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Sketches of Russian life before and during the emancipation of the serfs
Sketches of Russian life before and during the emancipation of the serfs Author:Henry Morley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. AMONG THE HOESEKEEPERS AT MOSCOW. But my travel now extends more than five hundred English miles beyond the railway; and at Moscow I must give ... more »myself up to the tender mercies of yeamshicks, tarantasses, hack-horses, indescribable and unknown roads, filthy inns, and abominable station-houses. In an evil hour I had made a business- engagement in the south of Russia, which would require more than twelve months' residence on the spot; and as the climate and country were said to be fine, and a first-class residence, with other good things, were promised, I took my whole family with me, determined to make a pleasure-trip of it, if possible. So, I had with me a wife and half-a-dozen young children; also a handy man, who had just arrived from England seeking work, and who went to assist in the practical part of the business I had undertaken. This man turned out an invaluable friend for a rough journey, and an excellent comrade in all outdoor sports. He had broad shoulders, and the most powerful arms I ever saw. The only difficulty I had with him was to keep him from usincrTRAVELLING IN THE INTERIOR. 47 his arms like sledge-hammers on Russians of every degree, for real or imaginary outrages on our dignity as true-born Englishmen. And as he did not understand one word of Russ, he was constantly the prey of false imaginations. A journey of eight hundred versts in Russia is an undertaking of some risk for able-bodied men; but if females and children are added, there is need - of more than ordinary care in deciding on the best method of taking it. So, in an English lodging- house, on the second day of my arrival in Moscow, I held after-dinner consultation with four or five experienced Englishmen, who had accomplished similar journeys. Each was loud on behalf of the part...« less