The Russian aristocracy, in general, do not reside in the central part of the town, in the vicinity of the imperial palace. They have been banished thence by the invasion of industry and the bustle of trade. It is in the Litanaia, and along the sides of tlie Fontanka canal, particularly the eastern end of it, that the most fashionable residences will be found. It is there that may be seen the palaces of the Kotshubeys, the Sberemetiefs, the Branitzkis, the Narishkins, the chancellors of the empire, the ministers, the grandees, and the millionaires, on ground where a century ago nothing met the eye but a few huts tenanted by Ingrian fishermen. A quiet and magnificent street has since arisen there, and the Orloffs, the Dolgorukis, the Stroganoffs, &c., have, it must be owned, displayed taste and judgment in their choice of a quarter wherein to erect their sumptuous dwellings. Their palaces are not crowded together, as in many of our more ancient capitals ; on the contrary, nearly every house stands detached from its neighbours, with a handsome space in front for carriages to draw up, while the apartments within are numerous and spacious. Suites of rooms will be found in many of them fitted up as conservatories or winter gardens, a species of luxury in which the aristocracy indulge more perhaps in St. Petersburg than in any other city in the world. The largest of these winter gardens is at the imperial palace. Sometimes they are fitted up at a great expense for a single night, on the occasion of a ball, when the dancers may refresh themselves from the labours of pleasure, amid beds of flowers, or in arbours of delicious shrubs, cooled by fountains of living water.
The rapidity with which buildings are run up in St. Petersburg is truly astonishing. This is partly owing to the shortness of the season, during which building operations can be carried on, but partly also to the characteristic impatience of the Russians to see the termination of a work tliey have once commenced. The new winter palace is one of the most striking
Some idea may be formed of the immense quantity of granite brought to St. Petersburg, from the fact that the granite quays which enclose the river and the can;Us occupy alone a length of nearly twenty English miles.
f A note to an article on 8t. Petersburg in the Foreign Quartcrh/ licvieir (No. LVI.) says : " We have received from St. Petersburg an official report, in which it is sUitod that the supposed fissure has been examined, and has been fouud to be merely an optical illusion."
examples of this. Within one year not less than twenty millions of rubles were expended upon the building. The operations were not even allowed to suffer interruption from the frosts of winter, but fires were kept burning every where to prevent the materials from freezing, and to dry the walls. The same system has been acted on with respect to many of the private mansions of the nobility. Palaces, in short, are put together with a rapidity that can be compared only to that with which theatrical decorations are arranged. This very rapidity, however, will make the city a more easv meaJ tor old Father Time to devour at a fitting season. He will have ground the brittle columns of bricks and mortar to powder, some thousands of years before his teeth will have been able to make an impression on some of the monuments of Egypt. The Russians build only to prepare ruins. Indeed, it is painful, in most of their cities, to see the early decrepitude of so many buildings of a recent erection. They furnish a suitable picture of the precocious civilization of the empire. It must, at the same time, be admitted, that similar remarks will apply to the modern architecture of other parts of Europe.
Among the most magnificent ornaments of the mansions of St. Petersburg must not be forgotten the splendid plate glass of their windows. In most of the aristocratic saloons there is at least one large window composed of a single pane of glass, round which the ladies delight to range their work-tables, and their ottomans, whence they gaze out upon the animated tableaux vivans of the street. In some houses every window is fitted up on the same plan. They ought not, however, to be permitted on the ground-floor, for a poor milkmaid, or a porter with a load, passing by one of these costly windows, may be ruined by a sm^Q faux pas.