b o o k WPre fitting round the flame, fome employed in dreffing their
p ovifions, and others fleeping upon the bare ground. They
refembled, in their drefs and manners, a rambling horde of
Tartars. .
The route from Mofcow to Peteriburgh is continued during
a fpace of 500 miles, almoft in a ftraight line cut
through the foreft, and is extremely tedious: on each fide
the trees are cleared away to the breadth of forty or fifty
paces ; and the whole way lies chiefly through endlefs traits
of wood, only broken by villages, round which, to a fmall
dillance, the grounds are open and cultivated.
The road is of an uniform breadth, and is formed in the
following manner: trunks * of trees are laid tranfverfely
in rows parallel to each other, and are hound down in the
center, and at each extremity, by long poles, or beams,
fattened into the ground with wooden pegs; thefe trunks
are covered with layers of boughs, and the whole is ftrewed
over with fand or earth. When the road is new, it is remarkably
good; but as the trunks decay or fink into the
ground, and as the fand or earth is worn away or waihed off
by the rain, as is f r e q u e n t l y t h e cafe for feveral miles together,
it is broken into innumerable holes, and the jolting of
the carriage over the bare timber; can better be conceived
than defcribed. In many places the road may be confidered
r little elfe than a perpetual fucceflion as of ridges; and the
» Mr. Hanway males the following cu, “ expence o f a, 100,000 trees.” Hanway’»
nous calculation o f the number o f trees Travels, vol. I. p. 92. '
employed to male a road o f i 5overfls, or I f we .extend-th„ calculation over the
.00 miles. “ Allowing one tree with and. whole extent o f the Ruffian empire, reap
“ th .r to be o inches diameter,, and the mg 4000 miles in length, and t a le 1
“ length 23 feet, and fuppofing the.foun- different crpfs-rOads,,the ' expence ot woon
dation and lides to be only half fo many mull be amazing ¡ but the forefts are
41 more as the bridge is compofed of, and boundlefs and'inexhauuible.
** the road to be 46 feet wide, here is an motion
motion of the carriage a continual concuflion, and much CIJAPt
greater than I ever experienced over the rougheft pavement. ■—
The villages which occafionally line this route are extremely
fimilar to each other; they ufually confift of a Angle
ftreet, with wooden cottages ; a few only being diftin-
guiihed by brick houfes. The cottages in thefe parts are
far fuperior to thofe. we obferved between Tolitzin and
Mofcow : they feemed, indeed, well fuited to a rigorous
climate; and although conftruited in the rudeft and mod
artlefs manner, are very comfortable habitations. The fite
of each building is an oblong fquare, which furrounds an
open area, and, being enclofed within an high wooden wall
with a penthoufe roof, looks on the outfide like a large barn.
In one angle of this enclofure ftands the houfe fronting the
ftreet of the village, with the ftair-cafe on the outfide, and
the door opening underneath the penthoufe roof. It contains
one, or at moft two rooms, one whereof is occupied by
the whole family.
I have frequently had occafion to obferve, that beds are by
no means ufual in this country; infomuch, that in all the
cottages I entered in Ruffia, I only obferved two, each of
which contained two women at different ends with their
clothes on'. The family flept generally upon the benches,
on the ground, or over the ftove * ; occafionally men, women,
and children, promifcuoufly, without any difcrimination of
fex or condition, and frequently almoft in a ftate of nature.
In fome cottages I oblerved a kind of Ihelf, about fix or feven
feet from the ground, carried from one end of the room to
the other; to which were fattened feveral tranfverfe planks,
and upon thefe fome of the family flept with their heads and feet
* T h e ftove is a kind o f .brick oven 2 i t occupies almoft a quarter o f the room, and is
flat at top,
K. k k 2 occafionally