at least, was my experience; and his mode of asking for a _pour
boire_ seems to confirm it. Some years since travellers used to
tell us of the _isvostchik_ asking at the end of his drive for
_vodka_ money ("_na votkou_"); at present the invariable request
is for tea-money ("_na tchai_"). Even in roadside inns, where I
have seen from twelve to twenty coachmen and postilions sitting down
together, nothing but tea was being drunk. A well-known tourist has
told us that every Russian peasant possesses a tea-urn, or _samovar_;
but this is not the case. The majority of the peasants are too
poor to afford such a luxury as tea, except on rare occasions,
but a tea-urn is one of the first objects that a peasant who has
saved a little money buys; and it is true, that in some prosperous
villages there is a samovar in every hut; and in all the post-houses
and inns each visitor is supplied with a separate one.

[Illustration: ST. ANNE RESTAURANT, WIBORG.]

The samovar, which, literally, means "self-boiler," is made of brass
lined with tin, with a tube in the centre. In fact, it resembles
the English urn, except that in the centre-tube red-hot cinders
are placed instead of the iron heater. Of course, the charcoal,
or _braise_, has to be ignited in a back kitchen or court-yard;
for in a room the carbonic acid proceeding from it would prove
injurious. It has no advantage then, whatever, over the English
urn, except that it can be heated with facility in the open air,
with nothing but some charcoal, a few sticks of thin dry wood,
and a lucifer; hence its value at picnics, where it is considered
indispensable. In the woods of Sakolniki, in the gardens of Marina
Roschia, and in the grounds adjoining the Petrovski Palace, all close
to Moscow, large supplies of samovars are kept at the tea-houses, and
each visitor, or party of visitors, is supplied with one. Indeed,
the quantity of tea consumed at these suburban retreats in the
spring and summer is prodigious. In Russia there is no interval
between winter and spring. As soon as the frost breaks up the grass
sprouts, the trees blossom, and all nature is alive. In that country
of extremes there is sometimes as much difference between April and
May as there is in England between January and June. The summer is
celebrated by various promenades to the country, which take place
at Easter, on the first of May, Ascension Day, Trinity Sunday,
and other occasions. The great majority of these promenad