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 civilization classes colour columns constitution of Russia Courland 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 interior Kazan KAZAN CHURCH kind Kremlin lady Livonia look middle Mittau monastery Moscow mujiks Narova Neva Nevski Prospekt nobility nobles occasion Oi Dida ornaments painted palace peasantry peasants Peter Petersburg picturesque present priest quay 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 town traveller trees Tsar usually versts village walls whole winter Winter Palace women wood wooden
Popular passages
Page 113 - 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 113 - 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 to surmount it exhibited the same prodigious simplicity as the rest of the feat. Suspending himself in his...
Page 139 - When no provision was made in the marriage contract, he says, they were accustomed to discipline their wives very severely. At the marriage the bridegroom had a whip in one boot, and a jewel in the other, and the poor girl tried her fortune by choosing. ' If she happens upon the jewel,' says another traveller, 'she is lucky; but if on the whip, she gets it.
Page 114 - To draw himself up into his original position ; to fasten the cord firmly round the globe ; and with the assistance of this auxiliary to climb to the summit — were now an easy part of his task : and, in a few minutes more, Telouchkine stood by the side of the angel, and listened to the shout that burst like sudden thunder from the concourse below, yet came to his ear only like a faint and hollow murmur ! " The cord, which he had now an opportunity of fastening properly, enabled him to descend with...
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.
Page 112 - The angel which surmounts the spire, less respected by the weather than perhaps his holy character deserved, fell into disrepair ; and some suspicions were entertained that he designed revisiting, uninvoked, the surface of the earth. The affair caused some uneasiness, and the government at length became seriously perplexed. 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...
Page 112 - The spire, which rises— • lofty, and light, and small," and is properly represented in the engraving as fading away almost into a point in the sky, is, in reality, terminated by a globe of considerable dimensions, on which an angel stands, supporting a large cross. This angel, less respected by the weather than perhaps his holy character deserved, fell into disrepair; and some suspicions were entertained that he designed re-visiting, uninvoked, the surface of the earth.
Page 170 - if you would please a Russian with musick, get a concert of Billingsgate nightingales, which joyned with a flight of screech owls, a nest of jackdaws, a pack of hungry wolves, seven hogs in a windy day, and as many cats with their...
Page 113 - The offer was accepted ; for it was made in Russia, and by a Russian. On the day fixed for the adventure, Telouchkine, provided with nothing more than a coil of cords, ascended the spire in the interior to the last window. Here he looked down at the concourse of people below, and up at the glittering " needle," as it is called, tapering far away above his head. But his heart did not fail him, and stepping gravely out upon the ledge of the window, he set about his task. He cut a portion of the cord...