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which meet in a point at the admiralty, are at least two miles in length. We have no street like this in London, Edward," observed the Doctor. "Oxford-street is the longest in the English metropolis, and that is only one mile and a quarter long. Our new street may indeed rival it for beauty in ar. chitectural design; but I very much doubt whether some of our national vanity will not receive a check from our foreign excursions."

EDWARD (Smiling,) "Prince Blucher said there was but one London in the world, Sir.”

DR. WALKER." You are incorrigible, Edward, and you will, I am sure, say as a friend of mine said when he returned from a continental tour. Upon being asked if he had not received much pleasure and amusement from his travels, he replied: Oh, yes, undoubtedly, it is all mighty fine; but I feel just as I do when I return from a crowded theatre, extremely delighted to have seen the shew; but heartily glad to be at home again!"

"Some few of the streets in Petersburg are floored with planks, and in several parts of this metropolis, wooden houses, little better than cottages, stand close to some of the public buildings. The houses of the nobility are very splendid, and are fitted up very like those in London or Paris. The views upon the banks of the Neva, exhibit the grandest and most lively scenes imaginable. This river is broad, deep, clear and rapid, and its shores richly ornamented with superb buildings on either side. On the north are the fortress and academy of sciences, and an academy of the arts; and on the opposite side are the imperial palace, admiralty, many private (but grand) mansions, and a row of houses called the English line, which is principally occupied by the merchants of Great Britain. In the front of these buildings is the quay. The opposite divisions of this city are connected by means of a bridge on platoons, which on account of the large masses of ice driven down the stream from the lake Ladoga, is usually removed when the frost first makes its appearance, and until the ice is hard enough to bear a carriage, which generally happens in the course of a few days, all communication between the opposite parts of the town are sus pended. Now that we are on the subject of ice, its extreme hardness may be learned from the following anecdote. During the severe winter of 1740, a palace of ice, 52 feet long, 16 wide, and 20 high, was built at Petersburg, according to

the most elegant rules of architecture. The river Neva afforded the ice, which was from two to three feet thick, blocks of which were cut and embellished with various ornaments. When built, the different parts were coloured by sprinkling them over with water of various tints. Six cannons, made of, and mounted on ice, with wheels of the same material, were placed before the palace; and an hempen bullet was driven by one of them, (in the presence of the whole court,) through a board two inches thick, at the distance of sixty paces."

EDWARD." Cowper, I believe, wrote the following beautiful lines upon this subject."

"No forest fell,

Imperial mistress of the fur-clad Russ

When thou would'st build; no quarry sent its stores

T'enrich thy walls; but thou didst hew the floods,

And make thy marble of the glassy wave,
Silently as a dream the fabric rose;

Ice upon ice, the well adjusted parts

Were soon conjoin'd; nor other cement ask'd
Than water interfused to make them one.
Lamps gracefully dispos'd, and of all hues,
Illumin'd every side. Long wavy wreaths
Of flowers, that fear'd no enemy but warmth,
Blush'd on the pannels, which were once a stream,
And soon to slide into a stream again."

DR. WALKER." Very correct, my young friend; and now what think you of that statue of Peter I.?" said the Doctor to his pupil-as they viewed this monument of gratitude and veneration erected to the memory of the founder of Russia's greatness; if not of the Russian empire.

EDWARD." That it is exquisitely beautiful. What a grand idea it was to place him on that huge rock instead of a pedestal; how finely the artist has given all the effect of eager toil to the spirited animal who bears the mighty Peter on his back!"

DR. WALKER.- "Yes; and observe how judiciously he has chosen that simple habit for Peter, which is not characteristic of any country, and therefore can never become otherwise than pleasing. Look at his eye, pointedly directed to some distant object, (the citadel, I suppose,) while on his countenance sits "deliberation and public care." His left hand holds the bridle; his right is extended, as Mr. Falco

nette, the artist, expressively describes it "En pere et en

maître."

EDWARD.

-

"The great Catherine, as she is called, caused this statue to be erected; did she not, Sir?"

"DR. WALKER." Yes; you see that simple inscription, Petro primo-Catherina secunda. The statue confers. on her as much honour as it does on Peter."

The cold setting in very intensely, Dr. Walker was glad to procure for himself and Edward fur pelisses, boots, and bonnets, which came down over their ears. In one of their rambles in the environs of the city, they met a peasant rubbing his face with snow in order to thaw it; for his nose was in danger of freezing; the other parts of his body were pretty well secured by his sheep-skin garment, the wool of which was turned inward, and bound round his waist by a girdle; his trowsers were of thick linen, and his legs were wound round with flannel iustead of stockings. This being the general dress of the Russian peasantry. The costume of the common women is not inelegant; it is composed of a petticoat, and a gay coloured tunic with white sleeves; and when a smart young Russian milk-woman has placed her ashen bow across her shoulders, to the end of which is suspended little jars, covered with matted birch bark, she presents a picture of graceful ease, that a painter might feel proud to copy. The Russians are generally well-formed, and are remarkable for fine teeth.

