consists of tAvo lines, two or three о 2
292JELOGNAIA STREET.
feet broad, and separated by a stripe of the ordinary flint pavement on which the shaft horse runs. Two of these roads, that is to say, four lines of wood, run the length of the Perspective Newski, one on the left, the other on the right of the street, without touching the houses, from which they are separated by raised flags for the foot passengers. This beautiful and vast perspective extends—gradually becoming less populous, less beautiful, and more melancholy —to the undetermined limits of the habitable city, in other words, to the confines of the Asiatic barbarism by which Petersburg is always besieged; for the desert may be found at the extremity of its most superb streets.
A little below the bridge of AniskofF is the street named Jelognaia, which leads to a desert called the square of Alexander. I doubt whether the Emperor Nicholas has ever seen this street. The superb city created by Peter the Great, and beautified by Catherine II., and other sovereigns, is lost at last in an unsightly mass of stalls and workshops, confused heaps of edifices without name, large squares without design, and in which the natural slovenliness and the inborn filthiness of the people of the land, have for one hundred years permitted every species of dirt and rubbish to accumulate. Such filth, heaped up year after year in the Russian cities, serves as a protestation against the pretension of the German princes, who flatter themselves that they have thoroughly polished the Slavonian nations. The primitive character of these people, however disguised it may have been by the yoke imposed upon it, at least shows itself in some of the corners of the cities ; and if they
EFFECTS OF THE THAW.—HOUSES.293
have eities it is not because they wanted them, but because their military masters compel them to emulate the West of Europe. These unfortunate animals, placed in the eage of European civilisation, are victims of the mania, or rather of the ambition of the Czars, conquerors of the future world, and who well know that before subjugating us, they must imitate us.
Nothing, I am told, can give any idea of the state of the Petersburg streets during the melting of the snow. Within the fortnight which follows the breaking up of the iee on the Neva, all the bridges are earned away, and the communications between different quarters of the eity are, during several days, interrupted, and often entirely broken off. The streets then become the beds of furious torrents: few political erises eould cause so much damage as this annual revolt of nature against an incomplete and impracticable civilisation. Since the thaw at Petersburg has been described to me I complain no longer of the pavements, detestable though they be ; for I remember they have to be renewed every year.
After mid-day, the Perspective Newski, the grand square of the palace, the quays and the bridges are enlivened by a considerable number of carriages of various kinds and curious forms : this rather relieves the habitual dulness of the most monotonous capital in Europe. The interior of the houses is equally gloomy, for notwithstanding the magnificence of certain apartments destined to receive company, and furnished in the English style, there may be seen in the baek ground various. signs of a want of cleanliness and order which at once reminds the observer of Asia.
294BEDS.—VISIT TO PEroCE .
The articles of furniture least used in a Russian house are beds. The women servants sleep in recesses similar to those in the old fashioned porters' lodges in France; whilst the men roll themselves up on the stairs, in the vestibule, and even, it is said, in the saloons upon the cushions, which they place on the floor for the night.
This morning I paid a visit to Prince. He
is a great nobleman, but decayed in estate, infirm and dropsical. He suffers so greatly that he cannot get up, and yet he has no bed on which to lie, — I mean to say, nothing which would be called a bed in lands where civilisation is of older date. He lives in the house of his sister, who is absent. Alone in this naked palace, he passes the night on a wooden board covered with a carpet and some pillows. In all the Russian houses that I have entered, I have observed that the screen is as necessary to the bed of the Slavonians as musk is to their persons:—intense dirtiness does not always exclude external elegance. Sometimes however they have a bed for show, an object of luxury, which is maintained through respect for European fashions, but of which no use is ever made. The residences of several Russians of taste are distinguished by a peculiar ornament — a little artificial garden in the corner of the drawin?f-room. Three long- stands of flowers are ranged round a window so as to form a little verdant saloon or kind of chiosc, which reminds one of those in gardens. The stands are surmounted by an ornamented balustrade, which rises to about the height of a man, and is overgrown with ivy or other climbing plants that twist around the trellis work, and produce
BEAUTY OP THE SLAVONIAN MEN. 295
a cool agreeable effect in the midst of a vast apartment blazing with gilt work) and crowded with furniture. In this little verdant boudoir are placed a table and a few chairs: the lady of the house is generally seated there, and there is room for two or three others, for whom it forms a retreat, which, if not very secret, is secluded enough ,to please the imagination.
The effect of this household thicket is not more pleasing than the idea is sensible in a land where secrecy should preside over all private conversation. The usage is, I believe, imported from Asia.
I should not be surprised to see the artificial gardens of the Russian saloons introduced some day into the houses of Paris. They would not disfigure the abode of the most fashionable female politician in France. I should rejoice to see the innovation, were it only to cope with the Anglo-manes who have inflicted an injury on good taste and the real genius of the French, which I shall never pardon. The Slavonians, when they are handsome, are lightly and elegantly formed, though their appearance still conveys the idea of strength. Their eyes are аБ oval in shape, and have the deceitful, furtive glance of the Asiatics. Whether dark or blue, they are invariably clear and lively, constantly in motion, and when they laugh their expression is very graceful.
This people, grave by necessity rather than by nature, scarcely dare to laugh except with their eyes; but, words being thus repressed, these eyes, animated by silence, supply the place of eloquence, so strongly is passion depicted in their expression. That expression is almost always intelligent, and sometimes gentle, О 4
296 RUSSIAN COACHMEN AND POSTILLIONS.
though more often anxious even to a degree of wildness that conveys the idea of some animal of the deer kind caught in the toils.
The Slavonians, born to guide a chariot, show good blood, like the horses which they drive. Their strange appearance and the activity of their steeds render it amusing to traverse the streets of Petersburg. Thanks to its inhabitants, and, in despite of its architects, this city resembles no other in Europe.
The Russian coachmen sit upright on their seats ; they always drive at great speed, but with safety. The precision and quickness of their eye is admirable. Whether with two or four horses, they have always two reins to each horse, which they hold with the arms much extended. No impediment stops them in their course; men and horses, both half wild, scour the city at full speed : but nature has rendered them quick and adroit, consequently, notwithstanding the reckless daring of these coachmen, accidents are of rare occurrence in the streets of Petersburg. They have often no whip, or when they have one, it is so short that they can make no use of it. Neither
