PALACES AND GARDENS.
At half past seven the next morning, breakfast had been disposed of,
and the little steamer came alongside the ship to convey the students
to St. Petersburg again. At nine o'clock she landed them on the English
Quay, near the Nicholas Bridge. A procession was formed, which was but
the work of a moment, for every student knew his place in the line. The
column moved along the quay to the Winter Palace, under the guidance of
an officer of the emperor's household, who had been detailed for the
purpose, when Mr. Fluxion applied for permission to see the palace.
Every courtesy had been extended to the tourists, and not a word was
said about passports.
At the Hotel Klée, Kendall and Shuffles had sent their passports to
the police office. They had been _visé_ at the Russian consulate in
Stockholm, and permission was indorsed upon them for the owners to
abide in the city. The people at the hotel attend to all this business,
and ask for the traveller's passport as soon as he arrives, charging
the fees, which are quite small, in the bill. In every additional city
or town in which the tourist remains over night, his passport must
be sent to the police, who indorse upon it the permission to remain.
Letters from abroad are delivered to travellers, but newspapers, unless
they are on the permitted list, are detained. A few New York papers are
on this list, and it is useless to send any others into Russia, for
they will not be forwarded to their address. The custom-house officers
were formerly very strict in regard to the admission of books, and
are so still where there is any suspicion of revolutionary works, or
of those directed against the Orthodox Greek church. Such books as
ordinary travellers desire to carry, as the Bible, Prayer-books, and
Guidebooks, are permitted to pass.
The students had seen the Winter Palace and Hermitage, which are
connected by galleries, when they rode through the streets the day
before. The grand entrance is on the Neva, but there is another opening
into the square in front of the Etat Major. The exterior, except in
size, is hardly as imposing as many other European palaces, though
the building has the reputation of being one of the most elegant on
the continent. It is four hundred and fifty-five feet long by three
hundred and fifty wide, and eighty feet high. In winter it accommodates
six thousand persons, forming the emperor's household. On the site
of the palace was the estate of the high admiral of Peter the Great,
who bequeathed it to Peter II. The Empress Anne commenced a palace
on the spot, which was completed in the reign of Catharine II., but
it was destroyed by fire in 1837. In two years more the present vast
structure was completed. The entrance from the Neva side is by a
magnificent staircase of marble. The students went in at the entrance
on the square, and walked through all the apartments which visitors
are permitted to enter, and all of them were magnificent. The White
Hall, as its name indicates, is of clear white, adorned with gold, and
is the room in which the court balls and other festivities are held.
St. George's Hall, which is one hundred and forty feet long by sixty
wide, is the apartment in which the ambassadors are received; and
there is another throne room, in which the emperor meets the diplomats
on New Year's Day. There were hundreds of other rooms, all of them
hung with pictures, which are mostly portraits of persons noted in
Russian history, and battle-pieces in which the armies of the czars
have been victorious. In the Romanoff Gallery are the pictures of all
the sovereigns of this line, from Michael down to the present time. In
this hall is a tablet, covered with a curtain, on which are inscribed
the ten rules that Catharine II. enforced at the meetings of her
friends. The visitor was enjoined to leave his rank, and his right of
precedence, outside the door; to be gay, and sit, stand, or walk, as he
pleased, without regard to any one; to talk gently, and argue without
excitement; to eat what was good, and drink moderately, so that each
might find his legs when he wanted to use them; that all should join
in any innocent game when one proposed it, and tell no tales out of
school. The penalty of a violation of these rules was the drinking of a
glass of cold water, and the reading of a page of a poet who appears to
have been the Martin Farquhar Tupper of Russia. If any one broke three
of the rules in the same evening, he was condemned to commit six lines
of this poet to memory; and the one who told tales out of school was
not again admitted.
The students were conducted to a room on the second floor, which is
guarded day and night by officers of the household, where the crown
jewels are kept. On the sceptre is the great Orlof diamond, the largest
in Europe, presented to Catharine II. by her favorite, whose name it
takes. It is said that it once formed the eye of an idol in India, and
was stolen by a French soldier. After passing through various hands, it
was purchased by Count Orlof, who paid four hundred and fifty thousand
rubles for it, besides conferring a patent of nobility, and an annuity
of two thousand rubles upon the seller. The crown of the emperor is
shaped something like a bishop's mitre, and is covered with diamonds
and pearls. On the top is an immense ruby, which supports a cross
formed of five beautiful diamonds. The crown of the empress is a mass
of diamonds of the most perfect hue and lustre. There are many other
treasures, such as the plume of Suvaroff, presented by the Sultan of
Turkey; the "Shah," a diamond from Persia; and necklaces, bracelets,
brooches, and other articles, glittering with diamonds, and studded
with immense pearls. Millions upon millions of rubles in value lie idle
and useless in this apartment, which would plant a common school in
nearly every town of the vast empire.
