160 
MOSCOW. 
chap, objects around it, and being emblematical ot the 
simplicity and virtue of the people from whom 
it had been plundered'. Its form was very 
antient, and resembled that usually given by 
painters to our English si If red. Ihe part of 
the Treasury containing the most valuable ob- 
jects is a chamber where the crowns of the 
Russian sovereigns are deposited. It is said, 
the rubies once adorning those of the Empress 
Anne and of Peter the Second have been 
changed, and stones of less value substituted 
in their place 4 . 
Some things were shewn to us that were 
formerly considered of great value, but are 
now curious only from their antiquity ; such, 
for instance, as a long ivory comb, with which 
the Tsars combed their flowing beards. Cup- 
boards, below the glass-cases covering the 
walls, were filled with a profusion of goblets, 
rases, plates, cups of all sorts, basons , gold and 
silver candlesticks, and other articles of value, 
the gift of foreign princes and tributary states. 
A round box cf gilded silver contains, upon 
a scroll, the code of laws ot the several pro- 
(1) The writers of the Voyage de Deux Franfais mention a very 
antient crown of gold, which may be that here noticed. “ Une autre 
couronne, d’or, plus simple que toutes les autres, qui parolt fort 
ancienne, mais dont on n’a pas pu nous dire 1 origine. 
(2) Voyage de Deux Francais, tom. III. p. 2S1. 
