1   Anna Whistler (27 September 1804 – 1 January 1881) is referring to her half-sister, Eliza Isabella (McNeill) (Wellwood) Winstanley (27 September 1788 – 20 August 1857; see Image 40), born on the same day in the same month as she, as her “twin” sister. Although this is the usual reference in Anna Whistler’s diaries, there are other situations in which the term is applied. When Major Whistler died, Anna Whistler received a letter of condolence in which the writer spoke of her own mother, widowed twenty-nine years earlier in the same month under similar circumstances, as Anna Whistler’s twin sister: “it is just 29 years today since my own dear Mother was deprived of her earthly stay, you are as it were twin sisters in this affliction for how similar are many of the incidents” (joint letter from Betsy Sandland and her daughter, Lizzie, April 27, 1849, LC: P-W, box 34). See the biography of the Sandland family in Appendix E (hereafter, Sandland) and Anna Whistler’s biography in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s.”

2   Anna Whistler is referring to her sons, James Abbott Whistler (11 July 1834 – 17 July 1903) and William McNeill Whistler (22 July 1836 – 27 February 1900). See the biographies of James and Willie in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s” and Images 24–30.

3   It has not been possible to ascertain who the neighbor was that Anna Whistler’s step-daughter, Deborah Delano Whistler (24 October 1825 – 3 December 1908) was visiting. See her biography in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s” and Images 17–19, 21.

4   Anna Whistler is referring to her husband, Major George Washington Whistler (19 May 1800 – 7 April 1849). See his biography in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s” and Images 7–8, 21.

5   “Mr. Fair……” is Reuben Goodale Fairbanks (29 December 1804 – 5 October 1882) (Lorenzo Sales Fairbanks, Genealogy of the Fairbanks Family 1633-1897 [Boston: Printed for the author by American Printing and Engraving, 1897], p. 225; Episcopal Diocese of New York Church Records, Register of Burials, 1767 – 1970). A railroad contractor from Massachusetts, he had come to Russia in April 1843 on the recommendation of Major Whistler and had successfully bid “to set up and supervise the operation” of steam excavators and pile drivers (Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, pp. 108, 123). See the biography of the Fairbanks family in Appendix E (hereafter, Fairbanks).

6   The Acadia (see Image 77) was a British and North American Royal Mail Steam Ship and, as of 1840, regularly sailed between Boston, Halifax, and Liverpool (“Cunard Steamers One Hundred Years Ago,” Sea Breezes 3 [January–June 1947], p. 87). It arrived at Halifax from Boston (Capt. Alex Ryrie) on 18 August 1843 and sailed a few hours later for Liverpool. Listed among its passengers from Boston to Liverpool were “G.M. [sic] Whistler, Mrs. Whistler and Miss Whistler, 3 children, and servant” (Morning Herald, August 21, 1843, pp. 2–3). According to published mail schedules, the vessel would have left Boston on 16 August 1843 (Belcher’s Farmer’s Almanack for the Year of Our Lord 1843 [Halifax, NS: C.H. Belcher, 1843], p. 37). Anna Whistler confirms this date of departure in her diary entry for Friday [August] 16ƫ [1844]. See also the Boston Post for 17 August 1843.

7   On the morning of 19 August 1843, when the Acadia was eleven hours out from Halifax for Liverpool, the weather being thick and hazy, it struck down the barque Merchant (Capt. Thomas L. Boss) from Amsterdam, owned at Newport, Rhode Island, in smooth water at 1:50 a.m. in latitude 44°37´N, longitude 60°58´W. The Merchant sank in about 45 minutes. The Acadia, however, had stopped immediately and sent out her boats. All officers and crew of the barque were saved. They were taken in the Acadia to Liverpool, arriving there on 28 August, and were given accommodations on the steamer Caledonia, which left Liverpool on 5 September, arriving in Boston on 21 September (Boston Advertiser, September 22, 1843). The account given by Capt. Boss to the Newport Rhode Islander is more detailed and exciting: Boston Post, September 22, 1843. See also Boston Shipping List, September 23, 1843, p. 28, col. 1.; Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Pomfret, thursday p.m. Nov. 13th [18]51, GUL: Whistler Collection, W402).

8   Anna Whistler is referring to her step-son, George William Whistler (9 July 1822 – 24 December 1869), who had accompanied her and the children from the United States to Travemünde. See his biography in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s” and Images 12–13.

9   Charles Donald Whistler (27 August 1841 – 24 September 1843) died on route from Travemünde to St. Petersburg.

10  Mary Brennan (bap. 20 May 1828 – 25 May 1895) had gone to Russia with the Whistlers as nursemaid to Charles Donald Whistler. See Brennan, Bergen, Keefe in Appendix E.

11  Although Anna Whistler says they arrived at Liverpool on 29 August, the Boston Advertiser of 22 September 1843 states that it was on 28 August.

12  Betsy Hewitt (Dorlin) Sandland (bap. 3 July 1792 – 9 January 1859) was the widow of an English commission merchant who had died in Savannah, Georgia, in 1820 (J.D.S., “James A. Whistler, the Artist,” Pall Mall Gazette, June [?] 1874; Register of Deaths in Savannah, Georgia, vol. 4: Sept. 1818–1832, comp. the Genealogical Committee, Georgia Historical Society, 1989, p. 50). See Sandland in Appendix E.

13  It has not been possible to locate this letter. Anna Whistler’s letters from Major George Washington Whistler were among the few she kept.

14  Anna Whistler is referring to her half-sisters, Eliza Isabella (McNeill) (Wellwood) Winstanley (27 September 1788 – 20 August 1857; see Image 40) and Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill (before 12 November 1790 – 20 September 1863; see Image 39).

15  Genesis 46:29–30: “29 And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. 30 And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.”

16  Anna Whistler had been present at the marriage of Louisa Josephine Swift (30 April 1821 – 16 January 1859) to Peter Richards Jr. (28 October 1811 – 30 August 1893), the Rev. P.P. Irving presiding, at Geneva, New York, on 22 June 1843. Josephine – or Josée, as she was called – was the daughter of General Joseph Gardner Swift (31 December 1783 – 23 July 1865; see Image 11), brother of Major Whistler’s first wife. General Swift had written in his journal: “the wedding party dispersed, some to the falls, others to N. Y., etc.” (Harrison Ellery, ed., The Memoirs of Gen. Joseph Gardner Swift, LL.D., U.S.A., First Graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, Chief Engineer U.S.A. from 1812 to 1818. 1800-1865. To which is added a Genealogy of the Family of Thomas Swift of Dorchester, Mass., 1634 [Worcester, MA: F.S. Blanchard, 1890], p. 247. See also Geneva Courier, July 4, 1843, p. 3, col. 2).

17  This is John Winstanley (22 December 1776 – 22 May 1859), solicitor, second husband of Eliza Isabella (McNeill) (Wellwood) Winstanley (see Image 40). See the biographies of the Winstanley, McNeill, Wellwood, Picard, Ware, Hull, Simpson, Clunie, Wilkin, Biggs, and Cragg families in Appendix E (hereafter, Winstanley … Cragg).

18  James Chapman (9 April 1791 – 17 May 1861), Railway Secretary, and his family were the Winstanleys’ neighbors at Railway House on Fishergate Street (Mannex, History, Topography, and Directory of the Borough of Preston, with the Town and Parish of Chorley [Beverley, UK: W.B. Johnson, 1851]). The 1841 Census for Preston shows that James and Eliza (Hatton) Chapman (1805 – 18 February 1850) had four sons: James, nine; George, eight; Edward, six; Alfred, three (1841 Census for Preston, H0107/498, fol. 34, p. 15, Public Records Office, Chancery Lane, London, UK [hereafter, PRO]). See the biography of the Chapman family in Appendix E (hereafter, Chapman).

19  Together with Churchstreet, Fishergate constitutes “the main thoroughfare of Preston” (Charles Hardwick, History of the Borough of Preston and Its Environs, in the County of Lancaster [Preston: Worthington; London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1857], p. 427).

20  The 1851 Census for Liverpool, Parish of Everton, lists a household for an Edwin Maude, seventy-one years of age, Chief Searcher of Customs, Cape of Good Hope, Superannuated, born in Kendal, Westmorland. He was living at 3 Christian Street with his wife, Fanny, fifty-five years of age, born in Port Antonio, Jamaica, and his children, William, unmarried, twenty-four years of age, a student at home, and Sarah, unmarried, nineteen years of age, both British subjects, born in Cape Town (1851 Census for Preston, HO 107/2190 and RG 9/2737, PRO). In 1843, Sarah would have been eleven years old. It is not possible to say who the Miss Maude in the portrait was.

21  The reference is to Raffaello Santi or Sanzio (1483–1520), commonly known as Raphael, Italian High-Renaissance painter. The reference to Raphael indicates the two-year-old child’s precocity and suggests that art was a topic of interest to the family.

22  Mary McLean was a close friend of Eliza Winstanley and the sister of Elizabeth Isabella (Cottnam) McLean (entry for St Petersburg. 1848. September, NYPL: AWPD, Part II, and accompanying Note 1153). She has been incorrectly identified as the mother of Eliza Winstanley and Alicia McNeill by Kate R. McDiarmid and Elizabeth Mumford (McDiarmid, Whistler’s Mother, p. 38; Elizabeth Mumford, Whistler’s Mother: The Life of Anna McNeill Whistler [Boston: Little, Brown, 1939], p. 6).

23  Cousin Mary was Mary Isabella McNeill (19 August 1823 – 24 October 1867; see Image 32); Cousin Julie was Catherine Julia McNeill (26 December 1825 – 20 October 1897) (see Image 33). Both were the daughters of Maria Matilda (Cammann) McNeill (1799 – 29 December 1850) and Major William Gibbs McNeill (3 October 1801 – 16 February 1853; see Image 31), Anna Whistler’s brother. Catherine Julia McNeill appears in the diaries more than her sister and is called variously Julia, niece Julia, Julie, Jule, and “Twin.” She is not, however, “sister Julia” (entry for Saturday [May] 3ƨ [1845], NYPL: AWPD, Part II). She and Deborah Delano Whistler may have been called “twins” because they were both born in 1825. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

24  Eliza Sandland (c. 1820-2 November 1885) was the daughter of Betsey Hewitt (Dorlin) Sandland. Her married name became Boyd. See Sandland in Appendix E.

25  Kirk Boott Whistler (16 July 1838 – 10 July 1842) died of scarlet fever in Springfield, Massachusetts, while Major Whistler was en route to Russia, and was buried in Stonington, Connecticut.

26  “Lucy Long” or “Miss Lucy Long” was a popular “Negro melody” about a suitor’s courtship of Lucy Long. The words were altered and adapted for English (Gumbo Chaff, comp., The Ethiopian Glee Book: A Collection of Popular Negro Melodies, arranged for quartet clubs, by Gumbo Chaff, A.M.A., first banjo player to the King of Congo [Boston: Elias Howe, 1848]; Henry Russell, Songs, Dramatic, and Descriptive Scenes, Cantatas, Characteristic Ballads, and Negro Melodies [London: G.H. Davidson, 1846], pp. 39–40).

27  Ribchester is a small village on the north bank of the River Ribble, some 10 miles east of Preston. Between c. 79 and 400 AD, as the name implies, it was the site of a Roman fort. There is not “much written evidence about Ribchester” “until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,” at which time it was considered poor in comparison to its past history. “Before the second half of the eighteenth century,” it was a small village “with no more than a few hundred inhabitants.” In the seventeenth century, “the poorer sort of people” lived “by spinning and weaving linen clothes,” but “cotton manufacturing replaced that of linen” in the eighteenth century. By the late eighteenth century, the increase in the number of handloom weavers led to the building of many new cottages. Ribchester began at this time “to take on something like its present appearance.” For some fifty years after 1780, “handloom weaving and certain related trades like bobbin turning reigned supreme in Ribchester.” However, by the 1840s, when Anna Whistler visited Ribchester with James and Willie, hard economic times had come for the weavers because of “the advent of efficient power looms.” The population of the village declined steadily in subsequent decades as young people moved to towns to find work (A.C. Hodge and J.F. Ridge, Ribchester: A Short History and Guide, 2nd ed. (Preston, UK: Carnegie Press, 1986), pp. 4, 8, 9, 11).

28  Jane Simpson (b.1790, bap. 27 August 1797; d. 4 January 1852) was a Scotswoman of independent means, who lived in Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland (see Image 70), with the family of Richard Stuart Picard (bap. 16 January 1807 – 26 November 1887). See Winstanley … Cragg in Appendix E.

29  This is the parsonage of St. Wilfrid’s, the Parish Church of Ribchester, where the Haslewood family lived.

30  “The village lies ‘in the midst of one of the richest and most smiling prospects we ever saw’ and is beautifully placed ‘at some distance all around enclosed with higher ground, well clothed with wood and hedgerows’” (Hodge and Ridge, Ribchester, p. 1).

31  The Rev. Boulby Thomas Haslewood (Durham, 30 January 1796 – Ribchester, 28 May 1876) was for forty-seven years Vicar of Ribchester with Stydd, Lancashire. He received the BA (Sen. Opt.) in 1818 from St. Peter’s College, Cambridge University, and was made a deacon in 1819 and priest in 1820. He married on 15 February 1822 (see following Note). He was instituted as Rector of St. Wilfrid’s Church in Ribchester on 16 April 1829 and was the “author of a Visitation Sermon.” “He was highly esteemed by his parishioners, although it is to be regretted that the old Parish Library was allowed to become gradually dispersed, and the numerous Roman Antiquities discovered during his incumbency to be irrevocably scattered.” He was “buried 1 June 1876 at Ribchester, M.I. A tablet erected by the parishioners describes him as ‘learned and eloquent’” (Francis Haslewood, The Genealogy of the Family of Haslewood, Staffordshire and Warwickshire Branches,… [London: Mitchell & Hughes, 1881], p. 8; The Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval, The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Clarence Volume [London: T.C. & E.C. Jack, 1905], p. 484; Alumni Cantabrigienses, comp. J.A. Venn, pt. 2: From 1752–1900, 6 vols. [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1951], vol. 3, pp. 282–283; Thomas Charles Smith and Rev. Jonathan Shortt, The History of the Parish of Ribchester, in the County of Lancaster [London: Bemrose; Preston: C.W. Whitehead, 1890], pp. 156– 157).

32  This is Margaret (Ogden) Haslewood (14 July 1798 – Ribchester, 21 February 1854) (Haslewood, Genealogy, p. 8; Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval, Plantagenet Roll, p. 484; Smith and Shortt, Parish of Ribchester, p. 156). The dates given here are from the tombstone inscription (north corner of Ribchester Parish Church yard) (Smith and Shortt, Parish of Ribchester, p. 208). This death date is contradicted by a certified copy of an Entry of Death for Margaret Haslewood, Registration District: Preston, Sub-district: Alston, County of Lancaster, General Register Office for England and Wales (GRO), which gives 20 February 1854.

33  The Haslewood children were: Dickens Haslewood (20 April 1823 – 30 December 1897); Margaret Biss Haslewood (17 August 1824 – 30 August 1882); William Maude Haslewood (23 February 1828 – 20 October 1888); Boulby Haslewood (7 October 1829 – 19 October 1897); Catherine Haslewood (10 August 1831 – 21 February 1866); Mary Jane Haslewood (26 January 1838 – 26 September 1905) (Alumni Cantabrigienses, vol. 3, pp. 282–283; Marquis of Ruvigny and Raineval, Plantagenet Roll, pp. 484–485; Haslewood, Genealogy, pp. 8– 9 and a chart drawn up by descendant, David Haslewood; National Probate Calendar (UK), 1905). The three surviving sons mentioned here all became clergymen. Except for Catherine, whom Anna Whistler mentions by name, it is not possible to say which Haslewood children were present when she visited the family.

34  This daughter is Elizabeth Boulby Haslewood (20 May 1826 – 25 July 1843) (Haslewood, Genealogy, p. 9), whom Anna Whistler had last seen when Elizabeth was three or four years old. There is a loose sheet of paper along with the manuscript of Anna Whistler’s diary that contains “Lines written on the death of dear Elizƫ Haslewood,” by her sister Catherine, aged 11 years, copied in Eliza Winstanley’s hand. See Appendix C.

35  The Second Advent of Christ, or Second Coming, refers to “the future return of Christ in glory … to judge the living and the dead, and to terminate the present world order. Primitive Christianity believed this event to be imminent, and this belief has often been revived” (Elizabeth A. Livingstone, ed., The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd ed. [Oxford, London, New York: Oxford University Press, 2013] [hereafter, Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church], s.v. “Parousia”).

36  St. Wilfrid’s, the Ribchester Parish Church, dates from the thirteenth century. For a description of its history, see J.H. Finch, A Goodly Heritage: Being a Description of Ribchester Parish Church, rev. ed. (Ribchester, UK: John Barton, 1984) and William Farrer and J. Brownbill eds., The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, vol. 7 (London: University of London Institute of Historical Research, 1966), pp. 37–43, first published in 1912 by Dawsons of Pall Mall, London.

The pulpit of which Anna Whistler speaks “is of oak and octagonal in plan, with pilasters at the angles, richly carved panels and projecting cornice carried by shaped brackets. On the door are the date 1636 and the initials of Christopher Hindle, vicar, and attached to it is an oak reading-desk, probably of equal date, forming a two-decker” (Farrer and Brownbill, History of Lancaster, vol. 7, pp. 39, 42). There is a woodcut of the pulpit by J.S.B. Wallis, former rector of St. Wilfrid’s, reproduced on p. 16 of Finch, Goodly Heritage, as well as information about Hindle (pp. 17–18).

As for the “richly colored glass windows,” the East Window “contains fragments of late fourteenth or early fifteenth century stained glass, once depicting Our Lord in Glory” (Finch, Goodly Heritage, pp. 13–14). Attention is called by Finch to “the economy of line of the mediaeval craftsmen and the rich colouring of the glass” (Finch, p. 15). The rest of the stained glass was “no doubt … destroyed by Puritan iconoclasts” (Finch, p. 18).

37  Jane (Hatton) Ainsley, aged 78, died in Preston on Sunday, 10 September 1843 (Preston Chronicle and Lancashire Advertiser, Saturday, September 16, 1843). Her funeral was to take place on 14 September. She was the widow of George Ainsley, gentleman, who had died on 18 July 1841 in Preston, aged 77 (certified copy of Entry of Death for George Ainslie, Registration District of Preston, Sub-district of Preston, County of Lancaster, GRO). Jane (Hatton) Ainsley was John Winstanley’s sister-in-law, as his first wife, Margaret, was also a Hatton and her natural sister.

38  1 Timothy 5:10: “Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.”

39  “The kind Ormerods” are Richard (c. 1775 – 31 December 1861) and Esther (Smith) Ormerod (bap. 18 November 1777 – 4 July 1863) (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index [hereafter, IGI]). Richard Ormerod and his father were engaged in business together as brass and iron founders (Slater’s General and Classified Directory for Manchester and Salford 1845 [Manchester, UK: I. Slater, 1845]; hereafter, Slater’s Directory and the year). See also AWPD, Part II, Note 861.

Anna Whistler’s letter of 22 November 1829 to her sister Kate indicates that she had met Mrs. Ormerod and her daughter Anne, for the first time in 1829, at Seacombe (Anna Whistler to Catherine Jane Palmer, Liverpool November 22Ơ 1829, GUL: Whistler Papers, W344).

40  It was customary for people related by marriage or friendship to call one another by titles used in blood relationships. Thus, Anna Whistler called her half-sister’s husband, John Winstanley, “my brother Winny.” In the days when Major Whistler was widowed but had not yet proposed to Anna McNeill, she called him “brother George.” Jonathan Knight (1787–1858), part of the intimate circle of the McNeills in New York, was called “Uncle Jonathan.”

41  Walter Stevenson (bap. 8 September 1788 – 10 May 1860) had been Chief Teller at the Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh but had been dismissed in 1840 for fraud. See the biographies of the Stevenson and Smith families in Appendix E (hereafter, Stevenson and Smith).

42  Kent’s Hotel was a private family hotel at 32 Norfolk St., Strand, proprietor Ben. Kent (Post Office London Directory 1844 [London: Frederic Kelly, 1844]; hereafter, Kelly’s Directory and the year).

43  Gerard Ralston of 21 Token House Yard, London, was agent to the firm of Harrison, Winans, and Eastwick, who were building the locomotives and the rolling stock at Alexandrofsky for the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway (Joseph Harrison Jr. to Gerard Ralston, Esqre, Alexandrofsky, July 4 (OS), 1844 and Joseph Harrison Jr. to Mr. G. Ralston, Alexandrofsky, August 19/31, 1844, HSP: Harrison Letterbook No. 1). A Philadelphia bookseller, he had been living abroad some ten years already (Madeleine Elsas, ed. Iron in the Making: Dowlais Iron Company Letters, 1782–1860 [Cardiff, Wales: Glamorgan County Council and Guest Keen Iron and Steel Company, 1960], pp. 190, 191).

44  This is Dr. Francis Boott, MD (Boston, MA 26 September 1792 – 25 December 1863; see Image 80), brother of Kirk Boott, the Whistlers’ friend in Lowell, Massachusetts (see Image 43). Their father, Kirk Boott Sr., emigrated in 1783 to Boston, where he became an importer. Francis Boott attended Harvard, returning to England on completing his education, and traveling back and forth between the two countries, like his brother, Kirk. He represented the London branch of his father’s business. When it failed, he undertook the study of medicine. On 3 July 1820, he married Mary Hardcastle of Derby, England. He took his medical degree at Edinburgh and began to practice in London in 1824. He practiced for seven years, retiring early to devote himself “to the cultivating of his literary and scientific tastes.” He was one of the founders of London University in 1827. He became a vice-president of the Linnean Society. (John L. Hobbs, “The Boott and Haden Families and the Founding of Lowell,” Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Journal 66 (1946): p. 67; Obituary of Francis Boott, Medical Times and Gazette 1 [1864]: p. 77; ; Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Boott, Francis, M.D. (1792–1863)”; IGI).

45  Mary (Love) Boott (1766–1856) was the mother of the Whistlers’ friend, Kirk Boott, of Lowell, Massachusetts, and of the aforementioned Dr. Francis Boott. She married Kirk Boott Sr. on 10 February 1785. She was the daughter of the Scottish captain on whose ship Kirk Boott Sr. had sailed to the United States. They had nine children. Her husband “died in 1817, leaving a flourishing business, a mansion known as Rivere House, and a fortune of over 100,000 dollars” (John L. Hobbs, “The Boott and Haden Families and the Founding of Lowell,” Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Journal 66 (1946): p. 63).

46  “The Parks, which form one of the most beautiful features of the metropolis, are situated chiefly in a series from the back of Whitehall Street, in a westerly and northerly direction, and are thus blended with the fashionable end of the town” (“London: A Description and Guide to the British Metropolis,” Chambers’s Information for the People 1, no. 14 [1842]: p. 218; hereafter, Chambers’s Information 1842).

47  The Zoological Gardens are located in Regent’s Park, which “is situated considerably apart from the other parks, in a northerly direction from [Kensington Gardens], and consists of a circular enclosure of about 450 acres, which are laid out on the most approved principles of what is called landscape gardening; its centre is enriched with lakes, plantations, shrubberies, and eight beautiful villas. The park is surrounded by extensive ranges of buildings, forming splendid terraces, variously designated, and all decorated with sculpture in agreement with their respective orders of architecture; producing an effect of beauty and grandeur rarely witnessed … [a]t the northern extremity of Regent’s Park are the Zoological Gardens, the property of the Zoological Society, and established in 1826. These gardens are very extensive, and being removed from the dingy atmosphere, noise, and bustle of London, they present an agreeable and truly countrylike aspect. The grounds have been disposed in the style of landscape-gardening – here a clump of shrubby trees and border of flowers, indigenous and exotic; there a pretty miniature lake; and at proper intervals is seen a neat rustic cot, with its straw-thatched roof and honeysuckled porch. Much of the ground, also, is occupied as green meadows, either subdivided into small parks for deer and other quadrupeds, or dotted with moveable trellis houses, the abodes of different kinds of birds which require the refreshing exercise of walking on the green turf. Throughout the whole, neat gravel walks wind their serpentine course, and conduct the visiter to the bear-pit, monkey-house, aviaries, and other departments of the establishment. The gardens are open every week-day for the admission of visiters, who must previously procure an order from a member of the society, and likewise pay a shilling each at the gate” (Chambers’s Information 1842, pp. 218–219).

48  This is Frances (Morton) Stevenson (bap. 27 April 1783 – 16 October 1845) (Old Parochial Registers of Scotland [hereafter, OPRS]; IGI for Midlothian, Scotland; certified copy of an Entry of Death, Registration District of St. Pancras, Sub-District of Kentish Town, County of Middlesex, GRO). One of the causes of Mrs. Stevenson’s sorrow undoubtedly was her husband’s dismissal in 1840 from the Bank of Scotland in Edinburgh. See Stevenson and Smith in Appendix E.

49  This is Eliza Isabella Wellwood Stevenson (c. 1821 – 11 February 1889) (1851 Census for Westminster, HO107/1480, fol. 156, PRO; National Probate Calendar (UK), 1889). She was named for Anna Whistler’s half-sister, Eliza Isabella (McNeill) (Wellwood) Winstanley (see Image 40), who, in her first marriage, was the wife of Colonel Robert Wellwood (7 February 1747 – 7 July 1820). See Stevenson and Smith in Appendix E.

50  It has not been possible to identify Bell.

51  Francis Stevenson (c. 1826 – 1 February 1902) was described in the 1841 Census as an apprentice (1841 Census for St. Pancras, HO107/683, bk. 3, fol. 17, PRO). He became a civil engineer.

52  Jean Robert Poizat (7 June 1803 – 16 July 1868) and his wife, Louise Cecilia (Flour or Flouer) Poizat (14 May 1820 – 16 September 1888), boarded the Acadia (see Image 77) in Boston with Anna Whistler and her family. They were listed as being from Philadelphia. Mrs. Poizat was born in Philadelphia, but they had only been visiting that city and actually lived in Marseilles, France (“Passengers” section, Boston Post, August 17, 1843; “Passengers” section, Halifax Morning Herald, August 21, 1843). See the biography of the Poizat family in Appendix E (hereafter, Poizat) and Image 78.

53  “From May to October the most expeditious mode of proceeding from London to St. Petersburgh is by Hamburg and Lübeck, and thence by the Baltic steamer to Cronstadt and the Russian capital … Assuming … that time is an object, and that the traveler adopts the route by Lübeck and the Baltic, it will be desirable, as the Lübeck boats sail from Travemünde every Tuesday morning, that he should leave London by the Hamburgh steamer of Friday … At Hamburgh it will be well to take a look at the vehicle and cattle which are to convey him to Lübeck; also to have a clear understanding with the driver that he takes the best road; … The distance between Hamburgh and Lübeck is 40 miles … Travemünde is 10 miles [from Lübeck] … The average passage from London to Hamburgh is about 54 hours, from Travemünde to Cronstadt about 84 hours … but these boats … is [sic] sometimes 100 hours in accomplishing it, and has [sic] been as long as four or five days. The distance from Lübeck to St. Petersburgh is rather over 700 miles.” This route is considered “uninteresting” (Murray’s Handbook for Northern Europe, vol. 2, 1849, p. 438).

Lübeck was a major seaport of Schleswig-Hostein and was located on the Trave and Wakenitz rivers. Travemünde was a city located at the head of the Trave River estuary on the Bay of Lübeck. For images of the route, see Images 81–84.

54  The word “wherry” is “said to be another form of the word ‘ferry,’ from the fact that wherries were often ferry boats. […] The old Thames wherries […] were wide and long with a high pointed bow ending in a sharp iron nose. […] Where the wherry is actually a ferry boat, it is often pointed both bow and stern and rowed either way” (A. Ansted, A Dictionary of Sea Terms for the Use of Yachtsmen, Amateur Boatmen, and Beginners [London: Upcott Gill, 1898], p. 309). The high pointed bow allowed passengers to disembark dryshod where there was no landing dock. In 1820, “there were still 3,000 wherries plying on the Thames, while the hackney coaches could muster only a sorry 1,200 in the whole of London. As late as 1829, [the wherry was] the usual conveyance from the neighbourhood of Westminster to Vauxhall,” although they were shortly thereafter made obsolete by new bridges and steamboats (Edward Walford, “The River Thames,” in Old and New London, vol. 3, Westminster and the Western Suburbs [London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin, 1873], p. 310).

55  This is Streit’s Hotel in Hamburg (see Image 82), Jungfernstieg 19, corner of Gänsemarkt, proprietor Christian Streit (Gerd Nauhaus, ed., Robert Schumann Tagebücher, vol. 2: 1836–1854 [Leipzig: Deutsche Verlag für Musik, 1987], p. 708). The hotel had partly burned down in May 1842 in a huge conflagration that “destroyed 1,450 houses, including 24 hotels along the Jungfernstieg” (Gerd Nauhaus, ed., The Marriage Diaries of Robert and Clara Schumann from Their Wedding Day through the Russian Trip, trans. Peter Oswald [Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1993], pp. 150, 348). The back premises remained standing among the ruins, so that the hotel business could continue while the house facing the street was being reconstructed. The work took from June 1842 to August 1843 (Rainer Hering, 150 Jahre Streit’s 12. Mai 1837–12. Mai 1987 [150 Years of Streit’s, 12 May 1837 – 12 May 1987] [Hamburg, Germany: printed by the atuhor, 1987], p. 9). The hotel was therefore open for business when Anna Whistler and her children stopped in Hamburg for the first time. On subsequent trips between Russia and England, members of the Whistler family stayed at Streit’s Hotel.

56  Anna Whistler is referring to glimpses of Schleswig-Holstein, which was part of Denmark.

57  The meaning of “bate” in the sense of deducting or subtracting is probably meant here. Thus, some of the horses were removed and either reduced in number or replaced.

58  For a view of Lübeck in the 1840s see Image 83.

59  The Russian steamers Alexandra and Nikolai plied the route between Travemünde and Cronstadt.

60  The terrifying experience of encountering a storm on the Baltic Sea, especially in the autumn, has been described by a number of travelers. See, for example, in the 1840s, Thompson, Life in Russia, pp. 10–11.

61  This is Dr. George Edwin Palmer (15 April 1803 – 8 May 1868) of Stonington, Connecticut, physician (see Image 36). A widower, he married, on 23 March 1840, as his second wife, Anna Whistler’s youngest sister, Catherine Jane McNeill (c. 1812 – 20 May 1877). The Palmers’ home was “The Old Corner House,” at 24 Main Street (see Image 37), which had been built in 1785 by Dr. Palmer’s father, Captain Amos Palmer. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

62  Anna Whistler omitted “I.”

63  Mary Brennan had a brother, James Brennan (1 February 1822 – 4 September 1886), in Springfield, Massachusetts. See Brennan, Bergin, Keefe in Appendix E.

64  Mark 10:14: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” See also Luke 18:16.

65  It has not been possible to obtain information about a miniature of Kirk Boott Whistler.

66  Anna Whistler meant “charge.”

67  Cronstadt (see Image 84) is a fortress city on the island of Kotlin at the mouth of the Gulf of Finland. Given the shallow draft of the Neva River, ships headed for St. Petersburg are required to dock at Cronstadt and transfer their cargo – both human and freight – to smaller, lighter boats, which are called “lighters.”

Anna Whistler has already said they arrived at St. Petersburg two months from the day she began keeping her diary, i.e., September 28th. Here, she says they arrived four days after the death of Charles Donald Whistler. He died on September 23; four days later would have been September 27. Maxwell, however, confirms September 28 as the day of their arrival (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Saturday, September 30, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 22).

68  The English Church in Cronstadt, located on Alexander Street, was built in 1824 in late Classical style and opened on 15 June of that year (see Image 85). It was described in 1828 as follows:

The edifice is plain but elegant, and very neat and commodious within. It is 97 feet in length, and 43 in breadth, with 18 windows on each side; and has a portico of several columns, and a small belfry, after the shape of those in our [English] country churches. The altar, which is in a recess, in the form of a semicircle, with six columns, is covered with blue velvet and gold fringe. On one side of this stands the pulpit, and on the other the reading-desk; but these are too large, and out of proportion to the place itself … This building is said to have cost 15,000 l.; part of which was defrayed by … the English-Russian company, and part by a duty imposed on English vessels here. The minister has an income of 7000 rubles, with a house, etc. besides the emoluments derived from surplice fees. (William Rae Wilson, Travels in Russia, 2 vols. [London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1828], vol. 1, pp. 321–322, 323)

The resident English population of the city was about 100. During navigation, about 700 English and 50 American vessels entered the port. Their crews averaged ten men to a ship. The average number of communicants was 40 to 50.

When the British Seamen’s Hospital at Cronstadt was relocated in 1866, it was described as standing “opposite the English Chapel, frequented by seafarers, … also the seat of the British vice-consulate” (Handbook for Travellers in Russia, Poland and Finland, new rev. ed. [London: John Murray, 1865]; The Illustrated London News, December 29, 1866). The church accommodated about 200 people. Support of the Church and appointment of the minister rested with the Russia Company. The Church had no resident poor and few casual calls upon its charity, so that communion alms were mostly distributed among the Russian poor (G.E. Biber, ed., The English Church on the Continent; or, An Account of the Foreign Settlements of the English Church: Including a Notice of the Times of Service, and Other Information Useful to Travellers and Foreign Residents [London: Francis & John Rivington, 1845], p. 73).

It was described in 1983 as having been preserved to the present day without any particular changes to its façade (Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada [Architectural Monuments of the Leningrad Suburbs] [Leningrad: Stroizdat, Leningradskoe otdelenie, 1983], p. 571).

69  Count Aleksandr Sergeevich Stroganov (7 December [OS] 1818 – 26 July [OS] 1864) was at this time twenty-four years old. See the biographies of the Stroganov, Vasil’chikov, and Kushelev families in Appendix E (hereafter, Stroganov, Vasil’chikov, Kushelev) and Image 299.

70  The Customs House (see Image 95–96) formed part of the architectural ensemble of the spit of Vasilievskii Island and was built according to plans by the architect Giovanni Francesco Lucchini (1755–1826) almost at the same time as the warehouses of the Stock Exchange (see Images 152–153). Its construction in 1829–1832 was made necessary by the development of the port of Petersburg in the first half of the 19th century, when customs facilities could no longer fit into the old houses adapted for them on the bank of the Little Neva. In its silhouette, the Customs House – designed in the forms of Russian late Classicism – matches the Kunstkamera, which is located symmetrically with respect to the axis of the ensemble of the spit of Vasilievskii Island. Rectangular in plan, the main façade of the Customs House faces the Little Neva and is crowned by a sloping cupola on a tall drum. The main façade is distinguished by an Ionic portico that rests against the projection of the first floor, which is treated as the ground floor and is rusticated. On the pediment crowning the portico are statues of Mercury, Neptune, and Ceres (Pamiatniki arkhitektury Leningrada [Architectural Monuments of Leningrad] (Leningrad: Gos. izd-stvo literatury po stroitel’stvu, arkhitekture i stroitel’nym materialam, 1958), p. 97).

71  For a description of a reception by Russian customs officials of a ship arriving at Cronstadt see Rigby, Baltic Letters, vol. 1, letter 2, pp. 31–33, 37–39; Thompson, Life in Russia, pp. 11-15; Murray’s Handbook for Northern Europe, vol. 2, p. 439.

72  John Stevenson Maxwell (February 1818 – 2 March 1870), Secretary of the American Legation in St. Petersburg (July 1842 – November 1844), described for his mother this first meeting with Anna Whistler and the children and the vicissitudes of their journey:

The day before yesterday Thursday I went out in the morning to walk. It was a fine morning, one of a few fines one’s we have had lately. The house was all cleaned and the next Monday MƤ Whistler was to arrive in the steamer from London direct. On my return home all the servants but one had gone out and this one could not speak anything but Russian. I saw, something had occurred but could not devine what it could be until Major Whistler came in and informed me that in consequence of a change of arrangements in the London line of steamers his family had come on by way of Lubec, that they were now in the Custom house, and that he had lost a little boy his youngest by death. He was in misery indeed and asked me to go with him to the Custom house as he had no one who could render him in this unexpected and sudden incident the least assistance. I went to the Custom house and found MƤ Whistler there, with her daughter and two beautiful little boys. It was with difficulty I could get in the building and it was only by pushing an officer to one side that I succeeded. I prevailed upon the Major and family to go home, and superintended with the assistance of MƤ Whistlers maid the examination of some dozen trunks etc. This and other form’s gone through with, the passports examined, and the books, papers etc sent to the Censor’s, I went home, and ordered a dinner for them from the Club and have done all in my power since to make them contented. I have not since seen the ladies of the family. They left Lubec all well, saying farewell to the eldest son who has turned back toward the U. States. After being out twenty four hours the youngest child hitherto in fine health was taken sick. Every attention was rendered by the passengers and the Captain, but there was not a bit of medicine on board and in spite of all they could do, without this, the child died with convulsions. By using strong entreaties they succeeded in prevailing upon the Captain to keep the body on board until they reached Cronstadt and here again MƤ W prevailed so far as to have it landed and placed in the English Chapel there. Imagine the distress of the Father when he hastened to the boat, hearing his family had come, and was prevented by the police from going on board; when he only saw from the quai that one was missing, and when he called out to know where was this other one. It was terrible indeed and a sad winter will they have in this dreary land (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Saturday, Sept. 30, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 22). See the biography of the Maxwell family in Appendix E (hereafter, Maxwell) and Images 54–55.

73  The mansion they were renting (see Images 88–94), which has partly been described in “St. Petersburg and the Journey There” and “Their Home Life and Social Life,” belonged to Count Aleksei Alekseevich Bobrinskii (6/18 January 1800 – 4/16 October 1868; see Image 86). It was located in the First Admiralty District, Fourth Ward. The mansion occupied the territory where two houses had stood, one of which was rebuilt in the 1790s by a Swiss architect in Russian service since 1783, Luigi Ruska (1758–1822), in the style characteristic for an estate in the city at the end of the 18th century. In 1797, both houses had become the property of Bobrinskii’s father, Count Aleksei Grigorievich Bobrinskii (see Image 87), son of Catherine the Great and Count Grigorii Grigorievich Orlov (see Images 414, 443). The architectural treatment of the façades of the central mass of the house was more elaborate than that of the other structures. The middle section of the main façade was distinguished by an Ionic portico, which emphasized the projecting mass that contained the staircase. The portico was decorated with allegorical sculpture. The garden façade of the house was broken up by semicircular projecting bays, or pavilions, and a portico with four Corinthian columns and a pediment. In 1822–1825, the inside of the mansion was remodeled and an enfilade of reception rooms was created on the garden side. The main staircase was decorated in an extremely severe and simple manner. A round opening was made in the covering above the staircase, and through it could then be seen the walls decorated with a cornice with modillions, the light metal railing of the circular gallery of the upper floor, and the painted decorations of the cupola. Among the rooms of the house were a ballroom, the Red living room, the White Salon, and the Blue Salon. The Blue Salon had been included in Major Whistler’s apartment, in which Maxwell now lived (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 22). The outstanding painted decor of the White Salon and ballroom is thought to be the work of Giovanni-Battista Scotti (1777–1830). Other rooms in the house contained similar decoration (Pamiatniki arkhitektury Leningrada 1958, pp. 228–229; Pamiatniki arkhitektury Leningrada 1975, p. 284; Levina and Kirpideli, Po ètim ulitsam, pp. 138–142). See Images 88–94 of the Bobrinskii mansion, and “Maps.”

74  John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 22. The ship was the Middlesex (entry for December 1843 in entry dated S Petersburg. November 28ƫ 1843, NYPL: AWPD, Part I).

75  This is Major Ivan Frantsevich Buttats (2/14 June 1809 – 25 July / 6 August 1876) of the Corps of Transport Engineers, who had been sent to the United States to accompany Major Whistler back to Russia in 1842. See his biography in Appendix E. His name will be spelled as it appears in Anna Whistler’s diaries (“Bouttatz”); it will be spelled “Buttats” if it appears in a Russian document.

Institut russkoi literatury Akademii nauk (Pushkinskii dom) (IRLI) [Institute of Russian Literature of the Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House)] Fond 2/Б-93 6696 contains a photograph of Buttats from an old portrait album (indicated on the photo itself) with the time of his death among the brief information written on the back: “Inzhener-Polkovnik Ivan Frantsovich Butats, stroitel’ anichkovskogo mosta, skonchalsia v Peterburge 25 Iiulia 1876 g. v 2 ch. 45 m. po poludni [Engineer Colonel Ivan Frantsovich Butats, builder of the Anichkov Bridge, died in Petersburg on 25 July 1847 at 2:45 in the afternoon].” On the front of the photograph is written: “Stark au coin de Liteine and Panteleimonovskaya No 25/23 [Stark on the corner of Liteinaia and Panteleimonovskaia streets].” A request for permission to publish this photograph has not been answered at the time of publication of this manuscript.

76  Joseph Swift Whistler (12 August 1824 – 1 January 1840), the son of Major Whistler and his first wife, Mary Roberdeau (Swift) Whistler (August 1804 – 9 December 1827; see Image 10), died of typhoid fever on New Year’s Eve, while at home for the Christmas recess of 1839–1840 from boarding school (McDiarmid, Whistler’s Mother manuscript, GUL: Whistler Collection, F21, fol. 65). Henry Cammann McNeill (1 March 1828 – 7 August 1840), Anna Whistler’s nephew – the son of her brother, William Gibbs McNeill and of Maria (Cammann) McNeill – died by drowning in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1840 (Springfield Republican, Saturday, August 8, 1840). Thus, Kirk Boott Whistler and Charles Donald Whistler were buried with their half-brother and their first cousin in the same plot in Stonington, Connecticut. According to the inscription on the monument, Henry’s body was later removed to be buried with the remains of his brother, William Wyatt McNeill (October 1833 – 4 June 1853), who died in New Orleans as a result of a streetcar accident. I wish to thank Richard Blodgett of N. Stonington, Connecticut, for taking me on a tour of Whistler places in Stonington, for sharing his notes, and for supplying photographs of the monuments in the Whistler family plot. Mr. Blodgett is writing a book on James Whistler and the members of his class (1855) at West Point.

