women more amiable and virtuous. Every country has its mauvais sujets! And anciently, as an unlimited licence to pleasure was given here, and exampled by those high in influence, it might be supposed that the seeds of libertinism, once sown in a nation, could never be eradicated; but it grew so rank during its short season, that I believe all is exhausted, and that the last generation carried with them into the other world not only the fruits but the roots of their cultivation. In short, it appears from what I have hitherto been able to judge, that for a city whose sole object is pleasure, Mosco possesses less of what is called fashionable vice, than may be found in countries where more seeming austerity is practised..

The promenade I have just mentioned, or more properly speaking the cavalcade, generally begins at the termination of the six weeks' fast. Many do indeed religiously abstain from food, in a manner that produces very alarming effects. After the sparest diet, with a weakened system, when the fast expires, they return to their usual full tables with an avidity which, unchecked, lays the foundation for numerous disorders. The female sex, particularly, are sufferers, who throwing themselves from a cloistered regimen and retirement immediately into repletion, and the stream of these equipages; thinly clad, and staying out late with open windows amid the damps of the evaporating earth, catch such colds as either end their days or embitter their lives. Medical men tell me that at this witching time of the year, there is more sickness, death, and misery, than at any other period in their practice.

Were such a concourse of carriages to assemble in our island, as here meet on the banks of the Moskva, fractured poles, broken sides, and maimed coachmen, footmen, &c. would be the certain consequences;

but a most admirable police is instituted both here and at St. Petersburgh, to prevent all confusion and disaster. This authority is invested in a detachment of soldiers, who having an imperious command over the procession, not only add to its magnificence but insure its safety.

Having escaped from this blaze of beauty without catching fire, and from the steaming earth without catching an ague, I call on you to congratulate on such a double miracle, your very affectionate friend.

LETTER XX.

Mosco, May, 1806.

THE 'HE first week in the vernal month of May! At this gay season, when pleasure wooes me in as many shapes as ever Armida assumed to charm away the wits of the doughty Rinaldo, I cut my way through all her wiles; if not by a hero's sword, at least with a friend's penknife and having pointed my quill, place myself firmly behind the shield of a sheet of paper, determined to fill it with a thousand of the enchantress's spent darts, before she draws me away from half an hour's converse with you!

You will not marvel at my heroics, when I tell you that I have just escaped from the very spell-bound wood of the fair magician! But I will relate all in order: and beginning with the usual style of longwinded story letters, you must know that the first of May is the brightest day in the Russian calendar of festivities. A wood, some versts from Mosco, is the spot dedicated to this annual enjoyment. The trees are already clothed with leaves, and the groves and bowers into which the sylvan scene is divided, are blooming with flowers, and every decoration that Pleasure, and her hand-maid Taste, can devise. To this spot all steps are directed: and once more the long procession of carriages sets forth. By the way, I must check my reins a moment, to tell you how your remark" that good rulers ought to turn even the pleasures of the people to the advantage of the state," has been honoured à priori in

Russia. Peter the Great instituted these cavalcades to make a part in all public festivities, that the building of carriages, and other manufactures useful in such shows, might be encouraged by more than an ordinary consumption. His plan took the desired effect, for the equipages are splendid to the utmost of their owner's stretch of fancy and purse: at this time the nobles try to outvie each other both in carriages and cattle. The caparisons are unusually gorgeous; and the result is remarkably fine, as they never drive fewer than four horses of the most admirable beauty. The servants are habited in dresses covered with gold and other costly materials; and the occupiers of the carriages sparkle in all their orders: the men according to their rank, and the ladies adorned with every charm of nature and taste.

The procession formed a string of several miles in length, taking its course through avenues of lofty fir-trees, broken by a variety of romantic openings, amid which were seen the joyous groupes of rugged natives and their gaudily dressed wives. At the appointed vernal spot, amongst the natural bowers of the wood, were planted marquées, belonging to the different nobility, filled with every species of elegant refreshment, and all sorts of amusements which could add to the exhilaration of the scene. This gay day ended with a fête champêtre given by the illustrious nephew of Suwarroff. It was the best fancied entertainment of the sort I ever saw; and so pleasant, that I hardly thought I had been there an hour, when the blaze of innumerable fire-works announced it to be midnight. Dancing and a splendid supper finished the festival.

The day following happening to be the anniversary of the birth-day of the young Countess Orloff (the daughter of Count Alexey Orloff, the

victor at Chesma, so well-known in the reign of Catherine II.), she became the lady of that day's revels. She is amiable and accomplished, and in every respect reflects honour upon her rank and fortune.

I obeyed her summons, about two o'clock in the day; and found the superb mansion of her father already filled with the most distinguished nobility in Mosco. Stars blazed in all directions, ribbons crossed the eye at every turn; and uniforms of various colours,, enriched with gold and silver, gave a magnificence to the whole not to be described. The ladies were arrayed in all their diamonds, pearls, and beauty, both real and artificial, and congratulated the young heiress most warmly on her birth-day.

A sumptuous dinner, or banquet, spread with the luxury of an imperial repast was next in rotation. Music, vocal and instrumental, resounded from all sides: and when the health of the lady was drunk, a flourish of kettle-drums and trumpets rent the air, and peals of ordnance (to those who saw them not) reduced by their thunder the roar of festivity to the murmuring of distant merry-making.

I happened to be gone into an adjoining room at the moment of one of these explosions, and most unluckily for their future effect on my senses, got a peep behind the scenes. I found that these repeated seeming discharges of cannon were produced by an accumulation of cows' bladders distended with wind, and rapidly laid in succession on large blocks of wood, where, with the velocity of a steam-engine, they were burst at once by the action of a ponderous mould or mallet. A friend of mine stood near me, and observed with a smile, that we were now let into