CHAPTER IV 



TIFLIS AND ITS INHABITANTS 



I'll view the manners of the town, 



Peruse the traders, gaze upon the buildings, 



And then return, and sleep within mine inn. 



Comedy of Errors. 



Would he not be a comfort to our travel? 

 As You Like It. 



New servant, welcome. 



T'lVO Gentlefnen of Verona, 



Picturesque Tiflis, surrounded by an amphitheatre 

 of barren, drab hills, lies on both sides of the swiftly 

 rushing Kura river, and from the steep banks are 

 flung connecting bridges which link together the 

 several quarters into which the city is divided. 



Our hotel was situated in the Erivansky Ploshad, 

 or Square, a most lively centre, right in the heart of 

 things, amid a variety of European shops, and not very 

 far from the palace in the Golovinsky Prospekt, with its 

 beautifully laid out gardens, of the Viceroy (Nami- 

 estnik) of the Caucasus. The longish drive from the 

 station rather caused us to question the reputation 

 Russians give themselves for superior road-making. 

 The little phaeton, pneumatic-tyred, with two long- 

 tailed ponies going ventre-d-terre, bumped about like a 

 coracle in a storm. It was not exactly an ideal con- 



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