GATCHINA.

409 we arrived about eleven at night; although so near an imperial residence, three of us were obliged at the inn to sleep upon straw, there being only one sopha vacant: however, the palace and gardens compensated this little inconvenience. The former was raised by Gregory Orloff, and, on his death, purchased by the late Empress. The rooms were superb, amongst which were two of a crescent shape, richly furnished and ornamented; and a chamber, the sopha, bed, canopy, cieling, and sides, of which were formed of white calico, whilst over the latter, projecting a little, was stretched a broad network of the same stuff, with roses in the centre of each division: the effect was unique and very beautiful. The gardens were romantic and elegant. In a small lake were a great number of beautiful gondolas and pleasure-boats; and on a large space of water, a frigate of twenty-two guns, originally built to afford Paul, when a youth, some little notion of a man of war. With a fair wind it is capable of sailing about one hundred yards. It is kept in good order, for the purpose of forming an agreeable object, and on festive occasions is illuminated.

From Gatchina we proceeded to Pauvoloffsky, another imperial chateau, built by Paul in 1780, and which, with Gatchina, form the principal country residences of the Empress Dowager and the younger branches of the Imperial family, who were there at the time of our visit. Such a

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ST. ALEXANDER NEVSKY.

crowded court I never beheld; every window seemed to be filled with faces, and every avenue with officers of the household, servants and cooks; it was like a great bee-hive. We took only an hasty glance at the state rooms, which were fitted up in a style of gorgeous magnificence. The pannels of one of the apartments contained excellent copies of some of the exquisite India views of Messieurs Daniels. In the Dowager Empress's cabinet was a most elegant writing table, the top of which was lined on each side with Chinese roses, blowing, in vases sunk to a level with the surface.

On the eleventh of September the Court, and all the people of Petersburg capable of walking, attend in great pomp the celebration of the anniversary of their tutelar spirit, Saint Alexander Nevsky. After performing their devotion at the Kazan, the Court, in grand procession, in their state carriages, proceeded to the gate of the monastery (which I have before described), where they were received by the metropolitan and all the bishops in their full pontificals, adorned with pearls and diamonds, and by the monks and choristers, who preceded the Imperial family, chaunting hymns, upon a raised platform, covered with scarlet cloth, to the church, where the effect produced by their entrance was very sublime. They then proceeded to the silver shrine of the saint, which, after several prayers and hymns, as I was informed, they kissed, for the crowd was so great, that I could not see the whole of the cere

mony; after which they returned, and partook of some refreshments at the house of the archbishop. As soon as they had retired, some thousands of people flocked to the shrine of Saint Alexander, and to another of the Virgin adjoining, to touch them with their lips.

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As the Empress Dowager passed, the musheeks or common boors said to one another, There goes our good mother." All the male Russians, of equal degree in rank, address each other by the name of brat, or brother; which is also used by any one speaking to his inferior. The Emperor calls his subjects brats. A friend of mine heard Paul one day say to a bearded workman, "My brother take care, the ice is too thin "to bear you." When the low address their superiors they say batushka moia, my father." Very near the monastery is the glass manufactory, where the vast mirrors, for which Russia is so celebrated, are rolled. The establishment resembles a little town: almost all the artists are Russians, and in their various departments displayed great taste and ingenuity.

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From this place we visited the hotel of the Prince Usupoff, a

very noble edifice, but, like all the great houses of the nobility, presented a scene of uncommon neglect and dirt in the front and court yard; for example, several of the broken windows of the basement story were filled with hay, and in the yard lay offal-meat, bones, shells, and horse dung, here and there

half concealed by grass growing above the stones. The Prince has a fine gallery of paintings and statues, which he has collected at a vast expence in Italy: most of the subjects are in the highest degree voluptuous. Over one painting the Prince has extended a curtain: how little does he know of human nature, if he wishes to pay homage to modesty by exciting curiosity: I will venture to say there was more indecorum and peril in the curtain than in the picture. In the library, which is very excellent, we were attended by a frightful bilious dwarf, about forty years of age; a Polish laquais took him by his little shrivelled hand, and patting him on the head, observed to us, that he had been in a small island in the Mediterranean, which swarmed with dwarfs, many of whom he solemnly declared were not taller than cats set upon hinder legs!!! In the language of Count Aranza,

"That's a lie."

their

A few days before I left the city I applied, through a friend of mine, to the polatch or executioner, to purchase of him a knout, to bring with me to England: upon going to his house, which seemed to be a very comfortable one, he was from home, but his wife took up one of the thongs, and in a very gentle and tender manner began explaining the theory and practice of this instrument of torture, in the course of which she observed, that it was made, not of the skin of a wild ass, as has been asserted, for, excepting a small breed of that ani

mal in Siberia, not one is to be found in any other part of the empire, but of ox's hide soaked in milk and dried, and that her husband was so expert, that he could cut a piece of flesh from the back of exactly its size. These functionaries of justice are held in such abhorrence, that although this very executioner offered to give four thousand rubles as a dowry with his daughter to a common droshka driver, she was rejected with scorn. The merciless Empress Elizabeth enjoyed the reputation of having abolished the punishment of death: she little deserved the homage which was paid to her: the fact was, knowing how hateful the appearance of death is to the Russians, she ordered a capital culprit to be knouted to such a degree, that he was only enabled to reach his prison alive, when his lacerated frame was thrown upon a bed of boards, and left to gangrene and mortify for want of medical application: such was the boasted humanity of Elizabeth! To the superstitious dread of seeing a corpse, which marks the Russian character, let me add an unconquerable aversion to receiving any thing as a present which has a sharp point: a gentleman presented a young Russ lady with an elegant female pocketbook, in which there was a row of needles; with some concern she took from her purse a little silver piece, and gave it to the donor as the purchase money.

1

A number of interesting objects still remained to be seen, but my time, and an alteration in my intention of visiting