Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

SOLITUDE OF THE STREETS.289

The Russians, descended from a junction of various warlike and wandering tribes, have not yet quite forgotten the life of the bivouac. Petersburg is the head-quarters of an army, and not the capital of a nation. However magnificent this military city may be, it appears bare and naked in the eyes of one from the West of Europe.

" The distances are the curse of Russia," said the emperor; and it is a remark the justice of which may be verified even in the streets of Petersburg. Thus, it is not for the sake of display that people's carriages are drawn by four horses: here every visit is an excursion. The Russian horses, though full of mettle and sinew, have not so much bone as ours : the badness of the pavement soon tires them; two horses could not easily draw for any considerable time an ordinary carriage in the streets of Petersburg. To drive four is therefore an object of the first necessity to those who wish to live in the fashionable world. Among the Russians, however, all have not the right to attach four horses to their carriage. This permission is only accorded to persons of a certain rank.

After leaving the centre of the city the stranger loses himself in vaguely-defined lines of road, bordered by barracks which seem as though destined for the temporary accommodation of labourers employed in some great work; they are the magazines of forage, clothes, and of other supplies for the military. The grass grows in these soi-disant and always deserted streets.

So many peristyles have been added to houses, so many porticoes adorn the barracks that here re-

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