persons. It is warmly lined with rich furs; and to prevent the lower extremities of the occupier from being cold, has an apron (like those of our curricles) formed of green or crimson velvet, bordered with gold lace. On a step behind, stand the servants with appropriate holders. This place is often filled by gentlemen when accompanying ladies on a sledging party.

The horses attached to this conveyance are the pride of the opulent. Their beauty and value are more considered than the sledge itself. The excess of vanity amongst the young officers and nobility here, consists in driving about two animals whose exquisite elegance of form, and playfulness of action, attract the attention of every passenger. The form of these horses is slight and Arabic, possessing the grace of an Italian greyhound with a peculiar lightness and looseness of pace. One only, is placed in the shafts which never alters its pace from a rapid trot: the other is widely traced by its side; and is taught to pace, curvet, and prance, in the most perfect taste of a finished manège. Their tails and manes are always of an enormous length; a beauty so admired by the Russians that twenty horses out of thirty have false ones. Indeed this custom is so prevalent, that frequently the most rascally Rosinante and pigmy Fin-galloway have long artificial appendages, richly clothed with knots of dirt, hanging as low as the ground.

But to return to the sledge horses. The harness of these creatures is curiously picturesque, being studded with polished brass or silver, hundreds of tassels, intermixed with embossed leather and scarlet cloth. These strange ornaments give the trappings an air of eastern barbaric splendor, perfectly consonant with the animal's shape. However, as every carriage in Russia (even should it be built in the excesses of the British mode), is drawn by horses thus romantically caparisoned, the union is sometimes monstrous: and I have often felt the contradiction so forcibly, as to remind me of an absurd sight I once saw at home. It was an Indian chief in a London assembly. He was decorated with chains, shells, and tiger's teeth, while all the spruce, powdered beaux around him were in the extreme of European costume.

The passion of the Russians for rapid motion, has produced the sport called a sledge race. A regular course for that purpose is kept always smooth, and railed off upon the Neva. Crowds assemble there to witness the wonderful velocity with which this race is performed. The species of horse used on this occasion is an animal whose swiftest pace is a peculiar sort of trot. No race is ever run quicker. Indeed the rapidity of this is incredible, being not at all inferior to that of a gallop. The sledge horses never step out in the usual way, but are taught to lift up both legs on the same side, which gives their motion a singular appearance. By this habit the action of the horse's body is doubled, and their speed consequently increased twofold. I do not yet know whether regular matches are made; or whether the spirit of sport produces bets, &c. I did not perceive any symptoms of this species of gambling, nor did I investigate that important question; contenting myself with surveying the tout ensemble merely as a picture of rude magnificence.

The surrounding winter scenery; the picturesque sledges and their fine horses; the scattered groups of the observing multitude; the superb dresses of the nobility, their fur cloaks, caps, and equipages, adorned with coloured velvets and gold; with ten thousand other touches of exquisite nature, finished the scene, and made it seem like an Olympic game from the glowing pencil of Rembrandt.

I will now give you an idea of the constituent parts of the animated objects of this scene. I mean the figures and habits of the personages present. The nobility of both sexes, when not enveloped in pelisses, appear in our fashions, only a little more à la Française. But it is in the dress of the peasant, the simple covering with which the unsophisticated native of the snows of Russia shields himself from the cold, that we find the characteristic garb of these northern regions. The head is protected from the inclemency of the weather by caps of velvet and fur, some round, others square in the Hulan form, or varied according to the choice of the wearer. A long kaftan of blue or brown cloth reaching below the knees, fitting close to the shape without any cape, and crossing diagonally the breast

(being fastened with cylindrical buttons of brass or white metal till it reaches the bottom of the waist), is the body's covering. Round the waist is a sash of crimson worsted net, like those worn by British officers. In this they place their gloves, or if they be labourers, their hatchets. Their necks are completely bare of any other shelter than their hair which hangs down in straight locks all around it. Their shirts and trowsers are of coarse linen striped with either red or blue. Thick swathes of rags are rolled about their legs to keep out the cold, over which they pull a pair of large and ill constructed boots. Those who do not arrive at the luxury of these leathern defences, increase the swathings to such a bulk by wrappings and cross bandages, that their lower extremities appear more like flour sacks than the legs of men. When thus bulwarked, they stuff them into a pair of enormous shoes, made very ingeniously from the bark of the linden tree, at the expense of three halfpence. Their mode of habiliment undergoes no other alteration during the winter, than perhaps exchanging the kaftan for a sheepskin of the same form. This style of dress appertains to the commonalty alone, and it is curious to observe how closely it resembles that worn by the English in the reign of Richard the Second. I draw my ideas on this subject from our monumental remains of that period, when it was usual to commemorate the form of the deceased in the very habit he wore when alive. Any one who has considered the old tombs in our cathedrals, or has studied the costume to be seen in many illuminated manuscripts extant, will not doubt of the fact, but immediately perceive that the peasantry of Russia in the nineteenth century, are contemporaries in fashion with those of England in the fourteenth.

