CHAPTER IX.

MAJOR THOMPSON BROWN-DROSKYS

STREETS-MILITARY-FAREWELL

THE YACHT

VISITORS

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WEDDING-GOSTINNOI DVORST. PETERSBURG RETURN TO REGATTA CRONSTADT -MR. WILKINS DANGEROUS POSITION VISIT FROM GRAND DUCHESS OF OLDENBURGH AND FAMILY STEAMBOAT PARTY AND IMPERIAL BAND-THE EMPEROR QUEEN DOWAGER OF HOLLAND-NARROW ESCAPE.

Ir gave me great pleasure to meet in St. Petersburg with Major Thompson Brown, Consulting Engineer to the emperor. This accomplished gentleman and his excellent lady were my old friends and fellow-townspeople in Newport, and here I found them most happily situated. The position which this gentleman occupies is one of great responsibility, and brings him into frequent contact with the emperor and the officers of state. Major Brown resides a few miles out of the city, in a delightful country villa. I was on my way to visit him, when horseflesh gave out, and I was reluctantly compelled to abandon the pleasure. I have been much amused with the drosky. This is the great carriage of the Russian everywhere. It has four wheels, and a long seat with a cushion; this seat is quite low. It is usually drawn by two horses; it has no top, and accommodates two persons, who have their feet on different sides of the seat. One horse is in the shafts, which are very strong, and made fast to the collar by leather thongs, and joined by a bow, four feet high, called a dooga, arching over the neck of the horse; at this point the traces start a foot back of the collar, rivetted to the shafts, and thence run to the axle outside the hubs of the front wheels. A stylish turn-out is a drosky, with one horse, a

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trotter, in the shafts, and a horse alongside in traces, made fast to a stationary bar, one end of which projects a couple of feet outside of the front end of the drosky. The rig of this horse is independent of the other, excepting his attachment, by an inside rein six feet long, to the saddle-girt of the shaft-horse. This rein enables him to travel at pleasure at an angle of about thirty degrees from the other, and he is kept at that angle by a rein from the outside of his bit running through a ring in his breeching to the hands of his driver, who holds the reins for the shafthorse and one for this side animal; the particular department of which last one is to make a flourish, going on at a gallop, to which he has been trained, and swinging his head and neck, from the level of his body, towards the ground constantly. An extra flash establishment is with two outside prancers, one on either side the shaft-horse. This enables a fast trotter to travel with a galloping horse without discomfort to either, and produces no irregular motion in the vehicle.

The horses in the city are very fine, and some of the carriagehorses are quite large, and of excellent action. The harnesses are all light, if we except the collar, and many of them are richly adorned with polished plates of silver and brass.

On the Sabbath, which we spent in St. Petersburg, we found a wedding-feast celebrated at our hotel; and, in going to our dining-room at supper-time, the waiter took us through the room where the festivities were going on. Excellent music and spirited dancing seemed to have put the party into high spirits.

Our purchases took us into every part of the city, and, of course, we visited the far-famed Gostinnoi Dvor. This is an immense bazaar, where everything you can fancy or wish for is exposed for sale. It is a wonderful structure, extending through several streets, and reminded me of the great fairs which I remember in England in my early days, but which are now nearly abolished. The various trades are here found keeping company in their proper classes. The proprietors of these

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booths and stalls are perfectly importunate, and not a queerer set of men have I often seen. They stand waiting at their doors, and are as ready to solicit custom as a Chatham-street son of Abraham. On many of these stores I noticed a paltry picture of some saint, and in front of it a little lamp, burning. Here we bought boots, slippers, shoes, cushions, mats; and some of the ladies made expensive investments in sables, ermines, and other furs. On the Saturday we saw a great many of these shops closed, and the doors fastened with a string, and red seal upon it. Mr. Evans informed us that the Jews considered this a more secure fastening than the strongest lock, to protect their property. The engravings which we selected were very expensive, and were all of them executed in Paris, and when in that city I found it impossible to obtain them. In all parts of the city we found men vending tea and ice-water, quass, and other refreshments. We noticed, on three occasions, a large, shut-up, dark-looking carriage, with no windows, and door locked, escorted by twelve or sixteen soldiers. These were prisoners on their way to justice, or about to go off to Siberia, the great Botany Bay of the empire. I was much pleased with the fruit-stalls and shops, and have rarely seen finer fruit. The apples were the choicest specimens I could desire; but, having been brought from the southern provinces, and kept through the winter, were extravagantly high in price. The egg-plums, apricots, grapes and melons, were all fine; but very costly, as we found out at a dessert ordered at our hotel. The bird bazaar is an extraordinary spot, and will well repay a visit. Here are linnets, goldfinches, bulfinches and nightingales, and many other birds with which I was unacquainted.

