JOURNEY FROM ST. PETERSBURG, 7 



directing and joying in th^ conflagration ; while the angel 

 with the cross, on his lofty pedestal, as the glare of light 

 full upon him, seemed calmly directing the gaze of the 

 pigmy men below to heaven and God. 



The palace, I need scarcely add, was in due time restored 

 to its pristine condition, with superadded adornment. 



The Alexandra Garden, is immediately in front of the 

 Admiralty. Beyond this, in a corner at one end is St. 

 Isaac's Church ; in the corresponding corner at the other 

 is the Glavnoi Stab, or Government offices, facing the 

 palace, with a sweeping curve, in the centre of which is a 

 befitting archway surmounted with a warrior in his war 

 chariot, drawn by six horses abreast, in the attitude of full 

 gallop. 



' St Isaac's Church,' writes the Rev. James Christie in 

 his volume entitled Men and Things Russian / or Holiday 

 Travels in the Land of the Czar, ' Standing in one 

 of the largest open spaces in the capital, and surrounded 

 by the finest buildings and monuments, the Cathedral of 

 St Isaac cannot fail to be admired for its grand propor- 

 tions and simple architecture, and noble porticoes and 

 glittering domes, the loftiest of which can be seen afar 

 down the Neva by the traveller who approaches the 

 Russian capital by the water route. In order to secure a 

 sure foundation for this magnificent ecclesiastical struc- 

 ture, which was commenced in 1819, and took forty years 

 to finish, a whole forest of piles, each of them 21 feet 

 long, was sunk in the treacherous soil at the cost of 

 200,000. This precaution, however, appears to have 

 been insufficient, for never since the church was con- 

 secrated in 1858 has the scaffolding been removed from 

 any part of the building above, the work of propping up 

 the foundations, particularly on the river side, always 

 going on. At present that side is entirely blocked up 

 with timber. The church cost three millions. It is in 

 the form of a Greek cross ; that is it consists of four equal 

 sides. Each of these possesses a principal entrance 

 approached by a broad flight of steps of Finland granite, 



