understand!" And it is usually supposed that they "easily learn other
languages because their own is so difficult," though they encounter no
more difficulty, probably, than any one else when talking in their own
tongue in infancy. They are "great linguists" for the same reason as the
Dutch--and that is because, if they wish to be in educated society or in
business on any large scale, their own language will only go a very
short way.

In Russia as in Holland, as I have been told in both countries, an
educated household will contain a German nurse and an English governess,
while French will be the rule at table. It used to be a French
governess, but now the English governess is in great request everywhere
in Russia and Poland; and, in the great nobles' houses, there is the
English tutor also--not always for the language, but to impart English
ideas to the boys of the family. When I was last in Warsaw, an Oxford
graduate came up at a reception and introduced himself, and told me he
was with a Polish prince who had astonished him on the first morning
after his arrival by saying:--

"I have engaged you as a tutor for my two boys, but it will not be
necessary for you to teach them anything--that is already provided for.
I want you to be their companion, walk out with them, play games with
them, and help them to grow up after the manner of English gentlemen."

There is no real difficulty, therefore, with the language, nor is there
with the money of the country as soon as one realizes the value of the
rouble, eight of which make nearly a pound, and that it is divided into
a hundred _kopecks_, pronounced _kopeeks_, two of which are equal to
about a farthing.

And now to speak of the actual travelling. Everything in the way of
communication in Russia is on a large scale and in keeping with the
answer I gave to the Emperor, and which I have placed at the head of
this chapter. As soon as one passes the frontier, for instance, the
travellers change into carriages adapted for a broad-gauge railway, and
are at once in more commodious quarters. There is no land, I suppose,
where travelling over great distances is so comfortable as in Russia for
all classes; and it is incredibly cheap, first-class tickets costing
less than third in our own country, for those using the ordinary post
train, which every year becomes more comfortable and nearer to the
standard of the wagon-lit. There are excellent lavatories, kept
perfectly clean, where