MOSCOW. 
reigns of Russia at their coronation, and other 
costly embroidered robes, thickly studded with 
gems and pearls, occupied the principal cabinets, 
and appeared to constitute the chief ornaments 
of the Treasury. Among a number of such 
dresses was a vest, twelve yards in length, worn 
by Catherine the Second. It was supported 
by twelve chamberlains at her coronation. The 
practice of exhibiting splendid attire charac- 
terized the Russians in times of their earliest 
potentates. From the accounts afforded by the 
ambassadors of our own country, so long ago as 
the reign of Philip and Mary, we find it was 
the custom at Moscow to clothe tradesmen, and 
other inhabitants, elders of the city, in rich gar- 
ments, and to place them in the antechamber of 
the sovereign on days of audience ; but when the 
ceremony ended, these costly vestments were 
again replaced within the Treasury. In a Letter 
written by Henry Lane to Sanderson', describing 
his introduction, with Chance ller, to the Tsar s 
presence, in the year 1555, this circumstance is 
particularly mentioned. “ They entred sundry 
roomes, furnished in shew with ancient grave 
personages, all in long garments of sundry co- 
lours ; golde, tissue, baldekin, and violet, as our 
vestments and copes have bene in England, 
(]) Hackluyt, vol. I. p.4(J5. 
