﻿£53 



LIVERPOOL. 



LIVONIA. 



parts of the town, which have been well attended by the labouring 



I 



The principal places of amusement are : — the theatre in Williamson- 

 iiquare; an amphitheatre in Great Charlotte-street; the AdelpUi 

 theatre in Christian-street; the concert-hall, Lord Nelson-street; the 

 music-hall. Bold-street; the botanic gardens at Edge-hill, and a 

 zoological garden in West Derby road. Near the last named is the 

 necropolis, which, with the cemetery of St. James, form the 2 prin- 

 cipal places of (epulture. A statue of the late Mr. Huskisson Ktands 

 in St. James's cemetery, in which place the remains of the deceased 

 statesman are deposited. 



The market-places in Liverpool are upon an extensive scale : 

 St John's market, which stands in the centre of the town, covers an 

 area of 1 j acres, being 550 feet long and 135 feet wide, the whole 

 under one roof, supported by 116 pillars. Meat, poultry, fruit, and 

 garden vegetables, are daily sold in this market, but the principal 

 market-days are Wednesday and Saturday. The fish-market is on the 

 opposite side of the street in which St. John's market stands. There 

 are several smaller market-places in ilifierent parts of the town. 



The town is supplied with water by companies under the manage- 

 ment of the corporation ; a long and severe struggle having been 

 successfully made to obtain powers for bringing water from Rivington 

 Pike, a distance of several miles. 

 LIVERPOOL. [Nova Scotia.] 

 LIVNO. [BosuiA.] 



LIVONIA, one of the Baltic provinces of European Russia, is 

 situated between 68° 31' and 59° 3' N. lat., 23° 20' and 27° 38' E. long. 

 It is bounded N. by Esthonia, E. by Lake Peipus, and the government 

 of Pskow, S. by Vitepsk and Courlaud, an<l W. by the Oulf of Livonia, 

 or Bay of Riga, which contains the great island of Oesel, and some 

 smaller ones belonging to this province. The area is 18,058 square 

 miles ; the population in 1346 was 814,100. The province derivaa its 

 name from its firitt inhabitants, the Liven, a Finnish tribe, who!<e 

 race is now extinct or confounded with the Esthonians and the 

 Lettonians. 



The surface is level or gently undulating, with here and there some 

 hilts, which rarely exceed 100 feet in height. The highest ground of 

 the whole province is the Mesenberg, near Wenden, which rises to the 

 height of 1200 feet. Livonia is covered with vast forests, lakes, riverin, 

 meres, marshes, and heaths. The woods contain fir, pine, beech, and 

 alder ; they supply abundant fuel, and even manure for the land, the 

 timber being cut down and allowed to rot on the surface. The soil 

 on the sea-ooast (which is bounded by a clitT several fathoms high) is 

 renrj sandy : in the interior, sand, cUy, loam, and moorland alternate; 

 but there are many very fertile tracts. In the south, especially 

 on the banks of the Diina, there is some very picturesque sconeiy. 

 Host of the forests and marshes are in the west. The Baltic forms 

 the great bay of Riga, between the continent and the island of OeeeL 



Of the lakes, 1120 in number, the most conaiderable are — the great 

 lake of Peipus, united by a narrow channel with that of Pskow on the 

 soath-eaet; and the lake Wcrzierwe, or Wirzjicrw, above 100 square 

 miles in extent, in the centre of the province, which is connected by the 

 Great Embacb with lake Peipus. The lake Peiput, or TchowUkoe, is 

 about SO miles long and 30 miles broad, and 1086 square miles in extent ; 

 of which 448 square miles belong to Livonia, 495 to St. Petersburg, and 

 142 miles to Esthonia; it contains several small islands, of which jPonta 

 is the largest. Besides the waters of Uke Pskow it receives several 

 rivers — the Embach, the Kosa, the Jellcha, the Tcherma, &c. Its 

 waters flow in a north-east direction, and are carried by the Narova 

 to the Gulf of Finland. The lake is deep enough for small frigates. 

