Domestic scenes in Russia, letters

Forside
1839 - 348 sider

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Side 35 - ... receive and hold one another : they are also fastened together by wooden pins and uprights in the interior. The four corners are supported upon large stones or roots of trees, so that there is a current of air under the floor, to preserve the timber from damp ; in the winter, earth is piled up all round to exclude the cold ; the interstices between the logs are stuffed with moss and clay, so that no air can enter. The windows are very small, and are frequently cut out of the wooden wall after...
Side 141 - ... though it were his daily occupation. It is probable that none of these operations, except, perhaps, the last, will be as well performed as in a country where the division of labour is more thoroughly understood. They will all, however, be sufficiently well done to serve the turn, a favourite phrase in Russia.
Side 60 - We had four piquers, 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...
Side 137 - ... improving their condition is their being drawn to serve in the army. A Russian proprietor reckons the value of his property, not by its annual income, but by the number of male slaves upon it ; but the relation in which the agricultural serf or slave practically stands to his master, is in most respects that of a small tenant ; the principal difference being, that he cannot change his employment or move from home, without his master's leave, which is sometimes obtained for a certain annual sum,...
Side 334 - ... in such a country as our own, in a great lord being, to a certain extent, his own master-carpenter, master-upholsterer, or master-coachmaker? Some admirable home traits are given by M. de Sabourof in a letter to the author. We select one which is highly characteristic of the Russian peasant : — ' He is deeply imbued with a reverence for religion, and is not so much superstitious as thoroughly ignorant. He kisses the hand of his parish priest, but he laughs at his failings, and if quite able...
Side 271 - Galitzin while a funeral service was going on: the coffin was placed on a bier in the centre of the church...
Side 334 - He kisses the hand of his parish priest, but he laughs at his failings, and is quite able to make the distinction between the individual and the office. Of this I can give you a very characteristic anecdote. Passing one day near a large group of peasants, who were assembled in the middle of the village, I asked them what was going forward ? ' " We are only putting the Father (as they call the priest) into a cellar." ' " Into a cellar," I replied ; " what are you doing that for ? " '
Side 275 - ... served in pewter. The day was an ordinary working-day, and our arrival was perfectly unexpected; yet nothing could exceed the neatness and perfect cleanliness of these young manufacturers, more especially the girls, whose hair in particular excited our admiration, every head being arranged alike, and with a degree of taste and neatness which many a lady might copy. Caps are never worn by the lower classes in this country; and certainly the well-brushed hair, drawn smoothly over the forehead and...
Side 141 - plough to-day, weave to-morrow, help to build a house the third day, and the fourth, if his master need an extra coachman, he will mount the box, and drive four horses abreast as if it were his -daily occupation. None of these operations, except, perhaps, the last, will be as well performed as in a country where the division of labor is more thoroughly understood.
Side 299 - ... feet in height, and exceed anything that has yet been done in that beautiful fabric. The prestol for the inmost shrine is a small circular temple, the dome supported by eight Corinthian pillars of malachite, about eight feet high, with gilt bases and capitals. The exterior of the dome is covered with a profusion of gilding on a ground of malachite, and the interior is of lapislazuli.

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