Then bow, stern man! and own the blessing given, The brightest work of all-creative Heaven; Own the firm texture of the female mind, And yield the holy palm to womankind; NOTES TO CANTO I. NOTE (1).-PAge 19. IN 1787 Potemkin attended the Empress Catherine on her journey to the Crimea, and in the Memoirs of that Prince the following interesting account is given of the excursion down the Boristhenes. "It was a beautiful day in the beginning of spring when the Empress went on board with her court.-A perfect calm, a clear sky, a verdant shore, heightened the effect of the brilliant decorations with which Potemkin had resolved to enrapture his sovereign.-He now set in motion all the wheels of the grand machine which he had got up with so much care, and presented to the eyes of the travellers an artificial spectacle the most extraordinary, and the most original, that ever was conceived." "At greater or less distant intervals, the banks of the river displayed pretty insulated dwellings and well-built villages, the extent of which would lead the beholder to expect a numerous population; and their exterior seemed to bespeak the opulence and comforts of the inhabitants. Many of these private houses and villages had but just been built. It has even been asserted that the most distant buildings were unfinished, and had merely a front. They were so disposed with respect to the soil as to form picturesque points of view; and for the space of 300 miles the shores of the Dnieper were set out in the form of English parks. As the population of the country was insufficient to give animation to the landscape, peasants had been sent for from several parts of the empire: they were successively removed from one spot to the other, (frequently in the night) to give to the roads where the Empress was to pass the next day, that appearance of bustle and animation, which else they would often have wanted." |