t
in one by one; or two at a time, and of the same kind, if a large
number are dining. The ordinary wines are on the table, and nothing
has to be changed except the plates. At the end of dinner, as the
cloth is not removed, the dessert is ready served; and this has
always been one of the great glories of a Russian banquet.

"I was particularly struck," says Archdeacon Coxe, "with the quantity
and quality of the fruit which made its appearance in the dessert.
Pines, peaches, apricots, grapes, pears, and cherries, none of
which can in this country be obtained without the assistance of
hot-houses,[1] were served," he tells us, "in the greatest profusion.
There was a delicious species of small melon, which had been sent
by land-carriage from Astrakhan to Moscow--a distance of a thousand
miles. These melons," he adds, "sometimes cost five pounds apiece,
and at other times may be purchased in the markets of Moscow for
less than half-a-crown apiece." One "instance of elegance" which
distinguished the dessert, and which appears to have made an impression
on the Archdeacon, is then mentioned. "At the upper and lower ends
of the table were placed two china vases, containing cherry-trees
in full leaf, and fruit hanging on the boughs which was gathered by
the company." This cherry-tree is also a favourite, and certainly
a very agreeable ornament, in the present day. At the conclusion
of the dessert coffee is served as in France and England. Men and
women leave the table together, and after dinner no wine is taken.
Later in the evening tea is brought in, with biscuits, cakes, and
preserved fruits.

[Footnote 1: That is to say, not in the winter. In the summer,
pears and cherries abound in Moscow, and every kind of fruit ripens
in the south.]

The reception-rooms in Russian houses are all _en suite_; and instead
of doors you pass from room to room through arches hung with curtains.
The number of the apartments in most of the houses I remember varied
from three to six or seven; but in the clubs and in large mansions
there are more. Grace before or after dinner is never said under
any circumstances; but all the guests make the sign of the cross
before sitting down to table, usually looking at the same time
towards the eastern corner of the room, where the holy image hangs.
This ceremony is never omitted in families, though in the early
part of the century, when the Gallomania was at its height, it is
said to have been much neglect