works him up to such

a pitch of frenzy, that he immediately collects his

488

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

troops again, pursues the Petchenagues, overtakes

them,

kills

great numbers of them, and then returns

peaceably to live at Kiev.

" But hardly had a year elapsed, when Sviatoslav

morning

said one

to his

can't stand this style of

and

so wretchedly tame

Danube again

;

that

is

nions ; and there, there

mother and the Boyards, life

Kiev any longer ;

in

must be

I

quiet.

the real centre of is

off to

my

'

I

it is

the

domi-

always something exciting

His mother was grieved to the heart at

going on/ this speech,

but concealing her disappointment as

well as she could, she answered him,

not see that I

am

a moment?'

She was indeed

presently added,

s

ill

My son, do you

would you abandon

;

At

'

least

me at such

suffering severely,

bury

me

first,

and

and then go

and do whatever seems good to you.' " Three days after that, poor Olga died, lamented bitterly

by her

son, her grandsons,

and

all

the Rus-

sian people.

She has been canonized by the Rus-

sian Church,

and

Great

we

effects,

is

sainted in

believe, will

our memories.

all

still

her example, and her history and

be produced by life will

even yet

many fine poems but I doubt if the world is at this moment quite ready either to produce, or for, how it comes I don't know, but receive, them originate

;

;

the latest style of poetry

production

denied

;

:

is

a strangely diseased

the almost angelic nature of

and you have

men

woman

is

plighting vows of friend-

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by

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489

RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS.

ship with men, declaring themselves moreover to be

David and Jonathan over again

;

whose

love,

it is

so

easy to say with a glib tongue, was surpassing the

And

love of women.

decked with each ties,

then these modern poets, be-

other's gift jewels in their neck-

sing great praises of mankind

;

but delight to

bring in per contra such examples of womankind, that

man

say,

*

in his

majesty shall be enabled to arise and

Frailty, thy

name

a deal of propriety

is

woman/

There may be

in English poets having so

to versify about their Queen Guinevere; but

much of

rather have our poets studying the character

Queen Olga, mother of

glory/ as she fondly

Sviatoslav, or

named her son

too, in the vernacular of her

" That son, on having as she

much

we would

;

'

sacred

patriotically,

own Russian

people.

mother

dutifully buried his

had wished, and having then established

his

many Northern appanages,

set

three children in as

out with an army of hardy soldiers to indulge his

whole soul once again in fightings on the Danube. First,

he had a

series of battles with the Bulgarians;

and then came the Emperor, John Zimisces, with hosts of Greek Eomans.

by land

They attacked

Sviatoslav

in the present Silistria, while a fleet of tri-

remes came up the

river in his rear.

The

fights

which then ensued from morn to dewy eve, and day after day,

were to the Russian Prince, so devotedly

fond as he was of real hard fighting, the most mag-

Y

3

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THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

i90

nificent feasts that could

Times and

be prepared.

again he had to rush in amongst his soldiers, to them, that

had

*

to die

lost his life,

1

was no shame / that

and cry when he

would be quite time enough for them

to seek to save theirs

and other such

•/

patriotic ad-

dresses, as quite inflame with enthusiasm the

ish chronicler

who

records

monk-

them ; and then he, the

Prince himself, would dash into the thickest of the fight, till

and thwack and hew with

he was tired of the

his

reddened sword

slain.

Ail this was very splendid

work no doubt in

way, but then there appeared this drawback to that though the honour

its

it all,

and fame were increasing

every day, the army was diminishing ; and no other result

seemed to come of

it.

So before long,

to

prevent his forces evaporating altogether in these continued acquisitions of renown, Sviatoslav had to beat a retreat out of the enemy's country, with the

hope of replenishing his

his ranks at Kiev,

own, the Eussian, people.

reached.

What he might have done

during his reign of twenty-eight years, sessed, together with his

of Olga's wisdom,

—

his

own

amongst

But these he never for their

good

—had he pos-

bravery, a

little

more

youngest son, Vladimir, was

destined to exhibit brilliantly before the next generation."

digitized

by

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491

«

CHAPTER ST.

VII.

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END. October.

Rain,

still

rain,

and more rain than

ever,

marked

the later days of October in Novgorod's ancient Little though, did the well

city.

and thickly-dressed pea-

santry, seem to care about the quality of the weather.

They indeed attended and

there, hale old

the market-place abundantly

men

of sixty and seventy, with

beards whiter than snow, stumped about as

lustily

Open

air re-

as

if

they were barely turned of forty.

freshments too were being indulged in at stall,

the rain notwithstanding

ings were greatly

moved

for

;

some

many

a

my

wife's feel-

little

boys, who,

and

she was absolutely sure, must be making themselves iU,

so over-rich was the food they were indulging

in, viz.

long and juicy lumps of beef,* fished up

* Novgorod, being situated just on the

all

cattle- drover's road,

from

the beef-raising countries of Little Russia to St. Petersburg,

must

know much of that

species of

meat ; of which kind,

too, the

market

492

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

smoking hot out of a cauldron of something boiling

like

pure

fat.

But the boys as well well both

knew perfectly and of the coming

as their elders

what they were about,

winter which they had to strengthen themselves for.

Appropriate food therefore, clothing, and, above

we had not been

reference to this last institution,

make out

able to

at

all,

With

most serious attention.

baths, occupied their

what the lower orders of

first,

people were continually carrying along such quantities of

the

twigs and branches of the birch-tree for ; but

first

Saturday evening did not

to

fail

show them

streaming with their prizes towards the public baths, just as they used to do in St. returns both of

Moskva and

St.

Andrew's* time of

Petersburg are said to show a greater

proportional supply than of any other.

At "

a dinner in St. Petersburg an old gentleman had said to us,

know when you

sail

" away from us westward, you will be leaving the land of beef;"

and

Have more

beef,

when we had

have more

beef,

replied thereto, that

because you

we should

proaching such land, in nearing England, " Ah

surely be rather ap!"

he

said,

" I think

"Britons have a notion of theirs being the country for roast-beef; " but they have not half as much of the raw material as we have. M Besides which, we think they don't understand what good beef is

" for the best in England 11

is

always so very hard, and overloaded

with abnormal masses of suet

;

now our

beef,

on the contrary,

" tender as a coursed hare, and wholesome as wild venison " good reason, too, of

"from

its

still

;

so

is

for the

being driven a thousand miles or more

distant native plains, before

" the butcher

" you are

its

;

it

comes to the hands of

by all means have more of our Russian bee£ while

within reach of it, and in abundance."

• See p. 431, Vol. II.

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ST.

ALEXANDER NEVSKJ, AND THE END.

eighteen hundred years ago, on the banks of

very same Volchov

river,

and

for the

same

493 this

identical

purpose.

Now mind

the word bath, at once excites in the British

a notion of water in abundance; and where

British baths for the million are located, water must

be

laid on in

immense

fore, visiting the

where twenty thousand bathed

Englishmen, there-

quantity.

ruined baths of ancient Rome, individuals are said to have

daily, look in vain for traces of the vasty

waterworks they themselves would require; and a recent Scottish author, describing the ruins of a

Eoman

villa

in

England,

— the

picturesque land-

scape, which the site was evidently chosen to com-

mand

;

the

for milk,

fertile

gardens for

fruit;

and the meadows

—also mentions the magnificent bath-room,

a " hot bath," from the traces of floor,

fire

beneath the

but " large enough to swim in f* for he jumps

at once to the conclusion, that the large

room with

solid masonried walls,

and with furnace flues be-

neath, must have been

filled

with water, three, four,

or more feet deep, like a tank.

But what

if

the said

room was never intended

hold, or contain, a particle of water

would probably answer, that at all; that his

is,

it

!

Why,

then, he

could not be a bath

at least in the light in

which he and

countrymen understand bathing. There,

in that latter reservation he

to

too,

and

would be quite right; yet

494

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

the room might form

the time a very perfect bath

all

on the Russian plan ; and bathing,

the

same Russian plan of

this

of extraordinary beneficial influence on

is

human system ;

is

as ancient almost as the Sla-

vonic language itself ; and

based on a very nice

is

appreciation of certain hygrometrical qualities of

which have not been

at different temperatures,

air

fully

recognized by Western science until very recently.

The matter

therefore has long been worthy of study;

and a certain other Scot, a physician, whose residence in

sional

Moskva

entitled

profes-

him to speak

authoritatively,— publicly declared, in 1823, that the

proper nature and value of the Russian bath was, up

unknown

to that time, entirely

in

Great Britain.

There had indeed been an attempt to transplant it, '

but the

effort resulted only in

producing a " va-

may

be, as different a

pour bath," and that

or

is,

thing from the true Russian bath, though in another .direction, as is

swim." bath ;

"a

water- tank, in which a

Vapour there

for,

clouds of

a severe winter,

it

is,

it roll

falls

man

could

no doubt, in a Russian forth in

summer ; and,

in

congealed and congealing

around; thereby converting the exterior of the building into a fairy-like abode of crystal stalactites in the interior, where this hot vapour is

is

;

but

produced,

it

only allowed as a minor feature of the whole ope-

ration;

and in so

to the one

far only as it

may prove subservient

grand purpose in view, or the same for

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ST.

which

495

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

the classical birch-twigs are also admitted

purpose,

bath

total water,

;

than abundant and wholesome suitable circumstances and in

When first,

an

Fahr.

;

a

next to impossible with either a pure

too,

vapour, or a

;

this is attained, artificially

for

it is

nothing less

perspiration,* under

its

proper place.

and that

by means

is

of,

hot atmosphere, 120° to 130°

second, just so

much steam

as

act

shall

kindly on the microscopic tube-mouths of the skin,

but

at the

same time by no means destroy the

air's

capacity, at that high temperature exceedingly great,

for absorbing more moisture

strenuous muscular exercise,

still;

—then

and

by

third,

instantly,

any

headache or languor previously experienced, vanish vigour of mind and

elasticity of

frame return or are

generated anew; and the inhabitant of the polar regions

may for

a brief time experience such a feeling,

as could otherwise only be imparted by a taste of a

Syrian spring-time, or the exhilarating atmosphere of an Arabian desert in the golden age of the world.

But

in the midst of this heated atmosphere,

comes

to the Kussian bather, a strange alternation every

now and

then, of buckets of cold water thrown with

violence over him; practice, one

—a

disagreeable and dangerous

would think,

at first

;

but one which

nevertheless proves actually agreeable to his feelings * See Dr. Erasmus Wilson

for the medical

guments demonstrated and duly enforced.

and physiological

ar-

-

496

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

the time

all

and, more important

;

be eventually the chief secret

Only

strengthening the constitution.

through

still, is

;

while, again, if the water

take enough of

it,

first

seems to be their

sufficient heat,

and then water cannot be too cold

ment

found to

and

for invigorating

pass

maxim,

for full enjoy-

be very cold and you

then no previous amount of heat

undergone, has any tendency to leave the skin tender or susceptible to atmospheric influences of even

an

Archangel-coast winter.

With the Russian

bath, in fact, enjoyed at stated

most Boreal country

intervals, the natives of that

can bid defiance to itself

its

severest climate

becomes an abode

enjoyed quite as

much

favoured by nature

almost

all

which existence can be

in

as in any other lands

much more

;

and Siberia

;

healthily, too ;* for

unwholesome humours are thrown

the torrents exhaled

:

more off in

every organ of the body, even

the most deeply-seated,

is

cleansed by the passage

of limpid fluids from within outwards to the skin

and from

there, they are finally

really effective

washed

manner of washing ;

off in

viz.

;

the only

with streams

of pouring water, just as every photographer cleans his

collodion

Whereupon,

plates

at last,

after

the fixing

operation.

behold the Russian bather far

* Compare Dr. Clarke's 'Travels,' pp. 188-190, Granville's 'St. Petersburg,' vol.

i.

toI.

i.

ed.

4; Dr.

pp. 491-6; Dr. Lyati'a 'Cha-

racter of the Eussians,' p. 112.

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ST.

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

497

cleaner and in a more wholesome condition of body,

than though he had been kept soaked

even days

in

cold, fresh or

for

hours or

whole tanks of water, either hot or salt,

with soap in abundance or no soap

at all ?

