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 honour of being known, without respect and esteem.

66

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 dressinggown, 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 harvest 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 countrymen 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,

TRAVELLING CARRIAGES.

415

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, every traveller is obliged to purchase a travelling carriage, unless he is disposed to hazard a general dislocation in a kibitka.

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CHAP. XX.

LEAVE PETERSBURG-THE LITTLE SWEDE-ADVENTURES AT STRELNA-NARVA-BEARS-BEDS DORPT--TEUTONIC KNIGHTS AND

WHIMSICAL REVENGE-WHIPPING OF BOORS--BROTHERS-IN-LAW -COURLAND-POLES-MEMEL-SEVERITY OF PRUSSIAN DRILL

ING.

it

IT 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 journey, be the hour what and even if may, you can proceed no further than one post. After a delay 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 port, claret, and all sorts of provisions, announced 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

eiror 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.

As soon as we drove up to the door of a handsome inn, which owed its architectural consequence to the proximity 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 G-d there is room, the gentlemen "shall be accommodated, or by to-morrow evening the Grand

SH

418

SINGULAR HOSPITALITY.

"Duke Constantine shall blow you all to the devil.” The translation of this extraordinary exclamation we received afterwards, upon which a Russ officer, a little flushed with the Tuscan grape, came down to us, and began, according to the custom of the Continent, to kiss us all round. When we had submitted to this detestable ceremony, he led, or rather drove us up stairs: lavishing upon 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 were the finest fellows in the world, and again repeated his loving 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 G-d, he does "not kiss like a man!" After making a hearty supper, we ordered our bill, but the officer swore he would murder 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; after which we begged to know the name of this strange creature, 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." Fnding 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.