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

248TORJECK RUSSIAN LEATHER.

I had hitherto seen were miserable thickets, scattered here and there, which could only serve to interfere with the culture of the soil.

I resume my pen at Torjeck. It is impossible to see far on plains, because every object is a barrier to the eye : a bush, a rail, or a building conceals leagues of land between itself and the horizon. It may also be observed that, here, no landscape engraves itself on the memory, no sites attract the eye, not one picturesque line is to be discovered. On a surface void of all objects or variety, there should at least be the hues of the southern sky ; but they also arc wanting in this part of Russia, where nature must lie viewed as an absolute nullity.

What they call the mountains of Valdaï are a series of declivities and acclivities as monotonous as the heathy plains of Novgorod.

The town of Torjeck is noted for its manufacture!? of leather. Here are made those beautifully-wrought boots, those slippers embroidered with gold and silver thread, which arc the delight of the elegants of Europe, especially of those who love any thing that is singular, provided it comes from a distance. The travellers who pass through Torjeck pay there for its manufactured leathers a much larger price than that at which they are sold at Petersburg or Moscow. The beautiful morocco, or perfumed Russian leather, is made at Kazan ; and they say it is at the fair of Nijni that it can be bought most cheaply, and that a selection may be made out of mountains of skins.

Torjeck is also celebrated for its chieken fricassees. The Emperor, stopping one day at a little inn of this town, was served with a hash of fattened chickens,