THROUGH RUSSIA.*

SINCE Mr. Lowth's Round the Kremlin, no such interesting record of travel in Russia as Mrs. Guthrie's book has come under our notice. It is fresh, bright, simple, and comprehensive, free from digressions, and it neither makes too little allowance for the reader's ignorance of the scenes and the objects which it describes, nor taxes his attention and patience by over-explanation and re- capitulation. The journey whose incidents it recounts was per- formed by two ladies, unattended, and the ease, safety, and pro- sperity which attended it fully justify the kindly estimate which Mrs. Guthrie and her daughter have formed of the Russian people, and the confidence with which they recommend a similar experi- ment to the unprotected' who have a taste for travel. If the Russians would only wash themselves oftener than once a week, Mrs. Guthrie would have no fault to find with them, but on their dislike to the external use of water she dwells with the customary impatient iteration of the British traveller, who always forgets that the tub is a comparatively modern institution in his

own country. If she had sometimes allowed the general dirtiness to be taken for granted, her book would have been all the more impressive, for it is rather worrying to find the unwashedness of everybody and the unsavouriness of old clothes (which are mostly of the Bryan O'Linn kind) insisted upon in every strange scene, amid the splendours of St. Petersburg and Moscow, the

Through Russia, from &. Petersburg to Astrakhan and the Crimea. By Mrs. Guthrie. London : Hurst and Blackett.

bustling outlandishness of Nijni Novgorod, and the curious experi- ences of a voyage on the Volga, with companionsof half a score of different nationalities, in a vessel decorated with eikons, and on whose deck Moslems made their morning prayer, with arms out- stretched towards Mecca. In no other respect is Mrs. Guthrie wanting in the philosophy of a practised traveller.

The voyage on the mighty Volga—" the main artery of Ramie, which connects the White Sea with the Caspian and the Baltic with Siberia "—is the strangest and most interesting feature of the book, but we must not pass on to it without commenting upon the writer's admirable description of St. Petersburg and the Cathedral of St. leak. No previous description has conveyed to us a similar impression of the gorgeousness and variety of colour in the immense buildings, to which the city must owe so much in the inexorable, snow-bound winter ; of the splendid coup d'ceil of the four-miles-long Nevsky Prospekt, and the wearisome, garish magnificence of the great churches. One must grow heartily tired of diamonds before one has done with sight-seeing in the city of the Czar. Of the famous Iconastasis at St. Isak's, to which steps of polished porphyry lead, the author says :—" The masses of beautifully wrought gold, the pillars of lapis lazuli, the columns of malachite (iron tubes plated with the precious marbles), all in themselves beautiful, offend the eye when placed close together. The boast of St. Isak's is a diamond- set Biza (or Byzantine representation of the Virgin and Child) of untold value ; it is placed in a shrine, a superb mass of malachite, lapis lazuli, gold, and precious stones, which made our eyes ache to look at it." The part which the eikons play in Russian life gives them meaning far beyond that of mere church decoration, and is so speedily recognised by foreigners that they interpret nationalities in travelling by observing the more or less respect paid by individuals to the eikons which are to be found every- where. Although the forms of Dissent in Russia are very numer- ous, religious sentiment seems to be universal, and its influ- ence on the daily life of the people strongly marked. The most beautiful objects in the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul are the sarcophagi which mark the resting-places of the Imperial dead, who lie under the floor. " Each sarcophagus is of highly- polished white marble, without fleck or stain, pure as the driven snow, the only ornament being one large Greek cross of purest gold. That which covers the body of Peter the Great is larger by a foot than any of the others." Of course, Peter the Great is perpetually turning up in Mrs. Guthrie's book, who aptly calls him " Peter the Universal," and who saw memorials of his extraordinary genius and ubiquity everywhere,—from " the little Grandfather," ancestor of the mighty Russian fleet, to a machine which he invented, made, and used for the extraction of teeth. With all its grandeur, St. Petersburg must be a horrid place to live in during the long winter, even for the wealthy classes ; much worse than the interior, where, though the cold is severe, the air is clear and bright. But in the capital it is per- petually thawing a little, " and heavy fogs come driving up the gulf, rendering the three or four hours of faint daylight still more obscure, hiding the sun, which for a short time skirts the horizon, soon to disappear, and leave behind another twenty hours of dark- ness." We have recently heard a good deal about Tsarkoe Selo, which Mrs. Guthrie calls " the Hampton Court of Russia," but we think the following detail has escaped the special correspon- dents :—" The yellow saloon is very lofty, and its walls are en- tirely incrusted with amber, large pieces, too precious to be smoothed, jutting out, all carved with different devices,—the royal cipher 'E' (for 'Ekatarine') and the arms of the great Frede- rick, the donor of this costly material." The writer adds, " When new, the effect may have been beautiful, but it is not so now. Amber is a delicate and perishable substance, which does not stand the test of time." The treasures of the Hermitage in pic- tures and coins are vast, though far surpassed by those of the Moskow collection ; and in its vicinity stands an interesting monument, erected by the children of Russia to the memory of their friend Kriloff, who is represented in his old dressiug-gown, smiling upon them, while they look up into his benevolent face and repeat his famous fables." "It is a great honour," says Mrs. Guthrie, " to have a statue in Russia, where such things are so rare that they puzzle the simple country-folk, who call them bolsani, or idols." She gives a strange account of Kriloff :- "Born on the banks of the Volga, Kriloff led a half-wild life, passing entire days beside the broad, flowing river, watching the washerwomen,