On the lower floor is the room in which the Emperor Nicholas died,
in 1855, with everything just as it was on the day he breathed his
last. It is one of the smallest and plainest apartments of the palace,
and a grenadier of the guard is always on duty within it to protect
the sacred relics of the czar. It is furnished with a narrow iron
camp bedstead, on which he expired. On it lies his military cloak,
and his sword and helmet are just as he left them. On the table is a
quartermaster's report, given to him on the day he died. Everything
in the room is of the simplest manufacture, with nothing of the
luxuriousness of the other parts of the palace.
From the palace the students passed into the Hermitage, which is a
museum and gallery of paintings, and is hardly equalled in all Europe.
It is somewhat larger than the palace, enclosing two large courts.
It is a perfect labyrinth of apartments, and all of them filled with
paintings, works of art, and historical relics. All the old masters
are represented in the picture galleries, and rooms or suits of rooms
are devoted to each school of painting. Not many of the students were
able to appreciate the treasures of art, and most of them preferred
the military and naval pictures in the Winter Palace. In the vast
numismatic collection are many very rare Greek coins. In the gem room
is a mechanical clock, which a poor woman drew in a lottery, and sold
for fifteen thousand dollars. It played overtures with all the effects
of the modern orchestrion, and was wound up for the gratification
of the visitors. In the gallery of Peter the Great, the party were
disposed to linger for a long time. It contains works of art and
industry in the time of the Czar whose name it bears, and the turning
lathes and carving tools he used himself. His spy-glasses, mathematical
instruments, books, canes, and other articles are exhibited. The gilded
chariot in which he occasionally rode, his dogs, and his war horse,
stuffed, and various casts and portraits of him, taken after death,
were examined with interest. A broken clock, with wonderful mechanical
movements, excited the attention of the boys. It consists of a peacock,
which, at the striking of the hour, expands his tail, while a rooster
flaps his wings, an owl rolls his eyes, and a grasshopper feeds on a
mushroom. Near it is a collection of snuff-boxes, which belonged to
various sovereigns of Europe. In this room, enclosed in cases, was a
great variety of curiosities, including articles which had belonged to
the members of the royal family.
On the lower floor are the galleries of ancient sculpture. In the
Kertch collection are medals and other articles proving the existence
of a Greek colony on the northern shores of the Black Sea six hundred
years before Christ. In 1820 a tomb was found at Kertch, which is at
the entrance to the Sea of Azof, containing a chamber of hewn stone,
in which were the remains of a Scythian prince, with his wife, his
horse, and his chief groom. His crown, weapons, ornaments, and golden
robes, with vases of bronze and other material containing the remains
of provisions, were found where they had lain for two thousand years,
and were conveyed to this museum. The tomb of a priestess of Ceres,
buried with her ornaments, and with four horses, was found in 1866. The
Scythian collection is equally rich in the treasures of a former race.
The students wandered during the forenoon through these numerous
apartments till most of them were very tired; for there is no harder
work for the human frame than that of exploring museums and galleries.
The party dined again at the Hotel Klée, and in the afternoon walked to
the Arsenal Museum, which contains specimens of arms and accoutrements
of many periods, and a vast quantity of historical curiosities. Among
the former are some curious guns, pistols, revolvers, and warlike
machines; and among the latter are many relics of Peter the Great, as
the hat and sword he wore at Pultowa; the leather coat in which he
worked at Saardam; the uniforms in which he passed through the several
military grades of private, captain, and colonel; and a cabriolet in
which he measured distances on the road by means of machinery like that
of a clock connected with the wheels. At the head of the staircase is
a Russian eagle, the body, neck, and legs made of gun-flints fixed on
the wall, the wings of sword blades, and the eyes formed by the muzzles
of a pair of pistols, in the same manner as the several objects in the
Tower of London are composed.
The Museum of Imperial Carriages was next visited. After passing
through several rooms in which some beautiful Gobelin tapestries
are exhibited, the students entered the large hall which contains
the vehicles. The first was the carriage presented by Frederick the
Great, of Prussia, to the Empress Elizabeth, in 1746, and in which
the Princess Dagmar rode into St. Petersburg with the empress. It is
gilded, with paintings on the panels and doors. There are a dozen of
these large, clumsy state carriages, glittering with gold, and rich
with silk, satin, and embroidery. Some of them are over a hundred
years old, and have been "restored" several times. Those used by the
various sovereigns, from Peter I. to the present time, were pointed
out. After the party had critically examined one of them, the only
interest the others had was the fact that Catharine II. had spread
herself in one, and Nicholas had sternly looked out from the windows of
another. Besides these state coaches, there were many modern vehicles
from different parts of Europe, and a number of sleighs, used by the
court in carnival time, some of which are very ingeniously constructed.
