prevent the destruction of one of the
fairest parts of the city, and its most valuable buildings. With the
next block we enter upon the liveliest, the most characteristic portion
of the Nevsky Prospekt, in that scant fraction over a mile which is left
to us above the Anitchkoff Bridge.

Here stands the vast bazaar known as the _Gostinny Dvor_,--"Guests'
Court,"--a name which dates from the epoch when a wealthy merchant
engaged in foreign trade, and owning his own ships, was distinguished
from the lesser sort by the title of "Guest," which we find in the
ancient epic songs of Russia. Its frontage of seven hundred feet on the
Prospekt, and one thousand and fifty on Great Garden and the next
parallel street, prepare us to believe that it may really contain more
than five hundred shops in the two stories, the lower surrounded by a
vaulted arcade supporting an open gallery, which is invaluable for
decorative purposes at Easter and on imperial festival days. Erected in
1735, very much in its present shape, the one common throughout the
country, on what had been an impassable morass a short time before, and
where the ground still quakes at dawn, it may not contain the largest
and best shops in town, and its merchants certainly are not "guests" in
the ancient acceptation of the word; but we may claim, nevertheless,
that it presents a compendium of most purchasable articles extant, from
_samovari_, furs, and military goods, to books, sacred images, and
Moscow imitations of Parisian novelties at remarkably low prices, as
well as the originals.

The nooks and spaces of the arcade, especially at the corners and
centre, are occupied by booths of cheap wares. The sacred image,
indispensable to a Russian shop, is painted on the vaulted ceiling; the
shrine lamp flickers in the open air, thus serving many aproned,
homespun and sheepskin clad dealers. The throng of promenaders here is
always varied and interesting. The practiced eye distinguishes infinite
shades of difference in wealth, social standing, and other conditions.
The lady in the velvet _shuba_, lined with sable or black fox, her soft
velvet cap edged with costly otter, her head wrapped in a fleecy knitted
shawl of goat's-down from the steppes of Orenburg, or pointed hood--
the _bashlyk_--of woven goat's-down from the Caucasus, has driven
hither in her sledge or carriage, and has alighted to gratify the
curiosity of her sons. We know at a glance whether the lads belong in
t