77  What little information is available about the Whistlers’ servants has been supplied in the entry for October 23ƨ [1845], NYPL: AWPD, Part II. Their surnames do not appear in the diaries.

78  William Hooper Ropes (10 March 1814 – 16 November 1891) was an American merchant of the firm of William Ropes and Company, founded by his father. The Ropes family also lived on the Galernaia, apparently nearby. See the biographies of the Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, and Hall families in Appendix E (hereafter, Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall).

79  William Hooper Ropes’s wife was Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes (23 April 1822 – 11 December 1903). Their daughters were Ellen Gellibrand Ropes (15 March 1841 – 1924) and Mary Emily Ropes (10 August 1842 – September quarter 1932) (list of marriages and issue, HUBL: Ropes Papers; Mary Tyler Gellibrand to grandparents, Leeds, March 9, 1841, Ropes Family Papers, 1734–1952, Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS), Boston [hereafter, MHS: Ropes Papers], Ms. N-174). See Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall in Appendix E.

80  The new baby was Louisa Harriet Ropes (18 November 1843 – 1 June 1903). Her married name became Mrs. Edward Abbs Cattley (list of marriages and issue, HUBL: Ropes Papers). All three children are described in Joseph S. Ropes to Wm. L. Ropes [his first cousin], St. Petersburg, April 20 / May 2, 1845, MHS: Ropes Papers).

81  This is Sophia Joanna (Krehmer) Baird (St. Petersburg c. 1805 – Derby 22 August 1885), widow of Nicol C. Baird (1/13 October 1800 – 1830) (1881 Census for Derby; National Probate Calendar [UK], 1885; PREC STP, no. 1825). They were married on 27 August (OS) 1828 (PREC STP, no. 3754).

This lady is a sister of a gentleman named Cramer, who was formerly Russian secretary of Legation in the United States and the sister in law of Gisborne, a prominent member of the British House of Commons [who married her sister, Sarah, in 1814]. She is of an old Livonian family, very accomplished, and a young widow with a good figure and most magnificent black eyes. Her father in law, named Baird of Scotish blood died last winter [Charles Baird died on 28 November / 10 December 1843] in St Petersburg, leaving a fortune of $2 000 000. He left the most of this immense property to his only living son [Francis Baird] and to an only child [Sophia Constance Baird, baptized in Paris December 3, 1829] of M Baird, the lady in question, a handsome sum upon her attaining a certain age. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Berlin, June 23, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 37)

See also G.H. Prince to Mary T. Gellibrand, St. Petersburg, May 2/14, 1841, MHS: Ropes Papers. For information about Charles Baird and his son, Francis, see V.A. Chernenko, “100 let na blago Rossii: dinastiia Berdov v Sankt-Peterburge” [“100 Years for the Good of Russia: The Baird Dynasty in St. Petersburg”]. In Rossiia – Velikobritaniia Piat’ vekov kul’turnykh sviazei: Materialy VI Mezhdunarodnogo petrovskogo kongressa Sankt-Peterburg 6-8 iiuniia 2014 goda [Russia – Great Britain Five Centuries of Cultural Ties: Materials from the 6th International Peter the Great Congress, St. Petersburg 6–8 June 2014], ed. A.V. Kobak and O.L. Kuvaldina (St. Petersburg: Evropeiskii dom, 2015), pp. 484–501. See also Images 274–277.

82  Sophia Joanna (Krehmer) Baird had an unmarried sister, named Elizabeth, with whom she later lived in Derby, where she died in 1885 (National Probate Calendar [UK], 1885). They were both British subjects then and both born in St. Petersburg (1881 Census for Derby).

83  The Bairds, as the preceding notes make clear, were a rich Scottish family.

84  This is Margaret Gordon Hirst (c. 1809 – 22 March / 3 April 1891), whose husband, Thomas Nelson Hirst (12 November 1794 – 22 May / 3 June 1863), ran a private school in St. Petersburg. See the biographies of the Hirst family in Appendix E (hereafter, Hirst).

85  This is actually Mrs. Hirst’s sister-in-law, Mary Gent Hirst (bap. 22 March 1797 – 23 July / 4 August 1844) (Index to Huddersfield Parish Church Registers, YK/R301, Society of Genealogists, London (hereafter, SoG); PREC STP for 1844, p. 312). It has not been possible to determine who in Preston wrote the letter to Mary Gent Hirst. See Hirst in Appendix E.

86  Alexander was the Whistlers’ butler.

87  Maurice was a young man, a former waiter, “who had not been very long in St. Petersburg, who spoke German and a little Russian” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Jan. 1, 1844, entry dated Jan. 4, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 27).

88  “Dwanick” (see Image 362) is Anna Whistler’s pronunciation of the Russian word for “the man who takes care of the yard,” spelled “dvornik” and pronounced “dvor′nyeek.” He was responsible for the care of the section of street in front of the house, too, but often, as was the case in the Whistler household, also did indoor work.

89  “The Major lives better than Col Todd did … he has everything of the best - above all in this country a good cook who can give an English taste and turn to her dishes” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, April 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 30).

90  The Russian word for “stove” is spelled “pech’” and pronounced “paych,” almost like “peach.” An English plural suffix is added here to the Russian singular. The spelling in the text of the diaries varies: peech, peitch, peach.

The firing of the stove was well explained and its virtues extolled by Maxwell: “All the houses are warmed by the peitch which is a species of oven in which is placed several pieces of wood cut about the size of that which you were used to burn in your room. This wood is fired and the chimney is left open for the smoke to escape until the wood upon the floor of the oven is one mass of red hot coals. Then the Mugik [peasant] shuts down or closes the chimney and with his poker scatters within the oven the live coals. From these the oven soon becomes very warm and throws off a very pleasant heat, free from gaseous compounds and very agreeable to the feelings. If the thermometer indicates too much heat you have only to open the little door made in your double window and you soon have the right temperature” (John S. Maxwell to [his uncle] Dr. John B. Stevenson, St. Petersburg, May 6, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers).

91  The servant’s Russian name was Fyodor, but Anna Whistler calls him both Fritz and Fredric in this entry and spells his Russian name elsewhere as Feodore.

92  The Russian word for “good” is spelled “khorosho” and pronounced “hurrahshaw′.”

93  It has not been possible to identify Andrea and his mother.

94  This twenty-five-kopek piece was a silver coin, called a “chetvertak” (from the Russian word “chetvert’,” or one quarter), and worth one-fourth of a ruble (Iu. A. Fedosiuk, Chto neponiatno u klassikov ili Èntsiklopediia russkogo byta XIX veka [What We Can’t Understand in the Russian Literary Classics; or, An Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Russian Life], 2nd ed. [Moskva: Flinta–Knowledge, 1999], p. 54).

95  Christian Witness was an Episcopalian weekly published in Boston, beginning in 1835, for the Massachusetts Episcopal Convocation. It ceased publication in 1841 and was replaced in that year by Christian Witness and Church Advocate.

John Stevenson Maxwell confirmed the exorbitantly high cost of receiving printed matter from abroad when he reported that Major Whistler had paid thirty-six dollars to receive some American newspapers that in the United States cost four cents (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg – November 1. 1843. N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 24).

96  Colonel Charles Stewart Todd (22 January 1791 – 17 May 1871; see Image 278) was the American Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia: appointed 27 August 1841; letter of recall 27 September 1845; formal leave 27 January 1846.

97  Todd to Wheaton, St. Petersburg, 22 Oct. / 3 Nov. 1843, RG84, vol. 165, fols. 99–100, NAUS.

98  Count Aleksei Alekseevich Bobrinskii (Bobrinskoi) (6/18 January 1800 – 4/16 October 1868) was the grandson of Empress Catherine the Great and Prince Grigorii Grigorievich Orlov (see Images 414, 443). He was a member of the committee set up “to supervise the … construction” of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway (Richard Mowbray Haywood, The Beginnings of Railway Development in Russia in the Reign of Nicholas I, 1835–1842 [Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1969], p. 227), of which Major Whistler, as consulting engineer, also became a member. See his biography in Appendix E and Image 86.

99  Major Whistler and John Stevenson Maxwell lived from the time of their arrival in Russia in 1842 in the house of Count Aleksei Alekseevich Bobrinskii. The house, which then served as the American Legation, had been rented by Colonel Charles Stewart Todd, who was living in it when they arrived in St. Petersburg and rented accommodations to them (John S Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Oct. 8/20, 1842, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 3). When Colonel Todd, who had been hearing rumors that he was to be recalled, found it financially expedient to give up the house, Major Whistler took the entire house for his family (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, September 9, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 21). Maxwell, too, was making preparations to move and had already decided where he would live “when Major W. took the house and offered me the rooms he occupied last winter at the same rent I was going to pay elsewhere, with the privilege of leaving them at any time I choose. I of course was glad to accept his offer, upon his stating that he did not want the rooms and would not let them to any one but me” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 9, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 21). The freedom to give up his lodgings whenever he might choose, instead of paying three months in advance elsewhere, appealed to Maxwell, who expected his own recall to follow Todd’s. But they were not recalled, and Maxwell, comparing his lodgings to those of his colleagues of the same rank in the diplomatic corps, felt he had “far better rooms for comfort and for show than any” of them (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Oct. 20, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 23).

His description of his rooms enables us to know how a portion of the house looked during the Whistlers’ stay:

Well I am settled for the winter. have taken the rooms in the basement [ground floor] formerly occupied by Major Whistler … My expenses will not be greater than they would have been elsewhere except in one particular. In the house in which I expected at first to hire apartments. the fuel or heat was a fixture, and formed part of the rent, which is the same I pay here except that I provide my own fire. I can do this for $50 for the winter and it is worth 50 dollars to be in a house where you live with one family you know … You enter from the Porters Hall into a large room in blue. which I will call the Anti-chamber. It contains a large looking glass, three sofa’s, a number of chairs, and has three curtained windows looking into the street and a highly polished oak floor. In this room there are two doors, one leading into an apology for a buffet, thence into my little bed room, and thence again into my dressing room. Out of the buffet or pantry a door opens leading to the court yard etc. The other door in the blue room leads into my parlour where I am now writing this. The walls are ornamented with a kind of woollen paper representing large red grape vines in a very flourishing state. Around the edge of the ceiling there run’s a gilt or brass band about two inches in breadth, and a chandelier of golden look hangs from the middle of the same. The two windows upon the street are hung with white figured curtain’s which look very well when newly washed, and in opposite corners fastened into the two peitchs for heating the rooms are mirrors of large dimension. The furniture is all of mahogany and the curtains the chairs and sofa of red figured velvet as soft as down can make them. There are four tables, a fire screen, three good views paintings representing charming views in the Crimea etc etc all belonging to Count Boberinsky our landlord excepting a picture of Peter the Great hanging over my head which belongs to Major Whistler. A grate has been inserted in one of the peitches, and a good Liverpool coal fire now blazes away diffusing quite a radience on all within its radeii which is again reflected from the bright surface of the newly waxed and varnished oak beneath my feet. If I can keep out the dust and dirt, if the heat dont melt off the legs of the tables and chairs, if bugs dont breed in the cushions and sofas I think I shall be snug for the winter. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 22)

It is not clear what happened to the portrait of Peter the Great, but the frame is referred to in the later family correspondence (from the GUL: Whistler Collection, Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Scarsdale, 11 July 1855, W458; and Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Scarsdale, 18 July 1855, W456).

100  Colonel Todd (see Image 278) had been hearing rumors that he was to be recalled and therefore was uncertain about the type of accommodations he would take when required to renew the lease. Finally, on quarter-day he “concluded to give up the house … having no news of a decided character by the last steamer, by which he could regulate his future movements” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 9, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 21). He set out for Stockholm, intending to be absent three weeks, and to take up lodgings on his return at “MƤ Benson’s a boarding house on the key where he has engaged a suite of rooms” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 9, 1843). The boarding house of the misses Elizabeth and Sarah Benson was located on the English Embankment in the house of Rall, numbered variously as No. 39 and No. 240– 241 (RGIA: Fond 1689, op. 1, d. 13. British Residents and British Congregation St. Petersburg 1845 [hereafter, BRBC STP 1845], fol. 5). Maxwell’s reaction to Todd’s choice was that he would “be comfortable, pay dear and loose [sic] caste” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 22), for “according to the notions that prevail here and the established etiquette he might as well live in a stable” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Oct. 20, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 23). Maxwell himself later stayed at the misses Benson’s boarding house and has left a delightful vignette of its atmosphere and landladies (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43). See the biography of the Benson sisters in Appendix E (hereafter, Benson).

101  Anna Whistler meant $1800. When they moved to Ritter’s house in 1844, she spoke of the new rent as being $900, half of the old (entry for English Quai – Ritter-Dom, Sept. 23ƚ [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I).

When Major Whistler sent for his family, Maxwell accompanied him to look for a suitable house for them: “Rents here are enormous, particularly for furnished houses. and it is almost impossible to get a house to one’s self as they are all so large. Many families live together, each occupying a floor, and in one house here there are 4000 inmates. The Major has not yet made a choice, but he cannot get one to suit him under $2000 per annum furnished and $1500 unfurnished” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Aug. 1, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 17).

102  The Winter Palace (see Images 114–117) was the residence of the Imperial Family. The sixth Winter Palace, it was built in 1754– 1764 by Francesco-Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700– 1771). It stands on the site of the razed fourth Winter Palace that he had started to build with his father, Carl Bartolomeo, in 1732. As had the fourth palace, it faces onto the Palace Embankment and Palace Square. It is in the shape of an irregular square around a courtyard, and is four stories high. The main façade of the Winter Palace, which faces onto Palace Square, has gates in the middle consisting of three entries that lead into the main courtyard. To the sides of these gates are porticos with lanterns: the one on the left is the portico of the Heir Apparent, on the right that of the Commandant (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, p. 241; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 240–242).

103  One side of the Winter Palace faces the Neva along the Palace Embankment (see Image 114). Between the front of the Winter Palace and the semi-circle of the Main Staff Headquarters building opposite it is a vast area called Palace Square, sometimes called Alexander Square because of the Alexander column in the center of it (see Images 116, 132). Palace Square may be entered from the Nevskii Prospekt by passing along a short section of street called Malaia Millionnaia, which is irregularly perpendicular to the Nevskii Prospekt, and then through the arch in the building of the Main Staff Headquarters (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 43, 178– 179, 341). One then crosses Palace Square and emerges onto the Palace Embankment. Driving along this embankment, one could see across the Neva the Peter and Paul Fortress, with the golden spire of its church (see Image 130). On the Palace Embankment side of the Winter Palace is located the main, or Ambassadors’, staircase (also called the Jordan staircase; see Image 115), which leads along a magnificent portico into the main salons of the Winter Palace (Grech, p. 241). This is where Colonel Todd and the Whistlers entered the Winter Palace. It is called the Ambassadors’ Staircase because foreign ambassadors ascended it to present their credentials; it is called the Jordan Staircase because on 6 January (OS) the reigning emperor descended it to attend the ceremony of the Blessing of the Waters in memory of the baptism of Christ in the Jordan River (George Heard Hamilton, The Art and Architecture of Russia [Baltimore, MD: Penguin, [1954], p. 182).

104  The Peter and Paul Fortress and Church (see Image 130) are discussed in the entry for Monday 27ƫ of July [1846], NYPL: AWPD, Part II, and accompanying Note 453, when the Whistlers visited these buildings.

105  The first ships’ wharf in St. Petersburg was established by Peter the Great (see Image 411) on 1 October (OS) 1704 on the left bank of the Neva, where the Admiralty now stands (see Image 118). The most outstanding improvements to the building were made in the reign of Alexander I (see Image 418), according to the plans of Academician Andreian Zakharov (1761–1811). The entire length of its façade, from the side where the Nevskii and other two prospects fan out, extends for 200 sazhens. (A sazhen equals 7 ft, or 2.13 m.) The building has three projections: the center projection extends out 10 sazhens and the two side projections 17 sazhens. In the center of the first projection, there is an arch, which constitutes the main gates. The gates are decorated with bas reliefs by Terebenev (1780–1850) and with statues of sea nymphs supporting the heavenly sphere and the figures of Achilles, Ajax, Pirrhus, and Alexander of Macedon. Above the arch is a tower with twenty-eight Ionic columns that form a kind of gallery. Above the cornice are twenty-eight statues representing, among other things, the seasons, the elements, and the countries of the world. The tower rises from the cornice in a round column and ends in a cupola with clocks on three sides. Above that is a lantern surrounded by a gallery with light iron railings. From here, the gilded iron spire begins, at the top of which is a ship 10 feet tall. Under the ship can be seen a crown and an apple, the latter having a diameter of three and a half feet. The height of the spire from the ground is 33 sazhens. On both sides of the central projection the building extends for 37 sazhens and is decorated with military fittings instead of bas reliefs. From here start small projections, of which the first have six columns, while the second have twelve columns, all eighteen Doric. The superb façades, enriched with bas reliefs by Terebenev, give both these projections a magnificent appearance. The roof is decorated with statues by Anisimov. The façades of the sides of the Admiralty that face the Winter Palace and the Senate perfectly match those buildings and are 50 sazhens long. On the Neva side, there are two pavilions; one covers the end of the side façade of the Admiralty and serves as the boundary of the two parallel lines of this building. In the center of the pavilion is a high arch, under which small vessels with masts freely pass. Every day from dawn till dusk the Admiralty flag flutters above the roof of this pavilion (Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 303, 305– 306).

106  An excellent, judiciously balanced biography of the complex character of Emperor Nicholas I (Nikolai Pavlovich Romanov) (1796–1855; see Images 420–423) in English, by W. Bruce Lincoln (1938–2000), is Nicholas I: Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, [1978]). As Lincoln states in his preface, “Perhaps no ruler left more of an impression upon nineteenth-century Russia than did the Emperor Nicholas I, for the origins of nearly every major change or event during the last century of Romanov rule can be traced to his reign” (Lincoln, Nicholas I, p. 9). He was “admired, even venerated,” on the one hand, and seen “as the personification of oppression,” on the other (Lincoln, p. 9). Because there are so few historical works on him, it is from the “biased, often bitter” “autobiographical and memoir accounts” of men “who suffered the ravages of censorship during his reign” that we have received “an untempered portait of a cruel, perhaps even mentally unbalanced tyrant” (Lincoln, p. 9) Lincoln recalls as a contrast the nostalgic words of Baroness Frederiks that “during the lifetime of Nikolai Pavlovich, Russia had great and noble stature … [and] he heaped still greater glory upon her” (quoted in Lincoln, p. 10). See also T.A. Kapustina, “Emperor Nicholas I, 1825–1855,” in The Emperors and Empresses of Russia: Discovering the Romanovs, ed. Donald J. Raleigh, comp. A.A. Iskenderov (Armonk, New York and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), pp. 256–293.

John Stevenson Maxwell, too, although he hated Russia, defended Nicholas I:

Nicholas the First has been much misrepresented or misunderstood; from prejudice or ignorance great injustice has been done to that remarkable personage in many publications relating to Russia. While deeply impressed with the evils of despotism, which on every side are seen and felt in Russia, the writer has endeavoured to do justice to the character of the Czar, his motives and intentions (J.S. Maxwell, The Czar, His Court and People: Including a Tour in Norway and Sweden, 3rd ed. New York: Charles Scribner, 1854), preface).

107  For the Jordan Staircase, see Image 115.

108  When the Winter Palace was not occupied by the Imperial family, its rooms and galleries were open to select visitors. The Winter Palace the Whistlers were viewing was a restored edifice. It had burned down in December 1837, and what the public viewed had been restored to its original appearance. The restoration was carried out with astonishing speed under the supervision of Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmikhel’ (see Image 243), head of the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings and Major Whistler’s superior, and was completed around Easter of 1839. This is one reason why everything seemed fresh to Anna Whistler. For an account of the fire and restoration, see Richard Mowbray Haywood, “The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg: Destruction by Fire and Reconstruction, December 1837 – March 1839,” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Ost-europas [Yearbook for the History of Eastern Europe] 27 (1979), H. 2: pp. 161–180.

The New Hermitage (see Image 113) was being built for exhibiting the Imperial collections because the Hermitage was crowded and could not be expanded, as well as because it was the living quarters of the Imperial family. Leo von Klenze (1784–1864), who had been the architect of the Old Pinakothek and the Glyptothek in Munich, was invited to design it. The two persons responsible for supervising the work were the minister of the Imperial Court, Prince P.M. Volkonskii, and the head of Transport and Public Buildings, Count P.A. Kleinmikhel’ (see Image 243). The latter had been responsible for rebuilding the Hermitage after the fire of 1837. Construction of the New Hermitage was begun in 1840 and completed in 1852 (V.A. Suslov, “Nikolai I i Novyi Èrmitazh” [“Nicholas I and the New Hermitage”], in Nikolai I i Novyi Èrmitazh, Katalog vystavski “150 let Novomu Èrmitazhu” [Nicholas I and the New Hermitage: Catalogue of the Exhibition “150 Years of the New Hermitage”] [St. Petersburg: Izd-stvo Gosudarstvennogo Èrmitazha, 2002], p. 9–17).

109  The Imperial family would move to Tsarskoe Selo in early spring and back to St. Petersburg in November. In 1843, they moved back to St. Petersburg on 9/21 November (M.A. Korf, Dnevnik God 1843-i [Diary for 1843], in Vremena i nravy: memuary, pis´ma, dnevniki [Times and Mores: Memoirs, Letters, Diaries], ed. I.V. Ruzhitskaia [Moscow: Akademiia, 2004], p. 344).

110  The name of the town was Tsarskoe Selo (pronounced “Tsar′skuhyuh Sillaw′”; see Images 383–394). The simple explanation of the name is that it began as the Finnish “Saari mois” (“high place,” “elevated land”), which in Russian became “Sarskoe Selo” (“Saari Village”) and later “Tsarskoe Selo” (“The Tsar’s Village,” “The Imperial Village”) (Hamilton, Art and Architecture of Russia, p. 283; William Craft Brumfield, A History of Russian Architecture [Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993], p. 221, to name but two sources). S.N. Vil’chkovskii, the author of a guide prepared for the two-hundredth anniversary (1910) of Tsarskoe Selo, offers a plausible fuller explanation for the name of this ancient settlement, which passed from Russian into Swedish hands and during Peter the Great’s war with Charles XII of Sweden was returned to Russia. The Swedish feudal lord, on receiving the ancient Russian ancestral lands of Saritsa as a fief, naturally changed its name to Saritsgof, because the suffix “gof” meant there was a landlord’s house in the given settlement. Such settlements with a noble owner living in them were in Russian usage of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries referred to in this locale as a “myza” (grange, farmstead), probably because the local Finnish population called them “mois,” which means “myza.” Thus, the noble Saritsgof became in the speech of the Finnish settlers Saarimois, while it passed into Russian speech as Saritskaia and Sarskaia myza. The name Sarskaia myza changed in the time of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna to Sarskoe Selo because there had by then arisen around the former “myza” an entire settlement with a church attended by all the peasants from the surrounding Russian villages. Gradually the word “selo” began to replace “myza” in official documents as well. In the reign of Catherine the Great, everyone said and wrote “Tsarskoe Selo,” but “Sarskoe” appeared in some official documents up to 1808 (S.N. Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, reproduction of the 1911 edition [St. Petersburg: Title Publishing House, 1992], p. 12). However, Pushkarev said in 1842 that the place continued to be called “Sarskaia” up to the present time, while “Tsarskoe” was the name used in all official documents as of 1725 (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, p. 48). As we see from their correspondence, Colonel Todd and Maxwell wrote “Sarscacello” even in the 1840s.

In addition to “Sarscacello” one also sees the spelling “Sarscocello” in the diaries, but they are pronounced identically: “Sar′skuhsillaw′.” In these English versions, “c” represents in the first instance the sound of “k” and in the second instance the sound of “s,” as though it is first “c” from the Roman alphabet and then the Cyrillic “c,” the equivalent of English “s.” Thus, where one would expect the English pronunciation “chello” as in Monticello, we get instead “sello.”

111  Grand Duke Nikolai Aleksandrovich, the Heir Apparent (see Images 428–429), was born on 8 September 1843 [20 September NS] (Korf, Dnevnik 1843, p. 282). His christening took place on Sunday, 10 October 1843 [22 October NS] (Korf, pp. 303–305). Eventually, it was decided by Nicholas I that the child’s birthday would be celebrated on 10 October (Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti 278, Wednesday, December 8 [December 20 NS], 1843, p. 1273). Anna Whistler was in error about the date of the christening.

Maxwell has left an amusing account of Todd’s invitation to and attendance at the christening:

I think I told you in a former letter of the birth of a prince; the lineal heir to the Imperial honours. Great has been the rejoicing thereupon. The first intimation I had of the event was an unusual firing of cannon; the next, a visit from a Master of Ceremonies ‘pour annoncer l’heaureuse délivrance de Son Altesse Impériale, Madame la Grande Césarevna Grande Duchesse Marie Alexandrovna et la naissance de Son Altesse Impériale le Grand Duc Nicholas Alexandrovitch’. Then followed a proclamation from the Emperor to his well beloved subjects directing a general Te Deum throughout the empire and finally a circular was issued to the Court giving the necessary information respecting the process of baptism. I enclose you one of these Circulars in French; let Ag [his sister, Agnes] translate it for you. In the Circular no mention is made of the place or position assigned the ‘Corps diplomatique’ and I verily thought at one time that this interesting set of wise acres were intentionally left out. His Excellency Colonel Todd was really quite astonished at the oversight and only recovered his ministerial composure upon the reception of a note inviting him, and not me, to the holy ceremony. The Secretarys and such small fry were beneath notice on such an occasion and Ambassadors and Envoys ‘all the go’ As to my individual self it was a matter of perfect indifference whether I went or not and the truth is it was greatly for my interest not to go at all. The place of ceremony is fifteen miles from here and I would have had to incur considerable expense to have gone and returned and I would not have seen more than I am almost tired of seeing already. His Excellency left here at 6 in the morning, was on his feet most of the day, soiled his uniform in the rain, and has been laid up with a cold ever since; the only particular indemnification he received on this particular occasion being (to use his own words) ‘the honour of dining for the first time at the very same table with an Emperor’. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Nov. 1, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 24)

Maxwell’s private response to the birth of the Grand Duke Nikolai Aleksandrovich was facetious: “This is the second child born unto them since I have been in this country which is just about a year and a month, but then the winter nights are very long here” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 22). Nikolai Aleksandrovich was declared heir to the throne on 18 February 1855, the day his grandfather, Nicholas I, died and his father, Alexander II, ascended the throne. He died, however, on 12 April 1865 (in Nice), on which day his younger brother, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich, was declared heir to the throne. The body of Nikolai Aleksandrovich was brought back to St. Petersburg, where it was interred in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul.

See also his description of his and Todd’s attendance at the “relevailles, which being translated, signifies the churching and giving thanks upon recovery,” which took place on 25 October / 6 November (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Nov. 15, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 25; Korf, Dnevnik 1843, p. 329).

112  The parents of the Grand Duke Nikolai Aleksandrovich (Tsarskoe Selo 8 September [OS] 1843 – Nice 12/24 April 1865) were Grand Duke Aleksandr Nikolaevich (Moscow 17 April [OS] 1818 – St. Petersburg 1 March [OS] 1881), the future Aleksandr II, and Grand Duchess Maria Aleksandrovna (Darmstadt 27 July / 8 August 1824 – St. Petersburg 22 May [OS] 1880) (born Maximiliana-Wilhelmina-Augusta-Sophia-Maria, Princess of Hesse-Darmstadt) (Yu. A. Kuz’min, Rossiiskaia imperatorskaia familiia 1797–1917 Biobibliograficheskii spravochnik [The Russian Imperial Family 1797–1917: A Biobibliographical Handbook] [St. Petersburg: Dmitrii Bulanin, 2005], pp. 72, 203, 266). See Images 425–427.

113  Anna Whistler did not indicate a new entry, but at this point she was writing in early December.

114  Emperor Alexander I (b. St. Petersburg 12/23 December 1777; see Image 418) died in Taganrog on 19 November / 1 December 1825.

115  The accession of Nicholas I (Tsarskoe Selo 25 June 1796 [OS] – St. Petersburg 18 February 1855 [OS]; see Images 420–423) took place on 14/26 December 1825; he was crowned in Moscow on 22 August /3 September 1826. For an explanation of the events occurring between his brother’s death and the events of 14/26 December, see Lincoln, Nicholas I, pp. 13, 17–47. For the date of his coronation, see Kuz’min, Rossiiskaia imperatorskaia familiia, p. 238.

116  They are the equivalent of Western storm windows, but with a larger space between the two panes.

117  Anna Whistler was now writing in late December.

118  “Dvanic” (see Image 362) is Anna Whistler’s pronunciation of the Russian word for “the man who takes care of the yard,” spelled “dvornik” and pronounced “dvor′nyeek.” When she uses the term a few lines later, she adds the English plural suffix -s.

119  Image 97 shows the care of the Nevskii Prospekt in winter: Nevskii Prospekt by Moonlight (Nevskii Prospekt pri lunnom osveshchenii) (1855–59).

120  A “shuba,” pronounced like “shoe” + “buh,” is a loose, hooded, ankle-length, fur-lined cloak or pelisse. Anna Whistler renders this pronunciation as “shu′be” (two syllables). The anglicized plural would be “shoe” + “buzz” (see Image 13).

121  Anna Whistler omitted the verb in this sentence, probably “saw.” See “St. Petersburg and the Journey There” regarding the symbolic meaning of the pigeon for Russians.

122  Major Whistler was away from the evening of 20 December until the morning of 22 December 1843.

123  The covered sled was called a “kibitka” (see Image 354).

124  His name on his Russian service record transliterates as Vil’gel’m Ivanovich Truveller (born c. 1809) (RGIA: Fond 200, op. 1, d. 8101. Formuliarnyi spisok o sluzhbe i dostoinstve Korpusa Inzhenerov putei soobshcheniia Maiora Truvellera. Za 1841 god. [Service and merit record of Major Truveller of the Corps of Transport Engineers. For 1841.]), but he was an Englishman named Frederick William Trewheeler (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 57; PREC STP for 1834, p. 192). In early 1843, he had submitted to P.P. Mel’nikov (see following Note) a project for building a railway from Peterhof. Mel’nikov had responded that Truveller’s drawing and note were not sufficiently complete to permit a positive conclusion to be drawn [RGIA: Fond 207, op. 5, d. 85. Po pis’mu Maiora Truvellera, s pro”ektom na ustroistvo zheleznoi dorogi ot Petergofa k vnov’ predpolagaemomu soobshcheniiu mezhdu obeimi stolitsami. 7 fev. 1843 g. – 12 fev. 1843 g. [Concerning the letter of Major Truveller with a project to build a railway from Peterhof to the again proposed connection between the two capitols. 7 Feb. 1843 – 12 Feb. 1843], fols. 6r, 7r and v, 8r-13r). When he met Anna Whistler, he was retired and a civilian contractor under contract to build the Volga bridge for the Department of Railways (Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, p. 205). Except for Russian documents cited, his surname will be spelled as it appears in Anna Whistler’s diaries.

125  Colonel Pavel Petrovich Mel’nikov (22 July / 3 August 1804 – 22 July / 3 August 1880) was in charge of the Northern Administration of the tract of the future St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. The Northern Administration ran from St. Petersburg to the Kolomenets River in the Valdai Hills of Novgorod Province. Mel’nikov made his residence in the town of Chudovo. See the biographies of the Mel’nikov family in Appendix E (hereafter, Mel’nikov) and Image 247.

126  As there were several German jewelers on the Nevskii Prospekt and on streets running off the Nevskii, it is not possible to say which one they went to.

For a discussion of Victorian hair jewelry and its significance as a memory of death (momento mori) object, see Karen Bachmann, “Hairy Secrets: Human Relic as Memory Object in Victorian Mourning Jewelry” (master’s thesis, Purchase College, State University of New York, 2013) and Helen Sheumaker, Love Entwined: The Curious History of Hairwork in America (Pittsburgh: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007); see also Image 367.

127  There was one confectioner on Galernaia Street. This was Kalats, whose shop was located in the house of Shitt at 24 Galernaia Street (N. Tsylov, Gorodskoi ukazatel’ ili Adresnaia kniga vrachei, khudozhnikov, remeslennikov, torgovykh mest, remeslennykh zavedenii i t.p. na 1849 god [City Directory, or, Address Book of Doctors, Artists, Artisans, Places of Trade, Artisans’ Establishments, Etc. for 1849] [St. Petersburg, 1849], p. 174). Twenty-four Galernaia Street was the second house from the corner of Zamiatin Lane. See “Maps.”

128  The English Store or Magazine (Angliiskii magazin) was the best and most widely stocked of all Petersburg stores (see Image 108). Founded in 1789, it had belonged since 1815 to Konstantin V. Nichols and William F. Plincke. In 1844, they were joined by a third owner, Robert Colquohon. Neither Konstantin Nichols nor William Plincke is registered in the BRBC STP 1845, but Robert Colquohon is (fol. 9). Located on the corner of Nevskii Prospekt and Malaia Millionnaia Street (entrance from this street) in the house of Vasil’chikov, No. 61, it remained in this building for almost one hundred years. The store had no sign, and its only distinguishing external feature was that half of each window was frosted glass. Everything from wine and china to velvet and diamonds was sold here. In the basement, there was a wine cellar on the left, one of the best in the capital; on the right were sold cigars, faience, and porcelain wares. Upstairs there was a series of gallery-like rooms containing toiletries, cosmetic goods, bone, bronze, leather and steel articles; stationery; silverware; silk, wool and cotton fabrics, muslin, tulle, ready-to-wear dresses, mantillas, etc.; gold and silver articles, insignia (for orders); diamonds; broadcloth, velvet, carpets, rubber, etc. Foreign goods were ordered for it directly from abroad from the best factories, and the best Petersburg artisans filled orders for it as well. The prices were high, and no haggling was permitted, but even the most inexperienced customer could rely on the word of its salesmen. The store was famous also for the politeness and attentiveness of its floorwalkers (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 17–18; Vikentii Kishkin-Zhgerskii (P. Kiszkę-Żgierski), Kommercheskii ukazatel’ goroda St. Peterburga na 1831 god [Commercial Guide for the City of St. Petersburg for 1831] [St. Petersburg: Litografiia Varmonta, [1831]], p. 5; Broitman and Krasnova, Bol’shaia Morskaia, pp. 25–27; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, p. 622). Some twenty-five employees of the English Magazine residing therein (with and without families) are also listed in the BRBC STP 1845. See, for example, William Baker (fol. 5); Edward Coleman (fol. 9); John Cooke Facon (fol. 19); George Mullins (fol. 40); Henry Plincke (fol. 44); William Rickards (fol. 48); James Thornley (fol. 57); “Mrs. Whitaker, wido, housekeeper, born Morrison” (fol. 62).

129  The “Russian pictures” are probably the facsimile portraits of Russian peasants by Russian artists that Anna Whistler wrote James in 1853 she had found among some books in her trunk (Anna Whistler to James Whistler, New York, Dec. 1st thursday evening [1853], GUL: Whistler Collection, W427). Whatever the work was that she gave her sons for Christmas, it had to have been published no later than December 1843. The work that comes to mind is the bilingual collection of lithographs Sobranie risunkov izobrazhaiushchikh raznoshchikov v S. Peterburge – Cris de St. Pétersbourg. Collection de petits dessins à l’usage de la jeunesse, dessinés & coloriés dans l’etablissment de Charles Beggrow [The Cries of St. Petersburg: A Collection of Small Drawings for the Use of Children, Designed and Colored in the Workshop of Charles Beggrow [Karl Beggrov]] (St. Petersburg: Charles Beggrow, 1834) (see Images 364–365). That they were individual (loose) pictures seems attested to by Anna Whistler’s comment that she “arranged” them.

130  The word is “écritoire.” This desk was stolen and never retrieved, but an earlier laptop desk belonging to Anna Whistler can be seen at the Lighthouse Museum in Stonington, Connecticut. It is 7½ by 11½ inches and bears a silver plaque with the initials A.M.W. and the date 1833. It was given to the museum by “Mr. and Mrs. David M. Johnstone in the 1970s after Mrs. Stuart, his mother, moved from the 24 Main Street house [“the Old Corner House” of the Palmer family]” (Mary M. Thacher, librarian, SHS, to E. Harden, 2 June 1996).

131  It has not been possible to locate this note.

132  Emma Elizabeth Maingay (6 February 1826 – 27 December 1904) became Deborah Whistler’s closest friend in St. Petersburg. They remained lifelong friends in England. See the biographies of the Maingay family in Appendix E (hereafter, Maingay) and Image 263.

133  William Clarke Gellibrand (31 March 1791 – 20 April 1884), husband of William H. Ropes’s sister, Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (13 October 1812 – 16 April 1894), was an English merchant and a partner in Hubbard and Company. See Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall in Appendix E and Images 265–267.

134  Anna Whistler does not identify her guests, but one of them was Maxwell, who described “the history of my Christmas day” to his mother:

Soon after ten I went above stairs and wished the Whistlers a merry day and offered the Major and the Majors daughter, tickets to the first great ball of the Nobility in the evening. The Major who had been sick for some days was still too ill to think of going out and I myself could not expect to take charge of the youthful daughter, even if agreeable to herself or her Father, for it would not be proper as things are constituted here. Miss W was a little disappointed but had not much to regret as we will see hereafter. Having accepted to dine with them at 4 P.M. I left … After two or three other calls. I returned and dressed for dinner. Soon after going aloft I handed M W, to the table and with three other American guests sat down to an excellent dinner. Just as I finished my coffee I was summoned to attend my German Professor … Then it was time to dress for the ball … I presented MƤ W. with a few jars of Russian preserves, and divers specimens of Russian cakes and confectionary. To the young lady I sent some bonbons and three of the best Opera’s of the best composer’s, to the Major I sent some fine French fruit, including St Germain pears, for which I paid one ruble each, and the boys I gave some trifling affairs as playthings. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Jan. 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 27)

Maxwell also made clear in this letter that he was talking of “Christmas our style,” that is, according to the Gregorian Calendar. In saying that Deborah Whistler did well by not being present at the ball, Maxwell had in mind that the ball at a later hour changed to a masquerade, which was open to all classes of society who chose to buy tickets to it, and she might, therefore, have been offended (see Image 374).

135  In order to help his children commit the dry and difficult facts of the solar system to memory, Rev. Legh Richmond (see Image 189) presented the material in a poem called “The Solar System.” It consists of an introduction, eleven stanzas describing the sun, planets, asteroids, and comets, and a conclusion devoted to the glorification of God the Creator. The poem was published in 1833 for its usefulness to other children. See Domestic Portaiture, pp. 36–40. It is not possible to say when Anna and Major Whistler became aware of the book, but by 1843 it had passed through several editions.

Legh Richmond (Liverpool 29 January 1772 – Turvey 5 May 1827), evangelical divine, entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1789, where “he obtained considerable proficiency in the practice and theory of music.” He suffered from weak health, as well as being permanently lame from a childhood accident. He received the BA (aegrotat degree) in 1794. In 1797, he married Mary Chambers of Bath. In 1799, he received the “M.A., and was ordained to the curacy of the parishes of Brading and Yaverland in the Isle of Wight,” with his residence in Brading. Under “the influence of … Wilberforce’s ‘Practical View of Christianity’,” shortly after coming to the Isle of Wight he “first adopted those strictly evangelical views with which his name was thenceforth associated.” Here, too, he gathered the material for “his three famous tales of village life”: “The Dairyman’s Daughter,” “The Young Cottager,” and “The Negro Servant,” which he wrote in 1809, after having left the Isle of Wight, and published between 1809 and 1814 under the name “Simplex.” Instantly popular, “they were reprinted by the Religious Tract Society in 1814 under the general title of ‘The Annals of the Poor’.” The book was translated into many languages, “obtained a very wide circulation in America,” and was estimated to have reached a circulation “in the English language alone” of two million copies during Richmond’s lifetime. In spring 1805, Richmond became “assistant chaplain to the Lock Hospital in London,” but on 30 July of the same year “was inducted into the rectory of Turvey in Bedfordshire.” Here, he became a popular preacher, drawing an audience from other towns as well, as “[c]lergymen of ability holding evangelical views were rare.” He was also “among the earliest clergymen to initiate and encourage” village benefit societies. He was, as well, deeply involved “in the establishment of the great evangelical societies like the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Church Missionary Society, and the Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews,” undertaking “extended and successful preaching tours … to collect money for them.” In 1806, he became editor of the series Fathers of the English Church. Eight volumes “of selections from the writings of the English reformers” appeared between 1807 and 1812, but the venture was not a financial success, and in 1814 his friends “with some difficulty” covered the losses. In 1814, he was also appointed personal chaplain by the Duke of Kent. In 1820, while on a preaching tour in Scotland, Richmond visited Iona, which had no church or resident Christian minister. Although he raised some £92,000 to remedy this lack, the Duke of Argyll, owner of the island, himself undertook to build “a church, minister’s house, and school.” Richmond’s fund was used instead to set up “a free library for the island.” In 1822, memorials were erected in the Isle of Wight to the cottagers whom Richmond had made famous, and he himself was present at the ceremony. In 1825, Richmond’s second son, Wilberforce, died at Turvey of consumption, and, shortly after, his eldest son, Nugent, died at sea of fever, while returning home from India after a long absence. Richmond’s already-delicate health was further undermined, and he died on 8 May 1827 (Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Richmond, Legh [1772–1827]”; Domestic Portraiture; Grimshawe, Memoir of Richmond).