and talking to serfs and peasants. Nor was ho ever thoroughly tamed, for during his days at St. Petersburg he committed the greatest eccen- tricities. He had a great contempt for clothes, and would sit at the

window of his apartment, which looked into the Summer Garden, in his shirt, playing the violin. On one occasion he attended a levee in a new coat, the buttons being neatly wrapped up in silver-paper as they had come from the tailor's. His rooms wore fearfully dirty. His servant, too idle to bring a candlestick, was in the habit of placing the dip candle on the table in a pool of tallow, and the old gentleman increased the general disorder by his love of birds. Twice a day he strewed the floor with oats, and opened his window to admit the flocks of sacred pigeons which collected from all parts of the town. He was fond of bathing, and of promenading in the bazar, among the trades- people, who loved a humorous encounter with him. In his old age honours were showered upon him, but he grew fat from indolence, and the only amusement that retained its charm for him was the sight of a fire. The moment he heard the engines rattle, he would jump out of bed and hasten to the scene of the conflagration, where the brilliant effects pro- duced by the play of light upon the ice and snow greatly delighted him."

It appears that everybody in St. Petersburg delights in fires, the Imperial family especially, and that their tastes are largely grati- fied. The Picture Galleries are a relief, inasmuch as they sub- stitute ideas for gaudy objects ; and they are immensely rich in gems of art, whereat one wonders how they ever got into Russia.

It required bribery to enable Mrs. Guthrie to get a sight of the Crown jewels, in their dingy treasure-chamber, watched by the Golden Guard ; but she bribed, and so saw them, with the usual result of such spectacles. Of course, she was disappointed ; the sceptre of All the Russias resembles a gold poker, and the Orloff " mountain of light" is no bigger than a hazel-nut.

