COXE’s TRAVELS IN RUSSIA.
648
and abounding with innumerable fmall bridges, without railing, and moftly in a fhatteredftate. I obferved feveral villages, as well as fields and gardens, furrounded with wooden,pallifadoes, about twelve feet in height, which prefented a pidurefque appearance. Thecuftom of encircling villages in this country with {takes is very ancient; for among theearlieft laws of Ruffia, one enjoins* thepeafants, under pain of the knoot, to furroundthe towns and villages with pallifadoes. Thefe enclofures were intended as a defenceagainft the defultory incurfions of the Tartar hordes before the invention of gunpow-der ; and the pradice has been preferved among a people tenacious of old ufages.
The country was for fome way almoft a continued bog, covered with foreft, and thevillages were built on eminences of fand rifing out of the morafs. We paffed the nightat Kholiloff, a fmall village, which had been lately confumed by fire. Thefe repeatedconflagrations will by no means appear a matter of wonder, when it is confidered thatthe cottages are built with wood, and that the greater part of the peafants, like thofe inPoland , ufe, inftead of candles, long flips of lighted deal, which they carry about thehoufe, and even into haydofts, without the leaft precaution. The next morning, thebad roads having {battered our new wheel, which was aukwardly put together, and al«ready difcovered fymptoms of premature decay, we flopped to repair: but the repairswere as treacherous as the original fabric ; for, before the end of the ftage, it againbroke, and we were delayed fome hours at Yedrovo before we could venture to conti-nue our journey. We now thought ourfelves bleffed with the afliftance of a very maf-terly mechanic, as his workmanfhip lafted to Zimagor, a fmall village, prettily fituatedupon the borders of the lake Valdai. The furrounding country is the mod agreeableand diverfified which we traverfed fince our departure from Mofcow. It rifes into gen-tle eminences, and abounds with beautiful lakes, prettily fprinkled with woody iilands,and fkirted with foreft, corn-fields, and paftures. The largeft of thefe lakes is calledValdai, and feems about twenty miles in circumference; in the middle is an ifland con-taining a convent, which rifes with its numerous fpires among clufters of furroundingtrees f. , Valdai, which gives its name to the lake, and to the range of hills, containsfeveral new brick buildings, and even the wooden houfes are more decorated than thegenerality of Ruffian cottages; it lies upon an agreeable Hope, and commands a plea-fant view of the lake. The Valdai hills, though of no confiderable elevation, are thehigheft in this part of the country ; and feparate the waters which flow towards the Caf-pian from thofe which take their courfe to the Baltic. From their termination, thecountry was no longer diverfified with hill and dale, and enlivened with lakes; but pre-fented an uniform flat, with a vaft extent of morafs.
On the 24th, in the afternoon, we arrived at Bronitza, a village upon the Mafia, within20 miles of Novogorqd. We took up our abode in the houfe of a Ruffian prieft, which mno wife differed from the other buildings. It was however clean and comfortable;having a chimney, and being provided with plenty of wooden and earthen utenfils. ThePrieft, not being attired in his clerical habit, was drefl'ed like the peafants, and only dif-tinguiflied by his long and flowing hair. Fie, his wife, and the reft of the family, werebufily employed in extrading the roe from large quantities of fiffi, which are caught mthe Malta , and with which an excellent caviare is prepared. Having obtained from ourlandlady the choiceft of thefe fifli, and procured in the village a brace of ptarmigans, a
■f- In this convent the unfortunate Ivan, who was dtpoEed by Elizabeth, fuffered a temporary eonffne-:ment. See book v. chap. ii.