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572 COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
plunged into a thick foreft, which continued almoft to the gates of the town, without
the intervention of a fingle village, or fearcely of a fingle cottage.
In 1403, Smolenfko, which belonged to the Ruffians, was befieged and taken by
Vitoldus, and, together with the whole province, united to the duchy of Lithuania *.
During the inveterate enmity which fubfifted between the Ruflians and Poles, Smoleniko
was a place of great.importance; though only fortified according to the cuftom of the
time, partly with ramparts of earth and ditches, and partly with pallifadoes, and a
wooden citadel + ; ‘thefe fortifications were, however, fufficiently {trong to refift the de-
fultory attacks of undifciplined troops, and it was at different intervals ineffectually be-
fieged until the beginning of the fixteenth century, Vaflili Ivanovitch, Great Duke of
Mofcovy, obtained pofleflion by corrupting the garrifon. It continued in the hands of
the Ruffians above a century, in the fame fimple ftyle of defence. At length the im-
portance of its fituation near the frontiers of Poland, and the improvements in the art of
war, induced Boris Godunof, prime minifter and brother-in-law of the Tzar Feodor
Ivanovitch, to furround it with a wall; he came in perfon to Smolenfko, and aflifted in.
tracing the fite of the fortifications, which he lived to fee completed in his own reign {,
and which ftill fubfift. Thefe additional ramparts, however, did not prevent Sigil-
mond III. King of Poland, from taking the town in 1611; and by the truce of De-.
velina in 1618, the poffeffion was confirmed to Poland. In 1654 it was again re-
duced by Alexéy Michaelovitch ; and in 1686 finally ceded to Ruflia at the peace of
Mofcow |].
Smolenfko, though by no means the moft magnificent, is by far the moft fingular
town I have ever feen. It is fituated upon the river Dnieper, and occupies two hills and
the intervening valley. It is furrounded by walls thirty feet high and fifteen in thick-
nefs ; the lower part of ftone, and the upper of brick: thefe walls, which follow the
fhape of the hills, and enclofe a circumference of feven ver{ts §, have, at every angle,
round or {quare towers of two or three {tories, much broader at top than at bottom,
and covered with circular roofs of wood. The intervals are ftudded with fmaller tur-
rets; on the outfide of the wall isa broad deep ditch, regularly covered way with
traverfes and glacis, and where the ground is higheft, are redoubts in the modern ftyle
of fortification. In the middle of the town is an eminence, upon which ftands the ca-
thedral; from whence I had a moft picturefque view of the’town, inter!perfed within the
circuit, of the walls, with gardens, groves, copfes, fields of pafture, and corn. The
buildings are moftly wooden, of one ftory (many no better than cottages), excepting
here and there a gentleman’s houfe, which is called a palace, and feveral churches con-
{tructed of brick and ftuccoed. One long broad ftreet which is paved, interfects the
whole length of the town in a ftraight line; the other {treets wind in circular direétions,
and are floored with planks. The walls, ftretching over the uneven fides of the hills
till they reach the banks of the Dnieper, their antient ftyle of archite€ture, and gro-
tefque towers; the fpires of churches fhooting above the trees, which are fo numerous
as almoft to conceal the buildings from view; the appearance of meadows and arable
ground ; all thefe objeéts blended together exhibit a icene of the moft fingular and con-.
trafted kind. On the further fide of the Dnieper many {traggling wooden houfes form
the fuburbs, and are joined to the town by a wooden bridge. As far as I could collec
from vague information, Smolenfko contains four thoufand inhabitants :. it has no ma-
* Dlugoffius, Lib. X. p. 104. et feq.
+. Rerum Mofc. Au&. p. 52. Mayerberg Iter. Mofe. p. 74.
t S.R. G. vol. v. p. 94. Lengnich, Jus Pub. v. i, p. 46.
Lengnich, vol, i. p. 47. § Four miles and three quarterss
nufactures,
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