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 expense 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, w were attended by a frightful bilious dwarf, about forty years of age; a Polish laquais took him by his littl 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 their hinder legs!!! In the language of Count Aranza,

"That's a lie."

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 animal 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, know

ing how hateful the appearance of death is to the Russans, 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 pocket-book, 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.

A number of interesting objects still remained to be seen, but my time, and an alteration in my intention of visiting Italy, made it necessary to bid adieu to a city, which I shall never reflect upon but with admiration, nor upon those of its inhabitants, to whom I had the honor of being known, without respect and esteem.

In the decline of the summer, (for I now speak of it as departed from these regions) the weather was very variable; a fiercely sultry day was succeeded by a very chilly one, within thirty hours, from being scarcely able to endure my dressing-gown, I was glad to place myself before, a wonder in Russia, a blazing fire in an English stove; but the atmospheric fluctuations are certainly not so great as in our own climate, and this circumstance might, perhaps, have induced a Russ servant, who had just returned from England, to say, upon being asked whether he was soon familiarized with our country, "I understood quick all tings dere, but de climate, dat I "could no understand." The harvests in the provinces near the capital, which is generally got in by the tenth of August N. S. had been housed for more than a month, black clouds frequently obscured the sun, the winds began to blow loud and bleak, the leaves were rapidly falling, and each succeeding day grew visibly shorter: these were sufficient warnings for birds of passage to wing their way to milder regions. As some very agreeable coun

trymen and travellers were setting off for Berlin, I had the good fortune of being invited to join the party: to their barouche I added a Swedish carriage, requiring only one horse, to assist in the general conveyance. As this little carriage excited uncommon delight and wonder in some countries through which we passed, and lost all its popularity in another, as will be hereafter told; and moreover as I grew attached to it in proportion as I saw its merits, and beheld them at one time acknowledged, at another derided, I must be indulged in describing it. A small body of railing with a seat for two persons, a head of canvas, and a well for luggage, mounted upon two wheels about three feet high, and a shaft for one horse, composed the whole of this redoubted vehicle. In Russia, everv traveller is obliged to purchase a travelling carriage, unless he is disposed to hazard a general dislocation in a kibitka.

CHAPTER XX.

Leave Petersburg-The little Swede-Adventures at Strelna-Narva-Bears-Beds Dorpt-Teutonic knights and whimsical revenge-Whipping of boors-Brothersin-law-Courland-Poles-Memel Severity of Prus

sian drilling.

IT

T is a great object in quitting a great city, where you have strong ties to detain you, resolutely, to set off on the appointed day for the commencement of one's jour ney, be the hour what it may, and even if you can pro ceed no further than one post. After a deley of four hours, occasioned by the stupidity of the post-master, at eight o'clock in the evening of the nineteenth of September, N. S. the servants of our hospitable friends, Messrs. Vennings, who had been some time previously employed in filling every-crack and corner of the carriages with bottles of porter, claret, and all sorts of provisions, an nounced that every thing was ready. As we all assembled in the court yard, my old companion Mishka, to the full stretch of her chain, stood on her hinder legs, and seemed, in her rude way, for her voice was not the most musical, to regret my departure, but upon my giving her some sugar, I found it an error of vanity, for she instantly ran into her house to enjoy it, and, as in the moment of repletion neither Bruins nor Englishmen, nor perhaps any other being, like to be disturbed, I did not say with the song

"Give me thy paw, my bonny bonny bear,"

but left her, to shake hands with those from whom we had received the most polite and kind attentions. My friend Captain Elphinstone insisted upon riding to the bridge with me, in the little Swede, as he called it, where we parted with mutual and genuine regret.

The moon shone very bright. The little Russ driver, who sat on the shaft, unfortunately for my ears and the temperature of my mind, proved to be a great singer:

his shrill pipe never ceased till we reached Strelna, the first stage, where we proposed sleeping.

extror

were

As soon as we drove up to the door of a handsome inn, which owed its architectural consequence to the prox imity of the Grand Duke Constantine's country palace, the host told our servant, a German, he had no room for us: upon which a voice from the top of the banisters, with Stentorian energy, exclaimed in Russ, " By Gd "there is room, the gentlemen shall be accommodated, "or by to-morrow evening the Grand Duke Constantine hall blow you all to the devil." The translation of this lamation we received afterwards, upon which a Russ office little flushed with the Tuscan grape, came down to us, began, according to the custom of the Continent, to kiss all round. When we had submitted to this detestable cemony, he led, or rather drove us up stairs: lavishing up the master of the inn all the opprobrious epithets he could collect, in bad French; ordered a handsome supper, and all sorts of wines; pressed us by the hands, swore the English the finest fellows in the world, and again repeated his lov ing kindness by another salutation: when one of the party recoiling a little from the violence of his friendship, he turned round, shrugged up his shoulders, and in a most significant manner exclaimed, " My Gd, he does "not kiss like a man!" After making a hearty supper, we ordered our bill, but the officer swore he would mur der our host if he presented any, and ordered him out of the room, declaring that we were his own guests, which he followed by screaming several Russ songs; afte which we begged to know the name of this strange crea ture, and presented him with a piece of paper and a pencil; but after many ineffectual efforts, we plainly saw "that his education had stopped before he had learnt to "read or write." Finding that we could get no beds, we ordered horses, travelled all night upon good roads, and arrived early the next morning to breakfast at Koskowa. All the post-houses beyond Strelna are kept by Germans; for each horse we paid two copecs per verst. This part of Ingria formerly belonged to, the Swedes. The female peasantry wear a flat bonnet of red silk and