"Most allow,

peculiar, then,

and important, you must

our Russian bath

is

;

indeed, a veritable na-

tional institution," said the chief Russian speaker.

u But one you have copied from the Turks, and they from the old

Roman

establishments in Constan-

tinople," put in an incautious observer.

u We take our baths from the Turks

93 !

indignantly

" Pray

exclaimed the whole tea-party at Novgorod.

where were the Turks when

St.

Andrew took such a

deal of interest in looking into the construction and

arrangement of Slavonian stove-baths ?

Why, Eu-

rope never heard of the very name of a Turk even, until a thousand years after that event.

Turks, too, ever pass Northward

and all

all

establish the bath, with birch twigs

complete, in Finland,

Norway

;

for

it is

Lapland,

and steam

Sweden, and

there now, and has been

there from almost primaeval times?

Romans

Did the

through Russia,

ever do as

much?

What

known

Did even the legion of the

Caesars ever penetrated to the North Cape, and left their hot-air baths

amongst the inhabitants of its

icy

mountains and snow-covered plains?"

When

this outburst for

Russian antiquity had sub-

408

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

sided, a

Norwegian-born guest confirmed the but

facts enunciated,

finally

chief

grew rather melancholy

over the historical and geographical part of the case.

" Ah

!" said he,

" my country has of

forgetting the bath.

was not so

;

and even

north of our land and rural districts,

Of

where old

years been

old times and glorious,

it

you travel towards the

still, if

visit

late

the poorest of the distant

institutions

still

survive, and

in the chief track of the ancient immigration, there

every small farmer, and even the mere peasants, are

never happy unless they can construct their little stove-

Rude wooden

baths.

hovels,

you don't know how

clumsy and tumble-down they look, yet always with

some

them below, and

sort of a furnace built into

capable both of heating the air and supplying steam.

But as you

travel

Southward again, you find the baths

decreasing, especially in those parts of the country

long ruled over by the half- Teutoni zed Danes at last,

when you reach

Norway looks

and

;

the extreme South, where

across Baltic waters to the

German

shore, the bath has entirely vanished as a popular

custom, before the peculiar influence which radiates

from that unwashing land.

" When

trouble,

however

distress

tianians, or

when

visits

our proud Chris-

sickness prostrate their souls in

then they do remember them somewhat

of the bath of their ancestors. their chief hospitals

Hence

have been recently

it

fitted

is,

that

up

with

digitized

by

Googl

ST.

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

But our

air-bathing arrangements.

citizens

499

had so

fallen out of the habit of constructing their once

national baths, that they had to send the other day

to

St. Petersburg for both

workmen and apparatus

and they call them now Russian no doubt, and do indeed, claim '

baths/

We might

their use for long

ages past ; but the centre of vitality of the system so evidently

we must

allow

Yet

also.

a most

its

call it

heroic

origin to have been in that quarter

by what name soever you

will, it is

in many and many a malady human frame and I myself, as with

remedy

that affects the

many

is

Eastwards in Eussia, that perhaps

far

;

other young

cold, catarrh, or

men

on feeling a

in Christiania,

rheumatism coming on in the winter

time, have often gone to the hospital bath, and been

cured at once."

Thus spoke the modern Varangian ; and when he

had

presently quitted the party, a Russian, in reply

to some further of our queries, began

how

it is

that the Norwegians are not

exciting, thorough-going,

:

" You ask

now

the same

and world-astonishing ge-

niuses that they ever were throughout the Varangian

and Norman friend

periods.

had not

left

Well,

us just

if

our Christiania-born

now

in such a hurry, he

would probably have taken a deal of trouble sure you, that his country

is at this

to as-

moment one

of

the most rapidly-advancing on the face of the globe that

its

shipping ranks third

among all

nations

;

that

500

THKEE CITIES IN RUSSIA. are

its sailors

much more besides.

the age, and

ing

this,

educated men, the best seamen of

all

But, notwithstand-

we do see a something somewhere wanting

about the Norway of the present day, and think that it

has long been

"The

rite

so.

and spread of the Norman race

ninth century was most remarkable

and disappearance

was no

less a

in the

;

but

its

in the

decline

beginning of the thirteenth

The intervening period

phenomenon.

would seem to have been given to

it

by Heaven,

as

a time in which to spread through the earth, to go forth conquering to

and

to conquer

add an important human

new kingdoms, and

element in the forming

mixture of many a young people, then rising on the ruins of the past

Roman

civilization.

When

that

period therefore was expired, their divine mission

ceased

with

;

it

their

prestige departed

and

;

to

whatever country they had then found their way,

from that moment the heroic Normans ceased exist visibly

in

victory

nations/*

and independently, being or

A

servitude

among

the

lost

'

to

either

vanquished

people of pirates was allowed to be,

for a time, a disseminator of ultimate benefits to

Europe

;

but such a system of things was not always

Happy therefore were those of the race to last. who had made good use of their opportunity while it

existed

;

and were on a

fair

road of peaceful

settle-

* Gibbon, yoL x. p. 332.

Digitized

by

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ALEXANDER NEVSKJ, AND THE END.

ST.

ment

or improving civilization,

of time brought the vial

began

inevitable

when

501

the progress

change ; when a new

to be poured out on the seas

;

new

a

trumpet to sound over the earth. u With our Varangian chiefs, it was a very narrow which category the sounding of the angel

chance

in

should

find,

the

utterly

and

fix

them

for ever

whether with

;

wrecked remnants of the Norman

valry of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily

;

or,

chi-

with the

honoured companions of William the Conqueror

A

England.

question of the highest gravity

;

in

for,

therewith must have gone both the fate of Russia,

and the

future of the civilized world.

Providence ruled

end;

for

done

all

was

it

A

merciful

and most beneficent

to the best

the Varangian chiefs had certainly not

they might or should have done, while

yet day

;

it

and the night was already commenced,

the eleventh hour was actually past, when Alexander

Nevski stood up and saved the

nation, then just

balancing on the verge of destruction/'

u Oh, you don't say Nevski pray

I"

tell

so

!

stranger,

" do

Archdeacon Coxe*

says,

remarked a fussy us what he did.

what, St. Alexander little

that he fought the Tahtars in gallant style, and beat

them

in battle after battle, relieved his country of

a disgraceful

tribute,

imposed by the successors of

Zinghiz Khan, and showed incredible feats of va*

1

Coxe's Travels,' vol. L p. 277.

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA

502

But then again, Dr. Granville* assures

lour.

that Alexander Nevski never

with the Tahtars

Neva

;

that he fought one battle

against Swedes and Livonians

became a monk, and

on the

but after that,

;

lived a life of such astonishing

piety that he was canonized for

The Russian

us,

had anything to do

listened to

all

it

after death."

calm as a

this froth as

; and when it was entirely exhausted, began, " Alexander Nevski had much to do with the Tah-

statue

tars,

but fortunately for the poor of his land, never

way

in the

of fighting

in the monastic habit, in

life

for

;

them

;

and though he died

he never wore

it

professionally

he was only invested with the robes just

on the eve of death, according to the custom then usual with

all

the chief rulers of Russia.

great warrior nevertheless

on the Neva

testified,

but

;

He was

a

as not' only his victory

many another battle fought

with success, against the Swedes, Livonians, Lithuanians,

and Teutonic knights of the sword,

for the

defence of Novgorod, Pleskov, and other towns in the

He

north-west of Russia.

seldom drew the sword

without completely succeeding in the object of his enterprise

tempted

;

and one reason was, that he never

at-

impossibilities, or acts either of injustice,

folly, or oppression.

" For

all this

was

his country thankful

btit he

;

bound not only his existing compatriots, but pos* Granville's

'

St.

Petersburg/ vol

ii.

p. 188.

digitized

by

Google

ST.

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

terity to him as well, and with

still

of

and

by

gratitude,

his

life-long

503

stronger cords often

painful

struggles, peacefully and teachingly to enforce a

sense of

the

justice

people, and

all classes of c<

Born

among

the rulers, truth amongst

combined national feeling among

Russians in every part of the empire.

in a.d. 1220, or only three years before the

first Tahtar attack

on Russia, the several subsequent

steps of that dread subjugation passed before his youthful and observant eyes

;

and when

at the

age

of nineteen he was appointed by his father, Yaroslav Vsevolodovitch, then ruler of Vladimir, to the prince-

dom

of Novgorod, the humiliation of Russia was

The

complete.

fused to

assist

several independent princes

each other, were beaten in

had

re-

detail,

their cities were taken, burned to the ground, and

the inhabitants massacred on the spot or carried into

Tahtary as

" No land

;

slaves.

native soldiers were then

left in

the Russian

and wherever Tahtar warriors advanced, there

was no longer

resistance

;

but they killed neverthe-

less many peaceful peasants, though these had neither means nor thoughts of offence. From unprotected

towns and

villages, the rustics

crosses and

would pour forth with

emblems of Christian

faith, as

marks of

submission and respect, but were cut down where

they stood by the Shamany-worshipping Asiatics.

For one town

therefore

by

itself,

even Novgorod the

THREE CITIES IN ECSSIA.

504

Hreat, to have attacked the Tahtars then, or even

within a hundred years of that time of the culmina-

would have been simply

tion of their power, sition to

struction

unnumbered odds on

to

in oppo-

have drawn direct de-

and entailed additional calamities

itself,

on the rest of the land speaking the same tongue

and professing the same

religion with its citizens.

"There were not wanting those amongst the Russians,

who looked on

these overwhelming national

misfortunes, as a punishment from

God ; and

at the

siege of Vladimir, which ended so disastrously for

them, their arms were tied to their sides by the idea, of the uselessness of attempting opposition to the

decrees of Heaven.

"Alexander Nevski seems opinion, that his nation

was

also to

have held the

suffering from the just

auger of the Most High; but then he did not remain stupidly inactive

;

on the contrary, he diligently

amined into the nature of the

sins

committed,

exre-

pented earnestly their commission, and strove without ceasing to prevent their repetition for the future.

On two

different occasions the Tahtars

had been

grossly outraged, by their peaceful ambassadors being killed

by Russian princes

in false bravado

;

and

this

manifest injustice and cruelty so horrified Alexander, that

when

sent a

in 1258,

and again

in 1259, the Tahtars

mere handful of tax-gatherers

to collect a

tri-

bute from Novgorod, he went with them from Vla-

Digitized by

Google

8T.

505

ALEXANDER NEV8KI, AND THE END.

dimir, where he was then Veliki Kniaz in succession to his father

and brother,

to ensure the safety of so

small a detachment of unarmed lent

and unthinking populace

gogic

men from

of the

the turbu-

Western dema-

city.

" Not

only too did he thus save the Tahtar mes-

sengers from

insults

and the

violent death, which

would have certainly brought calamities, that there were then no means of opposing, on the whole nation,

—but

he proceeded to read the Volchov's

opinionated and faithless citizens a lesson on their national duty as Russians; a duty which, according to his teaching, called on

them sacredly

to assist

in relieving the more oppressive burdens of those

of their brethren, whose abodes had the misfortune to lie nearer than their

his brother

duly enforced

then

to the storm-track of

Next, too, this incomparable chief

Asian invasion.

gave

own

Varangian princes an example, and

it,

fully arrived,

when they should

only of the interests of their own reign despots

;

cease to think

families, as sove-

or as Varangian lords ruling a sub-

ject Slavonic people ; but should tral

having

to the effect of the time

merge

their ances-

Varangianism into the nationality of the people

they presided over; striving to be guided always and only by the greatest good of the greatest number.

"Loyalty, and a high

and

political,

VOL.

II.

ideal, religious, chivalric,

were what the hero of Nevski preached z

500 to

THUEE CITIE8 IN RUSSIA.

all,

own

besides exhibiting in his

many and many an

occasion

and

;

person, on

his last public act,

was a formal offering of himself, as the single to appease Tahtar

vengeance

for the

victim,

murders com-

mitted in 1262, by several Russian cities which had secretly

combined

in a

spiracy of their own.

wicked and ill-arranged

The dignity of his

con-

features,

together with their gentle expression, his majestic stature,

the graceful appearance of his

muscular

frame, and the persuasive sound of his voice

so

eloquent and musically harmonious, chained with

astonishment and respect even the Mongol victors yet from that propitiatory journey our Alexander

Nevski was doomed never to return to his city and grateful people

At exactly just

pith

this point of the Russian's discourse,

when he seemed about and marrow of

to enter into the very

his country's history,

and

arrived at the precise period of transition of

Varangian princes

into.

had its

Russian nobility, at the foun-

dation of the grand unity of the people,

and the

col-

lection of the prestige of each of its once governing capitals, as

Novgorod, Kiev, Vladimir, Suzdal, and

many others, into Moskva of almost

the

our

more

own

central

times,

and modern

—a sudden

inter-

ruption was occasioned by the entering of a veteran

soldier-messenger with letters.