 It abounds in fish ; its shores are low, wooded, and marshy. The 

 channel which connects lake Peipus with the lake Ptkow is rather 

 more than 3 miles wide at its narrowest part. This last-mentioued 

 lake is about 20 miles long, 10 miles broad, and covers an area of 92 

 square miles, only 24 of which belong to Livonia. It receives a 

 large supply of water from the Velikaia liiver at its southern extremity. 

 The principal river is the Dilua, which is the boundary between 

 Livunia and Courland till it reaches Kirchholne, where it changes its 

 direction, and empties itself at Diinamunde, below Riga, into the bay 

 of Riga. It receives on the right side the Kwest and the Oger, and on 

 the left the Treider-oa, which runs from Courland along the Bay of 

 Riga and falls into ths Diina near its mouth. Other smaller rivers 

 are^the Boulder-aa, which rises in the circle of Wenden ; the Salia, 

 which forms the outlet of lake Burtnek ; the Pernau, which empties 

 itself at Peman into the Bay of Riga ; the Little Embach, which flows 

 into lake Werzierwe, which it leaves as a navigable stream under the 

 name of the Great Embach, and runs into lake Peipus. The sijialler 

 rivers and streams are nearly 300 in number. [DOna ; Aa.] 



The climate is disagreeable, being cold and raw till the end of 

 May, but very hot in the thrse summer months, with frequent thunder- 

 ■torms. September has often some fine days, though occasionally 

 with night frosts. 



The chief occupations of the inhabitants are agriculture aud the 

 distillation of spirits. Improved methods of agriculture have been 

 intro<luced, slowly aud partially it is true ; but in the tllluge of the 

 soil Livonia is much in advance of Courland and Esthonia. The 

 oouDtry produces rye, barley, flax, hops, hemp, and linseed. The 

 fruit, sncn •• apples, plums, and cherries is very indifferent There 



are some good horses on the estates of the nobles, but tho.se of the 

 peasantry are small and of little value. The horued cattle ;ilso are small ; 

 sheep of the German breed are kept by the nobles ; the peasants have 

 an inferior breed, the coarse black wool of wliioh is manufactured into 

 cloth. Qoats. swine, and oomtstic poultry are kept chiefly by the 

 nobles, citizens, and clergy. There is abundauce of game ; of beasts 

 of prey there are bears, wolves, lynxes, and foxes ; aud of fur-bearing 

 animals beavers, otters, martins, badgers, and squirrels. On the islands 

 and sea-coast seals are taken, and flsh of various kinds are abundant. 

 Potters' clay and limestone are obtained in some parts. There are no 

 manufactures of importance except in Riga. Coarse woollen and 

 linen cloths are made for domestic use. Spirit distilleries are numerous. 

 The exports are corn, hemp, flax, wool, and linseed'; the imports salt, 

 iron, lead, coal, coloniiil produce, wine, manufactured goods, and 

 articles of luxury. 



On the meltin.; of the snow in spring and after the autumnal rains, 

 barks loaded with the produce of the interior of Livonia and the 

 adjacnt provinces descend the Diina to Riga, and thither also masts 

 and other timber are brought in large quantities in rafts. Flax aud 

 grain are brought iu winter to Riga on sledges. In Riga, which is 

 the chief tradim; port for a large portion of the north-west of Russia, 

 large fairs are held. Between 1300 and 1400 foreiyn vessels enter 

 and clear out of the harbour annually in ordinal^ times. The exports 

 in 1841 amounted in value to above 2,327,0002.; the imports in the 

 same year were under 850,000^ [Riqa.] 