You will necessarily expect that my gallantry cannot over. look the personal decorations of the fair ladies of the same degree of rank: but alas! this race of the lovely sex are such contradictions to their usual appellation, that I fear you will think me a very uncivil commentator. However, judge for yourself. They are generally stunted, clumsy, round faced, small featured, and sallow complexioned. The latter defect they strive to remedy by a profusion of paint of various hues, which they

daub on with as little taste as art. The wives of the lowest classes wear a short gown of blue woollen cloth, bound with divers colours, most glaringly imitating the rainbow interlinings on their faces. The waist is usually fastened by a close row of cylindrical buttons. Their heads are ordinarily bound with a flowered handkerchief of the gayest pattern, terminating beneath the chin. On holidays, a little front of gold and coloured stones is added, formed like the diadem of Juno. In the most excessive cold this slight coëffure is the only covering for the head; but for the shelter of the body, the ever-valuable and customary sheepskin is applied to, in the shape of an English peasant's bedgown. Warm stockings and boots are the defence for the legs.

The wives of mechanics and Russ merchants dress with more taste and costliness. Their gowns are of rich brocade, and their heads fantastically adorned with pearls. Their cloaks are shaped like the doublet of Sir John Falstaff, and of the same materials; being velvet, either crimson, scarlet, or purple, lined and caped with sable fur of the most expensive sort. They also wear boots, made of leather or velvet, according to the pecuniary ability of the purchaser. Indeed this invention for the comfort of the leg is so respected here, that the smallest infants, just able to crawl, are encumbered sooner with boots than with shirts.

I must not omit to mention one odd custom. As soon as a woman enters into the happy state of matrimony, she binds up the whole of her hair beneath the dress of her head. In the days of her maidenhood she wears it platted, like the Chinese, and tied with a bunch of ribbands at the end. I could not learn the origin of this practice: and like many unaccountable usages in other countries, I believe it is now followed merely because it is an ancient custom.

Russia contains but two classes of people, the nobles and the slaves. If a third may be admitted (and such a one is rapidly creating itself), it will be the merchants. Should we mingle. foreigners with the natives, we have then a decided third class already, composed of merchants and other genteel settlers from various countries. Including these, with the inhabitants and

military of the city, I am told that three hundred thousand is nearly the population of St. Petersburgh. If we estimate the divisions of so numerous an assemblage, what a multitudinous body must be the slaves. Probably thirty thousand may be the amount of the aliens: and if we allow seventy thousand for the court and the military, then two hundred thousand are the residue of the populace, or slaves. These latter people, who are usually slaves to the crown or the nobles, are universally goodnatured, and possess a wonderful ingenuity and quickness of apprehension. At present their shrewdness is so apparent in bargains, that if in making any, you do not compel them to give written articles of agreement, you may be sure of being cheated in every possible way. A little while ago I spoke of. their Spartan modes of speech; I can also pay them the compliment of registering their Spartan mode of action, as a dextrous theft in the way of overreaching, is regarded by them as the very triumph of their genius.

Formerly the whole nation was most lamentably addicted to inebriety: but the exertions and example of Peter the Great soon rooted out this detestable practice from amongst the higher orders; and at the same time laid the exterminating ax to many other vices of similar enormity. However fond the ancient nobility may have been of the mantling goblet's sparkling juice, their modern descendants are the most abstemious with regard to wine and other strong liquids, I ever met with. Drunkenness is nowhere to be seen but with the lower ranks; and they, like the swine in the gospel, have so potently imbibed the foul fiend, as to be carried headlong to their destruction. During the chilling blasts of winter, when the congealed blood seems to demand some generous cordial to dissolve its rigidity and warm the heart, it is then that we see the intoxicated native stagger forth from some open door, reel from side to side, and meet that fate which in the course of one season freezes thousands to death. The common career of a poor creature thus bewildered, is truly distressing. After spending perhaps his last copeck in a dirty, hot kaback or public house, he is thrust out by the keeper as an object no longer worthy of his attention. Away the impetus carries him, till he is brought