book 35 with us, make-part of the houfes inhabited by the tradef-
— men, hut are quite detached from their dwellings,, which
for the moft part are at fome diltanee in another quarter of
the town. The tradefman comes to his ill op in the morning,
remains there all day,, and returns home to his family
in the afternoon. Every trade has its feparate department ;•
and they who fell the fame goods have booths- adjoining to
each other. Furs and ikims form the moft confide.rable article
of commerce in Mofcow, and the Ihops which vend,
thofe commodities occupy feveral ftreets..
Among the curiofities of Mofeow, I muft not omit the
market for the fale of houfes. It is held, in a large- open
fpace in one of the fuburbs, and exhibits a great variety of
ready-made houfes, thickly ftrewed upon the ground. The
purchafer who wants a dwelling, repairs to this fpot, mentions
the number of rooms he requires,examines-the different
timbers, which are regularly numbered, and bargains for
that which fuits him. The houfe is fometimes paid for upon
the fpot,, and taken away by the purchafer p dr. fonie-
times the vender contracts to tranfport and ere£t it upon the:
place where it is defigned to ftandi. It may appear incredible
to aflert, that a dwelling may be thus.: bought, removed,,
raifed, and inhabited, within the fpacé of a- week t- but we
iliall conceive it practicable. by con.fiderihg that thefe reddy-
made houfes are in .general merely ceHe«SticBS<of trunks of
trees, tenanted and mortaifed at each extremity into one
another, fo that nothing moréis required than the.labour of;
tranfporling and re-adjufting them.
But this fommary mode of building is not always -peculiar
to the meaner hovels ; as wooden itruétures of very large-
dimenfions and handfome appearance are occanonally formed
ka Ru ffia wrth.an expeditionálmoft,.inconceivable to the in-
5, ; ' ' habitantshabitants
of other countries. A remarkable inftance o f this c h a p .
difpatch was difplayed the laft time the emprefs came to - V1‘ ,
Mofcow. Her majefty propofed to refide in the manfion of
prince Galitzin, which is-elteemed the completed: edifice in
this city ; but as it was not fufficiently. fpacious for her reception,.
a temporary addition of wood, larger than the
original houfe, and containing a magnificent fuite of apart--
ments, was began and finifhed within the fpace of fix weeks.
This meteor-like fabrick was fo handfome and commodious,
that the materials, which were taken down at her majefty’s
departure, were to be re-conftru&ed, as a kind of. imperial,
villa, upon-an eminence near the city.
In Mofcow I obferved an admirable police foirfpreventing
riots, or for flopping the eoncourfe of people in cafe of fires,
which are very frequent and violent in thofe parts, where-
the houfes are moftly of wood, and the ftreets- are laid with
timber. At the entrance- of: each llreet ■ there..is a chetvaux- -
define- gate, one end whereof, turns upon a pivot, and the
ether rolls upon a: wheel; near it is a eentry-box, in which
a-man is. oecafionally. ftationed. In times of riot or fire th e •
centinel fhuts the gate;.and all paflhge is immediately flopped..
■ Chefs is-fo common in Ruffia, that1 during bur continu- -
aneg¡atMofcow,.1 lcarcely entered into,any company where
parties.were not engaged in that, d iv er fien an d I very fre- -
quently obferved, in my paifagc through the. ftreets, the
trade linen and common people playing, it before the doors -
of their drops, pr houics. The Ruffians-are eiteemed great
Pmfiqienrs in chefs. With.th.em the queen has, in addition
to-the other moves*, that o f the knight, which, according to-*-
Rhiiiidor, fpoiis the game, but which certainly renders i f
more complicated and difficult, and of. courfe more inter.eft-
Thb Ruffians have, alio another method of playing a t '
chefs,,