NOVOGOROD. 
25 
it fell in such abundance, that all trace of the CI ™ P - 
roads disappeared, and we lost our way once 
or twice before we arrived at 
NOVOGOROD. 
The place was half buried in snow, but we Arrival at 
managed to get to the Cathedral, curious to 
see the collection of pictures, idols of the Greek 
Church, which that antient building contains ; 
and which, with many others dispersed in the 
cities and towns of Russia, were introduced 
long before the art of painting was practised 
in Italy. The knowledge of this circumstance 
led us to hope that we should make some very 
curious acquisitions in the country : and upon 
our first arrival from the Swedish frontier, we 
had given a few pounds to a Russian officer 
for his God; this consisted of an oval plate 
of copper, on which the figure of a warrior was 
beautifully painted on a gold ground. The 
warrior proved afterwards to be St. Alexander 
Nevski : and as we advanced through the 
country to Petersburg, there was hardly a hut, 
or a post-house, that did not contain one or 
more paintings upon small pannels of wood : 
the figures of these were delineated, after the 
manner of the earliest specimens of the art, 
upon a gold ground, and sometimes protected 
