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

INCONVENIENCES OF TRAVELLING.119

his family. The convent contains various other famous but shapeless tombs: they exhibit at once the infancy and the decrepitude of art. The house of the Archimandrite and the palace of the Czars present nothing of interest. The number of monks is now only one hundred; they were formerly thrice as many. Notwithstanding my persevering request, they would not show me the library. " It is forbidden" was always the answer. This modesty of the monks, who conceal the treasures of science, while they parade those of vanity, strikes me as singular. I argue from it that there is more dust on their books than on their jewels.

I am now at Dernicki, a village between the small town of Periaslavle and Yaroslaf, the capital of the province of the same name.

It must be owned that it is a strange notion of enjoyment which can induce a man to travel for his pleasure in a country where there are no high roads*, according to the application of 'the word in other parts of Europe,—no inns, no beds, no straw even to sleep upon—fori am obliged to fill my mattress and that of. my servant with hay, — no white bread, no wine, no drinkable water, not a landscape to gaze upon in the country, — not a work of art to study in the towns; where, in winter, the cheeks, nose, ears, and feet are in great danger of being frozen; where, in the dog-days, you broil under the

* With the exception of the road between Petersburg and Moscow, and part of that between Petersburg and lîiga.