Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

water-melons. This latter fruit, so seldom seen in England, is grown in great quantities in Russia. Water-melons are always put, for some time before they are to be used, into the icecellar, and are brought to table as cold as possible, when they are excellent. Cherry-trees, at least those of choice sorts, are always planted in a house (without glass), the roof of which is taken off in summer, and put on again before winter, to protect the trees from the frost. Even with this precaution, however, they often perish in a winter more than ordinarily

severe.

Ice is a good thing, of which for a great part of the year Russia certainly enjoys rather a superfluity; but the abundance of it in summer is a very great luxury. Instead of being taken, as in England, from any stagnant pond, and then pounded into a mass, the ice is here selected from the purest water, and placed in solid blocks in the cellar, so that it is perfectly bright and clean.* It is not only used to ice butter, water, wine, &c., but plates full of it, in small lumps, for putting into one's glass at dinner, always appear at table. The ice-cellar answers the purpose of a larder, and even forms an appendage to every peasant's house.

Our host after breakfast invited me to see his kennel, where he had nine or ten couples of harriers and five or six brace of greyhounds, and he kindly proposed to take them out for my amusement the following morning, although the corn was in general standing, and the sporting season had not yet commenced; however, I was curious to see how Russians hunted, and it was settled that we should go out the next morning at five, if it did not rain.

The greyhounds were really magnificent animals, exceedingly tall, and altogether much larger and more powerful than any I ever saw before; their ears were silky, their coats long and waving, and their tails bushy like those of setters. Two of them are indeed a match for a wolf; and a brace of those which I now saw had the previous year coursed and killed one unassisted, the wolf having unhappily for himself crossed their path when they were on a journey. My kind host had

* Wenham Lake ice was at that time unknown in England.

pro

mised before my arrival to
against the time of my visit.
necessary to collect a great number of peasants to drive the
woods in a line, and the harvest having now begun, and the
peasants being busy, the project unfortunately fell to the
ground. I should have much liked to see a hunt of this
kind. Wolves abound in this country,* but it is difficult to
find them, as they are very shy and cunning, and, hearing
hounds at a great distance, they will seldom await their ap-
proach. Hounds can rarely run down a wolf, owing to his powers
of endurance, but, his back-bone being very inflexible, he is
unable to turn quickly or in a small space, while he cannot
match a greyhound in speed. For this reason, when once
found, he is easily caught and mastered by greyhounds if they
understand their business, and seize him by the throat and
not by the loins. He can then neither avoid them by doubling
like a hare, nor turn suddenly upon them in defence.

arrange, if possible, a wolf-hunt
For this purpose, however, it is

To return to the subject of our visit: some neighbours arrived to dinner, which was laid out, the day being warm and pleasant, under a large lime-tree in the garden. Among the guests were a lady and gentleman named Luvoff, connexions of the family, who invited us to dine with them as we returned home, which we accordingly did, their house lying near the road. It looks over an extent of woodland which reminded me of an English park. Madame Luvoff and her family have a great talent for working in wax, of which in her house we saw two beautiful specimens, a Mameluke on horseback, and a Magdalen in a cave. We were told also that a sledge with two horses moulded in wax, which we had seen at Petersburg in the Hermitage, and the extreme beauty and delicacy of which had excited our admiration, was the work of this lady's mother.

On the morning after our al fresco dinner I woke early and looked out, but as it was pouring with rain, and there seemed every probability of the bad weather continuing, I gave up all

In proof of which, eighteen animals have lately, though it is summer, been destroyed by wolves on the Krasnoe estate; and the peasants of a neighbouring village, returning home late from their work a few nights ago, saw no less than eight wolves together near the road.

[ocr errors]

idea of our projected sport, and went quietly to sleep again. However, about six o'clock, finding the rain had ceased, I got up, and before I was dressed I was told the master of the house was ready, and after a slight breakfast we set out together. He was equipped in a great-coat with a spencer over it, and a red comforter round his neck. He wore a pair of very loose black velveteen trousers, lined down the parts which press the saddle with black leather like a dragoon's, and strong water-proof boots without spurs. A cloth cap completed his attire. The black velveteen trousers are, I am told, commonly worn for hunting in Russia over another pair, and they are not bad things for wet and cold.

I was mounted on a rough unpromising-looking horse, which however belied his appearance, and proved to be in reality a good one. I found indeed that he was of the well-known breed of the Don Cossacks. They are famous for action and endurance, though coarse-looking and small.

