MOSCOW. 
contrasted with the splendour of the cavalcade; 
and among these, miserable hovels, and wooden 
huts, hardly discernible amidst clouds of dust. 
On Friday in the Easter-week, the place of 
promenade is better selected: it is then on a 
plain called La Vallce, and the sight is the most 
surprising that can be conceived. Long before 
reaching this plain, the throng of carriages is 
so great, that it can scarcely move 1 . At last 
the great scene opens, and the view which 
breaks all at once upon the spectator is indeed 
striking. A procession, as far as the eye can 
reach, is seen passing and repassing a spacious 
and beautiful lawn, terminated by the spires of 
a convent. Not less than two thousand car- 
riages, generally with six horses to each, but 
(l) It may be well to insert here an extract from Mr. Heber’s 
Journal , concerning the population of this remarkable city ; as that 
gentleman has made very particular inquiry upon the subject, and his 
zealous attention to accuracy appears in every statement. 
“ The circuit of Moscow we have heard variously stated ; it may, 
perhaps, be about thirty-six versts (twenty-six miles), but this includes 
many void spaces. The population is, as usual, exaggerated. It is 
decidedly greater than that of Petersburg; we should think three or 
four times as much, judging from the concourse in the streets. The 
extent, in comparison with that of Petersburg, is nearly, as may be 
seen by the Plan, twelve to one; and yet, from the master of the 
police, of all men the most likely to know, the population was esti. 
mated at only 5250,000 fixed inhabitants. The servants and numerous 
retainers of the nobles may be perhaps estimated at nearly 30,000, 
which are ouly here in winter.” Heber's MS- Journal. 
VOL. I. L 
