quass, and liqueurs. In the first court we beheld men and women indiscriminately mingled together, in a state similar to that which preceded the slightest notion of breeches and waistcoats. They were: arranged like so many hounds in a dog-kennel, upon benches tier above tier, where they were wringing their beards, and combing and plaiting their hair. In the middle of the yard was a jet-d'eau playing into a great wooden cistern; as the bathers came out of the vapour-room, red and reeking with heat, they ran to this tank, and filling a bucket with cold water, raised it, and threw it over their heads. When these baths are near a river they plunge into it, and in the winter roll themselves in the snow.

I opened the door of the vapour-room, in which I could not continue above a minute, and in that time a 'profuse perspiration came over me. The room was capacious, women and men were piled one above another amphitheatrically; the vapour which filled the room, and gave it the atmosphere of a digester, was produced from water being thrown upon a great number of heated stones, some of them red hot. In this place, to assist the cause of perspiration and washing, they exchange the little tender and delicate offices of flogging, soaping, and rubbing each other down. The Russians in this, as well as many other customs, bear a strong analogy to the Grecians. These scenes, such is the effect of habit, are seldom productive of libertinism, even amongst the natives; to every foreigner they cannot fail to be offensive and repulsive. If a painter wishes to delineate a Venus, or even any part of the figure, let him go to a Russian bath for a model. My curiosity was soon satisfied; I visited no other part of the building, and right glad was I to quit this disgusting scene. These baths, however, which are to be found in every village, prove that the Russians are naturally clean. After these ablutions, clean shirts and shifts are put on for Sunday.

It is highly interesting to observe how nations differ from each other in their customs, and how frequently they reverse them. As we are upon the subject of bathing, I cannot help mentioning that, as I was walking with some English ladies in the summer gardens one evening, I saw about sixty men and women enjoying themselves in a small canal which runs from the Neva to the Michaeleski palace. Public as this spectacle was, there seemed to be the most perfect innocence amongst all the parties. One man was very desirous that I should see how well his wife could swim; and a Polish servant in G G

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waiting said, with great naïveté, to one of our English ladies (a very amiable and sensible woman, in whose service he was), "Madam, there is a fine seat there," pointing to one upon the side of the water, "where you can have an excellent view, and see the manner in "which the Russians swim." Their manner is somewhat curious; they swim as if a dog had taught them. As I was one day walking by the side of the canal which runs before the opera-house, I saw two young, and I think I may add, modest women, seeking shelter from the sun in the limpid steam. The forms of these Musidoras did more honour to their sex than any which I had before seen.

The Russians beat all the doctors hollow. They have one simple (I know not if certain) cure for every description of disease; viz. two glasses of brandy, a scourging and soaping in the vapour-bath, and a roll in the Neva, or snow.

The smile of the sovereign has an universal influence; if you are well at court, it is well with you every where. Impressed with this truth, I resolved to visit the greatest favourite of his imperial majesty. As his sagacity was extraordinary; as he paid no consideration to exterior himself, nor minded it in others; and, moreover, as his residence was in the neighbourhood of the bath, I made up my mind to avail myself of his liberal notions, and seek an audience without returning to my hotel, a distance of three miles at least, to change my dress. Although, with respect to the appearance of his visitors, he was very accommodating, yet I found him, like all courtiers, inaccessible without a bribe; and accordingly, the honour of being introduced to him cost me something, it is useless now to say what. Was it not singular? Upon entering his apartment, which was very lofty, I found him heavily ironed by one leg, and guarded; yet, strange as this appeared, I was rejoiced to find, for his character stands very high, that he was not in disgrace. The personage I am speaking of was his majesty's elephant, who was at least eleven feet high, and, like his imperial master, majestic, yet gracious; and though fearfully armed with power, most discreet and gentle in its use. His establishment consisted of a faithful Persian, who received and repaid his affections.

In the ground behind the elephant's apartment we saw some Ċalmuc sheep grazing, distinguishable from the same species of animal in other countries, by a vast bag of hard fat, which grows from the rump. As I was returning from his elephantic majesty, a friend of

mine pointed to a Russian who was crossing a bridge, and informed me that some years since he was one of the leading characters of a sect, whose tenets extended eternal rewards of happiness to those who, crossing the great design of God in creating man, deprived themselves of the possibility of becoming the fathers of families: against the spreading fanaticism of these monstrous visionaries, which aimed at the radical extinction of society, Catherine II directed a prompt and decisive blow: those of its wretched and deluded followers, who are known, are branded, wherever they appear, with public derision.

