provinces. These are generally presented upon some great national occasion to crowned heads. There are also fine collections of sables and other furs, many of which are annually sold.

As I have mentioned these tributes, it may be proper here to observe, that the imperial revenues chiefly arise from the poll tax, the crown and church lands, the duties on export and import, profits of the mint, the excise upon salt, the sale of spirituous liquors, post-offices and posting. The proprietors of houses, as well natives as foreigners, pay in lieu of all other taxes, and in discharge from the odious burthen of maintaining soldiers, to which they were formerly liable, a duty of onehalf per cent. ad valorem, upon the house, and a ground rent which varies according to local advantages, for every square fathom.

Of course, I did not leave the capital without seeing ZarskoZelo, the most magnificent of the country palaces, about twenty-four versts from Petersburg. The entrance to it is through a forest, under a lofty arch of artificial rock, surmounted with a Chinese watch tower; after which we passed a Chinese town, where the enormous imperial pile, consisting of three stories, one thousand two hundred feet long, opened upon us. It was built by Catherine I.; embellished and barbarously gilt by Elizabeth, and greatly beautified and mo

dernized by the late Empress. Amongst the numerous rooms fitted up in the style of ancient magnificence, the amberroom, a vast apartment, entirely lined with pieces of that valuable fossil bitumen, presented by Frederic William I. to Peter the Great, but not put up till the reign of Elizabeth. One of the pieces of amber expressed in rude characters, by its veins, the year in which it was presented.

The apartments, which Catherine has fitted up and embellished, display the highest taste and profusion of expence; the floor of one of these rooms was inlaid with mother-of-pearl, representing a variety of flowers and elegant figures; but I was most pleased with her two celebrated chambers of entire glass, which in novelty and beauty exceed all description. The sides and cielings of these rooms were formed of pieces of thick glass, about a foot square, of a cream and pale blue colour, connected by fine frames of brass richly gilded. In the centre, upon steps of glass, rose a divan, above which was a vast mirror, and on each side were slender pillars of light blue glass that supported an elegant canopy. Behind the mirror was a rich state bed. Even the doors, sophas, and chairs, were of coloured glass, elegantly shaped, and very light.

From the rooms we entered a vast terrace under a colonnade, and proceeded to the baths, which are lasting monuments of the taste of Mr. Cameron, the imperial architect. They con

tain a suite of superb rooms, one of which is entirely composed of the richest agates and porphyry; in this saloon were two pieces in mosaic, the most brilliant and beautiful I ever beheld. Near the baths is a vast terrace upon arches, with a central covered gallery of great extent, capable at all times of affording either a cool or a sheltered promenade. Upon this terrace are a great number of fine busts of distinguished men; amongst others was a copy of that of Mr. Fox, in bronze, placed on the left of Cicero. As I contemplated the head of the British orator, I secretly protested against his situation, and was endeavouring to give him the right, when a terrified attendant and his companion ran up to me, and prevented me from performing this act of justice.

In the gardens, which are extensively and very tastefully laid out by the late and present Mr. Bush, father and son, to whom the care of these gardens and hot-houses have been successively committed, we saw the Hermitage, in the first floor of which the late Empress, and a select party of her friends, used to dine without attendants, for which purpose she had a table constructed of most complicated machinery, at a great expence, through which the covers descended and rose by means of a great central trap-door, as did the plates through cylinders. The party was by this means supplied with every delicacy, without being seen or heard. The machinery below filled a large room, and at first made me think I was under

the stage of a theatre: this was another of Catherine's playthings. As we moved through the grounds, we were struck with a rostral column, raised to Feodor Orloff for the conquest of the Morea; a marble obelisk to Romantzoff, for his victories near Kagul; a marble pillar, on a pedestal of granite, to Orloff Tchesminskoi; and the Palladian bridge, formed in Siberia, and erected here over a branch of the lake: it is similar to that at Lord Pembroke's. In a retired part is an Egyptian pyramid, behind which are several tombs, erected by the late Empress to the memory of her favourite dogs: amongst these I copied the following, the composition of Catherine.

Cigit
Duchesse,

la fidèle compagne

de

Sir Tom. Anderson.

Elle le suivit en Russe

l'an 1776.

Aimé et respecté

par sa nombreuse postérité

elle décéda en 1782, agée de 15 ans,

laissant 115 descendans

tant levriers que levrettes.

There is a small superb palace, within about two hundred

yards of Zarsko-zelo, built by the late Empress, for her grandson Alexander. Some of the rooms are of marble, and very magnificent. At Zarsko Zelo there are no inns, but the hospitality of Mr. Bush, the English gardener, prevents this inconvenience from being felt by any foreigner, who is respectably introduced to him. In consequence of a letter from our ambassador, we were very handsomely received, and entertained by Mr. Bush, in whose house, in the life-time of his father, the following whimsical circumstance occurred. When Joseph II. Emperor of Germany, to whom every appearance of show was disgusting, expressed his intentions of visiting Catherine II., she offered him apartments in her palace, which he declined. Her Majesty, well knowing his dislike to parade, had Mr. Bush's house fitted up as an inn, with the sign of a Catherine-wheel, below which, appeared, in German characters, "The Falkenstein Arms," the name which the Emperor assumed. His Majesty knew nothing of the ingenious and attentive deception, till after he had quitted Russia; a number of very laughable occurrences took place. When the Emperor once went from Vienna to Moscow, he preceded the royal carriages to order the horses, as an avant-courier, in order to avoid the obnoxious pomp and ceremony which an acknowledgement of his rank would have awakened.

From Zarsko Zelo we set off for a town near the palace of Gatchina, about eighteen versts from the former, where