Amongst these

one for ourselves, and on hastily breaking

was

it open,

Digitized by

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ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

ST.

we found that the

'

507

the half-expected and half-feared news,

Edinburgh 9 steamer had arrived

at Cron-

stadt, was unloading her British cargo, and loading

a Russian one, with

all

the violent expedition that

three hundred stout Mouzhik porters could

assist

her to

for us

and there was barely time therefore

;

to fly by steamboat and

our passage home.

one of our

the

first

catch her, and save

we must,

set in at

for

him of the

host's letters further told

winter having already

messengers

rail to

Fly, too, instantly

Archangel, and that

just arrived from thence

had travelled

by

seven stages over the snow

sledge.

Arrived therefore on the following d^y in St. Petersburg, we found that truly there was no time to spare

but our astronomical

friends from

Pulkova were pre-

sent, kindly ready to assist, as well as bid farewell.

Under

the good care accordingly of

off

Hintze, the

of that Observatory, our baggage

able intendant

went

M.

one afternoon, and we ourselves

morning by an on the red

left

next

early steamboat; the last object seen

granite quay being the warm-hearted

Professor of Astronomy in the University of St. Petersburg, shivering, poor man, in the cold east wind

and damp

freezing

ally aloft in

air,

but waving his hat continu-

token of an earnest adieu.

Swiftly darted

down

the broad, clear,

Neva

river

the sharp-bowed steamer, with favouring wind and

stream

;

but when once out on the surface of the Z 2

r •

>08

THREE CITIES IN RU3SIA.

•

Finland Gulf, what a contrast was presented there to that

which we had seen in July

!

Then, west wind

driving up the waters from far beyond,

waves run high and show deep blue too,

one

felt

made

the

tints, indicating,

inclined to think at the sight, that the

largest of vessels

might have sailed up safely into the

very mouth of the Neva

;

but now, after a long-con-

tinued east wind, behold the waters swept out again

from the head of the Gulf, and to such an extent, that yellow sand-banks were appearing on every side,

and the waves of the steamer's motion broke in ridges nearly the whole

way

surf-

along.

Then, too, in July, the shores were green, oh green

!

and

all

green

!

so

!

but now, while the northern

are dark under rain-clouds

and with

fir

woods, the

southern coasts, even at two miles distant, are

glit-

tering golden-yellow or rich orange in the northern birch-trees' tints of a Russian early

autumn.

Several officers of the Finland fleet discussed

much

now on

board,

the enormous orders for naval tim-

ber given that summer through

all

the Baltic ports

by the French Emperor, and the vast preparations which one of their number had just been seeing active progress throughout

and their (the Russian

all

the French dockyards;

officers')

these being preparations

in

confident belief, of

made long beforehand,

for

the invasion of a country then at perfect peace with the said Emperor.

How

the peace was to be rup-

)igitized

by

Google

ST.

509

ALEXANDER NEVSKT, AND THE END.

tured at a

suitable time, according to the strictest

interpretation of traditional Napoleonic diplomacy,

they began

to explain

ample; but

there was a sudden end to this,

we had

and

by past ex-

when

once touched the Cronstadt pier, for there

were both M. Hintze and

M. Hubner, our

illustrate

the Cronstadt astronomer

with droshkies ready to convey us to

So

further destination.

still

them, through the

off

we drove with

fortified lines, past acres laid out

with cannon, carronades,

and

shot,

shell,

through

the town of Cronstadt, and down to the inner mer-

chant mole; then by boat, M. Hubner steering,

through trading ships almost as thick as they could together, touching yard-arm and yard-arm, and

lie

stem and

stern, with all their bowsprits shortened

and

booms rigged

their

we reached

until

in,

well-remembered and goodly

'

the

Edinburgh' screw-

steamer of Leith.

Poor Captain Steele was us.

As

there, ready to receive

quick, as obliging, and as sailor-like was he

as ever; especially delighted too to see

again,

M. Hubner

for that July upset in the droshky,*

which

they both bore so well, had made them from that

moment warmest

friends for ever.

was not quite prepared yet

to sail

tons of tallow casks, and myriads of still

to

But the Captain ;

for tons

hemp

upon

parcels

had

be stowed, with bales of rags and bundles * See p. 54,

VoL

I.

510

THREE

CIT1IES

RUSSIA.

Ttf

of lath-wood; corn in profusion, and boxes of the marble-like Russian stearine candles, intended for Australian markets. vigorously

;

He was

progressing however

both of the steam-cranes were at work,

screeching and rattling and throwing out volumes of steam

;

while the

air,

thick with mist,

and the

wind blowing from the north-east, made the whole scene most Scottish

So was

like.

also,

it

even

to

But

the effective activity of crowds of porters.

then they were here mostly dressed in sheep -skins,

had mits and gauntlets of the same bulky material on their hands and arms

and displayed fur

wore

;

tall

knee boots,

caps, various in shape, as,

round, peaked, and square

;

in fact,

we

felt

flat,

tempted j

every

now and then

up about Moskva.

to try

them with words picked

From

that neighbourhood too

they had come, under a head

man

of their own, to

make such summer-gain by hard work among shipping, as should enable

them

the

to spend the long

subsequent winter comfortably with their families

at

home.

Next morning, by ten

o' clock,

this

strenuous

labour had completed his loading, and the captain

was prepared

to

warp out of the harbour mouth

but yet had to wait awhile, according to orders from shore, because a brilliant

little

steamer, the

'

Alex-

ander/ on impressed service, was just about to enter

from Peterhoff, by the same opening.

In a few

digitized

by

Google

ST.

minutes,

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

this

same

'

511

Alexander 1 arrived, with seve-

ral staff-officers, and with two splendid horses ot

Arab

breed, most luxuriously cared for in woollen

clothing, on deck

;

while a rumour presently came

to us in some manner, that Schamyl, the Circassian Chief, at whose recent capture

was moved

with joy

St.

all

Petersburg

when we were passing through

there the day before, was

also

on board.

The water-gate being clear once more, the Edinburgh was hauled through but had again to wait, '

'

;

near the pile-formed shore outside for the

arrival

of

certain

and

;

this time,

Custom-house papers.

Close to us lay a row of men-of-war, but so different

now

from the trim in which we had seen them three

months too, the

The large American

previously. 1

Grand Admiral/ which

ambitiously to the clouds with

and

filled half

visible

had soared

shapely spars,

the panorama before us with

play of taut-pulled roping,

thing

in July

its tall,

—now

frigate

its dis-

there was

no-

above deck, except the lower masts,

the main yard, and a dozen or two of the lower

shrouds ; while a rude wooden housing covered the engine compartment.

mere superannuated

In this condition too, like

hulks, have

all

the ships of the

Baltic fleet to remain for six long months, until the

next summer enables them again to bud and blos-

som

after

their

manner, putting forth

shapely terminal spars, and

finer

all

those

rigging, which

612

TIIRKE C1TIE8 IN RUSSIA.

shall establish

and

effect,

them as actual

ships in appearance

delighting to a sailor's eye with

symmetry and

their

practical air.

Yet despite the present deserted look, no small

numbers of showy uniformed men seemed to be on duty in every one of the. hulls

;

something unusual

too was evidently transacting that particular ing,

and soon we were

on board

told,

morn-

" Schamyl has just gone

this line-of-battle ship over against

the 'Menzikoff/

you,

you land quickly, you may have

if

a good and close look at him as he comes out."

An

opportunity not to be missed

party out of the its

'

Edinburgh '

at

:

so a select

once landed, and

members had not been standing more than a few

minutes on a heap of canister-shot, just at the foot of a great

wooden

staircase leading

side from the quay,

up the

vessels'

—than down came a procession

of several Russian naval officers, then a Circassian of the Guard, and then Schamyl himself with two

country attendants

:

Schamyl conspicuous in a huge

white turban and a white under-dress, his dress

proper apparently and plentifully garnished with pistols

and daggers, but with a grey Russian cloak

thrown over his shoulders.

A man, too,

above

the

common height, and exceeding the ordinary strength of men of a complexion white, as the whitest of ;

Europeans, but loaded with a massive red-brown beard, and something of a troubled look too, as

digitized

by

if

Googl

his

513

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

ST.

conscience must have been

sixty years of age he appeared

;

About

at ease.

ill

but upright, vigo-

rous, determined, and with a deal of fighting capacity in

him

still.

Though changed

in dress

and

religion, yet are the

Circassians of the present day the same

those u Kasogues "

hundred

years ago

whom ;

race as

Nestor described eight

and Schamyl himself

is

more

particularly even, like that sturdy chieftain of them,

" Rodedia

with

whom

Mstislav Vladimirovitch

wrestled, a.d. 1022, for the prize proposed by himself,

of his

life,

to levy tribute

his wives, his children,

on

A

his subjects.

and the right

man

of

immense

height, this same ftodedia, and robust at the same

time

;

as are

all his

countrymen

and without mixture

in their

still,

without change,

mountain home.

For

while indeed the Ougres, Khozars, Petchenagues, Polovtsi,

and Tahtars have been so many successive

waves of migrating

nations,

who have swept over

the level Eastern plains, age after age, destroying or mixing with, and changing each other,

—the Cir-

cassian mountains have ever successfully opposed

the

entrance of such floods into their fastnesses.

Hence

it

Kasogue and are

comes, that the descendants of these old inhabitants,

still

remain there to our day

practically testifying, in the superior height,

strength,

and nervous temperaments of

their

mighty

warriors, that though the oft-lauded " mixture of Z 3

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

514 races

" in other distant

on

consequent

countries,

wars and migrations, has sometimes produced improved ible,

the

wrong

At off in

men,

varieties of

and may be

either

—the doctrine

pushed too

far,

is

not

or

worked

length the Edinburgh's papers being brought

due order, she steamed away past guard-

ships many, past granite forts three-tiered,

we had

to stop the engines

and then

Once and again

and go half-speed

a time, to prevent the screw-shaft from suddenly put, as

it

sunset, things

heating,

but by

were got into complete working

and the good

homewards

trim,

was making permanent way

vessel

at the rate of nine knots

Gulf faint in

shore of the

an hour

drizzling rain falling,

with

;

extreme

tance, dark leaden-coloured clouds on every

blowing somewhat

for

had been, into rapid motion and

hard work after a week's perfect rest;

tumn

in

direction.

into the broad open waters beyond.

either

infal-

dis-

side

;

and a cold north-east wind

lazily

and thick

:

all this,

the

of the Eastern Baltic, whose present fluid

face is so soon to be sealed

up

au-

sur-

in the solidity

of

plains of ice.

I

The

Similar dark weather on the next day. dull in colour,

and

birds, are visible.

in its motion, too;

no

fish, no

Our ship meanwhile ploughs

her uniform way with the ever-whirling screw, casionally

passing

sea.

or oc-

an island, parti- coloured mil

Digitized by

Google

8T.

dark

The

fir,

515

and, at this season, yellow birch-woods.

saltness of the water

increasing

had

ALEXANDER NEV8KI, AND THE END.

and now,

;

is

gradually and steadily

—profiting so soon by what he

seen in the summer, and with the obliging

assistance of Admiral Fitzroy, the very able and

considerate Superintendent of the Meteorological

Department

of the Board of Trade,

—behold Captain

Steele also become a meteorological observer, zea-

lous and striving to the utmost after regularity and

He

extreme accuracy.

has an excellent way of

taking the hydrometric observations by the the

fall

rise

and

combined, (taken in a tubular vessel of such

slightly different diameter to the hydrometer's

bulb, that the usual bobbing up and scale in an open bucket,

is

down

changed into one slow

and almost uniform movement

of upwards or down-

wards, according as the instrument was put

deep or not deep enough)

;

own

of the

and

in too

his results at every

successive fourth hour in our direct Western route,

come

tonished before them himself.

