With Russian Pilgrims. By Alexander A. Boddy. (Wells Gardner, Darton,
and Co.)—Mr. Boddy, who is a North-country clergyman, paid a visit to the Arctic Sea, to Archangel, and to the Monastery of Solovetsk, and other famous spots. He has some- thing very interesting to tell us about these places, as also about their inhabitants, temporary and permanent, and about the local aspects of Nature. , The impression given by the whole is, we think, more cheerful than has hitherto been made upon us by any book of Russian travel, or by any account by professed experts of Russian life and manners. These dwellers by the Arctic Sea seem to be honest, simple folk, not without faults, but very different from the Russian as he has often been described to us. And Mr. Boddy, we take it, is not one to be deceived easily, though doubtless he is favourably disposed to the people about whom he writes. One of the most currous things in the book is the story of the bombardment of the Solovetak Monastery by the English fleet in the Crimean War, as told from the Russian point of view. Mr. Boddy is an abstainer, and does not lose any opportunities that may occur of recommending his view. He always expreseee himself, however, with moderation and good. sense. One use of rum he mentions without disapproval. A teetotaler pilot, who had to be on the bridge for a very cold night, asked for a bottle of rum, and divided it between his two sea-boots, pouring a half into each. He declared that after this ho never felt ()old,
Previous page
