The convents of Moscow, about twenty-one in number, are situated, some in the interior and oldest parts of the cit^i^, and these are extremely confined in space ; others in the meadows and gardens of the suburbs, with their walls embracing so many churches, buildings, gardens, and fields, and crowned with such numerous towers, that each looks like a little town. Within the walls of the Donskoi monastery there are six churches and chapels, a birch wood, several courts, and the dwellings for the Archimandrite and tlie monks. These lie in the usual order of Russian monasteries to the riglit and left of tlie entrance, close to the wall. The chief passage leads directly to the " Sabor" (chief church of the cloister.) ; the otiier churches stand riglit and left of it, surrounded, like the Sabor, with graves.
A voung monk, whom I met drawing water from a well In the comt, was my guide. There is by no means so much life and amusement in the Russian cloisters as in those of the south, in Austria, the Tyrol, Italy, &c., where the good fathers sit together the whole day long, gossipping over their wine and cracking walnuts and chesnuts. Nor have they so many means of diversion, no billiard-tables for example, only ordinary halls and scanty libraries. The cold must tend greatly to repress activity, for. it naturally causes people to take great delight in warmth ; and to sit still, wrapped up in sheepskins, is the quiet monk's greatest pleasiu^e. As I entered with my monk to look at his cell, four old monks were sitting huddled in sheepskins on the benches before the door, gaping about, but saying nothing ; they made me no answer when I greeted them as civilly as I could, but let me pass on unnoticed.
The cell of my young father Yephim (Euphemius) was not badly furnished. He had two cells, one to sleep in, and one to sit in and receive company. On his table lay a heap of " Literaturnaya pribavlenie" (Uterary leaves), his only means for obtaining a peep into the world. I asked liim if his way of life pleased Iiim ; he answered that he was not much charmed with it, but he remained there, " because whoever had once said A, must say B." The rules seemed very severe. The monks rose at three, and had enough to do in the course of the day. He had not been long here ; he had inhabited another convent in Kostroma, and had left it because he preferred a convent in the capital. To quit the monastic life, though possible, is yet attended by many difficulties. If a monk wish to return to the world, he must submit his motives to the Archimandrite. For half a year the latter must seek to combat these ; if he cannot succeed in convincing the discontented monk that a cloister is better than the world, or if his motives are plausible, such for example as having a mother to support, which he can do better by some employment exercised without the cloister, they are laid before the emperor and the synod, who alone can decide whether they are important enough to procure him a release from a conventual life.
I still remember with satisfaction the manner in which the good Saxcns In Dresden used to show me the way. If I asked a direction, they would stand still, consider a moment, and desciibe it most exactly, or take me by the arm and go a part of the way with me, never resting till I thoroughly understood all about it. How characteristic this was of the thoroughgoing Saxon, and how different from the Russians ! I once asked the way to the Devitshei monastery, and received the answer " Poshaluitye tarn dalshe " (Be so good as to go further on), and the speaker swung his arm round in a way that might indicate either the right or left hand, as the proper direction ; and this is their usual way of directing, not out of incivility, but from pure carelessness, and unwillingness to take trouble, so that we go away from such a guide as wise as we came. If you put the question so that they nmst answer yes or no, the reply is sure to be " Yes, yes, quite right." You rejoice to have guessed so correctly, go on, and are sure to go astray.
I got tired at last of asking, and was glad to take a droshky, where one question did for all, aiid the answer was a deed. " Isvoslifcshik na Devitshei monastir" (Drive me to the Devitshei monastery), " slmshu" (I hear), — " Pashor (Go on).
The monastery stands at the end of the Devitshei-Pole (maiden's field), a large grass grown waste, without Semlanoi Gorod. The maiden's field is more interesting from its historical associations than its outward appearance. It is the field on which the Russian emperors entertain their subjects on the occasion of their coronation. In 1826, Nicholas had the tables laid here for 50,000 persons. On such an occasion it affords doubtless a more pleasing prospect than when on ordinary days one happens to be driving through it with an empty stomach.