ROSTOW. 
25 
Rostow, the name of the city to which this fair is attached, is 
a place of considerable importance ; not only from its mercantile 
facilities on the shores of the Don, but in consequence of its 
lying on the road from Moscow and the other great towns of the 
empire, towards the coasts of Azoff and the Black Sea. The 
fort of St. Demetry, which gives its title to the fair, stands on a 
rising ground near the field of traffic, and commands the road 
leading to New Tcherkask. From Rostow I had not quite a 
day’s journey to reach the latter city ; and being impatient to 
shake hands, in his own land, with its illustrious Attaman, the 
ever-m emorable Count Platoff, I rose very early in the morning 
to prepare for my departure. 
By these matin hours of exertion, while most of the busy throng 
were still sleeping, I got rid of various impediments/ which the 
experienced frequenters of the fair had cast in the way of a mere 
traveller ; and, setting forth long before noon, about twelve the 
same night made my glad entry into New Tcherkask, the new 
capital of the Donskoy country. 
The master of the inn where I had put up, told me the Atta¬ 
man was at his summer residence, about two miles from the 
city, on the banks of the Axai. My wish was no sooner ex¬ 
pressed, to join him there, than the worthy Cossack supplied me 
with a guide and a horse; and taking our course by a pleasant 
road, I soon reached the palace of my friend. It is a fine build¬ 
ing, perfectly suitable in style and appendages to the high 
station of its brave inhabitant. A guard of Cossacks kept the 
gate; others with naked swords stood at the great door of 
entrance; while officers in waiting, orderlies, and every other 
degree of princely and military state, occupied the passages and 
anti-rooms. On being ushered, as a stranger, into an apartment 
VOL. i. 
E 