Moscow is charmingly described, with its semi-Oriental magni- ficence and mode of life, its wonderful effects of colour, its golden domes, and its motley population, among whom the nurses and children figure very picturesquely. Here we find some welcome divergences into the little-known history of Russia, and a very interesting sketch of Ivan the Terrible. The description of the great Foundling Hospital at Moscow is the most interesting item in this part of the book ; it makes one glad at heart to think of so much wealth, charity, intelligence, and ingenious tenderness of feeling being devoted to the most helpless of all living creatures, who fare ill everywhere indeed, but whose fate, uncared for, in

such a climate, would be too dreadful to contemplate. In this instance, the author's constant cry against the dirt of Russia is

silenced. In the Foundling Hospital, with its 11,800 inhabitants, washing is an art :-

" A large hall, kept at a certain temperature, is filled with little coppers, which are lined with flannel. A down pillow is attached to each, on which, when dried, the child is swaddled. Chambers are set aside for different maladies. In one of these there is a graduated light, and to it are transferred all infants with imperfect sight. The upper part of the building was reserved for the baby nurseries and dormitories, and a pretty sight they were, with row after row of clean beds for the nurses and white cots for the children. The nurses were gaily dressed, with scarlet petticoats and velvet diadems, large, fair, blue-eyed women, some of whom were very handsome, but they wore too like cows to be pleasant."

The mortality among the children of the Russian peasants is very great. An official informed Mrs. Guthrie that the peasant women generally marry at sixteen, the men at eighteen, the average number of children in a family is seventeen, of whom one-half perish in infancy,—some from cold, others from the use of the saska, a milk poultice tied up in a long bag, at which the infants, left alone for hours, suck away, often so effectually that they draw the saska down into the throat and are suffocated. Of Troitsa, its famous monastery, and its hideous hermits, dwell- ing invisible in their underground cells, whence they emerge but once a year, to hear mass at the altar of St. Sergius, the author gives a most interesting account. The spell of Holy 'Moscow was evidently laid potently upon her, and she felt it hard to bid adieu to "the golden-headed Kremlin." The famous fair at Nijni Novgorod seems to have impressed the travellers but moderately, And yet, apart from the goods, the jewels, the precious metals, the strange stuffs, and the curious workmanship which they saw there, what wonderful human figures met their eyes ! Here is a

sketch of one but which the ladies entered, accompanied by a Jew:- " The hut, which was hung round with old clothes, was occupied by a skinny old woman and several men. After a few words in Russian with our Jew, the old woman turned all the men out of the hut, locked the door, and proceeded to fumble amongst a lot of raga in the corner, from whence she produced two small bundles, knotted up in tattered pocket-handkerchiefs, and lighting a lamp, she spread their contents upon a ricketty table,--exquisite strings of pearls, turquoises, diamond rings, ornaments in brilliants, and other precious stones. The wretched cabin, the wrinkled old hag with her eager eyes, the flare of the lamp upon the jewels, formed a sight worth seeing."

The contents of Mrs. Guthrie's second volume are still more interesting, especially her description of Astrakhan, and the voyages on the Volga and the Don are full of incident, character, and observation, and afford us many glimpses of a motley popula- tion, and a mode of life in every respect foreign to our notions. Some of the passengers on board the steamer on the Don were very odd people, especially a certain Madame V---, and a Cir-

cassian princess, who came on board in a head-dress of silver tissue, a Cashmere shawl, rich bracelets, an embroidered robe, and silver shoes, but who subsided immediately afterwards into a cotton dressing-gown, and sat on the floor, with her children and servant, munching onions, with which she had come provided. The travel- lers made several brief excursions on shore at points where the steamer, bound for Sebastopol, touched, and on returning from one of them they found Madame V— in a state of excitement. It appeared that the Circassian princess had amongst her effects a large pillow. "Auntie," said her niece, "a bit of your India muslin gown is sticking out of the princess's bag." Thereupon, Madame V— seized the sack, cut it open with her scissors, and strewing the contents upon the floor, discovered several articles which belonged to her, the princess looking on with unruffled serenity.

No book of travel within our knowledge is pleasanter to read than Mrs. Guthrie's Through Russia, and no other account of that great empire inspires so kindly an impression of the people, who contrast in many respects most favourably with communities supposed to be more civilised. In simple religious zeal, in respect for women, in kindness to animals (the Ruski hold all cruel sports in abhorrence), and in gentleness of manners, the " children of the Czar" stand conspicuous.