We had four piqueurs, as I suppose I must call them, dressed in military-shaped frock-coats of blue cloth, edged round with gold-coloured lace, blue trousers, and caps of orange-coloured cloth, with broad black velvet bands; there was also a fifth man, who was, I believe, a valet-de-chambre, and who was dressed somewhat differently. All these were mounted on small active horses of the same description as mine. Three of them wore short swords, and had horns slung over their shoulders. Two managed the greyhounds, and the other three hunted the hounds, for the sport was a combination of hunting and coursing; the object being that the hounds should find hares in the covers and drive them into the open ground to be coursed by the greyhounds. In this manner they sometimes kill twenty in a day; they also kill foxes, and occasionally a wolf; the latter, however, as I have already said, is in general difficult to meet with.

We threw off among some bushes flanking and connecting two small woods. The hounds were uncoupled amidst a din of whips cracking, horns blowing, and men hallooing. In short, all pains were apparently taken to excite the pack to the highest possible pitch of wildness, and certainly not without success. Away they went into cover full cry. "That is

no hare," quietly remarked my companion, "it is only their joy at getting loose." The joy, however, was not easily subdued, and their cry continued with little interruption to be heard through the woods for about half an hour, when it was asserted they had found a hare, although, as nobody had seen it, I doubted its existence. At last a hare really made its appearance, and afforded a short course to the greyhounds, but it escaped by doubling back into the wood. Two men were always stationed outside the covers in favourable spots, each with two or three greyhounds. These dogs knew their business very well, and kept quietly in their proper places. Each wore a collar with a ring, so that he could be led if necessary, the men having long leashes for the purpose; these, however, appeared to be seldom used except for young dogs not properly broken in. When the hare turned back into cover, the hounds were cheered on, and they took a ring through some rough ground. The hare was again driven from the wood, but the greyhounds did not catch sight of it, and in the end it was lost. My object at first was if possible to prevent the greyhounds viewing the hare, in order that we might have a run and a gallop; but I soon discovered that, when from the nature of the ground there was no chance of a course, the harriers very soon either were called off the scent, or threw up their heads of themselves.

As the corn was for the most part standing, we had some difficulty in finding ground favourable for our sport, and where the ground was suitable hares were scarce. However, we found one now and then, and some we killed and some we lost; occasionally hearing a pretty burst in a wood, or having a gallop from one cover to another. We got home by about one o'clock, and I had been on the whole very well amused, though my host was very much dissatisfied with his morning's sport, because the ground had been in general very unfavourable to the greyhounds, and we had only killed in all three or four hares.

This which I have described is the universal style of what is called hunting by the Russians; they use the hounds merely to find game for the greyhounds, upon which they depend entirely for their amusement. Excepting those few who have

seen fox-hunting in England, they cannot conceive the pleasure of that style of sport, or imagine it to be otherwise than extremely dull, since they do not at all enter into the pleasure of riding to the hounds. Riding indeed is at all times little in vogue, and Russian gentlemen never think of mounting a horse as a means of conveyance. Their pleasure consists in looking at a course, and all that they require is a small active nag worth from five to ten or twelve pounds. Tame as this sport appears to our ideas, many Russians are extremely devoted to it. A gentleman whom I met the other day told me that he had a neighbour who lived for nothing but hare-hunting. He kept twelve hundred dogs (hounds and greyhounds), and killed annually on an average eighteen hundred hares. My informant calculates that this gentleman has got thrown into heaps the skeletons of about eighteen thousand horses. What a treasure these bones would be to an English farmer!

There are two kinds of hares in Russia, one of which lives entirely in the woods, and is much darker coloured in the summer than the English hare. Towards the middle of October it begins to change its coat, and it is perfectly white by the middle of November. The other sort resembles the English hare in summer; in winter its legs, ears, and belly become white, but the back retains its colour. This kind, which is called the roussak, lives in the fields, and is rarely found in cover, never in large woods. Its flesh and its fur are both very superior to those of the wood hare, which, however, is much more common. Both sorts, but especially the roussaks, are, I think, larger than English hares.

After spending two days at Velmogie we repeated our visit to Grouzine, and returned to Krasnoe, as I have already told you, two days ago. Yesterday I was driving one of my sistersin-law in a gig, when, on a bad piece of road about nine miles from home, we were, to my great surprise, very quietly upset. Fortunately, I was driving at a foot's-pace, and we both rolled out unhurt upon the grass. After picking up my companion I went to release the horse, who stood perfectly still, and I found that one of the shafts of the vehicle, which was old and crazy, had snapped in two under the body, and thereby caused

« ForrigeFortsett »