almost all the artists are Russians, and in their various departments displayed great taste and ingenuity.

From this place we visited the hotel of the Prince Usupoff, a very noble edifice, but, like all the great houses of the nobility, presented a scene of uncommoon neglect and dirt in the front of the court yard; for example, several of the broken windows of the basement story were filled with hay, and in the yard lay offal-meat, bones, shells, and horse dung, here 'and there half concealed by grass growing above The prince has a fine gallery of paintings. and statutes, which he has collected at a vast expeuse in Italy: most of the subjects are in the highest degree voluptuous.

the stones.

After quitting Petersburg, having travelled some stages, we passed over the ground where, on the 30th November, 1700, Charles routed one hundred thousand Muscovites with eight thousand Swedes. History says, that upon the first discharge of the enemy's shot, a ball slightly grazed the King's lef shoulder; of this he at the time took no notice: soon after his horse was killed, and a second had his head carried away by a cannon-ball. As he was nimbly mounting the third, "These fellows," says he,

"make me exercise.'

We left Narva at seven the next morning, and en tered the province of Livonia. The roads were excellent, and the country beautiful: our horses small, plump, and strong; and above we were serenaded by larks singing in a cloudless sky. Our drivers wore hats covered with oil-skin, and woollen gloves; and the German pipe began to smoke. At the post-house at Kleinpringern, we saw the skins of several bears hanging up to dry; and conversed with a party of hunters, who were going in pursuit of that animal, with which, as well as with wolves, the woods on each side abound. Here let me recommend every traveller to take an additional number of horses to his carriage, otherwise he will experience the incoveni

ence which attended us before we reached Rennapungen, the next stage, where our horses made a decisive stand in the depth of a dark forest, the silence of which was only interrupted by the distant howling of bears.

The following day we passed through a country which, no doubt, was a perfect paradise in the estimation of the race of Bruins; to whom I left its unenvied enjoyment, to sit down to a comfortable dinner at Nonal, the next stage, having abundantly replenished our stock of provisions at Narva. After skirting a small portion of the Piepus lake, a vast space of water, eighty versts broad, and one hundred and sixty long, we arrived at Dorpt, which stands upon a small river that communicates with the lake. The town is extensive, has several good streets and handsome houses, and is celebrated for its university, in which there are twenty-four professors, and one hundred and forty students, one-third of whom are noble. Upon the summit of a hill that commands the town are the remains of a vast and ancient abbey, which was founded by the knights of the Teutonic order, now repairing for the reception of the university library; the palace of the grand master occupied the spot where the fortifications are building. The Teutonic order was established in the twelfth century, and dedined in the fifteenth. In a crusade against Saladin, for the recovery of the Holy Land, a great number of German volunteers accompanied the Emperor Barbarossa: upon whose death his followers, who had distinguished themselves on that spot where, several centuries afterwards, it was destined that Sir Sidney Smith, with unexampled heroism, should plant the British standard, before Acre, elected fresh leaders, under whom they performed such feats of valour, that Henry, king of Jerusalem, the Patriarch, and other Princes, instituted an order of knighthood in their favour, and were ultimately placed under the protection of the Virgin Mary; in honour of whom

VOL. XXVII.

they raised several magnificent structures at Mariens borg, or the city of the Virgin Mary, near Dantzig Afterwards growing rich, they elected a grand master, who was invested with sovereign, prerogatives: by the bulls that were granted in their favour, they were represented as professing temperance and continence; virtues which, no doubt, were religiously observed by soldiers, and travelled men of gallantry.

The prison of Dorpt, in which a number of unfortunate creatures are immured, is a subterranean vault, damp, dark, narrow, and pregnant with disease and misery. To be confined in it is, in general, something worse than being sent to the scaffold; for a lin gering death is the usual fate of the wretch upon whom its gates are closed. Hanway, in the name of justice and humanity, denounced this dungeon: to the present Emperor some recent representations have been made upon the subject; they will not be made in vain.

