learning and peculiar felicity of illustration. The following specimen is inimitable :

"No bearded boor meets his fellow, but forty smacks are "heard, as though each were sucking cyder through a vent-peg!" (Vol. I. p. 215.)

During his residence at Mosco, Sir Robert takes occasion to make various remarks on the state of slavery in Russia, on the abolition of capital punishments throughout the empire, and on the use of the knout, of which instrument, and the mode of using it, he gives a minute description. This part of the work, though it will not surprize the reader by its originality of information, nor too severely exercise his judgment by its profundity or acuteness of reflection, will at least confirm the writer's title to the approbation and esteem of those, who set a higher value on the virtues of the heart than on orders of knighthood.

Curiosity leads him to visit the public baths, of which various travellers have given such various accounts: and here he beholds the Russian fair, "sporting about like porpoises," and swimming like geese," without the slightest veil to hide their natural unloveliness: a scene too immodest for the chaste eyes of loyal knight; but it cannot be said he paints it con amore. He is much better pleased, when "dining with "Count P ," "receiving the most gratifying attentions "from Prince U or Prince V," when "invited by ❝eminent for learning and talents, to go down to his country residence," or when "his military "curiosity is politely gratified by Prince G." Indeed, as Sir Robert had not, at this time, even received his "diploma "of knighthood," nothing could possibly be more gratifying than the attentions which were so universally paid to him by the most illustrious personages, since they could be considered only as a just tribute to his personal worth. To the governor-general of Mosco, he was "indebted for a thousand

"Prince W

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SO

"marks of friendship," and more especially for "a pelisse of "the rarest and most costly materials, being lined with the "skins of unborn lambs." On his visiting a prison, "the ❝ guard turns out and presents arms." The princess Dashcoff, 66 one of the most celebrated women in history, the friend "of Catharine the Great," who from "a patriotic zeal for "her country, concealed her charms under a helmet, and "braced her beautiful bosom in steel," " does him the honour "to have a few auxiliary regiments reviewed before him." All this is the more extraordinary, as Sir Robert omits to mention what feats of arms he had performed to overshadow his reputation as an artist; and yet it should seem, from his own statement, that, previous to his reception among the nobles of Russia, it must have been necessary for him to sink the painter.

"Owing to the peculiar constitution of this empire, the arts and sciences are, in general, but secondary objects in the minds of the natives. The nobles deem no profession honour. able, but that of arms. Ambition would be thought to stoop, "if it sought any celebrity from excelling by the chissel, the 66 pencil, or the pen: hence, the finest talents among the high"born are never directed towards any of these points. Military glory is all their aim :-the study of the arts and sciences is "left to slaves; or at best to slaves made free.”—(Vol. I. 133.)

Sir Robert, it is true, was not entirely without pretensions to military rank; he had borne some commission in the Middlesex militia. But then again it appears, that none but officers of high rank are at all noticed by such worshipful society as he mingled with familiarly. This is placed beyond question on an occasion, when, accompanied by a friend, he accepts an invitation from Prince G-, who was encamped at a short distance from Mosco.

"We passed," says he, "the remainder of the evening with the Prince, who gave us a very elegant supper, and treated us "with a respect and attention which made a comparison the more extreme, that I could not help drawing: I mean the immense

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"distance at which personages of his rank hold even the officers 66 serving under them. While we sat round the table, the sub"alterns and captains of his regiment stood at one end, and in "that position partook of the repast. As it is the custom of the country, they did not appear humiliated; but enjoyed their "share of the passing dishes with sufficient goût and good humour." (Vol. I. p. 274.)

