coco style being, by the way, quite the most
unsuited discoverable for Russian churches.

Count Alexei Grigorevitch Razumovsky was the Empress Elizabeth's
husband, the uneducated but handsome son of a plain Kazak from Little
Russia, who attracted the attention of Elizaveta Petrovna as his sweet
voice rang out in the imperial choir, at mass, in her palace church.
When the palace was completed, in 1757, it did not differ materially
from its present appearance, as a painting in the Winter Palace shows,
except that its colonnade, now inclosed for the Imperial Chancellery and
offices, then abutted directly on the Fontanka. It has had a very varied
ownership, with some curious features in that connection which remind
one of a gigantic game of ball between Katherine II. and Prince
Potemkin. Count Razumovsky did not live in it until after the Empress
Elizabeth's death, in 1762. After his own death, his brother sold it to
the state, and Katherine II. presented it to Prince Potemkin, who
promptly resold it to a wealthy merchant-contractor in the commissariat
department of the army, who in turn sold it to Katherine II., who gave
it once more to Potemkin. The prince never lived here, but gave
sumptuous garden parties in the vast park, which is now in great part
built over, and sold it back to the state again in 1794. It was first
occupied by royalty in 1809, when the Emperor Alexander I. settled his
sister here, with her first husband,--that Prince of Oldenburg whose
territory in Germany Napoleon I. so summarily annexed a few years later,
thereby converting the Oldenburgs permanently into Russian princes.

The Grand Duke Heir Nicholas used it from 1819 until he ascended the
throne, in 1825, and since that time it has been considered the palace
of the heir to the throne. But the present Emperor has continued to
occupy it since his accession, preferring its simplicity to the
magnificence of the Winter Palace.

The high walls, of that reddish-yellow hue, like the palace itself,
which is usually devoted to government buildings in Russia, continue the
line of offices along the Prospekt, and surround wooded gardens, where
the Emperor and his family coast, skate, and enjoy their winter
pleasures, invisible to the eyes of passers-by.

These woods and walls also form the eastern boundary of the Alexandra
Square, in whose centre rises Mikeshin and Opekushin's fine colossal
bronze statue of Katherine II., crowned, sceptred, in imperial rob