" at

He stands "Why," says

out 2*7, 3*0, 32, 3*7, etc.

this rate,

when

there

is

as-

he,

thick weather in these

parts and no celestial luminary visible, I could get

my

longitude by a mere observation of the saltness

of the water."

Vol. I.*)

"

And

(See Physical Map, facing page

1,

then to think, he adds, " how

* Compare also pp. 35 and 87, Vol.

I.,

the Bcale reading of the

instrument in the open North Sea being somewhere between 28 0

and 29

0.

Digitized by

Ggpgle

THREE CITIES

51G

IN RUSSIA.

-

long and weary the days at sea always appeared

Now,

before I began to observe in this manner. there

always something to do, either looking

is

after the

thermometers to see that they are

in a

proper exposure, or trying to keep a note of everything remarkable taking place in the clouds, the or the water, so that

it

How

next observing hour. us last voyage

;

I

duly entered at

wish you had been

there were clouds of such

ordinary colour." at

may be

And

an

ally

the

with

extra-

was happy to go

so he

any length, in these matters of newly and

air,

on,

ration-

acquired interest.

Then, too, he would also regret that he had

begun

not

to record his Baltic experiences earlier, having

witnessed in that sea so

and hair-breadth escapes.

what he had looked

many remarkable

storm*

In those days, though,

to most,

and remembered

was always the danger more or

less to

the

best, ship,

rather than any abstract feature of meteorology:

the enormous deck-loads, for instance, which Baltic

merchants

will

crowd on their Baltic ships

cotton

;

bales standing on deck as high as haystacks, and

forcing therefore any sea that

may

vessel's stern to rush straight

down

room

make

at once, stop the engine,

break over

the

into the engine-

the ship

lie like

a log on the waters, get swamped, and then go

down; iron,

or,

enormous masses of cast and wrought

such as gigantic boilers and frames of

Digitized by

colos-

Google

Digitized by

Google

ST.

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

sal steam-engines, which, in spite of

all

517

the fas-

tening they received from the riggers in dock, break loose when the vessel begins to

roll in

a heavy sea,

and then carry death and destruction with them. They cannot be thrown overboard by the crew, these monstrous masses,

and

own

—they

are too heavy for that,

the bulwarks prevent them falling clear of their accord.

But then no bulwarks can long con-

tinue to stand the thundering blows of these tons

of iron rolling from side to side every few seconds

and

if

whole

from

the storm lasts long, the bulwarks and the sides of the vessel are actually beaten

its

when a wave breaks

deck, so that

away there-

upon, the water enters everywhere, battened hatches notwithstanding, and hull, and goods, and

the bottom;

maining as

much

then

safe

all,

him another and a

will

better,

for

and

on his captain loading the one he has,

above, as well as below deck, with

which

go to

on shore, insures the present vessel

as will build

insists

all

except the rich ship-owner, who, re-

all

that extra cargo

bring him, the owner, extra freight and

profit, if it arrives safe

;

and no

loss, if it

should un-

happily founder in the open sea.

The

third day shows similar dull weather

the valiant, well-built, and well-found

steaming steadily on in

its

'

;

but with

Edinburgh

Western course through

the profitless water of this really sunless sea, dark,

and sluggishlv smooth.

A poor goose on board,

one

Digitized by

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518

THREE CITIES

IN RUSSIA.

of a pair shipped at Cronstadt, being pelted to

him get

off the coal-heap, flies

overboard,

make

and

is

expected to go floating about for weeks, starving miserably, until he dies

;

no kindly shark exists

for

in this brackish expanse, to terminate quickly the

days of those poor helpless creatures,

who can no

longer find the means of keeping up a vigorous existence.

About mid-day the meter hanging

H metallic" baro-

indicator of a

in the chief cabin

began to descend

;

a most unscientific thing though, the metallic baro-

meter ; so no more notice as the

new

Kew

it

;

especially

Observatory, remains steady.

tea-time, mercurial barometer

metallic, its

taken of

Board-of- Trade mercurial barometer, duly

approved at the

At

is

going down.

What

temperature correction

is

still

can

steady

but

;

Oh

mean ?

it

changing, or something

of that sort, comes the ready answer.

At

eight p.m. metallic barometer

inches; mercurial

still

is

down

to 29*30

at or near 29*82 inches.

It

is

tapped, therefore, shaken, set swinging vehemently in its gymbols, sorts of

by

and kept steady

means used,

another, to

make

first it

in them,

and

by one observer and then

overcome any internal

tance, if such there be; but its reading

nently altered by any of them.

At

is

resis-

not perma-

nine p.m. metallic

barometer has sunk further to 29*27 inches. can be going to happen?

all

What

The answer given

digitized

out

by

Googl

ST.

as

it

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

were ex cathedra,

this new,

scientific,

is,

519

u nothing particular ;

or,

and highly approved Board of

Trade model mercurial barometer, which has hitherto

worked

so well in the voyage out, as well as in this

one home, would be sure So, on that

berths

;

to

show

it

assurance,

official

and there, listen

too."

we

for awhile to,

to our

retire

and almost go

to sleep over, the measured beat of the propelling screw-blades which

speed wherewith

through the

tells precisely

the ship

quiet,

is

and

perfectly the

pursuing

way

her

mere mill-pond water, without

sensible disturbance of any kind.

But

presently,

and the time turned out afterwards

to have been only 9 h. 30 m.

p.m.,

a hissing begins,

growing louder and louder every minute,

until it is

developed into an actual roaring, quite drowning the

sound of the

vessel's screw.

the steam?"

we

at first ask ourselves,

mediately answer, " No, tinues too long sort of motion

;

is

" Are they blowing

it

off

and then im-

cannot be that, for

con-

it

and then only see what an uneasy coming over the

ship,

and

increas-

ing every moment."

With

that,

we run

out on deck, and find a sud-

denly risen wind blowing violently from the northwest.

The

ship

is

positively staggering

although too, the watch

under

has hastily clewed up,

reefed, or taken in, the chief part of the sails this soon proves not to

it,

be enough, so

all

;

but

hands are

4

Digitized by

Google

THREE

520 called

up about

CITIES IN RUSSIA.

11 p.m., with the metallic barometer

at 29*25 inches, to

make everything there

are swept over rise

;

yet, nevertheless, the decks

and over again, by the waves which

up confusedly on every

Then

it is,

mines the

little

what

scientific

and not

extremely

it

at hand,

at

and nothing

The

which

pit, into

presently

it

noon

;

and

no danger,

says,

is

be feared

iu

it

metallic barometer however,

of rising out of the sharpits

readings had fallen

actually does rise

wind gradually veers north-north-east,

being extremely com-

at all particular to

little

now shows symptoms angled

its

but can get very

;

far different in its indications to

was showing

the weather.

on board again exa-

mercurial barometer, taps, and

other response, beyond

it

side.

that the non-sailor

swings, and plagues

fortable,

above

They do wonders of work

deck as snug as possible. in a short space of time

is

to

somewhat; while

north-north-west,

finally,

;

and the

north,

about one a.m., with

greatly abated strength, leaves a steady breeze only,

blowing at north-east; when

sails

more and everything goes on with

are spread once

propriety.

Sunrise next morning, shows, with fine weather,

though of that " grey" description so well understood in Scotland, the metallic barometer completely recovered from

ous evening

;

its

marked depression of the

previ-

but the mercurial has just sunk one-

tenth of an inch, as to the height of

its

column

Digitized by

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ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

ST.

and,

521

as to the estimation of the sailors, utterly

Bpite of

scientific reputation,

its

approval by the

Government

central

tried by Nature herself

for,

;

and the badge of

was

office, it

and found mise-

last night,

rably wanting.*

By

the afternoon of this day, both the Swedish and

Danish

shores

came

and showed the mild

into view,

influence of the West, in their deciduous trees being still

green, so unlike the yellow and orange

just

left

we had

behind, about St. Petersburg and the eastern

Baltic shores.

Lo

churches

too, the

!

* This case was altogether a very remarkable

u !

actually

and

one,

chief

its

facts were, I believe I

may

rendered, too,

more noteworthy, from the mercurial baro-

meter

all

the

in question being

were crossing the North very nearly,

if

the aneroid)

;

and

say, well

closely observed.

is

found by us two days afterwards, when we Sea, to be, at that time

and

in that place,

not quite, as sensitive as the " metallic " for,

It.

together with that one,

it

(a variety

of

then clearly indicated

several atmospheric variations which were no less transitory in their

duration, and sub-cyclonic in their character, than the storm or squall just described.

One

friend to

whom

I have mentioned this

experience, thinks that there are, though he cannot prove his idea, certain atmospheric disturbances depending on causes which do not

act on the cators

;

fluid,

though they do on the

solid,

metal barometric indi-

but another, suggests, that there was merely a bubble of air

in the twisted and contracted part of the fluid one's glass-tube it,

;

that

the bubble, had got into the corner, he thinks, just before the

Baltic storm, diately after.

and got out of

marine mercurial barometers tested,

it

again,

by passing upwards, imme-

That such accidents not unfrequently occur with ;

and render a

and found excellent both before and

single one,

after the

gerous to trust to alone, on any intervening occasion. explanation, verbum sap. to every sailor.

— though

voyage,— dan-

On

either

522

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

some of the beholders

like churches/'

are inclined

to say, because they see white buildings with

tall

Adieu, then, from this date, the

pointed steeples.

multitudinous golden domes of Russia

houses also have altered

but

:

!

The country

somehow

for

not

the better, for their smart and bright painted red

and staring white

roofs

none of the deep

walls, excite in one's

awe

or the

feelings, the respect,

which gradually yet inevitably

mind

affect one's soul

on

beholding further East, those dark, nature -stained,

and most solemn-looking dwellings of Russia's earnest millions of deeply believing people.

Vaulting over the waves, from Drago, the grass-green boat, with red-striped

Danish

pilot

;

and though

it is

now comes

sails,

of the

near sunset and the

weather dark, he begins to conduct the ship through the narrows. faint

Soon

lamps are

or earth.

all

Some

light-houses;

grows quite dark, and small

it

that remain to be seen in heaven

of

them turn out

but others, which

we

and away from mysteriously, mark where

lies close

by

which we cannot existence

of,

in

to

be distant

pass amongst

many a

place,

at anchor the three-masted ship,

see, or otherwise

so utterly black

is

even suspect the

the night.

Reaching Elsinore, however, safely about 8

p.m.,

blue lights are burned, the whistle sounded, a boat

comes

off for the pilot

;

and then away we go, con-

fident in the captain's skill, into the Cattegat Straits,

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by

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6T.

523

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

though wind and sea are every moment increasing,

and both barometers

A night,

falling.

and a day, and another night

still,

were

spent in battling with winds often dead ahead, and

with waves that rolled along

making the poor

ship labour

like giants at play,

and pitch from end to

end, more even than she rolled,

gat and Skager-rak were

Sea

left

but

—before both Catte-

behind, and the North

fairly entered.

Its appearance

was wild and somewhat mysterious.

Notwithstanding a low barometer, the wind was first east,

and then north-east ; and though blowing

out of that quarter with most extravagant force, yet the sky there was

clear, pellucid,

with a remote sunshine.

and even illumined

But along

and south-western horizons were of cumulo-strati banks, and to be raging near them.

all

the south

piled the darkest

terrific squalls

seemed

Continually through the

day,

did these treacherous and threatening signs

seem

to retreat before our advance, as

if

to induce

the ship to venture further and further from aid,

and

into the storm's

domination.

own

human

region of fury and

The more we looked

at,

the less

we

liked, those veritable forms of meteorological dark-

ness

;

great slate-coloured clouds, which from time

to time separated

from the dense ranks behind them,

and amidst discharges of gigantic torrents of slanting rain, strode

over the sea in curving paths, as

if or-

521

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

ganizing their forces for the ere long

come upon

fatal

By

us.

embrace that must

evening grown bolder,

these advanced masses began to surround the ship,

shutting out, even on the north-east side, the

low sheen of heavenly sky, with their mystic

last

circle

while at the same time the wr aves rolled in larger

and more confusedly; the barometers sank to 29 though the wind was

inches,

still

1

north-east; and

which

occasional lurches were given to the ship,

al-

most caused the ends of her yards to touch the water,

first

We

on one side and then on the other.

could not

evident

;

escape

much

two waterspouts, omens of

ill,

was

that

longer,

were seen

and presently, when the whole sky blackening

\

over,

suddenly anticipated sunset, a squall broke on the ship in fullest violence

;

hail

and snow partly swept,

partly covered the decks in swirling streams

the wind, cold to

almost

lifeless

the masts like to crack again with

;

and

numbing, made

its force.

