Within the MIchailoff quarter, if we may make use of the expression, is the colossal Excrcising-house. This maju'ge coveis a space, unbroken by a single pillar, of 650 feet long, and 150 wide; a regiment can go through its evolutions there with perfect convenience ; a battahon may manoeuvre there, and two squadrons might fight a battle there. Tliia establishment originated, as did nearly all such places in St. Petersburg, in the time of Paul. Sixteen giant stoves warm the building, and the walls are lined with thick woollen-cloth. The roof with its appendages presses on the thick walls with a weight of 300,000 hundred weight ; the iron rods alone weigh 12,840,000 pounds, and to this must be added 3000 great trunks of trees made use of in the woodwork, and 2000 square fathoms of iron plates with which the whole is covered without. The Cii'cassians may be generally seen here busied in their feats of horsemanship, or shooting at a mark, at which times a student in acoustics may make many interesting observations. A pistol-shot awakens so prodigious an echo, that heard from the street one might fancy the whole building falling in one crash.
When Potemkin, the conqueror of the KJian of the Crimea, resided in the Tauride palace, presented to him, and afterwards purchased from him by Catherine, and mth his inordinate love of show, animated and adorned those desolate apartments, the palace may have answered the expectations raised by its name. It should have been seen in the days when the insolent and profuse favourite gave his empress a triumphal fete. It looks now like a ball-room on the morning after a festival. The exterior can never have laid claim to any particular beauty, and the best of its contents it has been robbed of to adorn other palaces. Although it is now and tlien inhabited by the imperial family in the spring, the furniture is of a very ordinary description, the large looking-glasses are dimmed, the tables and chairs oldfashioned : the collection of antiquities, displayed in the first saloon, contains little that is valuable or original ; and the pictures ai'e for the most part bad copies of good originals. The enormous ball-room, the largest in St. Petersburg, is the only part on which the palace can pride itself. An idea may be formed of its size, from the fact that 20,000 wax-Ughts are necessary to light it up completely, and that the colossal group of the Laocoon, at the one end, can be plainly seen from, the other only by means of a telescope. The last grand festival given here, was on the marriage of the Grand-Duke Michael, to which occasion the present decorations were owing. Tlie marble is all false, the silver is plated copper, the pillars and statues are of brick, and the pictures copies. The looking-glasses although ten feet wide, and lofty in proportion, are so badly made, that the siu^face on examination is found to be all in waves and fuU of bubbles ; they belong to an early period of the St. Petersburg manufactory, and a comparison ^rith the modem productions will show the progress made in this branch of industry.
In one of the numerous chambers inhabited by the Emperor Alexander, we had an opportunity of studying the titles of the Russian great officers of state, for in the bureaus and drawers we found a number of envelopes with the addresses printed on them. " Natschalniku Morskago Shtaba Moyegd" (To the chief of my marine staff). " Glavnonatshalstvuyashtshemu nad potshtoviim Departmenf^ (To the principal of the post department). A table-cover with some drops of wax from the candles used by Alexander, and some crayon-drawdngs by his admirable consort Elizabeth, and other objects of the same kind, will not be seen without interest.
The A.nnItshkoff palace, is nuich more frequently inhabited by the present imperial family than the Tauride palace. The former stands on the great Prospekt in the neighbourhood of the Fontanka, and closes the brilliant range of palaces in that street. It was originally built by EHzabeth, and bestowed on Count Rasumoffsky, then twice bought by Catherine, and twice given to Prince Potemldn ; it is now the favourite abode of the emperor, and handsomely built, but has no particular historical interest. A part of the court constantly resides here ; here also the emperor holds the greater number of his councils, receives ambassadors, &c, ; hence the cabinet of St. Petersburg may be called the cabinet of Annitshkoff, as that of London is called the cabinet of St. James's, and that of Paris the cabinet of the Tuileries.