136  Francis Lister Hawks (Newbern, NC 10 June 1798 – New York 24 September 1866) graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1815. He studied law in the only law school in America at that time, in Litchfield, Connecticut, and at twenty-one was admitted to the bar in North Carolina. The death of his wife, Emma Kirby, whom he had married in 1823, influenced a decision to become a cleric. In 1827, “he was ordained … a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church.” He served for about a year in New Haven, Connecticut, where he also married again, and then in Philadelphia. He next was called to New York, serving briefly at St. Stephen’s Church and then, for twelve years, at St. Thomas’s. He came to be considered “a pulpit orator” of “very remarkable ability.” In 1835, he pubished several volumes in a children’s series called the “Boys’ and Girls’ Library,” which consisted of dialogues between a knowledgeable “Uncle Philip” and an inquiring audience of children. In 1836, he “visited England … for the purpose of obtaining copies of … documents … related to the early history of the Episcopal Church in America,” some of which he later published. In 1837, he established, with a colleague, the New York Review, to which he contributed two outstanding articles: one on Thomas Jefferson and the other on Aaron Burr. In 1839, he established the St. Thomas’ Hall School on Long Island that failed financially and bankrupted him. He was also connected with the N-YHS (founded in 1804), which he helped “to restore … to life and usefulness” in the late 1830s, when it was in a period of decline. From 1849 to 1859, he was on its Executive Committee; from 1855 to 1859, he was the First Vice-President of the American Ethnological Society (organized in 1842); and from 1855 to 1861, he was President of the American Geographical and Statistical Society. From 1836 to 1863, he published works “relating to American history, civil and ecclesiastical.” In 1843, he accepted a call to Mississipi, where he spent about one year before accepting a call to New Orleans, where he served for five years. In 1849, he “was recalled to New York” to become rector of Calvary Church, and a subscription was raised to eliminate the debt he had incurred in establishing the St. Thomas’ Hall School. In 1861, out of sympathy with the Southern cause, he resigned from Calvary Church and accepted a call to Christ Church in Baltimore. He returned after some two years to New York and eventually became rector of a new church, which was called the “Chapel of the Holy Saviour.” On 4 September 1866, he spoke at the cornerstone ceremony of this new church. On the twenty-seventh, he died. He was buried in Greenwich, Connecticut. (All quotations are taken from Evert A. Duyckinck, A Memorial of Francis L. Hawks, D.D., LL. D. Read before the New-York Historical Society May 7th, 1867 [New York, 1871], pp. 9–40. See also “The Late Francis L. Hawks,” Putnam’s Magazine [January 1868]: pp. 100–105.) There is “a list of his sermon titles from … October 1864 to June 1866” at the N-YHS; almost “all of his titles are short lines of New Testament scripture.” As “most of his sermon-writing was done during his rectorship at St. Thomas Church … (1831 to 1843),” I was directed there. (All quotations are from Mariam Touba, N-YHS, to E. Harden, 17 August 2004). An enquiry sent to Saint Thomas Church resulted only in acknowledgment of my letter but no subsequent information (Rev. Andrew C. Mead, New York, to E. Harden, 21 October 2004).

137  The only daughter, at this time, of Anna Whistler’s sister in Stonington, Catherine Jane (McNeill) Palmer, was Julia McNeill Palmer, who had been born on 25 March 1841 (d. 22 February 1902) (Donald P. Stanton to Kate McDiarmid, Stonington, 25 November 1928, GUL: Whistler Collection, S191). Therefore, Anna Whistler had to be referring to her nieces, Mary Isabella McNeill and Catherine Julia McNeill (see Images 32–33), daughters of her brother General William Gibbs McNeill (1801–1853; see Image 31) and Maria (Cammann) McNeill (1799–1850). They must have been making one of their frequent visits to Stonington. It has not been possible to locate their letters. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

138  Psalm 97:1–2: “1 The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. 2 Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne.”

139  The Lausanne was cleared for departure from the port of New York on 29 November 1843 (New York Herald, November 29, 1843, vol. 9, no. 316, whole no. 3538). It has not been possible to locate young George Whistler’s letter.

140  In a letter dated 26 November 1843, General Joseph Gardner Swift (1783–1865; see Image 11), brother of Major Whistler’s first wife, requested of Colonel John J. Abert (1788–1863), Commander of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, that he get a Protection from the Secretary of State for George W. Whistler Jr. of New York, his nephew, who was “on the eve of sailing for the Sandwich Islands, mouth of the Columbia River, Manilla and Home again and had to act on the spur of the moment because of delicate health and the fact that the only ship travelling to that particular destination was to sail on Wednesday” (NAUS: Passports, M1371, roll 2, passport no. 1737). See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

141  It has not been possible to locate this letter containing information about Charlie’s remains and Martha (Kingsley) McNeill (10 August 1775 – 7 April 1852; see Image 22). Martha (Kingsley) McNeill was going to visit her younger son, Charles Johnston McNeill (6 March 1802 – 2 March 1869) at Reddys Point, Florida (Ida Brooks Kellam and Elizabeth Francenia McKoy, St. James Church Wilmington, North Carolina Historical Records 1737–1852, 3 vols. [Wilmington, NC: I.B. Kellam, 1965], vol 1, p. 75; Schafer, Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley, pp. 114, 153; Anna Whistler to [Mr. and Mrs. Gamble], London, May 6, [18]69, GUL: Whistler Collection, W356; biography of Anna Whistler in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s”; biography of Charles Johnston McNeill in Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E).

142  Anna Whistler is referring to Thursday, 28 December 1843.

143  “A few days since Major Ws little boys and daughter presented their Mother as a Christmas gift a very pretty rosewood writing case of very rich workmanship. Two or three mornings after it had disappeared, and we are all at a loss how to account for the robbery. It was taken from the drawing room – during the night. Some of the servants undoubtedly have stolen it, but what can be done? To apply to the police would be to create expense and difficulty, and to turn away the servants would be to take others perhaps worse than those on the premisses” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Jan. 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 27).

144  It has not been possible to ascertain the name of the Master of Police of their quarter.

145  Maxwell elaborates on the loss of the flute, the servants on whom suspicion fell, and the Whistlers’ kindness to their servants:

The Major has discovered that he has lost his flute as well as the writing case. This flute, a very fine one he paid 20 guinea’s for many years ago in London and he valued it as an old companion above all price. We have sent to the police, the officers have been here, searched without finding, carried off a young man who was a waiter, who had not been very long in St. Petersburg, who spoke German and a little Russian, and who is generally suspected as the robber. They attached a rope to his arm and in this way took him off. At the police office, he charged it upon the Dvornik or Court yard keeper, a poor ignorant wild Russian who is half frightened to death and who has likewise been before the police. But they have both been released, and the officers after manifesting very little care in the matter seem to have dropped the matter. the enquiry. My old fox of a servant [La Ronne] was out with me late on the night of the robbery. I sent him home from the French theatre with the carriage, and returned myself with a friend sometime after midnight when we took supper. It is impossible to say with confidence whether he knows any thing of it or not. He has access to every thing I have, and as I trust to him I thought best to inform him that if any thing was gone I would shoot him, a privilege I have by virtue of my office. But I really pity the Majors family in such a state of affairs. They have been so unaccustomed to lock up from their servants, but to treat them kindly and with confidence. Those they have they pay better and treat better than they are could expect, and to be plundered in this impudent way is outragous. The man that is suspected cannot speak one word of English and the only way of directing him was through the quickly acquired German of Miss W. The worst of the matter is, that having applied to the police, he (Major W) will be exposed to the extortions of this body of swindlers for some time to come, nor will he ever recover his things, if they are found, without paying the finder their full original value. The only way to live in security here is, either, to have little and lock that up yourself as securely as you can and trust to luck or to have much and pay a princely salary to the man you think honest enough to be your maître d’hotel, and master of your house from top to bottom. In this last case. you hold one person responsible. and are relieved from much embarrassment. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Jan. 1, 1844, entry dated Jan. 4, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 27)

This was not the first time that Major Whistler’s premises had been robbed. In September 1843, not long before the arrival of the Major’s family, Maxwell wrote his mother at length about the theft of a large sum of money from the Major’s rooms, his carelessness with his money, the preferential treatment be received, and crime in St. Petersburg in general:

Our quiet household has been disturbed by a very serious occurrence. although a common one in St. Petersburg. Major Whistlers rooms upon the basement [ground] floor were entered from the windows on the street night before last [Thursday, 8 September], his desk drawer broken open and six hundred dollars in paper roubles taken therefrom. In a port folio in the same drawer there was about the same amount of money, (all of which he had received from the Government the day before) which the robbers did not discover. They took however two gold eagles, of American coin, and left one which they, in their haste could not have seen. There was much other valuable property in the room and the Colonel of the Police and Aide de Camp to Pevrofsky [L.A. Perovskii (1792–1856)], Minister of the Interior, who visited the premises, expressed it as his opinion that the theft was committed by some person living on the premises and knowing the money to be in the drawer. This is the opinion of the Major and mine, and Colonel Todds. for no one could, except some one who saw it, know that the money was in that particular drawer. The officer who visited the house at the request of his Excellency Col Todd; for we are exempt by virtue of our position from the voluntary attentions of the police; requested permission to work secretly and use extraordinary measures to detect the robbers. The permission has been granted and I have no doubt agents are about us who will discover something, although Major W. will never recover a cent, as I am informed that nothing is ever restored to the owners. Major W is rather careless with his money, and as there are no ordinary banks of deposite, is liable to meet with accident, particularly here as there are very numerous thefts now every day in the neighbourhood. It is a little remarkable that the police force of the quarter or district on the morning preceding the robbery, summoned before them our dvor dwornick or person who sweeps the sidewalk and court yard, and informed him that as the long nights were approaching fast, he must keep a watch with his neighbour dwornicks, for they would not answer for any burglary that might be committed in the neighbourhood. Certain it is many robberies are committed, and murders too. We hear of them occasionally, but the great majority of cases are never known to the public, as there are no newspapers or person’s permitted to mention such events. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 9, 1843, entry dated Sept. 10, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 21).

It has not been possible to ascertain the name of L.A. Perovskii’s aide de camp.

146  Anna Whistler meant “are.”

147  “Men are but Children of a larger growth” is a line spoken by Dollabella in John Dryden’s All for Love; or, The World Well Lost (1678) (Menston, UK: Scholar Press, 1969), p. 46.

148  The two trips made by Major Whistler were the one to England in 1828–29, where he was sent by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and the one in 1842 to Russia.

149  It has not been possible to determine the name of the new dvornik or of his brother.

150  Anna Whistler meant “for us to apply”.

151  Luke 21:19: “In your patience possess ye your souls.”

152  Emma Woodbridge Palmer (24 November 1835 – 28 July 1912), Anna Whistler’s step-niece, writing to Elizabeth Robins Pennell in 1906, said of Charlie’s funeral:

H. Clay Trumbull in a little sketch of the Whistlers speaks of the arrival of his little body, as follows An incident that made an impression on my mind in connection with the absence of the Whistlers in Russia, was the death then of their youngest child, and the bringing to Stonington of a casket containing his body, everything was different from the plain N England style Instead of the red mahogany, or cherry, there was an ornate oaken sarcophagus ornamented with silver lace, including a Greek cross of this lace, on the top of the sarcophagus. I was asked by my Aunt Mrs Palmer to act as bearer to the little one! (Emma W. Palmer to Elizabeth R. Pennell, Letters Relating to Whistler, LC: P-W, box 296)

It has not been possible to locate the letter from Catherine (McNeill) Palmer. Maria mentioned here is Maria (Cammann) McNeill, sister-in-law of Anna (McNeill) Whistler and Catherine (McNeill) Palmer. Julie is Maria (Cammann) McNeill’s daughter.

153  Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

154  Anna Whistler is referring to Mary Brennan’s brother, James, in Springfield, Massachusetts (Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Stonington, August 23, 1849, GUL: Whistler Collection, W389; Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Scarsdale, Monday evening Dec. 15th [18]56, GUL: Whistler Collection, W472). See Brennan, Bergin, Keefe in Appendix E.

155  This is Mary Isabella McNeill (see Image 32), daughter of General William Gibbs McNeill (see Image 31) and Maria (Cammann) McNeill.

156  This is Caroline (Whistler) Bloodgood (12 March 1810 – 26 November 1893), daughter of Major G.W. Whistler’s eldest brother, William (see Image 34). She married (c. 1826) Lt. William Bloodgood (1801 – 1 August 1874), USMA Class of 1824. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

157  George Bloodgood (1830 – January 1909) was the son of Caroline (Whistler) and Lt. William Bloodgood. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

158  Wilkins Bloodgood (1841–1862) was the son of Caroline (Whistler) and Major (New York Militia, 1838-54) William Bloodgood. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

159  Pine Grove was a small town in Schuyler County, New York. It was located some forty miles south of Geneva, Ontario County, New York. Along with Tyrone and Tobanna, it was a post office (John W. Barber and Henry Howe, Historical Collections of the State of New York [New York: S. Tuttle, 1844], p. 532). It is here that Anna Whistler left Charles Donald Whistler for at least a week with Cousin Caroline (Whistler) Bloodgood.

160  Eliza M. (Hamilton) Van Vechten (9 July 1824 – 30 December 1898) was the daughter of Major Thomas Hamilton (U.S. Army), and Catherine (Whistler) Hamilton, Major G.W. Whistler’s sister (James Whistler Wood [son of Major G.W. Whistler’s youngest sister, Caroline (Whistler) Wood], comp., Whistler Family Genealogy, Chicago Historical Society [hereafter, CHS: Whistler], p. 4; see also Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E). She is also called “Eliza Van Vee” in the diaries.

161  Eliza M. Hamilton married (22 September 1842) Abraham Van Vechten (24 December 1819 – 7 May 1894), an attorney. Their first child, whose name we do not know, died. Eliza was again pregnant at the time of this diary entry. A second child, Hamilton, was born 3 October 1844 (d. 19 May 1894) (Peter Van Vechten Jr., The Genealogical Records of the Van Vechten’s from 1638 to 1896 [Milwaukee, WI: Radtke Bros. and Kortsch, 1896], p. 44; James Brown Van Vechten and Marquis E. Shattuck, comps., The Van Vechten Genealogy [Detroit: Printed by the author, 1954], p. 116).

162  “The Joy of Grief” was written between 1802 and 1806 by James Montgomery (Irvine, Ayshire 4 November 1771 – Sheffield 1 May 1854), a Scottish poet belonging to the Moravian Brethren. It appeared in The Poetical Works of Rogers, Campbell, J. Montgomery, Lamb, and Kirke White: Complete in One Volume [Paris: A. & W. Galignani, 1829], p. 124 of “The Poetical Works of James Montgomery” therein; William Anderson, The Scottish Nation; or the Surnames, Families, Literature, Honours, and Biographical History of the People of Scotland, 3 vols. [Edinburgh and London, A. Fullarton, 1863], vol. 3, pp. 184–185). “Montgomery’s reputation today rests on his hymns, which are well-represented in modern hymnals … he played a significant role in establishing the use of hymns in worship … He not only contributed original compositions to Thomas Cotterill’s collection, but his support and encouragement helped to ensure official sanction of this, the first authorized hymnal of the Church of England” (Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Montgomery, James [1771–1854]”). It is possibly from this hymnal of her church that Anna Whistler knew “The Joy of Grief.” The phrase refers to the “sweet relief” that comes “while the wounds of woe are healing” and “pensive memory … retraces scenes of bliss forever fled,” and one’s hopes ascending to heaven, “triumph … over death and time” (Friends’ Intelligencer, 33 [1876–77]: p. 638).

163  Anna Whistler had been present at the marriage of Louisa Josephine Swift (30 April 1821 – 16 January 1859) to Peter Richards, Jr. (28 October 1811 – 30 August 1893), the Rev. P.P. Irving presiding, at Geneva, New York, on 22 June 1843. Josephine, or Josée, as she was called, was the daughter of General Joseph Gardner Swift (31 December 1783 – 23 July 1865; see Image 11), brother of Major Whistler’s first wife. General Swift had written in his journal: “the wedding party dispersed, some to the falls, others to N.Y., etc.” (Ellery, Memoirs of Gen. J.G. Swift, p. 247).

164  “On board the steamboat at Albany, I unexpectedly met Mrs. McNeil Mrs. Whistler Debo. and George hurrying on to Stonington where they expected to find Cousin Anna’s eldest son on his death bed” (Alexander J. Swift to his father [General Joseph G. Swift], West Point July 1st 1843, Alexander J. Swift (1810–1847) Papers, USMA Library, West Point, NY, [hereafter, USMAL: A.J. Swift Papers], CU 587).

165  The child is Ellen Gellibrand Ropes (1841–1924).

166  This is Harriet Beall (Williams) Bodisco (c. 1824 – 20 June 1890), American wife of the Russian Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States of America, Baron Alexander Andreevich Bodisco (18/29 October 1786 – 11/23 January 1854). At the time of their marriage on 9 April 1840, Harriet Beall Williams was sixteen and her bridegroom fifty-three. Mrs. Bodisco was considered strikingly beautiful. See the biographies of the Bodisco and Williams families in Appendix E (hereafter, Bodisco and Williams) and Images 283–285.

167  The child is Nicholas Alexander Bodisco (b. Georgetown, DC, 6/18 April 1841). This information from the records of Christ Church in Georgetown has very kindly been provided by its director of administration and archivist, Glenn A. Metzdorf. The dates given in the will of Baron Alexander Bodisco, dated 1 July 1853, agree with it. I wish to thank Robert W. Lyle, curator, Peabody Room, Georgetown Regional Branch of District of Columbia Public Library, for supplying a copy of the English translation of the will, originally in French (hereafter, Olographe Testament); see also extracts in the newspaper Georgetowner, February 2, 1956. Anna Whistler was comparing the child with Charles Donald Whistler. See Bodisco and Williams in Appendix E.

168  This may be a child’s version of John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

169  Nicholas Alexander Bodisco had an English nurse named Marie Trueman. This information is taken from Baron Bodisco’s request on 6[/18] June 1844 in St. Petersburg for a passport to return to his post in Washington. It was to be issued for Mr. and Mme. Bodisco and their three-year-old son, Nicholas, accompanied by their personal servants: Marie Trueman, Englishwoman and nurse to the child; Cyrille Bigle, of Paris, maid; and Samuel Dohna, Swedish subject (Arkhiv Vneshnei politiki Rossiiskoi Imperii (AVPRI) [Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire], Moscow: Fond MID, Kantseliariia, 1844, op. 469, d. 175, Washington/Bodisco-Cte Zabielo/, l. 76 [Fond of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chancery, 1844, op. 469, d. 175, Washington/Bodisco – Cte Zabielo/, fol. 76]).

170  The Bodiscos were staying at the Hotel de Paris (proprietor: Louis), a first-class hotel located on the corner of Malaia Morskaia Street and Brick Lane (Kirpichnyi pereulok), in the building belonging to Voronovich (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, p. 160; Konechnyi, Progulki, p. 284n6).

171  In giving his mother an account of the Americans staying in St. Petersburg in the winter of 1843–44, Maxwell said of Mrs. Bodisco: “The lady has been presented to the Emperor, Empress etc who pronounced her beautiful while every body wonders how the old fox without a hair on his head or a tooth of his own won so stylish a republican lady. Having charmed the Emperor she is invited every where and has commenced her first lessons in Russian life” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Dec. 15, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 26).

172  On January 22, 1844, Colonel Charles Stewart Todd (see Image 278) celebrated his fifty-third birthday.

173  Reverend Edward Law (7 August 1790 – 10 November 1868) was from 1820 to 1864 Chaplain to the British Legation at St. Petersburg (Joseph Foster, The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of the British Empire [Westminster: Nichols & Son, 1882], p. 253; Alumni Oxoniensis: The Members of the University of Oxford, comp. Joseph Foster, vol. 2, 1715–1886 [Oxford, UK: Parker, 1891], p. 822). His wife was Mary Elisabeth (Mosley) Law (bap. Rolleston, Staffordshire 12 September 1792 – 11 May 1877). Those of their children likely to have been present were their daughters, Henrietta Maria (25 October / 6 November 1822 – 18 November 1892), Caroline Frances (7/19 August 1824 – 24 November 1897), Emily Mosley (7/19 November 1827 – 2/14 February 1880), Isabella Sarah (30 March / 11April 1830 – 2 February 1865); and their son, Alfred Markham (7/19 November 1832 – 9 November 1870). Of their two married daughters, Mary Eliza (Law) Cattley (9/21 March 1821 – 22 February / 6 March 1859) could have been present (Foster’s Peerage, p. 253). See also the biographies of the Law family in Appendix E (hereafter, Law) and Images 253–255.

174  The Honourable John Arthur Douglas Bloomfield (1802–1879; see Image 291) was Secretary of the British Legation at St. Petersburg in 1843 and at this time in 1844 (Bloomfield Papers, FO 356, National Archives, Kew, Richmond, UK (NAUK); Sir Bernard Burke, A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages [London: Harrison, 1883]). The Secretary of the Brazilian Legation at St. Petersburg in 1844 (appointed 6 October 1842) was José Maria do Amaral (Rio de Janeiro 14 March 1812 – Niterói 23 September 1885) (Antônio Carlos Conçalves Valerio [coordinator] and Rodrigo Aldeia Duarte [responsible for the information], Ministério de Justiça Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, to E. Harden, 18 December 2012).

175  Maxwell left no record of Colonel Todd’s birthday celebration in his letters. No. 27 is dated January 1st, 1844 (with an entry for January 4); no. 28 is dated March 6th 1844 (with entries for March 7 and 8). In the interval, Maxwell was seriously ill.

176  In 1832, Susanna Hart Todd (16 July 1822 – 6 June 1832), Charles Stewart Todd Jr. (7 October 1828 – 31 May 1832), and Henry Clay Todd (5 September 1830 – 30 May 1832), three of the twelve children of Colonel Charles Stewart (22 January 1791 – 17 May 1871) and Letitia (Shelby) Todd (11 January 1799 – 22 July 1868) died (Genealogy of the Family of Colonel Charles Stewart and Letitia (Shelby) Todd, Todd Family Papers, Cincinnati Historical Society, fol. 8; IGI).

177  Todd volunteered when the War of 1812 broke out and “was made acting quartermaster in the advance of the left wing of the Northwestern Army. He served on Gen. William H. Harrison’s staff, his courage and intelligence winning him steady promotion until in March 1815 he was inspector general with the rank of colonel” (Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. “Todd, Charles Stewart”).

178  The War of 1812 was concluded on 24 December 1814, with the Treaty of Ghent. The news of the peace was received in America on 11 February 1815 and celebrated by a general illumination of New York City on 27 February 1815 (I.N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498–1909, 6 vols. [New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1926], vol. 5, pp. 1579–80; see also New York Evening Post [February 28, March 1 and 2, 1815] for “detailed descriptions of the transparencies and the fireworks”).

According to General J.G. Swift’s mother-in-law, the family of Dr. Daniel McNeill was to leave Wilmington, North Carolina, in April 1815, for New York (M.M. Walker to Louisa Swift [her daughter], Wilmington March 25th 1815, USMAL: J.G. Swift Papers). But a notice in a Wilmington newspaper, dated 10 April 1815, indicated that “he intends early in May, to depart with his family for New-York” (Wilmington Gazette, April 27, 1815, p.4, col.5; see also Raymond Parker Fouts, Abstracts from Newspapers of Wilmington, North Carolina 1807–1810, with Extant Issues of 1812-1816 [Cocoa, FL: Gen Rec Books, 1984], vol. 5, p. 116, item 885). See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E for a discussion of when Dr. Daniel McNeill was living in New York.

179  Anna Whistler later had serious and recurrent eye trouble. James and Willie took her to an eye specialist in Coblenz in September 1865 (Anna Whistler to James Whistler [Coblenz, Germany], 25 November [1865], GUL: Whistler Collection, W520; Anna Whistler to Margaret Hill, London, 22 Oct. 1865, LC: P-W, box 34, fols. 45–46).

180  “Mrs. Bodisco was not well known in Washington previous to her marriage. Her family did not visit the first people there and she herself left school to become a wife. She is thought very beautiful here, and here she is indeed a beauty. She has a fine fresh complexion very unusual in St. Petersburg. Her features are those common to thousands of our young countrywomen, rather pretty than classic and that win rather than command. She has nothing of the elegance or ease of manner that distinguishes the ladies of the Court nor has she the advantages of a superior education. But these are difficulties she will easily conquer. Under the eye of so distinguished a piece of patch work as her husband, she takes a lesson every day and evening and will be re-transplanted the next summer a perfect model of a courtly dame. ——” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, January 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 27).

181  Nothing specific is said in the diaries about Baron Bodisco, whose acquaintance Major Whistler had made in Washington, DC, in 1842, when Bodisco, as Russian Envoy, had negotiated with Major Whistler the conditions under which the latter would accept the invitation to supervise the building of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. Maxwell, however, portrayed him at the first great ball of the nobility with total candor:

He is a very ugly man but an amiable in manner as are all Russians. He is very old, wears a wig, and reminds me very much of Brahem [John Braham (1774–1856)] the singer in looks and carriage. His dress, which is of a very fashionable cut, gives his figure the forced expression of youth, denied him in every particular of shape and every lineament of feature. You can detect even in the uncombed locks of his handsome peruke and in the bespotted appendages of his dress all the slovenly indications of the dandy in dotage. His mouth is toothless, his breath horrible and the tout ensemble justifies the opinion of those who considered him the ugliest man in the United States. But then he was considered the most agreeable by many. Concealing his decrepitude in the make of his habiliments, illuminating his phiz with a smile skin deep, and yet deep enough to erase the wrinkles, assuming a manner that seems as natural as it is condescending and agreeable, the old fellow becomes the admiration of the Washington ball-rooms and wins the love of a pretty damsel of sweet seventeen. Age cannot conquer the cunning of the Russian diplomatist” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, January 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 27)

It is interesting that in his book Maxwell transposed details of his description of Bodisco from this letter to describe the Russian secret agent (Maxwell, Czar, pp. 279–280). For this reason, Maxwell’s letters should be consulted in preference to his book.

182  Maxwell spoke of Rev. Law as “the merry Parson with a fine family” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Mar. 26, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 29).

183  The song Debo sang was a popular romance of the period called “Chornyi tsvet” (“The Color Black”) (Liubimye russkie romansy i pesni dlia odnogo golosa [Favorite Russian Romances and Songs for Solo Voice]. St. Petersburg: M. Bernadaki). Translated line-by-line, the text is as follows:

Color black, gloomy color

You are dear to me forever.

I swear that with another color

I shall never fall in love.

Refrain:

Don’t force me,

Don’t make me

Stop loving the color black,

I haven’t strength to, I haven’t the power.

Why, the world will ask,

Am I in love with the color of shadows,

I shall say, the color black

Is the color of my friend.

Refrain

And even if suddenly my dear friend

Should forget me,

The color black, the gloomy color

I shall continue to love.

Refrain

I have one thought

The color black and She.

With her forever I shall fuse

My gloomy soul.

Refrain

Saying farewell to the earth

I shall array myself in the color black

And as long as there is light in my eyes

I am in love with the color black.

William Bonamy Maingay (see Image 260) made a stilted, rhymed translation of it that is reproduced in Note 382, NYPL: AWPD, Part I (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 33). The music, without words, appears in M. Bernard, Sto russkikh narodnykh pesen’ aranzhirovannykh dlia odnogo fortepiano [One Hundred Russian Folk Songs, Arranged for Solo Pianoforte] (St. Petersburg: printed by the author, n.d.], p. 83. See Appendix F for a copy of the sheet music for “Chornyi tsvet.”

In the 1830s and 1840s, the number of sheet music libraries and other kinds of music stores grew. The store owned by Matvey Ivanovich Bernard (1794–1871) (his name also appears as Bernardaki and Bernar) on the corner of the Nevskii Prospekt and Bol’shaia Morskaia Street was the best-known of them. Bernard was himself a pianist and in Moscow had been the student of John Field (1782–1837), the famous Irish pianist. He moved to St. Petersburg in 1822, where he became a well-known teacher and a composer. In 1840, he founded the monthly sheet music journal Nuvellist, which appeared right up until 1917. His son Nikolai Matveevich Bernard (1844–1905) inherited the family business. It was purchased in 1885 by a man named Jurgenson. (A.V. Predtechenskii, “Politicheskaia i obshchestvennaia zhizn’ Peterburga 30–50–kh godov XIX v.” [“The Political and Social Life of Petersburg in the 1830s–1850s”], in Ocherki istorii Leningrada, Period feodalisma (1703–1861 gg.) [Essays on the History of Leningrad: The Feudal Period (1703–1861)] [Moscow and Leningrad: Izdatel’stvo Academii nauk SSSR, 1955]: p, 779).

184  The Law family had “given a ball every other week all winter” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, March 26, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 29). This was the last before Lent and was held on 2/14 February.

In 1844, the Western and Orthodox Easter Sunday fell on the same date: 27 March / 7 April.

185  Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna (Tsarskoe Selo 12/24 June 1825 – Tsarskoe Selo 29 July / 10 August 1844; see Images 434–435, 444–446, 451), youngest daughter of Nicholas I (Nicholai Pavlovich Romanov) (Tsarskoe Selo 25 June / 6 July 1796 – St. Petersburg 18 February / 2 March 1855; see Images 420–423) and Empress Aleksandra Fyodorovna (born Frederika-Louisa-Charlotte-Wilhelmina) (Charlottenburg, Prussia 1/12 July 1798 – Tsarskoe Selo 20 October / 1 November 1860; see Images 420, 424), married His Serene Highness Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassell (26 November 1820 – 14 October 1884), later Landgraf Elector of Hesse-Kassel (see Images 444–445 of the engaged couple). Her first cousin, Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mikhailovna (Moscow 14/26 May 1826 – near Wiesbaden 16/28 January 1845; see Image 441), daughter of Nicholas I’s brother, His Imperial Highness Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich (St. Petersburg 28 January 1798 / 8 February 1799 – Warsaw 28 August / 9 September 1849; see Image 439) and Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (born Frederika-Charlotta-Maria, Princess of Württemberg) (Stuttgart 28 December 1806 / 9 January 1807 – St. Petersburg 9/21 January 1873; see Image 440), married His Serene Highness Duke Adolphe Wilhelm of Nassau (24 July 1817 – 17 November 1905; see Image 442) (G.I. Studenkin, “Romanovy Tsarstvuiushchii dom Rossiiskoi Imperiii s 1613 g” [“The Romanovs The Reigning House of the Russian Empire Since 1613”], Supplement, Russkaia starina [Old Russian Days and Ways] (1878): pp. xxii, xxiii, xxiv; Kuz’min, Rossiiskaia imperatorskaia familiia, p. 95, 97, 144, 149–150, 232). For an assessment of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna’s appearance and character, and a description of her engagement, marriage, illness, and death, see the diary of her sister, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Queen of Württemberg, written between January 1881 and January 1883. Here also will be found loving and generally frank appraisals of the entire Imperial family. The diaries were written in French and published in German (1955) and Russian (1963) translations. I have used the Russian translation: Son iunosti Zapiski docheri Imperatora Nikolaia I Velikoi Kniazhny Ol’gi Nikolaevny, Korolevy Viurtembergskoi [A Dream of Youth Memoirs of the Daughter of Emperor Nicholas I, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Queen of Württemberg] (Paris: s.n., 1963). See also Images 444–460.

186  Anna Whistler gave no details of Maxwell’s oral account, but fortunately he also left a sparkling and amusingly written vignette of the betrothal of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna in the chapel of the Winter Palace and of the ball given the evening of the same day (26 December 1843 / 7 January 1844):

I repaired to the palace in the ordinary way, and where I was received in much the same way as I have heretofore described. The only remarkable event I and sensation I experienced on the way at all novel was the excessive cold. The morning was beautiful, bright and clear but so cold that every thing seemed ready to crack. The manes of the horse’s and the beards of the men were white with frost and whatever was touched with the naked hand sent an icy chill into every nerve and muscle of the arm. The Thermometer stood at 2 degrees and ¼ below Zero Farenheit and at 16 ½ Raumer. The temperature of the Palace was very agreeable. I joined the Corps in the Salle des Marêchaux or hall of the Marshals, and from there went with them into the Imperial Chapel. We were the first introduced into this magnificent room, and took up a position next the railing, which divided the alters from the main body of the room. so that we had a fine chance to observe all that occurred. All the diplomats were there except Lord Stuart. In our select company were included Lady Stuart, the ladies of the Saxon and Sardinian Ministers, a few distinguished strangers and the Roman Catholic Bishop. We had remained long in our places when the doors were thrown open and the Grand Masters of Ceremony with their ushe batons ushered in the procession, headed by the Metropolitan and the Bishops in long robes of all colours, with great big chimney pot looking caps on their heads, and their beards and hair hanging on their backs and breasts - Next came the Imperial family according to age and rank, and finally came the officers of states and ladies of the court. The priests and the Imperial family passed through a gate in the railing, directly in our front and the Court people filled up the room directly in our rear. The Priests commenced reading prayers, when the Emperor took the Prince Hesse by the arm and placed him in position before the alter, and the Empress took the G Duchess Alexandra and placed on her next him. The Metropolitan then placed a lighted candle in the hands of each one and then the ceremony of the service was continued for a long while, by rea the prayers and responses of the clergy. Then the Metropolitan placed rings on their fingers after which the Empress approached and taking the rings from off the finger of the Prince she placed them on those of the Duchess, and then the rig rings of the Duchess she placed upon the fingers of the Prince. Then commenced delicious music from the choir - all vocal, but superior to any instrumental music you ever heard and said to be the finest sacred melody in the world - After this the Greek Cross was carried about with the invocations of the Bishops, and was presented to the bride and groom to kiss - which being done, the happy pair, approached the Emperor and Empress and the rest of the family and kissed and were kissed again in the most affectionate matter. Such kisses it was good to see and hear. They were none of your half and half affairs, but regular smacks which resounded beneath the arched vault above us. After this interesting process the affianced couple repaired again to the alter, and kneeled down. The Imperial family done the same and the whole audience of course followed suite. I went down on my marrowbones without any difficulty for I never strap myself up as many do for these occasions, being perfectly satisfied with the shape nature has imposed upon me. But unfortunately this is not the case with courtiers generally and old diplomatists in particular. Some of these from the unbending stricture of their stuffed coats and the unyielding nature of their unmentionables found it hard work to get down. I saw one on all fours, another leaned on me for support, and his Excellency who stood in front as stiff as a poker, let himself down by a masterly manouvre, and without apparent damage, although a I thought the sound I heard of rip and tear proceeded from angry discussion any among the seams of his tightened garments. As soon as the prayers were over, the cannon commenced firing, the Imperial Family retired as they came and we were at liberty to retire too. As I was going out I met MƤ Bodisco in full Russian costume … The Colonel hastened away with such trepidity that I finally concluded he had damaged his pantaloons, although I did not like to ask him if such was the fact, for he is too much of an Adonis in his own estimation, to have any one else think otherwise and I did not think it safe to offend him by seaching [sic] the truth more particularly for so an un-adonis-like mishap. The ceremony interested me more particularl than any thing I have witnessed in some time. The solemnity, the importance of the parties, the novelty of the scene the peculiarity of the Greek devotions, the dress of the Bishops, the sounds of the prayers uttered in the ancient Slavonian, and the beautiful music, all combined, made a powerful impression upon me. I shall never forget it. (John S, Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Jan. 1, 1844, entry dated Jan. 8, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 27)

187  The marriage of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna and His Serene Highness Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel took place on 16/28 January 1844 (see Image 446) (Studenkin, “Romanovy,” pp. 23–24; Kuz’min, Rossiiskaia imperatorskaia familiia, p. 95).

188  “I attended soon after the marriage ceremony of the Grand Duchess Alexandra which resembled the betrothal very much … A few days before this ceremony I was frequently called to the palace for various fêtes and on one of these occasions I must have taken cold. The morning of the marriage I was quite unwell, but felt obliged to attend as a matter of importance as well as the ball in the evening. The next day I felt much worse and had to get Colonel Todd to excuse me to the Grand Master of ceremonies for not attending the marriage of the G. Duches Marie to the Duke of Nassau and whatever other of the almost nightly feasts I omitted. I sent for the Doctor” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, March 6, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 28).

189  The marriage of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mikhailovna and His Serene Highness Duke Adolphe Wilhelm of Nassau took place on 19/31 January 1844 (Studenkin, “Romanovy,” p. 24; Kuz’min, Rossiiskaia imperatorskaia familiia, p. 150).

190  “Indian pride” is false pride.

191  Engineer Lieutenant Dmitrii Ivanovich Zhuravskii (17/29 December 1821 – 18/30 November 1891; see Image 249), graduate of the Institute of Transport Engineers in St. Petersburg, Class of 1842, was in charge of building the railway bridge across the Vereb’ia River, which he “had assisted Whistler, Mel’nikov, and Kraft in designing” in 1842–1843 (Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, p. 317). His name was pronounced “Zhoorahf′skee.” Anna Whistler rendered the spelling as “giraffe” plus “ski.” The ball for which he brought tickets took place on 20 January / 1 February 1844.

192  For Mr. Trouvellier, see Note 123 above. Maria Vladimirovna (Kozliakinova) Trouvellier was his second wife, listed in his service record of 1841. I have no information about when they were married. His first wife was “Ann Woolff, Spinster of the Russian Greek Church,” whom he “married according to the Rites of the Greek Church on the 7th of February 1834.” She died in 1835. He had a seven-year-old daughter from this first marriage, who is also mentioned in his service record (RGIA: Fond 200, op. 1, d. 8101 (see Note 124 above for document title); PREC STP for 1834, p. 192). The BRBC STP 1845 gives his second wife’s surname as Kozlianoff (fol. 57).

193  This is a reference to the fact that at a later hour the ball changed to a masquerade, which was open to all classes of society who chose to buy tickets to it (see Image 374).

194  “I remember for well the circumstances attending my sickness for the first three days, of being blead and leached etc - After that time I lost all consciousness and for six weeks was in a delirium. I have very narrowly escaped death. In fact they thought I would not live and about the time for wright writing by the last steamer it was a matter of discussion between Col Todd and Major Whistler as to the propriety of writing you about me, but the Major carried the day, as he showed that I was so low that it would be as bad almost as communicating my decease. It seems my disease was a fever of the Typhoid class (not Typhus) It was a brain fever and congestion of the brain was feared. I acted very wildly they tell me. On one occasion I jumped out of bed in the night, beat my servant and the friend who watched over me and in a state of nudity run from my parlour (in which my bed had been placed on account of its being a better chamber in every respect.) to a little cold room I used as a dressing room or cabinet.

March 7. It was only when Major W made his appearance that I consented to go to bed. Another strange fancy was I am told a continued and fierce desire to go to the 6th Ward Hotel and at the crisis of my disease this formed by [sic] constant endeavour and I thought the Loco Focos had made a conspiracy to keep me from going. Fortunately about this time among the many other kind American friends who watched me, was a Mƣ Fairbanks a the contractor of the railroad a man of great strenght [sic] - He was with me 3 nights when my disease took a turn for the better. To him and a half dozen others I feel much indebted and to my dear good Doctor also. But how can I describe the care and anxiety of Mr and MƤ Whistler. You yourselves could not have manifested more solicitude. I am told they were constantly at my bedside and the Major slept near by me” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, March 6 and entry of March 7, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 28).

195  The crisis of Maxwell’s fever, therefore, took place on 7 February.

196  This is Dr. James Rogers (1810 – 11 July 1890), physician to the British Legation. See his biography in Appendix E.

197  Dr. Rogers called in Dr. Nikolai Fyodorovich Arendt (Kazan 1785 – St. Petersburg 14/26 October 1859; see Image 343), surgeon, considered “the most popular and most accessible doctor” in St. Petersburg in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the reign of Alexander I (see Image 418), he participated, as a regimental doctor, in the military campaigns against Napoleon and against Sweden and acquired extensive experience in battlefield surgery. In 1814, he served as chief medical inspector of the Russian troops in France and, through March 1815, was in charge of the hospitals he personally organized. As of 1820, he was head doctor of the St. Petersburg Artillery Hospital. He devoted himself to surgery and became known for his outstanding success in averting post-surgical deaths. As a result of his long service and the level of knowledge exhibited by him in both medicine and surgery, he was awarded in October 1821 the degree of Doctor of Medicine without taking the examination for it or writing a dissertation. This was unprecedented in the history of Russian medicine. In March 1827, he retired and took up private practice. From 1828–1845, he was chief consultant at the Obukhov Hospital, where he worked without salary. In 1829, he treated Nicholas I and was appointed His Majesty’s personal physician, serving in this capacity for the next ten years. He was initial in establishing the code of regulations of the St. Petersburg Children’s Hospital (December 1834) and was the hospital’s first consultant. He rode about the city every day in his carriage, attending both rich and poor, treating the latter without remuneration. It was his great grief that he could not save the life of Pushkin (1799–1837), when called to the latter’s bedside after the fatal duel. He died on 14/26 October 1859 and was buried in the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery (Bukharkin, Deviatnadtsatyi vek, bk. 1, pp. 174–175; John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35).

198  “March 8 … Major W told me last evening what I did not know before and that is that the Doctor himself was at one time in great fear and held a consultation with a German physician who examined my body. His greatest relief in the midst of his doubts was that in my wildest moments I always recognised him and called his name when asked for it - in fact I knew every body I had ever seen before except M Whistler and the Major says that one evening while he sat at one side of my bed while M W was smoothing a pillow on the other side I looked earnestly at her trim black dress and white cap and asked if that was a Catholic. I took her for some sister of charity” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Mar. 6, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 28). “MƤ W has … manifested great solicitude for me and I have been told that this dear lady wept for me often, fearing I would die” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St.Petersburg, March 26, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 29).

199  The following composite portrait of La Ronne Schipouleff, Maxwell’s servant, is taken from Maxwell’s letters: “To finish this picture of a bachelors life and a bachelor’s quarters in St. Petersburg I will go still further into particulars. I have a room for my servant, coal, house, stable if necessary etc in the Court yard. My servant at present is the old chasseur of his Excellency. His name, La Ronne. He pretends to speak English, French, Swedish and Russian but I doubt if he fully comprehends either. I have to give him ten dollars a month and he finds himself. All servants here have to find themselves. This is the rule, but if one does not lock every thing up, they find themselves at the expense of the master” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 22). The verb “to find” has here the meaning of “to provide food and lodging.” This is most familiar in the British (often naval) expression “all found,” which is said of an employee’s wages and means “with board and lodging provided free: your wages would be five shillings all found.” (Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010], s.v. “find, v.”).

