aluable
curiosities.

"It was called the Hermitage by the Empress Catherine," said he,
"because she, purposed to retire thither from the cares of state--not,
however, to live the life of an anchorite, but to revel in that
indulgence of all the objects of sense to which her inclinations
prompted her."

"But come along," said Cousin Giles; "we agreed not to spend our time on
details till we had mastered the geography of the city."

So they continued their walk along the quays. Next to the Hermitage,
and joined to it by a passage over an arch which spans a canal,--like
the Bridge of Sighs at Venice, only smaller,--they passed the Imperial
Theatre, and then a succession of fine residences of nobles and private
persons, and lastly the Marble Palace of the Grand Duke Michael. It is
so called not because it is built of marble, but because it has marble
pillars. Across a street, on the same line, stands a fine pile, which
looks like another palace, but in reality contains only the stables and
offices, residences of servants, etcetera, belonging to the Marble
Palace. Among the palaces they passed was a huge white one, with a very
ugly portico.

"That," said Mr Henshaw, "was presented by the Emperor Alexander to the
Duke of Wellington, when he became a Russian field-marshal, that he
might have a house to inhabit should he ever visit Russia. On his death
it reverted to the Russian Government. Opposite to this row of palaces
the Neva is very wide. A branch of it runs away in a more northerly
direction, forming an island which has been covered with fortifications,
and is called the citadel. In the centre stands a church with a lofty
golden pinnacle. Beneath it lie buried the Russian Czars. Here is also
a cottage, built by Peter the Great, where he used to reside while
watching the progress of his navy and the uprearing of the now mighty
city, called after his patron saint."

"From a history I have been reading, I find that Peter was not nearly so
great a man as I fancied," observed Fred.

"Hush! Hush! That is treason here," answered Cousin Giles. "To his
valet he certainly was not great, as Carlyle would say, though he was a
very uncommon man. But we should not judge of people by what they
appear, or even by what they are doing, so much as by the results
produced by their doings. Now Peter contrived, certainly by no very
romantic or refined means, to produce a great number of very wonderful
results. He caused