A Journey to St. Petersburg and Moscow Through Courland and Livonia |
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A. G. Vickers Admiralty appear beard beautiful body building called carriage Catharine cathedral ceremony character church civilization classes colour columns constitution of Russia Courland cupolas Dida and Lado domes door Drawn by A. G. dressed droski edifice emperor Empress English Engraved eyes façade feet fortress Foundling Hospital French gilded grand Gulf of Finland hand Holy horses houses hundred immense imperial kind Kremlin labour lady Livonia look middle Mittau monastery monument Moscow mujiks Narova Neva Nevski Prospekt nobility nobles occasion Oi Dida ornaments painted palace peasantry peasants Peter Petersburg present priest remarkable Riga river roof round rubles Russian Saint scene seen side Simonov monastery sometimes spire stands stone stranger streets surmounted taste Tatars Taurida Palace temples thing thousand tion tower town traveller trees Tsar usually versts village walls whole winter Winter Palace women wood wooden
Popular passages
Page 70 - It is the custom of the peasants to cut down the trees at some distance from the root, and thus a great deal of wood will be turned to a useful purpose which would otherwise only encumber the ground. Every peasant, besides, by means of his axe alone, is able to construct such a pavement, and in Russia hands are both plenty and cheap.
Page 112 - So far, so well. But he had now reached the ball — a globe - of between nine and ten feet in circumference. The angel, the object of his visit, was above this ball, and even concealed from his view by its smooth, round, and glittering expanse. 'Only fancy the wretch at that moment, turning up his grave eyes, and graver beard, to an obstacle that seemed to defy the daring and ingenuity of man ! But Telouchkine was not dismayed. He was prepared for the difficulty ; and the means by which he essayed...
Page 112 - Suspending himself in his stirrups, he girded the needle with a cord, the ends of which he fastened around his waist; and, so supported, he leaned gradually back, till the soles of his feet were planted against the spire. In this position, he threw, by a strong effort, a coil of cord over the ball; and so coolly and accurately was the aim taken, that at the first trial it fell in the required direction, and he saw the end hang down on the opposite side. To draw himself...
Page 112 - To raise a scaffolding to such a height would have cost more money than all the angels out of heaven were worth; and, meditating fruitlessly on these circumstances, without being able to resolve how to act, a considerable time was suffered to elapse. " Among the crowd of gazers below, who daily turned their eyes and their thoughts toward the angel, was a mujik called Telouchkine. This man was a roofer of houses (a slater, as he would be called in...
Page 112 - The upper loops he fastened upon two of the projecting nails above his head, and placed his foot in the others. Then digging the fingers of one hand into the interstices of the sheets of copper, he raised up one of his stirrups with the other hand so as to make it catch a nail higher up. The same operation he performed on behalf of the other leg, and so on alternately. And thus he climbed, nail by nail, step by step, and stirrup by stirrup, till his...
Page 112 - This man was a roofer of houses (a slater as he would be called in countries where slates were used,) and his speculations by degrees assumed a more practical character than the idle wonders and conjectures of the rest of the crowd. The spire was entirely covered with sheets of gilded copper, and presented a surface to the eye as smooth as if it had been one mass of burnished gold. But Telouchkine knew that the sheets of copper were not even, uniformly closed upon each...
Page 190 - Nicholas has freqnently gone home in a droski when it rained ; and once, having no money in his pocket, the isvoschik, ignorant of his quality, detained his cloak till he sent down the fare. A better anecdote, however, is told of the contact he sometimes comes into with the lower classes. One Easter, on coming out of the palace, he addressed the sentry with his usual familiarity, in the form of salutation prescribed for that day — "Christ is risen !" Instead of the usual reply, " He is, indeed...
Page 188 - Come now, make a little room for me/' says the emperor, passing on with his hand raised to his hat, "do, brother, stand out of the way!" The occasion is like a fete through the whole town, and the Kremlin, to which every body has access, is like the scene of a great fair. The palace, defended from the people by no enclosure, is surrounded by a dense crowd of men, women, and children, from morning till night.
Page 166 - Lacrymae, and that will ravish a pair of Russian luggs better than all the musick in Italy, light ayres in France, marches of England, or the jigs of Scotland.