In the Lands of the Romanovs: An Annotated Bibliography of First-hand English-language Accounts of the Russian Empire (1613-1917)/Reign of Nicholas I (1825-1855)

7. REIGN OF NICHOLAS I (1825-1855)

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Fig. 41 Nicholas I (1856), by Vladimir Dmitrievich Sverchkov. Oil on canvas. Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.


See also F67, F70, F87, F93, F94, F96, F99, F103, F104, F106, F107, F108, H21


Walsh, Robert, ‘Reminiscences of Russia’, in The Amulet. Edited by S.C. Hall. London: Frederick Westley and A.H. Davis, 1835. Vol. X, 286pp.

A member of the British and Foreign Bible Society, Rev. Walsh (1772-1852) visited St Petersburg in 1826. He comments on the sorry fate of the Russian Bible Society, on the assassination of Paul, but is silent about the Decembrists (pp. 145-76).


Beechey, Frederick William, Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Beering’s Strait, to co-operate with the polar expeditions: performed in His Majesty’s Ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F.W. Beechey, R.N., in the years 1825, 26, 27, 28. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831. 2 vols.

Captain, later Rear-Admiral, Beechey (1796-1856) left England on 25 May 1825 for the Bering Strait to meet up with two earlier expeditions under Captains Parry and Franklin. A year later, on 28 July 1826, the Blossom arrived at Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka. It remained in the area until the end of October, when not having made contact with Franklin, it sailed for San Francisco (vol. I, pp. 324-471). On 3 July 1827 Beechey and his crew were back at Petropavlovsk, remaining until the end of September (vol. II, pp. 241-95).


Peard, George, To the Pacific with Beechey: the journal of Lieutenant George Peard of H.M.S. ‘Blossom’ 1825-1828. Edited by Barry M. Gough. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973. x+272pp.

Beechey’s first lieutenant, Peard (1783-1837) noted in his journal, “on the 28th [July 1826] the fog cleared up and we saw to the NW. the mountainous coast of Kamptchatska streaked with snow and presenting a most dreary appearance”. His previously unpublished journal complements Beechey’s more detailed account of their two visits to Kamchatka and the Bering Strait (pp. 139-72, 219-43).


Erman, Georg Adolph, Travels in Siberia: including excursions northwards, down the Obi, to the Polar Circle, and southwards, to the Chinese frontier. Translated from the German by William Desborough Cooley. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1848. 2 vols. [Vols. II-III of Cooley’s The world surveyed in the XIXth century; or, recent narratives of scientific and exploratory expeditions.] Travels in Siberia Vol. 1 | Travels in Siberia Vol. 2

The German scientist (1806-77) left Berlin on 25 April 1827 to participate in Professor Christoph Hansteen’s expedition to Siberia seeking to test his theory of terrestrial magnetism. It was in May of the following year that Erman reached Okhotsk after extensive travels through Siberia that included side expeditions from Ekaterinburg to the silver mines in the Urals, from Tobolsk down the Ob, and across Baikal to Selenginsk. He provides in diary form a mass of information, not only of scientific interest but also on the lives of local peoples and of the exiles. An abridged version, particularly in its pre-Siberian part, of Reise um die Erde durch Nord-Asien und die beiden Oceane (1833-48).

Granville, Augustus Bozzi, St Petersburgh: a journal of travels to and from that capital; through Flanders, the Rhenish Provinces, Prussia, Russia, Poland, Silesia, Saxony, the Federated States of Germany, and France. London: Henry Colburn, 1828. 2 vols. [2nd edition, carefully revised, and with considerable additions, 1829]

Dr Granville (1783-1872) left England on 20 September 1827 as body physician to Count and Countess Mikhail Vorontsov and seventeen weeks later had returned. His brief stay in St Petersburg from 27 October to 10 December gave rise to the monumental description of all aspects of life in the capital (vol. I, pp. 414-577; II, pp. 1-524), such that a third edition of 1835 bore the title Guide to St Petersburgh: a journal of travels.


Granville, Augustus Bozzi, Autobiography of A. B. Granville, M.D., F.R.S.: being eighty-eight years of the life of a physician who practised his profession in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, the West Indies, Russia, Germany, France, and England. Edited, with a brief account of the last years of his life, by his youngest daughter, Paulina B. Granville. London: Henry S. King & Co., 1874. 2 vols.

Granville recalls his first sojourn in Russia in 1827, referring readers to his book, but adds pages on his own health and reaction to Russian tea! (vol. II, pp. 238-50). In the spring of 1849 he went again to Russia to attend the pregnant Countess Chernysheva, wife of the minister of war, arriving at Cronstadt on 17 May and departing on 14 July. Towards the end of his stay he spent a few days in Moscow and was contemplating a work to be called The two capitals, or sketches of the present state of St Petersburg and Moscow that was never completed (pp. 386-408).


Webster, James, Travels through the Crimea, Turkey, and Egypt, performed during the years 1825-1828; including particulars of the last illness and death of the Emperor Alexander, and of the Russian conspiracy of 1825. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830. 2 vols.

Published posthumously. The young Scot Webster (1802-28) of the Inner Temple died in Cairo after travelling with companion W.H. Newnham from Poland down to Odessa in 1827 (Russia: vol. I, pp. 32-101; II, pp. 333-39).


Westminster, Elizabeth Mary Leveson Gower, Marchioness of, Diary of a tour in Sweden, Norway, and Russia, in 1827, with letters. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1879. 297pp.

The Belgraves, as Elizabeth (1797-1891) and her husband Richard (1795-1869) were known from their marriage in 1819 until 1831 during the lifetime of his father, Earl Grosvenor, arrived in St Petersburg on 26 July 1827. They left for Moscow on 29 August, en route for the fair at Nizhnii Novgorod. They spent a week in Moscow on the return journey and a further week in St Petersburg before leaving on 20 August (pp. 136-250).


Morton, Edward, Travels in Russia, and a residence at St Petersburg and Odessa, in the years 1827-1829; intended to give some account of Russia as it is, and not as it is represented to be, &c. &c. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1830. xix+486pp.

Dr Morton followed Lee and Granville as physician to Count Mikhail Vorontsov and his family. He arrived at Cronstadt on 21 October 1827 and left St Petersburg with the Vorontsovs on 10 February 1828, travelling to Odessa, where he was to remain from March 1828 until June of the following year. He provides a substantial history of the city (pp. 175-330) and of the imperial visit in 1828 (pp. 367-85).


[Lefevre, George William], The life of a travelling physician, from his first introduction to practice; including twenty years’ wanderings through the greater part of Europe. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1843. 3 vols.

Sir George (1798-1846) spent fifteen years in Russia, practising first and briefly in Odessa, before moving to St Petersburg. He returned to England in 1842. His very generalized Russian memoirs occupy all of vol. II (304pp.) and the beginning of vol. III (pp. 1-96). He was also author of Observations on the nature and treatment of the cholera morbus, now prevailing epidemically in St Petersburg (London, 1831). He was knighted in 1832 for his services as physician to the British embassy in St Petersburg.


Alcock, Thomas, Travels in Russia, Persia, Turkey, and Greece, in 1828-9. London: Privately printed by E. Clarke and Son, 1831. viii+227pp.

Alcock (1801-66), M.P. for the rotten borough of Newton in Lancashire in 1826-30, travelled to the seat of the conflict between Turkey and Russia to observe “the sort of warfare carried on against, as well as by, the Turks”. He went by way of Vienna to Odessa, where he arrived in August 1828. He then toured the Crimea, before making his way to Tiflis, then Erevan, and into Persia. His comments are of a very general nature, not least on military operations, on which he writes “with great diffidence” (pp. 5-55).


Armstrong, T.B., Journal of travels in the seat of war, during the last two campaigns of Russia and Turkey; intended as an itinerary through the south of Russia, the Crimea, Georgia, and through Persia, Koordistan, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople. London: A. Seguin, 1831. xvi+242pp. [Reissued: London: D. Dodson, 1838, as Travels in Russia and Turkey...]

Two weeks after Alcock (see G11), Armstrong and his two companions arrived in Odessa on 2 September 1828, having also travelled via Vienna. There they saw the tsar but little else before they were on their way through the Crimea and Georgia to Tiflis, Erevan, and Tabriz in Persia, where they arrived in time to enjoy Christmas dinner at the British embassy (pp. 13-108).


Parrot, Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm, Journey to Ararat. Translated by W.D. Cooley. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1845. xii+375pp. [Vol. I of Cooley’s The world surveyed in the XIXth century; or, recent narratives of scientific and exploratory expeditions.]

The Baltic German naturalist and traveller (1792-1841) left Dorpat, where he was the university’s professor of natural philosophy, on 11 April 1829 and led a small expedition south through Russia to Tiflis. He was conducting experiments on terrestrial magnetism, but his travels were most notable for his successful ascent, at the third attempt, of Mt. Ararat on 9 October (p. 178). He arrived back in Dorpat on 30 March 1830. German original: Reise zum Ararat (Berlin, 1834).


Alexander, James Edward, Travels to the seat of war in the East, through Russia and the Crimea, in 1829; with sketches of the imperial fleet and army, personal adventures, and characteristic anecdotes. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830. 2 vols.

Captain, later, General Sir James (1803-85), left England in early May 1829 and reached St Petersburg by way of Revel and Cronstadt. He provides a detailed account of his journey from the capital to Nikolaev via Moscow and Kharkov. The second volume is devoted to his cruise with the Russian navy on the Black Sea and his general account of the hostilities between Russia and Turkey, which ends with his arrest as a spy and his being escorted back to St Petersburg, where he met the tsar, was exonerated, and left for England via Sweden at the beginning of 1830.


Montieth, William, Kars and Erzeroum: with the campaigns of Prince Paskiewitch in 1828 and 1829; and an account of Russia beyond the Caucasus, from the time of Peter the Great to the treaty of Turcoman and Adrianople. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856. xvi+332pp.

It was only after the conclusion of the Crimean War that Monteith (1790-1864), by then a lt-general and F.R.S., thought it appropriate to publish materials he had gathered, from research and personal observation, during his twenty-year stint attached to the British mission in Persia. He came in close contact with General Paskevich in Tiflis and elsewhere and was involved in the settlement of the Russo-Persian boundary in 1829, at which time he left Persia to return to India.


