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648 COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
and abounding with innumerable fmall bridges, without railing, and moftly in a fhattered
ftate. I obferved feveral villages, as well as fields and gardens, {urrounded with wooden
pallifadoes, about twelve feet in height, which prefented a pi€turefque appearance. The
cultom of encircling villages in this country with {takes is very ancient; for among the
earlieft laws of Ruffia, one enjoins * the peafants, under pain of the knoot, to furround
the towns and villages with pallifadoes. Thefe enclofures were intended as a defence
again{t the defultory incurfions of the Tartar hordes before the invention of gunpow-
der; and the practice has been preferved among a people tenacious of old ufages.
The country was for fome way almoft a continued bog, covered with foreft, and the
villages were built on eminences of fand rifing out of the morafs. We pafled the night
at Kholiloff, a fmall village, which had been lately confumed by fire. ‘Thefe repeated
conflagrations will by no means appear a matter of wonder, when it is confidered that —
the cottages are built with wood, and that the greater part of the peafants, like thofe in
Poland, ufe, inftead of candles, long flips of iighted deal, which they carry about the
houfe, and even into hay-lofts, without the lealt precaution. ‘The next morning, the
bad roads having fhattered our new wheel, which was aukwardly put together, and al-
ready difcovered fymptoms of premature decay, we {topped to repair: but the repairs
were as treacherous as the original fabric; for, before the end of the ftage, it again
broke, and we were delayed fome hours at Yedrovo before we could venture to conti-
nue our journey. We now thought ourfelves blefled with the affiftance of a very maf-
terly mechanic, as his workmanfhip lafted to Zimagor, a {mall village, prettily fituated
upon the borders of the lake Valdai. ‘The furrounding country is the moft agreeable
and diverfified which we traverfed fince our departure from Mofcow. It rifes into gen-
tle eminences, and abounds with beautiful lakes, prettily fprinkled with woody iflands,
and {kirted with foreft, corn-fields, and paftures. ‘The largeft of thefe lakes is called
Valdai, and feems about twenty miles in circumference ; in the middle is an ifland con-
taining a convent, which rifes with its numerous fpires among clufters of furrounding
trees}. Waldai, which gives its name to the lake, and to the range of hills, contains
feveral new brick buildings, and even the wooden houfes are more decorated than the
generality of Ruilian cottages; it lies upon an agreeable flope, and commands a plea-
fant view of the lake. The Valdai hills, though of no confiderable elevation, are the
higheft in this part of the country ; and feparate the waters which flow towards the Caf-
pian from thofe which take their courfe to the Baltic. From their termination, the
country was no longer diverfified with hill and dale, and enlivened with lakes ; but pre-
fented an uniform flat, with a vaft extent of morafs.
On the 24th, in the afternoon, we arrived at Bronitza, a village upon the Mafta, within
20 miles of Novogorod. We took up our abode in the houfe of a Rufhan prieft, which in
no wife differed from the other buildings. It was however clean and comfortable ;
having a chimney, and being provided with plenty of wooden and earthen utenfils. ‘The
Prieft, not being attired in his clerical habit, was drefled like the peafants, and only dif-
tinguifhed by his long and flowing hair. He, his wife, and the reft of the family, were
‘bufily employed in extracting the roe from large quantities of fifh, which are caught in
the Matta, and with which an excellent caviare is prepared. Having obtained from our
landlady the choiceft of thefe fifh, and procured in the village a brace of ptarmigans, a
* Haygold, vol. i. p. 357-
+ In this convent the unfortunate Ivan, who was depofed by Elizabeth, fuffered a temporary confine-
ment. See book v. chap. ii.
bird
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