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CHAP.

VIII.

Foundling
Hospital.

lute necessity, and unavoidably due to decency and to cleanliness. Rome, under her Emperors, numbered nearly a thousand such buildings; and these, besides their utility, were regarded as master-pieces of architectural skill and of sumptuous decoration. In Russia, they have only vapour baths; and these are, for the most part, in wretched wooden hovels. If wood be deficient, they are formed of mud, or scooped in the banks of rivers and lakes: but in the palaces of the nobles, however they may vary in the splendour of their materials, the plan of their construction is always the same.

This universal custom of the BATH may be mentioned as an example of the resemblance between the Muscovites and more Oriental people: but there are many other; such, for instance, as the ceremony of howling and tearing the hair at the death of relatives; the practice among the nobles of employing slaves to rub the soles of their feet, in order to induce sleep; and the custom of maintaining buffoons, whose occupation it is to relate strange and extravagant tales for a similar purpose.

As a conclusion to this chapter, a few words may be added concerning the state of the Foundling Hospital; as the Institution of that name in

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Petersburg excites the interest and attention of all foreigners; although it be but a branch of the more magnificent establishment of the same nature in the east angle of the Khitay Gorod at Moscow. Both the one and the other have been sufficiently described by preceding authors'. Of the latter, it will therefore only be necessary to add, that, in the space of twenty years, prior to the year 1786, it had received no less than thirtyseven thousand six hundred and seven infants. Of this number, one thousand and twenty had left the asylum; and there remained six thousand and eighty at that time. In 1792, the number of children in the house amounted to two thousand; and about three thousand belonging

CHAP.

VIII.

(1) Since the foundation of these two establishments, similar institutions have taken place in other towns of Russia; such as Tula, Kaluga, Jaroslaf, Casan, &c.

(2) Storch's Tableau de Russie, tom. i. p. 321, Upon the great mortality which this statement allows, the author makes the following judicious remarks: "Si cette note, adoptée d'après un écrivain trèsvéridique sur d'autres points, est exacte, la perte que cet établissement a essuyée par la mortalité des enfans, est sans doute très-considérable : mais elle le paroîtrait beaucoup moins, si l'on examinait le nombre de ceux qui sont morts au moment d'y être reçus, aussi bien que de ceux qui y ont porté le germe de leur destruction. Pour déterminer l'état exact de la mortalité de cette maison, il faudrait savoir le nombre d'enfans parfaitement sains qui y sont entrés; car ceux que l'on porte à l'hôpital, aussitôt après qu'ils ont été baptisés, ne peuvent être regardés que comme des victimes dévouées à la mort: il y aurait donc la plus grande injustice à attribuer leur perte à un établissement rempli d'humanité, qui enrichit annuellement l'état d'un nombre toujours plusconsidérable de citoyens sains, actifs, et industrieux.”

CHAP.

VIII.

to the establishment were at nurse in the country. Every peasant entrusted with the care of an infant had a monthly allowance of a rouble and a half. Every month, such of the children as have been vaccinated are sent into the country, where they remain until the age of five years. Before the introduction of vaccination, the mortality was much greater among them than it is at present, although they were inoculated for the small-pox'.

(1) Heber's MS. Journal.

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Visit to the Archbishop of Moscow-his Conversation-
Convent of NICOLL NA PERRERA-Funeral of Prince
Galitzin-Stalls for Fruit and Food-Sparrow Hill-
Public Morals-Banquets of the Nobles-Barbarous
Etiquette observed at Russian Tables-Anecdote of two
English Gentlemen-Precautions to be used in travel-
ling-Dealers in Virtu-Adventurers and Swindlers-
Immense Wealth of the Nobles-Condition of the

Peasants.

A CURIOUS contrast to the splendour in which CHAP.

IX.

we had hitherto beheld Plato, archbishop of
Moscow, was offered, during a visit we made to
him at the Convent of Nicoll na Perrera, a semi- of Moscow.

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Visit to the
Archbishop

CHAP.

IX.

Nicoll na

Perrera.

nary for young priests near the city. We had long wished for an opportunity of conversing with this remarkable man. He was preceptor to the Emperor PAUL; and is known to the world by his correspondence with Monsieur Convent of Dutens. Upon our arrival at the convent, we were told he was then walking in a small garden, the care of which constituted his principal pleasure; and the employment characterized the simplicity and the innocence of his life. As we entered the garden, we found him seated upon a turf bank, beneath the windows of the refectory, attended by a bishop, an old man his vicar, the abbé of the monastery, and some other of the monks. We could scarcely believe our eyes, when they told us it was Plato: for although we had often seen him in his archiepiscopal vestments, his rural dress had made such an alteration, that we did not know him. He was habited in a striped silk bed-gown, with a night-cap upon his head like the silk nets commonly worn by Italian postillions; having also a pair of woollen stockings upon his legs, the feet of which were of coarse linen, fastened on with twine in a most uncouth manner. He was without shoes, but a pair of yellow slippers lay at some distance. By his side, upon the bank, was placed his broad-brimmed straw hat, offering a correct model of the Athenian pileus, and such

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