As they were making some few purchases in a jeweller's shop, the mistress of the house made her appearance in her visiting dress; she was very gaily attired. On the top of her cap was a large rich silk-handkerchief, which fell in folds behind upon the neck and shoulders; and before she quitted her house, she drew round her a comfortable and warm fur-pelisse.

"The buildings of the Russian villages strongly recal the earliest ages of architecture," said Doctor Walker, "they are formed of beams placed at certain distances, the spaces between which are fitted up with flax and moss. With the orders of architecture you are well acquainted, Edward; but perhaps you would never think of discovering in that rude building before us, the origin of the Doric order: and yet, upon a slight glance, you will there find the first rude traces every Doric ornament, except two, I mean the plinth and the abacus, which I do not observe in these Russian cottages,

of

The art of making bricks or tiles is supposed to have beer a very early discovery of man; and as the poles which were erected for the support of the walls, might, in the course of time, be much injured from being saturated with rain and dews, the idea of placing a brick or tile as a foundation for these poles to rest upon, appears but natural. This tile furnishes the plinth (for the ancient Doric had no base,) and as uniformity is in some degree to be found in most of the productions of man, the tile placed at top of the pole or shaft, by way of ornament, gives us the abacus. The spaces between these shafts being filled up with moss and clay, completing the walls; the roof became the next consideration. This we may at first suppose to have been flat, and formed by laying timbers across the top, (having the interstices filled up in the same way as those which composed the walls. You, of course, understand that in order to support these cross timbers, it would be necessary to lay a plank along the top of the four walls. The building in this state was found to be extremely damp, from the lodgment of the rain water on its top, hence arose the sloping roof, and that being erected, we shall see with ease all the different parts of the Doric order.

"First, the plinth, in the tile at the bottom; then the shaft, in the rude pole, or trunks of trees, which formed the of the walls.

support

"Then the abacus, in the corresponding tile at the top. "Then the architrave, in the beam which crosses these shafts, in order the better to support the roof.

"The spaces between the ends of the cross poles which form the flat roof being filled up, give us the fricze.

"The ends of these cross timbers, ornamented with deep cut lines, by way of ornament, forms the triglyphs, while the spaces between them being afterwards ornamented by the Grecians with bulls heads, were called metopes. The Romans generally enriched their metopes with Roman orders. "Above the frieze comes the cornice.

"An upper beam, crossing the frieze, answering to that forming the architrave, being surmounted by the ends of the rafters, which composed the sloping roof, and which in architecture form that ornament called denticles, gives us the whole of the orders. The stately oak is first an acorn, and the Nile, at its source, is but a small rippling stream. It is thus in the progress of arts and sciences! The origin of the Doric

order we have traced; that of the Corinthian ornament arose from a basket of vegetables thrown carelessly down, from which Callimachus formed this beautiful Grecian capital; and you remember Sancho would say, Rome was not built in one day.' So much for this subject; and now let us enter one of those sledges, and see whether the movement is as agreeable as that of an English hackney-coach."

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When they first started, they were not quite exempt from fears; for the rapidity with which they traverse the frozen snow, is hardly to be conceived but by those who have themselves travelled in this way. The drivers are, however, extremely skilful; but to a nervous person the number of these vehicles which are moving with such velocity in every direction, and a concussion against which appears almost inevitable, presents incessant causes of alarm.

There is one amusement which appears to form the principal delight of the Russians, that of singing. The hours of labour, as well as those devoted to recreation, are invariably enlivened by the song. As their airs are melod though they possess but little variety, and their voices are meperal musical, it is pleasing to hear on all sides this hum of che voices. Slavery still prevails in Russia; but the present Emperor Alexander has enfrancished many of the royal sert's in various parts of his dominions. At all times the slaves belonging to the crown have been in much easier circumstances than those depending upon private individuals. The former paid annually five roubles a year as their abrock or rent; but the rent of those depending on the nobles is regulated by their ability to get money; besides which each slave is obliged to work three days in the week for his proprietor.

SECTION III.

RUSSIAN NOBLES.

"HAVING visited the cottage of the peasant, we will take a glance, Edward," said Dr. Walker, " at one of the Russian palaces at least, and that shall be the palace of

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