The population consists of Lettes, Liven, or Livonians, Esthonians, 

 Germans, Swedes (who form the nobility, clergy, aud burghers), and 

 a few Russians and Jews. The great majority of the population are 

 Latherans. The Russian.^ who number only a few thousands, are of 

 the Greek church. There are also a few Roman Catholics and 

 Cnlvinists. The peasants were formerly serfs, but vassalage was 

 abolished in 1818, and they are now nearly in the same condition as 

 the German peasantry. The Jews are generally innkeepers and shop- 

 keepers ; the Russians, who are the most striving section of the 

 inhabitants, are mostly gardeners, travelling mechanics, aud trades- 

 men. The Lettes and Esthonians, each niiinbcring between 300,000 

 and 400,000, form the bulk of the peasantry. The Eithonians of 

 Livonia resemble their countrymen noticed in a preceding article. 

 [Esthonia.] The Lettes, who occupy the south-west of the province, 

 are of great natural intelligence, but timid, attached to the soil, 

 witliout energy, and entirely devoid of the spirit of trade, which is 

 so conspicuous in the Ru-ssiau. Such is the manual dexterity of the 

 Lette that he makes everything for himself — his house, his beer, his 

 clothes. From hia beech-wood he makes his furniture, his medicine, 

 his dye-stufis, hia charcoal, his plough, his bottles, and his birken- 

 wasser, if he is too poor to drink beer or mead. Both women and 

 men ride on horseback or iu sledges. Their dwelling-houses, to 

 which are attached (the whole forming a circle or a square) stables, 

 cow-houses, bath-house", and the rige (for thrashing and drying the 

 grain), are superior to those of the Esthonians ; they have difl'erent 

 apartments, an oven, and chimneys. The Esthoniau has one room 

 and no chimney. There are seldom more than two of these establish- 

 ments built together ; so thit villages are rare. 



The provinces of Livonia, Eiithonia, Courland, and Semgallcn 

 belonged in the earliest times to Russia, to which however they only 

 paid tribute, and had their own government. During the distracted 

 state of Russia they made themselves wholly independent of it, and 

 were not reduced to subjection till the time of Peter the Great. 

 Livonia was almost unknown to the rest of Europe till 1158, when 

 some traders from Bremen visited it, and formed settlements in it. 

 In 1186 Meinhard, an Angu-tine monk, with other Germans, settled 

 in Livonia, and having converted the natives to Christianity, became 

 the first bishop. Albrecht, the ihird bishop, built in the year 1200 

 the town of Riga, and fixed his see there. 



Towards the end of this century Canute VI., king of Denmark, 

 made himself master of these provinces, which Waldemar III., one of 

 his successors, ceded for a sum of money to the Teutonic Knights. The 

 weakness of this Order, which was unable to resist the czar Ivan II., 

 Wasiljewitsc a, who sought to recover those provinces that had 

 been detached from the Russian empire, caused the entire dissolu- 

 tion of the state. Esthonia p,act'd itself under the protection of 

 Sweden ; Livonia was united with Poland ; Courland and Seingallen 

 became a duchy under Poland, which Gotthard Kettler, the last 

 grand masti^r of the Teutonic order, obtained as a fief under that 

 crown. From that time Sweden, Russia, and Poland disputed for 

 Livonia from 1501 to 1660, when Poland ceded the provinces to 

 Sweden, and they were united with Esthonia. By the treaty of 

 Nystadt, in 1721, both were annexed to the Russian empire. The 

 island of Oesel, which bounds the Gulf of Livonia on the north, is 

 included in the province, and forms the circle of Areusberg. [Oesel.] 

 The small islands of Rouno, Kin, and a few others iu the gulf are 

 also comprised in the province of Livonia. 



The province of Livonia is divided into five circles named from 

 the chief town in each. These are — Riga ; Areusberg ; Dorpat ; 

 Peruau ; and Wenden. Aremburg, or AremOerg, is the capital of the 

 islaud of Oesel. It lies o i the Peddus, a small river on the south-east 

 side of the islaud, aud has a harbour for small vessels; vessels of 

 large draught anchor about 6 miles below the town. The town 