:

It was certainly, therefore, not on account of his talents as an artist, nor his commission in the militia, that the Knight was received with such distinguished honour by the Princes and Imperial family of the Russian empire. Whatever pretensions he might have of a higher nature, however, the reader is left to guess, as Sir Robert conceals them with the most scrupulous modesty a very commendable and knightly quality. But it may not perhaps be entirely out of place to observe, that other travellers have sometimes been honoured by similar distinctions, through a misapprehension of their real rank. Acerbi, with considerable naïveté, gives, among the table of contents of his second volume, chap. xi. the following head; "Great hospitality and attention-Advantage "of being mistaken for a Prince in travelling !"-As Sir Robert drops no hint of any such mistake being made with respect to himself, except on one occasion, nothing of the sort is to be presumed: and after all, it is of little importance to the public, to know the reasons of this singular exception in his favour: he might have produced cards of invitation from every prince in the North, and no one would have inquired how he came by them, if it did not appear from the frequency with which he brings the subject forward, and the delight with which he dwells on it, that he wishes to attract the public attention particularly to this one point, as of higher importance and interest than any other, which he has had occasion to touch on, in the course of his travels; as the principal object, in fact, to which every thing else is only to be considered subordinate and incident. It will not be thought strange, therefore, if, in this review, more attention

should seem to be paid to Sir Robert himself, than to his work: he at least will not be surprized, because he knows the observance due to rank, and that,

"What great ones do, the less will prattle of."

Summer having driven the nobles from Mosco, the Knight exclaims, “What then have I to do in this place!" and instantly sets off for St. Petersburgh. In his way he visits the monastery of the New Jerusalem, built by the celebrated Nichon, in imitation of the Holy Sepulchre in Palestine. "During his walk round the walls, he fortunately encounters "the archimandrite, or abbot, who accosts him with polite"ness, and afterwards shews him an attention that was quite 16 unexampled."-(Vol. 1. p. 287.) His account of this interesting place is very slight: he mentions some portraits of the founder, but he does not say a word about the triplehanded Virgin, an object of such high veneration there. It is to be regretted, that he lost the opportunity of comparing the miraculous hand with those of mortal painting his opinion, as an artist, on the comparative merit of the two styles, would have been interesting, and at least quite as entertaining, and rather more in place, than his learned defence of King David, "the sweet songster of Israel."

On his return to St. Petersburgh, Sir Robert conducts his reader from one nobleman's seat to another, and points out with much taste, whatever he finds in them worthy of admiration: he then leads him back in a gentle amble to Mosce, and returns in the same pace to St. Petersburgh. If his follower should have chanced to fall asleep by the way, on his reaching this last city, he will be wakened by the loud larum of war. The Knight finds a French general there as am

bassador.

"You will be surprized," says he, "that I should be unable to say much of the French general, from my own personal "knowledge: he possessed no magnetic powers over me, and

"therefore I kept as due a distance as I liked."-(Vol. II. p. 73.)

From the change, however, which takes place in the disposition of Russia towards England, Sir Robert feels it to be his duty to apply for passports; and having obtained them, he continues no longer at St. Petersburgh, than "to take his "leave of the Imperial head of the court, in which he had "experienced so much kindness." Passing rapidly through Finland, he has not opportunity to do much more than give a dry list of the posts, at which he changed horses: but the perils and miseries of his journey, in mid-winter, among the isles of Bothnia, are forcibly painted; ́ and the manners of the inhabitants of those inhospitable regions are sketched with a masterly hand.

But

Arriving at Stockholm, fortunately in time to witness the ceremony of opening the statue of Gustavus III, the Knight takes occasion to bestow some very high encomiums on that monarch, and seems scarcely satisfied with the tortures, which Ankerstromm endured on account of his assassination. he is put still more out of temper, by a blunder of his "stupid "coachman," in consequence of which, notwithstanding the English ambassador had proposed to present him to the King and Queen, he has "the mortification of making his first bow "to their Majesties in a crowd." As the present unfortunate situation of these illustrious personages, renders whatever relates to them particularly interesting, the reader will not be displeased with contemplating their portraits as drawn by the Knight.

"Gustavus bears a striking resemblance to the best portraits of "Charles the Twelfth; and seems not to neglect the addition of

similar habiliments. For really at the first glance, you might "almost imagine the picture of his renowned ancestor had walked " from its canvass. He is thin, though well made; about the middle "stature, pa'e, and with eyes whose eagle beams strike with the "force of lightning: look at them, and while he is in thought, "they appear remarkably calm and sweet; but when he looks at you and speaks, the vivacity of his manner and the brilliancy of

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