By all odds, the greatest curiosity in this collection is the sledge of
Peter the Great, in which he travelled, in winter, on his long journeys
to the distant parts of his vast empire. It is a kind of coach on
runners, and was entirely constructed by the Czar's own hands. Behind
it is a trunk in which he carried his clothes and provisions. Peter
made a journey in this sledge to Archangel, on the White Sea, and there
came a thaw which compelled him to return to his capital on wheels.
Alexander I. caused the sleigh to be brought to St. Petersburg. It is
placed in a large glass case, to protect it from injury. A sleigh in
the form of St. George and the Dragon is unique. A mechanical drosky,
invented by a Siberian peasant, has an apparatus which records the time
and distance travelled, besides playing several tunes. Near Peter's
sledge stand two or three diminutive carriages for the use of the royal
children.
In another room are kept the harnesses and trappings used for the
imperial state carriages, with liveries for eight hundred men. In one
set, each horse has to carry about one hundred and twenty pounds. The
carriages are all in the second story of the building, and there is
a kind of platform elevator, by which they are hoisted up. The state
coaches are used at the coronation of the emperors, and this ceremonial
always takes place at Moscow, whither they have to be transported,
though, since the railroad was completed, this is not so difficult a
matter as formerly.
The students walked on the quay to the vast Admiralty building, and
went into the Naval Museum, in which there are models of all kinds of
boats and vessels, which were full of interest to the nautical young
gentlemen. This completed the labors of the day, and the company
returned to Cronstadt in the steamer.
At the usual hour on the following morning they embarked again, and
were soon landed at Peterhoff, which is sometimes called the Versailles
of Russia, on account of the number and variety of the fountains in
the palace grounds. The place is on the south side of the broad bay
inside of Cronstadt, and about ten miles distant from it. It is a
favorite summer resort of the people from the capital, steamers plying
frequently between the two places. It has a great many attractions, the
principal of which is the palace, erected in 1720, under the direction
of Peter the Great, on an elevation of sixty feet,--a considerable hill
in Russia,--and the magnificent grounds, laid off in parks, lawns,
terraces, groves, and gardens. The buildings are extensive, but not
very elegant outside. The apartments contain a great many paintings,
including portraits of three hundred and sixty-eight beautiful young
girls, from fifty different provinces. The rooms for use contain the
usual gilded chairs, sofas, tables, and other furniture, which soon
become very tiresome to the traveller in Europe, for they are about the
same thing in all the palaces, and, to a republican, would have a cheap
look, if it were not for the silks, velvets, and brocade with which
they are upholstered.
The palace faces the sea, and the slope of the hill is cut into
terraces, which are adorned with fountains, waterfalls, and basins with
Neptunes, swans, nymphs, tritons, and other aquatic ornaments. Beneath
a fountain, which throws a jet eighty feet high, is a kind of canal,
extending five hundred yards down the slope to the bay, in which there
is a succession of cataracts. The fountains play at five o'clock every
Sunday afternoon in the summer, but on this occasion the water was let
on as a special favor, which can perhaps be obtained at any time by
paying a ruble or two. The effect was very fine, and compared favorably
with the water works at Versailles. On fête days, lamps are placed
under the sheets of water in the evening, and the appearance is said to
be both unique and brilliant. In the garden below, near the sea-shore,
are the small structures called Marly and Montplaisir. In the former
Peter used to look out upon his fleet at Cronstadt. In the latter the
great Czar died, and his bed is still preserved, as he used it, with
his night clothes and dressing gown on the pillow. It is a small,
Dutch-built house, and the interior looks very much like that of a
country farm-house. Peter's boots, slippers, writing-desk, sedan-chair,
and other articles belonging to him, are to be seen in the several
apartments. The Hermitage is the cottage of Catharine. A table in
the dining-room is provided with a contrivance by which dishes are
sent down through the floor, or sent up, without the servants coming
into the apartment. The same thing is shown in one of the palaces at
Potsdam, where Frederick the Great used to carouse, without any menials
to witness his revels. In an oblong pond a vast number of tame fish are
kept, and regularly fed. The man in charge of the straw cottage goes to
the edge of the water and rings a bell, with some parade, when visitors
are present, and the fish are supposed to come at his call; but Scott
protested that it was all a humbug, for not a fish was seen until the
man had thrown the food into the water. Then they scrambled for the
bits of black bread, piling themselves up in stacks, to the intense
amusement of the boys. There are several other palaces near Peterhoff,
one of which was occupied by Nicholas as his summer residence; and
Stretna, the palace of the Grand Duke Constantine, is about half way
to St. Petersburg by railroad. At ten the company took the train, and
stopped at _Krasnoé Sélo_, where there is an immense camp, containing
forty thousand troops or more, during the summer season. The soldiers
were drilling, marching, and manœuvring in large bodies. In every
Russian camp there is a quantity of simple gymnastic apparatus, on
which the men are required to exercise regularly. Near the end of
August the emperor reviews the troops, when sham fights and other kinds
of mimic warfare are exhibited. Taking the next train, the party
reached St. Petersburg in season for dinner.
