CHAPTER VII.

His first walk in Petersburg.

THURSDAY, August 8 [0.s.], 20 [N.s.].—About

four, and on to five a.m., the bells of different

churches were going with a gong-like, booming sound. I rose and took my first walk in Petersburg.

Passing along the Galernaia, I issued out from under an arch at its further end into the Isaac's Plain, bounded on the side opposite to me by one of the sides of the huge Admiralty with its gilt spire; to the left of me by the Neva, with the Vassili Ostroff and the island of the fortress, with its still loftier and gilt spire; and to the right by the church of St. Isaac, Hegumen or head of a Dalmatian monastery in the time of Valens and Theodosius, whose feast-day, May 30, is the birthday of the Tsar Peter. This church, though still surrounded by scaffolding, showed its magnificent dark-coloured polished columns, monoliths, forty feet high, at each of the four fronts of the Greek cross; and others of the same material encircled the cylin

drical wall, from which the central cupola rises

above.

Turning round and looking back, I saw on each side of the archway under which I had just passed, and which by it were united to each other above, two handsome blocks of building or palaces, with stairs leading up to each, and inscriptions on their fronts, showing that the one on the right was for the use of the Governing Senate or Council of State, and the one on the left for the use of the most Holy Governing Synod. The similarity of the two buildings suits well the idea and intention of Peter, who instituted the Spiritual Kollegium, to which he gave the name of Synod, and then the Patriarchal title of Most Holy, in order to its being on a footing of an exact equality with the Senate.

But the object of most interest in the Isaac plain is the bronze equestrian statue of Peter, the work of Falconet, with the laconic and pregnant inscription on it, Petro Primo, Catharina Secunda. It is certainly a fine group. His horse is rearing on a huge block of Finnish granite. He faces the water, as he ought to do. He has made his way, in spite of all obstacles, to the sea; he has Schusselborg and the Ladoga on his right and Cronstadt and the Baltic on his left; his right arm is raised as if he bade the fortress and the church of St. Peter and St. Paul, his own small dwelling, and

the church of the Holy Trinity, and the city which was to grow up around them, to start into existence.

Of three long streets, called prospekts, which converge towards the Admiralty, the Nefsky runs from the winter palace down to the Lavra or monastery of St. Alexander. This is the chief street of all Petersburg, answering to the most fashionable of the Boulevards of Paris. With broad trottoirs on either side, and the usual rough pavements in the middle, it has also a double line of carriage-way paved with hexagonal blocks of wood. The houses, which in general are not more than two or three stories high, are all built of brick in great blocks, with from eight to twenty or more windows in a row, and with stucco fronts coloured with a pleasing variety of light tints. Two peculiar features are these ;-below, the projection of light porches, supported by very slender rods or columns with flat roofs, from many of the houses across the footway; and above, the frequency of awnings to the windows, capable of being taken in, like the wings of an insect, or thrust out at pleasure. Long rows of letters, often of great size, of different lengths, and at different heights, coloured or gilt, with the names or advertisements of the occupiers of each house or story, and large window-boards painted with all the wares of

1 [Three English miles in length, and nearly in a straight line.]

D

the dealer within, make up in some degree for the comparative little show there is of glass shopwindows.

The Grand Prince Alexander Garoslavich (father of Daniel, who first raised the city and appanage principality of Moscow to importance) was surnamed Nefsky from his victories gained on the banks of the Neva over the Swedes in 1241, when he was yet only Prince of Novgorod, while his father Garoslaff reigned as Grand Prince under the Tartars at Vladimir. For the sake of this historical association, after Peter had reconquered from the Swedes these regions, the relics of St. Alexander were translated hither from Vladimir on August 30, 1724, fourteen years after Peter had first marked the site for the convent and seminary, and had laid the foundation there of a church of the Holy Trinity. Here was placed St. Alexander; and, with the distinctive title of Nefsky, he became one of the patron saints of the new capital, or rather the special patron, from the presence of his relics; though the church of the fortress, the first founded, was dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul in connexion with the name and origin of Petersburg itself. The Nefsky Prospekt ends with St. Alexander's Lavra; here the Metropolitan Seraphim resides. Here, within its precincts, separated by a passage and a door locked up at night, is the Spiritual Academy and the Seminary. Here, in

its cemetery, many of the nobility and of the wealthier citizens are buried, and more than one of the last descendants of the Romanoff line.

Going along the Nefsky Prospekt I soon came to a church, shown by its inscription, "Deo et Servatori sacrum," to belong to the Dutch, Swiss, and French Calvinists; then to another, of the Lutheran Germans. This was founded by Peter himself, at the request of some of his foreigners, at the same time that he founded on the Viborg side the Russian church of St. Samson, who is commemorated on the 27th June in honour of the victory of Poltava. Then I came to the church of the Poles and other Roman Catholics, subjects of the Empire or strangers. This is held by Dominican fathers, and a little beyond this there is a church of the Armenians, not far off, but not in the same street, but in the Koninshnaia. There is a church also of the Lutheran Finns. All these are churches of a certain size and appearance, and in consequence of their presenting themselves one after another in the principal street of the city, the street itself has sometimes been called jocosely, "la rue de la tolérance." In fact the subjects of the conquered provinces, whose religion has been guaranteed to them, and strangers, are more than tolerated; they are often liberally assisted by the Government. But none of these churches exist for native Russians; nor can their ministers receive prose