Museum of Mines

We had now but one sight to look at, when we should be glad  and ready to leave the country having been really so bothered by the Police what we began to get out of humour.  Thus our last visit was to the mining corps, and the museum of minerals attached to it.  The whole is indeed a very large fine looking building, and is considered as being a collection of minerals not surpassed in their kind in Europe.  The mines, are fac-similes of the different mines of Russia and the Urals generally, all under ground and made with great care and exactitude.  It gave us a very good idea of Siberia and other places, and the [49] the manner in which the convicts labor there.

Return to St. Petersburg

After taking another drive around the city we concluded to start again for St. Petersburg hoping to reach it in time to see the Entrée of the Royal Family (our passports for this once we were able to have arranged by a Valet—Duplace).  We again started in the same conveyance, and after rather a shorter drive than before, reached the city, and learned that the Fête had taken place in our absence, the Emperor as usual only giving the people one days warning.  I myself was in most excruciating agony on my arrival from a rheumatism in my left shoulder, that came upon me suddenly in a few hours and luckily passed off in a day or two.  The climate is worse than any other that I have ever heard of, such sudden changes.______ Now we were again obliged [48] to again repeat the ceremony with regard to our passports, and to show the papers in which we had advertised ourselves for nine days (9).  We obtained a Russian pass for Hamburg and had some difficulty in getting back our original passports.  A piece of money settled that however.  

Church of St. Basil

We now visited the singular Church of St. Basil said to have been constructed for one of the Emperors who, after it was finished, tore out the eyes of the artist in order that he might not build another similar for any other monarch.  It is a singular [47]  building composed of several distinct chapels so arranged that services can be performed in them all at the same time, without the one disturbing the other.

Greetings to our Baltic visitors

Sveicināti mūsu latviešu draugiem!

Ja tere ka meie sõbrad Eestist.

We took a drive the next day to visit a branch of the Great Foundling Hospital of Moscow.  We were quite anxious to gain admission to the main part hwere the younger children were, but we were told by our lying valet-de-place, who had had some quarrel with the governor that it was repairing, and could not be seen.  So we were obliged to content ourselves with the smaller one, which however contains some 300 boys. The institution founded by Catherine II has under its protection 20,000 children of different [45] ages. In the larger branch of the habitation, there are 700  Wetnurses employed and once a week different peasants, come into town, and being known to the Directors, are allowed to take one of the young children with them to bring up, being paid a small sum for their care.  The major part of the children formerly were illegitimate.  No questions were asked when they were left—if but a small sum was left along with them, the boys were made officers in the army, and the girls governesses—if no money was left at the time, they were brought up to some useful trade.  Their education is well attended to, and they are particularly instructed in any one branch that it is found their talents are adapted to.  Each child on entering the institution has a numbered token attached to its’ neck a duplicate of which is given to the parent, who by this can reclaim the child whenever they may feel disposed to.  The children after leaving pay some sujm annually, for a certain [46] length of time to the Institution.  The 300 boys that we saw were all occupied at trades or their studies . [The] Establishment is kept in admirable order, with fine dormitories, a hospital, &c.  We saw them enter the room for dinner, marching in regular order and each standing behind his seat, then at a signal given they all commenced singing in a manner I have never heard surpassed by boys.  Music, Painting, drawing &c &c are well taught.  The expense of such an Establishment is necessarily enormous, though the Emperor by means of it obtains annually many for his army.  Different rules are being made relative to separating legitimate from the illegitimate children__________ 

Fedor Alekseev and his pupils. The Foundling Hospital in Moscow.1800-1802.
Watercolour on paper. The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.

After leaving the interior of the Kremlin we passed by the Spaskoi [sic] Gate or Holy Gate, under which no person can pass without uncovering the head, and the Russians are so particular with regard to this that it is said, no bribe would induce one of them to pass under this gate with his hat on, were he not compelled to doff it by the Sentinel who stands always by--- The reason of its great sanctity, I cannot find.  ‘Tis dedicated to some saint I believe.  

