some of these soldiers in miniature relieve guard. In the schools are taught mathematics, gunnery, mapping, French, German, and Russian; fencing and dancing, and every other science and accomplishment which can complete the soldier and the gentleman. We were present at their dinner, which is served at half past twelve o'clock. The dining-hall is two hundred feet long, by forty broad. Every table held twenty-two boys, for each of whom a soup and meat plate, a silver fork, knife, and napkin, and a large slice of wholesome country bread, were laid; and at each end were two large silver goblets filled with excellent quas: they have four substantial dishes three times a-week, and three on the other days. All the boys, after marching in regular order from the respective schools, appeared at the several doors of the dining-hall, headed by their captains: upon the roll of the drum, they marched in slow time to their respective tables, form three companies of two hundred each (the fuzileer company, composed of the sons of the soldiers, did not dine till afterwards); at the second roll they halted, faced, and sat down: all their dishes appeared to be excellent: their uniform was bottle-green, faced with red. Great attention appeared to have been paid to their manners, by the decorum and urbanity which was displayed at their tables. The kitchens for soup, boiling, and roasting, were remarkably neat, although we saw them just after dinner had been served up. There are several other cadet corps upon the same princely establishment, and create in the mind of a stranger a high idea of the wealth and patriotic spirit of the empire.

A foreigner should not quit Petersburg without seeing the cabinet of jewels and furs, contained in a superb building in the grand perspective here the clocks, gilded and bronze ornaments of the palace of St. Michael, are deposited, all of which are very magnificent; there are also massy balustrades and tables of solid silver. Amongst the jewellery I was much pleased with several beautiful watches, upon the backs of which were little figures, some in the act of angling and drawing up little fish; others cooking meat, pumping, and rocking cradles; in others little cascades of glass were set in motion. There was a profusion of magnificent diamond snuff-boxes, stars, &c. for imperial presents.

In the apartments below was the museum of furs, where we saw several pelisses made of tiny dorsal slips of the black fox, valued each at ten thousand pounds. This animal, a native of Siberia, is so

rare and so small, that one of these pelisses cannot be made in less than ten years, and they are then paid to the emperor in lieu of money, as tributes, from different 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, postoffices 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 one half 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 Zarsko-zelo, 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 modernized by the late empress. Amongst the numerous rooms fitted up in the style of ancient magnificence, was the amber-room, 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 expense; 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 contain 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 expense, 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 play-things. 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 em

press to the memory of her favourite dogs: amongst these I copied

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 Zarskozelo 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 intention of visiting Catherine II, she of fered 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 occurences 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 acknowledgment 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 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 net-work 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 pleasureboats; 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 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 mo`nastery (which I have before described), where they were received