this route in close carriages scarcely ever stop at all; but as Thornton's was only the poneyphaeton which he bought at Gottenburg, the nights are already become too cold to allow of our making this a constant practice. This poor little carriage has just seen us safe through the journey, and seems now very near the end of all its toils and labors, being most completely worn out, the springs broken and supplied with ropes, the harness patched with the same materials, and the coach-box having lost its footboard. Our friends here seem quite surprised at so diminutive a vehicle having got through a tour of two thousand miles; but I am fully convinced that a heavier carriage could never have served our purpose so well. At Trondheim, indeed, the surprise lay the other way; every body saying it was the largest and most 'superb coach' that had ever passed the Dovre Fells.

"The approach to Petersburg over a bridge of boats across the Neva, a river as wide, and wider than the Thames, is exceedingly noble; all the public buildings are assembled on its banks, and you might think yourself in a city of palaces.

The frost is just beginning, so that we have. got to these comfortable quarters in time.

'The winter here seldom really sets in till the middle of November; so that this premature cold threatens to send the vessels away empty, or to lay the hindmost by the heels till spring. We have as yet found it unnecessary to adopt warmer clothing; but we have each of us got a famous stuffed coat, which I shall try this evening. The Russians, I mean the higher classes, are already in their furs; but I have observed both here and in Sweden, where the cold is alway's comparatively moderate, that the gentlemen, from their indolent-I had almost said effeminate-lives, and from the great heat of their houses, are much more chilly than Englishmen. If a Swede rides out the hottest day in summer, the probability is that he wears a swansdown great coat, and a silk handkerchief about his mouth and ears; nor shall I ever forget the looks of astonishment and alarm which an open window never failed to produce. An officer in the guards would as soon, or sooner, face a cannon than a draft of air. You see whatever else I may learn in my tour, I have, at least, an excellent example of prudence. However, though we dissented from these good folks during the summer, I faithfully promise

that, during the winter, I will be entirely guided by the customs of my neighbors, and will not pretend to understand their climate better than they do themselves.

Our plans for future progress are, to stay here till Christmas, and then to proceed, on the winter roads, into Germany.'

To Richard Heber, Esq.

ST PETERSBURGH, December, 1805.

'Dear Brother,

'I am, on the whole, not displeased with this arctic weather, which, though severe, is

favorable for ex

The houses have

pleasant and serene; very ercise, and I think for health. all double windows, and the men are so fenced against cold by their dress, that we should hardly be aware of the keenness of the atmosphere, were it not for the thermometer which hangs at almost every window. The days are short but clear, and the nights are so magnificent as quite to surpass my expectations. Yet I have heard some of the Russians complain that the winter has as yet been hazy and English. There have, indeed, been frequent thaws, and very remarkable transitions from intense cold to several degrees of warmth.

'You will expect, no doubt, an account of the flying mountains, ice-hills, and the other amusements which Coxe mentions; but these are mostly confined to the lower classes: and though I have looked for them with anxious expectation, none have, as yet, appeared on the river. Sledge driving is the favorite amusement and I think it a very stupid one, unless for the sake of showing off a fine pair of horses. The horses used for this purpose are broke in a particular manner; one trots, and the other canters, prances, kicks, and rears with great pretended violence, all which he does so as to keep pace with the other; they pay an enormous price for a horse of this kind, well trained. A well equipped sledge is a beautiful and striking object, and answers to curricles and phaetons in England. No man, however, can pay visits without having a carriage; and if he aspires to anything like noble society, or to the character of gentleman, his carriage must be drawn by four horses, all with long manes, and the traces three times longer than necessary; the coachman is a venerable figure, with a long gown, beard, and square cap, like those worn by Bishops Parker and Grindall in their pictures.

The postillion is a little boy in the same dress, girt tight round him with a broad red sash; he rides on what we should call in England the wrong horse, holds his whip in the left hand, and is obliged to cry out continually like the children who drive the crows from the cornfield. This he is obliged to do as there are no footways; and they drive so fast, that if the street were not very wide and the population very thin, accidents must continually happen. Very neat carriages and sets of horses of this description, are always to be hired by the month, and we have got a remarkable good one. carriages and furniture of all sorts in Russia are so minutely copied from the English, that it would require the eye of a connoisseur to distinguish them.'

The