Spassky Gate, Kremlin

Born to Command

We were shown in another room the saddles of Catherine II.  We had seen in another room a portrait of this singular woman, in her favorite manner of appearing before her guards, mounted and dressed as a man, and really she looked as if she were born to command.  Her saddles were completely covered with jewels and certainly very rich, but do not now seem so much so, since I have seen the magnificent ones presented by the father to the Emperor.  Below we were shown several old state carriages & sleighs made at different times and in different countries, driven in things they [covered], almost like a parlor with sofas, mirrors &c within, and requiring some two dozen horses to draw them.  In still another room we were shown the model of a building which Catherine II intended once to have [43] enclosed the whole of the Kremlin with—which project however she abandoned as man others of the same kind, well, perhaps for her purse, as it certainly was for the beauty of Moscow.  It was a great piece of work and if carried out according to the model must have cost an immense amount of money.  

The Great Bell and the Crown Room of the Kremlin

Ivan the Great Bell Tower and Archangel Cathedral

Our next visit was to the old Tartar Palace comprising now only two or three small rooms but most richly furnished, the windows filled with most beautiful stained glass and the floors handsomely inlaid.  They [40] are kept in the same order as when occupied by the Tartar Kings. We started now to take a look-out from the tower of St. John’s. In going to it we passed the great Bell, the largest ever cast.  Its size is prodigious, and can scarcely be imagined from its dimensions being given.   It is some 24 feet in height, and four in thickness in the largest part.  It is now placed upon a pedestal, with the piece which was broken out of it in its fall caused by fire lying alongside.  This piece is more than six ft high through small enough in appearance when beside this huge mass.  It had remained a great while buried in the Earth when it fell till lately raised to its present situation by the present Emperor.  After obgaining a fine view of the city from Ivan’s Tower, which has a number of very large bells suspended in different parts, we proceeded to the Treasury of the [41] Kremlin, containing great riches and many interesting articles.  We were met by the General who was remarkablh polite to us as Americans, and seemed somewhat surprised that we should have come so far to see Moscow.  We entered through one or two rooms containing old armor &c somewhat after the manner of the Tower of London, to the crown room, containing the crowns of all the kings and princes that have ever owned fealty to Russia, [illeg.], &c, and amongst others the crown and throne of Poland and the scepter of Stanislaus.  The riches & curiosities were all visited by us in one course and we passed out through the same room that we entered by.  When we saw placed under a portrait of Emperor Alexander, a small box containing the Constitution of Poland and above the box, were placed a bunch of keys some half dozen in number, belonging [42] also to fated Poland.  

The churches of the Kremlin

Bands [37] of Music men stationed in the grounds, and the fine looking mounted troops of the Emperor were stationed there to preserve order.  In the buildings of the Park some were amusing themselves with dancing thus in promenading and others still in looking at the illuminations and fire-works.  We returned home soon afterward and the next morning taking a guide, started out in a carriage to the Kremlin & its curiosities.  I never could learn with certainty the meaning of the word Kremlin.  It is I believe a [Slav?] word, and by some is said to be a Palace, and by others “The Holy Place.”  Whatever is the real meaning of the name however it in reality in itself comprises a great deal, being within the walls encircling it, a congregation of Palaces, Towers, Mosques, Churches, [illeg.].   From the Environs of the City this singular assemblage of singular & beautiful objects rises conspicuous, and is the first place visited as a matter of course [38] by the stranger.  On our entrance within one of its many gateways, guarded by sentinels, we visited one of the Churches.  Strikingly singular in appearance, and yet at the first glance so strangely reminding one of San Marco of Venice inasmuch as this has its whole sides & walls covered with pictures of the many saints of the Greek Church, covered in the usual manner with dresses of gold & silver ornaments, leaving only the few hands & feet visible.  As we entered, the priests were in the midst of Mass.  The church was crowded with rich & poor, some looking carelessly about, others kneeling and touching the marble pavement with their foreheads.  The priests of the Greek Church are in their general appearance a more cleanly racae at least than those of the Catholic (Roman) well dressed, and universally with long beards, moustache & carrying in their hands a long goldheaded baton, and dressed in [39]some dark colored frock bound tight around the waist.  The Church as we entered was filled with incense, and the choir (without instruments) singing in as fine a manner as I have ever heard out of St. Peter’s.  We remained till the music was over and passed out to visit one or more of the churches within the walls.  The next we entered was in a great degree similar to the one first visited, though not as rich, but the more interesting, as containing the tombs of the Tartar Tsars.  They were all arranged on either side of the Entrance in rows, being nothing more than small sarcophagi or stone-coffins, with a Persian pall thrown over each one.

