again repeat, that the carriages should be built in the country.'
' You have still the old prejudice for heavy and massive equipages; they are not, however, the strongest,'
' I wish you a pleasant journey : let me hear if your carriage reaches Moscow.'
Scarcely had I left this bird of ill omen when a part of the axle broke. Fortunately, we were near the end of the stage, where I am now detained. I should mention that I have yet only travelled 18 leagues out of the 180 .... I shall be obliged to deny myself the pleasure of fast driving, and am learning to say in Russian, ' gently,' which is just the opposite of the usual motto of Russian travellers.
A Russian coachman attired in his cafetan of coarse cloth, or if the weather is warm, as it is to-day, in his coloured shirt or tunic, appears, at first sight, like an oriental. In simply observing the attitude he assumes when placing himself upon his seat, we may recognise the grace of the Asiatic. In travelling post, the Russians drive from the box, dispensing with postillions, unless a very heavy carriage requires a set of six or eight horses, and even in that case one of the men mounts the box. The coachman holds in his hands a whole bundle of cords : these are the eight reins of the team, two for each of the four horses harnessed abreast. The grace, ease, agility, and safety with which he directs this picturesque set-out, the
240THE COUNTRY РЕОГЬЕ.
quiekness of his slightest movements, the lightness of his step when he reaches the ground, his erect stature, his manner of wearing his dress, in short, his whole person reminds me of the most naturally elegant people on the earth — the Gitanos* of Spain. The Russians are fair-complexioned Gitanos.
I have already noticed some female peasants less ugly than those seen in the streets of Petersburg. Their form invariably wants elegance, but their complexion is fresh and bright. At this season, their head-dress consists of an Indian handkerchief, tied round the head, and the ends of whieh fall behind with a grace that is natural to the people. They often wear a little pelisse reaching to the knees, drawn round the waist by a girdle, slit on eaeh side below the hips, and opening in front so as to 'show the pettieoat underneath. The appearance of this dress is tasteful, but it is their boots whieh disfigure the persons of the women. The leather is greasy, the feet are large and rounded at the toe, and the folds and wrinkles entirely eoneeal the shape of the legs: so elumsy are they, that it might be supposed the wives had stolen them from their husbands.
The houses resemble those that I described in the excursion to Sehlusselburg, but they are not so elegant, The appearance of the villages is monotonous. A village consists always of two lines, more or less extended, of wooden eottages, regularly ranged at a certain distanee backwards from the road, for, in general, the street of the village is broader than the embankment of the highway. Each cabin, con-
ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.241
structed of pieces of roughly-hewn wood, presents its gable to the street. All these habitations are of simi-lar construction; but, notwithstanding their wearisome uniformity, an air of comfort, and even prosperity, appears to reign in the villages. They are rural without being picturesque. I breathe in them the calm of pastoral life, which is doubly agreeable after Petersburg. The country people are not gay or smiling, but they have not the miserable appearance of the soldiers and the dependents of the o`overnment. Among all the Russians, these are they who suffer least from the want of liberty. The labours of agriculture tend to reconcile man to social life whatever it may cost; they inspire him with patience, and enable him to support every thing, provided he is allowed to give himself up undisturbed to occupations which are so congenial to his nature.
The country that I have hitherto traversed is a poor, marshy forest, covered, as far as the eye can reach over a sterile plain, with miserable, stunted, and thinly-scattered birch and pine; there are neither cultivated lands nor thick nourishing plantations of wood to be seen. The cattle are of a wretched breed. The climate oppresses the animals as much as despotism does the men. It might be said that nature and society vie with each other in their efforts to render life difficult. When we think of the physical obstacles that had here to be encountered in order to organise a society, we have no longer a right to be surprised at any thing, unless it be that material civilisation is so far advanced as we perceive it to be among a people so little favoured by nature. Can it be true that there are in the unity of ideas,
VOL. II.31
242THE POST-HOUSE.
and the fixedness of things, compensations for even the most revolting oppression ? I think not; but were it proved to me that this system was the only one under which the Russian empire coidd have been founded or maintained, I should answer by a simple question: was it essential to the destinies of the human race that the marshes of Finland should be peopled, and that the unfortunate beings brought there should erect a city marvellous to behold, but which is in reality nothing more than a mimicry of Western Europe ? The civilised world has only gained from the aggrandisement of the Muscovites, the fear of a new invasion, and the model of a despotism without pity and without precedent, unless it be in ancient history.
The house in which I write exhibits a taste and neatness that contrast strangely with the nakedness of the surrounding country. It is both post-house and tavern, and I find it almost clean. It might be taken for the country- house of some retired, independent person. Stations of this kind, though not so well kept as that of Pomcrania, are maintained at certain distances on the road, at the expense of government. The Avails and ceilings of the one I am in are painted as in Italy ; the ground floor, composed of several spacious rooms, very much resembles a restaurateur in one of the French provinces. The furniture is covered with leather ; large sofas are every where to be found, which might serve as a substitute for beds, but I have had too much experience to think of sleeping or even of sitting on them. In Russian inns, not excepting those of the best description, all wooden furniture with stuffed cushions are so many hives where vermin swarm and multiply.
ASPECT OF THE COUNTRY.243
I cany with me my bed, which is a masterpiece of Russian industry. If I break down again before I reach Moscow, I shall have time to make use of this piece of furniture, and shall applaud myself for my precaution.
I am now writing at Yedrova, between Great Novgorod and Valdai. There are no distances in Russia — so say the Russians, and all the travellers have agreed to repeat the saying. I had adopted the same notion, but unpleasant experience obliges me to maintain precisely the contrary. There is nothing but distance in Russia : nothing but empty plains extending farther than the eye can reach. Two or three interesting spots are separated from each other by immense spaces. These intervals are deserts, void of all picturesque beauty: the high road destroys the poetry of the steppe ; and there remains nothing but extension of space, monotony, and sterility. All is naked and poor; there is nothing to inspire awe as on a soil made illustrious by the glory of its inhabitants,— a soil like Greece or Judea, devastated by history, and become the poetical cemetery of nations ; neither is there any of the grandeur of a virgin nature; the scene is merely ugly; it is sometimes a dry plain, sometimes a marshy, and these two species of sterility alone vary the landscape. A few villages, becoming less neat in proportion as the distance from Petersburg increases, sadden the landscape instead of
244MOUNTAINS OF VALDAI.
