BOQK faife ; but though we ought not to give implicit credit to all
■ 1 accounts recorded by his adversaries, yet, even b y the
confeffion o f his apologifts, there ftill; remains fufficient
evidence o f his Cavage ferocity in this barbarous tranfadion,
which equals, i f not furpaiies, in cruelty,, the maflacre at
Stpckholm under. Chriftian H.„
T h is horrid cataftrophe and the fubfequent oppreihons
which the town experienced' from that great, though fan-
guinary prince, fc> impaired :its ftrength, that it is defcribed
as a place o f ruin and defblation b y Uhlfield, the Danilh
embaflador,.who,fqon, afterwards pafled through it. But although
the fplpndour o f this once flouriihing town received
a very confidsrable • diminution, yet it was not totally ob-
fcured until, the foundation o f Peterfburgh, to which fa vourite
capital Peter the Great transferred all the commerce
o f the Baltick, which before centered in Novogorod.
The> prefent- town is furrounded by a rampart o f earth,,
with a range o f old towers at regular diftances, forming a
circumference o f fcarcely a mile and an h a lf ; and even this,
inconfiderable circle includes much open fpace, and many
houfes which are not inhabited. As Novogorod was b u ilt
after the manner o f the antient towns, o f this country,
in the Aliatick ftyle, this rampart, like that o f the Semlaino-
gorod at , Mofcow,.probably enclofed feveral interior circles fc
without it was a vaft extenfive fuburbK which „reached to.,
the diftance o f fix miles, and included within its circuit all :
the convents and churches, the antient ducal palace and',
other ftrudures, that now make a.fplendid, but folitary ap--
pearance, as they fie fcattered in the adjacent plain.
Novogorod'ftr-etGhes on.both fides o f the Volkof, a. beau--
fiful r iv e ro f considerable depth and rapidity, and fomewhat,
broadgi:
broader than the Thames at Windfor. This river feparates c h a p .
the town into two divifions, the Trading Part, and t h e ^ _ j
Quarter of St; Sophia, which are united by means of a bridge,
partly wooden, and partly brick.
The firft divifion, or the Trading Part, is, excepting the
governor’s houfe, only a rude duller of wooden habitations,
andin no other refpeddiftinguilhed from tfaecommon villages,
than by a vaft number of brick churches and convents, which
ftand melancholy monuments o f its former magnificence.
In all parts I was ftruck with thefe remains of ruined grandeur;
while half-cultivated fields enclofed within high pali-
fadoes, and large fpaces covered with nettles, attefted its
prefent defolate condition. Towards its extremity a brick
edifice, and ieveral detached ftrudures of the fame materials,
ereded at the emprefles expence, for a manufadure
of ropes and fails, exhibited a moft fplendid figure when
contrafted with the Surrounding wooden hovels in the town.
The oppofite divifion, denominated the Quarter of St,
Sophia, derives its appellation from the cathedral of that
name, and comprehends the fortrefs or Kremlin, conftruded
for the purpofe of curbing the inhabitants, and of prevent-
ing the frequent infirrredions occafionec 1 by tbe riling lpirit
of opprefted liberty, it is of an irregularly oval form, and
furrounded by an high brick wall, ftrengthened with round
and fquare towers : the wall is fimilar to that which enclofts
the Kremlin at Mofcow; and was conftruded in 1490
by the Italian archited Solarius of Milan, at the order of
Ivan Vaflilievitch I. foon after his conqueft of Novogorod,
The fortrefs contains the cathedral of St. Sophia, the old
archiepifcopal manfion with its ftair-cafe oil the outbade,
part of a new palace which was not yet finiihed,
M m m 2 $