Groves, Anthony Norris, Journal of Mr. Anthony N. Groves, missionary, during a journey from London to Bagdad, through Russia, Georgia, and Persia: also, a journal of some months’ residence at Bagdad. London: James Nisbet, 1831. xi+215pp.

Groves and his family sailed from Gravesend on 11 June 1829, arriving in Cronstadt on 3 July. Travelled south to Astrakhan, visiting Sarepta and Karass en route, then through the Caucasus to Tiflis, before crossing into Persia and arriving in Baghdad on 6 December 1829 (pp. 1-130).


Conolly, Arthur, Journey to the north of India, overland from England, through Russia, Persia, and Affghaunistaun. London: Richard Bentley, 1834. 2 vols.

Lt. Conolly (1807-42) of the Bengal Light Cavalry describes a long journey “by a new route, through very interesting countries”, that began in England on 10 August 1829 and finished in India in January 1831. He and two brother officers spent a month in St Petersburg before departing on 8 October for Moscow and travelling down to Tiflis and into Persia, where they arrived at the end of December, described succinctly in the opening chapter of his book (vol. I, pp. 1-12). Conolly, who is credited with coining the phrase “The Great Game”, was to achieve melancholy fame when he and another British officer were executed in June 1842 by the emir of Bokhara on charges of spying.


Rennie, John, Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S., past president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, comprising the history of his professional life, together with reminiscences dating from the commencement of the century to the present times. London: E. & F.N. Spon, 1875. viii+464pp.

The famous engineer Sir John Rennie (1794-1874) travelled out to St Petersburg on the same steamer as Lieutenant Conolly at the end of August 1829 and during his stay in the Russian capital spent much time with the Scottish engineers General Alexander Wilson and Charles Baird, before travelling to Moscow and leaving via Warsaw (pp. 252-62). In the spring of 1859 he was invited to Odessa to produce a plan for the paving of the streets and introducing a complete system of sewers (pp. 377-81).


Slade, Adolphus, Records of travels in Turkey, Greece, etc., and of a cruise in the Black Sea with the Capitan Pasha, in the years 1829, 1830, and 1831. London: Saunders and Otley, 1832. 2 vols.

Sir Adolphus (1804-77), a British admiral who in 1849 became also an admiral in the Turkish navy with the title of Mushaver Pasha, had been present, when still a half-pay lieutenant in the Royal Navy, at the battle of Navarino, and from 1828 to 1831 travelled extensively on both sides of the Bosphorus. He reached Constantinople in 1829, where he became friendly with Capitan Pasha, head of the Turkish navy, who invited him on a tour of the Black Sea. Turkey was at this time at war with Russia and Slade’s comments are a unique British source (Russia, vol. I, pp. 485-519).


Mignan, Robert, A winter journey through Russia, the Caucasian Alps, and Georgia; thence across Mount Zagros, by the Pass of Xenophon and the Ten Thousand Greeks, into Koordistaun. London: Richard Bentley, 1839. 2 vols.

A captain in the Indian army, Mignan (d. 1852) arrived with his family from England in St Petersburg on 21 October 1829. They were to join the Persian envoy extraordinary, returning to Persia after conveying regrets at the recent murder of the Russian diplomat and dramatist Griboedov in Teheran. Their journey south in the severe winter of 1829 via Novocherkask and through the Caucasus to Tiflis was hazardous. They left Tiflis on 31 January 1830 on their way to the Persian border (pp. 1-112).


Raikes, Thomas, A visit to St Petersburg, in the winter of 1829-30. London: Richard Bentley, 1838. xii+383pp.

Presented as a series of twenty-six letters Raikes (1777-1848) addressed to an unknown friend between 8 November 1829 (at sea) and 25 March 1830 (leaving St Petersburg), the book was published years later allegedly to offer not only a picture of manners and mores in the capital but also an understanding of the development of Russian “power”, threatening British interests (there is an appendix, dated 3 October 1837). Most notable for the description of his meeting with Pushkin on 23 December 1829 and for his letter (no. xvi) devoted to the Decembrists.


Randolph, John, John Randolph of Roanoke, 1773-1833: a biography based largely on new material. New York and London: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1922. 2 vols.

Virginia planter and congressman, Randolph (1773-1833), appointed American envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Russia by President Jackson in May 1830, landed in St Petersburg on 10 August. He was to serve only until 19 September, a matter of forty days, before leaving for London for reasons of ill-health and seeking permission to retire the following April (vol. I, pp. 634-61).


Clay, John Randolph, John Randolph Clay, America’s first career diplomat. By George Irvin Oeste. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1966. 602pp.

Clay (1808-85), Randolph’s protégé, was appointed secretary of legation in St Petersburg at the age of twenty-one but just over a month after his arrival in St Petersburg found himself chargé d’affaires and presented to the tsar in December. He remained in Russia for seven years until 5 August 1837, serving as secretary of legation under ambassadors Buchanan and Wilkins. Brief extracts from his diary and letters (pp. 69-165). In July 1845 Clay returned to St Petersburg as chargé d’affaires and remained until 27 May 1847 (pp. 257-73).


Barrow, John, Jr., Excursions in the north of Europe, through parts of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, in the years 1830 and 1833. London: John Murray, 1834. ix+380pp.

Arriving by boat at Cronstadt on 4 July 1830, Barrow (1808-98) and his companion John Rouse left for Sweden at the end of September after a typical tour of the sights of St Petersburg and Moscow (pp. 39-139).


Elliott, Charles Boileau, Letters from the north of Europe; or, a journal of travels in Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Prussia, and Saxony. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1832. xxiv+475pp.

Formerly of the Bengal civil service, member of R.G.S. and of Queens’ College, Cambridge, Elliott (1803-75) left England on 23 June 1830 and after extensive travels through Scandinavia, crossed the Russian border from Finland on 14 September. Offered as revised and expanded letters to friends, they form the journal of a typical, if intelligent, tourist, who records the sights of St Petersburg and Moscow, but who suggests, with reason, that his opinions on national character are “first impressions”. He left for Poland and Berlin at the end of September (pp. 266-423).


Frankland, Charles Colville, Narrative of a visit to the courts of Russia and Sweden, in the years 1830 and 1831. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1832. 2 vols.

A commander in the Royal Navy, later admiral, Frankland (1797-1876) arrived in St Petersburg by way of Scandinavia on 27 September 1830 and left Cronstadt on 2 July 1831, having visited only Moscow and towns between the two capitals. He kept a diary that not only details what he did but also gives a plethora of names of people, Russian and British, whom he encountered (Pushkin included), fulfilling his promise to provide “a general idea of the society of the North, and of the sort of life a well-introduced stranger leads at Petersburgh and Moscow”. He was there at the time of the Polish uprising and of the cholera outbreak in 1831 (vol. I, pp. 116-382; II, pp. 1-447).


Holland, Henry, Recollections of past life. London: printed for the author by Spottiswoode & Co., 1870. 284pp.

Sir Henry (1788-1893), F.R.S., physician extraordinary to Queen Victoria, narrates for the benefit of his children events of his long life, during which he visited Russia on two occasions, in the autumn of 1830 and in the autumn of 1852. Apart from conveying his impressions of the tsar, he is unfortunately reticent about his visits (pp. 146-47).


[Haight, Sarah], Letters from the Old World. By a lady of New York. New York: Harper, 1839. 2 vols.

Recently married Mrs Haight, née Rogers (1808-81), and her husband Richard sailed from Odessa for Constantinople in the late summer of 1830 (?), having evidently travelled across Russia from St Petersburg. The first letter is concerned almost entirely with the plague quarantine (vol. I, pp. 13-22).


Stocqueler, Joachim Hayward, Fifteen months’ pilgrimage through untrodden tracts of Khazistan and Persia, in a journey from India to England, through parts of Turkish Arabia, Persia, Armenia, Russia, and Germany. Performed in the years 1831 and 1832. London: Saundes and Otley, 1832. 2 vols.

Stocqueler (1800-85) left India in February 1831 and eventually arrived in England on 3 May 1832. He sailed across the Black Sea to Odessa, where he arrived in November 1831 (vol. II, pp. 21-37). He travelled on through Poland and Germany. There is a further appendix on Odessa, pp. 226-28.


Russell, William and Barry, D., Official reports made to government by Drs. Russell & Barry, on the disease called cholera spasmodica, as observed during their mission to Russia in 1831; with an appendix, and other papers, extracts of letters, reports, and communications received from the Continent, relating to that disease. London: Winchester and Varnham; Simpkin and Marshall; Hatchard and son, 1832. iv+147pp.

Sent out to St Petersburg by the British government to investigate the outbreak of cholera, Drs Russell and Barry arrived at the beginning of July 1831. Over the next few weeks they sent back detailed reports, describing the situation at various factories and institutions. They left Russia on 10 October 1831.


Birrell, Charles Mitchell, ‘Recollections of St. Petersburg’. In Evening recollections; or, samples from the lecture room. Edited by John Hampden Gurney. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1856. xvi+267pp.

One of eight lecturers speaking on very varied topics at the Mechanics’ Institute in Marylebone at the invitation of the editor, Rev. Gurney, Rev. Birrell (1811-80), pastor of Pembroke Baptist chapel in Liverpool, recalls his visit to the Russian capital “a considerable time ago”, staying for seven months, from autumn to spring 1831-32. After a tourist’s view of “this undoubtedly magnificent city”, he touches on the ills of serfdom, discusses Nicholas I, whom he saw at the funeral of Constantine’s wife in November 1831, before addressing “moral influences” and the work of the Bible Society (pp. 28-66).


Buchanan, James, The works of James Buchanan, comprising his speeches, state papers, and private correspondence. Edited and collected by John Bassett Moore. Philadelphia and London: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1908-11. 12 vols.

In March 1832 Buchanan (1791-1868), later 15th president of the United States, left “the most free and happy country on earth for a despotism more severe than any which exists in Europe”, arriving in St Petersburg on 2 June as American envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary. He departed on 12 August 1833, having concluded a commercial treaty and being more kindly disposed to the tsar and the country. Most of his correspondence is concerned with official matters but his letters to his brother contain a little about his social life and a visit to Moscow (vol. II (1908), pp. 193-382).


