kiln, threshed out, and stored up in large bins in the granaries. Here there is a threshing machine worked by horses, but the flail is used by women as well as men. I have seen the peasants often threshing their own corn without an implement of any kind, merely taking up the sheaf by the lower end, and beating the heads upon a spot of hard dry ground, swept clean as a threshing floor. They dry their corn by fires in large open sheds built on purpose; but sad calamities are, as might be expected, the frequent result of this dangerous practice. All the agricultural implements in general use are rude in the extreme; the peasant's spade is a mere paddle of wood, sometimes shod with iron, but more often not; his plough is an ineffective instrument drawn by a weak pony, and his harrow merely consists of boughs fastened together with the thin branches cut off a few inches from the base so as to form projecting teeth his waggon does not contain above two or three barrows' load, but it certainly is as much as his miserable horse can draw. Every peasant is a petty farmer, and the wretched state of agriculture which exists is, I conceive, the natural consequence of the system.

LETTER VI.

Journey to Yaroslav-Tver-Avant-courier-Cross-roads-Passing a ferry-Kaskine and Ouglitch-Russian travelling-Navodka and Nachai-Arrival at Yaroslav-View from Government-house-Volga - Military church-Regiment of Cantonists - Officer taking the oaths of allegiance - Horse fair Dinner-FrostSociety-Card-playing-Mode of marching-Nobility-Rank and Title-Military grades given to civilians.

Yaroslav, October 3rd, 1837.

My last letter made you acquainted with our projected visit to this place, where we have now spent upwards of a fortnight most agreeably. My time has been so constantly occupied, that I have never had leisure for writing to you, and I sit down now to wipe off the arrear.

We left Krasnoe on the 13th of September, being provided with a travelling carriage by the kindness of M's father. Our regrets at quitting the place, which had been our home for nearly three months, and our leave-takings with those from whom we parted, I shall pass over in silence, and proceed to Tver, which we reached the same afternoon. The General sent us with his own horses the first eight

and-thirty miles, having dispatched a set half way over night, so that we found six fresh horses awaiting us. We hired horses to take us the remaining stage of about two-and-twenty miles, which lay along the high road between Petersburg and Moscow. Tver, the capital of the province, or government as it is called, of the same name, in which our time had hitherto been spent, is a city of considerable size, situated on the right bank of the Volga, which we crossed by a bridge of boats on entering the town.

Here we were obliged to sleep, as some arrangements were necessary before we could proceed on our journey, since the remainder of our route lay for the most part along a line of cross-roads little frequented, and on which no regular posting stations existed. However, owing to the kindness of the Governor, Count Tolstoy, all the difficulties which we should otherwise have had in procuring horses were done away. Our present hosts, when they invited us to Yaroslav, had promised to bespeak Count Tolstoy's good offices for us, and to beg him to furnish us with the means of proceeding through his government.

On arriving, therefore, at Tver, I sent a note to the Governor, applying for an order for horses, and his secretary immediately came and said that every thing should be done for our accommodation, and that he would return in the morning, when all would be ready for our departure. Accordingly, as soon as

we were dressed in the morning, the secretary appeared, bringing with him the requisite papers from the Governor, who, he said, had also desired him, as we were foreigners, to place at our disposal a courier to enforce his orders on the road. This kind offer we gladly accepted, and the courier's activity and attention were of the utmost use, to say nothing of the uniform which he wore, and which carried no small authority in itself. As we had no place for him about the carriage, he preceded us in the tilèga, or light waggon, with a pair of horses, which is always used on such occasions in Russia.

We gave him two hours' start, in order that he might have time to get horses ready for us at every stage, and about eleven o'clock we set out ourselves. We travelled for about sixteen miles, in the course of which we changed horses, without a minute's unnecessary delay, along the Moscow macadamized road, being driven at a steady gallop of about thirteen miles an hour. This pace was kept up for some time after quitting the chaussée, the bye road into which we struck being pretty good. We soon came to the bank of the Volga, which we followed for some miles; and we then crossed to the left side of the river, by a floating bridge, and immediately afterwards found ourselves at the end of our second stage. Here, and everywhere else we found horses in readiness-thanks to our valuable courier in advance. The stages varied in length from fourteen to thirty-four versts (the

verst you will remember to be about three quarters of a mile). We were posting with eight horses, viz. two for the courier, and six for ourselves, but the expence was not ruinous; a halfpenny per horse per verst, which was the price, with about eightpence a stage for the drivers, brought the whole cost to something less than sixpence a mile.

After quitting the second station, we were obliged to proceed for some miles at a foot's pace. The road lay through a marshy forest of stunted unhealthy birch and fir, while a small misty rain, which began to fall, was completely in accordance with the desolate scene through which we were passing; and a more dreary picture could not easily be conceived than that which presented itself in this part of our journey. The road was what the Americans call a corduroy road, consisting of logs of wood laid across side by side, and by no means even. The pleasure of creeping over this species of causeway, for some miles, may easily be imagined. At length, however, we got into an open country, and a better road; the weather, at the same time, improved, and by eight o'clock at night we had a bright full moon over our heads with a cloudless sky, which accompanied us to the end of our journey.

We had no inns upon the road, but about seven o'clock, at a village where we changed horses, we supped in an isba, or peasant's house, where we were supplied with cream and hot water for our tea, and