In the afternoon, omnibuses were again in demand and the students
rode to the Monastery of St. Alexander Nevski, on the river at the
end of the Nevski Prospect. This establishment is the seat of the
Metropolitan, or Patriarch of St. Petersburg, and is therefore of a
higher order than the ordinary monastery. It is called a _Lavra_, and
only ranks below two others in the empire--the one at Moscow, and the
other at Kief. It was founded by Peter the Great in honor of the Grand
Duke Alexander, who defeated the Swedes on the Neva in 1241, which
battle gave him his surname. His remains were brought to this monastery
with the most solemn pomp, and he was canonized. He is the patron saint
of the present emperor, who takes his name. The shrine of St. Alexander
Nevski in the principal church, beneath which his remains repose, is of
solid silver, and weighs thirty-two hundred and fifty pounds. Over it
hang the keys of Adrianople. The establishment encloses a considerable
tract of land, and includes several churches, buildings for the monks,
cells, refectories, towers, gardens, and a cemetery. It is endowed
with immense wealth, and contains many costly gifts of the Persians,
as well as valuable works of art. In one of the chapels is the tomb of
Suwaroff--which is only a plain marble tablet--and many other noted
men. The cemetery is regarded as peculiarly holy ground, and wealthy
families pay large sums for the privilege of burying their dead in its
consecrated earth. The party walked through the churches, visited the
dining-room of the monks, whose fare is certainly very plain, looked
into one of their cells, and inspected some of the curious monuments
in the cemetery.
The omnibuses then conveyed the company to some of the public gardens
of the city, several of which are situated on the islands. Kamannoi, or
Stone Island, situated on the Great Nevka, a drive of three miles from
the Nevski Prospect over a broad avenue, is covered with the villas of
the nobles and other wealthy people of the city. Upon it there is an
extensive public garden, with an immense refreshment establishment and
a summer theatre, while the grounds are filled with towers, temples,
kiosks, and almost every appliance for the amusement of the visitors.
In the theatre the plays and songs are generally in French, and one
will observe that a large proportion of the people who frequent this
place of resort speak the "polite language" in their conversation, as
they walk about the grounds, listening to the concert. Up the Neva,
three miles from Trinity Bridge, are the Tivoli Gardens, which may be
reached by small steamers that ply on the river. In the winter there
is a skating rink at this place, where this amusement may be had
under cover. The visit to the gardens finished the excursion for the
day, and the tourists returned to the squadron at Cronstadt. The next
day was Sunday, and in the forenoon the students attended service at
the British Chapel in the town; in the afternoon, in the steerage of
the ship. As in most of the countries of Europe, Sunday is a holiday
in Russia. The people attend church in the morning, and devote the
afternoon to recreation and amusement.
On Monday the company went up to St. Petersburg again, and walked
from the English Quay to the station of the Czarskoé Sélo Railroad.
On the way they halted in the square upon which the Great Theatre and
the Marie Theatre are situated. As in Paris, the government pays large
sums for the support of the theatre, and for the Great Theatre, which
accommodates three thousand people, the best operatic talent of Europe
is engaged. Dancing is an especial attraction to the people, and a
school for the training of actresses and dancers is maintained. The
finest performances are given on Sunday. Masked balls are also given in
this theatre in the winter, which are attended by the emperor and other
members of the imperial family. The Marie Theatre is more especially
for the representation of Russian dramas and the opera.
There are four railway stations on the south side of St. Petersburg,
the Peterhoff, the Warsaw, the Czarskoé Sélo, and the Moscow, though
the latter is at the bend of the Nevski Prospect. Czarskoé Sélo,
fifteen miles from the city, is the principal summer residence of the
emperor. The railway to this place was the first one built in Russia.
