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

246A PASSION FOR TOMBS.

We need not be surprised, after this, to hear that people fall into the Neva and drown there, without any one running to their succour, or even daring to speak of their death !

"Whimsical sentiments of every species abound in Russia among the higher classes, because hearts and minds are the prey of exhaustion and satiety. A lady of high rank in Petersburg has been married several times : she passes the summers in a magnificent country house, some leagues from the city, and her garden is filled with the tombs of all her husbands, whom she begins to love passionately as soon as they are dead. She raises for them mausolea and chapels, weeps over their ashes, and covers their tombs with sentimental epitaphs ; in short, she renders to the dead an honour offensive to the living. The pleasure-grounds of this lady have thus become a real Père La Chaise, with very little gloom about them for whoever has not, like the noble widow, a love of tombs and deceased husbands.

Nothing need surprise us in the way of false sensitiveness among a people who study elegance with the same precise minutia that others learn the art of war or of government. The following is an example of the grave interest the Russians take in the most puerile matters whenever they aifect them personally.

A descendant of ancient boyards, who was rich and elderly, lived in the country, not far from Moscow. A detachment of hussars was, with its officers, quartered in his house. It was the season of Easter, which the Russians celebrate with peculiar solemnity. All the members of a family unite with their friends