In describing Todd’s coach on the day they rode together to the “revailles” of Grand Duchess Maria Aleksandrovna (see Images 426–427), Maxwell enables us to see one of the attractive aspects of La Ronne’s previous duties as chasseur for Todd: “the dashing four horse equipage of his Excellency with outrider and Coachman in blue and gold silver, and a Chasseur in green and gold, armed with a blade that would have astonished Sir William Wallace and decorated with a plume, that would be the admiration of the militia, drove up in great style … My servant, my valet and footman, the ancient chasseur, La Ronne, besides his mustache, had nothing else to recommend him. He had been stripped of his finery when he left the Colonel and came to me. He looked very fierce and with great contempt upon the new chasseur dressed in the old insignia of office” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Nov. 15, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 25). Like his fellow Orthodox Russians, he adhered to the strict fasting of Lent: “I offered my servant some [calves foot] jelly. and although he loves good things and had eaten nothing but flour bread and salt for 5 weeks he would not touch it” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Mar. 26, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 29).

La Ronne’s surname we learn when Maxwell is leaving Russia for the summer in 1844: “even my faithful Laronne Schipouleff, my very diplomatic valet, preferred to keep the money I had given him to pay his way to and from the Alexandra, to going with the his master any further than the quai” (John S. Maxwell to George Washington Whistler, from Berlin, Thursday, June 20, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers). Maxwell came to know his virtues. “I have had to increase the wages of my servant La Ronne in order to retain him in my service. I now pay him at the rate of sixteen dollars a month. He is worth that to me, for he knows how to wait, knows a little of all the European languages, finds out every thing that is going on, understands all the etiquette, is respectful, well dressed, and wears a very fine pair of mustaches, in fact he is a person who unites the knowledge and experience of the servant, the courtier and the Diplomate. So I consider La Ronne and the German teacher as justifiably expensive to me and look sharp to cut off all useless expenditures to preserve their service” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Nov. 1, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 24). See also Maxwell, Czar, pp. 128, 206, 217, 226, 231, 237, 240, when La Ronne was still Ambassador Todd’s courier (1842).

As chasseur, La Ronne wore a “uniform of green and silver, chapeau and white fountain plume, and sword. The chasseur appendage is a court relic … He generally rides behind the coach, and is its ‘protector’ I suppose. In the house he is the valet. Our valet is a fierce looking fellow when rigged out in his war paint – his black moustache waxed to points, and he is ‘every inch a soldier’ – but in the house, he promises to be as obedient, and kind gentle, ‘as a sucking dove’!” (BUHG: Colin Ingersoll Journal, pt. 1, fol. 10).

Anna Whistler spells his name Le Ron, Le Rong, and Le Rond.

200  Her prayers seem to have been answered. Certainly she must have felt free on his recovery to make known to Maxwell what she had prayed for. In any case, he wrote to his mother, in words rather resembling Anna Whistler’s: “God has in his mercy, by his miraculous power, rescued me from the very jaws of death, and to him be all the glory” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 11, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 34). “The Doctor has promised to let me be shaved and dressed by the end of this week and go up stairs, but he says I must not listen to too much music — A treat it will be to hear a song, and talk with MƤ W as I used to do of home” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, March 26, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 29).

201  Admiral Robert Hall (2/13 September 1761 – 23 January / 4 February 1844), an Englishman in the Russian Navy, aged eighty-three years, “died (suddenly in the Church)” (PREC STP for 1844, p. 306). The Russians called him Roman Romanovich Gall. See his biography in Appendix E.

202  Psalm 84:10: “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

203  Admiral Hall’s wife was Natalia Elisabeth (Pegelof) Hall (31 December 1780 [OS] – 21 September 1855 [OS]) (Amburger Datenbank, ID 84207). Admiral Hall’s daughter Elizabeth (25 May / 6 June 1801 – 21 August / 2 September 1887) was married to Nikolai Petrovich Tumillo-Denisovich (9/20 May 1791 – 9/21 October 1864), a Lt. General in the Russian Navy (Amburger Datenbank, ID 84212; BRBC STP 1845, fol. 27; Irina Reyfman, How Russia Learned to Write Literature and the Imperial Table of Ranks [Madison: University of Wisconson Press, 2016], Appendix: Table of Ranks). Both women were members of the Reformed Church. After the Admiral’s death, the two women continued to live in their house on the 9th Rota (Ninth Line) in the Liteinaia District (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 27). “Rota” was the word used in the Semyonov Regiment instead of “liniia” to mean “line”; both words mean “street” (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 328–329). Ninth Rota was also called Basseinaia Street (Grech, p. 329).

204  These lines are from the fourth verse of the hymn “Awake my soul and with the sun” by Thomas Ken (1637–1711).

205  These are the remaining two lines of the fourth verse of “Awake my soul.”

206  Admiral Hall’s funeral took place on 27 January / 8 February 1844 (PREC STP for 1844, p. 306).

207  On 30 January / 11 February 1844, Rev. Law’s text was “dust thou art & unto death shalt thou return.” It is a paraphrase of “In the midst of life we are in death” and “Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” taken from The Book of Common Prayer (The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America: Together with The Psalter, or Psalms of David [Philadelphia: Female Protestant Episcopal Prayer-Book Society of Pennsylvania, 1839], p. 265) and used in “The Order for the Burial of the Dead” (pp. 262–266).

208  Admiral Hall, as has already been noted, was an Englishman (Robin Inglis, Historical Dictionary of the Discovery and Exploration of the Northwest Coast of America, Historical Dictionaries of Discovery and Exploration 4 [Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008], p. 148).

209  Anna Whistler left a blank space for his first name. Sir Robert Ker Porter (b. Durham 26 April 1777; bap. 10 July 1777; d. St. Petersburg 22 April / 4 May 1842; see Image 288) was a painter, traveler, and diplomat (IGI for County Durham; PREC STP, no. 5172, p. 285).

210  Anna Maria Porter (b. Salisbury 22 December 1778; bap. 7 September 1779; d. 21 June 1832; see Image 290) and Jane Porter (b. Durham 3 December 1775; bap. Durham 17 January 1776; d. Bristol 24 May 1850; see Image 289) were both writers. The monument to their father and his children, from which their death dates are taken, is in Bristol Cathedral (see also “Jane Porter,” Orlando: Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginning to the Present, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK, accessed 28 April 2021; Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Porter, Jane”).

211  The widowed Sir Robert Ker Porter, who was serving as British consul in Venezuela, had spent the winter of 1841–42 in Russia, visiting his daughter, Maria Robertovna (b. 27 May 1813 [OS]), who was married to Pyotr Evgrafovich Kikin (Elizaveta Renne, “Ser Robert Ker Porter Khudozhnik v Rossii” [“Sir Robert Ker Porter: Artist in Russia”], Nashe Nasledie [Our Heritage] 63–64 [2002]: p. 152). He suffered a seizure at the door of his house and once inside passed into a coma and died the next morning. In his obituary in The St. Petersburg English Review, his death is described as follows:

The severity of a polar winter, acting on a constitution acclimated to warmth alone by so many year’s sejourn under the tropical sun of South America, gradually undermined his health and weakened his frame … he cheerfully made his preparations for re-embarking for her shores by the first homeward steamer in May … On the 3rd of that month, he went by appointment to take his leave of the Emperor … The farewell he received was accompanied by an invitation for a revisit, when the just begun new bridge of granite, to unite the two shores of the Neva, should be finished … Meanwhile the heat of a summer sun, in a land which has no medium transition between the seasons like our spring, had that morning burst the hitherto winter cloud over the city. Every creature, more or less, feels the abrupt change; but the effect on him we lament was almost instantaneous. During his drive home, which was short, the excessive heat appears to have suddenly thawed the hitherto almost frozen up blood in his veins. In that extraordinary congelation, to his feelings, was always the term in which, whenever he did suffer himself to complain of his sensations, he described them and their petrifying influence oftentimes on his spirits. And, alas! before he reached the house door, the fearful reaction of the blood set a-flow had gushed with such violence towards his head, that when he stept from his carriage, which he did without assistance, he was observed to stagger; and then, by the aid of his servants, he walked into the house. But when he had reached the room where his sister was, he neither spoke nor opened his eyes more. Two physicians were instantly on the spot. Every means that medical skill could apply were used to produce some sign of revival, but in vain. For fourteen hours he continued to breathe, but lay pale and motionless as a statue, and at half past six o’clock, the ensuing morning, his mortal life became extinct.” (Obituary, Sir Robert Ker Porter Papers: box 6, no. 665, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA)

The extensive “Memoir of the Late Sir Robert Ker Porter” appeared in The St. Petersburg English Review of Literature, The Arts, and Sciences (S. Warand and Thomas B. Shaw, eds., First Year, vol. 4 of The St. Petersburg English Review of Literature, The Arts, and Sciences [St. Petersburg: Hauer, 1842], pp. 554– 562). It was probably written by his sister, Jane, who had accompanied him to Russia. Dr. George Lefevre, outgoing physician of the British Embassy (the predecessor to Dr. James Rogers), who had resigned and was returning to England, attended Porter’s “last agony” (Lefevre, Traveling Physician, vol. 3, pp. 75– 76).

Porter was buried in the Smolensk Cemetery (Renne, “Ser Robert Ker Porter,” p. 162). There is a discrepancy between his year of birth on the monument there (1781) and the monument in Bristol Cathedral (1777).

212  “Begone, dull care!” by an unidentified author, is “17th-century glee still sung in Victorian times” (Arthur Burrell, ed., English Lyrical Verse [New York: E.P. Dutton; London and Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1927), p. 23; Charles G. Wheeler and William A. Wheeler, eds., Who Wrote It? An Index to the Authorship of the More-Noted Works in Ancient and Modern Literature [Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1881], p. 21). The second and final stanza states: “My wife shall dance and I will sing / And merrily pass the day / For I hold it one of the greatest things / To drive dull care away.”

213  Colonel Todd (see Image 278) attended the English Church in the morning and the British and American Chapel in the evening (see Images 110–111, 125). For the latter, see George H. Prince to Hardy Ropes, St.P., Feby 7 NS 1842, MHS: Ropes Papers.

214  Charles Robert, Count Nessel’rode (Karl Vasilievich Nessel’rode) (2/13 December 1780 – 11/23 March 1862; see Image 309), chancellor of the Russian Empire as of 1845, was foreign minister throughout the thirty-year reign of Nicholas I. Nessel’rode was a Protestant and was buried in the Smolensk Cemetery on 15/27 March 1862, after a funeral service in the English Church, performed by Edward Law, DD (PREC STP, no. 7372).

215  The French troupe permanently performed in the Mikhailovsky Theater (Viktor Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi po S. Peterburgu i ego okrestnostiam [A Walk with Children about St. Petersburg and Its Environs], 3 vols. [St. Petersburg: Guttenberg Press, 1838], vol. 2, p. 254; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, p. 366; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, p. 641). From June to August, French plays were usually performed in the Stone Island (Kamennyi Ostrov) Theater (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, p. 282; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, p. 641).

216  For the Italian opera, see Note 222 below.

217  Psalm 58:3–5: “3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; 5 Which will not harken to the voice of charmers, charming ever so wisely. Also Proverbs 14:27: “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.”

218  John 13:34–35: “34 A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

219  Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

220  The Assembly Hall of the Nobility (Dvorianskoe sobranie) (see Images 145–146) was opened on 6/18 December 1835 in the building belonging to Engel’gardt. Since the end of 1839, it has been located in a building built for it on the corner of Novo-Mikhailovskaia Street and Mikhailovsky Square (or Italianskaia Street). The purpose in setting it up was to create a gathering place in which the participants could find pleasure in dances, permitted games, the reading of newspapers, and other pursuits appropriate to an educated society. Members are hereditary nobles from all over the Empire. Guests at balls and masquerades and visitors on ordinary days may be non-hereditary nobility, honorary citizens, famous artists, and Russian and foreign merchants. Males under 17 years of age and females under 16 are not permitted. There are two categories of membership: permanent members, who have access to the hall at any time; and visitor members, who have access only to the six balls or masquerades held annually. Permanent members each receive two tickets to the balls for the ladies in their family. The number of permanent members is reckoned to be over six hundred. Persons belonging to the social groups named above and temporarily in St. Petersburg may be visitors on ordinary days, while nobles owning their own homes in the capital, in service here and already members of other assemblies and clubs may not. The latter must be members. Twelve visitors are permitted each day and may retain this privilege for no longer than six months. The Assembly Hall is open daily from nine in the morning until two in the morning. On the days when there is a ball or masquerade, the public may not enter earlier than one hour before the event. The Assembly Hall is closed the last three days before Easter. The balls, which in recent years have been combined with masquerades, constitute the main charm that the Assembly Hall of the Nobility holds for the capital. The magnificent and spacious hall illuminated by crystal chandeliers offers many conveniences for these festive occasions. The hall is encircled by columns, behind which are raised galleries accessible by a few steps. From these galleries one can watch those dancing and make one’s way around the hall without crossing the dance floor. In front of the columns around the entire hall are three rows of red divans arranged like an amphitheater. Adjoining the hall are elegant rooms for the public that are opened only on these occasions. Buffets are set up here and the public takes its ease in the coolness of these rooms after dancing. The Assembly Hall is also used for charity balls, private concerts, lotteries, etc. (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 183–185; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 650–655). John Stevenson Maxwell described it as a “truly magnificent saloon, considered by far the finest ball-room in the world” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, January 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 27). The ball Deborah gave up for the opera took place on 24 January / 5 February.

221  Major Ivan Frantsevich Bouttatz held the rank of lieutenant colonel as of 6/18 December 1843 (RGIA: Fond 446, 1844, op. 13, d. 4. Vsepoddanneishie doklady GUPSiPZ 12 Dek. 1844 g. 1229 Buttats [Most Devoted Reports of the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings 12 Dec. 1844 (OS), 1229 Buttats].

Institut russkoi literatury Akademii nauk (Pushkinskii dom) (IRLI) [Institute of Russian Literature of the Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House)] Fond 2/B-93 6696 contains a photograph of Buttats from an old portrait album (indicated on the photo itself) with the time of his death among the brief information written on the back: “Inzhener-Polkovnik Ivan Frantsovich Butats, stroitel’ anichkovskogo mosta, skonchalsia v Peterburge 25 Iiulia 1876 g. v 2 ch. 45 m. po poludni [Engineer Colonel Ivan Frantsovich Butats, builder of the Anichkov Bridge, died in Petersburg on 25 July 1847 at 2:45 in the afternoon].” On the front of the photograph is written: “Stark au coin de Liteine and Panteleimonovskaya No 25/23 [Stark on the corner of Liteinaia and Panteleimonovskaia streets].” A request for permission to publish this photograph has not been answered at the time of publication of this manuscript.

222  Col. Bouttatz’s gift was a rare commodity. The first season of the Italian Opera of St. Petersburg ended on 29 January / 10 February 1844, and tickets had been at a premium the entire time. The repertoire consisted of ten operas: Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and Otello; Bellini’s La Sonambula, Capuletti e Montecchi, Il Pirata, I Puritani, and Norma; Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Belisarius; and Mozart’s Don Giovanni (A. Rozanov, Polina Viardo-Garsia, 3rd ed. [Leningrad.: Music Publishing House, 1982], p. 43). Deborah attended the matinee performance of “The Barber of Seville” on 24 January / 5 February 1844. It was one of the six operas in which Viardot-Garcia (see Image 198) sang that season (Rozanov, p. 43). One Russian newspaper had predicted that the subject of conversation during New Year’s Day visits on 1 January 1844, would be the Italian Opera, the singing of Viardot-Garcia, and how impossible it was to get a ticket in the loges (Rozanov, p. 43).

The Barber of Seville by Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868) would have been performed at the Big Stone Theater (Bol’shoi Kamennyi teatr), which was built in 1784 on the spot where its wooden predecessor had stood. On 1 January 1811 (OS), it burned down, and 7 years later the reconstruction of a new building was completed. The main entrance has a portico with eight Doric columns and a statue in Carrara marble of Minerva, whose spear is a lightning rod. In 1836, the theater was remodeled by the architect Cavos. Its spaciousness and magnificent decor make it one of the most outstanding buildings in the capitol. When completely full, it can hold more than 2000 persons. During masquerades, a floor is placed over the orchestra seats on the same level as the stage for one-and-a-half hours, making the entire theater resemble a huge hall. Along with the foyer, it can then easily accommodate up to 12,000. The theater is intended exclusively for ballet and opera (Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 638–640). It is located on Theater Square in the Second Admiralty District, Fourth Ward, on Nikol’skaia Street, between Ofitserskaia and Torgovaia streets, and faces the Kriukov Canal (Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, pp. 20, 51, 52). See also I. Bozherianov and V. Nikol’skii, Peterburgskaia starina. 24 ocherka i rasskaza [Old Petersburg Days and Ways: 24 essays and stories] St. Petersburg: N.I. Ignatov, [c. 1903], pp. 108–113.

223  This may be the same German jeweler to whose shop Mr. Ropes took Anna Whistler at Christmas 1843. She is no more specific here.

224  “My diet is very low but I am fast recovering. It is awful tedious work. The Dƣ will not let me read any thing or talk much. As a great favour I am permitted to write this, but it is because I insist upon it… The Major offered to write for me but I could not let him. I have not even been able to be shaved so afraid are they of excitement. I am lifted out of bed by two men I now employ and I do not know as yet that I have my legs on my body, for I cannot feel them — so reduced have I been. I am a perfect skeleton. My constitution has suffered a check which it will take many months if not a year to recover — I am now satisfied this climate will never do for me. Another winter would almost kill me if not quite (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry for March 7 in letter of March 6, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 28).

225  Joseph Samuel Ropes (6 February 1818 – 14 March 1903) was the brother of William Hooper Ropes. He also worked for William Ropes and Company and was a translator of religious tracts. See Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall in Appendix E.

226  William Maingay (8 May 1791 – 24 April 1862) was an English merchant in St. Petersburg. See Maingay in Appendix E and Image 258. The dinner took place on 1/13 February. William Maingay reminded Anna Whistler of John Winstanley of Preston.

227  “Miss Grant” may be Elizabeth Wylie Grant (c. 1813 – 4/17 October 1901).

228  This is probably Sophia (Krehmer) Baird, Nicol Baird’s widow, whom Anna Whistler met on the boat coming to St. Petersburg. It is quite clear when she is speaking of other Baird women, such as Charles Baird’s widow (“old Mrs. Baird”) or the wife of Charles’ son, Francis (“Mrs. F. Baird”).

229  This is Eliza (Lamb) Maingay (16 January 1801 – 28 June 1877), wife of William Maingay. See Maingay in Appendix E and Image 259.

230  Two of the Maingay children had died in St. Petersburg: Amelia de Jersey Maingay (20 October / 1 November 1833 – 23 November / 5 December 1835) and Charles George Maingay (21 October 1830 – 15/27 January 1843; see Image 261). Anna Whistler had lost Kirk Boott Whistler (16 July 1838 – 10 July 1842) and Charles Donald Whistler (27 August 1841 – 24 September 1843), but she probably would also have included Joseph Swift Whistler (12 August 1825 – 1 January 1840), her step-son.

231  Anna Whistler could have spoken of Rev. John Nichols, her Lebanon, Connecticut, pastor; Rev. William H. Newman, her Westerly, Rhode Island, pastor; Rev. Theodore Edson, her Lowell pastor; or Rev. Henry Washington Lee (see Image 44), her Springfield pastor. I do not know what church she attended when living in Paterson, New Jersey, in the early years of her marriage. When she was a young girl living in Brooklyn, her family attended St. Ann’s Church (today St. Ann’s and Holy Trinity Church). Mrs. and Miss McNeill are recorded as communicants in 1821 and Dr. McNeill in 1823, during which period the Rev. Henry Ustick Onderdonk (1789–1858) was Rector ([Fish], St. Ann’s Church, pp. 51, 193, 200, 201). It has not been possible to ascertain precisely who Mrs. Maingay’s pastors were. One of them could have been Rev. James Moore (1769–1846), vicar (1814–1846) of St. Pancras Church in London, where her eldest son, William Bonamy, was baptized in October 1819 (Samuel Palmer, St. Pancras; Being Antiquarian, Topographical, and Biographical Memoranda, Relating to the Extensive Metropolitan Parish of St. Pancras, Middlesex: with Some Account of the Parish from Its Foundation [London: Samuel Palmer; Field & Tuer, 1870], pp. 42–43; PREC STP, no. 5563, p. 330).

232  The children are Emily Maingay (23 January / 4 February 1834 – 25 December 1890; see Image 264), who was called “Lille” or “Lily” by her family, and Frederick Thomas Maingay (1/13 May 1835 – 11 October 1862). Anna Whistler mostly wrote “Lily” and once “Lillie” and “Lilly” in the diaries.

233  This is Eliza Anne Maingay (12 February 1821 – 20 November 1899; see Image 262), called “Nina” within her family but not in the diaries.

234  This is Emma Elizabeth Maingay (6 February 1826 – 27 December 1904; see Image 263), Deborah Whistler’s closest friend in St. Petersburg, maid-of-honor at her wedding, and lifelong friend in England.

235  Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) (pronounced “Mah′slineetsuh”) is derived from the word “maslo” (pronounced “mah′sluh”), which means both “butter” and “oil.” It is the equivalent of Mardi Gras week and “maslo” is equal to “gras.” The usual English translation is “Butter Week.” After this week, Orthodox Russians may not eat any animal products, including butter, in their food until Easter Sunday (T.A. Agapkina, Èntsiklopedicheskii slovar’ A –Ia Slavianskaia mifologiia [Encyclopedic Dictionary A–Ia Slavic Mythology] [Moscow: Ellis Lak, 1955], pp. 253–255, 299–301). For a detailed description of the entire Easter season, see Robert Sears, An Illustrated Description of the Russian Empire, rev. ed. [New York: Hurst, 1881], pp. 547–566.

236  Admiralty Square (see Image 118) is part of a vast expanse of three contiguous squares stretching from the building of the Guards Staff past the Winter Palace, the Admiralty, and St. Isaac’s Cathedral to the buildings of the Senate and Synod. Admiralty Square is the name given to the area in front of the main line of Admiralty Boulevard, from which boulevard Nevskii Prospekt, Gorokhovoi Prospekt, and Voznesenskii Prospekt fan out like rays. On this square, General Staff Headquarters are on the corner of Nevskii Prospekt; further along, between Nevskii and Gorokhovoi prospekts, are the provincial offices; and between Admiralty and Voznesenskii prospekts stands one of the biggest hotels of the capital: the London Hotel, and the Civic Society, or Burger Club. Along this same line, closer to St. Isaac’s Cathedral, stands the former home of Lobanov, which now belongs to the War Ministry. Ice hills and booths are put up on this square for Shrovetide (Maslenitsa) (see Images 344, 346), while swings and booths are put up for Passion, or Holy, Week (Sviataia Nedelia) (see Image 345) and the public parades both in carriages and on foot (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, p. 1; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, p. 74).

237  On 4/16 February 1844, there was to be a public masked ball at the Court of His Majesty for Russian and foreign gentry and merchants (see Image 373). Children under fifteen and members of the gentry not in costume would not be admitted. The distribution of tickets had begun on 30 January / 11 February (Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti 26, Wednesday, February 2 [February 14 NS] 1844, p. 113). “The Col” is Anna Whistler’s usual reference to Colonel Todd.

238  The ball in honor of the marriage of Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Elizaveta Mikhailovna to his Serene Highness Prince Adolphe of Nassau was held on 2/14 February 1844. The Grand Duke Michel is her father, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich. See Images 439, 441, 442.

239  Among the materials accompanying the manuscript of Anna Whistler’s diaries is a single, abridged quotation from the Marquis de Custine’s La Russie en 1839, in English translation. It is his description of the exhausted and nervous appearance of Empress Aleksandra Fyodorovna, attributed by him to the stress of (1) the Decembrist rebellion in 1825, which threatened her husband’s accession to the throne and the entire Imperial family with assassination and (2) her years of bearing children (Marquis de Custine, Empire of the Czar A Journey through Eternal Russia, foreword by Daniel J. Boorstin; introduction by George F. Kennan [New York: Anchor – Doubleday, 1990], pp. 137–138; see also pp. 159, 161). This passage, copied in Anna Whistler’s hand, is followed by her response to what she deemed to be Custine’s lack of generosity and of justness in attributing the empress’s debility to a subservience to the emperor and thereby suggesting an unhappy marriage. But although Custine was implying that the emperor had power, he was not saying the marriage was unhappy. Anna Whistler entitled the quotation an “Excerpt from the Marquis de Custines travels in Russia in 1842” (see Appendix B). In his biography of Aleksandra Fyodorovna, whom he knew personally, A. Th. von Grimm corroborates in detail Custine’s statement and also does not suggest an unhappy marriage (A. Th. von Grimm, Alexandra Feodorowna Empress of Russia, trans. Lady Wallace, 2 vols. [Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas, 1870], vol. 1, pp. 157, 246).

240  Anna Whistler sometimes made mistakes in recording dates, but rarely in recording days. The date of this entry – 26 February, which was a Monday – indicates that all the events Anna Whistler records for the previous day would have taken place on a Sunday. The Whistlers normally did not entertain, work, or amuse themselves on Sunday. Although the diaries do show that she occasionally made an exception on Sunday, I believe the date of this entry is wrong, and it cannot be a Monday. Moreover, Anna Whistler does not refer to having or not having attended church the day before, which she usually referred to when writing on Monday.

241  Reverend Henry Washington Lee (29 July 1815 – 26 September 1874; see Image 44) was rector of Christ Church, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1838–1847. He was terminated there in November 1847 (Christ Church Guild, Christ Church Parish [Springfield, MA] [s.l.: s.n., 1927], pp. 30–41). “Sister Katie” is Catherine Jane (McNeill) Palmer.

242  This Biblical quotation may be a combination of two sources: Matthew 5:7, “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy”; and Micah 7:18, “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.”

243  If the diary date of 26 February, a Monday, were correct, it would mean Rev. Law (see Image 253) and the females in his family visited them on Sunday, 25 February, but Rev. Law usually held two services on Sunday and he would also have respected the Whistlers’ request for Sunday privacy.

244  Because the diary date, 26 February, a Monday, is in doubt, the Sunday referred to here could be 18 or 25 February. It has not been possible to ascertain the name of the deceased.

245  “MƤ Bodisco has been quite a lioness all winter. She is I fear spoiled for although she is pretty she is weak and ignorant – I had a conversation with her at one of the balls at the palace. The poor little fool said she would never be able to live with comfort in America there was no society there etc etc” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Mar. 26, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 29). See Bodisco and Williams in Appendix E and Images 283–285.

246  Caesar Thompson was a Negro servant in The Spy (1821), a historical novel by James Fenimore Cooper (15 September 1789 – 14 September 1851).

Cooper’s family moved from his birthplace of Burlington, New Jersey, in 1790 to “a huge tract in central New York,” where his father established Cooperstown and “built a pretentious manor estate on Otsego Lake.” Cooper “spent his boyhood” here, “learning much about frontier and wilderness life from the rude inhabitants of the place” that he used “in his later writings.” Educated at Yale, he also “shipped as a merchant seaman and served for three years as a midshipman in the navy.” “He lived in New York, later in Paris, … [and] in 1833 … [returned to] Cooperstown” permanently.

The Spy (1821), his second novel, caused a furor that made him decide to be a writer. It is considered “an entertaining mixture of fighting, espionage and love.” “The central character is Harvey Birch,” “based on a real personage” who was “a secret agent employed during the Revolution to gather information on British activities” and ran the risk of being hung by either side. Birch is “a Yankee peddler on whom George Washington (in the novel called William Harper) relies strongly. The action takes place in Westchester County, N.Y., where two bands operate, the Americans and the British. Captain Henry Wharton, of the British faction, visits his Westchester home and is almost captured, but his patriotic sister Frances persuades Mr. Harper to aid her brother. The leader of his pursuers is Major Payton Dunwoodie, betrothed to Frances. Urged by Frances to delay his pursuit, Dunwoodie uses an immediate marriage ceremony as a pretext for the delay. Birch is active in all these events, sometimes in the manner of a Yankee peddler, sometimes in the lofty style of the aristocrats. But he is depicted throughout the book as a man of noble instincts and deep patriotism who refuses all rewards.”

Cooper, while “not especially concerned with Negro rights, … enjoyed describing Negro characters, and in … the servant Caesar … presented the first of his numerous full-drawn portraits of Negroes.”

“Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley (1814) influenced Cooper in writing [The Spy] and later novels. At times he makes the somewhat primitive Westchester seem like a land of chivalry transported from the Scotch Highlands or the Middle Ages. Mr. Harper resembles Bonnie Prince Charlie … rather than the actual commander of the American armies.”

The Spy is also said to demonstrate “that Cooper was always … ‘a loose, slovenly author’” (Herzberg, Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature, pp. 209–210).

247  “Yankee Doodle” is a traditional American folk song with its roots in the political conflict between the British and the nascent American nation of the eighteenth century. “Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, a British army physician, is credited with penning the ‘Yankee Doodle’ lyrics [during the French and Indian War (1754–1763)] to mock the ragtag New England militia … – ‘Yankee doodles’… An old English nursery rhyme provided the tune, which was also used in a musical play popular in the British colonies in the mid-1700s. (Chris Carola, “Dandy New Theory Suggests ‘Yankee Doodle’ is Now 250,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 5, 2008). At the outset of the American Revolutionary War, “as opposition to British rule in the American colonies heated up, satirical songs took on a new edge. Rebellious colonists sang songs insulting Britain’s king, George III, as a drunken tyrant, and British soldiers answered with songs ridiculing the Americans as backwoods yokels.” Written years earlier for a similar purpose, “Yankee Doodle” “was so popular with British troops that they played it as they marched to battle on the first day of the Revolutionary War. The rebels quickly claimed the song as their own, though, and created dozens of new verses that mocked the British, praised the new Continental Army, and hailed its commander, George Washington. By 1781, when the British surrendered at Yorktown, being called a ‘Yankee Doodle’ had gone from being an insult to a point of pride, and the song had become the new republic’s unofficial national anthem” (“Yankee Doodle,” Historical Period: The American Revolution, 1763-1783, Library of Congress online, accessed 30 April 2020).

248  It has not been possible to determine what these depredations were.

249  Mrs. Bodisco’s pastor was Rev. Stephen Griffith Gassaway (Baltimore, MD 25 September 1818 – St. Louis, MO 16 February 1854), seventh Rector of Christ Church, who served from March 1843 until 1850. “Mr. Gassaway … came to Christ Church via Ohio, on the recommendation of [the] third Rector, the Reverend John Thompson Brooke, who was then Rector of Christ Church in Cincinnati. Mr. Gassaway went on to be Rector of Saint George’s Church in St. Louis in 1850, where he was tragically killed in an explosion on a river boat in 1854.” His pastoral skills “apparently were exceptional” (Glenn A. Metzdorf, Christ Church, Georgetown, DC, to E. Harden, 22 August and 14 September 1994). See also Missouri Republican, February 17 and 19, 1854, for the announcement of his death when the Kate Kearney exploded and for tributes to him.

250  Mrs. Bodisco’s father, Brooke Williams (1790 – 1 September 1843), Chief Clerk in the Adjutant General’s Office, died in Georgetown, DC, and was buried on 2 September 1843 (National Intelligencer, September 2, 1843). The infant who had died was the Bodiscos’ eleven-month-old son, Alexander André (b. 10 October 1842; bap. Christ Church 9 April 1843; d. Georgetown, DC 2 September 1843; funeral service Christ Church 3 September 1843) (Glenn A. Metzdorf, Christ Church, Georgetown, DC, to E. Harden, 22 August and 14 September 1994). See Bodisco and Williams in Appendix E.

251  If the Indian portraits were brought from the United States by Major Whistler in 1842 or by his family in 1843, some of the Indian portfolios available to them before their departure were: James Otto Lewis, The Aboriginal Portfolio; or, A Collection of Portraits of the Most Celebrated Chiefs of North American Indians (Philadelphia, 1835–[1836]); and part of Thomas L. McKenney and James Hall’s History of the Indian Tribes of North America… Embellished with One Hundred and Twenty Portraits of the Principle Chiefs, from the Indian Gallery in the Department of War at Washington (Philadelphia, 1838–1844).

It is less likely that Anna Whistler may be referring to George Catlin’s portraits of North American Indians. Catlin (26 July 1796 – 23 December 1872) began creating a gallery of paintings of North American Indians in 1829–1830, which he completed in 1838. This gallery of paintings and objects was exhibited in the United States in 1837–1839. In 1839, Catlin took it to London. The exhibit opened on 1 February 1840, at Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly (see Image 79), where it was on view for three years. Major Whistler, on route to Russia, was in England from some time in the latter part of June 1842 until 18 July 1842, and might have seen the exhibit then. The collection remained in England until the end of 1844 and was exhibited in Manchester, where Anna Whistler and the children could have seen it in 1843. But it is not clear whether either the Major or they could have obtained pictures in 1842 or 1843.

There was a forty-eight-page English catalogue published in 1840 with the following on the title page:

A descriptive catalogue of Catlin’s Indian Gallery, containing portraits, landscapes, costumes etc., and representations of the manners and customs of the North American Indians. - Collected and painted entirely by Mr. Catlin, during seven years’ travel amongst forty-eight tribes, mostly speaking different languages. – Egyptian Hall: Piccadilly, London. – Admittance, one shilling. – 1840.

Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio did not appear until late 1844 (London) and was available by subscription only, but when Nicholas I was in England in 1844, Catlin forwarded to him in June all the plates of his Portfolio then finished (Thomas Donaldson, The George Catlin Indian Gallery in the U.S. National Museum (Smithsonian Institution), with Memoir and Statistics, from the Smithsonian Report for 1885 [Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1887], pp. 1– 8, 11, 701, 775, 779–793). See also, Colonel Merl Moore, Falls Church, VA, to E. Harden, 22 July 1997; “Foreign Correspondence of the Atlas,” The Boston Daily Atlas, Sept. 5, 1844, Dec. 24, 1844, Feb. 5, 1845; “Catlin’s North American Indian Portfolio,” The Times (London), Nov. 24, 1844; John C. Ewers, ed., Indian Art in Pipestone George Catlin’s Portfolio in the British Museum (Washington, DC: British Museum Publications & Smithsonian Press, 1979, pp. 12, 14). Colonel (Ret.) Moore was researching pre-1860 printed sources for material about American artists when we became acquainted at the National Portrait Gallery.

252  The Miss Krehmer mentioned here was the sister of Mrs. Nichol Baird (Mr. Baird’s given name also appears in documents as Nicol and Nicholas). Anna Whistler had met them on board the John Bull, where they had witnessed the death of two-year-old Charles Donald Whistler. Anna Whistler’s maternal grandparents came from England to Charleston, South Carolina. She refers in her letters to Charleston cousins, who are in New York in 1867 and whose house in Charleston was destroyed (Anna Whistler to Mr. James H. Gamble, Homeland, August 3, 1867, and 27 [August 1867], GUL: Whistler Collection, W526). The persons she mentions are cousin Anna Johnstone (1787-1870) at East 41st St., New York; Anna Johnstone’s niece, Mrs. Margaret Corbett (b. 1804); and Mrs. Corbett’s daughter, Elizabeth Duclos (Mrs. Polydore P. Duclos) (Anna Whistler to Mrs. Wann, Tues. morning 6th [1867], GUL: Whistler Collection, W527; Anna Whistler to Mr. Gamble, London, Sept. 7, 1870, W539). The addressees were James H. Gamble (b. 1820) and his sister, Jane (Gamble) Wann (1822–1875). Their domicile was Homeland at Vanderbilt Landing on Staten Island. See the biographies of the Charleston cousins in Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

253  Expository Sermons on the Epistles to the Seven Churches, published in 1838, was a work written by the English divine, Henry Blunt (12 August 1794 – 20 July 1843), born at Dulwich; BA, Pembroke College, Cambridge, 1817; “Priest’s orders 20 Dec. [1818].” He was famous as a preacher, doing most of his work at Chelsea, and the author of many popular printed works arising from courses of lectures he delivered each year during the Lenten season on “various leading persons in the Old and New Testament.” These are considered his best works, “full of human interest,” practical, and marked by beauty both of language and of style. Even before going to college, he helped establish “the first Sunday school at Chelsea,” an interest that he continued to maintain later (and one that probably endeared him to Anna Whistler). He also “introduced bible and communicant’s classes” and “published the first parish magazine, … the ‘Poor Churchman’s Evening Companion’” (Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Blunt, Henry [1794– 1843]”). “Miss M” is one of the Maingay daughters, probably Eliza, whose piety Anna Whistler admired.

254  If the diary date, 26 February, a Monday, is correct, the Sunday referred to here should be 18 February.

255  It has not been possible to establish who Major Whistler’s French tutor was; however, Major Whistler did not achieve fluency in French. Anton Shtukenberg (see Image 250), a Russian colleague engaged in building the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway, who had great respect and affection for him, said: “Whistler frequently visited the works and would stay with me. He spoke French badly and although our conversation was a bit labored, still it was very useful for me” (Shtukenberg, Memuary, vol. 2, fol. 514).

256  This is Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (13 October 1812 – 16 April 1894), wife of William Clarke Gellibrand and sister of William Hooper Ropes. See Ropes, Gellibrand, Hall, Prince in Appendix E and Images 266–267.

257  The Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti had carried a warning on this subject just a few days before:

His Majesty the Emperor has taken note of the unusually great speed of cab traffic and, in order to curtail it, has ordered the following: to announce once again to the inhabitants of the capital the Ukase of 1808, which has many times been reconfirmed and from the strict adherence to which no one and no one’s cab has been made exempt. According to the Ukase of 1808 cab drivers are not permitted to drive rapidly and carelessly. For failure to carry out this regulation and for any accident arising as a result, cab drivers will be arrested and their horses confiscated. Anyone injured as a result of such speeding will be treated in the city hospitals at the expense of those who were riding in the cabs. (Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti 33, Saturday, February 12 [February 24 NS], 1844, p. 145)

258  The Russian word for “cabman,” “driver,” is spelled “izvozchik” and pronounced “izvaw′shcheek” (see Images 352–353).

259  If they had paid for it and with a single coin, they would have used the silver coin called in Russian “poltinnik” or “poltina” (pronounced “polteen′nyeek” and “poltee′nuh”) worth half a ruble or fifty kopeks (Fedosiuk, Chto neponiatno u klassikov, p. 54).

260  The Russian phrase for “trade rows” or “arcade of shops” (literally, “merchants’ yard”) is spelled “gostinyi dvor” and pronounced “gosstee′nee dvor′.” Designed in 1752 by Francesco-Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700–1771) in the Baroque style (“to replace a similar structure destroyed in the 1736 fire”), the plan for it was revised in the early 1760s by Vallin de la Mothe (1729–1800), who “preserved the basic features of Rastrelli’s monumental plan” of “long arcades and massive porticos,” “but stripped the design of its statuary in favor of a simple detailing of the structure,” where the “classical element appeared most explicitly in the use of Doric columns to frame the entrances.” Built from 1758 to 1785, it consists of two tiers of arcades on both the exterior and interior of the building, which has the form of a trapezoid, and stands between the Nevskii Prospekt, Bol’shaia Sadovaia Street, Chernyshev Alley, and Gostinaia Street. Its external appearance had not changed by the 1850s, but had been enhanced in recent times by the presence of luxury stores rivalling some of the best stores on the Nevskii Prospekt. Here there were individual shops selling, for example, mirrors, perfume, tobacco, china, table linens, yard goods, furniture, antiques, and paintings. Inside the Gostinyi Dvor, with its arcades paralleling the exterior of the building, was a second set of shops with storerooms and warehouses and shops selling iron and brass wares. In the central courtyard was a weighing station (all material on the design of the building and all quoted material is from Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 261; the rest is from Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 2, pp. 161–163; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 160–164; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 561–562). Mrs. Gellebrand in this entry, also called “Mrs. G,” is Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (see Images 266–267).

261  A “mantua maker” is a dressmaker (C. Willett Cunnington, Phillis Cunnington, and Charles Beard, A Dictionary of English Costume [London: Adam & Charles Black, [1960]], p. 133).

262  In the 18th century, “cardinal” referred to “a ¾-length hooded cloak” worn by ladies, usually of scarlet cloth. In the 19th century, it referred to “a shorter cloak ending about waist-level and without hood or collar” and was “fashionable in 1840s” (Cunninngton, Cunnington, and Beard, p. 38).

263  “Gymp (gimp)” refers to “silk, worsted or cotton twist with a cord or wire running through it,” which was used for trimming or decoration on clothing and upholstery (Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “gymp”).

264  There was a dual monetary system in Russia: paper money and silver. Paper money, which appeared in Russia in 1769, was called “assignatsii” or “bankovskie bilety” (bank notes). At first, a paper ruble was equal to a silver one, but because too much paper money not backed by silver was released, the rate of exchange began to fall. Copper and paper money were treated as equal, but silver money was valued at a higher rate. One silver ruble began to be considered the equivalent of four paper rubles. In 1839, the rate of exchange was officially fixed, making one silver ruble equal to 3.5 paper rubles. Around 1843, state credit notes (kreditnye bilety) were introduced instead of “assignatsii,” which were removed from circulation. People nevertheless called these notes by the old name for a long time (Fedosiuk, Chto neponiatno u klassikov, pp. 56–57). Anna Whistler sometimes refers to the paper ruble as “banco,” from the other term, “bankovskie bilety” (bank notes), used to mean “assignatsii.”

265  “Bombazine” was a “twilled or corded dress-material, composed of silk and worsted; sometimes also of cotton and worsted, or of worsted alone. In black the material is much used in mourning” (Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “bombazine”).

266  The first school for training the choristers of the Imperial Court Chapel Choir (so renamed in 1763) was established by Imperial decree in 1738, during the reign (1730–1740) of Empress Anna Ioannovna (1693–1740). The school and lodgings are housed in a state-owned building on the Moika Canal at Choir Bridge (Pevcheskii most). The boys are recruited when young and come mainly from the Ukraine. They receive a general and musical education in classes at the choristers’ school and are salaried. Those whose voices change enter the civil service, while those whose voices do not change remain lifetime members of the choir.

