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

244MOUNTAINS OF VALDAI.

sometimes added. These dwellings must be warm, but their appearance is cheerless. The rooms are dark, and tainted for want of air. They have no beds; in summer the inmates sleep on benches which form a divan around the Avails of the chamber, and in winter, on the stove, or on the floor around it; in other words, a Russian peasant encamps all his life. The word reside implies a comfortable mode of life ; domestic habits are unknown to this people.

In passing through Great Novgorod I saw none of the ancient edifices of that city, which was for a long time a republic, and which became the cradle of the Russian empire. I was fast asleep when we drove through it. If I return to Germany by Wilna and Warsaw, I shall neither have seen the Volkof, that river which was the tomb of so many citizens — for the turbulent republic did not spare the life of its children, — nor yet the Church of Saint Sophia, with which is associated the memory of the most glorious events of Russian history, before the devastation and final subjection of Novgorod by Ivan IV., that model of all modern tyrants.

I had heard much of the mountains of Valdai, which the Russians pompously entitle the Muscovite Switzerland. I am approaching this city, and, for the last thirty leagues, have observed that the surface of the soil has become uneven, though not mountainous. It is indented with numerous small ravines, where the road is so formed that we mount and descend the declivities at a gallop. It is only when changing horses that time is lost, for the Russian hostlers are slow in harnessing and putting-to.

The peasants of this canton wear a cap, broad and