Some families take a pride in having the whole service of the house performed by French domestics, and some have among the first class of attendants, Germans, Swedes, and even Polish Slilakhtitzi (inferior nobles) ; but in the stables, and all thereunto belonging, all are national, oriental, and long-bearded. A Tartar coachman is the most fashionable. It is plain that the whole form and essence of the Russian equipage is of Mongul-Tartar origin ; the numerous technical Tartar words in use may be cited in proof of this. According to a Russian's belief, this kmd of equipage is so fit and proper that he would not exchange it for any other ; in fact it is so generally liked, that in St. Petersburg it is adopted by all nations, the English excepted, whilst in other points it is the Russians who adopt foreign modes.
The coachman, therefore, and certainly not to his disadvantage, clothes himself in the old national dress. A fine blue cloth caftan, fastened under the left arm with three silver buttons, and girded round his middle by a coloured silk sash, invests his upper man strait and tightly, leaving the handsome tliroat bare, and falling in long, rich folds over the lower Hmbs. On his head he wears a high four-cornered cap, covered with some costly fur, and a handsome bushy beard falls like a rich bordering of fur over liis breast. The carriage of the man is worthy of his picturesque costume ; both he and his horses seem to be conscious that they are admired. The postilions, clad like the coachman, are pretty boys, from twelve to fourteen years of age. This is a great point ; long lads of sixteen or eighteen on the leaders would offend every Russian eye. As no person of rank, in the majority of the Russian cities, ever drives with less than four horses ; as not only the master of the family, but the mistress also has a coach-and-four for her own use, while in some there is another carriage for the children ; the number of horses and drivers in many private establishments may be easily imagined ; their studs often emulate those of princes.
The most celebrated Russian coachman, who, although a common bearded Russ, is become almost an historical personage, was Ilia, the coachman of the Emperor Alexander. He served the emperor, faithful as his shadow, for thirty years, and was much in favour with him from his experience and originality of character. He accompanied the czar in aU his travels, and is therefore a well known person, not only at all the hundred thousand post stations of the Russian dominions, but throughout the capitals of Europe. He adhered to his master even in death, and slept, during the whole journey, wrapt in his furs, under the hearse that brought the imperial coi'pse from Taganrog to St. Petersburg. As durmg the life time of Alexander, Ilia was often alone with him, the words spoken from the box into the carriage were not without weight, and many a courtier tried, with very little reserve, to gain the favour of the witty coachman. He now lives, rewarded with the rank of a counsellor of state, in a palace in St. Petersburg, where he gives entertainments to his friends and kindred, and relates anecdotes of the deceased emperor.
In the kitchen department — no insignificant one any where, but least of aU in Russia, all is French, or Frenchified. The majority of the Russian nobles are quite happy when they can find a Frenchman who, for some 2000 or 3000 rubles yearly, will have the goodness to direct their kitchens, and to whose humours and caprices they are willing in return to accommodate themselves. " We poor fellows," said a Russian cook to me once, " if we do not do every thing properly it's vpolizie (to the police) directly, or v' Slibir (to Siberia), palki nada (stripes are wanted here) ! But if a French cook is found fault with for spoiling a dish, he answers, " No one need mind eating that. It is not nice perhaps, but it is wholesome."
These cooks, who are very great gentlemen, and drive to market in elegant equipages, make out most incredible bills. In some houses the cost of the table amounts to some hundreds of thousands of rubles.
Many people have found it advisable to make an arrangement witli the cook to fLirnish the dinner at so much a head. Ten rubles is an average sum. On extraordinary occasions it will be fifty, a hundred, and even more. The hospitaUty maintained in some of the houses, where every day a number of strangers find their places at the host's table, is not therefore quite so cheap as some travellers represent it.