The director of the Imperial Court Chapel during the Whistlers’ St. Petersburg sojourn was Aleksei Fyodorovich L’vov (1798–1870; see Image 195). L’vov had no particular expertise in church music but was an “accomplished amateur violinist,” whose travels in the retinue of Nicholas I enabled him to meet “the leading European musicians of his time” and to gain “an international reputation as a musician.” He was chosen for the director’s post in 1837 by Nicholas I because of close personal ties, forged in part by his musical reputation and his training as an engineer and military officer, a training that always appealed to this emperor. More importantly, “in 1833 he won Nicholas’ special favor by composing the hymn ‘God Save the Tsar’, which became the Russian national anthem.” Wishing “to establish a uniform standard of church singing throughout his realm,” Nicholas I gave L’vov enormous powers of censorship, which he exercised to an intimidating degree. During L’vov’s 24-year tenure as director, “the only compositions added to those already approved under Bortniansky [(1751–1825) [a predecessor] were his own.” If the choice of repertoire was conservative and limited, the ordinary one-time visitor to the choir’s rehearsals would probably be unaware; however, Clara Schumann (see Image 199), who did not like L’vov, was aware. Together with her husband (see Image 200), she attended the choir rehearsal on 25 February / 8 March 1844. Her response was: “Unfortunately they sang really mediocre compositions, surely including some by L’vov” (Nauhaus, Marriage Diaries, p. 250).

Still, what particularly struck “visiting foreign musicians,” but other visitors as well, were the technical excellence and sonority of the Imperial Court Chapel Choir performances, the unique mellowness of the singing, which made the “choir resemble a grandiose organ, the magnificence and effect of which upon an impressionable listener’s nervous system is beyond description.” Clara Schumann recorded that it was “the first chorus we have ever heard, the basses resemble organ basses at times, and the sopranos often sound quite supernatural, more beautiful than the most beautiful women’s voices” (Nauhaus, p. 250). And Berlioz, visiting Russia in 1847, noted: “In our time we have no doubt that the Choir of Court Singers in Russia surpasses all choirs that exist at this moment in the entire world … To compare the choral performance in the Sistine Chapel in Rome with these wondrous singers is the same as comparing a miserable little troupe of fiddlers in a third-rate Italian theater with the orchestra of the Paris Conservatoire. The effect of the music performed by this choir upon nervous people is irresistible. At those incredible accents you feel that you are being overwhelmed, almost to the point of pain, by a nervous state that you don’t know how to control. Several times I attempted in these circumstances to remain calm, straining my will power, but I could never succeed” (Most of the information in this note and all quotations, except the Schumann quotations, are taken from Vladimir Morosan, Choral Performance in Pre-Revolutionary Russia [Madison, CT: Musica Russica, 1994], pp. 57–83. Additional information is taken from Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 463–464; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 416–419). Predisposed to a similar nervous receptivity by a constitution overwrought with grief at the loss of two young children in the previous two years that released in turn memories of others “that have gone before,” Anna Whistler, too, was overwhelmed.

Rehearsals took place every Friday morning and entrance was by ticket (Nauhaus, Marriage Diaries, p. 250). Major, Anna, and Deborah Whistler, together with Emma Maingay, attended a rehearsal on 18 February / 1 March.

267  “Kvas” “is the plainest and cheapest sort of drink, extracted from malt, sometimes from bread-crusts – and is commonly drank by the people; at first its taste is quite insupportable, but one soon gets accustomed to it and prefers it to any other beverage, especially in summer, on account of its cooling properties. It is very wholesome, not intoxicating, and constitutes the chief drink of the Russian people” (Jerrmann, Pictures from St. Petersburg, p. 69). There are various kinds of kvas, some with fruit or herbs added. The recipe given here is for a simple Russian bread kvas (russkii khlebnyi kvas):

Cut black bread into small slices and dry in oven. Pour boiling water over the rusks. Strain after 10–12 hours. Mix yeast and wheat flour in a small amount of rusk infusion. Leave in a warm place to rise. Brew some mint in the rusk infusion, boil well, and add sugar. As soon as the yeast rises, pour it into the sugar infusion, add the mint and sugar, mix and put it in a warm place until a thick foam appears. Remove the foam carefully, strain the liquid and pour into bottles, without filling them to the top. Seal the bottles tightly with corks and stand them in a cold place. In twelve hours the kvas will be ready. (V.S. Mikhailov, Pravoslavnaia kukhnia [Russian Orthodox Cooking] [Moscow: Kubka, 1996], p. 65)

268  Carolyn C. Dunlop, The Russian Court Chapel Choir 1796-1917, vol. 1, Music archive publications, series F (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, 2000), pp. 21, 22.

269  Emma Maingay (see Image 263) spent 9 March 1844 with the Whistlers.

270  The volume was Christian Meditations; or, The Believer’s Companion in Solitude by Thomas Shaw Bancroft Reade, Esquire (1777 – Leeds 12 April 1841). It was published soon after his death (London: Hamilton, Adams; Leeds: J.Y. Knight, 1841). He was also the author of Christian Experience (London, 1832) and Christian Retirement (12th ed., Kirkby Lonsdale: Arthur Foster, 1840) (Laureen Baillie, ed., British Biographical Archive [New York: K.G. Saur, c. 1986], microfiche; British Library catalogue). Anna Whistler’s information about when Reade died does not coincide with the facts (The Leeds Intelligencer & Yorkshire Advertiser, April 17, 1841).

271  For the United States, see The Book of Common Prayer, and the Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America: Together with The Psalter, or Psalms of David (Philadelphia: Female Protestant Episcopal Prayer-Book Society of Pennsylvania, 1839). For England, see The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, and Other Rites and Ceremonies of The United Church of England and Ireland: Together with the Psalter or Psalms of David, Pointed As They Are To Be Sung or Said in Churches; and the Form and Manner of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons (Oxford: Printed at the University Press, 1839).

272  As Calvary Church, the Episcopalian Church in Stonington, Connecticut, was not completed until May 1849 (consecrated on 31 May 1849), when the Whistlers lived in Stonington they attended services at the Westerly Church, the Episcopalian Church in Westerly, Rhode Island (Minor Myers Jr., History of Calvary Church, Stonington [Stonington, CT: Calvary Churchwomen, 1973], p. 14). Their means of transportation was a handcar (“The early years and boyhood of James MacNeill Whistler,” by Miss Emma W. Palmer, GUL: Whistler Collection, P44).

273  This is Katherine Prince (13 April 1820 – 19 November 1906), daughter of the Whistlers’ friends, John Dynely Prince (12 August 1779 – 5 January 1860), superintendent of the Merrimac Print Works in Lowell, Massachusetts, and Susan (Travers) Prince (d. 15 June 1867). Her married name was Livermore. It has not been possible to locate this note.

274  This is Sarah (Poulterer) Harrison (21 September 1817 – 21 July 1906, wife of Joseph Harrison Jr. Her husband, who had gone to Russia in 1843, was a partner in the firm of Harrison, Winans, and Eastwick, making the locomotives and rolling stock in Russia for the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. See the biographies of the Harrison family in Appendix E (hereafter, Harrison) and Image 227.

275  It has not been possible to locate this letter written by William Gibbs McNeill to Major Whistler.

276  Martha (Kingsley) McNeill (see Image 22) was with her son, Charles Johnston McNeill, in Florida.

277  As a verb, “avail” has among its meanings “to be of use” or “to afford help.”

278  James Whistler (c. 1796 – 11 October 1843), brother of Major G.W. Whistler, had at his death “no family” (CHS: Whistler, p. 3; Cheryl Whistler Garrison, “Descendants of Major John Whistler,” ancestry.com; Times-Picayune, Tuesday, October 17, 1843). It would be logical to assume that the announcement of his death was made in the letter from his niece, Eliza Van Vee (Eliza Van Vechten), to his niece, Deborah Whistler, rather than in the letter from Catherine Julia McNeill, his other niece, known as Deborah’s “Twin.” See his biography in Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

279  The reference is to Cousin Caroline (Whistler) Bloodgood and her husband, William. See Note 156 above and Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

280  This is Sophia (Krehmer) Baird, whom they visited on Saturday, 16 March 1844.

281  This is Lydia (Procter) Wood (26 November 1810 – 22 April 1880), whose husband, Charles, was engaged in the manufacture of cotton cloth in Russia. See the biography of the Wood family in Appendix E (hereafter, Wood) and Image 272. Anna Whistler had hoped to see her at the sociable on Thursday, 21 March.

282  The Russian command for “Stop!” is both spelled and pronounced “stoy.”

283  Here, Anna Whistler comes much closer than before in rendering the pronunciation of the Russian word for “cabman,” “driver,” spelled “izvozchik” and pronounced “izvaw′shcheek” (see Images 352–353).

284  Anna Whistler also sent via Maxwell “a doll dressed in the Russian national costume for his sister, Agness” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry for June 8 in letter of Sunday, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

285  This is Julia McNeill Palmer (25 March 1841 – 22 February 1902), daughter of Catherine Jane (McNeill) and Dr. George E. Palmer (see Image 36) of Stonington, Connecticut. Her married name was Boardman.

286  It has not been possible to ascertain when this “bazaar for the poor” was held during the week of 11–16 March. Maxwell writes on 26 March of “a fair only three days ago at the English Parsons” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, March 26, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 29), which took place after Anna Whistler’s entry of 22 March.

287  It was the third birthday of Ellen Gellibrand Ropes, born 15 March 1841.

288  Because James had been ill and missed his drawing lesson, Anna Whistler broke her rule and allowed him to have a lesson on Sunday, 17 March 1844. On the same day, she drove with her husband and William Hooper Ropes, as interpreter, to look at a house on the Peterhof Road for the summer because Mr. Ropes was free on Sunday.

289  Among the tutors hired by the Whistlers in 1844 was a drawing teacher named Monsieur Vaney. We know only that he was in their employ until they left in May to spend the summer in a dacha on the Peterhof Road.

290  The Peterhof Road (see Images 395–403) runs along the shore of the Gulf of Finland in a broken line, sometimes approaching the shore, sometimes receding from it. Its length, measured from Kalinkin Bridge in St. Petersburg to the Imperial Palace and town of Peterhof, is twenty-eight versts. The road consists of a highway with elevated paths for pedestrians. Along its tract are to be found the Gates of the Russian Guard, Tentelev Village, Krasnyi Kabachok, the Hospital of All That Mourn (an insane asylum), the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, Strel’na and, just before Peterhof, Alexandria, the personal palace of Nicholas I. In addition to these places of interest, magnificent dachas are to be found along both sides of the road (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 432-433). Dachas of far greater simplicity are also to be found here, some built on land on which villas have been razed. Such was the dacha the Whistlers finally rented.

291  Which four houses they inspected cannot be determined, but they chose a house on the estate of Thomas Drury Sr., located “about 3½ miles from the city barrier.” It was “a fine large house with improved grounds. furnished,” for which they agreed to “pay $225. for the season,” which meant they could stay the entire year, if they wished, but it was “not intended for cold weather” (Major G.W. Whistler to Gen. J.G. Swift, St. Petersburg, entry of May 18 in letter of April 4, 1844, NYPL: Swift Papers). “The house stands upon the spot once occupied by the large house of the Princess Narishkin, the Mistress of Alexander. This villa has long since been pulled down and the property sold - It was bought by a man named Drury who built three country houses upon it - one of which is his own residence and another of Major W” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35). See M.I. Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe okrestnostei Peterburga [The Forgotten Past of the Environs of Petersburg (St. Petersburg: A.S. Suvorin, 1889; Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1994), 1889 ed., p. 129.

292  Anna Whistler finished her despatches on Tuesday, 19 March 1844.

293  This reference is to Joseph Harrison Jr. (20 September, 1810 – 27 March 1874), American locomotive engine builder from Philadelphia, partner in the firm of Harrison, Winans, and Eastwick, which was engaged in constructing in Russia the locomotives and rolling stock for the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. See Harrison in Appendix E and Image 226.

294  This may be a reference to a jigsaw puzzle. See Yevgenia Petrova, ed., Play and Passion in Russian Fine Art (St. Petersburg: Gosudarstvennyi Russkii muzei, 1999), p. 47.

295  There was no Chapman child named John. Perhaps “Johnnie” was used to distinguish the child James from his father of the same name (conversation with Robin Spencer [retired] of St. Andrew’s University in Scotland).

296  There is no letter from Mr. Harrison from Berlin among the correspondence to the Whistlers. The carbon copies he made of his letters in a special letterbook indicate that while in Berlin he wrote letters, but did not use the letterbook, called “Wedgwood’s Patent Manifold Writer.”

297  This is the Russian word for a “covered sledge,” spelled “kibitka” and pronounced “keebeet′kuh” (see Image 354).

298  This reference is to Sarah (Poulterer) Harrison (see Image 227) and their children, William Henry Harrison (23 December 1837 – 10 March 1886) and Annie Harrison (25 December 1839 – 1915) (RG84: Records of Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, Diplomatic Posts, American Embassy, Great Britain, C18.2: London Passport Book 1836–1845, NAUS [hereafter, NAUS: Passports, RG84, C18.2], passport nos. 1097 and 1099, destination: St. Petersburg). See also Harrison in Appendix E.

299  Anna Whistler is referring to the resumption of celebrations in Admiralty Square during Holy Week (see Images 378–379 for icons of the Holy Week feast days).

300  The first 147 bridges across the Neva were floating bridges (see Image 99). Work to replace them with permanent ones started in the 1840s and Annunciation Bridge (see Images 140–142) was the first built (G.I. Bogdanov, “Problemy sokhraneniia mostov Sankt-Peterburga” [“Problems in the Preservation of the Bridges of St. Petersburg”], Peterburgskie chteniia 96 [1996]: p. 281). Work on it had commenced on 1/13 January 1843. Major Whistler did not live to see it completed. It was being built “from a point where the Kriukov Canal entered the [Grand] Neva on its left bank to a point on the right bank between Lines 5 and 6 near the Academy of Arts on Vasilievskii Ostrov. The left bank end of the bridge was near the Annunciation Church [see Image 131] and square of the same name” (Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, p. 362), which the Whistlers lived very close to. Work was being carried out under the direction of the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings, headed by Count P.A. Kleinmikhel’ (see Image 243), and under the chairmanship of Lt. Colonel (after December 1843) of Engineers M.G. Destrem (see Image 246) (Haywood, pp. 362–363). In charge of building the bridge was Major of Engineers S.V. Kerbedz (Haywood, pp. 361–363). It was completed in 1850 and opened on 21 November / 2 December 1850 by Nicholas I (see Images 420–423), who walked across it (Haywood, pp. 364– 365). It was popularly called the Nicholas Bridge. “Harrison, Winans and Eastwick played a secondary but still very important role” in the construction of the bridge, “producing and installing in … 1848–1850 the cast iron works for [it]” (Haywood, p. 360).

301  Anna Whistler’s statement implies that the bridge had to be completed by the time the ice broke up in 1844, but the driving of piles for the piers had just begun. “Because of the difficulty of laying the foundations of the piers, which was the most difficult task of all, work began to fall behind schedule” and “had to be suspended once the ice was about to break up, which in that year happened in early April” (Haywood, p. 363). “The driving of piles” was not completed until “spring of 1846” (Haywood, pp. 363–364).

302  “The Emperor, is frequently seen in the Nevsky. His approach will be noticed by the unusual flutter of the crowd … Hats fly off, and each one wheels to the right-about, and waits the approach of his Imperial Majesty. If he rides, it is in an old and forlorn barouche or sleigh; if he walks, it is alone and at a moderate pace. There is nothing in his appearance to attract attention. A tall figure in a chapeau and plume, a dark cloth cloak and strapless pantaloons, passes along, receives the homage of his subjects, gives them the military salute in return, and disappears before the multitude have recovered from their surprise” (Maxwell, Czar, pp. 91–92); see also the entry of June 19 [1847], BUHG: Colin Ingersoll Journal, pt. 1, fols. 57– 58.

303  The Mikhailovsky Theater, also called the Michel Theater, was located on the square of the Mikhailovsky Palace (see Image 135), in which Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich (see Image 439), brother of Emperor Nicholas I, lived. The theater, built by the architect Aleksandr Pavlovich Briullov (1798–1877), was located on the corner of Engineer (Inzhenernaia) Street and is a brief walk from the Nevskii Prospekt. Its architecture renders it undistinguishable from the private homes in its vicinity. It can seat up to 900 persons and has a large stage and good acoustics. It was opened on 8/20 November 1833. Mainly performances by the French troupe were given in this theater, but sometimes the German troupe presented comedies here (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 365– 366; Jerrmann, Pictures from St. Petersburg, pp. 99– 100; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 640–641).

304  Clara (Wieck) Schumann (Leipzig 13 September 1819 – Frankfurt 20 May 1896; see Image 199) played her fourth and final public concert in St. Petersburg on 17/29 March 1844, at 8 p.m. at the Mikhailovsky Theater to a full house. Each half of the concert also contained a vocal performance by Wilhelm Versing (1811– 1879), bass of the German Opera and also of the Italian Opera in St. Petersburg (Petrovskaia, Kontsertnaia zhizn’ Peterburga, p. 172). The program for the first part of the concert consisted of: Overture; Concerto in G minor for piano and orchestra by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy; aria by Mozart (Mr. Versing); Scherzo by Clara Schumann; “Gretchen am Spinnrade” by Schubert/Liszt; Étude in A minor by Chopin. The second part of the concert consisted of: Overture; “Lied ohne Worte” by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy; Étude “Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär” by Adolf Henselt (1814–1889), pianist, composer, and professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory (Maria Kamenskaia, Vospominaniia [Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1991], p. 369); Prelude and Fugue by Bach (by request); songs (sung by Mr. Versing); Concert Piece in F minor for piano and orchestra by Weber (Nauhaus, Schumann Tagebücher, p. 542n648). Clara Schumann recorded that without the “clear profit of over 1000 rubles silver [they] made [they] would have had trouble leaving Petersburg” (Nauhaus, Marriage Diaries, p. 266). I wish to thank Dr. Gerd Nauhaus, Director of the Robert-Schumann-Haus, Zwickau, Germany, for supplying photocopies of the programs of the four public concerts given in St. Petersburg by Clara Schumann. Anna Whistler, who did not attend either of the concerts she mentions, probably knew of Clara W. Schumann only from Debo and her friends, nor did she know German. She could not recall Schumann’s last name when writing the diary entry and probably wrote “V” for her middle name, given the pronunciation of “W” like “V” in German. She probably heard Debo, who was studying German, pronounce the name.

305  The Smol’nyi Institute for the Education of Young Noblewomen (see Image 147) was founded by Catherine the Great in 1764 and “modelled after Mme de Maintenon’s seminary at St Cyr” (Hamilton, Art and Architecture, pp. 180, 190). The boarding school was first housed in the Resurrection Newmaiden Convent, “an establishment for orphan girls,” which had been designed by Rastrelli (1700–1771) for Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (see Image 413) (Hamilton, pp. 180, 190). The more usual name for this Convent was the Smol’nyi Convent, from the Russian word for “tar” (smola), because of its proximity to the area where tar had been stored for the navy in the time of Peter the Great. The future building for the school (1806–1808), built next to the Smol’nyi Convent, was designed by Giacomo Quarenghi (1744– 1817), who considered it his masterpiece (Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, pp. 250–253, 271, 292, 295– 296, 319; Dmitrii Shvidkovskii, St. Petersburg: Architecture of the Tsars, ill. Alexander Orloff, trans. John Goodman [New York; London; Paris: Abbeville Press, 1996], pp. 65–66, 71, 100, 102, 103; Antonov and Kobak, Sviatyni Sankt-Peterburga, vol. 1, pp. 65–71). It was located on the corner of Voskresenskaia Naberezhnaia Street and Orlovskaia Street on the Grand Neva in the Rozhdestvenskaia District, Fourth Ward (Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, pp. 103, 104). For a detailed description of the pupils’ activities, chiefly in the time of Catherine the Great, see Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe 1889, pp. 46–55; for the 1830s, see Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 2, pp. 324–331.

Clara Schumann played informally at the Smol’nyi Convent on the afternoon of 15/27 March 1844. In her diary, she did not indicate what she played. She dwelt rather on her embarrassment at the attentions paid her by the young women: “Wednesday the 27th/15 … Around 1 o’clock at the invitation of Prince von Oldenburg [see Image 294] we drove to the Smolny Convent, where aristocratic young women are educated and for whom, since they are not allowed to go out, I was supposed to play. … I played a lot, and afterward had to make a tour among all the ladies, all of whom wanted to thank me - I could well have been like a queen if my face hadn’t revealed my embarrassment and the unfamiliarity of this role. Later we made the tour through the inner rooms of the institute, always accompanied by a troupe of young girls, one of whom wanted to carry my gloves, another my wrist warmer, the third my shawl, etc., and wouldn’t give these back until we had arrived at the staircase, where a unanimous chorus of repeated thank-yous rang out. Despite the many embarrassments that followed one another here, the thing did give me much pleasure” (Nauhaus, Marriage Diaries, pp. 264–265). Deborah Whistler attended the concert with the Maingay family.

Clara Schumann gave four public concerts in St. Petersburg, took part in several charitable concerts, played for the pupils of the School of Jurisprudence, and gave many performances at evening gatherings at the imperial palace, in the mansion of the Duke of Ol’denburg, and at musical salons, such as those of Mikhail Iurievich Viel’gorskii (1788–1856) and Aleksei Fyodorovich L’vov (see Image 195). She was accompanied on her trip by her husband, Robert. In St. Petersburg, he gave no public concerts and only one private concert: at a gathering in the home of Mikhail Yuryevich Viel’gorskii. Here, Schumann directed his First Symphony (Istoriia russkoi muzyki, vol. 5: 1826–1850 [Moscow: Publisher, 1988], p. 356).

306  Anna Whistler omitted the word “letter” here. It has not been possible to locate this letter.

307  This is George Edwin Palmer Jr. (8 May 1843 – 24 March 1909), son of Dr. George Edwin Palmer and his second wife, Catherine Jane (McNeill) Palmer, of Stonington, Connecticut. The writer is Maria (Cammann) McNeill. It has not been possible to locate this letter. For the obituary of George Edwin Palmer Jr., see The Cincinnati Enquirer, Sat., 26 March 1909, p. 7, col. 7. See also his biography in Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

308  Anna Whistler probably meant “when.”

309  Rather than come to Russia, Martha (Kingsley) McNeill (see Image 22) had decided to go to Florida to stay with her younger son, Charles. Anna Whistler’s remarks to Mr. and Mrs. Gamble, on receiving the news in April 1869 of her brother’s death, reflect her certainty that he had indeed been positively influenced by their mother: “A fortnight since came to me from Florida tidings of my brothers sudden death, for which however I am thankful in feeling assured he was prepared. his was a life of cheerful resignation to our heavenly Fathers will diligent in his labors for the maintenance of his wife & many children, he was fervent in spirit, I may truly say he walked with God & is with for God has taken him!” (Anna Whistler to my dear friends, London May 6ƫ [18] 69, GUL: Whistler Collection, W 536).

310  The word “budget” means “a bundle.” Anna Whistler is referring to the bundle of mail they had received.

311  Galignani’s Messenger was a newspaper founded in 1814 in Paris by Giovanni Antonio Galignani (1757–1821), a bookseller, and carried on by his sons, John (1796–1873) and William (1798– 1882). It was popular among English residents on the Continent. They also published reprints of English books (Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Galignani, John [1796– 1873]” and “Galignani, William [1798–1882]”; “Unique Mission of Gallagnani’s Messenger Has Ended,” New York Times, August 21, 1904).

312  On 28 February 1844, the man-of-war USS Princeton was making an excursion with some 350 guests on board. On its return journey, when about two or three miles from Alexandria, Virginia, the large gun called the “Peacemaker” was fired for the third time. The gun burst, “split into two parts and [broke] entirely off the gun’s barrel,” killing the secretary of state, Abel P. Upshur (b. 17 June 1790); the secretary of the Navy, Thomas W. Gilmer (b. 6 April 1802); Colonel David Gardiner (b. 1784) of East Hampton, New York, formerly a state senator; Commodore Beverly W. Kennon (b. 7 April 1795), chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repairs of the Navy; Mr. Virgil Maxcy (b. 5 May 1785) of Maryland, “the recent U.S. chargé d’affaires at The Hague”; two sailors; and I. More, the valet of the president of the United States. Captain Stockton was injured (Edward L. Beach, Captain, U.S.N. (retired), The United States Navy: A 200-Year History, The American Heritage Library [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986], pp. 196–222; The National Intelligencer, February 29, 1844; New York Herald, March 1, 1844). For a conversation on the subject of accidents between Major Whistler and Nicholas I after this event, see Major G.W. Whistler to Gen. J.G. Swift, St. Petersburg, April 4, 1844, NYPL: Swift Papers.

313  Donald McNeill Fairfax (10 March 1821 – 10 January 1894), Anna Whistler’s nephew, was the son of her elder sister, Isabella Kingsley (McNeill) Fairfax (c.1798 – c.1850) and of George William Fairfax (5 November 1797 – June 1853). He was at this time a “passed midshipman” in the United States Navy. He had indeed been on the Princeton. The other incident in which he had escaped death was the destruction of the Missouri by fire in Gibraltar Harbor on 26 August 1843 (Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. “Fairfax, Donald McNeill”; ZB file for Donald McNeill Fairfax, information sheet dated 22 March 1917, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC). See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E and Image 38.

314  Palm Sunday, celebrating the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem, is the Sunday immediately preceding Easter Sunday: 19/31 March in 1844 (see Image 378). In Russian it is called “pussy willow” Sunday (verbnoe voskresenie). Generally the cycle of spring holidays began a week before Easter, on the Saturday of the eve of Palm Sunday. In St. Petersburg, there was a kind of fair called “the pussy willows” that was set up in front of the Gostinyi Dvor along its Nevskii Prospekt and Sadovaia Street sides. The populace celebrated under the arches of these arcades of shops, and there was a brisk trade, mainly in bunches of pussy willow branches decorated with paper flowers and wax cherubs, and in balloons, toys, and sweets. As Lent was not yet over, there was no real revelling, but the appearance of masses of people in the streets, the noise and shoving of the crowd, the witty loud cries of the pedlars and hawkers and the sellers of pussy willow branches and toys was all taken as a kind of rehearsal for the big popular celebration of Easter to come in Admiralty Square (A.F. Nekrylova, Russkie narodnye gorodskie prazdniki, uveseleniia i zrelishcha. Konets XVIII nachalo XX veka [Russian Folk Holidays, Amusements and Entertainments Celebrated in the City: From the End of the 18th to the Beginning of the 20th Centuries], 2nd ed. [Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1988], p. 20). This fair, according to Anna Whistler, who was writing on the Friday before Palm Sunday, had been going on all the previous week (see Image 345).

315  Maxwell took James and Willie to Admiralty Square during Easter Week, and, making a comparison of this same “ebullition of joy” to the sombreness of the Russian character he was observing, pompously and patriotically interpreted their vivacity as the manifestation of freedom by the citizens of a free land, not understood for what it was by those who were not free:

Last week (Easter week) I took my dear little friends the Major’s boys. in my carriage and falling into line with the procession of vehicles. went up and down the Square of the Admiralty, where the clown’s of the circus upon the balconies and the clowns of the crowd upon the street excited equal laughter. These boys besides their beauty are very different from all the children you see in this country. The early intelligence of youth with us is well known to be remarkable. Here this is very striking - when these boys are compared with those around them, but this character. is nothing in point of singularity to that which I especially noticed on this occasion. The Russians great and small, in hundreds filled the great square gazing upon the various objects presented for their admiration. They were not a merry nor a noisy assemblage as we comprehend this the merriment and noise of an assembly. and but the very youngest of them all seemed as demure and sedate as if stricken in years. This population from whatever cause always and on all occasion’s presents this sombre and melancholy picture and I would not have had my attention particularly attracted by it, had it not been for the noisy companions I had in charge. Every thing at all extraordinary, a Harlequin Punchinello etc were noticed with a noisy vivacity that not only drew the eyes of the bystanders, but also those of the police as I imagine - and had I not been rather more than an ordinary person, one having privileges, I would have been disposed to check my merry friends. Look there! haurra! hallo! sung out the youngsters in great glee every few moments, to the astonishment of the passers by. who perhaps trembled for the audacity of the rising generation. Little did they dream that the musical voices that were ringing in their ears, and the sparkling eyes and fine curling heads of hair, they saw belonged to a free and far off land, and that in their midst, these gifts of nature seemed alone the gifts of God to the sons of freedom. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, April 15, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 32)

316  Jacks is Patrick Tracy Jackson McNeill (3 October 1835 – 22 April 1898), son of Maria (Cammann) and William Gibbs McNeill. He is also the Jacky mentioned in the following sentence of the diaries. See his biography in Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

317  Willie Wyatt is William Wyatt McNeill (October 1833 – 4 June 1853), brother of Patrick Tracy Jackson McNeill. See his biography in Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

318  A cosmorama is a collection of views, of truly remarkable monuments, buildings, sites from all over the world, illuminated by daylight or fire and constructed in such a way that one looks at these views from a dark room through a magnifying glass. Such a public cosmorama was available all through the winter of 1845 in St. Petersburg near the Alexandrine Theater on the Nevskii Prospekt (Konechnyi, Progulki, p. 306–309, 309n133).

319  In the week before Easter Sunday, swings (see Image 346) were added to the carousels and theater booths being rebuilt in Admiralty Square. Just as Butter Week, celebrated when it was still winter, was characterized by ice hills (see Image 344), so Easter week, part of the spring celebration, was characterized by swings (kacheli), a wooden ferris-wheel with four cars (Nekrylova, Russkie narodnye gorodskie prazdniki, p. 22; Konechnyi, Progulki, p. 269n65). The Russian word for “swings” is spelled “kacheli” and pronounced “kahchay′lee,” and is a plural. Anna Whistler was using the Russian singular form with the English pural suffix -s, probably the usage of her friends.

320  Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, p. 363.

321  Passion Week was 19–25 March / 31 March – 6 April 1844, culminating in Easter Sunday, 26 March / 7 April.

322  Good Friday occurred on 24 March / 5 April 1844.

323  Luke 14:10–11: “10 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. 11 For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

324  “By the way let me say a word on Good Friday. These days of high church festival are observed here with much more particularity than elsewhere in Europe. In our Country, we know nothing of them and I am sure like nine tenths of the people of the US. I could not tell when I first arrived whether Lent preceded or followed Easter. Good Friday in St. Petersburg is the only real Sabbath in as far as the observance of religious worship is concerned that is known here. I knew that the folks up stairs, (as Mrs W is very pious) had gone to prayers every morning in the English Chapel, … but on this day, Good Friday, I did not hear the piano going, the organ grinders who have just thawed out, did not pass my windows as usual, and there was a remarkable quiet in every respect. On From the family on their return from church I heard that it was crowded to excess, that many English, who have become half Russian in their habits, were present, and that Count Nesselrode [see Image 309], who is a protestant, paid his annual visit to the holy alters. In fact there are hundreds of the upper or wealthy order, who like Count Nesselrode think it sufficient for them to attend only on Good Friday” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, April 7. Easter Sunday. 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 31).

In 1845, Maxwell was in Jerusalem during Easter. He described a visit on his own to the Mount of Olives that shows his excellent knowledge of scripture. He also described a group visit on 19 April to the Holy Sepulcre which is quite moving:

Preceded by Ali, and the guide and the Sexton we appeared quite formidable and the way was cleared quickly, to enable us to reach the entrance to the Sepulchre. I was sorry that I had not been prepared to follow the example of those who took off their boots or shoes, before treading upon a spot, which the faith of those around me invested with a holy character, even though my own investigations had led me to doubt, the truth of the tradition which represented this to be the Sepulchre of our Lord, I was sorry to enter with covered feet, and I thought I heard a murmur of surprise from those around me when I did so. I entered within the railing, surrounding the superstructure; – a step or two brought me near the low door way, and through this I descended about two feet and found myself in a small room or vault, filled with images encased in gold and silver, and before which burned many lights, lights I am told which are never permitted to expire, Before me was a white slab of marble, and upon this they told us, the body of our Lord was laid. It is not necessary for me to state the emotions I experienced when I looked at this – this which millions have looked upon with veneration, this which the millions of the Crusades had died to recover from the Infidels, this which was the object of the adoration of the thousands of Pilgrims around me and which ten’s of thousands would suffer much to see. I, at last, had made the Pilgrimage and with all the consolation this could afford me I retired from the Holy Sepulchre – (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, In that part of the Arabian dessert called Algefar. April 10. 1845, entry of Saturday [April] 19, N YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 56)

See also John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Jerusalem. April 18. 1845, N YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 57, in which he expresses his doubts as to the authenticity of various locations associated with the death of Christ, except Calvary. Ali is Ali Ben-Hamet, the dragoman (translator) accompanying Maxwell, Lewis, and Thompson. He was well-known at the British Consulate in Alexandria and came highly recommended. A tall, handsome Arab, about 23-years old, he was taken to England when a boy by Lord Exmouth and was fluent in English. Through his position at the British Consulate, he was entitled to wear a sword. His garb consisted of a red jacket “laced” with gold thread; loose, flowing, knee-length red pantaloons; long, white, tight-fitting stockings; and red Turkish slippers. He was married and his wife was in Alexandria. He eventually was put in charge of making all arrangements, including being their cook, for the trio of travelers. He ended up being very badly beaten by robbers, causing Maxwell to be very concerned and solicitous (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, N YHS: Maxwell Papers, nos. 52, 54, 55, 58).

325  The Cathedral of the (Icon of) the Kazan Mother of God (see Image 126) is located on the Nevskii Prospekt in the Second Admiralty District. The earlier Kazan Cathedral was built in 1733. The present cathedral was designed and built by the architect Andrei Nikiforovich Voronikhin (1759–1814). Constructed over a period of ten years, it was consecrated on 15/27 September 1811.

Both the exterior of the Kazan Cathedral and the Corinthian columns adorning it are made of Pudozh limestone, which is yellowish-gray in color. It was used as well for the architraves, bas reliefs, statues and other decorations. The capitals of the columns are also of Pudozh stone, while the bases are of cast iron. The portico on the Nevskii Prospekt side is embellished with colossal bronze statues of John the Baptist and princes Vladimir, Alexander Nevsky, and Andrew the First-Called. The magnificent bronze doors located on this side were modeled on the famous “Gates of Paradise” of the Baptistry in Florence. The semicircular colonnade consists of 132 columns and is 40 sazhens in diameter. It contains a colossal bronze statue of the Archangel Gabriel at one end and the Archangel Michael at the other, each on a granite pedestal. The cupola of the building, 9 sazhens in diameter, consists of six rectangular Corinthian pilasters and is covered by an oval vault with a gilded cross on top. The cathedral, including the cross, is just over 33 sazhens high. The internal structure of the cathedral is cruciform. In the center rises the cupola with its sixteen windows. From the four pillars under the cupola there is a double-rowed Corinthian colonnade of 56 pink Finnish granite columns going in four directions, to the main altar and the three main doors of the cathedral. Each column has a bronze capital and base. There are three altars. The main altar is dedicated to the Kazan Mother of God, that on the right to the Birth of the Most Holy Mother of God and that on the left to Antonii and Feodosii, the miracle-working saints of the Kiev Cave Monastery.

The miracle-working icon of the Kazan Mother of God, in a mounting (riza) of pure gold decorated with precious stones and pearls, is to be found in a special case on the main iconostasis to the left of the Royal Doors. This icon accompanied the Russian Army in 1812. The iconostasis of the main altar is covered in silver donated by the ataman of the Don troops, who had seized it from the French, who had pillaged it in Moscow. Trophies of the wars of 1812, 1813, and 1814 hang over the tomb of Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov-Smolenskii (5/16 September 1745 – 16/28 April 1813), commander-in-chief of the Russian Army, who was buried here in 1813. In the square in front of the cathedral on the Nevskii Prospekt are bronze statues of Prince Kutuzov and Prince Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tully (1761–1818), also a hero of 1812, which were unveiled on 25 December 1837 / 6 January 1838. On the east side of the cathedral is the Catherine Canal and Kazan Bridge; on the west side there is a semicircular square (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 2, pp. 197–208; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 277, 552; Antonov and Kobak, Sviatyni Sankt-Peterburga, vol. 1, pp. 83– 87; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 132–136).

326  On re-entering the church, it is the priest who speaks. He calls out “Christ Is Risen!” and the congregation responds “Verily He Is Risen!”

327  The Catholic Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Maiden and Martyr, the oldest and largest Catholic church in St. Petersburg (see Image 127), is located on the Nevskii Prospekt across the street from the tower of the Town Hall. Its court yard and building come out in back onto Mikhailovskii Square. The church is built on a spot granted by Empress Anna Ioannovna in ukases of 1738 and 1739. The project for designing the church, entrusted first to Pietro Antonio Trezini (1710–1768), was given in 1759 to Vallin de La Mothe, who basically changed it. The foundation of the building was laid on 16/27 July 1763, but because of financial difficulties it took more than twenty years to complete. Initially the construction was directed by Antonio Rinal’di (1710–1798), at the culminating stage by the architect D. Minchaki (b. 1754). The money for its construction was given partly by the state treasury, partly by donation. The most extensive help in collecting the money and in building the church and church buildings came from a Bavarian merchant, Andrei Pirling, who for a long time carried on his business in the so-called Nuremberg shops, which were set up on the lower floors of the façade wings of the church building. The solemn consecration of the church by the Papal Legate of Pope Pius VI, Cardinal Giovanni Archetti (1731– 1805), took place on 7 October 1783 (OS). The church has the form of a Latin cross and is crowned with a cupola. It is 44 meters long, 25 meters wide, and 42 meters high, and holds about two thousand people. The main façade has a monumental arched portal, which rests on free-standing columns. The façade culminates in a high parapet on which are placed statues of the four Evangelists and a group of angels holding a cross. Above the main entrance, to which used to lead nine wide steps, are the words “My house shall be called the house of prayer” (Matthew 21:13) and the year 1782. The interior of the church is magnificent. The altar, made of various-colored marble and crowned with a gilded bronze cross three metres high and two silver reliquaries, was the gift of Antonio Branca of Livorno. The last Polish King, Stanislaw Poniatowski (1732–1798), who died in St. Petersburg on 1/12 February 1798, is buried here, as is Marshal Jean-Victor Moreau (1763–1813), who was fatally wounded in the battle of Dresden. The clergy of this church in its early years and again from 1816 to 1892 were from the Dominican Order. During the reign of Nicholas I, the church received the boon of a loan of 500,000 paper rubles at advantageous terms to expand the church building. In 1851, it was stated to be one of the most extensive and profitable buildings in the city, with excellent stores still to be found on its Nevskii Prospekt side. On the Mikhailovskii Square side of the building was the book store of Krasheninnikov and the sale of church books took place. The entire court yard was occupied at that time by artisan tenants and others (Shul’ts, Khramy Sankt-Peterburga, pp. 232–240; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 216–217, 290; Konechnyi, Progulki, p. 301; Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 265; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 220–221; Antonov and Kobak, Sviatyni Sankt-Peterburga, vol. 3, pp. 221–223).

328  They went home by the same route by which they had gone to church, since Anna Whistler writes: “On our return through the Nevski what a contrast.” The reference here is to Palace Square in front of the Winter Palace (see Images 116, 132), which she elsewhere in the diaries correctly calls by its other name “Alexander Square,” but in this entry calls “Alexandra Square.” In Russian, it would be called “ploshchad’ Aleksandra” (“square of Alexander”); here, Aleksandra is the masculine genetive case, although it looks like the female name Alexandra. From Alexander Square, she saw “the preparations for commencing the Easter amusements” in Admiralty Square. Confusion about the route they took is caused by the fact that there actually is an Alexandra Square. It is located between His Majesty’s Own Palace and the Public Library, which are on the other side of the Nevskii Prospekt, about opposite the Church of St. Catherine. Alexandra Square takes its name from the Alexandrinskii Theater, which it is located in front of (Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, p. 75). The Alexandrinskii Theater is named for Empress Aleksandra Fyodorovna.

329  Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (see Image 432) wrote in her memoirs that her parents always spent Passion Week in the Anichkov Palace (see Images 133–134) with the family, preparing for confession and Communion (Son iunosti, p. 19). They returned to the Winter Palace when “Christ is risen” was proclaimed in the churches and the church bells “throughout the city [began] to peal, and the cannon in the fortress to thunder” (BUHG: Colin Ingersoll Journal, pt. 3, fols. 75–76). The Anichkov Palace is located on the Nevskii Prospekt, about two versts from the Winter Palace (von Grimm, Alexandra Feodorowna, vol. 1, p. 140).

330  William Winstanley Hull (15 March 1794 – 28 August 1873), Esquire, barrister-at-law, was the eldest son of Dr. John Hull, MD, and of Sarah (Winstanley) Hull, John Winstanley’s sister (Henry Fishwick, The History of the Parish of Poulton-le-fylde, in the County of Lancaster [The Chetham Society, 1885], pp. 55, 85–86). Neither the book nor the Easter prayer can be identified. See Winstanley … Cragg in Appendix E.

331  Mary Brennan was a Catholic, but she did not accompany Anna Whistler and William Hooper Ropes to St. Catherine’s Catholic Church earlier in the day. Anna Whistler also mentions that she and Aunt Alicia had prayers with Mary (entry of Tuesday [July] 9ƫ [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I) and that Mary came in to listen one Sunday when Debo read aloud one of Blunt’s sermons (entry of Sunday [August] 18ƫ [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I). It was Mary who took Willie to the English Church on the Sunday Admiral Hall died there (entry of Feb 14ƫ 1844, NYPL: AWPD, Part I). She also seems to have attended afternoon services at the English Church frequently in 1846 (entry for March 9ƫ 1846, NYPL: AWPD, Part I). She may have been too timid to leave the Whistler circle.

332  Thomas Shaw Bancroft Reade, Christian Meditations; or, The Believer’s Companion in Solitude (London: Hamilton, Adams; Leeds: J.Y. Knight, 1841).

333  Reverend Thomas Scales Ellerby (18 March 1810 – 11 June 1892) was pastor from 1840 to 1853 of the British and American Congregational Church (see Image 125), which was located on New Isaac (Novo-Isaakievskaia) Street, near the Post Office in the First Admiralty District, Third Ward (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, p. 52; Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, p. 42). See the biographies of the Ellerby family in Appendix E (hereafter, Ellerby) and Image 256.

334  Tuesday was 23 April.

335  Anna Whistler meant “I hope to make time.”

336  These two events occurred on 23 April 1822 and 23 April 1840.

337  These family members were Joseph Samuel Ropes, Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, Elizabeth Hannah Ropes, Ellen Gellibrand Ropes, Mary Emily Ropes, and Louisa Harriet Ropes (see Images 266–267).

