Author of "Wonders of the little World."

[6] Master of University College.

[7] There are among our countrymen those who are scarcely
outdone by the Tzar of Russia and his companions. At the
same place, and probably at the same house, long known as
_Moon's_, two noble dukes, the one dead, the other yet
living, stopped, as they intended, for a moment, while
sitting in their carriages, to eat a mutton chop, which
they found so good that they each of them devoured
_eighteen_, and drank five bottles of claret.

It would appear, indeed, from all accounts, that the Tzar was a
prodigiously hard drinker, in his younger days. In a letter from Mr.
A. Bertie to Dr. Charlett, and in the same collection, he says, "The
Tzar lay the other night at Mr. James Herbert's, being come from
Deptford to see the Redoubt,[8] which the justices have suppressed, by
placing six constables at the door. Upon that disappointment he fell
to drinking hard at one Mr. Morley's; and the Marquess of Carmarthen,
it being late, resolved to lodge him at his brother-in-law's, where he
dined the next day; drank a pint of brandy and a bottle of sherry for
his morning draught; and after that about eight more bottles of sack
and so went to the playhouse."[9]

[8] It is presumed some notorious place of ill fame.

[9] Ballard's Collection. Bodleian.

The King having given a grand ball at St. James's, in honour of the
Princess's birthday, Peter was invited; but instead of mixing with the
company, he was put into a small room, from whence he could see all
that passed without being himself seen. This extraordinary aversion
for a crowd kept him away from all great assemblies. Once, indeed, he
attempted to subdue it, from a desire to hear the debates in the House
of Commons, but even then the Marquess of Carmarthen could not prevail
on him to go into the body of the house.

Having dined with the King at Kensington, he was prevailed on to see
the ceremony of his Majesty passing four bills; but, it appears from a
note of Lord Dartmouth, that here, as in the Commons, he avoided going
into the house. His Lordship says, "He had a great dislike to being
looked at, but had a mind to see the King in parliament; in order to
which he was placed in a gutter upon the house-top, to peep in at the
window, where he made so ridiculous a figure, that neither king nor
people could forbear laughing, which obl