t Sir
Moses and Lady Montefiore deemed it most prudent to stop at Opolje,
which was reached at one in the morning. We found warm and excellent
accommodation at the station, and instantly threw ourselves on the
sofas in our clothes, and slept soundly. We started again after six.
The roads were so extremely bad that we were at last compelled to
leave our carriages, Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, as well as myself
and the rest of our party, having to walk through the snow, between
six and seven versts, and arrived dreadfully fatigued at Ischerkowitz,
where we remained three hours for rest and refreshment. We then had a
pleasant drive in a little open carriage placed on a sledge and drawn
by two horses, but it was very cold. We reached Kaskowa one hour
before our own carriages.

_April 1st._--We left Kaskowa, passed through Kipeen, and a stage
later arrived at Stretna. From this place to St Petersburg is
seventeen and a half versts. The road is here well macadamised; on
either side of it are the country seats of the nobility. Up to this
place we had had as many as eight, ten, or twelve, and sometimes even
a greater number of horses put to the carriage, now the number was
limited to three, we were told, by order of the Government. The driver
remained standing all the time (while driving furiously) on a small
piece of iron, which served as a step to get up to the coachman's
seat. At about three o'clock we arrived at St Petersburg. After our
passports had undergone the necessary examination, we drove to the
place where apartments had been taken for us, but found them
unsuitable, and had to search some time before we succeeded in
engaging rooms at the Hotel de Prusse.

_St Petersburg, April 2nd._--We went to His Excellency the Hon. T. A.
D. Bloomfield, who received us immediately. Sir Moses gave him his
letters of introduction, and acquainted him with the object of his
visit to the Russian metropolis. He also showed him the letters of
introduction to Count Nesselrode which he had received from Sir Robert
Peel and Baron Brunnow.

His Excellency received Sir Moses very kindly, wrote to Count
Nesselrode, enclosing Sir Moses' letters to him, and eventually
obtained an appointment for Sir Moses for the following Sunday.

_April 4th._--Both Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore found the climate
very trying. Visitors who called on them reported that there was not a
house in the city that had not three or four of its inmates confined
by