CHAP. VII.

them to embrace the feet and hands of the images. Observing a crowd particularly eager to kiss the scull of an incorruptible saint, I asked a priest, in Latin, whose body the

sepulchre contained. Whence are you, said he, "that

you know not the Tomb of St. Demetrius ?"

CHAP. VIII.

MOSCOW.

Order of the Maltese Cross-Minerals of Count GolovkinPictures-Antiquities Shells-Gallery of Galitzin-Library of Botterline-Botanic Garden-Philosophical ApparatusStupendous Objects of Natural HistoryEnglish Horse-Dealers-Public Baths: their Mode of Use, and National Importance Foundling Hospital.

Other Collections

1

the Order of the Cross became one of the most fashionable
in Russia. It was not possible to mix in company, without
seeing many persons adorned with the badge of the knights.
The price of it, when purchased of the Crown, was three
hundred peasants'.
In the changes to which Orders, as

CHAP. VIII.

Order of the
Maltese Cross.

(1)

"At

well

Mr. HEBER states it at twelve hundred roubles.

A s we were informed. present, indeed, there is a new method of acquiring rank. Persons who have not served either in a civil or military capacity, may, for twelve hundred purchase a Cross of Malta; but this is considered as no very proud distinctio." Heber's MS, Journal.

roubles,

CHAP. VIII.

Minerals of Count Golovkin.

well as Governments, have been exposed, that which has happened to this class of society is worthy of admiration. Formerly, the oath taken, upon admission to the fraternity, enjoined and professed poverty, chastity, and obedience. What the nature of the oath now is, I did not learn; but the opposite qualifications in candidates for the Holy Cross were manifest; riches, profligacy, and sedition. The last of these lurked inwardly in the heart; the two first were ostentatiously displayed. The extravagance of the Russian nobility has no example. They talk of twenty and thirty thousand roubles, as other nations do of their meanest coin; but those sums are rarely paid in cash. The disbursement is made in furniture, horses, carriages, watches, snuff-boxes, rings, and wearing-apparel.

Visiting the mineralogical cabinet of Count Golovkin with a dealer in minerals, he informed me that the arts and sciences obtained true patronage only in Moscow. "In England, said he, "it does not answer to offer fine specimens of Natural History for sale; we get more money, even for the minerals of Siberia, in Moscow than in London." I found a very practical illustration of his remark, in the contents of one small drawer, which was opened for me, consisting only of forty-three specimens, and which had cost the Count two thousand pounds sterling. The substances were certainly rare, but by no means adequate to such an enormous price. Some of them had been purchased in London, at the sale of Monsieur Calonne's cabinet. A fine mineral, as well as a fine picture, will often make the tour of Europe; and may be seen in London, Paris, and Petersburg, in the course of the same year.

Among

Among the rarest of Count Golovkin's minerals, were, a specimen of the black silver ore, crystallized in cubes, for which alone he paid fifteen hundred roubles; auriferous native silver; the largest specimen which I believe to exist of the red Siberian tourmaline1; galena, almost malleable, a substance described by Le Sage; beautiful specimen of native gold from Peru; muriat of silver; crystals of tin oxide, as large as walnuts; a singular crystallization of carbonated lime, having assumed the shape of a heart, and therefore called heart spar; enormous octahedral crystals, exhibiting the primitive form of fluor; the Siberian emerald, traversing prisms of rock crystal; Peruvian emerald in its matrix; Chrysoprase; Pallas's native iron; beautiful crystals

of

Chromat and of phosphat of lead; native antimony; a specimen of rock crystal, so filled by water, that, when turned in the hand, drops were seen moving in all directions; the stone called Venus' hairs, or titanium in rock crystal; and that beautiful mineral the ruby silver, in fine distinct prisms, lying upon calcareous spar.

The Collection of this nobleman contained other objects of curiosity besides cabinets of Natural History. It was rich in valuable pictures; in many of the most interesting relics of antiquity, particularly of Grecian vases; and it contained a library of books of the highest value. Count Golovkin is of the very few among Russian connoisseurs, who really

one

possesses

() Perhaps it is the same now exhibited in the Gardens of Natural History at

Paris

Since this was written, I have seen a specimen much larger, in Mr. Greville's splendid Collection. It was a present from the King of Ava to Captain Symes, as big as a man's head,

and

is

CHAP. VIII.

CHAP. VIII.

Pictures.

Antiquities.

possesses taste.

There is proof of this in every selection he makes, whether it be of books, antiquities, pictures, minerals, or works of modern art; for whatever he had selected, was, in its kind, well chosen. The caprice may be lamented, which induces him to change so frequently what he has once collected, or even suffer it to be destroyed, instead of allowing the acquisition to remain, a monument of his genius, for the use and instruction of posterity. Otherwise, his Museum might convince the world, that, in a secluded city, remote from the usual walks of civilized society, there was at least one among the nobility of Russia, who, to a love of literature, joined the talents necessary for its gratification, and the patronage which so much conduces to its advancement.

Among the pictures, I noticed a very celebrated work of Van der Werf, which I had formerly purchased from Monsieur de Calonne's Collection in London, for an English nobleman. It was that highly-finished piece which represents the Daughters of Lot giving wine to their Father. Other travellers may perhaps. at this time find the same picture in Madrid. That unrivalled painting of Gerhard Douw, in which he has represented himself as an artist drawing by candle-light, was also in this collection: it cost the Count two thousand four hundred roubles. The rest were the productions of Leonardo da Vinci, Sasso Ferrato, Lanfranc, Teniers, Vandyke, and other eminent masters.

In the cabinet of antiquities was an antient lyre of bronze, complete in all its parts, and perhaps the only one ever found. It was modelled by Camporesi in wood. A vase of lapis lazuli was shewn as having been found in Herculaneum,