and, but we preferred going there by
water. Steamers run between it and Saint Petersburg several times in
the day. Crossing the bridge, we embarked in a boat, built in the
far-off Clyde, and now called by a Russian name. The passage between
the shallows all the way is very narrow, and the bar at the mouth of the
Neva has often not more than ten feet of water on it. I have already in
our journal described Peteroff, with its golden domes and spires peeping
out among the trees just overlooking Cronstadt, so I will say no more
about it. At the end of a good landing-pier we found our friend's
carriage waiting, and in it, over a good road, among groves of birch and
lime-trees, we were driven to his very picturesque summer residence. It
was built of logs, and weather-boarded, with a verandah running all
round it, and at each angle is a wide space roofed over, so that shade
and air can at all times of the day be procured. After an early dinner,
we drove to the chateau of the Emperor, built by Peter the Great. It is
a curious, long, half Oriental, half Italian-looking edifice, with a
gilt roof, and white and yellow walls. On one side are gardens, laid
out with long gravel walks, grass-plats, and trees; on the other the
high road. Between the road and the sea are the smaller and still more
ancient royal villas of Marly and Montplaisir, in the midst of gardens
full of the strangest collection of gilt statues and urns, and
flowerpots and marble fountains, and water-spouts and tanks, and seats
and rows of trees, and flower-beds all of one colour, the whole having a
very glittering, dazzling effect. From one of the fountains the water
comes down an inclined plane, and we were told that the Emperor Nicholas
used to amuse himself by making a party of the cadets of the military
schools defend the top of the waterfall, while others had to storm it,
climbing up the inclined plane, over which the water was rushing down.
It might be very good fun on a hot day, with the thermometer at 90
degrees, but very disagreeable when a sharp north-easter was blowing.

"The villa of Marly was built by Peter, and here he used to go to watch
the manoeuvres of his newly-formed fleet in the gulf below him. Here,
also, he died; his bed and his night-cap are shown. Indeed, nothing has
been altered in the cottage since he passed away from the scene where
his wonderfully active mind had done so much. The cottage of
Montplaisir was built by the Empr