ad brought articles for the Saint
Petersburg market. On the right side was the English quay, with a
handsome building at one end, used as an English hotel. Farther on was
the English church; and extending far away beyond it was palace after
palace, many in the Italian style, the mighty pile of the Winter Palace
being conspicuous above all, though in the far distance; and yet
numberless other proud edifices were to be seen reaching to the same
distance from it on one side as they do on the other. The travellers
had little time to observe these wonders before the steamer brought up
at a floating white and gold temple-looking building mooted at a granite
quay. Elegant as it looked, it was only the custom-house examining
shed. Under a graceful arch, which united a little office on either
side, the luggage was arranged, and bearded heroes in military costume
dipped their hands amid the clean linen and clothes. Their behaviour,
however, was civil; and, having taken possession of all the books they
found, with the exception of Bibles, which they gave back, they made a
sign that the boxes might be closed. The luggage was then turned out
through a gateway into the clean wide road, where there stood, as eager
and vociferous as any Irish carmen, ready to seize on it, a number of
drosky drivers. There are two sorts of hack droskies in Saint
Petersburg. One is somewhat like a small phaeton with wide wings; the
other has what Cousin Giles called a fore-and-aft seat, on which people
sit with their legs astraddle, the driver sitting perched on the end of
it. The horses, which are harnessed with ropes in shafts, are wiry,
shaggy-looking animals, and have high wooden bows arched over their
heads, with the idea of keeping them from stumbling. The drivers are no
less strange to English eyes than their vehicles. They are
long-bearded, shaggy-haired, keen-eyed men, with low-crowned,
broad-curling brimmed hats, wider at the top than at the head. They
wear long blue cloth coats, crossed at the breast, and fastened round
the waist with a red cotton sash. Their wide trousers are tucked into
high boots, and at their back hangs a square brass plate with their
number on it, serving the purpose of the London cabman's badge. They
are, indeed, under very similar regulations.

Cousin Giles chartered three of these vehicles to carry themselves and
their luggage, and the lads laughed heartily as they found themselves
seated astride on one