they term the fascinating suspense of these amusements, that the want of them would be worse than a penance. However, as suspense of any kind is purgatory to me, I have not yet learnt their art; and as you hold the whole in contempt from spade-ace down to a tetotum, I will make my bow to the cardtable, and turn to more congenial subjects.

However, you will perceive by all that I have formerly said, that the Russians are also particularly fond of pleasures out of doors. Their cavalcades, promenades, and fêtes champêtres in the summer; and their sledging parties in the winter, are not a little friendly to hilarity and health. A thousand gay excuses are formed to take them into the air; and so, for once, fashion is favourable to the wholesome. For instance, I went the other afternoon to a spectacle where all the beauty and rank of Mosco were assembled. It was to see a Frenchman ascend in a balloon, (for there is hardly a nation in the known world whom their flights do not set agape!) Here I had an opportunity of not only enjoying the fresh air, the sight of so many lovely women, but also of observing the excellence of that police I before spoke of: multitudes of people, and a crowd of carriages, not to be numbered, were on the spot. Not an altercation ensued; every vehicle moved on and off in rotation, remaining perhaps for the space of a minute until the soldiers of the police had ascertained whether its proprietor was ready to reenter. If not, the next drove up, and so the rest in order. It is a military arrangement; and as such all its officers and soldiers are regimentally clothed. They are well mounted, and also well vested with authority; which I have frequently seen applied to the heads and backs of the boors and coachmen.

One amusement I must not omit noticing, which they call coursing. In my mind, when managed with even the most plausible address, it can never be a humane pastime; and as it is ordered here it is a cruel one. With us it has an apology in the health produced by its attendant exercise, and the delights of a pleasurable suspense. But here the recreation is so simplified, that it hardly seems to contain any thing but the murder of the animal. In England we have the social anxiety of beating an interesting and extensive country, and of following the

game, when sprung, for several hours, in swift and jocund pur suit. The attention kept awake, the spirits exhilarated, and life imbibed in every coming gale, give an intoxication to the senses which may very readily make the huntsman forget the sufferings of the chase. But here all is the reverse.

A few days ago I was invited to be a spectator of one of these scenes: and obeying the summons, soon found myself on the extensive plain which extends along one side of the city. A concourse of people of all ranks was assembled, with about a hundred and twenty greyhounds in couples. These animals are formed with the nicest symmetry, and they are so strong and powerful in their hold, that nothing they once strike their teeth into ever escapes. Their coats are uncommonly beauti ful, and the hair on their tails so redundant, that they are usually called fantailed greyhounds.

On the same spot where the group had met, were boxes placed at certain distances, each containing a hare which had been previously snared and cooped in this solitary habitation till the day of the sport. At an appointed moment the amateur, to whom the dogs belonged, and for whose entertainment this lively and humane pastime was prepared, gave the word! when suddenly one of the little creatures was let loose from its pri son; and almost as soon, two of the hounds were untied and allowed to pursue it. The start the poor hare had was probably not more than three hundred yards; of course the chase was very brief. The terrified animal was soon overtaken, and after a few doubles the canine pair buried their teeth in the heart of the panting fugitive. About thirty of these miserable little creatures fell in this manner; each coursed by fresh dogs; and each destroyed almost immediately on being started.

The promoter of the diversion did not seem to enjoy it greatly, and as small a degree of animation appeared in the faces of the spectators. Indeed, from what I have seen of this amusement, as well as of Russian horse-racing, I must suppose that the habits of this country are inimical to the activity of blood which rushes through the veins of an English hunter, shooter, or racer. Our early education to exercise of all sorts gives a stimulus to mind and body that impels Englishmen to

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undertake every enterprise with intrepidity, and confirms them to pursue it with an undaunted resolution to overcome. The severity of the Russian winter is a sufficient excuse for the want I observe: an iron frost, with the threatened loss of toes or fingers, being no very attractive season for the sportsman to take the field. The extreme heat of summer is equally a foe to the vigorous exercise which such amusements demand; and as for the temperate days of spring or autumn, they know them not. The heat sets in as rapidly as the cold disappears; and the summer months, though not many, are scorching to an intolerable degree. The peasant sows his corn with little labour, often without the trouble of a plough, and reaps his harvest in less than three months.

