TO MOSCOW. 
The palace of Tsarskoselo is twenty- two versts CI J I ) ir - 
from Petersburg, and the only object worth v — v — 1 
i Palace of 
notice between that city and Novogorod. It is Tsarsko- 
built of brick, plastered over. Before the edifice sd °' 
is a large court, surrounded by low buildings 
for the kitchens and other out-houses. The 
front of the palace occupies an extent of near 
eight hundred feet ; and it is ' entirely covered, 
in a most barbarous taste, with columns, and 
pilasters, and cariatides, stuck between the 
windows. All of these, in the true style of 
Dutch gingerbread, are gilded. The whole of 
the building is a compound of what an architect 
ought to avoid, rather than to imitate. Yet so 
much money has been spent upon it, and par- 
ticularly upon the interior, that it cannot be 
passed without notice. It was built by the Em- 
press Elizabeth ; and was much the residence 
of Catherine, in the latter part of her life, when 
her favourites, no longer the objects of a licen- 
tious passion, were chosen more as adopted 
children than as lovers. 
In the gardens of this palace, persons, who Gardens, 
wished to gain an audience of the Empress, 
.were accustomed to place themselves when she 
descended for her daily walk. A complaint in 
her legs caused her to introduce the very ex- 
pensive alteration of converting the staircase of 
c 2 