Droschkies

Town Carriage (Droshky). by Alexander Orlowski

There is still another species of  vehicle and manner of driving here that immediately attracts the attention of a stronger, and this is, their droschkies, a vehicle peculiar to Russia alone, Somewhat resembling an Irish jaunting-car, and still quite different.  In the first place the wheels are not more than 3 ft in diameter and nearly always of the same size [35] before as well as behind, the seat of which is no higher than the wheel, and placed between them runs fore & aft, having room for one person beside the driver.  Both of them sit astraddle exactly as on horseback and consequently “spoon fashion” as we say in a cold winters night in bed, so that one is in pretty close contact with your bearded Russ, and stand a tolerably fair chance of finding there half a dozen of those little animals that the French describe by saying “qui saute,” “which jumps.”—The wheels are necessarily defended from throwing mud by fenders completely covering the tops.  The beauty of the horses and the manner in which they are harnessed however tend to make these singular vehicles appear quite light and fanciful.  The (really most beautiful) horses are harnessed as ours excepting that they never have any blinders to their head-stalls, making the horse appear almost [36] wild, a yoke is fastened on to the end of the shaft quite high, and standing over the neck of the animal, towards the top of which yoke the horse’s head is raised by straps, thus keeping it quite up, as our check reins tend to do. Generally on the near side of this horse which is placed between shafts as usual, is placed another which is never seen to trot but is always on a canter, whilst his mate already trots & frequently very fast too.  This nigh horse always has his head quite low and always turned to the left, by means of a single rein pulled by the driver.  Taking it altogether, it presents the most singular appearance I ever saw of the kind, and looks really very fine.  They drive like the wind, and still an accident seldom takes place, as there is a law, (which is rigidly enforced upon every one), which orders that any horses that run over any one shall be immediately sold to pay damages.

" A Russian equipage is a singular thing"

Peterskoi Park

Thomas Rowlandson

Peterskoi Park was this Evening filled with the society & beauty of Moscow, and I do not remember having any where seen a gayer show than [33] there.  A Russian equipage is a singular thing[.]  Their coaches & barouches, however are exactly English in appearance, though their coachmen footmen & postillions, are as different as could well [be] imagined.  In the first place all drive with at least four horses, sometimes six and arranged as French Posters in one respect, that is the leaders, with a young boy on the off horse as postillion, are placed with immensely long traces at the distance of some ten feet or more from the wheel-horses.  The horses are the handsomest I have ever seen, of the Arabian breed very long tails & manes, beautifully formed & as gay as one could wish.  The Coachman dressed in the same manner as the postillion is seated on the box having charge only of the wheel horses, which from the manner of his holding his reins one would suppose was as much as he could attend to, holding one in [34] either hand exactly like an old woman.  This the postillion business in front so manages his pair and keeps crying out at the top of his voice to clear the road, the footman behind presents rather a more civilized appearance being dressed in modern livery.  But the other two, (the coachman with his long beard moustache is in fact never shaved at all) are dressed in a blue cloth frock reaching down to below his knees and a red sash tied around their waists, a heavy pair of boots and the little low-crowned hat of the country.  

A hard case

There was one hard case in the number, and that of a young [32] female. After having her sentence and just on the point of starting for the Colony she was [permitted?] by one of the officers to take a pair of shoes, being to the prison,, for the use of the Convict.  The officer at the time snatched them away from her, gave her a terrible kick and placed her again in the ranks.—We now returned to dinner taking a short drive through the grounds of the Palace of the Empress, small but very pretty.  Shortly after dinner we again entered our four-in-hand, and drove out to the grounds of the Peterskoi Palace.  Just as in France & [illeg.] Europe generally, Sunday Evening is occupied by the upper classes in visiting these Public Drives, and then going to the play.