338  Anna Whistler is referring to 17 April 1844.

339  Psalms 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”

340  Anna Whistler is referring to William Wyatt McNeill and Patrick Tracy Jackson McNeill, the sons of her brother, General William Gibbs McNeill (see Image 31) and Maria (Cammann) McNeill.

341  Maxwell suffered the effects of his illness for a long time. Even by May he was still not able to open his fingers completely and his hair was coming out by the handful. He took the advice of a hairdresser to remedy the latter condition by having his head shaved and temporarily wearing a wig (letters from John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell: St. Petersburg, May 11, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 34; St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, no. 35; St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, no. 36).

342  “When the Neva is frozen to the thickness of a foot and a half or two feet, great slabs, five feet long and three feet wide, are hewn out of its icy covering, and with these the cellars are filled. The ice, however, is not stowed away in these great blocks, but is first crushed into small pieces, which are stamped down into a compact mass in the cellars. This mass again freezes into solid layers of ice, the lowest or ground-tier of which is never taken out, when the cellars are well constructed, but remains perpetually there, a frozen foundation two or three feet deep, upon which, each successive winter, fresh ice is piled up to a height of five or six feet. Ice is deemed such a necessary of life in St. Petersburg, that the finest house would obtain no tenant if its ice-cellar were bad. People literally cannot exist there without ice. It is in constant use. In the first place, all kinds of eatables—meat, milk, butter, etc.—are kept in the ice-cellar. Then it is mixed with water, beer, quass, and with almost all cold drinks. When there is a superfluity of it, the Petersburgers place it on the stoves and under the beds, to cool the apartments” (Jerrmann, Pictures from St. Petersburg, p. 69). “In bad (mild) winters there is often a great deficiency of natural ice, for enough is wanted to fill all the cellars not only of the city but of the surrounding country villas” (Jerrmann, p. 69).

343  On Sunday, 21 April, Anna Whistler and Willie went to visit Mary Gent Hirst, who was living in the house of her brother, Thomas Nelson Hirst, on Vasilievskii Island, on the Fifth Line, between Bol’shoi and Srednii prospekts, at No. 31. See Hirst in Appendix E.

344  Exodus: 20:8: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”

345  I Timothy 5:6: “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”

346  Chapters 4 and 5 of 2 Corinthians were appropriate readings for someone near death, their message being that affliction works glory and that absent from the body we are at home with God.

347  Ainsley ginger cakes may be a recipe provided to Anna Whistler by Jane (Winstanley) Ainsley, sister of John Winstanley. There are several recipes for gingerbread in Margaret MacDonald, ed., Whistler’s Mother’s Cook Book (London: Paul Elek, 1979), pp. 110–113), but none is called an Ainsley ginger cake.

348  Wednesday was 24 April 1844.

349  Emma Maingay (see Image 263) and Debo (see Images 17–19, 21) went to the tea party at the Gellibrands on 23 April 1844. This was the abovementioned celebration of Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes’s twenty-second birthday and fourth wedding anniversary.

350  Thomas DeKay Winans (6 December 1820 – 10 June 1878), son of Ross Winans (17 October 1797 – 11 April 1877) of Baltimore, represented his father’s firm in the partnership of Harrison, Winans, and Eastwick. See Winans in Appendix E and Images 228–229.

351  Alexandrofski (pronounced “Ahliksahn′druffskee”) refers to the Alexandrofsky Head Mechanical Works, “located on the left bank of the Neva 6.7 miles from the center of St. Petersburg along the road to Schlusselberg” (see Images 223–225) (Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, p. 106). It is here that the locomotives and rolling stock were being made for the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. See also Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1846, p. 119.

352  Anna Whistler would have frequently heard the expression “na Morskoi” (pronounced “nuhMarskoi′”), meaning “on Morskaia Street,” where “Morskoi” is the feminine prepositional case. Her English usage here of “thro the Morskoi” suggests the Russian expression “po Morskoi′” (pronounced “puhMarskoi”), where “Morskoi” is the feminine dative case, identical to the prepositional case. She also rarely detected the rolled “r” in Russian words and therefore omitted it in her spelling of them. Thus, she wrote not “Morskoi,” but “Moskoy.” There were two streets here, parallel to one another, one called Bol’shaia Morskaia ulitsa (Grand Navy Street) (pronounced “Bahlshah′yuh Marskah′yuh oo′leetsuh”), the other Malaia Morskaia ulitsa (Little Navy Street) (pronounced “Mah′luhyuh Marskah′yuh oo′leetsuh”). Bol’shaia Morskaia (see Image 109) was one of the most magnificent and animated streets of St. Petersburg. It started at the arch in the Staff Headquarters building on Palace Square, crossed the Nevskii Prospekt, and went on until it met and crossed Post Office Lane. At that point, it became one with the Moika Embankment. It took its name from the fact that when St. Petersburg was founded, claywalled cottages were built here for naval officers and sailors. It was paved with wood. Here were to be found part of the building containing Main Staff headquarters and the Ministry of Finances, the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the home of the Military Governor General, as well as the homes of many members of the nobility. There were also numerous shops, including luxury stores, e.g., for clothing and furniture. Malaia Morskaia was much shorter and much quieter, with less traffic. It had fewer stores and artisans and several hotels. Anna Whistler was referring to Bol’shaia Morskaia (Grech, Ves’ Petersburg 1851, pp. 43–44, 341–342), even though she wrote only “Moskoy.” In another entry, she referred to a shop specifically on Bol’shaia Morskaia (entry of Saturday [April] 26ƫ [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I).

353  This is Esther (Smith) Ormerod (bap. 18 November 1777 – 4 July 1863), wife of Richard Ormerod (c. 1775 – 31 December 1861), a brass and iron founder.

354  Anna Whistler’s derogatory comments about the lower classes of Russia imply that the tailor was Russian. Neither edition of Ves Peterburg v karmane (1846, p. 126; 1851, p. 453) is helpful in this instance, as they list only recommended foreign tailors on Bol’shaia (and Malaia) Morskaia. See Rigby, Baltic Letters, vol. 1, letter 4, pp. 74–75.

355  This is Emma Maingay (see Image 263). She is mentioned again in the following sentence along with her mother, Eliza (Lamb) Maingay (see Image 259).

356  The young Grand Dukes, the sons of Emperor Nicholas I (see Images 420–423), were Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (Tsarskoe Selo 27 July / 8 August 1831 – Alupka 13/25 April 1891) and Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich (St. Petersburg 13/25 October 1832 – Cannes 5/18 December 1909). Kuz’min, Rossiiskaia imperatorskaia familiia, pp. 227–232, 273–279. See Image 420).

357  This is Ann Ormerod (1802 – 24 September 1847), daughter of Richard and Esther (Smith) Ormerod. Her married name was Haden. See Note 353 above.

358  There is no direct reference in the Whistler papers to indicate who this person might be. Major Whistler was mentor to a number of young men while in Russia. In 1848, a recently graduated young Russian named Hartung came to show himself off to Anna Whistler (Anna Whistler to James Whistler, St. Petersburg Wednesday November 1st, 1848, GUL: Whistler Collection, W366). Her remarks suggest that a difficult time was over for him. Even on his deathbed, Major Whistler asked after several men about whom he was concerned (Anna Whistler to [Joseph and Sarah Harrison], Fleetwood. Monday. July 15th. 1849, LC: P-W, box 34). In addition, any man who might have expressed an interest in Deborah would also have distressed him.

359  Thursday was 25 April.

360  “The Gulf of Finland runs from St. Petersburg in a due westerly direction, and it is exactly from that quarter that the heaviest storms always blow. The west wind naturally sweeps the waters up towards the city. If the gulf were broad at its termination … but, unfortunately, the gulf narrows gradually to a point, and that point is St. Petersburg. When a gale, therefore, blows from the west, the waters of the Gulf are blown into the Neva, and oppose the exit of those that come rolling down from the lake … The Delta of the Neva is flat and low, and there is scarcely a spot of ground in the capital that lies more than twelve or fourteen feet above the customary level of the sea. A rise of fifteen feet is, therefore, enough to put the whole city under water, and a rise of thirty or forty feet would be enough to drown nearly the whole population. All that is necessary to bring about such a calamity is that … a storm from the west should arise just as the ice is breaking up, and that this should happen when the river is at its highest” (Kohl, Russia, p. 21). See the explanation of the flood signals in “St. Petersburg and the Journey There” and Image 107.

361  This is the correct English rendering of the Russian contraction “bushnik” (pronounced “boosh′nyeek”) from the word “budochnik” (pronounced “boo′dushnyeek”) meaning “policeman on guard duty at his sentry box on the street.” “Budka” (pronounced “boot′kuh”) from which the root of “budochnik” is taken, means “sentry box,” “booth.” To the singular of the contracted word is added the English possessive suffix: ’s. Alexander, the footman, had only to step out to the sentry box on the corner by their house.

362  Friday was 26 April.

363  Here it seems Anna Whistler should have written “the thickness it had been guessed at.” John Stevenson Maxwell also mentioned this annual feture of St. Petersburg life, with its frequent tragedy:

This is May Day. The ice in the Neva yielded to the high winds and tides a few days ago – (last Saturday) – and large masses of the frozen element. six feet in thickness, dashing against the temporary bridge [see Image 99], carried it off with sixty men to sea, and prevented all communication with the other side. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 33)

364  This is Emma Maingay (see Image 263), Deborah Whistler’s best friend in St. Petersburg.

365  See Images 101, 102, 105, and 114, showing gondolas.

366  Maxwell, in describing his day, spoke of James’s and Willie’s visits: “Sometimes the lunch is varied by a glass of jelly from M Whistler or sometimes I order a little caviare etc and make it a dejêuner à la fourchette for my pretty visiters, the boys who have come to say good morning and to know if I walk, out that day, in which case they would like to go with me” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 33).

367  Jule is Catherine Julia McNeill (see Note 23 above, Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E, and Image 33). Josephine Mauran (14 September 1825 – 16 February 1887) was the daughter of a wealthy New York entrepreneur, Oroondates Mauran (see Image 47) (J.C. Stockbridge and J.E. Mauran, comps., Memorials of the Mauran Family [Providence, RI: Snow & Farnham, 1893], p. 85). She and Deborah Whistler apparently attended the Candas’ school at 17 Lafayette Place, New York, together. See the Mauran family biography in Appendix E; letters from John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell: St. Petersburg, March 26, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 29; St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, no. 35. It has not been possible to locate these letters from Catherine Julia McNeill and Josephine Mauran.

368  Saturday was 27 April.

369  Sarah Adams (New London, CT 29 December 1821 – 1876) was the daughter of Eli Adams (Lincoln, MA 14 March 1770 – New London, CT 18 July 1822) and Sarah Delano (Swift) Adams (Boston 24 February 1788 – 11 May 1839). They were married on 13 December 1810 in Boston, Massachusetts. Both parents were buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, New London, Connecticut. Sarah Adams’ aunt, her mother’s sister, Mary Roberdeau (Swift) Whistler, was the first wife of Lt. George Washington Whistler. Sarah Adams was therefore Deborah Delano Whistler’s first cousin (IGI; Cynthia Hagar Krusell, Marshfield Hills, MA, to E. Harden, 26 October 2014; Ellery, Memoirs of Gen. J.G. Swift, p. 24 of the Swift Genealogy). See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

370  The shop of Christian Freze (pronounced “Freh′zeh”), where one could buy wool, patterns for embroidering, and artists’ paints, was located on Bol’shaia Morskaia Street in the building belonging to the pharmacist Shtraukh (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1846, p. 130; Kishkin-Zhgierskii, Kommercheskii ukazatel´). This was a German surname anglicized by the English-speaking colony to Frazer.

371  The best fruit shop, Smurov’s, was located on the corner of Bol’shaia Morskaia and Gorokhovaia streets (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1846, p. 129; 1851, p. 44; Broitman and Krasnova, Bol’shaia Morskaia, pp. 96–97; Konechnyi, Progulki, p. 311). See Image 360 of an unspecified fruit shop.

372  Monday was 29 April.

373  In a “sudden fit of economising,” Colonel Todd (see Image 278) took “a pretty country house at Sarskoe Celo” for the summer, but moved there in April when it was still cold (letters from John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell: St. Petersburg, Mar. 26, 1844, no. 29; St. Petersburg, April 7, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 31). He lived in the house of Doctor Vedrinskii or Vederinskii at 161 Moskovskaia (Moscow) Street near the church (AVPRI: Fond MID, Kantseliariia, 1844, op. 469, d. 52/Etats-Unis/: Colonel Todd:/ [Fond Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chancery, 1844, op. 469, d. 52], fol. 52 v; RGIA: Fond 485, op. 3, d. 790. Tsarskoe Selo. 1-aia chast’ II kvartal. General’nye plany uchastka po Moskovskoi ul. i fasady doma [sic] na nem, prinadlezhavshikh [sic] Vedrinskomu, Gassel’ E.M., Tumanovu A.I. Arkh-y Vidov A.F., Gil’debrandt, K.K. 1830e - 1870e g. g. [Tsarskoe Selo. First district, second ward. General plans for the plot on Moscow Street and for the façade of the house [sic] on that plot that belong [sic] to Vedrinskii, E. M. Gassel, A.I. Tumanov. Architects A.F. Vidov and K.K. Gildebrandt. 1830s - 1870s]). “He carried with him, the Chancellerie of the legation, paper’s and book’s, and established the office of diplomatic affairs in a place pretty enough in the summer, but at all times out of the way of business, and at this season here, equal to Siberia for dullness and cold winds.” His decision surprised many people “for the change, from the gay life he seemed to love in the City to such perfect seclusion in such a country, seem’s at least queer” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 33).

374  Reverend Thomas Scales Ellerby (18 March 1818 – 11 June 1892) was pastor of the British and American Congregational Church (see Image 125). See Ellerby in Appendix E and Image 256.

375  Revelation 3:11: “Behold I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”

376  Maxwell did not know how to repay the Whistlers. “Yesterday morning my beard was cut off - I washed myself myself, dressed etc and after looking in the glass and being satisfied that I looked very interesting and as clear in complexion as the most effeminate dandy would wish to look. I put on my pelisse, gave directions to have my room’s ventilated and cleaned during my absence, and with a little assistance went up stairs. Quite an event indeed - I was of course quite a lion. I wished as soon almost as I saw M W to express my gratitude to her, but I she saw what was coming and begged me not to say one word and moreover insisted that I should be provided for as usual until I had totally regained my strenght [sic]. She says the food I obtained from the Club (I send out for my dinners) she thought badly cooked, the ingredients bad and that until the first of May I must be provided for from her kitchen. I am puzzled nay almost embarrassed how to avoid such minute attention and while I fully enjoy and appreciate it - I assured her that I appreciated her kindness, that her good things were of a kind that reminded me of home and that the breakfast she had sent me that morning was the very best (as it was in taste, niceness etc.) I had eaten in Russia. But that I had every thing necessary to provide a bachelors table and that the Club dinners though frugal and not so nice as her’s were good enough for me - but it was no use, and down come the breakfasts, dinners teas, and various articles in spite of me … tell me, inform me how I am ever to repay these good people. I owe the Major 4 months rent … I can pay him but for this comfort, this care, this provision for my happiness, tell me how I am to thank him and his lady?” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, April 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 30). Maxwell had long been in the practice of sending his servant, La Ronne, to the Commercial Club on the corner of the English Embankment and Zamiatin Lane with a “patent dinner preserver,” in which La Ronne would bring back meals (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 22). See also Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1846, p. 138; 1851, pp. 300–301).

377  See Note 253 above. Each Lenten season, Henry Blunt delivered a course of lectures in Chelsea “on the lives of various leading persons in the Old and New Testament.” His course on “St. Paul” consisted of two series, delivered in 1832 and 1833 (Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Blunt, Henry [1794–1843]”).

378  Anna Whistler wrote 30th, but changed it to 29th. Tuesday was April 30th. Mr. M in this entry is Maxwell; Kate is Catherine Jane (McNeill) Palmer, Anna Whistler’s sister in Stonington; the Major is Major Trouvellier.

379  A niece of Anna Whistler’s had written her about having met Maxwell’s grandmother [Ann McDonald Stevenson], at a Mrs. Graham’s, and Anna Whistler now wished her mother, Martha (Kingsley) McNeill (see Image 22), to call upon Maxwell’s grandmother. “I have given the address. 15 Harrison Street. New York, but as Grandma may be out of town I should like you for my sake to enquire about this lady and make her acquaintance when you go to town” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 33; William M. MacBean, “The Year 1778, No. 460 Thomas Stevenson,” Biographical Register of Saint Andrew’s Society of the State of New York, vol. 1, 1756–1806 [New York: Printed for the Society, 1922], p. 266).

380  For assessments of Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes’s character and musical talent, see Mary T. Gellibrand to Uncle Hardy, Okta, near Petersburg, June 6/18th, 1838, MHS: Ropes Papers; Joseph S. Ropes to his grandparents, St. Petersburg, Sept. 19 / Oct. 1, 1840, MHS: Ropes Papers.

381  The reference here is to Major Trouvellier and Colonel P.P. Mel’nikov (see Image 247).

382  Writing to his mother on the same date, 1 May 1844, Maxwell described what his day as a convalescent had been like for the last month. Music was a part of every evening, first instrumental and then vocal: “Then perhaps it is that I take a lesson in Russian by trying to sing a Russian song with Miss D- … I give you a translation of one of these by an ardent admirer of this young lady. It will give you an idea of the general character of Russian song, which is melancholy always. It is called the sable shade and is addressed as far as I can judge either to a black damsel or black ghost” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 33). This is the song “Chornyi tsvet,” which Deborah Whistler had sung in Russian on an earlier occasion. See Note 183 above. The English translation Maxwell gives was, in my opinion, made by William Bonamy Maingay (see Image 260), one of Deborah’s admirers. Each line of this translation is equivalent to two lines of the original Russian text.

        Maxwell does not say what other songs Deborah Whistler played that evening, but in earlier letters he mentions her ability to sing in several languages (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Dec. 15, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 26). See Appendix F for a copy of the sheet music for “Chornyi tsvet.”

383  Dasha, a Russian affectionate form from the name “Darya,” was given to Deborah Whistler. She continued to be known by the name in England when she was Mrs. Francis Seymour Haden.

384  Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1846, pp. 127, 130.

385  This is the small, door-like pane in a window that could be opened to ventilate the room. The double window installed for winter had such a pane as well.

386  M. La Roche gave German lessons to both Deborah Whistler and John Stevenson Maxwell (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell St. Petersburg, Nov. 1, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 24). When he left the Whistlers’ employ cannot be ascertained. When James was left in England in the fall of 1848, the Whistlers considered rehiring M. La Roche, who was a strict taskmaster, to be Willie’s “governer” (Anna Whistler to James Whistler, St. Petersburg friday afternoon Sept. 29ƫ 1848, GUL: Whistler Collection, W362). The Amburger Datenbank contains several entries for a family named Blanché de la Roche, but it is not possible to identify the Whistlers’ tutor from the information given. Maxwell attests to the superiority of M. La Roche and his assessment of Deborah’s gift for languages:

Miss Deborah Whistler (Phoebus, what a name!) is a remarkable person indeed. She employs the same German teacher that I do. His tuition is confined to the members of the court and those who would only employ the very best teachers, and he tells me that the progress of the American lady is really astonishing, such as he has never seen before in any pupil. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, November 1 1843, N YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 24)

387  21 April / 3 May was the name day of Empress Aleksandra Fyodorovna.

388  For a description of a major military review, see “St. Petersburg and the Journey There” and Notes 77–81 therein.

389  Straw hats were sold in the shop of Mrs. Vretman, located on Ofitserskaia (Officer) Street in the building belonging to Wagner (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1846, p. 127).

390  Lady Elizabeth Stuart (14 January 1789 – 23 June 1867) was the wife of Sir Charles Stuart, Baron Stuart de Rothsay (2 January 1779 – 6 November 1845), the British Envoy to St. Petersburg in 1843 and part of 1844. They married on 6 February 1816. She was Lady Elizabeth Margaret, the third daughter of Philip Yorke, the third Earl of Hardwicke (John Debrett, Debrett’s Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Companionage [London, 1819], p. 268; Sir Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, 31st ed. [London: Burke’s Peerage, 1869], p. 516). Maxwell, who met her in 1842, said: “I met his Lady (who has just arrived here and who intends taking a large house) in the large fashionable store here called the English Magazine. She is one of the plainest looking women I ever saw—and has a streak of red in each cheek just as old English ladies in good health generally have” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Oct. 8/20, 1842, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 3). Lord and Lady Stuart were leaving Russia on 3 June 1844 (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

391  The day and date of the previous entry, that for Monday [May] 6ƫ [NS], coincide. Starting with the entry for Thursday [May] 29ƫ, the events referred to make it clear that Anna Whistler recorded the wrong day in the next several entries. They should read “Wednesday [May] 29th,” “Thursday [May] 30th,” and “Friday [May] 31st.” On Thursday, 30 May, Major Whistler made a fruitless trip to bring Deborah home from the Maingays, because, as this was their last night in St. Petersburg, they asked that she be allowed to spend it with them. On Friday, 31 May, the Maingays sailed from St. Petersburg for Cronstadt. Friday, 31 May, was also the day the Major and his sons attended the military review with Maxwell, which is confirmed in the latter’s correspondence (John S. Maxwell to Major Whistler, May 27? 28? [1844], N-YHS: Maxwell Papers; John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36). The Whistlers had left St. Petersburg on 14 May, but 29 May marked “just a fortnight” that they had been actually settled in their house.

392  On 10 May, when Maxwell and the Whistlers visited Colonel Charles Stewart Todd (see Image 278) in Tsarskoe Selo, they found him “looking forlorn enough. He was not dressed, and unshaved and unshorn looked like giant Grim. He had been very lonely, having no acquaintances who had yet moved in the vicinity. He soon brushed up however” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 11, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 34).

393  The St. Petersburg terminus of the Tsarskoe Selo Railway was located at “the crossing of the Zagorodnyi Prospekt and the Vvedenskii Canal” (Haywood, Beginnings, p. 147), located in the Moscow District, Fourth Ward (Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, p. 127).

394  The Tsarskoe Selo Railway, built by the Austrian engineer, Franz Anton von Gerstner (1796–1840), and opened for service in November 1837, was the first and at this time the only railway in Russia (see Image 383). The train made two stops: Tsarskoe Selo (21½ versts from St. Petersburg) and Pavlovsk (25 versts from St. Petersburg) (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, p. 544). It had actually been operating since the fall of 1836, but only from Tsarskoe Selo to Pavlovsk, a distance of 5 versts, and the train had at first been drawn by horses because of the failure of the steam engines for it to arrive from England (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 39, 246; Haywood, Beginnings, p. 122). There is a well-known story that the first time Nicholas I rode on the new railway he ordered his carriage placed on a platform car, got into it and rode thus from Tsarskoe Selo to Pavlovsk. Afterwards, he usually rode on the railway in a separate first-class car (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 40).

The regulation for establishing a company of shareholders for building the railway was approved by Nicholas I on 21 March / 2 April 1836. The founders of the shareholding company – namely, the Equerry of the Imperial Court, Count Aleksei Alekseevich Bobrinskii (Major Whistler’s landlord; see Image 86); the merchants Benedict Kramer and Johann Plitt; and Franz Anton von Gerstner – put together the capital, amounting to three million rubles. The founders were obliged to agree, in signing the confirmed regulations, that they would take certain precautions for the safety of a technologically innocent public; they would, for example, have bells or some other type of warning signal on the “steam equipages,” and the passengers coming from St. Petersburg would not be allowed to get out of the cars along the route between the gate of the town they were approaching (i.e., “a wooden barrier at the city limits”) (Haywood, Beginnings, p. 99) and the office where their documents would be checked (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 39–40). Because the train whistle frightened the public, it was replaced by music. An organ ordered from abroad especially for this purpose was placed in front of the smokestack of the engine. These organs played various musical pieces to the accompaniment of loud trumpets and drums and a special employee of the railway was assigned to turn the handle of the organ while the train was in motion (Vil’chkovskii, p. 246). The official opening of the railway, with all ministers and the diplomatic corps in attendance, took place on 30 October / 11 November 1837, and Gerstner himself drove the first train to Tsarskoe Selo (Vil’chkovskii, p. 40). It took thirty-five minutes, while the return trip took twenty-seven, “and speeds up to sixty versts an hour were attained” (Haywood, Beginnings, p. 127). “The railway to Pavlovsk was opened … on May 22 [June 3], 1838” (Haywood, p. 136). In the 1840s, one-way fares were: first-class, 71 kopeks silver (2.50 rubles paper); second-class, 51 k. silver (1.80 r. paper); third-class, 35 k. silver (1.20 r. paper); fourth-class, 20 k. silver (70 k. paper) (R. Haywood West Lafayette, IN, to E. Harden, 27 November 1998). For a detailed and technical description of the building and operation of the Tsarskoe Selo Railway see Haywood, Beginnings, pp. 108–158.

395  Of all the towns in Russia, Tsarskoe Selo at this time was the most well-proportioned. The cleanliness and regularity in the layout of its streets were striking. The private homes were arranged as if according to a single plan and façade, giving the entire town a kind of charming uniformity (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, p. 53).

396  BUHG: Colin Ingersoll Journal, pt. 2, fol. 1.

397  As of 1 January 1841 (OS), twenty-five of the thirty-one streets and lanes of Tsarskoe Selo had been macadamized (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, p. 53).

398  The name of the Catherine Palace (see Images 385–387) is misleading in that it in fact refers to Catherine I (see Image 412), consort of Peter the Great (see Image 411), but is often thought to honor the famous Catherine the Great (see Image 414), who had been responsible up until this time for the last major changes to the palace, chiefly to its interiors, and had initiated many other architectural projects within Tsarskoe Selo. Anna Whistler’s comments suggest some confusion on her part: “This [palace] built by Catherine like all other of her designs is tasteful, costly & still in perfect repair” is true of Catherine the Great. In a later reference, she shows that she knows it was named for Catherine I, but persists in attributing the gilding, etc., to Catherine I, seeming not to understand that the palace in that reign was only a small stone edifice.

In 1708, Peter the Great gifted to the future Catherine I six farmsteads, including the Sarskaia (A.N. Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki [Pushkin: Palaces and Parks] [Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1964], p. 7). A small, modest, two-storied stone palace with sixteen rooms was built here between 1717 and 1723 based on plans by the architect, I. Bronshtein (Johann-Fredrich Braunstein). The commencement of a major remodeling of it into a magnificent Baroque palace (called first the Great Tsarskoe Selo Palace) occurred in the middle of the eighteenth century in the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (see Image 413), daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine I. The remodeling of Catherine I’s stone palace and the construction of two symmetrical wings joined to the central building by galleries was begun in 1741. The work was entrusted to a series of architects, culminating in Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli, “who demolished much of [his predecessors’] completed work (particularly the galleries) and added a third story to the main structure, which was extended the full length of the palace” (Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 238). Catherine the Great, prompted by a combination of taste and of contempt for her aunt’s preference for the Rococo, set about “dispersing or dissolving [its] traces” (Hamilton, Art and Architecture, p. 185).

The Catherine Palace is almost a thousand feet long. “Above the rusticated ground floor, with its arcade of French windows separated by atlantes, the building is marked by white attached columns” (Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 239), which from 1753 had as their background a bright azure façade, replaced in the 1840s with an insipid and banal greenish color (Aleksandr Benois, Tsarskoe Selo v tsarstvovanie Imperatritsy Elisavety Petrovny [Tsarskoe Selo in the Reign of Empress Elisaveta Petrovna] [St. Petersburg: R. Golike i A. Vilborg, 1910], p. 87). “Despite the symmetry of the facade, its culminating point is not the central structure, but rather the pentacupolar church that anchors the east wing of the palace… The resolution of the Catherine Palace in favour of its end point (a corresponding domed pavilion on the west end was later modified during the reign of Catherine II) is in accord with the horizontal essence of the structure. This principle was reaffirmed in Rastrelli’s plan for the interior …, whose main entrance was from the west wing. From that point, two parallel enfilades extended the length of the palace without the interruption of a center cluster of rooms. The later central vestibule and grand stairway, built for Catherine II by Charles Cameron (1745-1812) in 1780 …, established a midpoint that allows one to proceed to either half of the enfilade” (Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 239).

399  “The gardens at Zarskoye Selo are certainly the most carefully kept in the world; the trees and flowers are watched and inspected with the most anxious minuteness. An old invalid soldier commands his five or six hundred men as gardeners and overseers. After every falling leaf runs a veteran to pick it up … Every tiny leaf that falls in pond or canal, is carefully fished out; they dust and trim and polish the trees and paths in the gardens, as they do the looking-glasses and furniture of the saloons; every stone that is kicked aside is laid strait again, and every blade of grass kept in a proper position” (Kohl, Russia, p. 183). “The trunks of the trees alongside the palace were periodically scraped and washed with soap, while the macadamized roads and the paths were kept as smooth as parquet floors. Special persons went about the garden after every rainfall and a peg was stuck into the ground next to every puddle. Early in the morning the indentations from the puddles were removed with a pick, fine cobblestones and sand were sprinkled into them and then they were watered and the indentations filled up… If someone threw away a piece of orange peel, a boy would run to gather it up into a basket” (Dmitrii S. Likhachev, Poeziia sadov: k semantike sadovo-parkovykh stilei [The Poetry of Gardens: Toward a Semantics of Garden Park Styles] [Leningrad: Nauka, Leningradskoe otdelenie, 1982], p. 291).

400  “The trees were clad in the first brilliant green of spring … but the growth is almost entirely confined to birch, fir, oak, elm, and lime. The three latter are rather rare” (Bloomfield, Reminiscences, vol. 1, p. 207).

401  “In 1841 the architect Hippolyte Antonovich Monighetti (1819-1878) decorated some of the interiors of the Catherine Palace for Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich … Gradually it was to become his favourite residence. His apartments, which lay on the ground floor of the Zubov Wing, opened on to the private garden, where a great pergola was installed, together with a marble fountain and beds filled with scented flowers … together the whole family planted the oak trees that still grow on the shores of the great lake” (Ivan Petrovich Sautov, Imperial Palaces in the Vicinity of St. Petersburg. Tsarskoe Selo: Watercolours, Paintings and Engravings from the 18th and 19th Centuries, commentaries by Larissa Valentinovna Bardovskaia [Paris: Alain de Gourcuff Éditeur, 1992], pp. 12–13).

402  The New Palace (see Images 388, 447) was the palace Catherine the Great had ordered built (1792–1796) for her grandson, the future Tsar Alexander I (see Image 418). In 1843, Nicholas I (see Images 420–423) ordered that it be named the Alexander Palace. A description of the Alexander Palace is given in Note 487, NYPL: AWPD, Part II.

403  Vil’chkovskii describes the difference between the expenditures made and results achieved at Tsarskoe Selo by empresses Elivazeta Petrovna and Catherine the Great. In Elizaveta’s reign, all building was done in haste, everything was richly decorated, but everything was redone several times (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 23). Catherine herself likened Elizaveta’s inconsistencies to “Penelope’s labor” (Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 288; Dmitrii Shvidkovskii, The Empress and the Architect: British Architecture and Gardens at the Court of Catherine the Great [New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996], p. 212). In Catherine’s reign, despite large expenditures, before building was undertaken exact estimates were drawn up and models were even made; no excess luxury was permitted. Catherine personally checked every estimate and paid close attention to the construction work, sometimes purposely coming in from St. Petersburg in the spring to inspect its condition. The external gilded decorations of the palace and pavilions on which Elizaveta’s architects spent huge sums lasted only a short time because of the instability of the materials used. Catherine had to make large expenditures just to remove everything that had rapidly become shabby and restore the respectable appearance of the façades. What was built by Catherine, on the other hand, still looks today [in 1910] as it did when just built. In a word, everything that Catherine did in Tsarskoe Selo was executed solidly and broadly, carefully finished and sustained in every detail (Benois, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 206; Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 23).

There is another reason why everything was “still in perfect repair,” and why it seemed neat and fresh to Anna Whistler: a part of the palace had been restored less than twenty-five years before the Whistlers visited it. A fire had occurred on 12/24 May 1820, completely destroying the church and twelve rooms adjoining it, damaging and ruining all the furnishings and walls right up to the Picture Gallery. The architect Vasilii Petrovich Stasov (1769–1848) had been ordered to rebuild it all to look as it had before (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 98; Aleksandr Uspenskii, “Imperatorskii Bol’shoi Tsarskosel’skii Dvorets” [“The Imperial Great Palace of Tsarskoe Selo”], Khudozhestvennye sokrovishcha Rossii [Art Treasures of Russia] 12 [1904]: p. 419).

404  The construction of the Church of the Resurrection of the Saviour, designed by Rastrelli, was begun on 8/19 August 1745. It was consecrated on 30 July / 10 August 1756. The interior walls were sky-blue with gilded wooden carving. Rastrelli gave it a flat ceiling instead of the cupola that was usual for a Russian church. On the outside, it had five gilded cupolas. It burned down completely on 12/24 May 1820, and most of the icons perished, but it was restored “according to the old models, from memory” (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 86–87). The new church was consecrated in 1822 (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburgska 1842, p. 60). There was an entrance at the carriage approach to the church where visitors, such as Maxwell’s party, could present their tickets for admission to the palace. They would then have gone up the white marble staircase built in 1843 by Stasov. It was called the church staircase because it was situated alongside the vestibule of the church (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 83– 84), which they chose not to visit that day. See also V.V. Lemus, L.V. Èmina, E.S. Gladkova, and G.P. Balog, Muzei i parki Pushkina [Museums and Parks of Pushkin] (Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1980), p. 46. There are no diary entries to indicate that they ever visited the church.

405  Anna Whistler is referring here to the enfilades with their suites of rooms. There were five suites, or “apartments.” Her comments about various rooms, ranging from Alexander I’s bedroom to the Mirror Room in Catherine the Great’s apartments, show that they walked the entire length of the palace that day, entering via the Church Wing, going through the central portion to the Zubov Wing, and back again to exit via the Church Wing. This second floor consisted of some sixty rooms, not all of which they would have had access to (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 48: plan of the second floor, end of the nineteenth century). Maxwell, in his description of their visit to the Catherine Palace, points out some of the same things as Anna Whistler, but cannot help fill out her remarks, as his own are very brief. He felt so indebted to the Whistlers for their care of him when he was sick that the excursion “afforded [him] remarkable pleasure” because it “enabled [him] to show some little attention to Madame and Mademoiselle” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 11, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 34). He later visited Colonel Todd for several days and then wrote a long, idyllic account of Tsarskoe Selo with exquisite vignettes of the beautiful grand duchesses (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35; see also his letter to Major Whistler, Sarskoe Celo, May 20, 1844).

406  Anna Whistler’s lack of punctuation here (no period after “etc”) makes it seem as though she has conflated descriptions of two totally different rooms: the Chinese Salon and the Mirror Room, both in the Fifth Apartments. A small door led from the Chinese Salon into the inner apartments of Catherine the Great, where the Mirror Room was located. The Chinese Salon had four floor-length windows and one of regular size facing the private garden, while two opened onto the square (ploshchad’ – although it is possible that, in describing the interior, Vil’chkovskii meant ploshchadka, which means “landing,” not “square”). It was double-lighted. Its walls were covered with original eighteenth-century panels transferred here by the architect, Charles Cameron, from an earlier Chinese room of the palace. The panels, made of wood, were painted black and covered with coromandel lacquer. On them were depicted Chinese houses, inscriptions, and other decorations, all of which were gilded. The panels were in frames of black wood. Around them were fastened very precious ancient Chinese enamels. A large number of vases and dishes of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, Tibetan brass idols, and other things were arranged on semicircular pyramids. From the ceiling, painted in Chinese style, hung four chandeliers made from vases joined with gilded bronze ornament. These vases were made in Europe by Chinese workers. The Mirror Room, Catherine the Great’s favorite “working” study, was a small room with two windows facing the private garden and a door opening onto the “Mirror Landing.” All of its walls and doors were covered with mirrors divided by narrow colonettes (see Image 387). The ceiling was decorated with frescos in Italian Renaissance style and a glass lantern was suspended from it (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sankpeterburga 1842, p. 62; Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 122, 126; Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki pp. 37–38).

407  Anna Whistler seems to mean a number of rooms with inlaid floors, but the room famous for containing such a floor is the Lyon Room (see Image 386), so named for the brocaded silk covering the walls, which was manufactured in Lyon, France. Like the Mirror Room (see previous Note), the Lyon Room was one of several created in the 1780s by Charles Cameron in place of Rastrelli’s fourth and fifth antechambers, which Cameron destroyed. It was also in the Fifth Apartments. It had three floor-length windows facing the square. The walls were covered with yellow silk. Cameron faced the lower parts of the walls with lapis lazuli. The window and door frames were made of massive gilded bronze on a background of lapis. The fireplaces were also trimmed with lapis and decorated with figures of Carrara marble. The parquetry of the floor and the marquetry of the door panels were made from the wood of twelve kinds of foreign trees inlaid with large stylized mother-of-pearl flowers. This type of incrustation was associated in the minds of Cameron’s contemporaries with Nero’s “Golden House,” the interior of which, according to Suetonius, was decorated with gold, precious stones, and mother-of-pearl. The doors from the Lyon Room led into the Chinese Salon described in the previous Note (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 121–122; Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, pp. 44, 124; Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, p. 62; Lemus et al., Muzei i parki Pushkina, pp. 38–39, 45).

408  “From c. the 1820s to the 1840s [the surtout was] often called a ‘surtout greatcoat’; being an overcoat, S-B or D-B, made like a frock-coat and the forerunner of the TOP FROCK” (Cunnington, Cunnington, and Beard, Dictionary of English Costume, pp. 86, 87, 209, 215–216).

409  I have not been able to determine the location of the suite of apartments in the Catherine Palace furnished for Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna (Alexandrine) upon her marriage.

410  The bedroom of Alexander I in the Old (Catherine) Palace, along with his “parade” and “work” studies, were made into a memorial to him. An undated inventory of the furniture in the bedroom lists a chest of drawers, chair, small table, folding camp bed, and dressing table, as well as the location of the emperor’s belongings in and on these pieces of furniture. Listed as being on the camp bed are a yellow chamois straw-filled mattress; two chamois pillows, one crimson, one green; a linen pillow case; three linen sheets; a calico coverlet; a white piqué cover; and a pair of shoes. Listed as being on his dressing table are a rectangular folding mirror in a mahogany frame, a small box with articles for brushing his teeth, a hairbrush, a tortoise-shell comb, and a silver handbell. Six napkins, among other things, are listed as being in the chest of drawers (RGIA: Fond 487, op. 21, d. 580. Opis’ veshchei, nakhodiashchikhsia v komnatakh na polovine imperatora Aleksandra I i opisi sobstvennykh veshchei Ekateriny II, imperatritsy Elizavety Alekseevny (zheny Aleksandra I) i dr. (bez daty). Vedomost’ veshcham imeiushchimsia v komnatakh na polovine Pokoinogo Gosudaria Imperatora Aleksandra Pavlovicha v Tsarskosel’skom Starom Dvortse, sobstvenno prinadlezhavshim Ego Imperatorskomu Velichestvu [Inventory of things in the rooms of the apartments of Emperor Alexander I and inventories of the personal things of Catherine II, Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna (wife of Alexander I) and others (no date). Register of things in the rooms of the apartments of the late Emperor Alexander Pavlovich in the Old Palace at Tsarskoe Selo personally belonging to His Imperial Majesty], fols. 4v, 5r, 5v, 6r).

Vil’chkovskii describes the bedroom in greater detail. The bedroom of Alexander I has two floor-length windows looking out onto the park. The walls are covered with Chinese silk with watercolor drawings depicting scenes from the life of the Manchus. Rich gilded carving and plaster work frame the wallpaper. Above the alcove, in which stands the modest field bed of the emperor, is the monogram of Catherine II on a magnificent carved gilded arch in the style of Louis XV. The ceiling contains a painting called Allegorical Depiction of the Natural Sciences (Allegoricheskoe izobrazhenie estestvennykh nauk). In the corner is a fireplace also in the style of Louis XV. Between the windows is a floor-length mirror; the furniture is mahogany, Empire style, covered with dark-green Morocco leather. In the chests of drawers are many small toilet articles and personal things of the emperor. By the mirror stand his sword and saber. On the bed is a straw mattress in a chamois cover, hair pillows in the same kind of cover, a cotton coverlet and another of piqué. On the wall are plans of Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo. Above the doors and the stove hang the pictures Pastoral (Pastoral’), Vestal Virgin (Vestal’ka), and Flowers (Tsvety), repaired after the fire of 1820 by Antonelli (1791– 1842) (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 93–94).

Until 1781, this suite of “Second” Apartments (Vil’chkovskii, pp. 92–100) constituted the rooms of Catherine the Great, and Alexander I’s bedroom seems to have previously been hers (Vil’chkovskii, p. 98).

411  One might have expected this kind of remark from Maxwell, but he points out the same details without being caustic (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35). See Rigby, Baltic Letters, vol. 2, letter 24, pp. 262–263 for a touching appraisal of this room.

