Nowhere do the pares congregate more with the paribus than in Russia. Not only are the merchants thus collected together under one roof, but the community thus formed is again split up into a variety of fractions, those who deal in similar articles keeping closely together. This holding of like to like seems almost innate with the Russians, for those articles which, on account of their bulky nature, are excluded from the gostinnoi dvor, such as ironware, firewood, furniture, &c , have each of them separate markets of their own, which are known by the geneiic term of rddi. It is the same with the ruinohs, or provision markets, of which there are distinct ones for meat, for fish, for hay, for eggs, and so on.
The gostinnoi dvor will be found, for the most part, to occupy a very central position in a Russian city, while the secondary markets are removed towards the outskirts. The gostinnoi dvor it must, however, be borne in mind, offers for sale only articles of domestic or of Asiatic production. The fabrics of western Europe seldom find a place there, but are usually retailed in shops situated in the most frequented street^. In the great provincial cities, the private shops are completely eclipsed by the gostinnoi dvor ; but not so in the comparatively Europeanised St. Petersburg, though even there, the goods displayed in the principal market far exceed, both in quantity and in value, those that will be found in all the private shops put together.
Tlic colossal building of which we have been speaking has one side in the Nevskoi Pros2)ekt, and another in the Bolkhaia Sadovaia, or Great
Garden-street, through which, and some of the adjoining streets, it extends a number of ramifications of shops and booths, giving to that part of the town, throughout the year, tlie appearance of a perpetual fair. The better descriptions of Russian goods will all be found in the Gostinnoi Dvor; those of inferior value in the adjoining markets, the Apraxin Ruinok and the Tshukin Dvor, which lie a little farther on in the Bolkhaia Sadovaia. Following the last named street, which is bordered throughout its whole length by shops and booths, we at last arrive at an open place, the Senna'ia Ploshtshod or hay place, which may be considered the principal provision market of St. Petersburg.
In the same way, in passing along the Prospekt, shops and booths present themselves in a constant succession to our view. When we have passed the silver shops we come to the dealers in fruit, then to the iron vaults ; these are followed by the carriage magazines, the depots for wood and coals, the furniture dealers, and so on, till in the vicinity of the Nevski monastery we arrive at the Simnaia Ploshtshod or winter market, with its endless store of sledges and waggons. In the same quarter are also the horse market and the cattle market. There are a few markets in other quarters, such as the Krugloi Ruinok or round market, but these are comparatively of little importance.
The gostinnoi dvor is well deserving of a stranger's attention, not merely on account of the various goods offered for sale, many of them of a kind unknown to other parts of Europe, but also on account of the mixed crowd constantly moving about, and of the characteristic civility of the dealers, and their unwearied endeavours to overreach their customers. AU these things make this quarter of St. Petersburg one of the most amusing and instructive lounges for a stranger desirous to study the character of the people and their city.