diers we were shown the portraits of the Emperor, the Colonel, and most of the officers, very creditably executed by one of them.

After making the tour of the establishment, we went to see the boys sit down to dinner. They first sung a hymn standing in their places, and when they had finished, the blast of a bugle gave the signal for them to be seated; they seemed exceedingly comfortable, and every thing looked very clean; a certain number acted as waiters to the rest, a service which they all take in turn. In the middle of the room on an elevated platform was a small unoccupied table, at which the Colonel told us that offenders were made to dine as a punishment. I have since seen the military hospital, which was very clean and seemed well conducted. On the ground-floor is the dispensary and surgeon's room, the patients being all up stairs; at the head of each patient's bed is a board, on which is inscribed his name and the nature of his complaint, and behind the board is placed a paper in which the medical man in attendance is required to insert a daily register of the symptoms, treatment, &c. of the patient; so that the Inspector of the hospital, on making his rounds, may at all times be able to judge whether proper skill has been exercised, and due attention paid by the subordinates.

Colonel Goulaivitch invited us the other day to his house, to witness the taking the oaths of alle

giance and fidelity to the Emperor by a young officer on entering the service. The colours of the regiment were displayed in the dining-room, and under them were placed on a table a large bible and a cross. A priest was in attendance in his robes, and there were also about a dozen cantonists, as the young soldiers are called, who were to officiate as choristers upon this occasion. The officer repeated after the priest a long oath, holding in his right hand a corner of the colours; he then knelt down and kissed the bible and the cross, and the ceremony was concluded by a hymn sung by the cantonists.

I went about a fortnight ago with General Poltoratzky to a horse-fair at a large straggling village two or three-and-twenty miles hence. There were a good many horses shown, but few fine animals; they were, however, very cheap. The general bought one as a carriage-horse for three hundred roubles, (about twelve pounds) which would have been worth forty or fifty in England, as he was a handsome well-sized horse, sound, and only five years old. The scene was amusing enough, and as unlike an English fair as can be imagined. There were a good many gentlemen present, most of them in undress uniforms, and many with crosses at their buttonholes. We walked through a refreshment-booth filled with peasants and horse-dealers, and found them all as quiet as possible, and, with hardly an exception, drinking tea. These people do not put sugar into

their cups in the ordinary way, but they either hold a lump between their teeth and sip the tea through it, or else they hold it in the left hand, and nibble off a little bit every now and then, as they drink their tea.

We were not destined this day to suffer from hunger; first of all, when we were in the midst of the fair, two or three large water-melons were brought, and we all sat down to eat them on the spot, some on the grass and others on the shafts of a waggon, while his excellency the Governor compromised his dignity by sitting in the middle on a reversed tub. Shortly afterwards we were summoned to a luncheon, which abounded in champagne and good things of all kinds, and which might well have passed for a dinner. This entertainment was given by the great man of the village, namely, the steward of the proprietor, who was himself an absentee. The luncheon was no sooner over, than we set off for a country house which lay on our road home, and where I found that we, and most of the gentlemen whom we had met with, were engaged to dine.

I confess this was a pleasure I could have dispensed with, having dined already, as I supposed; however, the offered hospitality was not to be declined, and we arrived at the house a party of more than twenty, evidently in stronger force than our entertainer had anticipated in the morning; for, although it was dinner-time when we reached the

house, and the cloth was already laid, we waited full two hours before we sat down to table.

Our host did his best to amuse us; and to kill time we were led about to see hemp beaten, flax spun, and potatoes dug up in what appeared to me a very ordinary manner, but according to what the owner of the place appeared to consider a very new way; in short, we were lionized over all the usual details, agricultural and manufactural, of a Russian country place; for there is hardly a landed proprietor who does not carry on a manufacture of some kind or other. At last, the dinner, which was an exceedingly good one, and which we were all the better able to appreciate from the long delay, was announced, and immediately after it we set off, and reached home before nine o'clock.

We have now a sharp frost, and two days ago (the 1st of October) were reminded of the approach of winter, on getting up in the morning, by finding the roofs of the houses around white with snow. We however are armed against the cold, as we have provided ourselves, since we came here, with furs and warm clothing for the winter. The shops, as I have already said, are well supplied, especially with furs; but it is by no means agreeable, on a cold day, to make purchases which require a little time in selecting: for, according to the old Russian custom, the shops have no stoves or fire-places. They are not situated here as in most countries, at the residence of

the tradesman to whom they belong, but are all collected together in a sort of bazaar, a large building consisting of warehouses with shops in front, and no fire is allowed in it for fear of accidents. The tradesman spends the day in his shop, and only goes home at night. When it is cold he wraps himself up in fur, and keeps himself warm by drinking enormous quantities of hot tea, which is retailed in the streets to them and to the droschka drivers who stand for hire, by people who are constantly going about with a portable semavar or urn, kept hot by charcoal, and with cups fixed in a belt and strapped round their waists. The bazaar or collection of shops in all Russian towns is called the Gastina Dvor, which signifies, I believe, Public Court.

Every Sunday morning, and every fête-day, the Governor holds a sort of levee; that is to say a crowd of official persons in full uniform assemble before breakfast to pay their respects: and twice a-week his lady is at home to all the people who are inclined to spend the evening, and a large society is generally assembled to play cards and sup. Besides this, we have had dinner parties two or three times a week, and the party living in the house is considerable in itself. This, however, is not the gay season at Yaroslav, as most of the families who compose the society in the winter are still absent at their country houses. The establishment in this house is large even in Russia, especially for a town, but it would be consi