TO MOSCOW. 
43 
We had been pestered the whole way from chap. 
Petersburg by a bell, which the driver carried, < y ' 
suspended to his belt; but were not aware that 
it passed for a mark of privilege, until we arrived 
at Jedrovn. Here we saw a poor fellow cudgelled 
by a police-officer, because he had presumed 
to carry a bell without a poderosnny 2 , the title to 
such a distinction. 
The whole journey from Petersburg to Moscow Jedrova. 
offers nothing that will strike a traveller more 
than the town or village of Jedrova. It consists 
of one street, as broad as Piccadilly, formed by 
the gable -ends of wooden huts, whose roofs 
project far over their bases ; and this street is 
terminated by the church. A view of one 
of these towns will afford the Reader a very 
correct idea of all the rest, as there is seldom 
any difference in the mode of constructing the 
poorer towns of Russia. A window in such 
places is a mark of distinction, and seldom 
found. The houses in general have only small 
holes, through which, as you drive by, you 
see a head stuck, as in a pillory 3 . 
(2) The Imperial order for horses. Those who travel with post- 
horses carry a hell. It serves, as the horn in Germany, to give notice 
to persons on the road to turn out of the w ay ; such horses being in 
the service of the Crown. 
(3) See the Vignette to this Chapter. 
