104 NOBTUEKN RUSSIA. 



not so venerated), and the venerable Basil, the Cathedral 

 of St. Basil or Basiliki Blagennci. 



Nearly opposite this church is the sacred entrance to 

 the Kremlin, by the Holy Gate or the " Spass vorota." 

 Over it there hangs, under a glass, and before a lamp 

 which burns from age to age, a picture of the Saviour. 

 From various traditions, which need not here be enume- 

 rated, every passenger, high and low, from the Emperor 

 to the serf, must keep off his hat as he passes through 

 this covered archway, which leads upwards, by a slight 

 ascent of a few yards, to the acropolis and capital of 

 Moscow. So have passed many a stately procession, 

 many a weary pilgrim, many a conqueror and soldier 

 from conquests extending from Paris to Persia, and from 

 the Volga to the Amoor. 



Bareheaded, I found myself at last on the stone plateau 

 of the old Kremlin. Anxious to get a bird's-eye view of 

 the whole before examining any of its details, I directed 

 my steps at once to the highest point in the city, the 

 summit of the high tower of " Ivan Valiki," or Long 

 John. 



But I could not help pausing as I recalled an early 

 dream which, along with many others, was suggested 

 by a dear old book I have long since lost sight of, called 

 Ten Wonders of the World, a dream now realised in 

 the "Great Bell of Moscow." There it lay, the " Tzar 

 Kolokoi," or King of Bells, a huge inverted cup, twenty- 

 one feet high, and upwards of sixty feet in circumference, 

 whose very metal is worth 850,000, and with a piece 