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Catherine put down a sect still more formidable, and by the following whimsically wise manner saved her people from the baneful contagion of French principles. During that revolution, which portended ruin to all the sacred establishments of all nations, when in England Pitt trampled out the brightening embers, and saved his country from the devouring flames, a group of mischievous emissaries from France arrived at Petersburg, and began, in whispers amongst the mob, to persuade the poor droshka driver, and the ambulatory vender of honey quass, that thrones were only to be considered as stools, and that they had as much right to sit upon one of them as their empress: Catherine, concealing her real apprehensions, availed herself of the powers with which she was clothed, without shedding a drop of blood. She knew ridicule to be, in able hands, a powerful weapon, and resolved to wield it upon the present occasion. One evening the police officers were ordered to seize all these illuminated apostles of liberty, and bear them away to the lunatic asylum, where the empress had directed that their heads should be shaved and blistered, and their bodies well scoured by aperient medicines, and kept on meagre diet; this regimen was continued for fourteen days, when their confinement terminated. The common Russians had heard of their fate, and really believing that they had been insane, neglected and deserted them upon their re-appearance in the city with shorn heads, hollow eyes, and sunk cheeks, and all the striking indications of a recently bewildered mind. If this mild and ingenious project had failed, Catherine would have let loose all the energy of power, and for this purpose she rapidly caused to be built that vast edifice, now used for the marine barracks, which she destined for a state prison.

The transition from the revolutionists to wild dogs is very simple and natural. About three versts on the left hand side of the Zarsko Zello road, is a wood infested with these animals. To this place dead horses, and all the rank garbage of the city, which a Russian stomach cannot relish, are carried. These dogs never aim at proselytism, and are never seen beyond the boundaries of their thicket.

Having thrown aside our bathing dresses, we went to the palace of Saint Michael, where, as I have related, the last emperor perished. As Paul had expressed so much aversion to the imperial mansions in which his mother delighted, I felt a curiosity minutely to examine a palace of his own creation. In addition to what has been before observed, the whole of this enormous pile was built by an Italian, of red Dutch brick, which at a distance has an animating appearance, upon a basement of hewn granite, that resembles a foundation of rock. The grand entrance from the great perspective, through the riding-room and offices, is very handsome. Upon the architrave is written in Russ characters, as it was translated to me, the following singular motto: "May my house endure like the Lord's." The Russians observe, with their accustomed superstition, that the number of letters of this inscription correspond with the number of Paul's years, and that out of them an anagram may be composed, denoting that he who raised the building would perish by a violent death. The interior is vast, but very gloomy. The chambers which were shewn were stripped of their furniture and all their moveable decorations, which are lodged in the cabinet of jewels, but the ornaments which remained exhibited a style of costly magnificence; the doors, some of which were of various-coloured glass, and richly gilded, were uncommonly superb. We saw the room in which the unfortunate sovereign perished, and his private staircase before mentioned. All the rooms, except those which are used for state, are occupied by persons belonging to the court; amongst others Mr. Cameron, the imperial architect, has a superb suite of apartments, those which were formerly occupied by the present emperor and empress before they ascended the throne; in one of which is a fire-place which had been encrusted with jewels. To the taste and genius of this gentleman, Russia is indebted for many of her beautiful architectural objects.

From the palace of St. Michael, we went, by a special appointment and permission, obtained after much trouble, to the academy of arts, and in our way stopped at the marble church of St. Isaac,

which was erected, but not finished, by the late empress it is entirely built of Siberian marble, porphyry, and jasper, at an immense cost, has a vast copper dome gilded, and is the most magnificent place of worship in Petersburg; yet, after all, it has a very sombre appearance without.

The late emperor, disgusted, as I have already explained, with every thing which had engaged the care and regard of his imperial mother, raised in ridicule a little tower of brick, covered with a small dome, on the west side of this temple. During the calamitous state of his mind, an indiscreet wag affixed to the door of the church the following pasquinade, in Russ verses: "To Paul the first, emperor, &c." "In marble should thy mother's mem❜ry shine; In perishable brick and plaster thine."

The writer paid dearly for his wit; he was discovered, knouted, had his nostrils torn, and was sent to Siberia. Upon the accession of the present emperor, application was made by his friends for his release, which was granted, and a miserable mutilated wretch was restored to those who could with difficulty, recognize him.

The interior of this building is truly magnificent, being entirely composed of the most precious Siberian marble. Near the altar was an elegant pulpit, the only one that I saw in any of the Greek churches: it was built by the orders of the late empress, who was desirous of enlightening her people in their faith by devotional discourses.

The academy of arts is an enormous pile of quadrangular brick building, in the Vassili-ostroff. In the council-room we were shewn a beautiful golden medal of the head of Paul, by the present empress dowager, which at once proves the taste of her mind, and the powerful affections of her heart. In the hall of statues were a great number of fine casts from the antique, particularly a beautiful one of the Belvidere Apollo: the original, in the imperial museum at Paris, afforded me the greatest delight I ever experienced in contemplating any work of art, and which I greatly preferred to the Laocoon. Amongst the pictures was a perfect and precious piece of painting, in fresco, from Herculaneum. As we passed through a suite of rooms, in which the youngest class of students, from the age of eight or nine years, were drawing (all of whom, as well as the rest of the pupils, are clothed, educated, and maintained, at the expense of the crown), we saw some promising works of art; but, strange to relate,