Before long, however, the sun, then very low,

broke out from under the torn edge of a heavy cloud,

and with

its

diverging rays

a centre of crimson glory

;

made all the West

in front of

which

the

great foam waves went flying past and surging sheets of spray \

;

while the bowsprit of

in

the poor

Edinburgh/ was sometimes pointing high up above

all

the focus of radiating light, and again at the next

moment, down, down, towards a dark watery

depth.

Digitized

by

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But by

525

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

ST.

time the

this

hail,

with

the cold wind had passed by

;

all

the bitterest of

when immediately,

the moment," seemed to

say our sharp-

another

Mstislav-Vladi-

"this

is

eyed

little

captain,

like

mirovitch ; and calling to his brave but scanty crew, lie

ordered the

last reef, of the already

much

reefed,

fore-topsail to be taken in.

Out, at the

came the stout-hearted seamen,

call,

trampling in their Wellington boots through the

heaps of

—

hail laying thick

in boots,

inouzhiks

;

about the whitened deck,

and outside boots for Baltic

too, almost like

and North-sea winter

Russian

tars soon

learn to drop those thin low shoes which characterize their class in

warmer

at school think the

latitudes,

life

and make

of a sailor

must

little

boys

consist in

wearing pumps through the livelong day, and dancing perpetual hornpipes,

—out then came those de-

voted men, and before we, who were wretchedly shivering and almost helpless in the angry blast and tossing scene, can fully comprehend the whole occasion,

— there

are they, after having

lously of each

other,

up the

swarmed emu-

sea- swept

weather-

shrouds, distributed along the upper topsail yard, in

strong relief against the windy sky, pulling and haul-

ing at the appropriate

ties or points,

creasing the depth of the

which which

at this instant, it

stands,

is

sail.

and rapidly de-

That powerful

sail,

from the particular angle at

pictorially a centre of blackness

526

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

contrasting vividly with everything else,

all

round

about, reflecting, or transmitting the last rays of the

ruby sun,

—that wearied

scending to his happy reach, beneath the

rest,

which he so

(See Plate 4, Vol.

may-

other and

still

II.)

men

are soon proved

more

violent squalls,

captain's orders to his

salutary, for

well

vexed horizon of rolling waters

and breaking spray.

The

sun, just in the act of de-

with hail as well, strike the vessel again and again in the course of the night.

The

and pitching

rolling

of the ship, and washing of the waves over her deck,

become more hours

;

serious than ever, with the advancing

Elmo's lights are for a time seen on the

St.

mast-heads

and, at two a.m. comes another squall,

;

wherein, and

all

in the course of a few minutes, the

wind veers from north to north-east. blast, the

But

to west-south-west,

and then

after the passage of this circling

barometer shows a

rise of 0*05 of

an

inch,

and morning brings a comparatively steady, but

still

rather violent, north-west gale.

How

well both sailors and engine-men worked

through the whole of that trying night

!

Never

did

they allow the action of the steam-driven screw to cease

;

making was

and never, when the appointed hour his

the

meteorological observations had

excellent

captain

for his periodical call

for

arrived,

sensibly behindhand;

of " bring a bucket of water

here/' for the hydrometer, reached gratefully the

digitized

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ST.

occupants

ALEXANDER NEVSKI, AND THE END.

of the inner cabin, during lulls in this

many-sided storm ;

ever

527

giving

assurance, that what-

full

nerve, and presence of mind, and seamanlike

skill could do outside, would there be done.

On were

this

and

should be glad,

similar topics, I

more

there opportunity, to enlarge

to describe how the

;

as well as

ship, directed with skill,

and

energetically worked, again baffled fierce winds and

long

crested waves next

day

how chronometer

:

sights were cleverly obtained during a chance open-

ing

in the clouds,

fifty degrees

;

and when the deck was

rolling

and how, towards evening, the higher

Scottish mountains were faintly caught sight of in

the

west, white with

snow

;

by the

and,

last of

even-

ing's twilight, the vessel's head was found placed

as exactly as could be desired

for entering the very

How

middle of the Firth of Forth.

also,

by the

assistance of the Bell-Rock light, the Isle of

May

and others of the admirably planned works of our truly national Scottish " Board of Northern

light,

Lights,"

sons

—whose

for

engineers have been the Steven-

two generations,

—the

ship

was navigated

boldly on, and stopped not until her able captain

had brought her

safely,

at

the hour of midnight,

not only into Leith Roads, but up into Leith Harbour, and the very Victoria

wish to do

and

truly

tins,

because,

Dock

if it

of Leith.

were

I could

at all effectively

done by an actual eye-witness, the accoimt

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528

THREE CITIES IN RUSSIA.

must inevitably tend to show how gallant a captain,

and able a crew were

when

beloved countrv,

lost to their

the poor ' Edinburgh/ victim to a terrific storm,

foundered at night with

all

side the Firth of Forth,

and within only twelve short

months of

Want subject, it

this mercifully

concluded voyage.

of space, however, and consideration of the

warn

me

not to

make

the attempt.

Suffice

therefore, perhaps, to say in conclusion, that

my

readers should determine also to visit and

their

own acquaintance with

and people of Russia,

by

hands on board, just out-

sea, or

that remarkable empire

— then, whether they journey

by the railway which

year, (1862,

i.e.

if

make

is

be open

to

this

exactly one thousand years from the

advent of Varangian Rurik into Slavonic land), from the western edge of the Continent right on the whole

distance to far

Moskva

itself,

and wide, both at

may

—they

home and

will

have to

travel

abroad, before they

succeed in finding any more worthy, brave, and

devoted body of God-fearing, Christian men, or who deserve to be more kindly remembered survive, than the

by those who

modest Captain David Steele, and

the officers and crew of the late

'

Edinburgh/

iron

trading steamer out of the port of Leith.

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by

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528

INDEX TO VOL.

A.

Aberdeen polished

granite, 118,

12L Academician of Natural History, introduction to the, 213. , on the origin of Uralian gold, 219. , on the theory of the destruction of the mammoth,

230-249.

Academy's Museum, take the camera to the, 213. of Sciences, Pulkova the purposes of the, 169. to Moskva,

fulfils

Adieu

Admirals, two Russian, 344. Admiralty, English, head of the, 335, 336. Russian, head of the, 342, M3u African, South, idea of a butcher, ,

3L Airy's, Mr., explanation of the abnormal attraction of the

Himalayas, 247. Alexander, a faithful soldier servitor, 208, 20^ 280-282. Alexander column, 132, 363, 364.

Nevski cakes, description

—

of,

ILL

Emperor's transit to the shrine of, 105-109. i

;

the

steamer,

with

Schamyl on board, 510, 511. VOL. II.

II.

Alexei-Michaelovitch, father of Peter the Great, 66, 7^ 24 American question of longitude to be settled, 18& opinion of the English,

am

prairie soil, analysis 298, 299. Americans on the British coat of arms, 3S1L Amossor y or stove, 448. Anglican D.D. on the monastic system, 38, 39. Apples in Russia, 2G£L Archaeological discoveries in Norway, 464, 465. Archccologv of the Russian bath, of,

46^497. Archangel, denizens of the woods of,

63.

Architect, French, not admired, 359. 361. Architecture, suggested Indian, the Novgorod Belfry, 396. Arsenal, guns taken from ene-

mies and placed round the, Moskva, 67-70. Artist, St. Petersburg, in

Nov-

gorod, -109. Asia, Russia's glorious future for, 315. Asian liighland home, 458. Asiatics, last efforts of those once dreaded, 16. Astronomer, Imperial, instructs the opticians, 171.

2

A

530

INDEX.

Astronomer, returned from Kurt-

em

Bells,

Siberia, 1S6.

,

Astronomer's mole of drawing a conclusion, 3*>7.

409,420, Astronomv,

adieu to the St. Petersburg Professor of, 507. Atlantic telegraph, 1&8.

of,

71* her,

73. Be'.oi

kind invitation, 5. rate of iwv bv the English Go\ eminent, lsl. Russian, identified with duties of the ordinary Government, 181. 185. Astronomical phenomena well brought out bv a level country,

names

Russia celebrated for

Gorod, or White City, the

citizens' quarter, liL

Beresiua hotel at Novgorod, 388, Birch-tree twigs, Russian use o£

Bird, Mr., an English optician, 163.

Blackmore, Rev. R. W., on the doctrines of the Russian Church, 331, 283. Black soil region, com grown in the, 226.

Bogdanov, M., founder of the

B. Baltic, Eastern, in

autumn, 51

1,

515. experiences, 515, 517. mercurial, observa-

Barometer,

tions of, 517-520. metallic, observations

517-520. Barometers, reasons of,

why and

why

not affected, 521. Barrel-organ, self-acting, 28. Bashkir tribes, 220. Basil the Great, monks of Russia on the rides o£ 48* Bath, Russian, described, 193-

427. Battlement cd- walls and towers of the Kitaigorod, 14. Beard, on wearing the, 36-1, 365. Beef, Russian, 122. Beer, Moskva, 32^ Belfries in Russia always separate from the churches, "77^ 78. Belfry of Novgorod, 3U3. Bell, great, of Moskva, 7£L Bell-rock Lighthouse, difficulty in getting blocks of granite to build the, U9, Bell-tower of St. Sophie, view

from

the,

4Q2-1Q5.

on the Russian peasant mind, 71-77.

Bells, effect of,

Bolshoi Kolokol, 75. Bolshoi Kolokol, account of the, 73-76. Bonaparte's December bulletin, 314. Books, number of, published in St. Petersburg, 21iL Boots for Baltic and North-Sea winter sailors, 525. Boris Godunov and his son perish, 17.

hoped

to

make

the country his own, 12* in his reign serfdom began, 321, 325. ,

Botanic gardens in St. Petersburg, 282=28L Boulders, travelled, 392. Bourse, the, 134^ 2&L

Bowring's Russian Poets, 3236j 50-53, 255-259, 265.

Boy

selling apples, 63j 64.

Bovards, the, faithful to Olga, 376. Brandt, Dr., interview with, 217 -220.

on the tichorhinuS) 221.

JRhinoceroi

on the mammoth, 225.

Brass pieces of ordnance, 69. Bratislav, King of Bohemia, 423, Bread, rye, Russians fond of, 63-

Digitized by

Googl

INDEX. Brewster,

David,

Sir

broken

crystal of quartz, 300. Bridge, Dvorzoni, 208. Britain, Great, a lawyer-ridden country, 341. British Admiral's remark on rewards, 155, 156. Diffusion of Knowledge Society, 215.

Government

Ministers,

336-312. Bronitza, boulders on the liill of, 322, Bronze in the Kremle of Moskva, 20. Brougham and Vaux, Lord, 217. Bruloff, M., architect of Pul-

kova observatory,

172.

Bruni and tists,

Brulov, Russian ar124, 125.

Chopin's viows of the Mediaeval Tahtars, 385, 386.

Chronometer

sights cleverly ta-

ken, 522.

Chronomctric loops, adopted for longitude, 186.

Church of the Birth of the Virgin Mary, Moskva, 3. of St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Petersburg, 136.

———

of the Saviour in Moskva, 89-91 Churches of the Simeonovski Monastery, 46, the Kasogues of Circassians, Nestor's dav, 513, Circling storm, 526. Circus, equestrian at Paris, 30. Clarke, Dr., describes Minin as a butcher, 32*

——

on

Red Sea

the

miracle, 224.

C.

on the Russian bath,

496.

Cabbage soup, Caird, Mr., on

America, 296,

21)7.

Cambrian and

Silurian formaof the, 294, 225. number of, in the HerCameos, mitage, 123. Candles, votive, 28. Carbon, soft, importance of, to the Russians, 03, tions, fossils

Catherine, Empress, Bolshoi Kolokol recast under the, 23, Cattegat, straits of the, entered, 522, Cave, or Russian store-room, 198, 199. Celt, talk with a, 103-105. Celtic alarmist in liis element,

202=203. Chaldea, plains of, 409. Chochov, Andrei, ordnance founder, 67. Chodzko, General, 315.

