ESTHONIAN BATHS. 383 



defcribe, the price of entrance was one copeek, for the 

 bundle of twigs a denufhka, for the place where the 

 cloaths are kept likewife a denufhka, and for a pail of 

 warm water the fame fum. As feveral of the Englifh, 

 French, Germans, in fhort, the foreigners who live in 

 St. Peterfburg, wifh at times to bathe according to the 

 faftiion of the place, and cannot bring themfelves to 

 refort to the public baths of the natives, bath-rooms 

 for hire are conftructed in the out-fkirts of the town. 

 Here you have the advantage of bathing decently and 

 alone, by fending word to have it heated for your ufe 

 again ft the time you pleafe to appoint. The price for 

 heating fuch an extra bath at Katharinenhof, about a 

 verft* from Peterfburg, was, in my time, from 60 

 copeeks -f- to a ruble. Of late, however, it has got up 

 to two rubles. 



The concourfe of people to the public baths is on 

 ftated days extremely great. But no where did it ftrikc 

 me more than in the great bathing-houfe on the Fon- 

 tanka- canal. I know not whether it belongs to the 

 crown which farms it out, or whether it is the property 

 of fome private perfon who draws an annual revenue 

 from it : I know that the fcene is uncommonly finking 

 to an Englifh fpeclator. A friend of mine, tutor in a 

 Ruffian family in the Morfkoi, who accompanies a 



* Three verfts make two Englifh miles, but in Ingerrnantand, 

 or Ingria, the verfls are fomewhat fliorter. 



•f* A ruble contains one hundred copeeks, a copeek 3s worth 

 two denuihkas, and a denufhka is equal to two pollufhkas. The 

 ruble, reckoned' at four {hillings, as it at times has been, makes 

 a copeek to be about the value of a halfpenny. 



couple 



