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

104ROADS IN THE INTERIOR.

ROADS IN THE INTERIOR. — FARMS AND COUNTRY MANSIONS. —

MONOTONY THE GREAT CHARACTERISTIC OF THE LAND. PAS

TORAL LIFE OF THE PEASANTS.BEAUTY OF THE WOMEN AND

OLD MEN. POLICY ATTRIBUTED TO THE POLES. A NIGHT AT

THE CONVENT OF TROÏTZA.PESTALOZZI ON PERSONAL CLEAN

LINESS. INTERIOR OF THE CONVENT. PILGRIMS. — SAINT

SERGIUS. — HISTORY OF THE CONVENT.ITS TOMBS AND TREA

SURES. INCONVENIENCES OF A JOURNEY IN RUSSIA. BAD

QUALITY OF THE WATER. WANT OF PROBITY A NATIONAL

CHARACTERISTIC.

If we are to believe the Russians, all their roads are good during the summer season, even those that are not the great highways. I find them all bad. A road full of inequalities, sometimes as broad as a field, sometimes extremely narrow, passes through beds of sand in which the horses plunge above their knees, lose their wind, break their traces, and refuse to draw at every twenty yards; if these are passed, you soon plunge into pools of mud which conceal large stones and enormous stumps of trees, that are very destructive to the carriages. Such are the roads of this country, except during seasons when they become absolutely impassable, when the extreme of cold renders travelling dangerous, when storms of snow bury the country, or when floods, produced

* Written at the convent of Troïtza, twenty leagues from Moscow, 17th of August.