The large number of horses we required together, was one ofthe principal causes ofdetention to us on the road : we were always obliged to have more than twelve, as the roads were extremely bad when we left Riga, and our carriages all very heavily laden. For the first two days the novelty of the journey had nothing to recompense us for its inconveniences, and the jolting, which though less violent than at first, could not be inconsiderable over bad roads in a carriagewithout springs. There are few English ladies who would chuse to undertake a journey around England in a covered waggon ; and yet that would be far preferable, since the distance is much less, and the accommodation every where such as to make amends for the fatigues of the road.
From Riga we travelled three stages without delay, except to change horses : we then stopped to breakfast ; this (though we made as quick a meal as possible),unavoidablytookupmuchtime, because somuch was necessarily spent in packing and unpacking. Our canteens, tea-kettle, and provisions which we had purchased at Riga, were regularly unpacked twice a-day. No accommodation of this kind can be had at the houses on the road ; at the post stations they find you quarters, that is to say, allow you to be in their room (which during the latter part of our journey, we shared, in the style ofan Irish cabin, with pigs, calves, and poultry), but no other accommodation is to be expected from them ; we have I believe always found a table of some kind, but not always seats, and chairs scarcely ever.
After breakfasting, and repacking our stores, we started, and continued travelling until evening, when we again stopped, to dine and drink tea, of which we made one meal. Here we wished much to have staid all night, but the want of accommodation (for we could not at first put up with that which afterwards became familiar to us), obliged us to proceed. At the next stage we were not more fortunate ; and my feelings of fatigue were much increased, by the apparentimpossibilityoffinding a place to rest at.
We journeyed on till we reached Kreitzburg, a Polish town, where I was most thankful to get into a house that afforded me a neat and comfortable room to myself. To this enjoyment, however, there was one drawback ; the oppressive heat from the stove, to which I had not been used ; for at Riga, though our rooms were heated in the same manner, they were so large that they were never extremely hot. The temperature ofthis latterroom hadbeen raised to West Indian heat, and such effectual pains taken to exclude every particle of fresh air, that it was very long before I could be sufficiently freed from the fear of suffocation, to attempt to sleep ; and as my room opened into the one where the gentlemen slept, I was not willing to disturb them by any complaint, and my egress from that room (had I passed through ) , must have been into an out-house or stable, where yemtcheks, (drivers), horses, and otherlive stockwerelodged for the night.
In the essential comfort ofawarm house these people very far exceed us, and are able to bid defiance toa degree of cold, from which in Eng* land many poor creatures would perish. The best constructed stoves are built with bricks cast in a mould in the form of an ear; these fit together, and are held by wires which pass in counter directions through them. Thus the chimney is formed, which passing to a certain height, has a top or cover of iron, made to fit close, and shut up its funnel. A small door in the exterior of the stove is left for the removing arid replacing this. Every room that is inhabited is regularly heated once, and in very cold weather, twice a-day ; one stove will heat two, and sometimes three rooms ; and it is inconceivable with how small a quantity of firing the houses in thiscountryare keptwarm throughout. A man with his arms full of wood, comes and lights the fire; this is permitted to burn until it is all become perfectly clear embers ; the chimney is then closed, and the heat by that meansthrown into the room. Thisbeingrepeated in an evening, they have the comfort of a regular heat, which an English house never knows.
The shutting down of the chimney too soon, while any flame remains, is attended with the most dangerous consequence, producing lethargy and death. In order to exclude perfectly the open air, they have double windows, and the internal one has every crevice in its frame filled up with tow, over which is pasted a strong paper ; the space at the bottom between the two windows is filled up with fine sand, so that it is not possible any air should enter.