b o o k d e f i r o u s to im p r o v e his p e a fa n t s in th i s b r a n c h o f knowledge,
■ ' . will be permitted to fend one to Sophifk. The whole is to
be under the prote<£lion and infpeition o f the emprefs. As
this uncommon and curious eftablifhment was formed lince
my departure from Ruffia, I am incapable o f laying any
further information before the reader. I can only add, that
Mr. Samboriki has carried from Mr. Younge’s houfe, in Suffolk,
ploughs, harrows, and other implements o f agriculture;
and is now employed in fettling and regulating, the farm
o f Sophiik.
In Peterfburgh there are two feminaries for the education
o f the nobility ; the one for males is called Corps de Cadets;
and the other for females is denominated Le Couvent des De-
mofelles Nobles.
The houfe appropriated for the feminary o f the land
cadets, was formerly a palace belonging to prince Menzikof,
and is fituated in the Vaffili Oftrof. The number o f perfons
refiding in this houfe, including the cadets, ‘ amount to at
leaft 2000. This inftitution owes its firft prigiri to the emprefs
Anne, by the advice o f marihal Munich ; but it has
been fo much improved, and the fund fo confiderably enlarged
by Catharine II. that her majefty may almoft be called
its foundrefs. its annual income is .£30,000 for the reception
o f 600 boysi
In the month o f November, 1768, when I viiited this
fchool, there were 480 nobles, and 64gymnafiafts, or children
o f inferior ranks, who are defigned to be tutors to noblemens’
children, and are inftructed in clafiical literature. The
former are chiefly intended for the army, and are dreffed in
uniforms, a few excepted, who follow a civil line. The
children are admitted at the age o f fix, and remain fifteen
years: they are divided into five clafles, and learn French■,
German,
German, arithmetick, fortification, taiticks, hiftory, geogra- c h a p .
phy, &c. They alfo receive leflons in dancing, fencing, and ■ V1‘ ■
riding, and feme in drawing and mufick. The boys, whofe
genius prompts them to fuch ftudies, are provided with
mafters in the Latin, Engliih, and Tartar tongues.
The cadets are divided into a certain number o f com-,
panies; and are regularly trained to military exercifes.
During fix weeks in the fummer they form an encampment
near the town, are reviewed, and perform all the manoeuvres
o f war. Prizes are annually diftributed among thofe who
excel, as well in their refpeftive ftudies and employments,
as in their exercifes : thefe prizes confift o f books, gold and
filver medals, ribbands and ftars. Of thofe whofe merit has
entitled them to fix prizes, three are annually felected for the
purpofe o f travelling into foreign countries, with an allowance
to each o f ¿f 12 0 per annum.
The boys are all brought up in the hardieft manner;
they are not, even in winter, clad in furs, nor indulged in
the ufe o f ftoves. They are habituated to all kinds o f exercifes,
and particularly to running and leaping: 1 faw fome
o f the largeft cadets engaged in thefe manly diverfions. At
the further end o f a large hall flood a leathern horfe, the
higheft part o f which was at leaft fix fe e t : they leaped over
it in every direction ; fprung over its head ; vaulted upon
its back; turned themfelves round upon i t ; poifed them-
felves upon their hands, with their head upon the faddle and
their feet in the air, and then threw themfelves from that
pofture upon the floor on their legs; with many fimilar feats,
.which they performed with as much eafe and agility as the
moft expert tumblers. Thefe exercifes are o f great ufq in
ftretching their limbs, opening their chefts, and rendering
them robuft and active. In every department great atten-
X a . tion