76 NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



attached to every continental city, with crowds of people, 

 coloured lamps, bands of music, chairs in the open air, 

 waiters rushing to and fro with white aprons, and serving 

 coffee, ices, or anything to refresh the languid nerves, 

 or cool the parched throat; but all this must be " done," 

 there is no help for it. 



"Why did you come abroad unless to see all that 

 was to be seen ? ' asks the new traveller, up to any- 

 thing. 



It is possible, however, slightly to mitigate this 

 heavy, imperious duty. 



Beware, first of all, of an enthusiastic, able-bodied, 

 patient, determined sight-seer, who desires to obtain 

 accurate information about everything, who is always 

 discovering national peculiarities " things one never sees 

 at home " who takes notes, asks innumerable questions, 

 replies to which no memory can retain were it desirable 

 to do so, and who insists on seeing everything in the 

 museum down to the last Emperor's stocking, or in the 

 palaces down to the Emperor's kitchen. Neither body 

 nor spirit of ordinary mould can stand him this amount 

 of excessive culture. 



Then again, if possible, never take a guide. Yet how 

 seldom is it possible to get quit of that attached incubus 

 with shabby-genteel sui'tout, gloves, and polished old hat. 

 Who on going abroad ever thinks of the trials that await 

 him with "commissionaires " or " valets de place 1" Can 

 any man recall the architectural glories of the famous old 

 continental towns, without the presence of a "commission- 



