COXe’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.

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The palace, Inhabited by the antient Tzars, {lands at the extremity of the Kremlin .Part of this palace is old, and continues in the fame flate in which it was built underIvan Vaffilievitch I. The remainder has been fucceffively added at different intervalswithout any plan, and in various ftyles of architecture, which has produced a motleypile of building, remarkable for its incongruity. The top is thickly fet with numerouslittle gilded fpires and globes ; and a large portion of the front is decorated with thearms of all the provinces which compofe the Ruffian empire. The apartments are ingeneral exceedingly fmall, excepting one tingle room, called the council-chamber, inwhich the antient Tzars ufed to give audience to foreign ambaffadors, and which hasbeen repeatedly defcribed by feveral Englifh travellers, who vifited Mofcow before theImperial refidence was transferred to Petertburgh. The room is large and vaulted, andhas in the centre an enormous pillar of Hone, which fupports the cieling # .

This palace, in which the Tzars formerly held 1 their courts in all the fplendour ofPattern pomp, was once efteemed by the natives an edifice of unparalleled magnificence \fince the modern improvements in architecture, it is far furpaffed by the ordinary man-fions of the nobility, and by no means calculated even for the temporary refidence ofthe fovereign f.

In this palace Peter the Great was born in 1672 ; an event here mentioned, notonlybecaufe it is remarkable in the annals of this country, but becaufe the Ruffians them-felves were, till lately, unacquainted with the birth-place of their favourite hero. Thathonour was ufually afcribed to Columna, which, on that fuppofition, has been pro-fanely tlyled the Bethlehem of Ruffia ; but the judicious Muller has unquettionablyproved, that the Imperial palace of Mofcow was the place of Peter’s nativity +. I wasgreatly difappointed that we could not view that part of the palace called the treafury.The keeper being lately dead, the door was fealed up, and could not be opened until afucceffor w-as appointed. Befide the crown, jewels, and royal robes, ufed at the coro--nation of the fovereign, this repofitory contains feveral curiofities which relate to andilluftrate the hiftory of this country.

There are two convents in the Kremlin ; one a nunnery, and the other a monatleryfor men, called Tchudof. It is well known in the Ruffian hiftory as the place in whichthe Tzar Vaffili Shuifki was confined (1610) after his depofition, and from whence hewas conveyed into Poland , where he only exchanged one prifon for another ftill moredifmal, and fell a victim to his own difappointment and chagrin, as well as to the illtreatment of the Poles. We are naturally led to compaffionate the fate of a depofedmonarch, who dragged on a miferable exiftence amidft the horrors of perpetual im.prifonment; but the black ingratitude of Vaffili Shuifki towards Demetrius, his fove-reign and benefactor, almott extinguithes our fenfe of his calamities. For even if the.perfon who affumed the name of Demetrius was an impoftor, Shuitki, when condemnedfor high treafon to an ignominious death, was indebted to him for his pardon j an aftof clemency ill requited by the depofition and murder of his benefaftor §.

The nunnery called Viefnovitfkoi, was founded in 1393 by Eudoxia, wife of the GreatDuke Dmitri Ivanovitch Dontki, who was canonifed and interred under the altar. Theabbefs politely accompanied us over the convent, and pointed out every objeft worthy

* “ The roof of the audience chamber was arched and fupported by a great p/iilar in the middle.” LotdCarlisle’s Embafly, p. 149. In the feaft which Alexey Michaelovitch gave to the Earl of Carlifle, thisgreat pillar was adorned with a wonderful variety of gold and filver veffels, p. 292.

f The Emperor Paul ordered this venerable feat of the Ruffian monarchs to be reftored and fitted up as•a manfion for himfelf and family.

isee Journ St. Pet. j See Chap 7.

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