The rising generation fully shares this passion for stitching, knitting, and netting, with their mothers and aunts, and the smallest little maiden of Reval, sows and knits away the time which she should spend in the enjoyment of air and exercise. A Sunday's finery often costs six busy days of work, and many a refreshing walk is lost in preparing for it. They appear to have quite a passion for sitting still, which is perhaps strengthened by the great number of well-attended girl-schools. As early as eight o'clock in the morning we used to see the little maidens tripping along ^ith thenbooks and slates tlirough the streets with their companions, in far greater numbers than their brothers. In fact, they are generally looking forward to the important situation of governess in a noble family, a situation which opens to the young ladies of Keval the prospect of a rapid independence. Many of them annually wander forth as governesses to all parts of Russia ; but there are still a sufficient number of ladies left at Reval to furnish candidates for every vacancy in the social circle ; while of men, comparatively speakmg, there seems to be a decided scarcity.
I was surprised to find, when I first went to dip myself in the cold sea, that all the best bathing estabhshments were conducted by women. As we drove through the suburbs, 1 also saw the names of widows over all the public-houses.
The political constitution of the town is the same as that of Riga, and the other cities of the Baltic provinces. The nucleus of the population at Reval, as at Riga and Dorpat, is thoroughly German. Even in these provinces, where all social circles are distinguished by a particularly agreeable tone, Reval is pre-eminently famed in this respect. Its most brilliant epoch is in summer, for its sea-baths are the most frequented in the Baltic provinces. The greater part of the Esthonian nobility, and many families from St. Petersburg, come here. Schloss Katherinenthal, with its beautiful gardens, woods, and prospects, forms the central point of all the promenades, balls, illuminations, and pleasure parties. Katherinenthal was laid out by Peter the Great in a marsh, and in the sand, around this beautifully decorated marsh, a town has gradually grovra up. The bathing seasons here are extremely brilhant ; and the concerts at Katherinenthal are often attended by all the most distinguished nobility of Russia. In fact, the very decayed state of commerce and industry in Reval, is in itself an attraction for fashionable visiters. Had the city more ships and merchants it would have fewer distinguished guests.
It was two o'clock in the morning on the first of February, when, after many a mournful parting with our friends at Doi-pat, we again left the hospitable city to proceed on our travels. The streets were pitch dark, and the snow fell pitilessly around. I was fortified, however, in the usual manner of a Livonian traveller ; furred, and buttoned up from top to too, the fur kept tight by crossed bands before and behind, the head covered bv a cap kept down by woollen cloths, and the face swathed in so much wool and fur, that the nose, naturally the most projectmg point, lay biu-ied in the deep abyss.
Without the city, as within, all was dark and silent. My travelling companion and myself were the only wakeful beings far and wide.
We found the proud Marquis of Londonderry, with his wife, his son, and the tutor of the latter, fast asleep at the second station from Dorpat, where that thorough-going English Tory, a rara avis on these snowy plains, had taken up his quarters for the night on his return to England. The postmaster, as he smoked his pipe Avith us at breakfast, related to us how his lordship's first conmiand, on entering the house, had been that during his stay there no one should smoke ; he had also declared that no one of the attendant spirits, who might happen to be a smoker, should enter his room. The poor postmaster had, •couscquently, on tlie preceding niglit, been obliged to foreswear smoking ; but his yearning after a pipe had driven liim early out of bed, that he might enjoy one by stealth in the public room. I asked whether the marquis had made any inquiries respecting the cliai"acter of a country so new to him, and so replete with interest ; whether he had conversed with any of the inhabitants. The postmaster said he had done neither ; that the whole company had sat till seven o'clock, employed in the silent and devout consumption of their tea and toast ; the ladies and children had then retired, but his lordship had continued to sit in silent solitude till twelve o'clock, when he went to bed. I had not the good fortune to meet the great man, for he was stiQ in bed when we left the station.