During the summer the very plagues of Egypt are let loose upon you, in the shape of flies, that fill the air like dust, and musquitoes whose bites cover the skin with inflammation, and raise itching to perfect agony. These are a few of the annoyances which a little disturbed my pleasure during the delicious hours I have enjoyed in this hospitable, and to me, ever dear country.

I was glad to make my escape from the murder of the poor hares; for, as I looked on their writhing limbs, I could not but think that this little animal in corporal sufferance feels a pang as great as when a giant dies; and marvelling at the contradictory nature of man, I directed my course towards some of the public edifices I had not yet seen; and taking sanctuary first in the church, felt my meditations more reconciled to my brethren of mankind, when I found myself within the consecrated walls of St. Martinus Pravidnick. This fabric was reared at the sole charge of Mr. Shagaroff, a Russian China merchant of great goodness and piety, who expended 250,000 rubles in its completion. The portico is extremely beautiful, and the general style of the architecture pure and elegant. It is the finest modern building in the whole city, and in every respect does honour to the taste and devotion of the founder.

Its simplicity made a striking contrast in my mind with the gorgeous magnificence of the Troitza (or monastery of the Trinity) at some distance from Mosco; and which, for splendor

and riches, is one of the most wonderful places in the empire. It is a Golconda in itself; a Peru; such a treasure-house is it of gold, diamonds, pearls, and every precious endowment with which piety could adorn the holy place. Besides the interest attached to it as containing the shrine of St. Sergius, it has another of a more secular stamp. This was the sanctuary in which the young tzar Peter when a boy, and his brother tzar Ivan, with his sister-wife the turbulent Sophia, embattled themselves against the rebellious Strelitzes. To these necessities of princes, we must attribute so many of the religious buildings in Russia being regularly fortified.

The tomb of St. Sergius is decorated with a canopy of massy silver, supported by large pillars of the same metal. The screen is of the most magnificent workmanship, and the hallowed utensils are covered with jewels. Most churches have several costly dresses for the bishops and officiating priests. These are generally made out of the embroidered palls which are brought into the church with the bodies of deceased nobles buried there. But the sacred habiliments of the Troitza are of the most su perb order. There are fifteen different magnificent vestments for the archimandrite of this monastery, and as many mitres of gold enriched with jewels. One of the ornaments of this priest, worn on his breast instead of a cross, was given to the church by the empress Elizabeth, and cost 16,000 pounds. One of his robes which he wears on Easterday, made of crimson velvet embroidered with pearls, is valued at 14,000 pounds. Were I to describe the other vestments, and the variety of crucifixes, mitres, pyxes, golden cased relics, &c. glittering with gems, I should tire your patience to read and mine to write. Suffice it to say, that Aladan himself, when his wonderful lamp introduced him into the treasury of the genii, never saw a greater assemblage of riches in one spot, than may be beheld in the Troitza monastery.

Such ornaments to a church certainly dazzle the senses; and I am afraid too much engage them to allow the heart to have any share in the scene: and if it had, I fear it would be too much employed in admiring the rich productions of the earth to think of the brighter splendors of heaven. A noble simplici

ty, appears to me to be the proper character of a building devoted to the worship of the Creator. The mean, barnlike plan of some modern churches in England, and the bare walls and bald timber galleries of the generality of the chapels, are equally excessive on the other side. There is a medium between the gorgeous decorations in one country, and the penurious plainness in the other; a sort of structure, in which we might recognise the beauty of holiness, and worship the Giver of All, in a place harmonious with his simplicity and greatness.

I cannot leave you in a better place than the church; so, bidding God bless you, shall for the present say farewel!

LETTER XXIV.

Mosco, June, 1806.

HAVING heard much of the particular gloom, the sort of inquisitorial terrors of the prisons on this side the Baltic, my curiosity was not a little excited to penetrate beyond their grates. On expressing my wish to his excellency the military governor, he was so obliging as to send an orderly officer with me to one of these iron securities of the public safety; having previously given notice to the keeper that I should see every thing within the gates.

The building is of brick, encircled by a high wall flanked with round towers, like an ancient fortress. An officer's guard does duty there, which turned out on my arrival and presented arms. I was conducted through the several passages, apartments or dungeons; and was shown all the persons confined for crimes and misdemeanors. Debtors are in a different place. During my walk I had frequent occasion for a handkerchief to pass between the wind and my olfactory nerves, as smells, somewhat different from the pouncet-box of Harry Percy's popinjay, ever and anon assailed my nose!-But it was a jail! and they who have ever been induced to visit, even in our country, these