private house, and that the inn, in Russ called a kabac, was the next door: but that it was locked up and empty, the host having gone to enjoy the breezes of the sea side for a few days. This circumstance plainly demonstrated one of two things; either that this part of Russia is not much frequented by travellers, or, as I frequently experienced, that an inn-keeper, however poor, is very indifferent whether he affords them any accommodation.

We had been travelling all day under a fervid sun, were covered with dust, and parched with thirst; our Abo ham was glowing to the bone, our last bottle of claret was as warm as milk from the cow, and our poor exhausted horses were licking the walls of an adjoining building to cool their tongues. In this dilemma I beheld an elegant young officer, uncovered, in a dark bottle-green uniform (the legionary color of Russia), and an elderly gentleman, upon whose breast two resplendent stars shone, coming towards us: these stars were two propitious constellations. The principal personage addressed us in a very kind and conciliatory manner in French. Upon our explaining our situation, he said, “I "am very sorry this fellow is out of the way, but it shall "make no difference. When Englishmen enter Russia "it is to experience hospitality, not inconvenience; trust "to me, I will immediately provide for you :" he bowed, gave directions to an officer who followed at a distance, and passed on. This amiable man proved to be the Count Meriand off, the Governor of Russian Finland, who, fortunately for us, had arrived about an hour beføre from Wibourg. An officer soon afterwards came to us, and conducted us to a very handsome house belonging to a Russian gentleman of fortune. Our kind host, who spoke a little English, introduced us into a spacious drawing-room, where we went to rest upon two delightful beds, which were mounted upon chairs. Our poor servant, after the manner of the Russians, ranked no higher in our host's estimation than a faithful mastiff, and was left to make a bed of our great. coats on the floor of the entry, and to sleep comme il plait à Dieu.

The next day we had a peep at the town, which is small but handsome, from the square in which the guardhouse stands, a building of brick stuccoed, and painted green and white, almost every street may be seen. It was here, in the year 1783, that Catherine II. and Gustavus III. had an interview. Upon this occasion, to impress the Swedish monarch with the magnificence of the Russian empire, and to render their intercourse less restrained, a temporary wooden palace was erected, containing a grand suite of rooms, and a theatre, by the order of the Empress. The town appeared to be filled with military. The Russians of consequence generally despise a pedestrian. I was uncommonly struck with seeing officers going to the camp, and even the parade in the town, upon a droska, or, as they are called in Russ, a drojeka, an open carriage, mounted upon springs, and four little wheels, formed for holding two persons, who sit sideways, with their backs towards each other, upon a stuffed seat, frequently made of satin; the driver wore a long beard (which we now began to see upon every rustic face), a large coarse brown coat, fastened round the middle by a red sash, was booted, and sat in front, close to the horses' heels, whose pace was, as is usual in Russia, a full trot.

We here exchanged our Swedish money at Mr. Broom's, and found the exchange against us. After having been so long strangers to the sight of any coin, we were surprised by seeing his Russian clerk, habited in a long blue coat, fastened round the middle by a sash, enter the room, perspiring under the weight of a coarse bag of five-copec pieces, a monstrous coin, fit for some infantine republic that might wish to excite a distaste for riches amongst her virtuous citizens, worth about three pence English. It may be as well to run over the coin of the country now :

COPPER.

One-fourth of a copec, called á polushka, very few in circulation.

One-half of a copec, called à denishka.

Fifteen ditto.

Twenty ditto.

One-fourth of a ruble, worth twenty-five copecs.
One-half of a ruble, worth fifty copecs.

A ruble, worth one hundred copecs.

The agio between silver and bank notes, is now about twenty-five per cent.

GOLD.

A half imperial, worth five rubles.
An imperial, worth ten rubles.

NOTES.

The bills are for five, ten, twenty-five, fifty, and one hundred rubles.

The Russians calculate always by rubles. A ruble is now worth about two shillings and eight pence English. A silver ruble is equal to a paper ruble, and twentyfive copecs.

It is rather remarkable that the silver rubles, which were coined in the last and present reigns, have no impression of the heads of the last or present Emperors.

CHAPTER X,

Rustic urbanity Wretched village-No. I-WibourgGreek religion A charity Sermon-Religion and extortion A word or two to fortified towns Starved Horses Volunteer jacket-Appearance of PetersburgCossac-Renowned Statue.

WHI

HILST the peasants were adjusting our horses, four abreast to the carriage, in the yard of our kind and hospitable host, I was amused with seeing with what solemn and courteous bows the commonest Russians saluted each other; nothing but an airy dress and a light elastic step were wanting to rank them with the thoughtless, gay, and graceful creatures of the Bouve lards des Italiens: here the Russian exterior was more decisively developed; but I should wish to postpone a more particular description of it until we reach the capital; it is now sufficient to observe, that the men in complexion and sturdiness resembled the trunk of a tree, and that the women were remarkably ugly: I saw not a female nose which was not large and twisted, and the dress of the latter, so unlike their sex in other regions, was remarkable only for filth and raggedness. Travelling is very cheap in Russian Finland: we paid only two copecs for each horse per verst, except for the last post to Petersburg, when we paid five copecs. In Russian Finland the comfort of sending an avante-courier to order horses ceases. On the road we met with several kibitkas, such as I have described.

had

After we left Uperla, those extraordinary detached rocks, and vast stones, which hitherto had lined the sides of the roads and were scattered over the fields, began to assume a redder tint, and to show a greater portion of friability than their hard and savage brethren which we left behind, and gradually disappeared in deep sand: the country presented a scene of extreme wretchedness. To the squalid inhabitants we might have said in the beautiful language of Cowper :

Within th' enclosure of your rocks,
Nor herds have ye to boast, nor bleating flocks;
No fertilizing streams your fields divide,
That show, revers'd, the villas on their side;
No groves have ye; no cheerful sound of bird,
Or voice of turtle, in your land is heard ;
No grateful eglantine regales the smell.

Of those that walk at evening where ye dwell."

We halted at a village of old crazy hovels, composed of trunks of trees, rudely thrown across each other, and perched upon granite rocks; every one of these forlornabodes was out of the perpendicular, whilst, from a little hole which feebly admitted the light, the smoke issued. The inhabitants were nearly naked, and looked like a race of animals formed in the anger of heaven. Instead of the green refreshing blade, parched hoary morse covered the earth; where the limpid brook ought to have rippled, a narrow, slimy, brown stream of reeking offensive water, crawled indolently and unwholesomely along. Not a tree was to be seen; not even a melancholy fir! Time, that bids the barrenness of nature bear, that enables the shepherd and his flock to find shelter and rich pasture in the altered desert, has passed over these regions without shedding his accustomed beneficence. These people, or, as they are called, the Finns, I found always distinguishable in the capital from the proper Russian, by their squalid and loathsome appearance

Yet even in this inhospitable spot, are to be found what many a traveller in England has frequently lamented the want of, viz. the exposition of every diverging road carefully, and intelligibly, marked out by a directing post. Although the peasantry of the country, in these immediate parts, are so wretched, a considerable portion of Russian Finland is considered to be as fertile in corn as any part of the Polar empire.

We were prevented from reaching Wibourg on the day we set off from Fredericksham, on account of our being detained, for want of horses, at Terviock, which forms the last stage to the former place. Here, as it was too hot to admit of two sleeping in a chaise, I entered a sorry post-house; the room contained only a crib and