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COXE’S TRAVELS IN RUSSIA. 53t
hundred and thirty-four thoufand nine hundred and eighteen females, in all two hun-
dred and feventy-two thoufand fix hundred and fixteen fouls. In the courfe of the
fame year the deathsamounted to three thoufand feven hundred and two, and the births
to eight thoufand fix hundred and twenty-one; and in the end, the population of the
diftri& was found to be one hundred and forty thoufand one hundred and forty-three
- males, and one hundred and thirty-feven thoufand three hundred and ninety-two fe-
males, in all two hundred and feventy-feven thoufand five hundred and thirty-five fouls.
‘This computation is more accurate than either of the others; and its truth has been
recently confirmed by an Englith gentleman lately returned from Mofcow, who made
this topic the fubject of his inquiries. According to his account, which he received
from the lieutenant of the police *, Mofcow contains within the ramparts two hundred
and fifty thoufand fouls, andin the adjacent villages, fifty thoufand.
If I was {truck with the fingularity of Smolenfko, I was all aftonifhment at the im-
menfity and variety of Mofcow; a city fo irregular, fo uncommon, ‘fo extraordinary,
and fo contralted, never before claimed my attention. ‘The [treets are in general ex-
ceedingly long and broad; fome are paved; others, particularly thofe in the fuburbs,
formed with trunks of trees, or boarded with planks like the floor of a room; wretched
hovels are blended with large palaces; cottages of one {tory ftand next to the moft
ftately manfions. Many brick {tructures are covered with wooden tops; fome of the
timber houfes are painted, others have iron doors and roofs. Numerous churches pre-
fent themfelves in every quarter, built in the Oriental ftyle of architecture; fome with
domes of copper, others of tin, gilt or painted green, and many roofed with wood. In
a word, fome parts of this vaft city have the appearance of a fequeftered defert, other
quarters, of a-populous town; fome of a contemptible village, others of a great ca-
pital.
Mofcow may be confidered as a town built upon the Afiatic model, but gradually be-
coming more and more European; exhibiting a motley mixture of difcordant architec-
ture. It is diftributed into five divifions: 1. Kremlin; 2. Khitaigorod; 3. Bielgorod ;
4. Semlainogorod; 5. Sloboda, or fuburbs.
1. The Kremlin was probably thus denominated by the Tartars when in poffeffion of
Mofcow, from the word Krem or Krim, which fignifies a fortrefs. It {tands in the cen-
tral and higheft part of the city, near the conflux of the Mofkva and Neglina, which
wath two of its fides, is of a triangular form, and about two miles in circumference.
It is furrounded by high walls of {tone and brick, which were conf{tructed by Solario,
a celebrated architect of Milan, in 1491, under the reign of Ivan Vaflilievitch I., as ap-
pears from a curious inf{cription over one of the gates:
** Joannes Vafilii Dei Gracia Magnus Dux Volodimerize Mofcovise Novogardiz Ti-
feria Plefcovize Veticie Ongarie Permiie Buolgarie et Aliar, Totius Q. Raxiz Domi-
nus Anno Tertio Imperii Sui Has Turres Condere Fet. Statuit Petrus Antonides Sola-
rius Mediolanentfis anno Nat. Domini 1491. K. Juli.”
The reader will doubtlefs be as much furprized as I was to find, that the Tzars em-
ployed foreign architects at fo early a period, before their country was fcarcely known
to the reft of Europe. ‘The Kremlin is not disfigured by wooden houfes, and contains
* This computation may be rclied upon. For as a ngw aquedu& near Mofcow was juft finifhed, it was
néceflary to form as exa¢t an eflimate as poffible of the number of inhabitants, in order to regulate the necef=
fary fupply_of water for each family. Richter obferves, * The population of Mofcow differs according to
the feafon of the year. In winter, when the nobility and their retainers flock to the metropolis, the inha-
bitants exceed three hundred thoufand; but in fummer, when they retire to the country, do not amount to
two hundred thoufand.—Skizze von Mofkau.
T4 the
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