Chouchkov bridge, 283. Chopin on the Russian struggles witli

on the Russian Emon the mammoth

29. prairie fanning in

the Poles, 19-21.

press's idea

remains, 223.

Clay abundant round Novgorod, 392, Climate, boreal, of St. Petersburg, 362. change, 3. ,

,

inveterate, 13.

Clouds remained masters of the skv, 1S1, Coach, great block, 3. Coldness of the air, sudden, 12. governors, Colonial Russian nobles resemble British, 324:.

Columns, granite, 122.

Comet of July, 1S61, observations of the, in Moskva, ID. Compromise, peculiar doctrine of the, 330, 331. Constantine, Grand Duke, an Englishman's opinion of the,

351. Conversation with youth, 97-100.

a

Russian

532

INDEX.

—

Coxe, Archdeacon, account boulders, 392* ,

on the bra-

zen gates of Novgorod,

——

,

of

2i!!L

residence of

Count Orlov Chesmenskii, 55* St. Alexander Nevski, 5QL Cromwell's invincible men, 266* Cuvier on the hedgehog, 217. i

,

JL Darwin, Mr., account of the Andes, 240. Da we, Mr., an English artist, 141. 14*L

Demidov, the

known,

earliest

Dome,

:

the Pidkova, 174, 175.

Dondoukov, Prince, 172, 178. Door-keepers, conduct of, at the Ivan Velikii, 81^ 82, 85, Dorpat, W. von Struve at, 168120* Donskaya, Mother of God, picture of the, 48.

Donskoi Monastery, 4ft-53. Dougas, arch over harnessed horses' heads, 160. D'Ouvaroff, M., 172, 127, Doves, flocks of, 28, 47. Drago, the Danish pilot comes on board at, 522*

Dragon-mouthed water-pipes,

a*

Drevhens, the, obedient to Olga, 322. . Drobovik, the gun, 6fL

289. Dentists' shops burg, 457.

in

St.

Peters-

E.

Devitchei Convent* account of the, 58-61. nine has churches, 5iL Folly or Virgin's Field, «

51, 55.

—

Nunnery, founded in ,

view of the,

strata, 103*

117. Diplomat, juvenile, conversation with, 97-100. Dir and Oskold not of Rurik's family, 474.

Diderot, library

of,

Dishes on which bread and salt were offered to the Emperors, 140,

and

his

"Moskva

rescued," 32-35, 102. Dmitrii, mother of, confessed to recognize her son, 12* Otrepiev pretended to , be the real, VL Doctor of Divinitv, sage English, ' 38. Dollen, M., 189. «

fete,

Castle, visitors turned

off certain batteries at, 66,

— *

88.

Dmitriev

an, at Moskva, 9* Edict* result of the recent as to the expected, 307.

Edinburgh

1524, 58, 51L •

Devonian

Earthenware, greenish glazed, 322* Earthquake, historical record of

Edinburgh,' good steamer,

352.

steamer, arrived Cronstadt, 502. ,

,

at

character

of the captain and crew of the, 52()-528.

on board

,

embark

,

experi-

the, 509.

mented with the free-revolver on board the, 343.

—

,

fate

of

the, 528.

der weigh,

,

gets

un-

5UL ,

loading of

the, 510* ,

on her homeward

sets

sail

voyage, 5LL

"Edwards, Mr. S., on Griboyedov, 218, 210.

Egyptian

civilization

began so

early, 457. granite

monuments, 362. Ekaterincburg, Imperial fac tory at, 202.

Elephant,

histpry of tho stuffed

museum, 218^22k Elevation and depression, well seen in European Russia, 2- IT?. Elizabeth, Empress, " Bolshoi Kolokol" first cast in the reign of the, 73. Elsinore, the pilot leaves us '->

at,

——

Emperor's name day, 103-105. English Admiralty, remarks by a Russian on the. 335. Colonel of Engineers' idea of the earth's changes, 2-17, 218.

— Government, the rate they pay their astronomers, 181. peasants, serfs have as much freedom as, 322. Equatorial towers, building of, 124.

•

.

Finland, Gulf of, contrasted in autumn with July, 508. Fire, danger should tho hotel take, 310, 320. Firth of Forth, vessel's head foiuid correct for entering the, 526. FitzRoy, Admiral, kind assistance of, 515. Fleming, Dr., of Scotland, the first to call attention to the difference between the Mammoth and the Elephant, 220, Food of the Russian peasants, CiL Fortichka, a little opening pane of glass, 306. ^ Fortress of St. Petersburg, 135139. Forest-producing region, 205. Fossils about St. Petersburg, 205. Free-revolver apparatus, 346350. progress in mak, ing a, 351. French invasion, a fearful thing is a,

85.

Furs, supply

from

of,

Erinaceus Europceus, or hedge-

2LL Examples of a

army,

invading pieces taken

field

the, 62.

13.

G.

hog,

marrying with

reigning family subjects, 471.

Galitsin, hospital established

by

Prince, 55.

Gallery of Generals in the

Win-

ter Palace, 14.1.

F.

" Falaisc,"

typo

Norman

of

Castle, 425, translation Farie's

of

Haxt-

hausen, 57, 155, 300. Fat, opaque, oil frozen in a night into, LL Fellow-travellers in tho railway, 96-100. Fete continued for three days,

on Nicholas Alexandrovitch coming of age, 200.

of Peter the Great in the Hermitage, 126=130. Garden, island, extensive, 2SJL

Galvanic Battery Company, Russian, 132, Gates, brazen, of Novgorod, 399. Geological discussion, 228-249. map of part of Russia, 205. Generals, French, 150. German nobleman's opinion of naturalized Germans, 462.

on Russian driving, 458.

2

A

2

534

INDEX.

German

races, 457.

German* creep

into other nations'

—

i

,

have no idea of colo-

—

,

,

Russia, 366, *,

in

pood things Russia come from them, all

460*

Germany, destiny of, 460. Gibbon on the Normans, 500. on the early Scandinavians, 485.

Gold,

effect of, 200.

Golden domes looked cold and steely, 13*

of Russia, adieu to the, 522. Golubtchik, 6L " Good Words " on the emancipation of the serfs, 331 Goose, fate of a, 518. Goroditche, formerly Slavenko,

m,

co-

on Russian baths, on

St. Alexander

14.

on understanding

36L on

village com-

munes, 333. Great Ladoga's Lake, 387. Russian foot soldiers, 266. peasantry, 266.

Greek-Romans, Emperor of

the,

383. Greeks, the, compelled to keep the treaty made with Oleg, 47JL Greig, Admiral, 172* Greschov, the learned Astronomer, 163. Griboyedov, a Russian Ambassador to Teheran, 218. Guns and bells, 62. Drobovik and Yedinorog, ,

,

Slarai, or the site of the little old city, 432. Gostinoi D vor of theKitaiGorod,

taken by the Russians, 67-

20*

Guarenghi, completed the mitage, 120. Guinevere, Queen, 489.

Iler-

Novgorod, 402.

,

Government

on monolith

Nevski, 502*

loved Fatherland, 450. naturalized or not, , think

on Mr. Dawe's

lumns, 363.

4m nization, 458.

knout,

engagement, 142,

Germanizing every reigning family in Europe,

the

318*

colonies, 458. 1

on

Granville, Dr.,

savant afraid to go to Moskva, 36iL 370.

Offices inside

the

Kremle, 305. Qradska'ia dooma*, a town mu.

nicipality, 233.

Grand- Duke

Constant ine,

de-

scribed, 345^ 346j 351. , Teutonic term, 472. Granite columns of St. Izak, 361-363.

, working 120,122.

Granville,

Gardens,

2&L

Dr., St.

of,

in Russia,

on the Botanic Petersburg, 284-

II.

Hanseatic trade, 391. Hansen's tables of the moon's motions, 186. Haxthausen, Baron, on farming statistics in Russia, 300, 301. , on the battle of Jena, 313* , on the Plotniks in Moskva, 56j 52^ -* ,

on the

Tchornozem, 242.

Digitized by

Google

535

INDEX. Hedgehog, names by which is

the,

known in different countries,

214-217. Hedgehogs, collating Russian, 214. Helena Glenskaiva, mother of Ivan the Terrible, 14.

—

—

,

Olga, baptized, 380.

Hermitage, Palaco of 130.

the,

114-

photographical visit , to the, 273-279. the, Second Catherine's lordlv work, 130. Hero and Ariadne, British naval ,

ships, the, .3 18.

ten,

Hydrometric observation, 515.

L

,

of a vacillating na-

ture, 481.

Imperial place of sepulture, 138, 139. Inauguration of Pulkova Observatory, 175.

Indo-European origin of Russians, 455. Inductive science, application of, to the six days of creation, 22IL Influence of local attraction, 6. Inokhodtsov, M., built an Ob-

servatory,

Ififi.

little, 38IL Interruption, sudden, 506. Instrument-piers, excessive firmness of, 1 73. Insurrect ions in Canada, etc., 316. internal, divided , Russia, lfL Ireland compared with Poland,

30ft-314,. Isvostcliik, clever, 390, 401.

Ivanovskaya Kolokolnya, destroyed by Bonaparte, 80j 8L Ivan, "sacred scribe, writer of the Stair," 28. Ivan Velikii belfry, injured by

Napoleon, 80.

Iakun, a blind but brave Varangian Prince, 413, 415. Iberian disturber of the peace, 318. guest, 315.

tower, description of the, 78-81. Iverskava Chapel, worshippers at,

28 mother,

Iberianus, M., describes members of the British Government,

remarks on the Russian Government, 334, 33.5. Igor, King, defeated in his ex,

pedition to the coast of Asia, 481, 482.

entrusted with the , Government of Kiev, 477. ,

made a new

483.

Jackdaws, 307. James, Mr., pictures of the destruction of Moskva, 86. Jena, battle, 313. Jouberts, Marshal, 151.

treaty

with the Greeks, 482. married Olga, 482, ,

3.

J.

335-341.

—

at Koros-

37^

Interpreter, fairy

Herschel, Sir William, reflecting telescope, constructed by, 16 L Hintze, M., intendant at Pulko va, 507, 509. Holy Mother Moskva, the Poles' cruelties in, 262* Hotel, a crowded, 200. Hubner, M., Cronstadt astronomer, 509. Humboldt, his explanation of the mammoth problem, 224.

«

murdered

Igor, King,

rapid

rise.

millet,

eggs,

K. Kasha, or boiled etc., etc.,

63.

536

INDEX.

Kasogucs, old descendants of the, still remain, 51 :{. Kensal Green, granite tombstone

Kremlc, Moskva's sacred, 83, what it means, 475. ,

119.

at,

Kertch, why not represented in the Hermitage, 1 1 7. Kettle, a regular Western, 136. Kiev, founded bv Kii, a Polish or Leekish Chief, Oleg removed the seat of Government to, 477. KhosreH'Mirza, a Persian Envov, 218. Kitai Gorod, the Chinese part of the citv, 14. has a goodly collection of golden domes, LL historically the , people were to be found in ,

—— the,

,

UL

Knout, the Russian, 318. Kolokol Vetchevoi of Novgorod, Korosten, Drevlien city

—

of,

374.

Kosaks of the Don, 264. 265. - of the Ukraine, origin of the, 262-264. Koucliclev-Besborodko,

Koulikov, battle

of,

Count,

on the Don,

4&

L. Labanoff, Count, * Les Lettres de Marie Stuart,' 276, 277. Ladoga, rafts of timber from, 134. Land question difficult, 327322. Lamote commenced building the Hermitage, 120. Leuchtenberg, Duke of, 176. Levesque, on the Poles pillaging

Moskva, 18. Lightning conductor, a portable, 187.

frequent in Russia, 1S7.

Limestone changed by heat a crystalline marble, 10.

into

Litsven, battle of, 411, 4.14-41 Local attraction affects equally

geographical geology, (L

astronomy and a

new and rather

strange matter, 6-1 2.

Longitude depended on lunar distance measure, 186.

Lord of Session

in Edinburgh, a late lamented, 96, 92. Louis Napoleon, Mister Presilike

Krasnaya-Plostchad contains the monument to Minin and Po-

dent, 30.

Quatorze, winter

jarskii, 23. 1

wandered

Lucifer-matches,

over the, 94.

