THE TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

The English mania for travelling, which supplies our continental neighbours with such abundant matter for wonderment and witticism, is of no very recent date.  Now more than ever, perhaps, does this passion seem to possess us: 

    “——­tenet insanabile multos
    Terrarum [Greek:  kakoithes], et aegro in corde senescit:” 

when the press groans with “Tours,” “Trips,” “Hand-books,” “Journeys,” “Visits.”

In spite of this, it is as notorious as unaccountable, that England knows very little, or at least very little correctly, of the social condition, manners, and literature of one of the most powerful among her continental sisters.

The friendly relations between Great Britain and Russia, established in the reign of Edward V., have subsisted without interruption since that epoch, so auspicious to both nations:  the bond of amity, first knit by Chancellor in 1554, has never since been relaxed:  the two nations have advanced, each at its own pace, and by its own paths, towards the sublime goal of improvement and civilization—­have stood shoulder to shoulder in the battle for the weal and liberty of mankind.

It is, nevertheless, as strange as true, that the land of Alfred and Elizabeth is yet but imperfectly acquainted with the country of Peter and of Catharine.  The cause of this ignorance is assuredly not to be found in any indifference or want of curiosity on the part of English travellers.  There is no lack of pilgrims annually leaving the bank of Thames,

    “With cockle hat and staff,
      With gourd and sandal shoon;”

armed duly with note-book and “patent Mordan,” directing their wandering steps to the shores of Ingria, or the gilded cupolas of Moscow.  But a very short residence in the empire of the Tsar will suffice to convince a foreigner how defective, and often how false, is the information given by travellers respecting the social and national character of the Russians.  These abundant and singular misrepresentations are not, of course, voluntary; and it may not be useless to point out their principal sources.

The chief of these is, without doubt, the difficulty and novelty of the language, and the unfortunate facility of travelling over the beaten track—­from St Petersburg to Moscow, and from Moscow, perhaps, to Nijny Novgorod, without any acquaintance with that language.  The foreigner may enjoy, during a visit of the usual duration, the hospitality for which the higher classes are so justly celebrated; but his association with the nobility will be found an absolute obstacle to the making even a trifling progress in the Russian language; which, though now regaining a degree of attention from the elevated classes,[1] too long denied to it by those with whom their native tongue was an unfashionable one—­he would have no occasion at all to speak, and not even very frequent opportunities of hearing.