Borrow, George Henry, Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society published by direction of the committee. Edited by T.H. Darlow. London, New York and Toronto: Hodder and Stoughton, 1911. xviii+471pp.

Borrow (1803-81) sailed from London for St Petersburg on 31 July 1833 as agent of the Bible Society to supervise the translation of the New Testament into Manchu. His twenty letters from St Petersburg to officers of the Society cover the period from August 1833 until August 1835. A report to the Society presented after his return from Russia in September 1835 contains vivid details of a visit to Moscow (pp. 21-96).


Tietz, Friedrich von, St. Petersburgh, Constantinople, and Napoli di Romania, in 1833 and 1834: a characteristic picture, drawn during a residence there. Translated from the German by J.D. Haas. London: Adolphus Richter and Co.; Edinburgh: T. Clark; Dublin: Millikin and Son, 1836. 2 vols.

Von Tietz, a counsellor at the Prussian legation in St Petersburg, who had first visited the Russian capital in 1832, describes his longer sojourn the following year and his great admiration for Nicholas I (vol. I, pp. 1-190). Translated from Legationsrath, Errinnerungs-Skizzen aus Russland, der Türkei und Griechenland (Coburg and Leipzig, 1836).


Revere, Joseph Warren, Keel and saddle: a retrospect of forty years of military and naval service. Boston: James R. Osgood and Co., 1872. xiv+360pp.

Early in his long and colourful career as sailor and soldier of distinction, Paul Revere’s grandson (1812-80) served on a merchant ship that took him in the mid-1830s on a trip up the Baltic to Cronstadt and St Petersburg. There he allegedly saw Nicholas I make an incognito visit to inspect the ship and he also tells the story of a Polish fugitive describing the horrors of Siberian exile for his fellow countrymen (pp. 17-26).


Ritchie, Leitch, A journey to St. Petersburg and Moscow through Courland and Livonia. (Heath’s Picturesque annual for 1836.) London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, 1836. 256pp.

Reliable account by professional travel-writer enhanced by twenty-five engravings from original drawing by Alfred George Vickers. Stay in St Petersburg from April 1835 followed by six-week visit to Moscow.


Coghlan, Francis, A guide to St. Petersburg & Moscow, by Hamburg, Lubeck, Travemunde, and by steam-packet, across the Baltic to Cronstadt; fully detailing every form and expense from London-Bridge to St. Petersburg: from an actual visit in the autumn of 1835. Illustrated with plans of St Petersburg, Moscow, Hamburg, and proposed railroad between Hamburg and Lubeck. London: Published for the author by C. Prout, and St Petersburg: L. Dixon, 1836. 269pp.

A useful pocket guide to Cronstadt, St Petersburg and Moscow, antedating the first “Murray” by a few years (pp. 72-266).


[Anon.], Guide to Moscow, containing a description of the public edifices, historical notices, useful statistics, and an itinerary of the road from St. Petersburgh, to which is added a vocabulary of useful words and phrases. London: Leigh and Son, 1835. viii+240pp.

A well-compiled and informative guide (part of Leigh’s Guides for travellers on the continent), providing in pocket format what it promises in its title, and written by an unknown English author. He quotes as his authorities his own on-the-spot notes, the contribution of a long-time resident, and Lavaux’s guide of 1824. There is an excellent large-scale plan of the city.


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Wikoff, Henry, The reminiscences of an idler. London: Robson and Sons, 1880. 2 vols.

The American publisher and impresario Wikoff (1811?-84) and his companion, the American tragedian Edwin Forrest (1806-72) left London at the beginning of August 1835, continuing a tour that was to take them to St Petersburg via Hamburg and by steamer from Lübeck. They spent ten days in the “indescribably dull” Russian capital, struck only by the “universal ugliness of the women”, before proceeding by carriage to Moscow, which they found “very agreeable”. They then bought a carriage for their journey south to Odessa, where, remarking little en route, they arrived after eight days, but were to stay several weeks because of the plague in Constantinople. Interesting detailed conversations with Prince Vorontsov, among others. (Vol. I, pp. 203-63.)
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Forrest, Edwin, Life of Edwin Forrest, the American tragedian. By William Rounseville Alger. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1874. 2 vols.

Forrest (1806-72) apparently left detailed diaries of his trip with Wikoff (G38a), but sadly, only a few extracts were included in Alger’s vast biography of the famed actor. They are of a painting in the Hermitage, visits to the Kremlin in Moscow and a Tartar village in the Crimea, and the dinner at Prince Vorontsov’s palace at Alupka (vol. I, pp. 284-7).


Durham, John George Lambton, Earl of, Life and letters of the First Earl of Durham 1792-1840. By Stuart Johnson Reid. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1906. 2 vols.

Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (1792-1840), was appointed ambassador and extraordinary and plenipotentiary on 8 July 1835. He set out for Russia on 26 July and, travelling via Constantinople, arrived in Odessa on 18 September. He reached St Petersburg in mid-November and was to remain until 10 June 1837. Reid’s biography sadly gives only excerpts from his unpublished “private journal”, his letters and dispatches, and little more from his extensive ‘Report on the state of Russia’ (vol. II, pp. 13-69, 125-26).


De Ros, William Lennox Lascelles Fitzgerald, Journal of a tour in the principalities, Crimea, and countries adjacent to the Black Sea, in the years 1835-36. London: John W. Parker & Son, 1855. iv+164pp.

De Ros, 22nd Baron (1797-1874), who was to be quartermaster-general of the British army during the Crimean War, accompanied the Earl of Durham on his journey from London to Russia, with a brief to check “unusual preparations” for fortresses, ports, etc. in the Black Sea area. He travelled extensively in the Crimea but also journeyed with Durham to Kiev, where they met the tsar on 23 October. Eventually left Russian territory on 27 November, travelling overland to Vienna (pp. 61-125).


Stephens, John Lloyd, Incidents of travel, in Greece, Turkey, Russia and Poland. London: Walker & Co., 1838. 596pp.

American lawyer (1805-52) arrived in Odessa from Turkey in 1835 and travelled via Kiev to Moscow and St Petersburg (pp. 265-510). Surprisingly popular work with several distinct British editions, some with variations in title.


Paul, Robert Bateman, Journal of a tour to Moscow in the summer of 1836. London: Simpkin-Marshall & Co., and Whittaker & Co., 1836. xvii+238pp.

Rev. Paul (1798-1877), former Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, and domestic chaplain to the Earl of Falmouth, accompanied the son of a friend on a summer excursion that took them by boat from Lübeck to Cronstadt on 29 June 1836. After two weeks in St Petersburg they travelled to Moscow, where they spent less than a week before heading back to the capital, which they left by carriage for Finland and Sweden on 28 July (pp. 6-163).


Spencer, Edmund, Travels in Circassia, Krim-Tartary, &c., including a steam voyage down the Danube, from Vienna to Constantinople and round the Black Sea, in 1836. London: Henry Colburn, 1837. 2 vols. [3rd “cheap and revised” edition, 1839.]

A journey begun in Vienna in April 1836 took Captain Spencer, despite his original plans, to Odessa and quarantine, and thence to the Crimea. He was then invited by Count Mikhail Vorontsov, Governor-General of New Russia, to join his party sailing along the coast of Circassia, before returning to explore again the Crimea (vol. I, pp. 210-338; II, pp. 1-186). He embarked from Odessa for Trebizond, from where he began his extensive travels into the interior of Circassia (II, pp. 208-425).


Spencer, Edmund, Travels in the western Caucasus, including a tour through Imeritia, Mingrelia, Turkey, Moldavia, Galicia, Silesia, and Moravia, in 1836. London: Henry Colburn, 1838. 2 vols.

The continuation of Spencer’s travels through Circassia and his return home to England, no longer offered as letters sent en route but as chapters. After detailing his travels through parts of Circassia, threatened by Russia (vol. I, pp. 1-358; II, pp. 1-70), he crosses into Turkey and returns via Moldavia and Austria.


Londonderry, Frances Anne Emily, Russian journal of Lady Londonderry 1836-7. Edited by W.A.L. Seaman and J.R. Sewell. London: John Murray, 1973. 185pp.

Frances Anne (née Vane-Tempest, 1800-65) and her husband Charles Stewart, 3rd Marquis of Londonderry (1776-1854), and their eldest son Viscount Seaham left England on a northern tour on 3 August 1836 and arrived on 17 September in St Petersburg, where they stayed until 9 February 1837, except for a fortnight’s excursion to Moscow (pp. 44-133).


Londonderry, Charles William Stewart, Recollections of a tour in the north of Europe in 1836-1837. London: Richard Bentley, 1838. 2 vols.

Unlike his wife’s journal which remained in manuscript, Londonderry’s drearier account appeared within a year of their return to England. It is supplemented by a series of twenty-five essays, translated by an English friend in St Petersburg, on such topics as the trade of Odessa, a town they were dissuaded from travelling to see in 1837 (vol. I, pp. 80-275; II, pp. 1-31).


Bremner, Robert, Excursions in the interior of Russia; including sketches of the character and policy of the Emperor Nicholas, scenes in St. Petersburgh, &c. &c. London: Henry Colburn, 1839. 2 vols.

Bremner arrived at Cronstadt in July 1836 and devotes, despite his title, virtually the whole of his first volume to “that marvellous city” St Petersburg and to the emperor (pp. 20-500). The second volume details his journey to and stay in Moscow, before he embarks on his “excursion in the interior” that takes him via Vladimir to Nizhnii Novgorod and then south through Ukraine to the Black Sea and his final destination, Odessa. Some interesting observations and much information on the British in Russia.


Bell, James Stanislaus, Journal of a residence in Circassia during the years 1837, 1838 and 1839. London: Edward Moxon, 1840. 2 vols.

The Scottish adventurer Bell (1797-1858) fused his journal and letters sent to friends into a sequence of thirty-three letters, covering what was his second sojourn in Circassia from 14 April 1837 (sailing from Constantinople) to 12 February 1840, when he was back in Turkey prior to his return to London in May. His motives for going to Circassia were commercial, the desire (unfulfilled) to see the establishing of direct trade with Britain, but he gained instead “a thorough acquaintance with the habits, manners, and general character of the natives, and of their political and civil institutions”. His narrative is enlivened by coloured lithographs from his own drawings.