Upon turning the corner of a street, we beheld a sight at once shocking and humiliating to the pride of man; a vast pile of skulls and bones of the terrific and ambitious knights of the Teutonic order. In breaking up some cemeteries, for erecting the foundation of a new university, these wretched remains were removed, The students at the university seem desirous of retains ing in their dress some traces of the martial founders of the town, by wearing great military boots and spurs, a common coat, and a leather helmet with an iron, crest: a costume less appropriate could not easily have been imagined. The peasant women of this province are very ordinary, and wear huge pewter breastbuckles, upon their neck handkerchiefs.

At Uttern, the first stage, we found the governor of the province had ordered all the post-horses, for himself and suite, and was expected every hour, to return from a singular species of service. It appeared, that an ukase had been passed, considerably, ameliorating the condition of the Livonian peasants,, but the

nature of it having been mistaken by three or four villages in the neighbourhood of the post-house, they revolted. Two compares of infantry were marched against them, and after flogging half a dozen of the principal farmers, tranquillity was restored, and we niet the soldiers returning. This spirit of disaffection detained us at this post-house all night for want of horses.

At night a Russian, apparently of rank of a power ful and majestic figure, and elegant manners, arrived. after a very agreeable conversation at breakfast, he departed early in the morning for Moscow, to which city he gave us a cordial invitation: the stranger proved to be count P- Z, who took the lead in the gloomy catastrophe which occurred in the palace of Saint Michael.

In all the post-houses is a tablet, framed and glazed, called the tuxe, on which is printed the settled price of provisions, horses, and carriages. Travelling is still continued 'cheap, at the rate of ten-pence English for eight horses for an English mile; but it was painful to see the emaciated state of these poor animals. The roads still continued dreadfully sandy; we were seldom able to go above three versts an hour.

In the last stage to Riga we overtook a long line of little carts, about as high as a wheel-barrow, filled with hay or poultry, attended by peasants dressed in great slouched hats and blue jackets, going to market: the suburbs are very extensive. The town is fortified, and is a place of great antiquity; it is remarkable only for one thing, that there is nothing in it worthy of observation.

The country to Mittau, which is twenty-eight miles from Riga, is very luxuriant and gratifying. As this road is much travelled, we bargained with a man, who let out horses at Riga, to furnish us with six, which were excellent, and two skilful drivers, to earry us throughout to Meriel. Although this part of ancient Poland, and the province of Livonia, constitute the granary of the north; we frequently founia

the bread intolerable; it seemed as ifto two pounds of rye one pound of sand had been added. We reached Mittau, the capital of Courland, in the evening; the first object that announced the town was the vast, inelegant, neglected palace of the late sovereigns of Courland, built of brick, stuccoed white, standing upon a bleak eminence, ungraced by a single shrub or tree. A great part of this ponderous pile was some years since burned down; a Dutch officer obtained a contract for rebuilding it; and having got drunk every day upon the profits of his coarse and clumsy ignorance, he died, leaving behind him the whole of the southern side of this building as his appropriate monument. Courland has been for some years incorporated with Russia, a junction which was managed by force and finesse. We departed from Mittau the next morning, and passed through the most en chanting forest scenery, composed of pines, aspins, oak, nut-trees, and larch; at some distance we saw a wolf cross the road. Upon quitting the luxuriant fields, and rich and cheerful peasantry, of the ci-devant duchy of Courland, a number of wooden cottages with high sloping roofs, and rows of crosses, about fifteen feet high, with large wooden crucifixes affixed to them, raised on the road side, and peasants with fur caps and short pelisses, announced that we were in that part of Poland which fell to the Russians in the last partition; a mere slip of land, not broader than ten English miles.

At Polangen, celebrated for the amber found in its neighbourhood, we reached the barrier of the Russian empire; a cossac of the Don, who stood at a circular senury-box, by the side of a stand of perpendicular spears, let slip the chain, the bar arose, and we dropped into a deep road of neutral sand, and at the distance of about an English mile and a half stopped to contemplate two old weather-beaten posts of demarcation, surmounted with the eagles of Prussia and Russia, badly painted, where, after we had, in mirth, in