(50 M O S 
generally drives at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour. 
Notwithftanding the number of coaches with fix horfes 
that traverfe the ftreets of Mofcow, their accompaniments 
are ridiculoufly mean. When a coach is procured with 
fix horfes of different colours, the coachman and poftilion 
are dreffed like peafants, with high cylindrical hats; the 
coachman, with a long beard and fheep-fkin robe, fits 
on the box ; the poftilion, in a coarfe drugget garb, is 
mounted on the off-horfe, according to the cuflom of the 
country. Behind the carriage is an enormous hack ©f hay, 
which, while the mafter is paying his viftts, or regaling 
himfelf at dinner, is occafonally given to the horfes. 
“ Nothing,” fays Mr. Coxe, “ can exceed the hofpi- 
tality of the Ruffians. We never paid a morning-vifit to 
any nobleman without being detained to dinner; we alfo 
conftantl) r received general invitations.” The principal 
perfons of diftindtion keep open tables, and are highly 
obliged by the vifitors who refort to them without cere¬ 
mony. Mufic during dinner generally makes a part of 
the entertainment at the tables of the nobility. Mod of 
the Ruffian nobles have gardeners of our nation ; and 
they are thus provided for their entertainments with 
pines, peaches, apricots, grapes, pears, cherries, and inch 
fruits as can rarely in this country be obtained without 
the affiftance of hot-houfes. According to Richter, in 
his Sketch of Mofcow, pines are reared in great abun¬ 
dance in the liot-houfes about this city, and may be pur- 
chafed for a ruble a-piece. At the country-feat of prince 
Gallitzin, grapes have been feen nearly ripe in the open 
air. The Ruffian nobles are faid to difplay a great degree 
of grandeur and magnificence in their houfes, domeftics, 
and mode of living. The wealth of the nobles is enor¬ 
mous. Some of them have 70 and even 100,000 peafants; 
and their fortunes are eftimated by the number of their 
peafants, who pay them, upon an average, 10 rubles an¬ 
nually, in fpecie. They exadt labour, not merely from 
the males, but from women, and children from the age 
of ten and upwards. Tithes are moreover demanded of 
linen, poultry, eggs, butter, pigs, ffieep, lambs, and of 
every product of the land, or of domeftic manual labour. 
Should a peafant by any misfortune be unable to furniffi 
tlie tribute expected by his lord, he muft beg, borrow, or 
jfteal, to make up the deficiency. The only property a 
Ruffian noblemen allows his peafant to poffefs, is the food 
he cannot. Or will not, eat himfelf; the bark of trees, 
chaff, or other refufe: quafs, water, and fifh-oil. Tra¬ 
velling the provinces fouth of Mofcow, where the foil is 
Angularly fertile and productive, the labourers arenever- 
thelefs, fays Dr. Clarke, deftitute of the common neceffa- 
ries of life ; the lord claims all the produce. Mr. Heber 
differs in his {latentent of the condition of peafants from 
Dr. Clarke ; obferving, that, with regard to their com¬ 
forts or means of fubfiftence, they are not deficient. Their 
houfes are well adapted to the habits of the people ; their 
clothing is warm and fubftantial, and they appear to be 
fufficiently fed; but their political Situation is fervile and 
diftreffing. They are liable to be levied as foldiers at the 
pleafure of their lords; for, if a mafter is difpleafed with 
liis (lave, he may fend him to the army whenever he thinks 
proper, and take a receipt from the government. 
The wealth of the nobles is no-where more confpicu- 
oufly difplayed than at their weekly balls. Every perfon 
who is a plebeian is excluded by the laws of the fociety, 
and, though nobles only are admitted, the company occa- 
fionally con fids of 2000 perfons. The'drefles are the mod 
fumptuous that can be imagined ; the favourite ornaments 
of the ladies are cameos, which they wear upon their arms, 
in girdles round their waifts, or upon their bofoms. " The 
drapery is difpofed after the Grecian coftume, and their 
hair is bound up round the head. The modes of drefs in 
London and Paris are generally blended together by the 
ladies of Mofcow ; and, in jultice to their charms, it muft 
beconfefied, that no country in the world can boaft fupe- 
rior beauty. The men on thefe occalions appear either 
c o w. 
in uniform or in coats of very rich embroidery; bur nei¬ 
ther men nor women evince the fiighteft degree of anima¬ 
tion in the exercife of dancing. Dr. Clarke will not al¬ 
low to the Ruffians the unqualified praife of hofpitality. 