Turnerelli, Edward Tracy, What I know of the late Emperor Nicholas and his family. London: Edward Churton, 1855. ix+164pp.

Turnerelli (1813-96), son of a sculptor and himself a sculptor and artist, went to Russia in 1836. He met the tsar for the first time on 10 June 1837 and was encouraged to “delineate” the ancient sites and buildings of Russia. His book charts his many meetings with members of the imperial family up to his departure in August 1854 and is a defence of the late tsar in the context of the anti-Russian feelings during the Crimean War.


Turnerelli, Edward Tracy, Russia on the borders of Asia: Kazan, the ancient capital of the Tartar Khans; with an account of the province to which it belongs, the tribes and races which form its population, etc. London: Richard Bentley, 1854. 2 vols.

Turnerelli arrived in Kazan on 20 July 1837 and became instructor in English and Latin at the university. His book, part history, part travel guide, reflects his extensive travels through the region and his detailed study of ancient monuments, many of which he drew for his earlier album, Views of Kasan, published in London in 1840.


Turnerelli, Edward Tracy, Memories of a life of toil: the autobiography of Tracy Turnerelli, ‘the old conservative’; a record of work artistic, literary, and political, from 1835 to 1884. London: Field and Tuer; Leadenhall Press; Simpkin, Marshall & Co.; and Hamilton, Adams & Co., 1884. 251pp.

Much on his time in Russia, supplementing his earlier works (pp. 37-73), and on his continuing pro-Russian activities after his return to England.


Samuel, Jacob, The remnant found; or, the place of Israel’s hiding discovered. Being a summary of proofs, showing that the Jews of Daghistan in the Caspian Sea are the remnant of the ten tribes, the result of personal investigation during a missionary tour of eight months in Georgia, by permission of the Russian government in the years 1837 and 1838. London: J. Hatchard, 1841. xxx+133pp.

Rev. Samuel, senior missionary to the Jews for India, Persia, and Arabia, travelled from Persia to Tiflis, where he stayed for five months from May 1837, and pursued his researches in Daghestan (pp. 37-47).


Venables, Richard Lister, Domestic scenes in Russia: in a series of letters describing a year’s residence in that country, chiefly in the interior. London: John Murray, 1839. xii+348pp. [2nd revised edition,1856. xviii+229pp.]

Rev. Venables (1809-94), Cambridge M.A. and with a living at Whitney in Herefordshire, accompanying his Russian wife Mary (née Poltoratskaia) on a visit to see her brother, describes their year-long sojourn in Russia, beginning with their arrival at Cronstadt in mid-June 1837. After a week in St Petersburg, they travelled to Iaroslavl and on to Moscow. They spent many months in Tambov, before returning to St Petersburg at the end of March 1838. Venables was particularly interested in serfdom and conscription and depicting provincial life. He brought out a second edition at the end of the Crimean War, believing that what he described was still of relevance and interest to a British public.


Dallas, George Mifflin, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas while United States minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861. Edited by Susan Dallas. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1892. 443pp.

The diary of the American envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary (1792-1864) supplemented by extracts from letters, begins on 29 July 1837, as the ship on which he was sailing approached Cronstadt, and finishes with his departure on 24 July 1839. It is full of fascinating details, diplomatic and social, but also contains descriptions of such events as the burning of the Winter Palace in December 1837 and its “Reoccupation” in April 1839 (pp. 7-214).


Demidoff, Anatole de, Travels in southern Russia and the Crimea: through Hungary, Wallachia, & Moldavia, during the year 1837. London: John Mitchell, 1853. 2 vols.

Anatolii Nikolaevich Demidov, principe di San Donato (1813-70) set out from Paris on 14 June 1837 on an expedition, comprising mainly French engineers and scientists, especially the mineralogist Jean Jacques Huot (1790-1845) and the artist Denis Raffet (1804-60), to explore the mineral and other resources of Russia’s new southern provinces. They crossed the Russo-Moldavian border on 3 August and made Odessa their headquarters, from which they explored surrounding areas, particularly the Crimea. An outbreak of plague forced them to return home by boat, leaving Odessa on 3 November for Constantinople (vol. I, pp. 289-370; II, pp. 1-311).


Wilbraham, Richard, Travels in the Trans-Caucasian provinces of Russia, and along the southern shore of the lakes of Van and Urumiah, in the autumn and winter of 1837. London: John Murray, 1839. xvii+477pp.

Captain Wilbraham (1811-1900), a British officer attached to the Persian army, travelled extensively in countries between the Caspian and the Black Sea, visiting Georgia and the Caucasus in September and October 1837 (pp. 112-282).


Du Boulay, John Houssemayne, Travels through Spitzbergen, Siberia, Russia, &c., and round the Seven Churches in Asia Minor, more than half a century ago. Privately printed, c.1890. 62pp.

Many years after the event, Du Boulay (1811-95), styling himself J.P. and of Donhead Hall in Wiltshire, recalls a visit he paid in 1837.


Elliott, Charles Boileau, Travels in the three great empires of Austria, Russia and Turkey. London: Richard Bentley, 1838. 2 vols.

Now styling himself vicar of Godalming and F.R.S., Elliott, who in the summer of 1830 had visited northern Russia (see G25), undertook a journey to more southern climes for reasons of health in 1837. Travelling from Vienna down the Danube, he eventually reached the Russian frontier with Moldavia and proceeded to Odessa. After a tour of the Crimea, boringly described and true to the words of the preface that the author offers “little that is new or erudite”, he sails for Constantinople (vol. I, pp. 219-343).


St John, Ferdinand, Rambles in Germany, France, Italy and Russia, in search of sport. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1853. xix+233pp.

St John (1804-65), son of 3rd Viscount Bolinbroke, spending the season with his family in Baden, was invited by Prince D* to accompany him on a short visit to Russia in August 1838 – the year established by the reference to the funeral of General Bistrom in St Petersburg. After a few days in Moscow, he stayed at Chemetewo (Sheremetevo) to shoot snipe, before proceeding to St Petersburg and then back to Baden (pp. 205-33).


Slade, Adolphus, Travels in Germany and Russia: including a steam voyage by the Danube and the Euxine from Vienna to Constantinople, in 1838-39. London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1840. viii+512pp.

Sir Adolphus (see G19) left England on 1 August 1838 and having descended the Danube to the Black Sea, sailed to Constantinople, whence he had cruised a decade earlier with the Turkish fleet. On this occasion he left by Russian steamer for Odessa and quarantine on 20 November. He was to remain there, seemingly doing very little and noting less, until the beginning of April 1839, when he left for the Austrian border (pp. 299-458).


Layard, Austen Henry, Autobiography and letters from his childhood until his appointment as H.M. ambassador at Madrid. Edited by the hon. William N. Bruce, with a chapter on his parliamentary career by the rt. hon. Sir Arthur Otway. London: John Murray, 1903. 2 vols.

Sir Austen (1817-94), the famed traveller, archaeologist, excavator of the Assyrian ruins of Nineveh, art historian, and diplomat, recalls a journey he made as a twenty-one-year old to Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Russia in the autumn of 1838. After a stay of some weeks in St Petersburg, he returned to London by steamship (vol. I, pp. 96-97). He was in the Crimea with the historian A.W. Kinglake in 1854. His Crimean journal, covering the period 8 September-6 November 1854, and a letter from Balaklava, are printed as appendices to vol. II, pp. 271-94.


[Whatley, Thomas Denman and Layard, Austen Henry], A hand-book for travellers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Russia: being a guide to the principal routes in those countries with a minute description of Copenhagen, Stockholm, St Petersburg and Moscow. London: John Murray, 1839. xi+276pp.

An early example of Murray’s famous Handbooks for travellers (begun in 1836) was edited by Whatley (1809-53?), Cambridge graduate and London barrister, signing the preface “T.D.W” and enlisting contributions from Layard, signed “H.L.”, which included materials gathered on his visit to Scandinavia and Russia in 1838. Whatley seems to have been in Russia at the same period and they possibly travelled together.


[Rigby, Elizabeth, Lady Eastlake], A residence on the shores of the Baltic; described in a series of letters. London: John Murray, 1841. 2 vols. [2nd edition with change of title: Letters from the shores of the Baltic. 1842.]

Miss Rigby (1809-93), Lady Eastlake, after her marriage to Sir Charles Eastlake, president of the Royal Academy, set out to visit her married sister in Revel in October 1838 but first spent much time in the Russian capital (vol. I, pp. 31-116). She then went to Estonia (vol. I, pp. 117-293; II, pp. 1-182). She passed a further period in St Petersburg (vol. II, pp. 183-286), before returning to England in the spring of 1840.


Eastlake, Elizabeth, Journals and correspondence of Lady Eastlake. Edited by her nephew, Charles Eastlake Smith. London: John Murray, 1895. 2 vols.

In addition to the journey of 1838-40, described in her Residence on the shores of the Baltic (mentioned here vol. I, pp. 9-11), Elizabeth, now Lady Eastlake, paid two further visits to relatives in Estonia, in 1848 (vol. I, pp. 129-41) and in July-October 1878 (vol. II, pp. 257-63).


Longworth, John Augustus, A year among the Circassians. London: Henry Colburn, 1840. 2 vols.

Longworth (d. 1875), who for the last fifteen years of his life was the British consul-general to Serbia, recounts his adventures from April 1838, when he sailed from Constantinople to Circassia and his return on 30 June 1839. Highly sympathetic to the tribesmen in their struggle against the Russians, he was (over-) optimistic about their future. During his stay he submitted reports to The Times, but unlike Bell (see G48), with whom he was much in contact, he wrote his account after his return.


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[Felińska, Ewa], Revelations of Siberia. By a banished lady. Edited by Colonel Lach Szyrma. London: Coburn and C)o., 1852. 2 vols.

