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

VIEW FROM THE KREMLIN.27

our days, is not the least powerful, nor the least revered.

The view obtained from the height of the terrace of the Kremlin is magnificent, more especially at evening. I shall often return to view the setting sun from the foot of the steeple of John the Great, the loftiest, I believe, in Moscow.

The plantations with which for some years past the fortress has been nearly surrounded, form an ornament characterised by much good taste. They beautify the modern merchant-city, and at the same time form a fringe for the Alcazar of the old Russians. The trees also add to the picturesque effect of the ancient ramparts. There are vast spaces in the thickness of the walls of this castle of romance, where are seen staircases, the boldness and height of which make one dizzy. The eye of fancy may discern there an entire population of the dead, descending with gentle steps, wandering over the platforms, or leaning on the balustrades of the old towers ; from whence they cast upon the world the cold, disdainful eye of death. The more I contemplate these irregular masses, infinite in the variety of their forms, the more I admire the Biblical architecture and the poetical inhabitants.

In the midst of the promenade which surrounds the ramparts, there is an archway which I have already noticed, but wliich continues to astonish me each time I see it. You leave a city, the surface of whose soil is very uneven, a city all studded with towers rising to the clouds, and plunge into a dark covered way, in which you ascend a long steep hill; on arriving at its summit, you again find yourself under the open heaven, where you look down upon С 2