——

Kremlc, a central, in Moskva, 1IL

and Kitai Gorod

—

in their

palace,

style of, 131, 132.

procuring

302-305. Ludbrat, King of Sweden,

of,

169,

duality, 15.

—

compared

germ,

—

—

,

to a botanical

LL antique cannon in the,

65.

description of photo, graphing in the, Go± GIL golden domes of the, 13. , , historically the sovereign was to be found in the, UL or treasury of , museum

—

the, 65.

Lyall, Dr., on the Countess Orlov-

Chesmenskii, 57, 58.

———

dedication

Church begun on Sparrow Hills, 93, 9±L the

Russian

of the

bath,

496. translation of inscription

on the gun Drobovik, 6fL on the Vetchevoi Ko-

lokol, 323.

Digitized by

Google

INDEX.

mammoth, 223. Mammoth, arrangements

to pho212=221. found on the Lena, in Siberia, 220. ,

the,

the frozen, 213.

Mammoths, many remains of the, in the museum, 221^ 222.

——

,

regions of their ha-

from

remains, an Emconclusions deduciblo

of,

Siberian,

destruc-

22L

circle, spider lines of, 5, Metals, geological ages of, 291, 293, 2M. Michael Phedorovitch Romanov, chosen by the people to reign, 22. — from, flows the present Imperial line of Russia, 23. Michaelovitch, Alexci, 359. Military performances at religious services, 112. Milner's, Rev. T., Russia, 1856, ,

\^ of,

Minin-Kozma a

—

287-289.

de-

Monument

to

of

how dwarfed,

Minin and Po-

2^

24, Monuments in the Donskoi, 50. Murchison, Sir R., geological map of Russia, 292. on the Altai

mountains, 227, 228.

on the elevation and depression of land, 245, 246.

on geological deposits in Russia, 12. on Southern Siberia, 24£L

on the Tchor-

not sufficiently no-

Holy Mother, in the hands of the Polish soldiery,

inspired the 2L.

,

19.

ticed, 35, 36.

Mining, art of, successfully carried out in Russia, 289. Ministers, British

Missal of Mary,

inquiry into the latitude of, 6.

Government,

336-342. Mint, Imperial, 136,

religious observances,

deviations of the direction of gravity in, 1SL local

Queen of

character

its

356, Scots,

271-279. 416,

in Russia, 48. Montferrand, M., architect St. Izak, 359.

citi-

real patriot, 21*

22.

Mstislav,

Simeonovskii,

,

scribed, 45-47.

churches, interior of the, 360, 361. compared with St. Petersburg, 36a

.

rise,

53.

nozem, 241-243. Moskva, adieu to,

effected his object,

zens to

son of Vladimir the

Monasteries and monasticism, 38. Monastery, Donskoi, important as a place of sepulture, 48-

jarsku,

Meridian

Mines, school

,

Great, 411.

Monoliths, greatest, 203.

the, 223, of Siberia, 157, ,

tion

, his generous conduct to his brother, 41 fi.

Monks

bitation, 226=236.

press's

Yaroslav,

ILL

Macleod, Dr., on the Siberian

tograph

conquered

Mstislav

M.

of,

411-

Observatory instrumentroom, 5. rescued, 32-35.

538

INDEX

Moskva, pelf-sustaining

qualities

Emperor, mode of drawing a couelusion, 366.367.

Nicholas,

of the people visible iu, 356, a&z, symmetrical arrange-

——

the, 142.

ments of, peculiar, 13. Mouzhiks, Emperor's entertain-

ment

proposed an

,

Observatory near

to the, 209, 211. described, 203-205.

burg, 168.

—

w

-

an

,

wonderful work

of

Museum

or Treasury, 65.

—

on the completion of the Observatory, 177-170.

old, 3G_L

Nizhni- Novgorod, inhabited by a truly " great Russian " population,

N.

•,

Noble Napoleon Bonaparte could not comprehend the Russians love for their Emperor, 262. 1

————

Pojarskii, 22. race, its decline and

Norman

appearance in the centurv, 500.

— easily con-

£L

citizens of,

conduct of Minin and dis-

thirteenth

quered Prussia but not Russia, 260,261. where he was ready to fight tho Rus-

Normandy in France, the Normans establish themselves in,

sians, 92.

North Sea

Napoleonic genius, seductions

of,

68.

Naryshkin's

monument

at

St.

Alexander Nevski, 127. Natural science, 280. Naval leader, Russian, 342. Neglinaya garden, arid, 64. Nestor, the old faith fid Russian chronicler, 382, 41^ 474. account of St. Andrew, 430, 431. of Yaroslav, 412. Neva's queenly stream, 387. Nevski, Alexander, stood up and saved the nation, 501. Prospckt, scene in the, ,

*

107. Nicholas Alexandrovitch, ing of age of, 200.

races, sent abroad, 42(1

4fiL

^

the, of the present day,

Norwegian

Emperor, gifts to the Commissioners of the Pulkova

Norwich pamphlet in

gilded statue

store-

bv,

Paris, 264,

267.

Nova Zembla,

194.

Novgorod, 355. arms of the ,

394, 395. -, ancient

am

— ——

Kremle

city

of,

walls, 390.

-

built

of,

Kremle

, brazen gates of, cussion on the, 399-401

and

dis-

inhabited

by true Russians, 432. f

,

5&L

464.

Observatory, 178.

—

other

Norwegians, language spoken

,

of the, 160.

and

baths, 497-1-99.

-,

com-

fairly entered, 523,

storm in the, 523-526. Northern Lights, board of, 527. Norway, something wanting in ,

commerce ~~

transferred w —— *

to St. Petersburg from, 426,

427.

inspected the

Pulkova Observatorv, 176.

conversations

in, 408j

etc., ete.

Digitized by

Google

5S9

INDEX. K"ovgorod, dissuasions going to, 368-371. ,

drive

against

tlirough, 406,

4QZ* ,

—

lions of, 389.

old proverb of, 368* proof of its great age, 427, 428. Rurik establishes himself at, 424* size of, 424-428. , taken by the Swedes, ,

Olga, Queen, death, and canonizing of, 488. grief at the death of her husband, 375, 326* origin of, 378, 482, f 483.

Regent during her

,

,

,

UL

—

,

the grivna

,

thunderstorm

i

ofj

420. at, 110,

411* Nyenitsi, or the dumb, 314.

O.

son's minority, 378. retired

from

the

Regency, 486. visits Constantinople, 329* Optical definition tryingly bad,

190-192. Orischinsky, M., on the emancipation of the serfs, 331* Orlov-Chesmenskii, Count, residence of, 55, 56* , Countess, account of the, 57, 58*

Oskold and Dir establish themObservations attempted at Pulkova, 187-192. Observing rooms at Pulkova, building of, 17 1. Observatory at Moskva, physics of the situation of the, 8, 9. at Pulkova, account of the building and inaugurating the, 169-175. ,

the

Empress and Grand Dukes visit the, 170.

Oil shops in Moskva, 13, 62,

—

sunflower and Unseed, 63. Oleg, account of the death of, 480, and Igor excellent friends, 481. brother-in-law of Rurik, ,

and Regent

for Igor, 476. greatlv extends the Russian

Empire, 477-479. Olga, Queen, at the tomb of

selves at Kiev, 474.

P. Palaces and heroes, 114. Pallas, Professor, his opinion on the Mammoth, 219. Palestine, mountains of, 409. Parrot, M., drew up a plan for an observatory, 167. Passports of (a.d. 944), 482.

Patchwork in a granite column condemned, 121. 122* Pavonik t a Russian head-dress, 203* Payen, M., analvsis of the Tchornozem, 298, 299* Peasant, a young, described, 44)4 -406. Peitch, a Russian stove, 448.

Penny

Cyclopaedia, 215*

Permian period, 293. Perune, a Pagan Deity of Russia, 482*

Igor, 322*

becomes a

Chris-

Petchenagues lav siege to Kiev

besieges the city of

(a.d. 968), 482* Petchcrski, Monastery of, 410, Peter the Great attempts to

tian, 380, 381*

Korosten, 374.

510

INDEX.

Westernize his

—

people,

364,

365. for

im-

provement of monasteries, 40-43.

etc.,

,

-,

——

-130.

made

,

edict

gallcrv of, 12 tj

reforms

his

the laws

difficulties in

of serfdom, 326, 322.

——

,

turning

his

machines, 129, ISO,

Greenwich Observatory, 179. 180 visits

Peter Veliki originated the idea of astronomical surveying, 185. Petrushka, a serf on obrok, 104.

Phedor Ivanovitch, lfL

Polar regions, 194. Pole star, 347, 348. Poles, a general amnesty to all convicted, 307. alwavs troublesome to Russia, 262. and Russians compared as soldiers, 317, 318. in the Crimea, 315. Irish compared with the,

30 8-3 14. take Moskva, 18. Kremle's Polish usurpers in royal halls, 3A Politics, somewhat of, 302. Pottery stalls, 392. Polyeuctes, the holy patriarch, 380.

Phedorovitch, Michael, first of the Romanov Sovereigns, 16,

Practical

Photograph,

Prairies

leave to,

difficulty in getting

Queen Mary's

Missal,

Pictures bv Bruni and Brulov, 124, 125. in the Hermitage, 123-

126.

Russia,

in North America resemble Tchornozem of Russia,

296. Praga, 315-317. Pratt,

Archdeacon, on the

at-

Himalayas,

the

of

traction

242. the

in

Winter

Palace,

141-145.

Danish, 521.

the, in Russia,

trian, 69.

Pulkova,

189.

of,

of,

in

on

Pussian guns merged into Aus-

Novgorod, 305.

Pirogas, a Russian dish, 29. Platov, death of, 265. Pleiades, occultation of the, 187-

Plumbers

Press, remarks

333, 334.

Pigeons, 306. Pi]igriins in

Pilot,

astronomy in

120.

Moskva,

,

to be

founding

free-revolver

made

———-

difficult to

Pojarskii, Prince, called

,

161-172. ,

account for in Russia, 8, 9. Podolsk, birthplace of Helena Glenskaiya, 14. Poetry, a world of, the Greeks had beneath their feet, 249.

director

m

5.

Plumb-line, causes of the deflection of the, in Britain, 7, 8.

hill of, 169, Observatory,

,

,

ordered

349-351. observing at, 347. revolving dome at, at,

174,

175. ,

soldiers of, 345, 346.

R.

by Mi-

nin to take command, 22. Poland, impracticable kingdom of, 3 10. Poland, old serf law of, 32L

Rain

in

Moskva,

Reflecting circle Martin, 180.

4.

by

Pistor and

telescope presented by

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INDEX. III. to the Empress Catherine, 164. Revolving domes, buildingof, 174. Rood of deep dry sand, 44. Rodedia, a Kasogue chie£ 513.

George

Romanov

cluefs,

civilization

541

Russia, no middle class of people in, questioned, 332, 333, people of, not becoming German, 471. prepare to leave, 507. , snow a blessing to, 260,

Roumovsky

transcends Greece and in columns, 122. Russia's glorious future for Asia, 315.

— —

people, remembrance of the dwellings of, 522. Russian, a, remarks on the head of the £nglish Admiralty and

under, 02. nice inherits an appreciation for astronomy, 179.

succeeded Grischov astronomer, 163-167.

Rurik and

Ids successors, 4T>H.

a Scandinavian, 463.

— came to

Russia (a.d. 862),

UML

———

—

Rome

Government

335-

ministers,

died (a.d. 879), 476. direct descendants of, 62,

342.

how he came

both in summer and winter, 451-453.

to

a,

,

govern

Russia, 4^9-475. reigning line under, 16* 18.

abiding loyalty characof the true, 185* astronomers at Pulkova,

,

,

Rurik's wisdom and justice in governing, 472, 47.3. Russia, a secret to the rest of

teristic

343.

bath

mankind, 21fL always separate from the churches in, 77j 28. ,

—

belfries

celebrated for bells, 23. divided by internal in,

described,

493-

492. beef, 492.

names of, how ori-

bells,

ginated, 71, 76, 22,

black horse described,

surrections, 1£L ,

man

self-supporting

earthquakes rare

206.

in, iL

geological map of, by Sir R. Murchison, 292, , hedgehogs numerous in,

boats on the Volchov, 386, 382.

214.