The widowed Mme. Felińska (née Wendorff) (1793-1859), involved in an anti-Russian plot, was exiled to Siberia in 1839 for what her editor calls ‘a crime of patriotism’. She was to spend two years in remote Berezovo on the Ob’ river, where the Great’s favourite Alexander Menshikov had lived and died in exile - his frozen corpse was discovered during her time there. Her memoirs are a valuable record of the region and its peoples. In June 1841 Felińska was allowed to return to Saratov on the Volga, at which point her memoirs end. The Polish original Wspomnienia z podróży do Syberii, pobytu w Berezowie i w Saratowie was published in Vilnius in 1852.


Custine, Astolphe-Louis-Léonard, de, The empire of the Czar; or, observations on the social, political, and religious state and prospects of Russia, made during a journey through that empire. Translated from the French. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1843. 3 vols.

The marquis de Custine (1790-1857) arrived at Cronstadt on 10 July 1839 and just over two months later, on 26 September, he left Russia with a great sense of relief. Apart from St Petersburg, he had seen briefly Moscow, Iaroslavl and Nizhnii Novgorod. La Russie en 1839 (1843) was a damning critique of Nicholas I and his Russia. The English translation was republished several times during the Crimean War; retranslated as Journey for our time during the Cold War; republished in 1989 as Empire of the czar: a journey through eternal Russia, foreword by Daniel J. Boorstin, introduction by George F. Kennan.


Cameron, George Poulett, Personal adventures and excursions in Georgia, Circassia, and Russia. London: Henry Colburn, 1845. 2 vols.

Lt-colonel Cameron (1805-82), who points out in his introduction that he had been in Russia at the same time as Custine and had returned to an England where Russophobia was the order of the day, presents his “some few light sketches of personal, or military narrative” in “the spirit of fair play”. Beginning his return journey from Persia on 15 April 1838, he travelled to Tiflis and through the Caucasus to Vladikavkaz (vol. I). In vol. II, he describes his route via Kharkov and Tula to Moscow and St Petersburg, assessing the strengths of the Russian army and navy and mentioning in particular the hospitality he everywhere enjoyed.


Jesse, William, Notes of a half-pay in search of health; or, Russia, Circassia, and the Crimea, in 1839-40. London: James Madden and Co., 1841. 2 vols.

Jesse (1809-71), a captain in the 75th Foot (Gordon Highlanders), was obliged by ill-health to become a half-pay officer in 1838. Recuperating in Italy, he met some Russian tourists who persuaded him to undertake travels in Russia. He arrived at Odessa from Constantinople on 21 June 1839 and remained there, with an excursion to the Crimea, until May of the following year before proceeding to Moscow and St Petersburg. He left the capital for Stockholm, “without regret, glad to escape from ‘a land of tyrants and a den of slaves’”. Most of vol. II is devoted to a series of essays on the Russian army, police, history, education, serfdom etc. (vol. I, pp. 53-298; II, pp. 1-308).


Abbott, James, Narrative of a journey from Heraut to Khiva, Moscow, and St Petersburgh, during the late Russian invasion of Khiva; with some account of the court of Khiva and the kingdom of Khaurism. London: William H. Allen and Co., 1843. 2 vols. [2nd edition, with considerable additions, London: James Madden, 1856. 2 vols.]

Captain, later General Sir James (1807-96), of the Bengal artillery, was sent to Khiva in December 1839, to persuade the khan to release Russian prisoners. He proceeded to Russia to attempt, without success, mediation between Khiva and Russia. He reached Russian territory on the Caspian and travelled via Orenburg and Samara to Moscow and on to St Petersburg, where he was treated with suspicion. He left the Russian capital in August 1840 for London, where he had not been since 1823 (Russia, vol. II, pp. 67-227).


Murchison, Roderick Impey, Verneuil, Edouard de, and Keyserling, Alexander von, The geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains. London: John Murray, 1845. 2 vols.

The fruit of three visits paid to Russia in the early 1840s by Murchison (1792-1871), F.R.S. and soon to be knighted and become long-time president of the Royal Geographical Society. He was accompanied on the first two visits of 1840 and 1841 by the French naturalist and paleontologist de Verneuil (1805-73), who was responsible for the second, French, volume, while von Keyserling (1815-91) was with him on the second and third (1843) journeys. Although an immense work of scientific exposition, many passages and footnotes make specific reference to places and events during Murchison’s travels.


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Murchison, Roderick Impey, Murchison’s wanderings in Russia: his geological exploration of Russia in Europe and the Ural mountains, 1840 and 1841. Edited by Michael Collie and John Diemer. Keyworth: British Geological Survey, 2004. xv+474pp.

Excellently edited from his extensive journals, Murchison’s ‘wanderings’ through Russia began with his arrival at Kronstadt on 1 June 1840. Before leaving for England on 30 August, he had travelled north via Petrozavodsk to Arkhangel’sk and to Moscow via Volga, Kostroma and Nizhnii Novgorod. He was back in Russia again in April the following year, travelling to Kazan, Perm and Verkhotur’e, before turning south via Orenburg to Samara, Sarepta and on to Moscow via Kharkov until his departure from St Petersburg at the end of October. Diaries full of fascinating meetings and details other than geological.


Palmer, William, Notes of a visit to the Russian Church in the years 1840, 1841. Selected and arranged by John Henry, Cardinal Newman. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1882. xxiv+572pp.

Rev. Palmer (1811-79), Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, arrived at Cronstadt on 19 August 1840, in order, as he explained in a letter he wrote to the tsar, “with the help and in the society of ecclesiastics, [to] learn the Russian language, and study the doctrines, discipline, and ritual of the Church” and so promote his vision of Anglo-Catholicism, “the reunion of the whole body in mutual love”. His diaries record in great detail his meetings, conversations and visits in St Petersburg and Moscow with representatives of the church and government, with Princesses Meshcherskaia and Sofia Galitsyna, and many others, up to his departure from Cronstadt on 24 July 1841.


Nolte, Vincent, Fifty years in both hemispheres; or, reminiscences of a merchant’s life. Translated from the German. London: Trübner & Co., 1854. xii+473pp.

Born in Italy to German parents, Nolte (b. 1779), a man of many parts and enterprises, was already an American citizen by the time he paid a short visit to Odessa in the autumn of 1840. He was engaged by a commercial house in Trieste to pursue debtors in the Russian town, where he made the acquaintance of Prince Mikhail Vorontsov (pp. 438-47).


Cottrell, Charles Herbert, Recollections of Siberia in the years 1840 and 1841. London: John W. Parker, 1842. xii+410pp.

Cottrell (d. 1860), Cambridge graduate, barrister and an accomplished scholar of German and Italian, begins his account in Moscow, whence he embarks in the late summer of 1840 for Siberia, travelling via Simbirsk and Orenburg. He journeyed as far as Irkutsk and Baikal before returning to St Petersburg some six months later in time to witness the marriage of the tsarevich to Princess Marie of Hesse on 28 April 1841. Very critical of existing English accounts (e.g. Dobell, Holman, Jesse), Cottrell offers his own considered views on the exile system, commerce, climate, resources, etc.

*Stephens, W., Travels through Russia and Poland in the Years 1840-41-42, illustrative of the manners and customs of the inhabitants of these countries. London: Macrone, and Smith, Elder and Co, Cornhill, 1843. 226pp.

A mysterious volume in that it reproduces line for line the account by Rayford Ramble (F80), published in 1836 by the same publisher, Macrone (who had died in 1837). It would seem to be an act of literary piracy. In addition it appears to be an extremely rare book: the only copy located is in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin and nothing is known about its alleged author.


Köhl Johann Georg, Russia: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kharkoff, Riga, Odessa, the German provinces on the Baltic, the steppes, the Crimea, and the interior of the Empire. London: Chapman and Hall, 1842. iv+530pp.

On the basis of his extensive travels through Russia in 1836-38, Köhl (1808-78) published in 1841 no less than nine volumes devoted to St Petersburg and various regions. This is a skilful condensation with particular emphasis on the capital (pp. 1-211).


Köhl, Johann Georg, Russia and the Russians, in 1842. London: Henry Colburn, 1842-43. 2 vols.

A different translation, appearing in the same year, of Köhl’s work on St Petersburg: vol. I is specifically subtitled ‘Petersburg’, while vol. II, without subtitle, is in fact a continuation of the same. It is in many ways an updating (and more reliable) of Granville’s 1828 guide to the capital and the publishers use many of the same illustrations.


Köhl, Johann Georg, Panorama of St Petersburg. London: Sims and Macintyre McIntyre, 1852. 224pp.

Yet another translation, but appearing under Kohl’s original title and issued as vol. II in Sims and McIntyre’s ‘Bookcase’ series.


Todd, Charles Stewart, Memoir of Col. Chas. S. Todd. By G.W. Griffin. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, 1873. 174pp.

Col. Todd (1791-1871), lawyer and briefly U.S. secretary of state (1816), arrived in St Petersburg in the summer of 1841 to begin a four-year stint as minister to Russia. This fulsome biography nevertheless includes texts of an address and a letter as well as a lecture, entitled ‘Russia, her resources, religion, literature, &c.’, he delivered in Kentucky in 1849 (pp. 78-112).


Motley, John Lothrop, The correspondence of John Lothrop Mottley. Edited by George William Curtis. London: John Murray, 1889. 2 vols.

Mottley (1813-77) arrived in St Petersburg on 17 November 1841 as secretary of legation to the American mission headed by Colonel Charles Todd (see G78) Letters to his wife and mother (pp. 72-99) and extracts from his diary (pp. 108-21). Left early February 1842.


Simpson, George, Narrative of a journey round the world, during the years 1841 and 1842. London: Henry Colburn, 1847. 2 vols.

Sir George (1787-1860), governor-in-chief of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territories in North America since 1821, sailed from Sitka in Russian Alaska for Okhotsk in early June 1842. He was to travel from Okhotsk across Russia via Iakutsk, Irkutsk, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, and Moscow to St Petersburg, a journey that took ninety-one days and covered some 7,000 miles (vol. II, pp. 215-469).


Hommaire de Hell, Xavier, Travels in the steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c. With additions from various sources. London: Chapman and Hall, 1847. viii+436pp.

Although nominally written by Xavier (1812-48), “all the descriptive part of this book of travels” (Preface) was written by his wife, Adèle (1815?-83). Translated from the three-volume French original of 1843-45.


