book. n o b le s w h o d o n o t b e l o n g t o t h e c o u r t o f t h e e m p r e f s r e f id e ;
1_¿ —i they here fupport a larger number of reta inersthey love
to gratify their tañe For a ruder and more expenfive magnificence
in the antient ftyle of feudal grandeur; and are
not, as at Peteriburgh, eclipfed by the fuperior fplendour of
the court.
Mofcow is fituated in 37' 3 1" degree of longitude from
the firft meridian of Greenwich, and in 55' 45" 45"' of
northern latitude.
It is certainly the largeft town in Europe; its circumference
within the rampart, which enclofes the fuburbs, being
exadtly 39 verfts, or a6 miles*- ; but it is built in fo ftrag-
gling and disjointed a manner, that its population in no degree
correfponds to its extent. Some Ruffian authors ftate
its inhabitants at 500,000 fouls ; a number evidently exaggerated.
Bufching, who refided fome years in Ruffia, fays
that in 1770 Mofcow contained 708 brick-houfes, and
11,840 wooden habitations; 85,731 males and 67,059
females, in all only 152,790 fouls ; a computation which
feems to err in the other extreme t.
According to an account publifhed in the Journal of St.
Peteriburgh J, the diftrift of Mofcow contained, in the beginning
of 1780, 2178 hearths; and the number of inhabitants
were 137,698 males, and 134,918 females, in all
27 2,616 fouls. In the courfe of that fame year the deaths
amounted to 3702, and the births to 8621 ; and in the end,
the population of the diftriCt was found to be 340,143
males, and 13 7 ,3 92 females, in all 277,535 fouls.
* Its circumference is nearly equal to p. 243.
that of Pekin, which, including its fuburbs, t Bufching’s Neue Erdbefchreibung. V . I.
meafures 40 verfts, or 26 miles and three- p.. 841. Edit. 1777.
quarters. Journal of St. Pet. April, 1775, % For 1781, p. 200..
^ • ' • This
This computation is certainly more to be depended upon •
than either of the others; and its truth has been recently >— ,__<
confirmed to me by an Englifh gentleman lately returned
from Mofcow, who made this topic the fubjedt o f his inquiries.
According to his account, which he received from
the lieutenant of the police*,
Mofcow contains within the ramparts 250,000 fouls.
And in the adjacent villages 50,000
If I was ftruck with the Angularity o f Smolenfko, I was
all aftonifhment at the immenfity and variety of Mofcow.
Something fo irregular, fo uncommon, fo extraordinary, and
fo contrafted, never before fell under my obfervation. T h e
ftreets are in general exceedingly long and broad: fome of
them are paved; others, particularly thole in the fuburbs,
are formed with trunks of trees, or are boarded with planks
like the floor of a room; wretched hovels are blended with
large palaces; cottages of one ftory ftand next to the moft
fuperb and ftately manfions. Many brick ftrudtures 4re covered
with wooden tops; fome of the wooden houfes are
painted, others have iron doors and roofs. Numerous churches
prefented themfelves in every quarter built in a peculiar ftyle
of archite&ure; fome with domes of copper, others of tin,
gilt or painted green, and many roofed with wood. In a
word, fpme parts of this vaft city have the look of a fequef-
tered defert, other quarters of a populous town, fome o f a
contemptible village, others of a great capital.
Mofcow may be confidered as a town built upon the Afiatic
model, but gradually becoming more and more European ;
and exhibiting in its prefent ftate a motley mixture of dif-
* This computation may be relied upon. exa£t an eftimate as p.oflible o f the number
For as a new aquedu& near Mofcow was o f inhabitants, in order to regulate the ne-
juft finifhed, it was neceflary to form as ceffary fupply ofyvater for. each family.
V ol. I. M m cordant