412  There was a portrait room and a picture gallery in the Catherine Palace, both located in the Third Apartments (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 100–108). The fine pictures James “wished he could stay to examine… & know who painted them” were those in the picture gallery, and most of them would have been almost impossible for him to see, given their placement and his height as a child of ten. This room occupied the entire width of the palace. As a result of the fire in May 1820, the church, part of the palace adjacent to it, and the Lyceum burned down. The Lyceum was transferred to St. Petersburg in 1843. The ceiling of the Picture Gallery, by Pietro (d. 1770) and Francesco (1729– 1793) Gradizzi, was destroyed in order to contain the fire and replaced in 1820 by a new one, based “on the old model.” The work of Academician S. A. Bessonov, the painting depicted The Feast of the Gods on Olympus (Olimp). The pictures in the collection were transferred to new canvasses. The room was decorated with gilt and plaster work in Louis XV style. Three floor-length windows faced onto the park, and three onto the landing (east and west walls). Between the windows were tall mirrors with decorative panels above them containing paintings. A tall mid-18th century stove made of German tiles stood in the middle of the north and south walls, dividing them into two symmetrical parts. Equidistant from each stove were two sets of magnificent double doors with gilded carved figures of caryatids and Minerva. These walls, starting from low wooden panels with gilt carving, were covered to the ceiling, trellis-style, with pictures almost touching each other, separated only by narrow gilt baguettes. There were 130 pictures. One hundred fifteen of them had been bought in 1745 in Prague by the court painter, Georg Groot (1716–1749), “a painter of animals and birds,” by order of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. The remaining fifteen pictures could have come from works in storage bought by Peter the Great and his agents and through purchase from foreigners in Russia, e.g., from ships’ captains. They are all oil paintings, chiefly on canvas, but also on wooden panels and copper plates. Most are by Dutch and Flemish artists, the rest by German, French, and Italian artists. Most are originals, but some are anonymous copies of works by old masters and others are attributed to their schools. There are themes from antiquity and the Bible, allegories, still lifes, landscapes and seascapes, portraits, battle scenes, architectural views, and genre scenes. Groot’s two lists of the paintings (and objects) he purchased (amounting to 195 pieces) are detailed in their description of some of their subjects. (His lists can be found in Aleksandr Uspenskii, Imperatorskie dvortsy [The Imperial Palaces], 2 vols. [Moscow: Pechatnia A.I. Snegirevoi, 1913], vol. 2, pp. 169–174). In 1755, V. Neelov (1722–1782), an “architect’s assistant,” made an inventory of the Picture Gallery, but it was based on genre, e.g., “16 waist-length male portraits,” and therefore less useful. In the 1760s, Jacob Staehlin (1709–1785), a Swabian scholar working in Russia (1735–1785), whose notes made over a forty-year period constitute an inestimable primary source for the history of the arts in 18th-century Russia, compiled a detailed wall-by-wall inventory of the collection in the Picture Gallery, for the most part giving artists’ names (J. Stählin, Zapiski Iakoba Shtelina ob iziashchnykh iskusstvakh v Rossii [Jacob Stählin’s Notes on the Fine Arts in Russia], ed. and trans. K.M. Malinovskii, 2 vols. [Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1990], vol. 2, pp. 40–44). Some of his attributions to old masters have been refuted. New attributions continue to be proffered up to the present time. The layout of the paintings is said to have remained the same from 1756 to 1941, the fire of 1820 notwithstanding. Vil’chkovskii supplied a numbered wall plan showing the location of each picture based on a room inventory for the Picture Gallery (document now in the Arkhiv gosudarstvennyi Èrmitazha [Archive of the State Hermitage], St. Petersburg [hereafter, Arkhiv GE]). The publication of his book (1910) evoked criticism of his identification of some of the paintings in the Picture Gallery. He responded to this in his foreword to the second edition (1911), explaining that because a check ordered by the Imperial Hermitage was in progress, he had amended only those things that were not in doubt. The restoration of the Catherine Palace after its destruction by German troops during World War II (111 of the canvasses in the Picture Gallery had been evacuated by the Russians) entailed efforts to determine the original makeup of the collection in the Picture Gallery. The Picture Gallery as it is since 1967 is described and the text accompanied by reproductions of 130 paintings in Vera Lemus and Liudmila Lapina, The Catherine Palace Museum in Pushkin: Picture Hall (Leningrad: Avrora, 1990). One hundred seven of the pictures in the original collection as described by Staehlin are still extant. One is in the Hermitage collection, eleven have perished, and the location of nine is unknown. This means that some of the paintings on the walls of the Picture Gallery today have hung there only a brief time. By comparing Staehlin’s inventory with Vil’chkovskii’s and with the reproductions in Lemus and Lapina’s book, we can suggest some of the pictures that might have been in the Picture Gallery in the 1840s (St=Staehlin, V=Vil’chkovskii, LL=Lemus and Lapina in the list that follows): Among the works (except where noted, all cited are oil on canvas) by Western European artists of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries are: (1) Knifegrinder, oil on wood, signed in monogram, by David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690) (St 80, V30, LL 67); (2) the signed Battle of Poltava, commissioned by Peter the Great, by Pierre Denis Martin the Younger (1663–1742) (St 57, V 31 or 52, LL 98); (3) also by Martin, the signed Actions Taking Place before the Battle of Poltava (St 78), or The Battle of Poltava (V31 or 52), or Battle at the Village of Lesnaia (LL 97); (4) Still Life from the Hunt with Dead Game Birds (St 14), or Dog Guarding Dead Game Birds (V 96), or Guard (LL 56), by Jan Fyt (1611–1661); (5) also by Fyt, Dead Game (St 44), Still Life with Dead Hare or Dead Hare (V 111), or Still Life with Dead Hare (LL 57); (6) painting by Jean-Marc Nattier the Younger (1685–1766), Sculpture in the Form of a Woman with Attributes of This Art or Allegorial Depiction of Sculpture (St 12, V109), or Allegory of Sculpture (LL 99); (7) the signed and dated (1696) painting by Johannes Glauber (1646–1726) Landscape (St 81 or 83), or Landscape Meeting of Apollo and Daphne (V 25), or Meeting of Apollo and Daphne (LL 17); (8) also by Johannes Glauber, Landscape (St 81 or 83), or Landscape In the Foreground Apollo Running after Daphne (V 23), or Apollo and Daphne (LL 18); (9) the signed and dated (1716) painting by Ottmar Elliger the Younger (1666–1735), Dido on the Pyre (St 61), or Dido Consigning Herself to the Pyre after the Departure of Aeneas (V 46, LL 115); (10) also by Ottmar Elliger, Capture of Cleopatra (St 63), or Aeneas Introducing Himself to Dido (V48), or Dido and Aeneas (LL 114); (11) the signed genre painting by Jan Miense Molenaer (c. 1610–1668) called A Company of Dutch Country Folk (St 69), or A Family Scene (V 37, LL 25); (12) Pieter Rysbrack (1655–1729), signed painting called Landscape with Rysbrack and His Family (St 52, V 19), or Landscape with a Sarcophagus (LL 60); (13) signed and dated (1637) painting by Theodor van Thulden (1606–1669) called Virtue and Vice (St 72), or An Allegory of Ignorance Possessing Wealth and Driving Art and Commerce Away from Itself (V16), or Allegory of Ignorance Possessing Wealth (LL 65); (14) painting by Andrea Celesti (1637-1712?), Judith Cutting off the Head of Holofernes (St 66), or Judith and Holofernes (V 12, LL 84) (bought in Italy 1717); (15) painting by Jacques Blanchard (1600-1638), Jupiter as a Golden Shower over Danaë (St 49), or Jupiter As a Golden Shower Gaining Entrance to the Chamber of Danaë (V 40), or Danaë (LL 101) (bought in Antwerp in 1716); (16) signed painting by Gaspard or Jasper Broers (1682–1716), Dutch Fair (St 22), or Fair (V88 or 116, LL 47 or 48); (17) also by Gaspard or Jasper Broers, Fair with a Crowd (St 36) or Fair (V 88 or 116, LL 48); (18) Jupiter (St 5, V 98), or Jupiter with a Striking Rod in His Hand (LL 111) by Johann Karl Loth (1632–1698). This selection is in no way a rejection of expert commentary on the remaining paintings. It simply represents what is easily demonstrable in the limited space of this note (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 100–108; Uspenskii, Imperatorskie dvortsy, vol. 2, pp. 169–173; Stählin, Zapiski, vol. 2, pp. 7–8, 40–44, 75–76; K.V. Malinovskii, “Opisaniia imperatorskikh zhivopisnykh kollekstsii v Peterburge i zagorodnykh dvortsakh, sostavlennye Iakobom Shtelinym” [“Descriptions of the Imperial Art Collections in Petersburg and Its Environs, Compiled by Jakob Shtelin”], Muzei [Museum] 1 (1980): pp. 174, 190–191); Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, pp. 40, 123; Lemus and Lapina, Catherine Palace Museum, numbered plates). Vil’chkovskii’s guide was published in English, French, and German editions in 1912 by the Berlin firm of Meisenbach-Riffart (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. VIII, X).

413  The establishing of an Imperial model farm at Tsarskoe Selo (see Images 458–459) had as its impetus an interest in agriculture on the part of Empress Maria Fyodorovna (see Images 415–416), mother of Nicholas I (Benois, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 221). In 1810–1811, a small farm was built on the border of the Alexander Park, where it was proposed to keep big-horn cattle of the best Western European and Russian breeds and merino sheep (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 20). In 1818– 1822, the replacement of the original wooden structures by stone ones designed by Adam Menelaws (1753–1831) in the Gothic Revival style so favored by Nicholas I took place (Petrov, p. 20; Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 394; I. Iakovkin, Opisanie Sela Tsarskogo [Description of Tsarskoe Selo] [St. Petersburg: V tipografii departamenta Narodnogo Prosveshcheniia, 1830], pp. 145ff.). During the summer of 1820, the basic buildings were built in the rough: the cattle yard, dairy, and central pavilion (Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, p. 126). In 1822, to this group of structures were added wings for the merino sheep and later a circular three-storied tower fifteen meters high (Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, p. 126). The complex of oldest structures consisted of (1) a central two-storied pavilion in English Gothic style made of red brick, (2) two single-storied wings connected to the central pavilion by sections of fences, and (3) in the middle of the yard an extensive stone cowshed, also in Gothic style (Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, p. 126). A parcel of field lands from the village of Kuz’mino was added to the farm and the portion of the park adjoining it began to be called the Farm Park (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 20). The mezzanine of the main pavilion had sloping walls painted to look like tents (Benois, p. 221). The farm had an interesting collection of paintings, mostly by Dutch seventeenth-century painters, specialists in depicting animals, but as time passed the best paintings were transferred to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg (Benois, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 221). It is to this model farm that Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna, ill with tuberculosis, was brought for the cowshed treatment.

Maxwell, who visited the farm with Colonel Todd, recorded: “We visited also a dairy in the grounds, belonging to the Grand Duke Alexander and filled with all kinds of cattle of the most approved breed. The stalls of the cows were as clean as the floors of a palace, and the cows themselves far gentler than many of the Princesses” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35).

414  There were two groups of conservatories in the park grounds. The Big Conservatory, made of stone, was built towards the end of 1753 and consisted of a central hall, glassed-in conservatories, and two pavilions. It was part of the service buildings of the palace ensemble. It was remodelled in 1820–1823, according to the design of the architect V.P. Stasov. After remodelling, it consisted of a complex of four independent two-storied buildings formed into one whole by means of connecting glassed-in colonnades. The colonnades served as hothouses for laurel trees. The baroque decoration of the façades of the Big Conservatory was completely removed, and the building took on the look of late Russian Classicism. For the rest of the nineteenth century, the building underwent repairs but no further remodelling. The head gardeners used to live in the fourth Pavilion: in Catherine the Great’s time it was Busch; in Alexander I’s Liamin. Since the reign of Alexander I, the superintendent of Tsarskoe Selo had his residence in the First Pavilion. In Catherine’s time, the architect Charles Cameron lived there. Behind the line of big conservatories, the whole area was taken up by hothouses for flowers (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 62–63; Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, p. 140). There was also an extensive section of the Alexander Park to the southwest of the Cross Canal, where there had been conservatories since the 1780s. The buildings of the conservatories, hothouses, and closed cold conservatories for fruit trees were laid out in three rows. In 1819–1828, these conservatories were remodelled and partly built anew by Menelaws. In 1819–1820, he built one for cherry trees. In contrast to the majority of buildings built by him in the Alexander Park, which were in Gothic Revival style, these were in the style of late Classicism. The most interesting conservatory was the one located near the ruins of the Gothic Chapel. Its central pavilion was decorated with eight Doric pilasters, and the ends of the windows were semicircular (Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, p. 122).

415  Miss Mary Musgrove, governess, lived at “Avai’s on the Fontanka at the Anichkov Bridge” (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 37).

416  “Cross-purposes” is a parlor game in which questions and answers are deliberately mismatched for comic effect.

417  “Catrineoff” is the anglicized name of the palace and park called Ekateringof (Catherine Palace) and pronounced “Yikuhtirin′guff” (see Images 405–406). It was located beyond the Obvodnyi Canal in the Narva District on the shore. The Ekateringof lands stretched as far as Chernaia Rechka, which constituted the boundary between St. Petersburg and Tsarskoe Selo districts. From the Gulf of Finland, the lands extended as far as the Narva (Peterhof) Road. On 1 May (OS), there was always a public celebration here to commemorate Peter the Great’s first sea victory over the Swedes in early May 1703 (OS). Especially noteworthy at these festivities was the spectacle of people promenading along the many avenues of Ekateringof in their carriages (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 14; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 213–215). A more extensive description and history of the site is given in Notes 829–834, accompanying the entry for Monday [August] 26ƫ [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I. The palace was usually called the palace of Peter I (see Image 405).

418  Maxwell, who also had to move, had thought of going to the boarding house run by the misses Benson, as such places are “well kept … by clever clean English women,” but gave up the idea because of his intense “dislike of the boarding house system” with its lack of the “exclusiveness necessary and agreeable to [his] station” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Aug. 25, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 19; see Benson in Appendix E. He chose instead to move “for gentility’s sake” into the Hotel de Paris, “a more fashionable, more expensive and far dirtier place,” where he took two rooms, for himself and La Ronne, and was thus “relieved from the tittle tattle, the gossip and obsequious insolence of low, cockney cokney John Bulls, who love of all things to intrude if they can into the mysteries (to them) of a gentlemans life, habits and organization” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 11, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 34). See Note 170 above and Benson in Appendix E.

On 14 May, Maxwell “delivered up the keys of [his] establishment to the Major” at two o’clock, “and said goodbye to them all as they left in their carriages for the country” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35).

419  They had also been invited to a dinner party at the Ropeses on 1/13 May to celebrate the Gellibrands’ wedding anniversary (see Images 265–266), but as Anna Whistler was too tired after packing and Maxwell too unwell, they “remained at home and talked of a home beyond the Atlantic and beyond the skies” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35).

420  Maxwell made his first visit on the day after the Whistlers moved, 15 May, arriving with “1 dozen Chateau Margeaux and 2 bottles of Champaigne” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35). He did not like the Whistlers’ summer house, “a fly box - a nut shell - and though in internal arrangements good enough, … too small and objectionable in many respects … like all these things in Russia ill adapted to the climate … they had the blues. The boys were cheerful enough, and MƤ W was in her usual good temper and spirits. But the Major was all buttoned up and Miss D all shawled up, and doors were kept shut and fires all lighted to keep out the cold … To crown the whole the cook became sick and the dinner was not a promising one - and then it was vowed to remain in town another summer if a better house and better servants and other things were not at hand. It was now the wine I brought down for the house warming played a part – … all hands cheered up. so did the weather … and by eight … every thing was illuminated by the setting of the sun” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35).

421  Maxwell described one day in that week, Monday, 27 May, on the afternoon of which he went to visit the Whistlers. This is probably the second of the two visits that Anna Whistler said Maxwell had made to them. He was accompanied by his “crony Strokoffsky a Polish nobleman,” who had dined with him and had expressed, as on many previous occasions, his wish to be introduced to the Whistlers, having never seen an American lady. Strokoffsky was a state councilor (5th grade) in Russian government service. At the Whistlers, they met not only Emma Maingay (see Image 263), but her elder brother, William Bonamy (see Image 260), with whom Maxwell was not acquainted. Maxwell thought Major Whistler did not like William Bonamy, who was interested in Deborah Whistler, while he himself expressed his usual disdain towards Englishmen of certain classes (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, August 25, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 17; John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, no. 35).

422  Anna Whistler is referring to Eliza Maingay. See Maingay in Appendix E and Image 262.

423  Anna Whistler spelled this surname Stockhol, Stockoll, and Stockol. Baron Eduard Andreevich de Stoeckl (1804 – 26 January 1892) was at this time in 1844 junior secretary to the Russian Mission in Washington and apparently on home leave (AVPRI: Fond DIS / i / KhD, op. 464, d. 3127 Stekl’). He had probably met Major Whistler in Washington during the negotiations to hire the latter as consulting engineer for the building of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. See the biographies of the Stoeckl, Howard, Swift, and Ironside families in Appendix E (hereafter, Stoeckl, Howard, Swift, Ironside) and Image 286.

424  Maxwell said: “There is are no gardens attached as private property to the country houses here - The are gardens and grounds are kept in order by the owner, he enjoys the fruits alone, and his tenants enjoy the walks and nothing more. They must buy their fruits vegetables and flowers” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35). Maxwell’s comments to the contrary, the Whistlers’ landlord, Mr. Thomas Drury, was very generous to them, as several passages in the diaries, including this one, show.

425  The new curate, who preached on 26 May, Whitsunday, was Rev. George Williams (4 April 1814 – 26 January 1878), divine and topographer, educated at Eton, Cambridge, and Oxford. He received his BA in 1837 at Cambridge and was ordained in that year. From 22 September 1838 until Michaelmas 1840, he held “the perpetual curacies of Great Bricet and Wattisham.” In 1840, he received his M.A. at Cambridge. From 1841 to May 1843, he was with Bishop Alexander in Jerusalem as chaplain to that city. From May 1844 to August 1844, he replaced Rev. Edward Law as chaplain at St. Petersburg and, from September 1844 to June 1845, replaced Rev. R.W. Blackmore at Cronstadt. In “holding these posts he became involved with the desire of bringing together the Greek and Anglican churches.” In 1845, he published The Holy City; Or, Historical and Topographical Notices of Jerusalem; with Some Account of Its Antiquities and of Its Present Condition with Illustrations from Sketches by the Rev. W.F. Witts (London: John W. Parker; Cambridge: T. Stevenson, 1845); a second edition appeared in 1849. In 1846, he published “a collection of ‘Sermons Preached at Jerusalem in 1842 and 1843’.” From 1846–1848, he was dean of arts at Kings College, Cambridge, and from 1848–1850 dean of divinity. He received the BD at Cambridge in 1849. In 1860, he undertook “‘a long and arduous journey in Russia’ …, with a view to spreading knowledge of the benefits available for foreign communities at English universities.” After posts at St. Columba’s College near Dublin, King’s College, and Cumbrae College, “a tour in the East with the Marquis of Bute and several years in residence at Cambridge, [he] was presented … [in] 1869 to the important vicarage of Ringwood in Hampshire.” He died suddenly on 26 January 1878. One of his last acts “was to send his signature to the clerical declaration against war with Russia.” He is said to have been “endowed with a noble presence and dignified voice” (Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Williams, George [1814–1878]”). Anna Whistler spoke of liking “his fervent manner” in this diary entry, and in another remarked that his “low and solemn tone is so devotional” (entry of Sunday [July] 14ƫ [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I). All of his subsequent preaching seemed to impress her.

For biographical information about Richard White Blackmore, see Mark Everitt, “R.W. Blackmore (1791–1882), an English Chaplain in Cronstadt,” Oxford Slavonic Papers, n.s., 10 (1977): pp. 98–106.

426  Lord and Lady Stuart were leaving Russia on 3 June 1844 (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

427  In April 1844, Rev. Edward Law (see Image 253) requested from the Russia Company a leave of absence for up to three months, adding that he had written to the Bishop of London, asking him to provide a substitute for that time. “Between May 23 and Aug. 5, 1844 (both inclusive) there are 14 Entries by the Revd Geo: Williams. Off: Minister during the absence, in England, of Mr E. Law, who on that occasion took his Degree of D.D. at the University of Oxford, by the request of the British Factory, who, in the kindest manner, presented him with £100 for the attendant expences thereof” (RGIA: Fond 1689, op. 1, d. 7, no. 16, fol. 18r. A Memoir, regarding the Church Registers of the Chapel of the British Factory, at Mosco and Archangel 1706 to 1732, and at St. Petersburg, from 1723, to the current Year. Compiled and dedicated to the Factory by The Revd Edward Law M.A. 1833. John Kirton, Script, fol. 18r). He received both his Bachelor of Divinity and his Doctor of Divinity degrees on 21 June 1844 (Joseph Welch, comp., The List of the Queen’s Scholars of St. Peter’s College, Westminster, Admitted on that Foundation Since 1663; and of Such as Have Been Thence Elected to Christ Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge, from the Foundation by Queen Elizabeth, 1561, to the Present Time, new ed., with numerous additions by An Old King’s Scholar (London: G. W. Ginger, 1852), p. 468).

John Kirton, clerk of the English Church in St. Petersburg, died on 2 September 1852 (OS), age sixty-six, and was buried on 5 September 1852 (OS) in the Smolensk Cemetery (PREC STP for 1852, p. 434, no. 6306).

428  Colossians 2:5: “For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.”

429  Whitsunday, or Pentecost, is the seventh Sunday after Easter and celebrates the “feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the 50th day after Easter” (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, s.v. “Whitsunday”). See Image 380 for an icon of this feast day.

430  “Muslin” is “a thin cotton, white, dyed, or printed.” “Book muslin” is a “thin white muslin used for ladies’ dresses” (Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), s.v. “muslin,” “book muslin”). “Gauze” is a “very thin, transparent fabric of silk, linen or cotton” (Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “gauze”).

431  See Note 577 below concerning the Reports of the Religious Tract Society for 1843–1849.

432  Psalm 49:20: “Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.” Psalm 49 is considered a “meditation on the transcience of life and wealth” (Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger, eds., New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha [New York: Oxford University Press, 1977], pp. 692–693; hereafter, New Oxford Annotated Bible).

433  May 30 was a Thursday. Persons mentioned in this entry who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Catherine Julia McNeill, Anna Whistler’s niece (Jule); Eliza (Lamb) Maingay, Anna Whistler’s close friend, now moving permanently to England (Mrs. Maingay); the terminally ill Mary Gent Hirst (Miss Hirst); and Anna Whistler’s mother, Martha (Kingsley) McNeill (my own dear mother, this loved parent, my mothers visit).

434  Martha (Kingsley) McNeill (see Image 22), in her winter visits to East Florida, was teacher and chaplain to the Negroes on her son’s plantation (see Images 58–60) and to his mulatto wife, Elizabeth (Coffee) McNeill (c. 1828 – 23 August 1898) and their children. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

435  May 31 was a Friday.

436  The Field of Mars (Marsovo pole), first called the Tsarina’s Meadow (Tsaritsyn lug), was a vast, superbly planned area for military parades, reviews, and exercises. Every spring, it was the site of the emperor’s inspection of the troops of the Guard Corps before they set out for camp. The Field of Mars stretched along the entire length of the Summer Garden on the Swan Canal side. From the south, it was intersected diagonally by the Moika River (opposite the garden of the Mikhailovskii Palace). It was bounded from the west by a group of houses that in olden times was called Beautiful or Red Street. To the north, the field extended to the service buildings of the Marble Palace (home of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich), alongside which is Suvorov Square, with a view of the Neva. Further along, it extended to the magnificent building of the Austrian Legation (formerly the house of Prince Saltykov) and the residence of Prince Oldenburg (formerly the house of I.I. Betskii). When the capital was first planned, the Field of Mars was considered part of the Summer Garden. Later, it was turned into a meadow, called the Tsarina’s Meadow. From 1740–1742, it was a garden. A monument to Prince Suvorov-Italiiskii was at first erected at the opposite end of the field, near the Moika. At the other end of the square rose Rumiantsev’s obelisk, later transferred to the First Cadet Corps. The monument to Suvorov was later placed in an area that was freed up between Prince Saltykov’s house and the service buildings of the Marble Palace, when Prince Saltykov’s garden was destroyed. After the rebuilding of these service buildings (from 1845 through 1850), no permanent new structures appeared on the Field of Mars for the entire second half of the nineteenth century (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 346–347; V.S. Shvarts, Arkhitekturnyi ansambl’ Marsova polia [The Architectural Ensemble of the Field of Mars] [Leningrad: Iskusstvo, 1989], pp. 135–136, 140; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 72–73). A famous panoramic painting of the Field of Mars is A Parade in the Tsarina’s Meadow on 6 October 1831 (Parad na Tsaritsynom lugu 6 oktiabria 1831 goda) by Grigorii Grigorievich Chernetsov (1802–1865) (Shvarts, Arkhitekturnyi ansambl’, pp. 127–130).

On 27 or 28 May 1844 (the date as written is not clear), Maxwell wrote to Major Whistler, informing him that he had “this moment received through the Aide de-camp of General Muller, the enclosed billet d’entrée to the residence of General Muller, which is directly opposite the marble palace of the Grand Duke Michel and overlooking the ground of parade. The review is on the 18 and 19 old style [30 and 31 NS], that is on Thursday and Friday next of this week; the first for infantry, the second for cavalry. The number of the lookout is 17 and the Company limited to 4 persons” (John S. Maxwell to Major Whistler, May 27? 28? [1844], N-YHS: Maxwell Papers). Maxwell suggested that the Major and the ladies decide who would go, but could not, with his limited Russian, understand whether the invitation said boys under twelve would be admitted (John S. Maxwell to Major Whistler, May 27? 28? [1844]). For an extensive description of the Guards review in 1847 see BUHG: Colin Ingersoll Journal, pt. 1, fols. 23–31.

437  Nicholas I went to England in June 1844 “to explore the possibilities for improving Russia’s relations with Britain, and, most of all, to discuss the problem ever-present in his mind: the future of the Ottoman Empire” (Lincoln, Nicholas I, pp. 220, 222). Reluctant at first to have him visit, “Queen Victoria agreed to receive [him] in late May or early June” (Lincoln, pp. 220–221). “Nicholas accepted the invitation in early April” and left St. Petersburg on 12 May, arriving “at Woolwich on 1 June (NS)” (Lincoln, p. 221). He “remained in England until 9 June (NS)” (Lincoln, p. 222). No formal agreement had been made between the two powers, and the “visit and his miscalculation of the extent to which the British were willing to commit themselves to giving formal assurances about the future actually laid the basis for future conflicts” (Lincoln, p. 223). See “Europe’s Gendarme Emerges,” in Lincoln, pp. 196–231, for a discussion of the Eastern Question; pages 220–223 deal specifically with Nicholas’ visit to England in 1844. “Grand Duke Michel” is Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, brother of Emperor Nicholas I.

438  On 19/31 May, Maxwell returned from seeing Todd in Tsarskoe Selo and found Major Whistler and Count Strokoffsky waiting in his rooms. “The Major informed me that Mrs W. expected company at her house that day, that Miss W. had gone to bid farewell to her companion who went to England in the steamer, and that they therefore could not use the ticket … He proposed however that I should go with him and the boys to see the parade—after which he wished I would go down with Colonel Todd to the country to dine” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

439  The steamer for England would be departing Cronstadt on Saturday (John S. Maxwell to Major Whistler, Sarskoe Celo, May 20, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers). The pictures referred to in this entry were of Emma, Frederick, and Emily Maingay. See Maingay in Appendix E and Images 263–264. It has not been possible to locate the message from Eliza (Lamb) Maingay (see Image 259). Anna Whistler was not to open it until Friday, 7 June 1844.

440  “The day was a fine one and there were 58.000 men in the field. The Grand Duke Michel in the absence of the Emperor commanded the troops looked and manoeuvered exceedingly well … The artillery, the flying artillery, with cannon, baggage and wagons, bridges and boats passed over the ground with prodigious speed and were followed by cavalry, ten thousand in force on beautiful horses, at full speed gallop and this without breaking a rank or deviating an inch from a certain and well defined line of march. It was an extraordinary and brilliant display of the power of Russia in on her peace establishment … At three we left” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36). See also Charles Henningsen, Revelations of Russia: or, The Emperor Nicholas and His Empire in 1844, By One Who Has Seen and Describes, 2 vols. (London: Henry Colburn, 1844): vol. 2, pp. 39–163.

441  Empress Aleksandra Fyodorovna (see Images 420, 424) became commander-in-chief of the Horse Guards as of 22 August / 3 September 1831 (S. Panchulidzev, comp., Istoriia Kavalergardov 1724–1799–1899. Po sluchaiu stoletnego iubileia Kavalergardskogo Ee Velichestva Gosudaryni Imperatritsy Marii Fyodorovny polka [History of the Cavalier Guards 1724–1799–1899. On the Occasion of the One Hundredth Jubilee of Her Majesty Empress Mariia Fyodorovna’s Cavalier Guard Regiment], 4 vols. [St. Petersburg: Èkspeditsiia zagotovleniia gosudarstvennykh bumag, 1912], vol. 4, p. 290). They were a knightly guard and had their beginnings in the company of bodyguards formed by Peter the Great for the coronation of Catherine I in 1724 (see Image 401). The type chosen for the Horse Guard was blonde; if possible, blue-eyed; handsome; tall. Their parade uniforms were white, the smooth-fitting trousers of kid. They wore golden chest and back armor resembling knightly armor. Their casques were silver-colored and crowned with the two-headed eagle (see Images 370, 423). They rode bay horses (Vilinbakhov, Faibisovich, and Letin, Khrabrye dela vashi, pp. 27, 33, 43, 58; B.I. Antonov, Imperatorskaia gvardiia v Sanktpeterburge [The Imperial Guard in St. Petersburg] [St. Petersburg: GLAGOL, 2001], pp. 50–56).

442  The Ambassador was Charles Stewart Todd (see Image 278). “I saw his Excellency among the staff, bouncing about on his dancing steed and laughed inwardly at the idea that the militia was represented there” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

443  Maxwell went back to the hotel to wait for Todd. They went to Todd’s rooms, where the latter took off “his regimentals.” By then, “it was too late to start for the Majors to be on time for dinner.” They therefore dined in town and then set out. They “arrived at six, found several gentlemen there and dinner just served” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36). Neither Anna Whistler nor Maxwell identified the gentlemen.

444  Monday was 3 June.

445  Anna Whistler must have intended to write “now.”

446  Reverend Law (see Image 253) was to leave for England on the day of this diary entry, Monday, 3 June. “M Law went to Cronstadt yesterday [1 June] and goes away with his daughter [Caroline] in the steamer in which Lord Stuart and lady will leave to-morrow” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36). Maxwell described the Rothesays in 1842 as follows:

I went to see the British Ambassador (a big bug here) the other day – He is an old diplomat and the new Father in Law of the Marquis of Waterford. Lord Stuart de Rothsay is his name and title. He is now a very old man, of some 80 years – and has been a very good looking man … He is too old for this climate and may not endure it long – I met his Lady. (who has just arrived here and who intends taking a large house) – in the large fashionable store here called the English Magazine. She is one of the plainest looking women I ever saw – and has a streak of red in each cheek just as old English ladies in good health generally have – (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Legation of the United States of America St. Petersburg – October 8/20 1842, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 3)

447  Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost (or Whitsunday). It celebrates the doctrine that “the one God exists in three Persons and one substance, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, s.v. “trinity, doctrine of the”). The Athanasian Creed “expounds the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation, adding a list of the most important events in the Lord’s life; it includes anathemas against those who do not believe its affirmations” (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, s.v. “Athanasian Creed”). “The Christian doctrine of the Incarnation affirms that the eternal Son of God took human flesh from His human mother and that the historical Christ is at once fully God and fully man. It asserts an abiding union in Christ’s Person of Godhead and manhood and assigns the beginnings of this union to a definite and known date in human history” (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, s.v. “Incarnation”). The “new Curate” was Rev. George Williams.

448  Jude 20–21: “20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

449  See also John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36.

450  Anna Whistler spells this name in a variety of ways: Hadenscoff, Hadenskougg, Hadenskoug. Carl Robert Hedenschoug (6 February 1813 – 2 December 1861) was a Swedish draftsman working for Major Whistler. See his biography in Appendix E.

451  On Tuesday, 4 June, Major Whistler had gone to the Department of Railways, which was located on the corner of Sadovaia Street and Ekateringof Prospekt, in the building belonging to Adam (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1846, p. 17). He was going to a meeting of the Temporary Technical Commission, of which he was a member. For a list of the other members, see Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, pp. 40–41, 54, 55.

452  Egor Karlovich (Georg Eduard) von Lode (25 August 1786 [OS] – Narva 10 December 1844 [OS]), collegiate councilor (6th grade), was director of Imperial educational institutions in Saratov Province. He had a house on Vasilievskii Island, Vasilevskaia District, First Ward, on the Fifth Line, between the Grand Neva Embankment and Academy Lane. It faced a side of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and was numbered house No. 1 in Nistrem’s 1844 guide to St. Petersburg residents (Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, p. 204. Only ten districts are included. Petersburg, Vyborg, and Okhta districts were excluded because they lacked the new house numbers instituted in 1836). In November 1838, it was numbered No. 45; in August 1850, No. 45/88. See A.A. Polovtsov, ed. Russkii biograficheskii slovar’ [Russian Biographical Dictionary], 25 vols. (St. Petersburg: Imperatorskoe Russkoe Istoricheskoe Obshchestvo, 1896–1918; New York: Kraus Reprint, 1962), vol. 10 (citations are from the 1962 edition).

453  “It is a usual characteristic of the Russian style of building – a characteristic which pointedly indicates the national quality of variety, – that in all houses, even in those occupied by the inferior classes of citizens, the principal, most agreeable, and important apartment is appropriated to the purposes of a drawing room. So long as this is spacious and handsome, the Russian attaches little importance to the degree of comfort or to the habitable condition of the inferior apartments in which he passes his life” (Jerrmann, Pictures from St. Petersburg, p. 45).

Maxwell was more graphic:

You would be astonished to know how people live here. The Saloons are brilliant with ornament and gilding while the halls absolutely smell most villainously. The front rooms are papered in the most gorgeous manner and the back rooms filled with filth. This I have seen since I went househunting. Bed rooms are unknown here to the natives I had heard that the ladies generally sleep on the sofas in the drawing rooms, but I never believed it until I visited many furnished houses and could find no rooms having a resemblance to bed rooms. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, September 9. 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 21)

454  “Dom” (pronounced “dawm”) means “house” or “home” in Russian. Maxwell had been told by Anna Whistler that there would always be a room in their summer home for him (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 1, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 33) and on his first visit had been shown the “little room all ready for me almost” but as it was “the only spare room they have … I could not think of remaining, at least, that night”. He promised, however, to come and stay a while before leaving Russia (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35). On 17 May, the Major dined with Maxwell at Todd’s lodgings in Tsarskoe Selo and “insist[ed] upon my spending a week with him before I leave” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844). Beginning 4 June, Maxwell spent three full days with the Whistlers (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS, Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

455  “I have noticed that they have no fences to divide the different lots A man owns an Estate, there are perhaps a dozen homes on it, these are all … used as a walk by any of the tenants which makes it much pleasanter, than when one has his walk circumscribed by a stone wall, or a high fence” (entry for Monday, 24th July [1848], PEM: Fettyplace Journal).

456  “We had prayers morning and evening, which I attended. the M W. reading the bible and prayers herself” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

457  The words “his Ellen” would seem to refer to William Hooper Ropes’s wife, Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes, rather than to his daughter, Ellen Gellibrand Ropes.

458  “I never saw such a disagreeable place. It seems that this road is one of the most frequented in Russia and as the summers are very warm and dry, the clouds of dust were really overpowering and could be felt upon the tongue even in the house every time a mouth was open” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35).

459  For example, Edward Cattley (1816–1895), Russia merchant, and Clemence Elizabeth (Camp) Cattley (1816–1884) (married 1843) had a country house “about 15 versts half way to Peterhof … He is consul and has princes dining at his table sometimes” (“Echoes from Old St. Petersburg,” part of Stephen Thomas Cattley [1835–1903] diary 1850 [edited by Edith Mary Smith, in the possession of Rev. H. Hansen, copied by Gerald N. Coveney], MS 1406, Leeds Russian Archive Special Collections [LRA], Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, Yorkshire). The entry is dated July 1850.

460  Ann Elizabeth Main (1820 – 27 July / 8 August 1874) (PREC STP, no. 296, p. 1037) was married to Matthew Anderson (c. 1798 – 5/17 November 1877) (PREC STP, no. 421, p. 1092) on 13/25 July 1838 in the English Church (PREC STP for 1838, p. 237). She was called “the beautiful Mrs. Anderson.” According to Pyliaev, an estate on the Peterhof Road belonging to a Mr. Anderson seems to have been formed from parts of the estates of Count Vorontsov and Vorontsov’s neighbor, Count Panin, court servitors in the time of Catherine the Great. Part of Panin’s estate became the property of the counts Sheremetiev and was called “Ulianka.” Legend has it that the name came from an inn belonging to a Finnish woman named Uliana. Mr. Anderson’s dacha was said to occupy the spot where that inn had stood. Both the original Vorontsov and Panin estates were near the estate located on the eleventh verst that Shcherbatov sold to the government and that was turned into the insane asylum of All That Mourn (Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe 1889, pp. 134–142). More recent scholarship says the dacha belonged to Vorontsov, and that it was rented out up until the 1840s, when an Englishman named John (Ivan Matveevich) Anderson bought it (S.B. Gorbatenko, Petergofskaia doroga Istoriko-arkhitekturnyi putevoditel’ [The Peterhof Road: A Historical and Architectural Guide] [St. Petersburg: Evropeiskii dom, 2002], p. 136). The Matthew Andersons probably spent summers in his house, which was considered “exceptional in its model orderliness and in being equipped with all amenities” (Gorbatenko, p. 136).

461  It has not been possible to identify the dacha the Maingays had occupied at an earlier time, but as William Bonamy Maingay later called his home in Tunbrdge Wells “Strelna,” it is possible the dacha was in the Strel’na area. See Maingay in Appendix E.

462  The Trinity-Sergius Monastery (or Hermitage) by-the-Sea (Troitse-Sergieva primorskaia pustyn’) (see Image 397), a male monastery of the first class, is located at the fifteenth/nineteenth verst of the Peterhof Road, on the right side of the road, near Strel’na (see Images 398–399). In 1731, at the death of her sister, Catherine, Empress Anna Ioannovna gave this sister’s farmstead as a gift to her own personal confessor, Varlaam, archimandrite of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery near Moscow, who was then living in St. Petersburg. Varlaam transferred from the home of Anna Ioannovna’s deceased mother in St. Petersburg a wooden church, which he placed near the stone house on the property. In 1734, Varlaam founded here the New-Trinity-Sergius Monastery. On 12 May 1735 (OS), he consecrated the church in the name of St. Sergius. Varlaam died in 1737 and was buried at the monastery, which continued to be under the jurisdiction of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery in Moscow. In 1752, construction of six new stone buildings was begun. In this period, two churches were erected: in 1758, a church for the archimandrite cells, named for St. Sergius of Radonezh, the Miracleworker; in 1760, the cathedral, named for the Holy Trinity. In 1764, the Monastery was transferred to the jurisdiction of the St. Petersburg eparchy and classified as a monastery of the second class. It was elevated to the status of a monastery of the first class in 1836. As described in 1839, the Monastery had the appearance of a rectangular castle, surrounded on the outside, from the east, west, and north sides, by ponds and walks, and on the south side by two well-cultivated parterres, which bordered upon the Peterhof Road. Between the parterres lay the entry road to the monastery. There were four church edifices in the monastery: (1) the Cathedral of the Lifegiving Trinity; (2) the Church of James the Apostle and Brother of God; (3) the Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the Miracleworker; (4) the Church of Valerian the Martyr. Trinity Cathedral and the Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh will be discussed further in notes about Anna Whistler’s visits to them. Trinity Cathedral has a three-storied belltower on its west side. The exterior of the cathedral and belltower is decorated with Corinthian columns and pilastres and sculpted figures. The cathedral contains the miracleworking icon of St. Sergius and is therefore a place of pilgrimage in summer. The Church of James the Apostle is located in a stone wing at the entrance to the monastery on the right side, facing the Peterhof Road. It was consecrated on 22 August 1820 (OS). On the northern side of the monastery, in a line with the cells and refectory, is the Church of St. Sergius. It has five cupolas and is an example of the Orthodox basilica. It was consecrated on 18 July 1822. The Church of Valerian the Martyr is located in the home for invalids on the west side of the monastery. It was erected during 1805–1809 over the remains of Count Valerian Aleksandrovich Zubov (1771–1804), the conqueror of Derbent, who died of wounds received in battle, by his brothers and consecrated on 21 June 1809 (OS). Underneath the church is a burial grotto for members of the Zubov family. The home for invalids was established by the Zubov family at their own expense to care for thirty males of various callings, mainly wounded soldiers. There are up to forty monks in the monastery. The square within the monastery, except for the orchards and the paths, is paved with natural stone. On this square, at the north and east sides of Trinity Cathedral, is a burial ground, where illustrious persons, including foreigners and non-Orthodox believers, are buried. Many of the magnificent and elegant tomb monuments here are considered works of art.

The following feast days are celebrated in the monastery: (1) in the Trinity Cathedral, Holy Trinity Day (Pentecost) (29 May / 10 June); the Feast of the apostles Peter and Paul (29 June / 11 July); Feast of the Beheading of John, the honest, praiseworthy Forerunner and Prophet of the Lord (29 August / 10 September:; (2) in the Church of St. James the Apostle, the Feast of James the Apostle and Brother of God (23 October / 4 November); (3) in the Church of St. Sergius, the Feast of St. Sergius (5/17 July); the Feast of St. Sergius (25 October / 7 November); (4) in the Church of Valerian the Martyr, the Feast of that St. Valerian who was martyred around the year 230 (22 November / 4 December).

A full religious procession (with cross and banners) around the monastery takes place on 5/17 July (Ivan Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1839, pt. 1, pp. 152–157). Grech, the compiler of Ves’ Peterburg 1851, seems to have depended on Pushkarev’s description but made some mistakes when condensing the material (p. 491). See also Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe 1889, pp. 180–204; Gorbatenko, Petergofskaia doroga, pp. 190–195; P.N. Stolpianskii, Petergofskaia pershpektiva Istoricheskii ocherk [Peterhof Perspective: A Historical Sketch] (St. Petersburg: Sankt-Piter-Burkh, 1923), pp. 33–35; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 120–123; Antonov and Kobak, Sviatyni Sankt-Peterburga, vol. 1, pp. 53–64.