Wagner, Moritz, Travels in Persia, Georgia and Koordistan; with sketches of the Cossacks and the Caucasus. From the German of Dr Moritz Wagner. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1856. 3 vols.

A version of three books by the German explorer and naturalist (1813-87), who spent much of 1843 in the Caucasus and Trans-Caucasia: Der Kaukasus und das Land der Kosaken (1848); Reise nach Kolchis (1851); Reise nach Persien und dem Lande dar Kurden (1851). In Part I he describes his travels from Kerch to Tiflis in February-March and his research during August in the mountains. There is an interesting chapter on Prince Mikhail Vorontsov whom Wagner met in the Crimea (vol. I; vol. II, pp. 1-105). Part II is devoted to his travels in the Colchis area of southern Georgia in the later spring of 1843 (vol. II, pp. 106-265). The remainder of the work concerns Wagner’s time in Persia and Kurdistan.


Haxthausen-Abbenburg, August Franz Ludwig Maria, von, The Russian empire: its people, institutions, and resources. Translated by Robert Farie, Esq. London: Chapman and Hall, 1856. 2 vols.

Translated and abridged with the author’s approval from the German original, Studien über die innern Zustände, das Volksleben; und die ländlichen Einrichtungen Russlands (1847-52). Haxthausen (1792-1866), arriving in St Petersburg in the spring of 1843, embarked on extensive travels throughout Russia that took him, first, to Moscow and then north to Iaroslavl and Vologda, before he followed the Volga down to Kazan and Saratov. He travelled south to Ekaterinoslav and entered the Crimea from Kerch. From Odessa he travelled back via Kiev to Moscow, where he arrived in November. His travels (vol. I, pp. 1-432; II, pp. 1-182) are followed by essays on various social and economic subjects.


Haxthausen-Abbenburg, August Franz Ludwig Maria, von, Transcaucasia: sketches of the nations and races between the Black Sea and the Caspian. [Translated from the German by J.E. Taylor.] London: Chapman and Hall, 1854. xxiii+448pp.

From Kerch, Haxthausen had travelled into the southern countries of the Caucasus.


Haxthausen-Abbenburg, August Franz Ludwig Maria, von, The tribes of the Caucasus; with an account of Schamyl and the Murids. [Translated from the German by J.E. Taylor.] London: Chapman and Hall, 1855. viii+130pp.

Ethnological and historical work on the tribes of the Caucasus written by the influential German agricultural scientist and writer. The work was based on his journey to the Caucasus region in the late summer and early autumn of 1843 as part of a wider commission by Tsar Nicholas I to undertake a study of land tenure and peasant conditions in the Russian interior and was a supplementary volume to his larger study The Russian Empire. Though the details derive from his personal observations, Haxthausen does not refer to his actual journey or give any personal details. The latter chapters focus on the Murids and the Imam Schamyl.


[McCoy, Rebecca], The Englishwoman in Russia: impressions of the society and manners of the Russians at home. By a lady, ten years resident in that country. London: John Murray, 1855. xv+350pp.

McCoy (1818-63) arrived in August 1843 in Archangel, where she received her diploma to teach English as a domestic tutor in 1845. She moved to St Petersburg, leaving Russia in April 1854. Her book in which she described life in the Russian provinces as well as in St Petersburg and Moscow appeared in fact in October 1854, when it was warmly reviewed by Charles Dickens in Household Words.


Whistler, Anna Mathilda, The life of James McNeill Whistler. By Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell. London: William Heinemann, 1908. 2 vols.

Mrs Whistler (née McNeill, d. 1881) was the wife of the American railway engineer Major George Washington Whistler (1800-49), who had gone to Russia in 1842 to work on the Petersburg-Moscow railway, and “mother” of the noted painter (1834-1903). In September 1843 she and her sons joined her husband in St Petersburg. The Pennells made limited (and often inaccurate) use of her detailed diaries of their life in Russia, mainly concerned with family matters. The young painter left Russia in 1848 and his mother in 1849, following her husband’s death (vol. II, pp. 11-23).


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Piotrowski, Rufin, My escape from Siberia. Translated, with the express sanction of the author, by E.S. London: Routledge, Warne, and Routledge, 1863. xxiv+386pp.

Piotrowski (1806-72), having left Paris to teach French in Kamenets in Ukraine, was arrested in December 1843 and sent the following year into exile beyond Omsk for alleged participation in the 1830 Polish revolt. After seventeen months he contrived to escape in February 1846 and made his way to Archangel and thence by water to St Petersburg. Travelling via Revel he arrived in Königsberg, where he was again detained but finally reached Paris again on 2 October 1846. An abridged translation from the French translation by J. Klaczko of Piotrowski’s three-volume Pamietniki z pobytii na Syberyi (1861). (Also in 1863 there appeared The story of a Siberian exile, followed by a narrative of recent events in Poland, translated from the French (Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green. xii+321pp.), a very different abridgement, supplemented by two articles originally appearing in the Revue des deux mondes in 1861-2.)


Harrison, Joseph, Jr., The iron worker and King Solomon: with a memoir and an appendix. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1868. 60pp.

Harrison (1810-74), American inventor of a new locomotive, received a contract in 1843 to supply locomotives and rolling stock for the new Petersburg-Moscow railway that made him very rich. He also assisted in the construction of the Blagoveshchenskii bridge (the first) across the Neva. In this curious compilation, dedicated to his wife, children and grandchildren, Harrison included verses by himself and others, as well as a memoir, seemingly not written by himself, but of interest “to all those who are so near to me as yourselves”, which tells of his years in Russia (pp. 29-35).


Nasmyth, James, James Nasmyth engineer: an autobiography. Edited by Samuel Smiles. London: John Murray, 1883. xviii+456pp.

The Scottish engineer and inventor of the steam hammer Nasymth (1808-90) recounts his visit to St Petersburg in 1843 to try for a contract to supply locomotives for the Petersburg-Moscow line. He failed but received orders for boilers and machine parts. Met several of his fellow countrymen in Russian service such as General Alexander Wilson and Frances Baird (pp. 288-95).


[Henningsen, Charles Frederick], Revelations of Russia; or, the Emperor Nicholas and his empire, in 1844. By one who has seen and describes. London: Henry Colburn, 1844. 2 vols. [With title Revelations of Russia in 1846. By an English Resident. 3rd edition. Revised and corrected by the author, with additional notes, and brought down to the present time. London: Henry Colburn, 1846. 2 vols.]

Of Henningsen no biographical details are known nor are the dates of the stay of the self-styled eye-witness and “English resident” in Russia. Offers a critique of Nicholas I’s despotic rule in the spirit of Custine to whom he frequently refers. Discusses the Decembrist uprising.


[Henningsen, Charles Frederick], Eastern Europe and the Emperor Nicholas. By the author of ‘Revelations of Russia’; ‘The white slave’. London: Thomas Cautley Newby, 1846. 3 vols.

Continues his attacks on Russian despotism with much on the fate of Poland. Volume II is devoted to Polish and Finnish literature but with an interesting chapter on Russian literature (pp. 116-53) with particular emphasis on the life and work of Pushkin, for which he uses an account by the French traveller Marmier and the writings and translations of Thomas Shaw. Vol. III, which opens with the words “Russia is not a country commonly visited by tourists”, looks at the tsar’s Russian advisers, but also has interesting pages on the role of British ambassadors (pp. 1-148).


Koch, Karl Heinrich Emil, The Crimea and Odessa: journal of a tour, with an account of the climate and vegetation. Translated [from the German] by Joanna B. Horner. John Murray, 1855. xii+323pp. [Also published as: The Crimea; with a visit to Odessa; including a chapter on the climate, soil and vegetation of the Crimean south coast, and southern Russia. London: George Routledge, 1855.]

The German botanist professor Koch (1809-79) travelled through the Caucasus and Crimea in the autumn of 1844. He approached the Crimea via Kerch and in the space of the next few weeks (September-October) systematically explored the peninsular, paying particular attention to the flora but also providing very detailed descriptions of, e.g., Bakhchisarai and Alupka, before proceeding to Kherson, Nikolaev, and Odessa (which he had first visited in 1838).


Seymour, Henry Danby, Russia on the Black Sea and Sea of Azof: being a narrative of travels in the Crimea and bordering provinces; with notices of the naval, military, and commercial resources of those countries. London: John Murray, 1855. xxiv+362pp.

Based partly on the travels to the Crimea and southern Russia in 1844 and 1846 by Seymour (1820-77), M.P. for Poole since 1850, and partly on the travel accounts, histories and geographies of others, this was yet another book published to meet the interest aroused by the Crimean War.


Harrison, Robert, Notes of a nine years’ residence in Russia, from 1844 to 1853; with notices of the Tzars Nicholas I and Alexander II. London: T. Cautley Newby, 1855. xii+310pp.

The first part of the work is devoted to Harrison’s stay in St Petersburg, his various (undated) travels to Moscow and Simbirsk (pp. 1-93); the second part is essentially a series of essays on such topics as the peasantry, clergy, landowners, and military (pp. 94-310).


Kinglake, Alexander William, A summer in Russia. Reprinted from the New Monthly Magazine. London, 1846. 114pp.

Kinglake (1809-91), celebrated author of Eothen (1844), spent several weeks in the Russian capital in the late summer of 1845, much of the time as guest of the imperial family. Appeared originally in New Monthly Magazine and Humorist (Summer 1846), pp. 273-85, 409-19, 26-39.


Bourke, Richard Southwell, St. Petersburg and Moscow: a visit to the court of the czar. London: Henry Colburn, 1846. 2 vols.

At the time of his visit to Russia in June-August 1845 styled Lord Naas and later 6th Earl of Mayo, Bourke (1822-67) offered as “his first attempt in letters” a plain and frankly dull description of “a galloping and steaming tour of eleven weeks” that took him to Moscow and home via Revel and Finland.


[Bourne, Charlotte], Russian chit chat; or, sketches of a residence in Russia. By a lady. Edited by her sister. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans; Coventry: George G. Pegg, 1856. iv+255pp.

Charlotte was a governess to a daughter of the Dolgorukii family between 1845 and 1848 at Krasnoe, their estate near Tula, and in Moscow. Her book is full of fascinating information, particularly about the contemporary Russian literary scene.