The general appearance of what we have seen in St. Petersburg has pleased me exceedingly. Here is a capital that may vie with any in Europe for splendor and magnificence; and it evidently bears the impress of firmness, and promises to become second in grandeur to no other metropolis. The streets present a gay appearance, painted white, yellow, and light-green. The

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spires, domes, and façades of churches and palaces, are seen thickly grouped, and the canals are wide and river-like, and sweep round with much beauty; and then the glorious Neva adorns the city far more than the Thames or Seine does London or Paris. The streets, too, are well planted with trees. I do not well understand where the poor reside, as there seem to be no lanes, courts or alleys; all is wide, spacious street. I imagine that they live in cellars, and burrow under shops and the mansions of the wealthy. The roofs of churches and the rest of the building often have little agreement, and styles of architecture are strangely jumbled together, Grecian façades, and Oriental, onion-shaped domes and cupolas. The police are dressed in the plainest garb, a drab long coat; one of this body is at every corner, armed with a desperate-looking axe. The military appear in the streets in considerable strength. The men seem to me

rather like machines, — no force of expression. The most of them are en route for the south and the disputed provinces. The music of the bands was very good. The serfs, who are so numerous, come every spring from the country; each has to obtain a permit. In the autumn these men return with their small earnings. No small income accrues to the government from the payment on these permits to come and go. In all parts of the city I have seen vast flocks of pigeons. These birds are held in sacred estimation, because the dove is the scriptural emblem of the third person of the holy Trinity.

I imagine that the population of this city is not far from six hundred and fifty thousand. I was informed by a medical gen1 tleman, long resident in Russia, that the mortality is great, and is unfavorable in comparison with other capitals of Europe.

We were all sorry when we had to bid adieu to this city of palaces, magnificent churches, and golden domes and spires. We cast one more look on that unrivalled square, a glance at the equestrian bronze, another at the ever-present admiralty spire, and we were on board the little steamer to take us to our noble

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ship. On getting on board the passage-boat, we met a goodly number of our friends to accompany us to Cronstadt; among them were Major Brown and his charming daughters, Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Mr. Bodisco, a Russian officer, and nephew of the minister from Russia to our country, and where our valued young friend has passed many years of his boyhood. We soon arrived at the yacht, and the day was spent most delightfully with our friends, to whom we had the happiness to receive an addition, in the company of Mr. and Mrs. Ropes, Mr. and Mrs. Prince, Mr. Endicot, of Boston, and several very agreeable and interesting English ladies, and also a number of French and Russian ladies and gentlemen, who came down in a charming little steamer, chartered for the occasion. Several of these little boats visited us during our anchorage, and hundreds of persons inspected the yacht with evident pleasure. More than once we had two steamers at once alongside. Mr. James Thall, a gentleman of great literary acquirements, and a remarkably good linguist, who had a country residence at Peterhoff, and paid members of our party polite attentions, came, with his family, in a fairy steamer. Amongst the numerous visitors at different times to the North Star, were Admiral Glassenoff, Prince Witgenstein, and Admiral Richord, the ex-Governor of Kamtschatka, an aged gentleman, of great good sense and tact. He examined everything carefully, and Mr. Vanderbilt was very much pleased with his visit. He is in command of the navy at Cronstadt. Whilst we were lying at anchor, we had the pleasure to witness the annual yacht regatta. The prize, I believe, was a We saw the vessels return

silver cup, given by the emperor. from the race of some seventy miles, and they all passed close to us. Some of them were very pretty schooners, and one noble one was evidently of English build, and had a happy-looking set of Englishmen on board. Mr. Baird's boat took the prize, if I remember rightly. We had, in our numerous parties who came on board, several treats in the efforts of ladies and gentlemen on