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580 COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA,
metrius Ivanovitch Donfki, furrounded the Kremlin with a brick wall. Thefe new for.
tifications, however, did not prevent Tamerlane, in 13$2, from taking the town”*.
Being foon evacuated by that defultory conqueror, it again came into the pofleflion of
the Ruffians; but was frequently occupied by the Tartars, who in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries over-ran Ruflia, and even maintained a garrifon in Mofeow, until
they were finally expelled by Ivan Vaffilievitch I. To him Mofcow is indebted for
its principal {plendour, and under him it became the moft confiderable city of tne Ruffian
empire.
‘The Baron of Herberftein, ambafflador from the Emperor Maximilian to the great
Duke Vaffili, fon of Ivan Vaffilievitch, in the beginning of the fixteenth century, is the
firft foreign writer who gave a defcription of Mofcow, which he accompanied with a
coarfe engraving of the town in wood +. In this curious-but rude plan, may be diftin-
guifhed the walls of the Kremlin, or citadel, in their prefent ftate, and feveral of the
public buildings, which even now contribute to its ornament. From this period we are
able to trace its progrefs and gradual increafe, under the fucceeding fovereigns, in the
accounts of feveral Englifh ¢ and foreign § travellers.
Mofcow continued the metropolis until the beginning of the prefent century ; when,
to the great diflatisfaction of the nobility, but with great advantage to the ftate, the feat
of empire was transferred to Peterfburgh. ;
Notwithftanding the predilection which Peter conceived for Peterfburgh, in which
all the fucceeding ‘fover elgns, excepting Peter II., have fixed their refidence, Mofcow is
{till the moft populous city of the Ruffian empire. Here the chief nobles, who do not
belong to the court of the Emprefs, refide; they here fupport a large number of re-
tainers, gratify their tafte for a ruder and more expenfive magnificence in the ancient
ityle of feudal grandeur, and are not, as at Peterfburgh, eclipfed by the fuperior fplen-
dour of the imperial eftablifhment.
Mofcow is fituated in the longitude of thirty-feven degrees thirty-one minutes from
the firft meridian of Greenwich, and in fifty-five degrees forty-five minutes forty-five
{econds of northern latitude. It is the largeft town in Europe; the circumference with-
in the rampart, which enclofes the fuburbs, being thirty-nine verfts, or twenty-fix
miles {|; but itis built in fo ftrageling a manner, that the population in no degree cor-
refponds to the extent. Some Ruffian authors ftate the inhabitants at five hundred
thoufand, a number evidently exaggerated. According to Bufching, who refided fome
years in Ruflia, Mofcow, in 1770, contained feven hundred and eight brick houfes, and
eleven thoufand eight hundred and for ty wooden habitations & ; “eighty- five thoufand
feven hundred and thirty-one males, and fixty-feven thoufand fiity-nine females, in all
only one hundred and fifty-two thoufand feven hundred and ninety ‘fouls; a computation
which errs in the other extreme **. According to an account publifhed i in the Journal
of St. Peterfburgh {{, the diftrict of Mofcow contained, in the beginning of 1780, two
thoufand one hundred and feventy eight hearths ; and the number of inhabitants were
one hundred and thirty-feven thoufand fix hundred and ninety-eight males, and one
P57 Re Ge vols 1. pe 03 + See Rer. Mof. Com. in Rer. Mof. Au&.
£ Chiefly Chancellor, Fletcher, Smith, the author of Lord Carlifle’s Embafly, Perry, Bruce, &c.
§ Poffevinus, Margaret, Petreius, Olearius, Mayerberg, Le Bruyn, &c.
|| The cire umference: i is nearly equal to that of Pela: which, including the fuburbs, meafures forty
verits, or twenty-fix miles and three- -quarters. Journal of St. Pet. April 1775, p. 243.
§ According to Heym, Mofcow contained in 1793, eight thoufand four fioudecd and thirty-nine houfes,
ef which one thoufand three hundred and eighty- two were of brick.
** Bufching’s Neue Erdbefchreibung, vol.i. p. 841. Edit. 1777. ++ For 1781, p- 200,
“hundred
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