* b o o k Having viewed the palace,, we walked round the gardens»
. IV- , which are laid out in the Engliih tafte, and are prettily
diverfiiied with lawn, wood, and water. Among feveral
bridges, we were particularly ftruck with one built after the-
model of Lord Pembroke’s Palladian bridge at Wilton. It
is exactly of the fame iize, but more magnificent, the lower
part being of granite, and the eolonade of marble. The
latter was hewn and worked in Siberia by an Italian artift,
who employed nine years in completing it. From Siberia
it was tranfported by water to Peteriburgh, and from the
capital to- Sarlko-Sel'o by land. It was a pleafing fatisfaCtion
to obferve our works of tafte introduced into thefe diftant
and, formerly, inhoipkable regions. Several buildings were
fcattered about the:gardens, many of which were raifed in
honour of thofe perfons who diftinguiihed themfelves in the
imperial fervice: among thefe I remarked a triumphal arch
to Prince Orlof, for repairing to Mofcow in order to check
the progrefs of the plague, which raged with great violence:
in that city ; a building to Count Alexey Orlof, in memory
of the. naval victory at Tcbefme and an obelifk to Marihal
Romanzof, for his fucceftes againlt the Turks.
Our next excurfion was to. Peterhof, Oranienbaum and:
Cronftadt * .
The road lay at a fmaTl diftance from the Gulf of Finland,
at firft through a flat country* chiefly marfhy, producing
pafture and little com. On our left ran a ridge of
low hills, which once formed the boundary of the Gulf,,
when it fpread-over a larger fpace than it covers at prefent.
We afeended this ridge, obferved on our left the convent of St.
* Cronftadt will be defcribed' in the chapter which treats o f the Ruffian navy. See.
Book V I . in the next volume.-
7 Serge,
Serge, and on our right the palace of Strelna, begun by Eli- CHAP-
zabeth, but never finifhed. ■ ' .
About four miles further we palled by Peterhof, and proceeded
to Oranienbaum, through a country covered with
foreft.
The palace o f Oranienbaum, which ftands near the fhore
of the Gulf of Finland, about the diftance of 27 miles from
Peteriburgh, was erected by-Prince Menzikof, while he was1
in the meridian of a power, to which fcarcely any fubjeCt
but himfelf has.ever arrived. The rife of this extraordinary
man is varioufly related by different authors. Some affert
that he was apprentice to a paftry-cook, and fold pies in the
ftreets of Mofcow; that Peter, once flopping to coverfe with
him, was fo ftruck with his ready wit and quick repartees,
that he took him into his fervice, and advanced him, by
rapid promotions, to the height of favour which he afterwards
enjoyed : others declare, that he was the fon of a.
groom belonging to the court, and was cafually placed about
the perfon of the emperor * . Both thefe accounts,- however
contradictory to each other, fufficientl-y fhow the lownefs
and uncertainty of his origin; and indeed we need not
wonder that the genealogy of an upftart favourite fhould
not he exactly traced. The earlieft account upon record
concerning him is that, in the year 1687, he was one of the-
youths t whom Peter I. formed into a corps, and difci-
plined after the European manner. The young tzar was
only fifteen years old, and Menzikof, then known by the
* T h e former opinion», that he was a des Preobafchenkifchen, &c. in Journal o f'
jpaftry-cook’s, boy,, feems to be the moil St. Peteriburgh for March, 1778, p 173^
probable, as it is preferred by Weber, Furft Menzikow war einer den erften Po-*
Manflein, Bruce. tefchnii. See alfo Manftein, p. 11 .
i; Muller’s Nachriclit you der Urfprunge
ixaroe