results an anger the more lively because the advocates of both systems lack decisive reasons, and use the same terms to arrive at opposite conclusions.
It will be seen ere this that I take pleasure in digressions ; this species of irregularity leads me away like everything else that resembles liberty. I could only correct myself by offering excuses, and each time varying their oratorical expression; for then the trouble would exceed the pleasure.
The site of Peterhoff is the most beautiful that I have hitherto seen in Russia. A ridge of small elevation commands the sea, which borders the extremity of the park at about a third of a league from the palace ; the latter is built on the edge of this mount, which is almost perpendicular. Magnificent flights of steps have been formed, by which you descend from terrace to terrace into the park, where are found groves of great extent and beauty, jets d'eau, and artificial cascades in the taste of those at Versailles, and structures raised on certain elevated points, from whence may be seen the shores of Finland, the arsenal of the Russian navy, the isle of Kronstadt, and, at about nine leagues towards the right, St. Petersburg, the white city, which at a distance looks bright and lively, and with its palaces with pointed roofs, its temples of plastered columns, its forests of steeples that resemble minarets, has the appearance towards, evening of a wood of fir-
24
PARK OF PETEEHOFF.
trees, whose silvered tops are illuminated by the ruddy glare of some great fire.
There is but little variety of vegetation in the scenery of Ingria; that of the gardens is entirely artificial, that of the country consists of a few clumps of birch of a dull green foliage, and of avenues of the same tree planted as limits between marshy meadows, and fields where no wheat grows, for what can grow under the sixtieth degree of latitude ?
When I think of all the obstacles which men have conquered here in order to exist as a community, to build a city, and to maintain in it all the magnificence necessary to the vanity of great princes and great folks, I cannot see a lettuce or a rose without being tempted to exclaim — ' a miracle ! ' If Petersburg is a Lapland in stucco, PeterhofF is the palace of Armida under glass. I can scarcely believe in the real existence of so many costly, delicate, and brilliant objects, when I recollect that a few degrees farther north, the year is divided into a day, a night, and two twilights, of three months each.
One may ride a league in the imperial park of PeterhofF without passing twice under the same avenue : imagine, then, such a park all on fire. In this icy and gloomy land the illuminations are perfect conflagrations; it might be said that the night was to make amends for the day. The trees disappear under a decoration of diamonds, in each alley there are as many lamps as leaves ; it is Asia, not the real modern Asia, but the fabulous Bagdad of the Arabian Nights, or the more fabulous Babylon of Semi-ram is.
It is said that on the empress's birth-day, six thou-
FETE IN ГАЕК OF PETERHOFF.25
sand carriages, thirty thousand pedestrians, and an innumerable quantity of boats leave Petersburg to proceed to, and form encampments around, Peterhoff.
It is the only day on which I have seen a real crowd in Russia. A bivouac of citizens in a country altogether military, is a rarity. Not that the army was wanting at the fete, for a body of guards and the corps of cadets were both cantonned round the residence of the sovereign. All the multitude of officers, soldiers, tradesmen, serfs, lords and masters wandered together among the woods, where night was chased away by two hundred and fifty thousand lamps. Such was the number named to me; and though I do not know whether it was correct or not, I do know that the mass of fire shed an artificial light far exceeding in clearness that of the northern day. In Russia, the emperor easts the sun into the shade. At this period, of the summer, the nights recommence and rapidly increase in length; so that, without the illumination, it would have been dark for several hours under the avenues in the park of Peterhoff.
It is said, also, that in thirty-five minutes all the lamps of the illuminations in the park were lighted by eighteen hundred men. Opposite the front of the palace, and proceeding from it in a straight line towards the sea, is a canal, the surface of whose waters was so covered with the reflection of the lights upon its borders, as to produce a perspective that was magical: it might have been taken for a sheet of fire. Ariosto would perhaps have had imagination brilliant enough to describe all the wonders of this illumination : to the various groups of lamps, which
VOL. II.С
2ОГЕТЕ IN PARK OP PETEFJIOFF.
л*еге disposed with much taste and fancy, луеге given numerous original forms ; flowers as large as trees, suns, vases, bowers of vine leaves, obelisks, pillars, walls chased with arabesque work; in short, a world of fantastic imagery passed before the eye, and one gorgeous device succeeded another with inexpressible rapidity.
At the extremity of the canal, on an enormous pyramid of fire (it was, I believe, 70 feet high), stood the figure of the Empress, shining in brilliant white above all the red, blue, and green lights which surrounded it. It was like an aigrette of diamonds circled with gems of all hues. Every thing was on so large a scale that the .mind doubted the reality which the eye beheld. Such efforts for an annual festival appeared incredible. There was something as extraordinary in the episodes to which it gave rise, as in the fete itself. During two or three nights, all the crowd of which I have spoken encamped around the village. Many women slept in their carriages, and the female peasants in their earts. These conveyances, crowded together by hundreds, formed camps which Avcre very amusing to survey, and which presented scenes worthy of the pencil of an artist.
The Russian has a genius for the picturesque; and the cities of a day which he raises for his festal occasions, are more amusing, and have a much more national character than the real cities built in Russia by foreigners. The painful impression I have received since living among the Russians, is increased as I discover the true value of this oppressed people. The idea of what they could do if they were free, heightens the anger which I feel in seeing them as
a night's lodging.27
they now are. The ambassadors with their families and suites, as well as the strangers who have been presented, are boarded and lodged at the expence of the emperor. For this object a large and charming edifice, called the English palace, is reserved. The building is a quarter of a league from the imperial palace, in a beautiful park, laid out in the English taste, and so picturesque that it appears natural. The beauty of the waters, and the irregularities of the surface, an irregularity rarely seen in the environs of Petersburg, render it very pleasant. This year, the number of foreigners being greater than usual, there is not room for them in the English palace. I do not therefore sleep there, but I dine there daily with the diplomatic corps and seven or eight hundred other individuals, at a perfectly well-served table. This is certainly magnificent hospitality. In lodging at the village, it is necessary, after dressing in uniform, to proceed in my carriage, in order to dine at this table, at which presides one of the great officers of the empire.
For the night, the director general of the theatres of the court has placed at my disposal two actor's boxes in the theatre of Peterhoff, and this l0d2;ino· is the envy of every one.* It lacks nothing except a bed ; and fortunately I brought my little iron couch from Petersburg. It is an indispensable necessary for an European travelling in Russia,