Bloomfield, Georgiana, Reminiscences of court and diplomatic life. London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1883. 403pp.

Lady Georgiana, née Liddell (1822-1905), married John Arthur Douglas, 2nd Baron Bloomfield (1802-79), in September 1845, a year after his appointment as British envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary in St Petersburg. They remained in Russia until 1851 (pp. 82-199).


Montefiore, Moses Haim, Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore, comprising their life and work as recorded in their diaries from 1812 to 1883. With the addresses and speeches of Sir Moses; his correspondence with ministers, ambassadors, and representatives of public bodies; personal narratives of his missions in the cause of humanity; firmans and edicts of eastern monarchs; his opinions on financial, political, and religious subjects, and anecdotes and incidents referring to men of his time, as related by himself. Edited by L[ouis] Loewe. London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden, & Welsh, 1890. 2 vols.

The renowned Jewish banker and philanthropist Sir Moses (1784-1885) in his capacity as president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews was first invited to Russia in 1842 by Count Uvarov, but it was only four years later, on 1 April 1846, that he, accompanied by his wife, his secretary Louis Loewe, and a large retinue, arrived in St Petersburg. He was received by the tsar on 9 April and presented him with a memorial, pleading the cause of the Russian Jews. He then visited several towns where the Russian Jews were concentrated on his way to Warsaw (vol. I, pp. 330-58). In 1872 he went again to Russia to see Alexander II (vol. II, pp. 247-54) (see I106).


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Vignoles, Charles Blacker, Life of Charles Blacker Vignoles, F.R.S., F.R.A.S.,M.R.I.A., &c., soldier and civil engineer, formerly lieutenant in H.M. 1st Royals, past president of institution of civil engineers: a reminiscence of early railway history. By his son Olinthus J. Vignoles. London and New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1839. xx+407pp.

The civil engineer Vignoles (1793-1875) was engaged on the construction of the suspension bridge over the Dnieper at Kiev between 1847 and 1853 (pp. 317-68). He arrived in St Petersburg for the first time on 1 February 1847 for an audience with the tsar before returning to London three weeks later. He was to pay nine visits in all to Russia, the last being for the formal opening of the bridge (by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich) on 9 October 1853 and ‘a last look’ at his bridge on 15 October. The outbreak of the Crimean War precluded further commissions for Vignoles in Russia. A model of the bridge was on display at the Great Exhibition of 1851.


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Berlioz, Louis-Hector, Autobiography of Hector Berlioz member of the Institute of France, from 1803 to 1865: comprising his travels in Italy, Germany, Russia, and England. Translated by Rachel Scott Russell Holmes and Eleanor Holmes. London: Macmillan & Co., 1884. 2 vols. [cf. The memoirs of Hector Berlioz. Translated and edited by David Cairns. London: Gollancz, 1969. 636pp.]

Berlioz (1803-69) left Paris on 14 February 1847 and, fourteen days later, having taken a sledge at the Russian border, arrived in St Petersburg. He gave two profitable concerts in the capital, then departed for three weeks in Moscow, where he saw nothing other than a performance of Glinka’s Life for the tsar. On his return to St Petersburg he gave a performance of Romeo and Juliet, before leaving “after Lent” for Riga and an unexpected, if less profitable concert (vol. I, pp. 259-91).


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Burrows, Silas Enoch, America and Russia: correspondence, 1818 to 1848. Edited by Mrs E.S. Mathews and R. Earl Burrows. Hartford, Conn.: privately printed, 1863. 167pp.

The Connecticut ship-owner and merchant Burrows (1794-1870) visited St Petersburg with his wife and son in June-July 1847, intending to establish a magnetic telegraph.


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Thompson, Edward Pett, Life in Russia; or, the discipline of despotism. London: Smith, Elder, & Co., 1848. xiv+344pp.

Wine merchant and former mayor of Dover as well as author of the Note-book of a naturalist (1845), Thompson (1802-70) suggests several earlier visits to Russia prior to that in 1847, described in a series of letters and offered as a key to the little-known Russians, mediated through his authorities Custine and Schnitzler. He arrived by boat from Lübeck, spent most of his time in St Petersburg before travelling to Moscow, and leaving by Revel en route to Stockholm (pp. 1-310). Lithographs by the “railway” artist John Cooke Bourne (1814-96), who had been in Kiev in 1847 with the engineer Charles Vignoles (1793-1875), who had been commissioned to construct the road bridge over the Dnieper.


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Maxwell, John S., The czar, his court and people: including a tour in Norway and Sweden. London: Richard Bentley, 1848. xii+243pp.

American tourist, after visiting Norway and Sweden, sails to Cronstadt in July 1847 and embarks on a tour that takes him from St Petersburg to Moscow, Vladimir, Nizhnii Novgorod and Kazan. He returns by the same route, before leaving in late November for Warsaw and Vienna. Against despotism but very sympathetic towards Nicholas I (a “remarkable personage”), and very attentive to American presence and expertise (e.g. the railway engineers) (pp. 47-211).


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Hill, Samuel Smith, Travels in Siberia. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1854. 2 vols.

Hill and his companion, a Mr Marshall, left Moscow on 29 July 1847 and headed for Nizhnii Novgorod and Kazan before crossing the Urals into Siberia, visiting Ekaterinburg, Omsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Iakutsk and so to Okhotsk. They sailed from Okhotsk to Kamchatka and finally left Petropavlovsk by sea on 15 November 1848.
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Cobden, Richard, The life of Richard Cobden. By John Morley. London: Chapman and Hall, 1881. 2 vols.

Cobden (1804-65), M.P. and the “Manchester manufacturer”, wrote much about Russia both before and after his only visit. Coming from Germany, he crossed the Russian border on 13 August 1847. He visited St Petersburg, Nizhnii Novgorod and Moscow, before leaving from Cronstadt on 26 September. Only brief extracts from his diary, which is in the British Library, are included (vol. I, pp. 450-61). A much fuller edition of Cobden’s diaries has since appeared: The European diaries of Richard Cobden 1846-1849. Edited by Miles Taylor. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1994. xvi+223pp. Russia (pp. 174-202).
G106
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Atkinson, Thomas Witlam, Oriental and western Siberia: a narrative of seven years’ explorations and adventures in Siberia, Mongolia, the Kirghis steppes, Chinese Tartary, and part of central Asia. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1858. viii+611pp.

Architect and painter, Atkinson (1799-1861), F.R.G.S., left Petersburg in early 1847 on extensive travels which took him as far as Irkutsk and the Chinese border. He returned to the capital in December 1853.


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Atkinson, Thomas Witlam, Travels in the regions of the upper and lower Amoor, and the Russian acquisitions on the confines of India and China; with adventures among the mountain Kirghis; and the Manjours, Manyargs, Toungouz, Touzemtz, Goldi, and Gelyaks: the hunting and pastoral tribes. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1860. xiii+570pp.

A continuation of his travels, although it is probable that he did not travel as extensively by the Amur as he alleged but “borrowed” his material from other sources. Like his earlier book, this was also lavishly illustrated with his own watercolours.


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Atkinson, Lucy, Recollections of Tartar steppes and their inhabitants. London: John Murray, 1863. xvi+351pp.

Not once in nearly 1200 pages did Atkinson mention that he had a wife, whom he married (bigamously) in Moscow in February 1848 and took (and soon their son) with him on his subsequent years of travel. Lucy Sherrard Finley (1817-93), previously a governess in St Petersburg for some eight years, published her far more appealing and truthful account after her husband’s death. It includes meetings with Decembrists in Siberian exile.
G109
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Ditson, George Leighton, Circassia; or, a tour to the Caucasus. London: T.C Newby; New York: Stringer & Townsend, 1850. 455pp.

Massachusetts lawyer (1812-94) on extensive world travels begins his journal from his departure from Genoa on 23 September 1847 for Odessa. He visits the Crimea and reaches Circassia (part I); he then travels to Tiflis and on to Vladikavkaz but returning via Tiflis to Constantinople in early February 1848. Makes much of his friendship with Prince Vorontsov (to whom he dedicates his book) and claims to be the first American to visit and describe the region.


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Hooper, William Hulme, Ten months among the tents of the Tuski; with incidents of an Arctic boat expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, as far as the Mackenzie River, and Cape Bathurst. London: John Murray, 1853. xv+417pp.

Hooper (1827-54), lieutenant in the Royal Navy, sailed from Plymouth on H.M.S. Plover on 30 January 1848 in search of the ill-fated Franklin expedition. They reached the Bering Straits and Aleutian Islands and had their first encounter with the Chukchi (Tchutski, or, as Hooper insists, the Tuski) on 15 October and departed towards Russian America in July 1849 (pp. 6-212).


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Pfeiffer, Ida Laura, A woman’s journey round the world from Vienna to Brazil, Chili, Tahiti, China, Hindostan, Persia, and Asia Minor. An unabridged translation from the German. London: National Illustrated Library, 1851. xvi+338pp.

The travel account of this intrepid middle-aged Austrian lady, Mrs Pfeiffer (née Reyer) (1797-1858) proved extremely popular in Britain with numerous editions under various titles in the 1850s. She left Vienna on 1 May 1846 and entered Russian territory on 12 August 1848, travelling from Persia. She visited Armenia and Georgia before sailing to the Crimea. She left Odessa for Constantinople on 2 October (pp. 300-28).


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Vassar, John Guy, Jr., Twenty years around the world. New York: Rudd & Carleton, 1881. 598pp.

Nephew of the founder of Vassar College and himself a noted philanthropist, Vassar (1811-88) was an obsessive traveller, who included Russia in his itineraries on two occasions. In September 1848 he arrived in St Petersburg via Scandinavia, went on to Moscow before leaving for Warsaw (pp. 179-89). Ten years later, in May-early July 1858, he paid a much longer, more interesting and exacting visit to south Russia, arriving in Odessa from Constantinople and then spending much time in the Crimea, visiting the battle sites. He travelled on to Tiflis and through the Caucasus to Piatigorsk, before arriving in Taganrog and taking the boat back to Odessa (pp. 498-525).


