30 FIRST TRIP TO RUSSIA 



books about horses, and that, if I came out, he would give 

 me introductions, so that I could see all the studs and learn 

 everything about Russian horses, in the event of my wishing 

 to write about them. Of course I was only too glad to 

 accept the honour of such a flattering invitation, and returned 

 to my quarters immensely pleased with the results of the 

 afternoon, and deeply grateful for the kind reception I had 

 received, thanks to Colonel Kasnakof. I was ably assisted 

 that afternoon in the breaking by Sorel. 



In and around St. Petersburg the troops are chiefly composed 

 of Guard regiments (Figs. 7, 8, and 9), the men and officers of 

 which are specially selected, as with us. A commission in 

 the Russian Guards is greatly sought after by rich young 

 Muscovites ; because all the Guard stations are good, both 

 for society and for obtaining appointments. So keen is the 

 competition for these commissions, that in each Guard 

 regiment there is a large number of supernumerary officers 

 who draw no pay, being well content to serve in the home 

 district without State aid, instead of being banished to "the 

 back of God speed you " in the middle of some desolate 

 steppe thousands of miles from civilisation. The majority of 

 the officers of the Guards speak French or German, or both, 

 though not so much as formerly ; because Russia for the 

 Russians is the policy of the day and quite right too. In 

 other times, it was Russia for the foreigners. In Russia, 

 education beyond the three R's is chiefly confined to the 

 acquisition of foreign languages, which principle acts 

 well in a country devoted to expansion. The knowledge 

 of languages, as we all know, is a means, not an end. It 

 was said that Mezzofanti spoke fifty languages, and had 

 nothing particular to tell in any of them. Being fairly 

 polyglot in European and Eastern languages, I can say 

 with some authority that learning a language for ordinary 

 purposes is a mere effort of memory which demands no exer- 



