PLAN, STYLE OF BUILDING, STREETS.
The assertion sometimes made, that no city is so irregularly built as Moscow, is in some respects true. None of the streets are straight ; houses, large and small, private dwellings, public buildings, and churches are mingled confusedly together ; but when, instead of looking at it in detail, we consider it as a whole, it must be admitted that few cities are more regularly or more rationally built than Moscow.
The original founders settled without doubt on the Kremlin hill, Avhich naturally became the centre of the city at a later period. Nearest tbat fortified hill lay the Kitai Gorod (Chinese city), the oldest part of Moscow. Around both the Kremlin and Kitai Gorod, lies Beloi Gorod (white city), which is encircled by the Tver Boulevard, and the other Boulevards, foi-ming together one street. Round Beloi Gorod runs, in a lilce circular form, the Smelnoi Gorod, surrounded by the Garden-street, and by other streets which must be considered as continuations of it. These rings, forming the body of the city properly so called, are intersected by the Tverskaya, Dimituevka, and other streets radiating from the open j)laces round the Kremlin as the connnon centre. Nowhere is there a sufficient length of street to form a perspective. The greater number of the streets wind like the paths of an English park, or like rivers meandering through fields.
We always fancy ourselves coming to the end ; and in every part where the ground is level, we appear to be in a small city. Fortunately the site of Moscow is in general hilly. The streets undulate continually, and thus offer from time to time points of view, whence the eye is able to range over the vast ocean of house-tops.
The Kremlin is best viewed from the south side, and from the bridge of Moskva Rekoi. From the river that bathes its base, the hill of the Kremlin rises, picturesquely adorned with tm^f and shrubs. The buildings appear set in a rich frame of water, verdant foliage and snowy wall, tlie majestic column of Ivan Wihkoi rearing itself high above all, like the axis round which the whole moves. The colours are every where most lively, — red, white, green, gold, and silver. Amidst the confusion of the numerous small, antique edifices, the Bclshoi Dvorez (the large palace built by Alexander), has an imposing aspect. It looks like one large mass of white rock, amidst a multitude of fragments. The churches and palaces stand on the plateau of the Kremlin as on a mighty salvor ; the little rod and gold castle church of the CzaFs, coquetting near the border like some pretty little maiden, and the paler coloured cupolas of the IMlchaelis and Uspenski
PLAN, STYLE OF BUILDING, STREETS. 213
churches representing' the In'oad corpulence of a merchant's Avife. Tlie Maloi Dvorez (little palace), and the convent of the Miracle, draw modestly back, as beseems hermits and little people. All these buildings stand on the summit of the Ki-emlin like its crown, themselves again crowned with a multitude of cupolas, of which every church has at least five, and one has sixteen, glittering in gold and silver. The appearance of the whole is so. picturesque and interesting, that a painter has only to make a faithful copy, in order to produce a most attractive picture, but I never saw one that did not fidl far short of tlie original, ceiiainly one of the most striking city views in Europe.
The northern side of the Kremlin is the least attractive ; a plain higli wall with two gates separates it from Krasnoi Ploshtshad (the red place). The most adorned is the north-west side. Here in former times was the Swan lake. It is now drained, and its bed forms the site of the Alexander garden, which stretches from the Moskva to the giant wall of the Kremlin. On the northern side, a beautiful iron gratmg divides it from the road. The gardens of the Kremlin are to Moscow, what those of the Tuileries are to Paris. In the midst of this garden, the beau-monde of Moscow promenade in the fine spring evenings. Nothing struck me more than the great anxiety of all to keep the middle path, which, as a sort of highway, was always crowded, while not a pair ever wandered to the side paths, as if every one dreaded to separate from his fellows. This habit pre-supposes a singular uniformity of taste in their society. At the foot of the wall, a number of artificial liills have been raised, where on holidays musicians are placed. These hills are hollowed out beneath and supported by pillars, and, on the benches with wlilch they are provided, afford cool resting-places for the weary.