Of their Diversions and Entertainments. 41 these stones; by this process the room is immediately filled with vapour. Round the walls are benches or scaffolds, affording every person the choice of an atmosphere more or less hot, as the bench is higher or lower from the ground. The bathers sit or lie in this hot vapour, which produces such a perspiration, as without actual experiment cannot be well conceived. To promote this still more, it is the common practice for the bathers to be gently beaten with dry bunches of leaf twigs of birch, and then rubbed down with woollen cloths. Almost all the hospitals and public institutions of every kind are provided with such baths: and even among the higher classes of the inhabitants of the city, the vapour bath is used as a necessary of life, as well as a luxury. The games in practice with the common people, for recreation and amusement, are all extremely simple, requiring only exertion and agility. In their invention they are entirely national; the populace of the towns, notwithstanding their long acquaintance with foreigners, having never learnt to mingle any foreign manners with their pastimes. In all the streets, especially in winter, nothing is more common than to see men or boys wrestling or boxing. This is merely a diversion, being seldom or never the effect of anger or quarrels, but usually engaged in from a good-humoured challenge, perhaps, in winter, for the purpose of keeping themselves warm. No less general is the game of foot-ball, particularly among the drivers of sledges and drojekas plying at their stands for a fare. A large ball stuffed with feathers is kicked about; and he who succeeds in catching it or picking it up with his hands, in spite of the kicks and cuffs of his playmates, carries off the prize of nuts or money. Chess and drafts are likewise very common with the Russian populace. In the large squares, or under the arcades of the shops, people of the lowest classes are every day seen amusing themselves at these games, and many of them in a masterly way. The most common amusement is the swing, which every where, and at all times, is used as an amusement by persons of rank and condition; but at Easter it is the grand diveisia of the holidays. The swings may be divided into three sorts: some have a vibrating motion, and these are the most common, well known in German and England; others are turned round in a perpendicular, and others again in a horizontal direction. The first of thes latter species consists of two high posts, on the top of which rest au axle, having ovo pair of poles fixed in its centre. Each of these pair of poles has at its two extremities a scat suspended to a moveable axis. The proprietor, by turning the axis that rests on the two posts, makes all the eight seats go round in a perpendicular circle, so that they alternately almost touch the ground, and then are mounted aloft in the air.The last kind is composed of chairs, chariots, sledges, wooden horses, swans, goats, &c. fastened at the extremities of long poles, and force i rapidly round in a horizontal circle. In the Easter holidays all kinds of machines are set up in the public squares; and as the common people are remarkably fond of the diversion, it is a joyful season to the populace, who then devote themselves without restraint to their national propensity to mirth. In the vicinity of the swings at the Russian fairs, booths are usual ly-run up of boards, in which low comedies are performed. Each representation lasts about half an hour and the price of admittance is very trifling at as the confluence of people is extremely great, and 42 Of their Diversions and Entertainments. the acting goes on the whole day, the profits are always considerable both to the managers and performers, who share the amount between them. Ice-hills are exceedingly common, and afford a perpetual fund of amusement to the populace during the Russian carnival. Every icehill is constructed in the following manner: a scaffolding is raised upon the frozen river, about thirty feet high, with a landing place at top, the ascent to which is by a ladder. From this summit a sloping plain of boards, about four yards broad and thirty long, descends to the superficies of the river. Upon these boards are laid square masses of ice about four inches thick, which, being first smoothed with the axe, and laid close to each other, are then sprinkled with water; by which means they adhere to the board and to one another, and form an inclined plain of pure ice. From the bottom of this plain the snow is cleared away for the length of two hundred yards, and the breadth of four, upon the level bed of the river; and the sides of this course, as well as the sides and top of the scaffolding, are ornamented with firs and pines. Each person being provided with a sledge, something like a butcher's tray, mounts the ladder, and having attained the summit, he seats himself on his sledge at the upper extremity of the inclined plane, down which he suffers it to glide with considerable rapidity; the velocity acquired in the descent, carries it to more than one hundred yards upon the level ice of the river. At the end of the course there is usually another ice-hill similar to the former, which begins where the other ends; so that the person immediately mounts again, and in the same manner glides down the other plain of ice. The great difficulty consists in steering and poising the sledge as it is hurried down the inclined plain. Boys amuse themselves in skaiting down these hills: they glide chiefly upon one skait, being better able to preserve a proper balance upon one leg than upon two. In the gardens of Oranienbaum, a few miles from Petersburg, is a very extraordinary building, denominated the Flying Mountain: it is made of wood, supported upon brick walls, representing a mountain composed of three principal ascents, gradually diminishing in height, with an intermediate space to resemble vallies: from top to bottom is a floored way, in which three parallel grooves are formed. It is thus used: a small carriage containing one person being placed in the centre groove upon the highest point, goes with great rapidity down one hill; the velocity which it acquires in its descent carries it up a second, and so on till it arrives at the bottom of the area, when it is placed in one of the grooves, and drawn up by means of a cord fixed to a windlass. At the top of the mountain are several apartments for the court and principal nobility, and there is room for many thousand spectators within the colonnade and upon its roof. Near the Flying Mountain is a spacious amphitheatre, in which tournaments are usually exhibited. The roads approaching to the city of Petersburg are bordered on both sides with elegant villas. Most of them belong to private persons, and are used for the entertainment of themselves and their friends in a very hospitable manner. But, with still greater liberality, several persons of rank convert their gardens into places of public entertainment, to which all persons of decent appearance are at liberty to come. The country-seats of the two brothers Narishkin deserve here particular notice, as being frequented on Sundays by great numbers of the higher classes. A friendly invitation, in four differ Moscow, the Ancient Capital. 