Last Letter from Fred Markham to his Mother--Return to Saint
Petersburg--Ceremony at the Kazan Church--Picnic into Finland--Visit
to Peteroff--The Palace of the Czar--Villas of Peter the Great and
Catherine--Beautiful Fountain--Leave Saint Petersburg--Cronstadt--
Voyage down the Baltic--Copenhagen--Journey from Copenhagen to
Hamburg--Conclusion.
"Hamburg, 20th October, 1856.
"My own dear mother,--Here we are within two days' paddling of England,
and we hope within a week to be with you. In the meantime I will give
you an idea of what we have done since I last wrote from Moscow. We
journeyed back from that wondrous city with hundreds of other mortals
returning from the coronation fetes, and took up our old quarters at the
Gostiniza Benson. We looked in the next morning at the Kazan church,
which we had not before seen. The columns which support the roof are of
grey and red granite, and their bases and capitals are gilt; there are
long rows of them in each cross. Banners, tattered, blackened, and
pierced by many a bullet, taken from the enemies of Russia, hang from
the walls. Some ceremony was going forward. A fat, cunning Shylock, in
spectacles, sat at a counter just inside the entrance, and sold
wax-tapers to men and women, old and young, bearded officers and thin
striplings. The votaries then advanced and bowed and crossed
themselves. Some were so devout as to kneel down and kiss the horribly
dirty floor, on which beggars were spitting. Harry and I felt much
inclined to kick over one young fellow so employed close to us, and who
looked as if he ought to have known better. Having genuflected to their
heart's content, they advanced to the altar, and stuck their tapers into
a frame on a huge candlestick placed before some saint or other. One
saintship, who appeared to be a great favourite, had got his candlestick
inconveniently full, but an old soldier--evidently in charge of the
altar, and to whom some votaries presented their tapers--while
pretending to stick in one took the opportunity to slip out four or five
others, so that there was always room for more. I suspect the old
soldier and Shylock were in league with each other, and that the same
tapers did duty many times. I am grateful that I was not brought up in
the Greek Church. Cousin Giles says we ought to be thankful that we are
Englishmen and Protestants.
"The Monday before we left, some friends invited us to a picnic in
Finland, the borders of which are distant only a fair drive from Saint
Petersburg. We started early and drove in a northerly direction past a
number of wooden villas of every conceivable Swiss-cottage style, very
picturesque and very damp, of trees and canals and ponds, to the village
of Mourina, fifteen versts off, where our friends have a villa. The
property belongs to Prince Woronzoff, who was brought up in England; but
instead of following the example of our good landlords, he imitates the
bad ones, and allows his cottages to get into a very tumble-down
condition. They are built of wood, so the lower part becomes rotten,
and the rest sinks. Were they placed on foundations of stone, they
would last far longer. They now offer no unfit epitome of the state of
Russia. Our friend's villa was very pretty, with all sorts of
Chinese-looking ins-and-outs, verandahs, and passages. There was a
gauze covering to the verandah, which effectually kept out the flies and
moths, and other teasing things. A stream of water ran at the foot of
the garden, and close to it was built a vapour-bath, and a
dressing-house for a plunge-bath. After breakfast, a carriage and
several little country carts--telegas they are called--came to the door
to take us to our destination. The carts were drawn by one horse in the
shafts and another in the left side, with traces secured partly to the
wheels and partly to a rough bar of birchwood fastened across the cart.
They are in shape like boats with stem and stern cut off, and the ribs
outside instead of in. Each holds two persons seated on horse-cloths
and sheepskins, with their feet in straw. Cousin Giles called the bar
to which the traces were fastened, a sprit-sail yard. The drivers were
boys, who sat in front of the carts. Off we rattled down a steep hill,
and through a bog, and were quickly in Finland. The boys tried to keep
ahead of each other, and galloped down hills and up hills, and along the
road at a tremendous pace;--it was rare fun. The road was sometimes
sandy, sometimes gravelly, and always undulating. After a little time
we had some pretty views, with a chain of lakes on either side of us.
Then we reached the village of Toxova, with its Lutheran church and
parsonage, situated on a wooded hill above the lakes. We stopped at the
village, and went to a cottage with a large room with a table and
benches, and a verandah looking down on the lakes. Here we hired a
samovar, and spread our eatables. The chief dish was a salmon-pie, and
a capital dish it is. A whole salmon (or another fish may be used) is
rolled up in a coat of chopped eggs, and rice or other grain, first well
boiled, and then covered with a coating of bread-dough, which is next
baked like a loaf of bread. It is eaten cold. After dinner we walked
through woods of birch and elder to a hill with a cross on it, above a
lake, whence we got a view of Saint Petersburg.
