making myself understood, but here it was very different; in vain we addressed many respectable persons we met with in the streets respecting some public buildings, and we found every droshky man quite uncommunicative, so that directions had to be given at the hotel of our intended route, and if we changed our driver we managed to return by pointing the way, right or left. All this might have been obviated by the use of a few Russian words, but our time seemed too short to look into the vocabulary.

Our first drive was past the statue of Peter the Great, near the Admiralty, St. Isaac's Cathedral, and along the Nevskoi Prospect, the Regent Street of St. Petersburg, three miles long and very wide, having in some parts the advantage of a wooden pavement. In this street are numerous shops with large signboards containing some letters of an unusual form, but rendered more intelligible by drawings of some of the articles to be sold.

In the same street, on the opposite side, are also to be seen houses, or rather palaces, so large that fifty extend over an English mile.

At the end of this street is situated the monastery of St. Alexander Nevskoi, one of the most celebrated in Russia, containing within its walls towers, churches and gardens, with many paintings, and a very remarkable monument of Alexander Nevskoi, of massive silver, which, with its ornaments, weighs 5,000 lbs. of pure metal.

There is a library containing many valuable manuscripts, also a cemetery of such great repute that large sums are said to be paid for permission to repose in its holy ground.

Our second drive was to the Summer Gardens, which are laid out in long avenues of fine old trees, interspersed with varied walks, flower beds and numerous beautiful marble statues, forming a delightful retreat, but attended with an enormous expense, as many of the tender trees and shrubs, and even statues, require a careful covering through the winter.

From the gardens we proceeded to the original wooden palace, or cottage of Peter the Great, situated on one of the islands.

It consists of three small rooms, one his bedroom, another his reception room, and a third his chapel, where the pictures he worshipped are carefully preserved. Many relics are still to be seen, a boat and sails, with an old armchair, all which are said to have been made by his own hands.

The place was crowded by his devoted admirers, more particularly the chapel, which with numerous lighted candles purchased by the visitors, was heated almost to suffocation. The whole is covered over by a brick building to preserve it from the effects of the weather.

We then proceeded to the Botanical Gardens, situated on another island.

Here are numerous conservatories, comprising a great variety of camellias, heaths and ferns and several very large palm-houses, containing some very fine specimens.

We then visited the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, which we found undergoing extensive repairs.

In this church are deposited the remains of Peter the Great and all his imperial successors, the preceding Emperors having been buried at Moscow.

The very great simplicity and absence of all ornament form a striking but most becoming contrast to the usual display in many other churches.

The coffins, being placed in walls, are covered with a plain stone sarcophagus. On some the pall is embroidered in golden letters, on others nothing but the initial. From the roof are suspended numerous tattered banners, and on one side are hung the keys of Paris and other French fortresses.

Hitherto we had taken advantage of the fine weather in driving about the city, visiting the islands and the public gardens, but this favour not being continued we turned our attention to the palaces, of which, Murray says, no other modern city can boast an equal number.

The Winter Palace, the most splendid and largest royal residence in the world, is 700 feet in length, three storeys high, and nearly square, and is said to have 6,000 persons under its roof during the Emperor's residence in the capital.

Among the extensive suite of apartments, galleries and halls filled with marbles, precious stones, vases, and pictures may be mentioned, first, the hall of St. George, where the Emperor gives audience to foreign ambassadors. It is 140 feet by 60 feet, on the splendour of which the Russians most pride themselves.

The Empress's drawing-room is considered to be a perfect gem of taste.

Beyond this is the Salle Blanche, or White Saloon, a very chaste and most elegant apartment, its decorations and marble columns all in pure white relieved only in gilding, the dimensions being nearly the same as the hall.

Then the Diamond room, containing the crown and jewels of the Imperial family. Here diamonds, rubies and emeralds are ranged round the room in small cases, of such dazzling beauty that it is almost bewildering to look at them.

The crown of the Emperor is adorned with diamonds of an extraordinary size, and the Imperial sceptre contains the largest in the world, the Kohinoor excepted; it was purchased by the Empress Catherine for 450,000 roubles, or £75,000 sterling.

In addition to the splendid apartments just described there is also a small room occupied by the late Emperor Nicholas containing a very small hard bed on which he died, this being almost the only room he occupied in that grand building. This room is held in great respect, and everything remains in the same state in which he left it. His mind was bent on other objects than mere splendour.

About twenty years ago this gigantic pile of building fell a prey to the ravages of fire, and in a few hours were consumed much of those treasures and works of art which had been collected during the prosperous reigns of Elizabeth and Catherine.

Kohl, speaking of its immense extent, says: "The suites of apartments were a perfect labyrinth, so that even the chief of the Imperial household, who had filled the office for twelve years, was not perfectly acquainted with all its nooks and corners."

Though the crown jewels and most valuable articles were saved from the flames still the destruction of property must have been immense, spread over a surface of such enormous extent; the principal rooms alone, nearly one hundred in number, occupied on the first floor an area of 400,000 square feet.

So great was the daring exhibited by the watchmen to preserve the property that, to the credit of the Emperor Nicholas, it is said that he ordered some officers to go and smash the large mirrors in order to prevent the soldiers and people from sacrificing themselves in making any further attempts to save the property.

In one point of view this destructive fire has proved an advantage, for the custom of consigning to solitude those suites of rooms occupied by deceased sovereigns had here closed so many of the finest apartments that in a few more generations the reigning monarch would have been fairly turned out by the ghosts of his predecessors.

The Hermitage is connected with the Winter Palace by several covered galleries, and forms a sort of continuation of that vast building. It was erected by the Empress Catherine as a luxurious retreat.

The collection of paintings occupies about forty rooms, and is of immense value.

Three or four rooms are entirely filled with jewels and articles of vertu, among these a superb vase of Siberian jaspar of lilac colour, and others of malachite, with two magnificent candelabras valued at £9,000.

The ground floor with statuary.

Three rooms containing more than 30,000 specimens of engravings, and two rooms are occupied by a collection of coins and medals. The cameos amount to the number of 10,000, including specimens of the greatest beauty and scarcity.