359.

history of, a whirlwind of troubles between 1591 and 1618, lfi. how behaves, when abused bv Western writers, 319. ,

humiliation, complete

of,

5oa.

invaded by the Poles and Swedes, 18, 19, kernel of future progress in, 453-455. lightning frequent in, 1 87

—

Lord High Admiral

of,

interview with, 342-351. ,

Monks

of, all

on the

rules of Basil the Great, 1£L

VOL.

II.

architecture,

churches

now

painted

and emblazoned, 365. civilization began

re-

cently, 457,

couple,

ance with 268.

make

an

acquaint-

elderly,

250-

friend, extract of a letter

from

a,

—

10. glass,

or

talc,

new

use

of, 6.

historian's derivation of

.

,

church

the

name Kitai-Gorod,

14.

lady promoted the idea of our visiting Novgorod, 370, 371.

2 B

542

INDEX.

Russian -272.

ladies' conversation,

270

Russians and Poles compared soldiers, 31^ 318.

—

land sublimely flat, 189. longevity, 441, 442. map of the city of

Moskva, 14. Mouzhiks, dentition

dences, 4£L

history

winch they national dances, 210. nationality,

a

early

love, 84.

have no love-sick

——

true,

sigh-

ing for Fatherland, 459.

amongst the people, 19.

- have a talent for administration, 332, 333. idea of winter, 255-

naval leader, 31^ as reported in English papers, 313. 314. north-east wind at Moskva, 122. peasants described, 203 -205.

news

1

do not like their known, 100

fond of decorating that

of,

452,

——

as

belief in special provi-

259.

mode of manifesting national feeling, 459. undoubtedly a young people, 45iL

understand the great

Empire

as a whole, 20V).

self-government, 328-330. people,

make a

closer

acquaintance with true, 866. poetry, recent, 457. professor, letter from, 330. 331. - rooms of entertainment, 269. 270. sehool of mines, 287-

S.

Saint Alexander

—

Nevski, born

(a.d. 1220), 503. died

in the monastic habit, 502. ;

——

of, 5Df>.

justice,

,

serfdom, tangled ques-

—

Veliki

Kniaz, of Vladimir, 505,

—

o£ 320. society, 250.

was a

great warrior, 502.

soldier of Nestor's day,

St.

443-

St.

453.

Andrew, baths

existed

in

Russia in the time o£ 492, 41)7. stoves described,

450.

Elmo's

lights,

526.

St. Izak, cathedral of, 357-3r>0. flues

communi-

cating with, 173. supper, 259, 260, tea, genuine, 113* , troops at afete,206,207. «

treat-

,

ed the Tahtars with 502-505.

281).

tion

per-

,

sonal appearance

village

on

,

on St.

winter, severity of a, friendly at-

tention, 388. Russian's allowance of food in harvest, 63.

dome, amount of

posi-

gold

the, 358.

John

church

fire, 1)5^ lifL

440,441.

woman's

church, isolated tion, 362, 's

the of,

Precursor,

the

60.

Peter and St. Paul, visit to the church of, 138, 139. St. Petersburg, western denizens St.

of,

,

in,

199,

change of costume

543

INDEX. St. Petersburg, Government-erected churches of, 357. start from, 507. St. Sophia of Novgorod, 393^ 394. ,

interior

,

of,

3£L named

,

after St. Sophia of Constantinople, 396.

the bra-

,

zen gates

398-401.

of,

Samoyede, frozen ,

the

plains of, 194. natives, their ideas of

mammoth,

226.

Sanctification, office of the greater

and

lesser,

102L

Sansan, fossil remains found at, 248. tSaraphan, a piece of Russian dress, 203.

Savant 8 should be eminently patriotic,

ISA

280.

opinion of

Ger-

many and Germans, 460-46 1.

— —— —

Sagas, language of

the,

Norman,

versatile

character of the, 466. Scandinavians, original, came through Russia, 465. Schehalben, Mount, deviation of the plumb-line near, 1XL Schamvl, account of, 512* Schweitzer, Professor, his colli-

matmg

,

his ideas

on the deflection of the Moskva

Shepherd, Scottish, reading Homer, 2dtL Shores, Swedish and Danish, in view, 521. Schubert, M., of brilliant power in physicial science, 167. Shuiskii ascends the throne on Otrepiev's overthrow, 18. Shutters for an Observatory, 174,

12k Siberia, stoves in,

448-450.

Siberian cedars, 45. weather, 63. Science and Literature,

Simeonovsku Monastery, 45-47. view from the, 4Vj ,

48.

Slavenko, old name for Novgorod, 432. Slavonian stove baths, geographical distribution ot, 497, 498. Slavonians as a human family, 457. Slavonic policy, understanders of, 2Qfi.

Sledge, Queen Olga's (shown in a.d. 1091), 382.

9, 1£L

Smolnoi church, 360. Snow in September, 194-196. Sobore Pokrovskoi, 353. Social extremes, 321. Soltikov swivels, 81.

Scotland, questioned as to the literary men of, 307.

Sparrow

saltness

how paid,

Silurian, upper, 193.

Scotsman newspaper, on a book which belonged to Queen Marv,

Sea,

translation

Slobodi or suburbs, 44.

eye-piece, G.

Observatory,

20X Shatrov, Bowring's of, 265.

182.

Savitch's, Professor, Observatory,

Scandinavian

Semiramis of the North patronizes astronomy, 164, 165. Serfdom, Russians talk freely about, 321-331. Serfs, talk about freeing the,

of

the

Baltic,

515.

Semenovski Church, 109-111.

Soul-warmer, 203. Hills, address on laying the foundation of a church,

93^94. ,

visit to the,

feelings

of the

French army, when standing on the, 90-92.

544

INDEX

Sparrow

view from the,

hi!-,

I

Starovertsi (old believers), 205, 206. S tehee, or cabbage soup, 2^ 29. Steele, Captain David,

become a

Sviatoslav, birth of, 48ft. , cliaracter of, 481—190.

—

Christianity,

,

son of Queen

Olga,

376, 381.

meteorological observer, 515. ,

rejects

,

382.

,

his wars, 486-489.

remarks

525-528

on,

Steinheil,

form of collima-

Dr.,

ting eye-piece, (L Steppe plains, grass

grows abun-

dant lv on the, 296, Stevenson, Robert, quaint book

Hi

by,

Stevensons, engineers for the Board of Northern lights,

T. Talc,

new use

oi, 6.

Tahtar Ambassadors, killed by Russian Princes, 5Q4. messengers protected by Alexander Nevski, 505. Tambov, over the steppes of, 63. Tehornaya ludi or Black people, y

Stones, scanty supply gorod, 392.

of,

at

Nov-

Storms, cyclonic, described, 518— 520, 522-526. Stoves, lighted, 193, 43fL 8trelntisit towers for archers,

205.

Tchornozem, analysis of, 202. a black earth, 22& Telamones, giant of the Nortli, ,

115. Telescope, steadying

a,

at sea,

343 Strelna, Palace of, 313-315.

Stretenka,

or

Blacksmith's

bridge, 25.

Otto von, met at Strelna, 344-351 , W. von, account of, 161, -,

Temperature, changes in

Russia,

violent, 173.

Teutonic champion for the Germans, 163. knights of the sword, 19.

Thermometrical observations

162.

appointed an , academician, 170. experience in an Observatory, 170-175. interview with the Emperor Nicholas, 108. Subterraneans of the Pulkova Observatory, 172, 123. Suvorov, a Fin, but naturalized a Russian, 1 15. , character and history of, ,

,

145-159. different from the Roor Corsican genius, 1 56. discourse under the trigger, 150. on three talents in war, ,

man

,

,

150-1 54,

at

oil-shops, 44, 62.

Time required- to photograph the mammoth, 22JL Tower of the Waters, blown up by the French, 85* Towers and gateways of the Kitai Gorod, 1A Tonn, M., arclutect of the Church of the Saviour at Moskva, 89.

Topographical corps educated at Pulkova, 185. Trahtiers or tea shops in Moskva, 25-32. Transactions of the Societv of Antiquaries in Scotland, 282. Transitions of Varangian Princes into Russian nobility, 506.

INDEX.

Silurian, near Pulkova, 193. Tsar Kolokol, or King of Bells,

Vladimir, town of, siege of the 504. Village in flames, 95j 96. Virgin Mary, church of the birth of the, 3.

70-73. Tsaragrad, Court of, 379. Tver, a promosing site for manu-

an elderly Russian couple, 283. Visnievskv, M., famous in diffi-

stations

about

deflected, 8, 9. Trilobites found in the

upper

Trigonometrical

Moskva

Visit to

cult telescopic observation, lfi7.

factures, 99.

Vodka, 26.

U. Dmitri

Ukase

murder of

supposed

Uglitcli,

at, 17.

expected, 2Q1.

Upsal, Rurik

bom

at (a.d. 830),

469. Ural, mining sites on the slopes of the, 289. mountains, 292-294.

Voelcher, Professor, analysis of prairie soil, 297^ 298. Volchov river, at Novgorod, 390,

—

—

,

,

,

villages

Volchovah, town

Varangian, conversation modern, 498, 499.

of a

wild heroes, 4 73. Varangians expert in building, 425. Vases, establishments for cutting and polishing, 292. ,

two

in the

on the

banks, 373, 387.

V.

,

embarked

steamer on the, 372. produce on the banks of the, 384. steamer, dress of the s lilors on board the, 385.

colossal granite, 135.

founded the

Vassilii Ivanovitch

Bevitchii Nunnery, 59. Vassilievitch,

(in 139G,)

accompanied a holy procession, 59, Veliki Kniaz, equivalent to King,

sian from the German, 4-fifi. Vladimir the Great, adorned the

from the, 1 3 L Voltaire's library, 117. Etoile du Nord,

13L

Volunteers, history for, 313. Voice, the cold of Russia frequently affects the human, 192, 193,

Vorobeevya Qora Hills, 85,86.

or Sparrow

t

Vorotui, or gates, 84.

Voyage from Scotland

to Cron-

stadt, 343.

added his own, 422.

gates of St. Sophia, 398, 399.

how ho managed the Varangians, 420, 4£L

described,

Volga, banks laden with grain

Vsevolod, the

472. Versatility distinguishes the Rus-

of,

373,374

Prince

first

father's

name

who

to his

w.

,

Walk, an

dation of St. Sophia, 398. succeeded his

hour's, in the solemnity of night, 91^ 95. Warsaw, 315. Watchman soldier, 195.

father Sviatoslav, 490..

Water

laid the foun-

—————

superintended the destruction of idols, 31)7.

VOL.

11.

pipes in Moskva, 4, 5.

of Russian houses

434,435. 2 C

INDEX. omens of

Waterspout**,

ill,

Wax

Yaroslav, a son of Vladimir the Great, 41L

candles, votive, 28.

Wavsand means of life in

Westminster Abbey, a monument 53.

Whiten the

interior of Russian

churches, 365.

Wind, character of a Russian north-east, 194.

W ilson, r

successful warrior, 417. divides his kingdom

Russia,

434. in,

Y.

52_L

Waters, greater and lesser sanctification of the, 109-112.

Dr. Erasmus, on

the

hot-air bath, 495. Winter, fear of being caught by,

254. , preparations for, 196-

amongst

his sons,

had the Bible translated into Russia's vernacular, IIS ; his cliaracter, 412, 413. fight a-, his children

other, 423, 424. married his familv into reigning powers, 418. Vsevolodvitch, father of Alexander Nevski, 503. peasantry, 35, 37, 254. Yedinorog gun, (ML

mongst each

200. palace, exterior of the,

Z. •,

interior

of the,

, views from the, elective, 132, 133, -,

down

ing

Wood of,

whole

city troop-

to the, 202.

storing, ingenious

method

—

houses esteemed whole-

some

in Russia, 56. Worshippers at the Iverskaya

Chapel,

—

tion of, 2fL

391,392.

Wooden

Zemlianoi boulevard, 48^ 54. Gorod, external to the Beloi Gorod, 15. ^— means the earthen town, lfL Zhukovsky, Bowring*s transla-

2&

's

poem

of SvaHlana,

256-259. Zimisces, Emperor John, attacks Sviatoslav, in Silistria, 4&9.

THE END.

JOHW EDWARD TAYLOR, PRINTER, QURRK STRRET, LINCOLN'S INK FIELDS.

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