Among the private houses also are some of enormous extent. I knew one of which the ground-floor, on one side, was occupied by a public bazaar, in which thousands of the necessaries and conveniences of life were offered for sale. On the other side, a multitude of German, English, and French mechanics and tradesmen had hung out their signs. On the first floor dwelt two senators, and the families of various other persons of distinction. On the second floor was a school of very high repute, and a host of academicians, teachers, and professors, dwelt there with their families. In the back part of the building, not to talk of a multitude of obs(;ure personages, there resided several colonels and majors, a few retired generals, an Armenian priest, and a German pastor. Had all the rest of St. Petersburg gone to the ground, and this house alone remained, its inhabitants would have sufhced for the formation of a little poUtical community of their own, in which every rank in society would have had it3 representatives. When such a house is burnt down, 200 families at once become roofless. To seek any one in such a house is a real trial of patience. Ask the butslinik (the policeman at the corner of the street), and he will tell you perhaps that his knowledge extends only to the one side of the house, but that the names of those who live in the other half are unknown to him. There are so many holes and comers in such a house, that even those who dwell in it are unable to tell you the names of all the inmates ; and no man thinks another his neighbour, merely because they happen to live under the same roof. Many of these houses look unpretending enough when seen from the street, to which they always turn their smallest side ; but enter the podydsde or gateway, and you are astonished at the succession of side-buildings and back-buildings, of passages and courts, some of the latter large enough to review a regiment of cavalry in them.
Few of the houses in St. Petersburg, it has already been observed, exceed two floors in height, except in a few of the most central streets. A speculator some time ago built several houses of three stories, in one of the cross streets of Vassili Ostrof, and was completely ruined by the undertaking, for he could find no tenant who was willing to mount so high. On the other liand, even in the central parts of the city, there are not a few houses, of not more than one fioor in height, belonging to wealthy individuals, who in the spirit of their national predilection spread themselves out upon the ground, whereas a house of two stories containing the same number of rooms would only cost them half as much. The Russians have as great a partiality for wooden houses as for low houses, and perhaps wath more reason. To a Russian particularly, a wooden house holds out a multitude of recommendations. Firstly, wood is more easily fashioned into the wished-for shape than stone ; and then a wooden house is more quickly built, costs less, and is much warmer. The government discourages the erection of wooden houses in many ways ; nevertheless, the majority of the houses in St. Petersburg, perhaps two-thirds, are still of wood.