43 ent languages, inscribed over the entrance to the grounds, authorizes every one of decent appearance and behaviour to amuse himself there in whatever way he pleases, without fear of molestation. In several pavilions are musicians for the benefit of those who choose to dance: in others are chairs ready for the reception of any party who wish to recreate themselves by sedate conversation, after roaming about with the throng. Some take to the swings, the bowling-green, and other diversions. On the canals and lakes are gondolas, some constructed for rowing, others for sailing; and refreshments are bountifully spread on tables in particular alcoves, or are handed about by servants in livery. Annual Market on the Neva. At the conclusion of the long fast, which closes on the fourth of Jannary, the Russians lay in their provisions for the remaining part of the winter: for which purpose an annual market, which lasts three days, is held upon the river near the fortress. A street, more than a mile in length, is lined on each side with an immense store of provisions, sufficient for the supply of the capital during the three following months. Many thousand raw carcases of oxen, sheep, hogs, pigs, and poultry of all kinds, and every species of frozen food, are expos ed to sale. The larger quadrupeds are grouped in various circles upright, their hind legs fixed in the snow, with their heads and fore legs turned towards each other. These occupy the hindermost row: next to them succeed a regular series of animals, descending gradually to the smallest, intermixed with poultry and game hanging in festoons, and garnished with heaps of fish, butter and eggs. It is observable, that many birds, as well as several animals in these northern regions, become white in winter; many hundred black cocks being changed to that colour; and some may at this season be seen, which have been taken before the metamorphosis is completed, exhibiting a variegated mixture of black and white plumage. The most distant quarters contribute to supply this vast store of provisions; and the finest veal is sent by land-carriage as far as from Archangel, which is eight hundred and thirty miles from Petersburg, yet every species of food is exceedingly cheap; butcher's meat of every kind, from a penny to three half-pence per pound, geese at tenpence each, large pigs at eight-pence, and other articles in proportion. In order to render frozen food fit for dressing, it must be first thawed in cold water. Moscow, the Ancient Capital. We arrived, says Dr. Clark, at the season of the year in which this city is most interesting to strangers. Moscow is in every thing extraordinary; as well in disappointing expectation as in surpassing it; in causing wonder and derision, pleasure and regret. Let me conduct the reader back with me again to the gate by which we entered, and thence through the streets. Numerous spires, glittering with gold, amidst burnished domes and painted palaces, appear in the midst of an open plain, for several versts before you reach this gate. Having passed, you look about, and wonder what has become of the city, or where you are; and are ready to ask, once more, How far is it to Moscow? They will tell you, "This is Moscow!" and you bebold nothing but a wide and scattered suburb, huts, gardens, pigsties, brick walls, churches, dunghills, palaces, timber-yards, warehouses, and a refuse, as it were, of materials sufficient to stock an empire 44 Customs of the Inhabitants of Tobolsk, &c. with miserable towns and miserable villages. One might imagine all the states of Europe and Asia had sent a building, by way of representative, to Moscow: and under this impression the eye is presented with deputies from all countries, holding congress: timber huts from regions beyond the Arctic; plastered palaces from Sweden and Denmark, not whitewashed since their arrival; painted walls from the Tyrol; mosques from Constantinople; Tartar temples from Bucharia; pagodas, pavilions, and virandas from China; cabarets from Spain; dungeons, prisons and public offices from France; architectural ruins from Rome; terraces and trellisses from Naples; and warehouses from Wapping.* On the invasion of Russia by the French during the late war, this ancient capital was desolated by a tremendous fire: but it has risen in greater splendour from its ashes. Its condition five years after that event, is thus described by Dr. Macmichael. "Of the ruins of a city that had contained between 3 and 400,000 souls, many vestiges were still visible; but the great advances made towards obliterating the traces of the disaster were almost inconceivable. Before the conflagration, which commenced on the 3d Sept. 1812, the houses of Moscow were estimated numerically at 12,000, but under each number were sometimes comprehended two, three, and sometimes even four distinct dwellings. The greater part were of wood, the rest were built of brick, faced with stucco; of the whole number, it was calculated that nine-tenths were consumed. The quarter of the town called Bielgorod, (the White City) was preserved by the exertions of the French; and the Kremlin, where Buonaparte ived, remained untouched, till the morning of the 23d October, when several parts of it were destroyed by the four distinct explosions that announced the final departure of the enemy." By the two first, part of the walls and one of the Towers towards the river were destroyed; by the third, the church of St. Nicholas, and the four great bells of Moscow were blown up with tremendous violence, and the Tower of Ivan Veliki was rent from the top to the base. By the fourth, the walls of the arsenal, upwards of three yards in thickness, with part of the gate of St. Nicholas, and several adjacent pinnacles, were at once blown into the air, by a concussion which shook the whole city to its foundation. The Inhabitants of Tobolsk, Kurgan, &c. in Siberia. The streets of Tobolsk are paved, or rather planked, with timber. The market-place is very spacious, where, besides provisions and articles of the first necessity, large quantities of Chinese and European goods are exposed to sale. Fish of all kinds are in great abundance here. In the neighbourhood of this town the peasants are too indolent to carry away, by degrees, the dung of their cow-houses and stables; it is a fact, that they are frequently obliged to pull down their houses, and take the materials to another place, where they erect them again. At the distance of a day's journey from Kurgan, in Siberia, the place to which M. Kotzebue was banished, is a village where travellers of all descriptions are accommodated with well-furnished cham * This account applies to Moscow before the conflagration of 1812. P. |