The diffies and the wines, he fays, correfpond in grada¬ 
tion with the rank and condition of the guefts. Thofe 
who fit near the mafter of the houfe are fuffered to have 
no connexion with the fare or the tenants at the lower 
end of the table. The chofen diflies at a Ruffian table are 
carefully placed at the upper end, and are handed down 
to thole guefts who are ftationed near the owner of the 
manlion, according to the order in which they fit; after¬ 
wards, if any thing remain, it is taken gradually to the 
reft; fo that perfons at the bottom of the table are often 
compelled to remain fatisfied with an empty difh. The 
wine alfo degenerates in quality, until at laft it is dete¬ 
riorated into fimple quafs. The number of attendants in 
waiting is prodigious. In the houfe of the young count 
Orlof, 500 fervants waited at table ; many of them fump- 
tuoufly clothed, and many others in rags. 
Thus far Dr. Clarke. Mr. Porter adds, that dwarfs 
and fools are here the pages and the playthings of the 
great; and, at aimoft all entertainments, ftand for hours 
by their lord’s chair, holding his fnuff-box, or waiting 
his commands. “ There is fcarcely a nobleman in this 
country who is not poffiefled of one or more of thefe frifks 
of nature ; but, in their feleftion, I cannot fay that the 
nobleffe difplay their gallantry, as they choofe none but 
males. Thefe little beings are generally the gayeft-dreffed 
perfons in the fervice of their lord, and are attired in a 
uniform or livery of very coftly materials. In the pre¬ 
fence of their owner, their ufual ftation is at his elbow, 
in the charadter of a page ; and, during his abfence they 
are refponfible for the cleaniinefs and combed locks of 
their companions of the canine fpecies. Befides thefe 
Lilliputians, many of the nobility keep a fool or two, like 
the motleys of our court in the days of Elizabeth ; but 
like in name alone ; for their wit, if they ever had any, 
is fivallowed up by indolence. Savoury fauces and rich 
repalls fwell their bodies to the molt difgufting fize ; and, 
lying about in the corners of fome fplendid laloon, they 
fieep profoundly, rill awakened by the command of their 
lord, to amufe the company. Shaking their enormous 
bulk, they rife from their trance; and, fupporting their 
unweildiy trunks againft the wall, drawl out their heavy 
nonfenfe with as much grace as the motions of a (loth in 
the hands of a reptile-fancier. One glance was fufficient 
for me of thefe iinbruted creatures; and, with fomething 
like pleafure, I turned from them to the lefs humiliating 
view of human nature in the dwarf. The race of thefe 
unfortunates is very diminutive in Ruffia, and very nu¬ 
merous. They are generally well-fhaped, and their hands 
and feet particularly graceful. Indeed, in the proportion 
of their figures, we fhould no-where difcover them to be 
flaws in the economy of nature, were it not for a pecu¬ 
liarity of feature, and the fize of the head, which is com¬ 
monly very much enlarged. Take them on the whole, 
they are fuch compaft, and even pretty, little beings, that 
no idea can be formed of them from the clumfy deformed 
dwarfs which are exhibited at our fairs in England. I 
cannot fay we need envy Ruffia in this part of her offspring. 
It is very curious to obferve how nearly they refemble each 
other: their features are all fo alike, that you might ea- 
fily imagine that one pair had fpread their progeny over 
the whole country.” 
Mofcow has often fuffered by fires; and, in the years 1737, 
1748, and 1752, a conliderable part of it was reduced to 
allies, efpecially by the laft fire, which confumed above half 
the city, together with the czarina’s ftables. But the houfes 
have always been foon rebuilt after fuch a calamity; as they 
are, for the raoft part, of very mean materials. The Jail 
conflagration (Sept. 1812), by which three-fourths of the 
city was deftroyed, is freffi in the memory of all our read¬ 
ers. See the article London, vol.xiii.p. 297. TheKrem- 
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