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order that we might have a hunt and a bit of a gallop; however, 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 ; 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 look upon hounds merely as instruments to find game for the greyhounds, upon whom they depend entirely for amusement. They cannot at all, excepting those few of them who have tried fox-hunting in England, 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 with the hounds: riding indeed is at all times little in vogue, and they 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 harehunting; 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, as manure, 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 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 is much more common. Both sorts, but especially the roussaks, are, I think, generally speaking, larger than English hares.

After spending two days at Velmogie, we repeated our visit to Grouzine and returned here, as I have

already told you, two days ago. Yesterday I was driving one of the young ladies in a gig, when, as we were proceeding at a walk along an indifferent piece of road about nine miles from home, we were to my great surprise, very quietly upset, and were 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 the accident, since we were not on level ground at the time it broke. We called to our assistance a peasant who was passing, and he, with a piece of wood and a cord, quickly spliced our broken shaft, and enabled us to reach home in safety.

The hay harvest, which began about the middle of July, is only just finished, and the corn harvest is now proceeding actively. The hay harvest is tedious, owing to the large surface, in proportion to the produce, over which the scythe has to pass, though I am told that the crops this year were in many places three times as heavy as they were last summer. They have a few large meadows, but the greater part of the hay is procured from little patches of rough ground on the outskirt of a wood amongst the bushes, or from little hollows which are not cultivated, owing to the water hanging in them. I have seen fifty mowers at work in one place, and one day they had a hundred and fifty mowing in one.

meadow. The hay is not in general dried in the field, but is loaded as soon as cut, on waggons drawn by oxen, and brougat into a large yard, or piece of ground adjoining the barn, and is there opened out to dry. They have no hay forks, but instead they use the butt end of the scythe handle, or a forked stick. The latter is the only implement they have for pitching up the hay into the barn. The hay is generally housed the day after it is cut ; none of it is put into ricks. They make it as soon as it is dry into large cocks; under each cock they thrust crosswise, two long stakes, leaving one end of each standing out; they then pass a rope round the cock and attach it to a horse which draws the hay thus held together along the ground to the barn. When the distance is short, the trouble of loading and unloading waggons is thus saved, and two horses will in this manner bring in a vast quantity in the course of the day; the tenth cock, as it is brought in, is weighed and taken as the average. The whole quantity of hay made this year at Krasnoe, not reckoning the stock laid in by the peasants, which must be considerable, was about a hundred and ninety seven tons, all harvested in excellent order. The average value of hay in the country is about eight shillings and threepence per ton; sometimes, however, it is as high as thirty-three shillings; and at Petersburg, it rises occasionally to fifty-five shillings a ton; this, however, is considered a ruinous price.

All the crops this year seem very good, except the rye, the staple food of the country; it is generally thin and bad, and in many places a total failure; it is chiefly housed by this time, they began cutting it on the 15th of August, but the harvest this year is later than usual. Besides rye, oats are grown here in large quantities, barley and flax to a considerable extent, and a good deal of hemp: there are also a few pease, and some small patches of spring wheat, which, however, looks very unthriving; a few hops are to be seen around the villages, and potatoes and cabbages are largely cultivated for human consumption; the former vegetable has, I believe, not been introduced among the peasantry to any great extent, till of late years; and even now they rely much more upon the cabbage, which they have a peculiar mode of pickling for winter food, since they cannot always preserve potatoes from the frost.

They always here begin sowing rye on the 18th of August, as it is the anniversary of the consecration of the church. They have a mass, after which they proceed to a field near at hand, when the priest pronounces a blessing, and offers a public prayer for the success of their labours. Though the sowing on this day is a mere form, the seed-time commences immediately afterwards in good earnest ; and the young corn is already in some places beginning to make its appearance.

As soon as the corn is cut, it is dried on a sort of

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