bo ok we continued our journey in the common carriages of
. IV' , i-hp country, called kibitkis. A kibitki is a fmall cart,
capable of containing two perfons abreaft, while the driver
fits upon the further extremity clofe to the horfes’ tails. It
is about five feet in length, and the hinder half is covered
with a femicircular canopy, open in front like thè top of a
cradle, made of laths interwoven and covered with birch or
beech-bark. There is not a piece of iron in the whole machine.
It has no fprings, and is fattened by means of
wooden pins, ropes, and flicks, to the four wheels, the boxes
of which are of an extraordinary length, and project above
a foot beyond the orbit of the wheels. The Ruffians, when
they travel in thefe carriages, place a feather-bed in the
bottom, admirably calculated to break the intolerable jolts
and concuffions, occafioned by the uneven timber roads.
With this precaution a kibitki, though inferior in fplendour,
equals in comfort the moft commodious vehicle. The traveller
ftretches himfelf at his length upon the feather-bed,
and, if inclined, may dofe away the journey in perfect tranquillity.
But being novices as to the beft method of
equipping this fpecies of conveyance, we fufféred a layer
of trunks and other hard baggage to be fubftituted in the
place of feather-beds ; thefe fubftajices, fo much more
bulky, and fo much lefs yielding than down, obliged us
either to fit under the canopy in a Hoping pofture, or upon
the narrow,edge of the carriage; in the alternate enjoyment
of wh'ch delectable pofitions, we pafled twelve hours
without intermiffion, and with no refrelhment. Thofe who
have ever regaled themfelvp amidft a pile of loofe trunks
and boxes in the baiket of a heavy-laden ftage-coach, over
6 the
t h e rougbeft pavement, wquld efteem that mode o f convey- c h a p ,
ance luxury to what we experienced. Our impatience, how- >. ' •
ever, to reach Peteriburgh beguiled in feme meafure the
bruifes we received from our kibitkis and their contents ; and
induced us to perfeyere in our route till,$£ter ten at night, wlien,
qpon opr being deposited in a fmall village, I had Tcarcely
ftrengtjh remaining to crawl -to forne freih ftrayv fpread for
our beds in the corner o f an unfurniffied inn t with the
comforts of this delightful place of repofe I was fo ena-
amoured, that I could not be prevailed upon to relinquiih it
even for a few minutes, for the enjoyment of an excellent
ragout prepared by our fervant, and which a conftant fatting
fince nine in the morning tended greatly to recommend.
A tolerable night’s reft, and the profpedt of only fifty
miles between us and Peteriburgh, induced us to reaflume
■our former ftations, and to brave a repetition of our fatigue.
The country we patted through was ill calculated to alleviate
our fufferings by transferring our attention from oui’-
felves to the objects around us. Excepting the environs of
Novogorod, which were tolerably open, the road made of
timber, as defcribed on a former occafion, and as ftraight as
■an arrow, ran through a perpetual foreft, without the leaft
intermixture of hill or dale, and with but few flips of cultivated
ground. Through the dreary extent of 1 10 miles, the
gloomy uniformity of the foreft was only broken by a few
folitary villages at long diftances from each other, without
Jthe intervention of a fingle houfe. Itchora, the laft village
•at which we changed horfes, though but 20 miles from the
capital, was fmall and wretched, and the adjacent country as
inhofpitable and unpeopled as that we had already patted.
About ten miles from Itchora we fuddenly turned to the
■•right, and the fcene inftantaneoufly brightened : the woods
Vql. L N n a gave