A ride of forty minutes brought the party to their destination. The
grounds of the palace, which are entered by a gateway with two towers,
covered with Egyptian figures and hieroglyphics, are eighteen miles in
circumference. They are kept in the nicest order by six hundred old
soldiers, who are pensioned off in this way. Not a dry leaf, a cigar
stump, or any unclean thing is permitted to remain in the walks, for
the veterans capture it as an invader, and put it out of sight. The
front of the palace is seven hundred and eighty feet long. Peter
the Great erected a building here, but the present edifice was built
during the reign of Elizabeth, and was embellished by Catharine II.
Originally, every statue, pedestal, capital of a column, and all
the ornaments, were gilded, the gold for which was worth over two
millions of dollars. In a short time the gilding was badly injured
by the weather. The contractors employed in repairing the building
offered Catharine half a million silver rubles for the gold leaf which
remained on the ornaments, to whom she replied, "I am not accustomed to
sell my old clothes." The front of the palace is now gaudily painted
with white, green, and yellow, the only gilding being on the dome
and cupolas of the church. Parts of the interior, however, are very
lavishly gilded, as the chapel, the ceiling of which is one sheet of
gold. One small apartment has strips of lapis lazuli inlaid upon the
walls, and the floor is of ebony, ornamented with mother-of-pearl.
In another room the walls are panelled with amber, wrought into a
variety of designs. The amber was presented to Catharine by Frederick
the Great, and their initials and arms are blended in the panels;
that of the Czarina being an E, for her Russian name was _Ekaterina_.
There seems to be enough of this costly material to make mouth-pieces
for all the pipes in Christendom. Catharine's sleeping apartment has
pillars of purple glass, and the walls are decorated with porcelain.
The bed-clothes are those under which she slept the last time she
dwelt in the palace. The banqueting-rooms and the ball-rooms are
profusely gilded, and, as may be seen in several of the palaces of
Europe, especially those of Poland, Russia, and Sweden, there is a
Chinese room, in which everything is fitted up in "Celestial" style.
The rooms of Alexander I. are kept just as he left them when he started
for Taganrog, where he died. In his cabinet is his writing-desk, all
in confusion, with blotted paper, and quill pens, stained with ink, as
though he had but just used them. Next to this is his bed-room, which
is plain enough for an ordinary farmer. In an alcove is a camp bedstead
on which the Czar slept. His toilet articles are on the table, and on a
chair is his well-worn overcoat under which are his boots.
The party walked through the Alexander Palace built by Catharine for
her grandson, and occupied by Nicholas, whose military tastes are
apparent in the pictures, models, and other ornaments. From this
they went to the Arsenal, in which there is a vast collection of
ancient armor, arms, and Oriental trappings. In a glass case are a
miniature drum and trumpet of silver, given by Catharine to Paul in
his childhood. The grounds were very attractive to the students, for
they are filled with towers, kiosks, Chinese pagodas and other odd
structures. The mast of a frigate, full rigged, afforded the present
High Admiral, the Grand Duke Constantine, the means of obtaining some
experience aloft without going to sea. On one of the ponds there is a
fleet of miniature vessels, which was used for the amusement of the
same young gentleman. A Chinese village, an aerial flower garden,
supported on an Ionic pillar, a marble bridge, columns erected by
Catharine to her favorites, hermitages, ruins, Roman tombs, grottoes,
and waterfalls add to the wonders of the place. On a small lake is a
pavilion, in which the daughter of Nicholas, who died in 1844, used
to feed her swims. Since her death, black swans have been kept in the
pond. In the pavilion are a picture and a marble statue of the youthful
Grand Duchess.
"I think I could pass a summer here very comfortably," said Lincoln,
as he gazed with admiration upon the beautiful grounds and the many
curious structures it contains.
"Perhaps you would alter your mind before the season closed," replied
the doctor. "I was in Russia one year in August, and I think I wore
an overcoat every day for a fortnight, not at night merely, but in
the middle of the day. Still the weather is sometimes very warm here.
On the whole, I think I should prefer to be here in the winter. St.
Petersburg is very lively then, the court is in town, and there is a
variety of amusements."
"I should like to see the fun for a while, and the strange sights which
are to be seen only in winter, such as the sleigh-riding, skating, and
frolics on the ice," added Lincoln.
"I think the want of ventilation in the houses must be one of the
greatest evils of a residence here," continued Dr. Winstock, as the
party left the palace gardens.
The company returned to St. Petersburg, and spent the rest of the day
in visiting palaces and other places of interest. At the usual hour
they embarked on the steamer, and returned to the squadron.