G113
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[Smith, Mary Ann Pellew], Six years’ travels in Russia. By an English Lady. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1859. 2 vols.

The exact years of Mrs Smith’s sojourn (as governess or companion?) in Russia, like so much else that is vaguely dated and situated or marked with initials only, would seem to be 1848-54, ending with the death of Nicholas I. Most of the first volume is devoted to life in St Petersburg, following her arrival at Cronstadt, then come Novgorod and Moscow and a long stay at the estate of Krasnoe selo (vol. II, pp. 124-276), before a return to the capital.


G114
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Scott, Charles Henry, The Baltic, Black Sea, and the Crimea: comprising travels in Russia, a voyage down the Volga to Astrachan, and a tour through Crim Tartary. London: Richard Bentley, 1854. xii+346pp.

Leaving Stockholm by boat on 2 July 1850 for “a long tour in the Russian dominions”, Scott and his friend, a Mr Gordon, travel from Moscow to Nizhnii and then down the Volga to Kazan and Astrakhan, a route he surprisingly believed “had never before been accomplished in the same manner” (by boat!). After visiting the Crimea, they left Odessa for Constantinople on 22 October.


G115
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Lyons, Amelia (attrib.), At home with the gentry: a Victorian English lady’s diary of Russian country life. Edited by John McNair. Nottingham: Bramcote Press, 1998. xxii+131pp.

The original manuscript, entitled A Russian boyard’s home in 1851 and convincingly attributed to Amelia Lyons (1820-98), a governess to a Russian gentry family on its estate in Tambov province from 1851, covers the period from her arrival in Russia in late 1849 to her departure in July 1854.


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Ireland, John Busteed, Wall-Street to Cashmere: a journal of five years in Asia, Africa, and Europe; comprising visits, during 1851, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, to the Danemora iron mines, the “Seven Churches”, plains of Troy, Palmyra, Jerusalem, Petra, Seringpatam, Surat; with scenes of the recent mutinies (Benares, Agra, Cawnpore, Luchnow, Delhi, etc., etc.), Cashmere, the Khyber Pass to Afghanistan, Java, China, and Mauritius. London: Sampson Low, Son & Co., 1859. 531pp.

New York lawyer (1823-1913), after visiting the Great Exhibition in London, arrives in St Petersburg on 4 August 1851 and after nearly three weeks, journeys to Moscow. He then heads south, travelling via Tula, Kursk and Kharkov to reach Odessa. He takes the boat to Constantinople on 10 September. India was his true objective and he offers only “a very brief abstract” of adventures en route (pp. 29-55).


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Spencer, Edmund, Turkey, Russia, the Black Sea, and Circassia. London: George Routledge, 1854. xii+412pp.

Some twenty years after his previous tour of the region (see G43, G44), Spencer, who in the interim had published The prophet of the Caucasus (1840), a three-decker novel pervaded with his pro-Circassian sentiments, was again by the Black Sea. It would seem that in 1851, he had travelled through Hungary and Moldavia on his way to Constantinople, but there is no real evidence, apart from an alleged meeting with the tsar at Alupka, that he went again to Russia. The pages devoted to the Crimea and Circassia would seem to be a re-jigging of material from his earlier travels updated with contemporary political commentary (pp. 211-404).


G118
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Vitzhum von Eckstädt, Karl Friedrich, St. Petersburg and London in the years 1852-1864: reminiscences of Count Charles Frederick Vitzthum von Eckstaedt, late Saxon minister to the court of St. James’. Translated from the German by Edward Fairfax Taylor. Edited with preface by Henry Reeve. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1887. 2 vols.

Von Eckstädt (1819-95) arrived in St Petersburg on 4 June 1852 and remained for a year as chargé d’affaires to the Saxon legation (vol. I, pp. 1-51).


G119
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Channing, Walter, A physician’s vacation; or, a summer in Europe. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1856. 564pp.

Boston’s leading obstetrician (1786-1876) and Harvard’s first professor of midwifery, Dr Channing (1786-1876) included Russia in his summer tour, sailing from Stettin to Cronstadt, where he arrived on 15 June 1852. He kept a very detailed journal of what he saw and whom he met, especially doctors. Visited Moscow and left St Petersburg for Denmark on 1 July (pp. 158-292).


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MacGavock, Randal William, A Tennessean abroad; or, letters from Europe, Africa, and Asia. New York: Redfield, 1854. 398pp.

Harvard-trained lawyer (1826-63), who died fighting for the Confederate army, spent eighteen months abroad between May 1851 and September 1852. Towards the end of his tour, c.July 1852, he visited Russia, sailing from Stettin to St Petersburg and visiting Moscow, before sailing to Sweden (pp. 354-82). Much of his book was based on letters he sent home to the Daily Nashville Union.


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Carr, James, Russia as it is at the present time; in a series of letters. By James Carr, a working man, lately returned from the interior of that empire to England. 2nd edition, revised and corrected, London: Whittaker & Co., and Manchester: James Galt & Co., 1855. 74pp.

The first and quickly exhausted edition was for local circulation in Blackburn (not seen), the hometown to which Carr returned after some years as overseer at an unspecified cotton mill a day’s journey from Moscow. His observations on Russian customs, habits, religion and amusements in a series of twenty-seven (undated) letters, written by “a plain working-man […] to amuse or instruct the class to which he belongs”, but distinguished by “Truth”, are frequently far more entertaining and perceptive than those of his “betters”.


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Oliphant, Laurence, The Russian shores of the Black Sea in the autumn of 1852; with a voyage down the Volga, and a tour through the country of the Don Cossacks. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1853. xiv+366pp.

Arriving in St Petersburg in August 1852, Oliphant (1829-88) and his companion Oswald Smith were thwarted in their attempt to go fishing in the White Sea and resolved to head south. From Moscow they travelled to Nizhnii Novgorod and there took the steamer Samson down the Volga to Astrakhan. They then made their way by land to Taganrog and thence by boat to Kerch and on the Crimea and Odessa. An additional chapter with his later reflections on the eve of war was written for the revised 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions, all appearing in 1854.


G123
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Oliphant, Laurence, Episodes of a life of adventure or moss from a rolling stone. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1887. vi+420pp.

His various adventures and travels in Russia and the Crimea in 1852 and during the Crimean War in the Crimea and Circassia in 1855 are succinctly retold (pp. 40-43, 79-106).


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Oliphant, Laurence, Memoir of the life of Laurence Oliphant, and of Alice Oliphant, his wife. By Mrs Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant. Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood & Sons, 1891. 2 vols.

Oliphant’s cousin in her dutiful memoir includes letters he wrote to his mother from Russia in 1852 (vol. I, pp. 80-99) and from his second visit to Circassia in 1855 (vol. I, pp. 162-86).


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Hill, Samuel Smith, Travels on the shores of the Baltic; extended to Moscow. London: Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co., 1854. 302pp.

Hill (see G103) returned to Moscow for a second time in the summer of 1853 (Russia, pp. 117-286).


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Choules, John Overton, The cruise of the steam yacht North Star: to England, Russia, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Malta, Turkey, Madeira, etc. London: James Blackwood, 1854. xviii+330pp.

Dr Choules (1801-56), a New England clergyman, joined the Vanderbilts on a four-month cruise on their newly built yacht that took them on 21 June 1853 to Cronstadt. They spent much time at Peterhof and did the sights of the capital before sailing off for Denmark on 29 June (pp. 94-130).


G127
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Brooks, Charles William Shirley, The Russians of the south. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1854. 147pp.

Brooks (1816-74), special correspondent of the Morning Chronicle, travelled to Odessa from Vienna via Moldavia in the summer of 1853. Following a detailed description of Odessa (pp. 18-34), the work is devoted to essays on agriculture and serfdom and ends with a chapter on Bessarabia.


G128
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Yeardley, John, Memoir and diary of John Yeardley, minister of the gospel. Edited by Charles Tylor. London: A.W. Bennett, 1859. viii+456pp.

Yorkshire-born Yeardley (1786-1858), who joined the Society of Friends in May 1806, undertook no less than eight journeys through Europe to spread the gospel, the visit to Russia being the seventh, fulfilling his long-held wish to visit the German colonists in south Russia. He and his companion William Rasche arrived in St Petersburg by steam-packet from Hull on 9 July 1853 and then travelled south via Moscow, Orel, Kursk and Kharkov to Ekaterinoslav. Over the next month they visited several villages of the colonists as well as of the Molokans, travelling into the Crimea. They finally left by boat for Constantinople from Odessa on 9 September (pp. 399-417).


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Charleton, Robert Mason, Memoir of Robert Charleton, compiled mainly from his letters. Edited by his sister-in-law, Anna F. Fox. London: Samuel Harris & Co., 1873. viii+302pp.

Charleton (1809-72) was one of the three Friends entrusted by the body called “Meetings for sufferings” to present an address to Nicholas I on the impending war. They arrived in Riga on 28 January 1854, were received in St Petersburg by the tsar, and departed 14 February. Charleton’s letters, pp. 64-82.


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Sturge, Joseph, Memoirs of Joseph Sturge. By Henry Richard. London: S.W. Partridge & A.W. Bennett, 1864. xix+622pp.

Sturge (1793-1859) accompanied Charleton and Robert Pease (1807-81) to present the address to Nicholas, the text of which is on pp. 474-75. For Sturge’s letters, and some of Charleton’s, pp. 464-82.


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Charleton, Robert Mason, Pease, Henry, and Sturge, Joseph, Sleigh ride to Russia: an account of the Quaker Mission to St Petersburg by Robert Charleton, Henry Pease and Joseph Sturge in 1854 to present an address to Czar Nicholas from Meeting for Sufferings to try to avert the outbreak of the Crimean War. Edited by Griselda Fox. York: William Sessions, 1985. x+120pp.

An account of the 1854 Quaker mission written by Charleton’s great-great-niece. It includes full transcripts of their letters, the first from Russian soil being from Pease to his son following the mission’s arrival in St Petersburg. The bulk of and the bulkiest letters come from Charleton and Pease. Their letters contain descriptions of a guided tour around the Hermitage, Russian and English émigré attitudes towards peace, the sights of the city, interaction with Russian officials and their meeting with the tsar on 10 February (pp. 39-87).


http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0042.07


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