Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

order to unite in the same prayer the memory of their disappointed destiny, appears to me one of the greatest conceptions of this prince, who, be it remembered, was truly great when he entered a city from whence Napoleon was flying.

Towards four o'clock in the evening I began, for the first time, to recollect that I had not come to Russia merely to inspect curious monuments of art, and to enter into the reflections, more or less philosophical, which they might suggest; and I hastened to the French ambassador's.

There I found my oversight had been great. The marriage of the Grand Duchess Marie was to take place on the day after the morrow, and I had arrived too late to be presented previously. To miss this ceremony of the court, in a land where the court is every thing, would be to lose my journey.

VISIT TO THE ISLANDS.163

CHAP. X,

VISIT TO THE ISLANDS. CHARACTER OF THE SCENERY'. ARTI

FICIAL BEAUTIES.COMPARISON BETWEEN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH

TASTE.AIM AND CHARACTERISTICS OF RUSSIAN CIVILISATION.

HAPPINESS IMPOSSIBLE IN RUSSIA.FASHIONABLE LIFE IN ST.

PETERSBURG. EQUALITY UNDER DESPOTISM.CHARACTERISTIC

TRAITS OF RUSSIAN SOCIETY.ABSOLUTE POWER.PAVILION

OF THE EMPRESS. VERMIN IN THE HOUSES AND PALACES OF

ST. PETERSBURG. —COSTUME OF THE LOWER ORDERS. BEAUTY

OF THE MEN WHEN OF PURE SLAVONIAN RACE. THE WOMEN.

CONDITION OF THE RUSSIAN PEASANTRY.THE SALE OF SERFS.

COMMERCE CAN ALONE ALTER THE PRESENT STATE OF THINGS.

CARE TAKEN TO CONCEAL THE TRUTH FROM FOREIGNERS.

RELIGIOUS USURPATION OF PETER THE GREAT. HIS CHARACTER

AND MONSTROUS CRUELTIES. — CULPABILITY OF THE ARISTO

CRACY. THE AUTHOR SUSPECTED.STATE OF MEDICAL ART IN

RUSSIA. — UNIVERSAL MYSTERY. PERMISSION TO BE PRESENT

AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE GRAND DUCHESS.

I am just returned from visiting the Islands. They form an agreeable marsh ; never was the vase better concealed by the flowers. A shallow, left dry during the summer, owing to the channels that intersect it serving as drains to the soil, planted with superb groves of birch, and covered with numerous charming villas—such is the tract called the Islands. The avenues of birch, which, together with pines, are the only trees indigenous to these icy plains, create an illusion that might lead the traveller to imagine him-

164VISIT TO THE ISLANDS:

self in an English park. This vast garden overspread with 'villas' and cccottages'* serves instead of the country to the inhabitants of Petersburg: it is the camp of the courtiers, thickly inhabited during я brief portion of the year, and totally deserted during the remainder.

The district of the Islands is reached by various excellent carriage roads, connected with bridges thrown over the different arms of the sea.

In wandering among its shady alleys, it is not difficult to imagine one's self in the country, but it is a monotonous and artificial country. No undulations of the ground, always the same kind of trees, — how is it possible to produce pictorial effect from such materials ! Under this zone the plants of the hot-house, the fruits of the tropics, and even the gold and precious stones of the mines, are less rare than our commonest forest trees. With wealth every thing may be procured here that can exist under glass, and this is much towards furnishing the scenery of a fairy tale, but it is not sufficient to make a park. One of the groves of chestnut or beech which beautify our hills would be a marvel in Petersburg. Italian houses surrounded by Laponian trees, and filled with the flowers of all countries, form a contrast which is singular rather than agreeable.

The Parisians, who never forget Paris, call the tract of the Islands the Russian Champs Elysees, but it is larger, more rural, and yet more adorned and more artificial, than our Parisian promenade. It is

* The allusion here is evidently made to a London rather than to an ' English' park. — Trans.

CHARACTER OF THEIR SCENERY.165

also farther distant from the fashionable quarters, and includes both town and country. At one moment you may suppose yourself looking upon real woods, fields, and villages; in the next, the view of houses in the shape of temples, of pilasters forming the framework of hot-houses, of colonnaded palaces, of theatres with antique peristyles, prove that you have not left the city.

The Russians are rightly proud of this garden raised at so much expence on the spongy soil of Petersburg. But if Nature is conquered, she remembers her defeat, and submits with bad grace. Happy the lands where heaven and earth unite and mutually vie in embellishing the abodes of man, and in rendering his life pleasant and easy !

I should insist less on the disadvantages of this unfavoured land, I should not regret so greatly, while travelling in the north, the sun of the south, if the Russians affected less to undervalue, the gifts of which their country is deprived. Their perfect content extends even to the climate and the soil; naturally given to boasting, they have the folly to glory even in the physical as well as the social aspect which surrounds them. These pretensions prevent my bearing so resignedly as I ought to do, and as I had intended, with all the inconveniences of northern countries.

The delta formed between the city and one of the embouchures of the Neva, is now entirely covered by this species of park; it is nevertheless included within the precincts of Petersburg: the Russian cities embrace the country also. This tract would have become one of (he most populous quar-

1GGRUSSIAN AND ENGLISH TASTE.

ters of the new city, had the plan of the founder been more exactly followed. But, little by little, Petersburg receded from the river, southward, in the hope of escaping the inundations; and the marshy isles have been reserved exclusively for the summer residences of the most distinguished courtiers. These houses are half- concealed by water and snow for nine months of the year, during which time the wolves roam freely round the pavilion of the Empress ; but during the remaining three months, nothing can exceed the profusion of flowers which the houses display. Nevertheless, under all this factitious elegance, the character of the people betrays itself; a passion for display is the ruling passion of the Russians: thus, in their drawing-rooms, the flowers are not placed in such manner as may render the interior of the apartment more agreeable, but so as to attract admiration from without; precisely the contrary of what we see in England, where, above all things, people shrink from hanging out a sign in the streets. The English are, of all the people on the earth, those who have best known how to substitute taste for style : their public buildings arc cliefs~cV?uvre of the ridiculous; their private houses are models of elegance and good sense.

Among the Islands, all the houses and all the roads resemble each other. The shade of the birch trees is transparent, but under the sun of the North a very thick foliage is not required. Canals, lakes, meadows, groves, cottages, villas and alleys, follow each other in constant succession. This dreamy landscape pleases without interesting, without piquing the curiosity; but it gives the idea of repose, and repose is a