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    ancient games and sacrifices . Small men-of-war were anchored in the river opposite the palace ,, and there were 180 , 000 trtippft on the ground ! A terrible packed phalanx they presented in « M directions : Phyrric , Macedonian , all seemed to be there .. I thought of Wordsworth ' s grand sonnet , commencing with w The power of armies is a risible thing \ " In repeating it to myself , I could not help looking round to see if any of the police were watching me . What would have been said to me had the volume

    containing this sonnet been seized by the Custom-house or other officers , and " the power of armies , " with what follows , been translated to the emperor , I do not exactly know . At the moment the canvass covering of the column was withdrawn , the thunder of cannon , musquetry , and martial music , burst forth with tremendous effect , and was an *

    swered simultaneously by the men-of-war on the river , who all discharged broadsides at once ! It was well that the police bad ordered all the windows of the houses in the adjacent streets to be taken out , or they must infallibly have been shattered to atoms by the concussion . No one was permitted to enter the

    Grand Square without a ticket . At night the whole city was splendidly illuminated , as also the shipping in the river . A most imposing spectacle it certainly was , and continued throughout the day , and I can only suppose that the great political excitement * in England prevented the London newspapers from availing themselves of such rare matter for their columns .

    One of the principal exhibitions in Petersburg , and to me by far the most interesting , is the noble gallery of paintings in the Imperial Palace , occupying one entire wing of the building" . It is called the Hermitage , from its having been selected By the Empress Catherine to pass her quiet hours in , when fatigued by the cares of state . Wlio would not be a hermit according to thus reading ! She spared no pains in fitting it up with the nJOfift costly gems of art , painting , sculpture , articles of virtil > curious

    pieces of mechanism , models in wood , ivory , &c . &c . A hernu * tage indeed ! By far the greatest number of these rare works are paintings . They occupy seven or eight—I like to be indennite in enumerating these magnificent scenes—Jong galleries , each as long as the gallery of the British Museum . They consist of mo&t of the chej-dauvres ' of the old masters , particularly the Flemish school . Perhaps , on the whole , they are superior to

    any collection in England , and to the Louvre ; at all eveotfc , jl should think them three times more numerous than any ningle collection in Europe . There are the most beautiful tljij&g * , flf * 4 grand too , by Rembrandt , Claude , Wouvermans , Coiteggta , Murillo , Teniers , Paul Potter , Pous 3 in , Vandyke , Gerard Deu « f , by Rubens , the great Michael Angelo , and b y the Pru *? # of Painters , 8 cc . Shall we call this a hermitage t Does it not

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    Notes of a Trip to St Petersburg . 508

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1836, page 503, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2660/page/43/