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Dutch towns, canals were to be cut through the principal ftreets, and lined with ave-nues of trees; but it has never been carried into execution ; and under the EmprefsAnne, the imperial refidence was removed to the Admiralty quarter. The nobilityfoon followed the example of the fovereign ; and, excepting fome public edifices, andthe row of houfes fronting the Neva, the Vaffili-Oftrof is the word part of the city, and'contains more wooden buildings than all the other quarters.
Succeeding fovereigns have continued to embellilh Peterfburgh, but none more thanthe prefent Emprefs, who may be called its fecond founder. Notwithftanding, how-ever, all thefe improvements, it bears every mark of an infant city, and is (till " onlyan immenfe outline, which will require future Empreffes and almoft future ages tocomplete*.” The fireets in general are broad f and fpacious; and three of the prin-cipal ftreets, which meet at the Admiralty, and reach to the extremities of the fuburbs,are at leaft two miles in length. Moil; of them are paved ; but a few are ftill bufferedto remain floored with planks. In feveral parts of the metropolis, particularly in theVaffili-Oftrof, wooden houfes and habitations, fcarcely fuperior to common cottages,are blended with the public buildings; but this motley mixture is far lefs common thanat Mofcow.
The brick houfes are ornamented with a white ilucco, which has led feveral travellersto afiert that they are built with Hone; whereas, unlefs I am miftaken, there are onlytwo (lone ftrudtures in all Peterfburgh ; the one the church of St. Ifaac, of hewn gra-nite, and marble columns, not yet finiffied ; the other the marble palace, conftrudted atthe expence of the Emprefs, on the banks of the Neva. Her Imperial Majefty gave thisfuperb edifice to Prince Orlof ; and, at his death, purchafed it from his executor for2,000,000 of roubles. The ftyle of architecture is magnificent but heavy ; the frontis compofed of polilhed granite and marble, and finiflied with fuch nicety, and in a ftylefo fuperior to the contiguous buildings, that it feems to have been tranfported to theprefent fpot, like a palace in the Arabian tales, raifed by the enchantment of Aladdin’slamp J. It contains forty rooms upon each floor, and is fitted up in a ftyle of fuchfplendour, that the expence of the furniture amounted to 1,500,000 roubles.
The manfions of the nobility are vaft piles of building, but not in general upon fomagnificent a fcale as'feveral 1 obferved at Mofcow : they are furnifhed with great coft,and as elegantly as thofe at Paris or London . They are fituated chiefly on the fouth fideof the Neva, either in the Admiralty quarter, or in the futmrbs of Livonia and Mofcow,which are the fineft parts of the city.
The views upon the banks of the Neva exhibit the moft grand and lively fcenes I everbeheld. That river is in many places as broad as the Thames at London ; it is alfodeep, rapid, and as tranfparent ascryftal; and the banks are lined with handfomebuildings. On the north fide, the fortrefs, the Academy of Sciences , and Academyof Arts, are the moft ftriking objects: on the oppofite fide are the imperial palace, titsAdmiralty, the manfions of many Ruffian nobles, and the Englifh line, fo called, becaufethe whole row is principally occupied by the Englifh merchants. In the front of thefebuildings, on the fouth fide, is the Quay, which firetches for three miles, except whereit is interrupted by the Admiralty; and the Neva, during the whole of that fpace, hasbeen lately embanked by a wall, parapet, and pavement of hewn granite ; a magnifi-cent and durable monument of imperial munificence. The canals of Catherine, and of
* Wraxall’a. Tour, p 231
+ They are moftly as broad a3 Oxford flreet: thofe with canals much broader.
J In this palace Staniflaus, the abdicated king of Poland , died.
the