"We altogether had one of the pleasantest days we passed in Russia, for
though cities and fine sights are very interesting, there is nothing
like the country after all, in my opinion. Another day we received an
invitation from some friends to visit them at Peteroff, a village formed
by a collection of villas and palaces on the south side of the Gulf of
Finland. It can be reached by land, but we preferred going there by
water. Steamers run between it and Saint Petersburg several times in
the day. Crossing the bridge, we embarked in a boat, built in the
far-off Clyde, and now called by a Russian name. The passage between
the shallows all the way is very narrow, and the bar at the mouth of the
Neva has often not more than ten feet of water on it. I have already in
our journal described Peteroff, with its golden domes and spires peeping
out among the trees just overlooking Cronstadt, so I will say no more
about it. At the end of a good landing-pier we found our friend's
carriage waiting, and in it, over a good road, among groves of birch and
lime-trees, we were driven to his very picturesque summer residence. It
was built of logs, and weather-boarded, with a verandah running all
round it, and at each angle is a wide space roofed over, so that shade
and air can at all times of the day be procured. After an early dinner,
we drove to the chateau of the Emperor, built by Peter the Great. It is
a curious, long, half Oriental, half Italian-looking edifice, with a
gilt roof, and white and yellow walls. On one side are gardens, laid
out with long gravel walks, grass-plats, and trees; on the other the
high road. Between the road and the sea are the smaller and still more
ancient royal villas of Marly and Montplaisir, in the midst of gardens
full of the strangest collection of gilt statues and urns, and
flowerpots and marble fountains, and water-spouts and tanks, and seats
and rows of trees, and flower-beds all of one colour, the whole having a
very glittering, dazzling effect. From one of the fountains the water
comes down an inclined plane, and we were told that the Emperor Nicholas
used to amuse himself by making a party of the cadets of the military
schools defend the top of the waterfall, while others had to storm it,
climbing up the inclined plane, over which the water was rushing down.
It might be very good fun on a hot day, with the thermometer at 90
degrees, but very disagreeable when a sharp north-easter was blowing.
"The villa of Marly was built by Peter, and here he used to go to watch
the manoeuvres of his newly-formed fleet in the gulf below him. Here,
also, he died; his bed and his night-cap are shown. Indeed, nothing has
been altered in the cottage since he passed away from the scene where
his wonderfully active mind had done so much. The cottage of
Montplaisir was built by the Empress Catherine, and in it was a
kitchen-range, where she used to amuse herself by cooking dinners for
herself and any of her more honoured guests. In the dining-room was a
table, the centre of which could be lowered and raised, so as to remove
and replace the dishes without the presence of waiters. In the gardens
is also a large bathing-house, of truly imperial dimensions. These
cottages are interesting for their historical recollections; but by far
the most beautiful object in the gardens is a fountain, which throws up
water exactly in the shape of a Gothic cathedral. As the sun shone on
the sparkling jets, the effect was excellent.
"We spent a most pleasant evening at our friend's house, and returned
the next day to Saint Petersburg. We saw many other things in Saint
Petersburg which I will tell you about when we meet. We went down to
Cronstadt, to get on board the steamer which was to take us to
Copenhagen. The town consists of several very broad streets and places,
but not many houses within the fortifications, and quays, and a harbour
full of shipping.
"We were not sorry to get out of Russia. Cousin Giles says that he felt
as if there was something in the air which prevented him breathing
freely. We liked the Russians very well. They do not live exclusively
on train-oil, ill-smelling fish, and black bread, as we fancied before
we went there; but their greatest admirers cannot call them a thoroughly
civilised people.
"I wish that I could tell you something about their language. It sounds
very soft and musical, but is very difficult to speak, and the
characters make all one's previous knowledge of an alphabet utterly
useless. We left Cronstadt on the afternoon of Wednesday, where neither
was our baggage nor were we examined; indeed, half-a-dozen people might
have smuggled themselves on board, and got away without difficulty. We
had fine weather all the way down the Baltic, and came off a neat little
village five miles from Copenhagen, on the afternoon of Sunday. Here we
landed in a pilot-boat, with some Danish gentlemen, who were very civil
to us, and by their aid we engaged a char-a-banc, and drove to
Copenhagen the same evening. We spent five very pleasant days there,
seeing numerous objects of interest. I will not attempt to describe
them now. Cousin Giles says I must write a book about Denmark another
year. It is a very interesting country, to Englishmen especially. We
left Copenhagen in the afternoon, and the same evening reached by
railway the town of Kirsoor, about sixty miles to the south of it. Here
we embarked on board a steamer, which carried us to Kiel, where the
English fleet were stationed last winter. Here another railway conveyed
us, in a little more than three hours, to Hamburg. And now our foreign
travels are almost over for this year. We have enjoyed them very much,
as we hope you have our letters, and that you will allow us to accept
Cousin Giles' invitation to accompany him next summer to some other
country.
"Your affectionate son--
"Frederick Markham."