463  All dates in this biography are Old Style. The Equerry to Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (1807–1873), wife of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich (1798–1849), brother of Nicholas I, was Count Aleksandr Nikolaevich Tolstoi (21 September 1793 – 23 July 1866). He was educated in St. Petersburg in the private school of the Jesuit priest, Father Gruber. Despite receiving a Catholic education, he remained devoted to Russian Orthodoxy and personally paid for the construction of fifteen Orthodox churches. He began his military service as sub-ensign (portupei-praporshchik) in the Astrakhan Grenadier Regiment on 24 February 1814. In 1815, he was transferred to the quartermaster section of His Imperial Majesty’s (Alexander I) Suite, and on 30 August promoted to ensign (praporshchik). In January 1817, he was transferred to the Guards staff. In 1819, he was transferred to the Horse Guard Regiment, where, on 11 March, he was appointed adjutant to Prince A.S. Menshikov (1787–1864). He was at the Congress in Leibach with Prince Menshikov, and from here was sent with dispatches to the ambassador in Constantinople, Baron G.A. Stroganov. Then for a time, he served as adjutant to Adjutant-General Prince Volkonskii. On 2 August 1822, he was appointed an aide-de-camp to Alexander I, but on 23 January 1827 (reign of Nicholas I) was relieved of miltary duties because of ill health, with the title of “kamerherr,” appointed to the Court. In February of 1827, he was appointed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and sent to serve with the Russian ambassador in Paris. Five years later, he transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and for some three years was charged with special assignments in the office of the governor-general of Finland. On 12 December 1834, he was made a member of the committee for Russian horsebreeding. In 1836, he was promoted to actual state councilor (4th grade), and in 1838 appointed equerry to the Imperial Court. On his return from abroad in 1840, on which trip he had accompanied Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, he was appointed to serve as equerry to her. During his continuing court service, Tolstoi held the post of marshal of the Imperial Court and Winter Palace (obergofmarshal) and carried out many special Imperial assignments. When the emancipation of the serfs took place, he gifted to his peasants the payment of twenty percent of their manumission fee. In the autumn of 1865, Tolstoi went to Nice for the cure because of ill health, but died there on 23 July 1866. His body was brought back to St. Petersburg and buried in the family vault of the Lazarus Church of the Alexander Nevsky Monastary. Tolstoi was married to Anna Nikolaevna Khilkova and was without issue (Polovtsov, Russkii biograficheskii slovar’, vol. 21, pp. 32–33).

464  “The country at this season even in Russia is delightful - The musquitoes and other insects however are very annoying and Miss Whislter [sic] was so bitten one night by the gallinippers as to have her face swelled and her eyes almost closed” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

465  Maxwell’s mother was Agnes (Stevenson) Maxwell (5 January 1796 – 21 April 1866). See Maxwell in Appendix E and Image 54.

466  Maxwell wrote home of Anna Whistler’s response to his father’s letter: “I read to MƤ W. that part of Fathers letter speaking of your and his gratitude for their attention to me etc – MƤ W. desires to be remembered to you and hopes to see and know you well one of these days” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36). See Maxwell in Appendix E and Image 55.

467  On 25 May 1844, Maxwell received a letter from a man named Stoltenburg, whom he had met on 5 July 1843, while travelling in Scandinavia. This letter is not among Maxwell’s papers at N-YHS; however, in a letter dated 15 July 1843, from Maxwell to his mother, there is an extensive passage about the meeting with Stoltenburg:

… valet who was ahead stopped at a pretty cottage sourrounded [sic] with rose trees and flowers to light his pipe. The gentleman residing there hearing from him of his stranger employers and that one of them was an American, hastened out and was at the gate when we drove up. He advanced towards us and insisted upon our going in, and as an inducement told me in excellent English that he had travelled in America twenty years since, that he loved my country and wanted to talk about it. Resistance was in vain and in we went. … here were maps of the United States, pictures of the Presidents, collections of American insects and some American plants. Why did you not come here yesterday … You would have seen the flag of the United States and that of Old Norway flying side by side. as they do every 4Ƭ of July in many parts of this country. You may imagine how happy I felt at all this … we talked a great deal of America and Norway. Mƣ Stoltenburg, thinking that Norway had the advantage of us in having a President who was not chosen by the people. He meant the King of Sweden … From his manner, feeling and energy. from his mode of life and careless independence I was lead to think of Burn’s [Robert Burns (1759–1796)], Mƣ Stoltenberg’s little domain consisted of 15 acres only. but most charmingly situated … It is called in honor of the lady [Mrs. Stoltenberg] Marion-lyst or Mary’s joy. After a detention of 4 hours passed most delightfully, after an invitation to remain for the night, after an injunction to visit Norway in her glory; in the winter, after promising to send him some hickory nuts to plant, and after many adieu’s and hand-shakings. we departed … I know nothing of this kind of hospitality in our country. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Hamburg, July 15, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 16)

“After [Oslo] was destroyed by fire in 1624, Christian IV of Denmark-Norway built a new town farther west … and called it Christiania” (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Oslo,” accessed 4 March 2023). It has not been possible to identify Mr. Stoltenberg. “The cottage ‘Marienlyst’, likely identified with the small farm ‘Marienlyst’, was at that time still situated outside the borders of Kristiania in the municipality of Aker. Marienlyst was a part of the greater farm, Nedre Blindern” (Torkel R. Bråthen, Regional State Archives of Oslo, to E. Harden, 22 December 2010). A search “in the municipal censuses from Aker of 1842 and 1843,” which are “not completely preserved,” did not contain information about Marienlyst (Robert Kalleberg and Unn Hovdhanger, Oslo Kommune, to E. Harden, 14 March 2011).

468  All the topics Anna Whistler mentions in this sentence are taken up in Maxwell’s abovementioned letter of 15 July 1843, to his mother (N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 16).

469  “Sweden is filled with beggars and barons, who meet you at every turn, but not a beggar did I see in Norway and the last noble permitted to enjoy a title while he lives is now so old that a few months will terminate his life and with it the existance of the aristocracy” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Hamburg, July 15, 1843, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 16).

470  Friday was 7 June 1844.

471  William Miller (25 March 1809 – 10 October 1887) was a Scottish merchant and honorary British vice-consul in St. Petersburg.

472  Timothy Abraham Curtis (30 January 1786 – 13 May 1857) was the second son of Sir William Curtis BT (1752–1829), who had been lord mayor of London in 1795–1796. Sir William, along with his brother, had amassed great wealth through the ship’s biscuit business they had inherited from their father. Timothy Abraham Curtis’s path, in contrast, was one of bankruptcy. He was a director of the Bank of England from 1820 to 1841, including the period 1834–1837 as deputy governor and 1837–1839 as governor. He ceased to be a director in 1841, when he disqualified himself through the sale of his holding of Bank Stock (capital stock of the Bank of England). His bankruptcy gave great pleasure to the Stock Exchange, because during his governorship brokers had been barred from continuing to use the Bank’s premises as a market to conduct their business. He was in Russia as partner in the firm of Bury, Curtis and Kennedy of Liverpool, which had difficulties in adhering to its contract with the Russian government to supply cast iron immovable arches for the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. He died intestate and a bankrupt. His widow and children refused to apply for a grant of letters of administration to his estate. A receiver was therefore appointed by the court under the Bankruptcy Act in force at the time and a grant of letters of administration for Curtis’s estate was issued to that receiver. The document cites Curtis as a flax spinner late of Grandholm Works near Aberdeen in North Britain. He died at Woodstock in the County of Oxford. His effects were under £20 (W. Marsten Acres, The Bank of England from Within 1694 –1900, 2 vols. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1931], vol. 2, pp. 481–483; John Francis, Chronicles and Characters of the Stock Exchange [London: Willoughby, 1849], pp. 294–295; Dictionary of National Biography (1971), s.v. “Curtis, Timothy”; Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, pp. 89, 364; Burke’s Peerage, 1869, p. 294). I wish to thank D.A.H. Byatt of the Archive Section, Corporate Services Department, Bank of England, London, for his help in untangling Anna Whistler’s statement and Clive Dyal, Record Keeper at Principal Registry of the Family Division, for his help in interpreting the letters of administration for Curtis. For Curtis’s family, see Note 474 below.

473  Anna Whistler should have written “latter.” Maxwell gives the correct information: “Last evening [June 7] several gentlemen were out there and among them was a most interesting man by the name of Curtis, for many years Governor of the bank of England” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8th in letter dated June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

474  Timothy Abraham Curtis married on 25 April 1809 Margaret Harriett Green (bap. 11 August 1788 – 8 June 1847). Their daughters were Harriet Anne (c. 1812 – 3 November 1883), Emma Charlotte (Curtis) Bevan (c. 1813 – 22 July 1881), Sophia (c. 1815 – 22 March 1902), Elizabeth Ann (bap. 23 August 1821), Frances Moncton (bap. 12 May 1824 – 10 August 1850), and Annette de la Tourraine (Curtis) Raitt (c. 1829 – 5 April 1900).

475  “Every night about 10 o’clock I heard a beating of sticks upon something, which from the sound I imagined to be a wooden fence. Upon enquiry I ascertained that this beating was kept up all night by the watchman to frighten away the thieves and to give them notice that a watch was kept upon the premises. I went to see the spot where this nightly ceremony was performed and there I saw a board nailed across upon two posts placed upright, upon which the watchman played with two sticks as upon a drum. It is usual to have this done it seems upon every estate and it struck me as a very queer thing indeed” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

476  “Saturday June 8ƫ I have just returned from a visit of three days to the country house of Major Whistler. I passed a very agreeable time there, and what with running about with the boys etc. I have improved in health to a remarkable degree” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

477  In the 31 May entry of the long letter to his mother, begun on 17 May 1844, Maxwell, who had intended to leave Russia permanently, wrote that he had “been induced to change [his] plans” because Todd was “in great anxiety respecting his position” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35). Maxwell was leaving only for the summer, going to Germany, and returning “in the fall or sooner … if Colonel Todd remains here, it will be for the winter and … if I can then obtain leave to absent myself well and good, if I cannot I shall in all probability resign and go South, for I have no idea of trying the winter again. But in the present state of affairs all I can do, with any safety is to make the most of my time and proceed on the 15 of June, two weeks from tomorrow to Berlin - and thence where time and circumstance may direct my steps” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35).

478  “When I said Farewell to the Whistlers to-day, I did so thinking perhaps that I would not see them again before my departure … Consequently as you may imagine I took leave of them with some feelings of regret. I think however I may go out again for a few hours next week” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

479  It has not been possible to ascertain whose dacha this was, located about a verst beyond where the Whistlers lived.

480  Anna Whistler meant “could not but be amused.”

481  It has seemed that Eugenia Maria Reay, who married Benjamin Norman (12/23 November 1797 – 1836 or 1837) in St. Petersburg on 28 November / 10 December 1822 (PREC STP, no. 3234), is the Mrs. Norman intended here. We can ascertain Benjamin Norman’s death year from the baptism entry for his daughter, Mary, given as 30 July [/ 11 August] 1837. In this entry, he is called the late Benjamin Norman, which means he had died within the previous 9–10 months. The widowed Mrs. Norman was described in 1845 as a dissenter living at the Dissenting Chapel (British and American Chapel) and engaged in the millinery trade (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 42). She may have been living there earlier, which would account for why her daughter Emily was buried from the house of the pastor, John Croumbie Brown, in 1840. Mrs. Norman was very ill in 1842, according to Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, who reported that Mrs. Norman’s little daughter was staying with the Gellibrands until her mother was better. The little daughter would have been Mary. (The letter, although dated only “August 17/29 from the Peterhoff Road,” had to have been written in 1842 because in it Mrs. Gellibrand speaks to her father of two events that took place in 1842: (1) the strife between Archibald Mirrielees and her brother, Joseph Samuel Ropes, that led to the severing of ties with William Ropes and Company by the former; (2) the birth of the Ellerbys’ daughter, Lucy).

A thorough investigation of sources in England about the Norman family in Russia shows that there is no clue to where the family came from in Britain that might have led to further information about births and deaths missing from registers and Foreign Office correspondence and seeming therefore not to have taken place in Russia. For example, there is no burial entry for the above Benjamin Norman in any record of the two British churches in St. Petersburg, so he may have died away from this city.

Benjamin and Eugenia (Reay) Norman had four known children: William Joseph (c. 1824 – 22 July [/ 3 August] 1882), Emily (c. 1833 – St. Petersburg 11 June [/ 23 June] 1840), Caroline Steen (St. Petersburg 3 December [/ 15 December] 1834 – St. Petersburg 2 June [/ 14 June] 1838) and Mary (b. St. Petersburg 15 July [/ 27 July] 1837). It is quite likely that the Elizabeth Norman who married Karl Ferdinand Hensell in St. Petersburg in 1855 and the Benjamin Norman who married Ellen Margaret Brown in St. Petersburg in 1859 are further children of Benjamin and Eugenia (Reay) Norman born between 1823 and 1832. A witness at both weddings was William J. Norman, who may have been brother to these two Normans. He himself married in St. Petersburg in 1853 (his wife was Jessie Bartels). Elizabeth and Benjamin were not baptized in a British church in St. Petersburg and neither were William Joseph and Emily. It could be that these four children were all baptized in a non-conformist church in Britain, but a search for them in the IGI and in a central index to non-conformist baptisms has proven fruitless. The evidence suggests that Benjamin and Eugenia (Reay) Norman left St. Petersburg fairly soon after their marriage in 1822 and that they returned before the end of 1834.

The first 437 baptisms (1840–1872) and the first 513 burials (1840–1886) of the British and American Congregational Church in St. Petersburg are unknown, because the church transcripts (registers) are missing. This omission almost certainly accounts for some gaps in the biographical information about the Normans. For example, it probably explains why the death and burial of Eugenia (Reay) Norman cannot be known and why the baptisms of some of her grandchildren are not known. Moreover, as her son, William Joseph, and probable children, Elizabeth and Benjamin, were not married until the 1850s, it does not seem possible that she could have been a grandmother at this time.

As a result, the Cadets who visited Mrs. Norman, their grandmother, cannot be identified, any more than can “the little Normans,” except possibly for Mary, Eugenia (Reay) Norman’s daughter, but we do not know her date of death.

The deceased Benjamin Norman had several siblings, including William (b. 10 May 1792 [OS]), Sarah (b. 10 November [OS] 1795) and Christiana (b. 27 August [OS] 1805). A wife of William could be a grandmother with cadet-aged children, but there is no record of his marriage because, after the registration of his birth, William disappeared from the records, along with his siblings.

For information about the British and American Congregational Church on Novo-Isaakievskaia Street in St. Petersburg, see Antonov and Kobak, Sviatyni Sankt-Peterburga, vol. 3, p. 269.

482  Sunday was 9 June 1844.

483  “1840’s. (F.) A small mantle, deep at the back, with long scarf ends in front” (Cunnington, Cunnington, and Beard, Dictionary of English Costume, p. 132).

484  “Poplin” is “plain-woven fabric with a fine horizontal rib, produced by weaving with a warp thread finer than the weft … originally made of silk and worsted” (Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “poplin”).

485  In Luke 16:31, a rich man, who has died, seeing the dead beggar Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom and himself in torment, wishes to warn his living brothers of the torment awaiting them if they do not repent, but is told by Abraham: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

486  This is the mortally ill Mary Gent Hirst, whose brother, Thomas Nelson Hirst, ran a private school in St. Petersburg.

487  Exodus 20:8–11: “8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

488  Eugenia (Reay) Norman may have had one young daughter at this time: Mary Norman, born 15/27 July 1837 and baptized on 30 July / 11 August 1837 by William Glen (Transcripts of Non-Conformist Church Registers, 1818–1840, RG4/4605, NAUS). See Note 481 above.

489  The 42nd Psalm begins: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” The 40th chapter of Isaiah begins: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”

490  This is William Miller (25 March 1809 – 10 October 1887), a Scottish merchant and honorary British vice-consul in St. Petersburg. For further information about him, see the biography of Deborah Delano (Whistler) Haden in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s.”

491  Francis Baird (28 February / 12 March 1802 – 13/25 March 1864; see Image 275) (PREC STP, nos. 1907, 7614), son of Charles Baird (1766–1843; see Image 274), had been educated at Edinburgh University and had joined his father’s business when seventeen. On his father’s death, he had inherited most of his fortune and had become sole proprietor of the metalworks. At this time, the firm was involved in the construction of St. Isaac’s Cathedral and the building of the Annunciation Bridge (see Images 119; 140–142) (John R. Bowles, “From the Banks of the Neva to the Shores of Lake Baikal: Some Enterprising Scots in Russia,” in The Caledonian Phalanx: Scots in Russia [Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland, 1987], pp. 69–75).

492  “Lake Ladoga lies between the government of St. Petersburg on the south, Olonetz on the east, and Viborg on the north and west. Its greatest length, from north to south, is one hundred and thirty miles; its average breadth is about seventy-five miles; and its area, six thousand three hundred square miles. It is the largest lake in Europe, and receives no fewer than sixty streams … It discharges itself at its southwestern extremity, by the Neva, which falls into the Baltic. It contains numerous islands, many of which are inhabited, and its shores are much indented, generally low, and send out so many shelving rocks into the water, as to make the navigation very dangerous” (Sears, Description of the Russian Empire, p. 37). Timothy Abraham Curtis was actively attempting to organize a trip to Lake Ladoga (see Image 404).

493  Maxwell had “secured a ticket and passage for the steamer of Saturday next [15 June]” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of Tuesday morning June 11 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36). On Friday, 14 June, he added a new entry to letter no. 36: “Yesterday morning I went out to Major Whistler and remained until this morning. I bid them all good bye, hoping to see them again ere I left forever. The Major came to town with me and will see me off to-morrow in the boat bound for Stettin” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 14 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

494  William Bonamy Maingay (14 October 1819 – 26 August 1902) was the eldest child of William and Eliza (Lamb) Maingay. Starting in 1844, with the departure of his family permanently from Russia, he remained as the representative of his father. See Maingay in Appendix E and Image 260.

495  It has not been possible to locate this letter from Emma Maingay to Deborah Delano Whistler (Dasha).

496  It has not been possible to identify this estate.

497  John Stevenson Maxwell’s father, Hugh Maxwell (15 June 1787 – 31 March 1873), a lawyer, owned a country estate called Roslyn on the Hudson River at Nyack, New York. See Maxwell in Appendix E and Image 55.

498  A kopek was a brass coin, spelled “kopeika” and pronounced “kahpey′kuh.” It equaled one-hundredth of a ruble; a half-kopek was a brass coin, spelled “denezhka” and pronounced “dey′nyeezhkuh” (Fedosiuk, Chto neponiatno u klassikov, p. 53).

499  Anna Whistler uses a plural subject and verb here because she was thinking of Sophia Krehmer and Mrs. Nicol Baird’s daughter, Sophia, who also were on the steamer (John S. Maxwell to Major G.W. Whistler, Berlin, June 20, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers). See Notes 81 and 82 above.

500  See Note 82 above. Maxwell wrote to Major Whistler: “On Sunday [16 June] the Captain pointed out the person of MƤ Baird and I had the honor to present to that lady the letter of introduction from MƤ Whistler” (John S. Maxwell to Major G.W. Whistler, Berlin, June 20, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers).

501  The reason for their departure from Russia was that the “daughter is in delicate health and the object of the mother now is to promote her strength by a visit for a few years to the mineral baths and waters of Germany” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Berlin, June 23, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 37). This daughter is Sophia, who had received an inheritance from her grandfather, Charles Baird (see Note 81 above).

502  See Note 81 above. Maxwell wrote to Major Whistler: “I found MƤ B a most agreeable lady, and I think her eyes remarkably fine. The daughter is certainly tall and Miss Kramer very intelligent. All these ladies spoke in the highest terms of their delightful intercourse with your family and regret that any thing whatever should oblige them to part with such society – Need I say that this confirmed my good opinion of these ladies” (John S. Maxwell to Major G.W. Whistler, Berlin, June 20, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers). He “secured rooms for MƤ Baird and party in Berlin at the British Hotel, where he was also staying, and they went to art galleries and the theater together (John S. Maxwell to Major G.W. Whistler, Berlin, June 20, 1844). In the letter to his mother from Berlin, Mrs. Baird becomes “the black-eyed widow,” and he is much more playful in his remarks about her (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Berlin, June 23, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 37). At the end of June they parted company, Mrs. Baird going to Marienbad and Maxwell to Leipzig (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Toplitz, June 28, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 38).

503  Galatians 3:28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

504  For Anderson, see Note 460 above.

505  This is Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes. The Ropeses were staying with the Gellibrands, who were the Whistlers’ neighbors on the Peterhof Road.

506  Emma Woodbridge Palmer (24 November 1835 – 28 July 1912) was the daughter of Dr. George Edwin Palmer (see Image 36) of Stonington, Connecticut, and his first wife, Emma (Woodbridge) Palmer (28 February 1802 – 16 February 1839). She was Anna Whistler’s step-niece. Her letter was enclosed with one from Catherine Julia McNeill (see Image 33) to Deborah Whistler (see Images 17–19, 21).

507  This is Martha (Kingsley) McNeill (see Image 22), who would be returning to Stonington, Connecticut, after spending the winter with her son, Charles Johnston McNeill, in Florida.

508  Mary Brennan must have gone on a visit somewhere. She appears in the entry for Wed. morning 23ƨ April (actually 24). She is not mentioned again until this entry of Tuesday, 25 June, when Anna Whistler records having received a letter from her perhaps a week before. She is mentioned as again being with the Whistlers on July 6 (entry for Wed [August] 7ƫ [1844]. NYPL: AWPD, Part I).

509  This is Katherine Prince (13 April 1820 – 19 November 1906), daughter of Susan (Travers) and John Dynely Prince of Lowell, Massachusetts.

510  The feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle is celebrated on 11 June, which in 1844 was a Tuesday. Mr. Williams’s epistle text was based on a quotation about Barnabas from Acts 11:24: “For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord.” Barnabas, not one of the Twelve Apostles, was closely associated with the newly converted Paul (Robert Brownrigg, Who’s Who in the New Testament, vol. 2 of Who’s Who in the Bible [New York: Bonanza Books, 1980], pp. 39–40). Anna Whistler’s entry was made on Tuesday, 25 June. By “last Sunday” she seems to mean 23 June, as she did not go to church on 16 June, and her attendance on 9 June is taken up in the entry of Monday 10 June.

511  This is the mortally ill Mary Gent Hirst. See Hirst in Appendix E.

512  Matthew 25:40: “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

513  Mary Gent Hirst’s only sister was Elizabeth (23 June 1800 – before June 1844). Her parents were William (bap. 14 October 1767 – 6 April 1822) and Ann (Nelson) Hirst (d. before June 1844) (SoG). See Hirst in Appendix E.

514  Thomas Nelson Hirst (12 November 1794 – 22 May / 3 June 1863) ran a private school for boys in St. Petersburg in his home. See Hirst in Appendix E.

515  It has not been possible to obtain any information about Elona (pronounced “yeelaw′nuh”). This is an endearing form, along with many others, from the given name Elena (pronounced “yeeleh′nuh”) (N.A. Petrovskii, Slovar’ russkikh lichnych imen [Dictionary of Russian Personal Names] [Moscow: Sovetskaia èntsiklopediia, 1966], pp. 108, 285).

516  The purpose of the Gospel Plan of Salvation is “to re-enthrone in the heart of man that principle, which reigned there before the fall in full supremacy, and in which his highest glory and happiness consisted – the love of God” for man (L. Bonnet, The Family of Bethany; or Meditations on the Eleventh Chapter of the Gospel According to St. John, translated “from the French, by the Translator of The Exile from Eden, etc. [William Hare],” introduction by Rev. Hugh White, 10th ed. [London: James Nisbet, 1844], p. 1).

517  Major Whistler left for Moscow on Thursday, 27 June 1844.

518  A “prog-canister” (or “prog-basket”) is a case or box for holding “prog,” which is colloquial term for “provisions for a journey or excursion,” or slang for food generally (Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “prog”).

519  Anna Whistler’s cookbook contains three recipes for “plumb pudding,” one baked and two boiled (MacDonald, Whistler’s Mother’s Cook Book, pp. 78–81). All contain varying quantities of crumbs, milk, eggs, sugar, brandy, and spices, making the first “light-textured” and “not over-sweet”; the second “fairly rich, with a good fruity flavor”; and the third “fairly rich” and “semi-sweet.” All contain “fresh beef suet.” The presence of milk, eggs, sugar (bullock’s blood was used in the refining process), and animal fat caused Russians to refuse the plum pudding as a gift during Lent (Bowles, “Enterprising Scots in Russia,” p. 70).

520  This is Colonel Pavel Petrovich Mel’nikov, Major Whistler’s colleague in charge of the Northern Administration of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway. See Mel’nikov in Appendix E and Image 247.

521  It has not been possible to locate this letter from Emma Maingay, which was delivered by her brother, William Bonamy Maingay (see Images 260, 263).

522  The phrase “lord of the creation” can be found in “The History of Tom” in The History of Jack and His Eleven Brothers: Displaying the Various Adventures They Encountered in Their Travels (London: T. Hughes, 1823), p. 63; first published in 1815 by J. Kendrew (London). Tom finds a wounded and dying blackbird and starts “to reflect on the wanton cruelty of man — man that proudly calls himself the lord of the creation.” Anna Whistler probably meant they felt the sheer physical power of being male.

523  The Gellibrands’ party had taken place on Wednesday, 26 June 1844.

524  The reference is to David Hume (Edinburgh 26 April 1711 – Edinburgh 25 August 1776), Scottish philosopher and historian; irreligious skeptic (Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Hume, David [1711–1776]”).

525  The reference is to François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (Paris 1694 – Paris 30 May 1778), French writer, historian and philosopher, atheist (Encyclopedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Voltaire,” accessed 4 March 2023).

526  This is Dr. James Ronaldson Handyside (29 July 1798 – 11/23 December 1872), physician (PREC STP, no. 1220, p. 1000). The Gellibrands and Ropeses were his patients. Dr. Handyside’s flabby response seems to be an attempt to be placatory, while Mr. Williams, who “gave no quarter” in his sermons, remains immovable in his belief that success crowns the sincere effort that is accompanied by prayer and study of scripture.

527  Anna Whistler meant “Elijah.” See Note 425 above and the Dictionary of National Biography for further details of the biography of Rev. George Williams.

528  For the story of Elijah’s and Ahab’s sacrifices at Mount Carmel to determine whether the Lord or Baal be God, see 1 Kings 18.

529  The book on Syria does not seem to have been published. Anna Whistler may have meant the book on Jerusalem, which appeared in 1845. See Williams’s biography in Note 425, NYPL: AWPD, Part I.

530  The city of Tula (pronounced “Too′luh”) was famous for its metalwork.

531  Friday was 28 June 1844.

532  Anna Whistler wrote to Katherine Prince and Catherine Julia McNeill (see Image 33), but not to Catherine (McNeill) Palmer and Maria (Cammann) McNeill, her sister and sister-in-law.

533  This is Joseph Samuel Ropes (6 February 1818 – 14 March 1903), brother of William Hooper Ropes. See Ropes, Gellibrand, Hall, Prince in Appendix E.

534  There were several roads to the village of Krasnoe Selo (pronounced “Kras′nuhyuh Sillaw′”) (see Image 407). The name means “Beautiful, or, Red, Village.” The Krasnoe Selo Road to which Anna Whistler refers was a turnoff on the eleventh verst of the great Peterhof Road. Krasnoe Selo is located on an elevated spot formed by the Duderhof hills. At first glance, it resembles a district town rather than a village. It has a stone church named for the Holy Trinity and established during the reign of Catherine the Great, who had a summer palace built here. The palace on the Duderhof heights built by Nicholas I and resembling a large peasant hut is particularly remarkable. The peasants of Krasnoe Selo cultivate orchards on the slopes, which constitutes their main commercial endeavor. The Imperial Guard has encamped in Krasnoe Selo in summer since 1824. Their camp is usually set up on the slope of a hill opposite the village. At the foot of the hill is a rather extensive lake, while from the other side it is surrounded by brush and forest. The camp presents a charming picture. The cavalry usually sets itself up in the village, while the infantry camps in tents, which take up the entire space. The soldiers’ tents are set up in one line in three rows, at a certain distance. Behind and separated somewhat from them are the non-commissioned officers’ tents; then separated from them the staff officers’ tents; then the tent of the regimental commander, which is always in the midst of the regiment. The tents of the brigade commanders are in the midst of the brigade. Beyond them is the tent of the division general. Behind the tent of the regimental commander are placed the tents of his adjutants and, somewhat further off, tents for the chancery and musicians. In every regiment, in front of the battalions, at a distance of several sazhens, are the tents for the guards. All this gives Krasnoe Selo an unusual appearance and attracts the attention of the visitor (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, pp. 189-191; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 192, 204, 312–313; Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe 1889, pp. 430–431); see also BUHG: Colin Ingersoll Journals, pt. 1, fols. 92–93. The Whistler party did not travel all the way to Krasnoe Selo; they simply took a ride along part of the road leading there.

535  Anna Whistler is referring to Count Mikhail Dmitrievich Buturlin (1807–1876; see Image 305). The surname is pronounced “Bootoor′lin.” In his autobiographical notes, Buturlin described his “wild living” (M.D. Buturlin, “Zapiski grafa M.D. Buturlina” [“Notes by Count M.D. Buturlin”], Russkii arkiv [Russian Archive] 5–8 (1897), p. 46) and revealed that Pushkin had told him that he was the prototype for Eugene Onegin.

536  Anna Whistler is referring to Count Sergei Grigorievich Stroganov (1794–1882), father of the young Count Stroganov the Whistlers had met on the lighter from Cronstadt in 1843. It has not been possible to establish the exact location of the Stroganov estate said to have been won from Buturlin. See Stroganov, Vasil’chikov, Kushelev in Appendix E.

537  The Cathedral of St. Isaac of Dalmatia (see Images 119–124) was in the process of being built on the square between Isaac Bridge and Blue Bridge (Sinii most), so called because of its color in olden times, when it was made of wood. Its construction was initiated by Catherine the Great in 1768 in memory of the birthday (30 May [OS]) of Peter the Great. The architect was Antonio Rinal’di (1709– 1794). The work, marked by frequent interruptions, was completed “for the time being” in brick by order of Paul I (see Image 417) in 1800 and given a temporary roof with a cupola. The foundation of the cathedral, which was built by the architect Auguste Monferrand (1786–1858), was laid on 26 June (OS) 1818. “When the cathedral is completed it will number among the most magnificent and richest religious edifices in the world. All of its inside walls will be robed in Russian and foreign marble. The capitals and bases of the columns are bronze covered with gold leaf. The cupolas, surrounded by granite columns, are embellished with bronze sculptures. These five cupolas will be covered with gilded bronze leaves. Gigantic granite pillars support its porticos with their elegant bas reliefs. The interior is being decorated by the most important Russian artists. Divine service is at present being conducted in a temporary church in the Main Admiralty building” (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 494, 551; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 136–139). It was completed in 1858 (Antonov and Kobak, Sviatyni Sankt-Peterburga, vol. 1, pp. 105–109).

538  The reference here is to the gilded spire of the Church in the Peter and Paul Fortress (see Image 130). See the entry for Monday 27of July [1846], NYPL: AWPD, Part II, and accompanying Note 453 for a description of the church.

539  Mr. Joseph is Joseph Samuel Ropes. See Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall in Appendix E.

540  This is Carl Hedenschoug, Major Whistler’s Swedish draftsman. See his biography in Appendix E.

541  Saturday was 29 June 1844.

542  Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1846, which has an extensive section about stores, does not list a grocer on Galernaia Street.

543  This is Margaret Gordon Hirst (c. 1809 – 22 March / 3 April 1891), whose husband, Thomas Nelson Hirst (12 November 1794 – 22 May / 3 June 1863) ran a private school in St. Petersburg. See Hirst in Appendix E.

544  This is Mary Gent Hirst (bap. 22 March 1797 – 23 July / 4 August 1844), sister-in-law to Margaret Gordon Hirst. See previous Note and Hirst in Appendix E.

545  This is Rev. George Williams (4 April 1814 – 26 January 1878), who was replacing Rev. Dr. Law at the English Church for the summer. See Note 425 above and the Dictionary of National Biography for his biography.

546  “The normal working season for earthworks was June 1 to December 1”, although there were variations depending upon weather conditions and the number of workers available (Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age 1842-1855, p. 194).

547  The Russian word for “country house” is spelled “dacha” and pronounced “dah′chuh.”

548  Joseph Samuel Ropes and William Hooper Ropes’s cousin from Boston was possibly Franklin Henry Hooper (bap. 7 July 1822 – 10 October 1847). He was issued passport number 1902 on 26 March 1844 (NAUS: Passports, M1371, roll 2, p. 16). See Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall in Appendix E.

549  George Henry Prince (16 October 1821 – 25 April 1900) was first cousin to William Hooper Ropes and Joseph Samuel Ropes and, like them, employed by William Ropes and Company. See Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall in Appendix E.

550  He could not have been William Spurr Mirrielees (b. 1828/29, bap. By Mr. Knill 24 January 1829, d. January 1895), son of Archibald Mirrielees (7 September 1797 – 11 February 1877) and his first wife, Sarah Newbould (Spurr) Mirrielees (bap. Sheffield Cathedral 5 December 1805 – late 1835), who, it is almost certain, “was with his father in England throughout June & July 1844” (Harvey Pitcher, Cromer, Norfolk, to E. Harden, 3 October 1994). On 18 June 1844, Jane Muir, who married Archibald Mirrielees in London on 21 July 1844, writes: “Mr M’s son Willm is 15 years old. Rather a nice boy. To be left at home to go through a college course” (Harvey Pitcher). Pitcher suggests instead that the likely remaining choice is one of Archibald Mirrielees’s nephews: possibly William or John, his brother James’s sons; or possibly William Phillip, his brother William’s son. All three boys are known to have been in Russia (Harvey Pitcher). For more detailed information on the Mirrielees family, see Harvey Pitcher’s Russian and English editions of the history of the Muir and Mirrielees department store: Miur i Meriliz Shotlandtsy v Rossii [Muir and Mirrielees: Scotsmen in Russia] (Moscow: Moskovskii rabochii, 1993) and Muir and Mirrielees: The Scottish Partnership That Became a Household Name in Russia, (Cromer, UK: Swallow House Books, 1994); see also Images 268–269.

551  The Mr. Ropes referred to here seems to be William Hooper Ropes. See Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall in Appendix E.

552  Sir William Allan (4 October 1782 – 22 February 1850; see Image 320), Scottish portrait and history painter and President of the Scottish Royal Academy, visited the Whistlers on Saturday, 29 June 1844. The above death date is given on Allan’s testament, which is at the Scottish Record Office (SRO) (SC 70/4/9) in Edinburgh. He was brought to the Whistler dacha by William Miller, honorary British vice-consul in St. Petersburg. For Miller, see the biography of Deborah Delano (Whistler) Haden in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s.”

553  See Note 462 above. By “chapel,” Anna Whistler means the Cathedral of the Lifegiving Trinity, in which the miracle-working icon of St. Sergius is displayed. The name of the saint is spelled “Sergei” and pronounced “Seergay′.” Anna Whistler rendered it as “Seergay” and “Sairgay.”

554  A “Scotch bun,” also called a “black bun,” is a “spiced plum cake with pastry crust, traditionally eaten in Scotland at Hogmanay (New Year’s Eve)” (D.A. Bender, A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition, 3rd ed. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009], s.v. “Scotch bun”).

555  Anna Whistler was referring to 1829–1830, when she wrote to Mr. Gamble: “my memories of that my Fatherland are of a bright summer spent with friends near Edinburg in my youth without a cloud! their cottage was at Wardie nigh New Haven, I spent a week at Stirling with friends there, & went to Dumfirmlin too” (Anna Whistler to my very dear friend, [London] Sunday, June 12, 1864, GUL: Whistler Collection, W519).

Wardie was a “suburb of Edinburgh, ly[ing] between Inverleith and Granton, 2 miles … north of the city centre (David Munro and Bruce Gittings, Royal Scottish Geographical Society, Scotland: An Encyclopedia of Places and Landscapes [Glasgow: Collins, 2006], p. 475). Newhaven, “a district of northern Edinburgh … was founded in 1500 by James IV as a royal dockyard … photographers David Hill (1802–1870) and Robert Adamson (1821–1848) made a unique record of the Newhaven fisherfolk in 1843, one of the first uses of photography in the field of social history” (Munro and Gittings, p. 356).

“Stirling[, which] became an important settlement because it is the lowest crossing place over the River Forth [was] a wool producing area, and even small ships could utilize the port from the Forth.” The Industrial Revolution largely by-passed it, but “the traditional wool weaving industry continued.” It also had a “carpet weaving industry.” By 1821, its population was about seven thousand. In 1829, when Anna Whistler visited Scotland, there was no railroad, but “in 1840 Stirling was linked up to the Caledonian rail network, [running] through southern Scotland” (“City of Stirling,” Crann Tara [website], accessed 4 March 2023).

“Dunfermline was a burgh town in western Fife … situated 4 miles … northwest of the Forth Road and Rail bridges … The town’s economic fortunes were revived during the 18th and 19th centuries with the development of the textile industry, producing linen, cotton, woollen and damask goods” (Munro and Gittings, Scotland, p. 374).

556  The Russian word for “peasant” is spelled “muzhik” and pronounced “moozhik′.” For the plural, Anna Whistler added the English plural suffix -s.

557  This painting, considered lost, has an interesting history. Sometime on or before 17/29 August 1844, Allan wrote a note to Count Aleksei Fyodorovich Orlov (1786–1861; see Image 312), in which he must have mentioned that Emperor Nicholas I, while Grand Duke, had, on a visit to an exhibition of Allan’s works in Edinburgh in 1817, spoken at length with him and “expressed his wish that if ever Allan re-visited Russia, he would wait on him” (“Visit of the Russian Prince Nicholas to Edinburgh,” The Scots Magazine 79 (1817): p. 74), for Orlov responded: “He remembers you perfectly, Sir, and several works that he owes to your talent and that are to be found up to now in the Anichkov Palace” (Comte Orloff, Strelna, le 17 Aout [OS] 1844, Ms. 6294, fol. 121r, National Library of Scotland [NLS], Edinburgh). Allan clearly also spoke of his picture, which he wished to show the emperor, for Orlov further responded, “He would view your picture with pleasure, if you would bring it with you next Sunday to Peterhof at 10 am.” The proposal was being made by the emperor on the understanding that transporting the painting to Peterhof would not harm it.

On Sunday, 20 August / 1 September 1844, “at the conclusion of the liturgy His Majesty went to the Great Palace and received the report of the Minister of the Court, Prince Petr Mikhailovich Volkonskii (1776–1852), after which the latter presented Mr. Allan and his picture in the picture room” (RGIA: Fond 516, op. 28/1618, d. 153, 1844. Zhurnal Vysochaishego Dvora, po polovine Gosudaria Imperatora Nikolaia Pavlovicha [Journal of the Imperial Court for the Apartments of His Majesty Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich for 1844], fols. 434 r and v; this document is also known as Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal [Chamberlain’s Journal] and denoted hereafter as RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal).

One assumes that the picture Allan had with him was the partially completed painting of Peter the Great Teaching His Subjects the Art of Shipbuilding. The painting was finished in 1845 in London and exhibited at the Royal Academy that same year. A reviewer said of it “the visitor is mocked full-face by … a piece characterless, feeble and unworthy of a place of distinction” (“Fine Arts: Royal Academy,” The Atheneum (May 10, 1845): p. 466). The picture was then sent to St. Petersburg, and in his letter to Prince Volkonskii Allan requested the sum of £250 for it (Elizaveta Renne, “British Artists in Russia in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century,” in British Art Treasures from Russian Imperial Collections in the Hermitage, ed. B. Allen and L. Dukelskaya [New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996], p. 110). E. Renne is curator of British and Scandinavian Painting at the Hermitage.

Already in January 1846, however, when asked by the Chancellory of the Ministry of the Palace of the whereabouts of the picture, Frants Ivanovich Labenskii (1770–1849), the curator of the Hermitage, replied that “nothing is known to him of where it is now” (Renne, “British Artists,” p. 110). Continuing lack of knowledge of its location is reconfirmed in Renne’s article (Renne, p. 110).

The question has also been raised as to whether the picture ever arrived in St. Petersburg. Through their correspondence in 1971 with Larissa Dukelskaia of the Hermitage, David and Francina Irwin received information that it was “exhibited at the Royal Academy” and then “shipped to St. Petersburg, but there are no documents concerning its arrival, nor any trace of it having been hung in the Winter Palace” (David Irwin and Francina Irwin, Scottish Painters at Home and Abroad 1700-1900 [London: Faber & Faber, 1975], pp. 274, 436n85). There is, however, a document concerning its arrival, although the title of the picture is not mentioned. The document is a letter to Allan from Charles Moberly, the Russia Company’s agent at St. Petersburg, dated 26 March 1846 (C. Moberly to Sir William Allan, St. Petersburg, March 26, 1846, NLS: Ms 6294, fols. 131r and v). Moberly had received a letter from Allan, obviously about payment for the picture. He had held on to the letter because the emperor was away and expected back soon, and, when Count Orlov returned, sent it to him. Moberly wrote: “The picture was in his Majesty’s cabinet, upon the Count’s asking if any return had been sent, the E. said that he did not know what you had written to Prince Volkonsky, for whom there was a letter waiting his return” (C. Moberly to Sir William Allan, St. Petersburg, March 26, 1846, NLS: Ms 6294, fol. 131r). A friend of Moberly’s who saw Count Orlov every day had written to Moberly: “He has informed me that the Emperor would make sure to tell him that he should give his department an order to make payment to Sir Allan of the price of his picture” (C. Moberly to Sir William Allan, St. Petersburg, March 26, 1846, NLS: Ms 6294, fol. 131r). Moberly expected that Allan would be hearing about payment from the Russian Mission in London soon (C. Moberly to Sir William Allan, St. Petersburg, March 26, 1846, NLS: Ms 6294, fol. 131v). To date, it has not been possible to find a copy of a note about payment among documents from the Russian Mission in London at the Public Record Office. Count A.F. Orlov succeeded to the post of head of the Corps of Gendarmes and of the Third Section (Security Police) on the death of Benkendorf later in 1844.

558  See the biography of James Whistler in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s.”

559  A “phaeton” is a “light, four-wheeled, open carriage, usually drawn by a pair of horses, and with one or two seats facing forward” (Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “phaeton”).

560  Mr. Williams’s text on Sunday, 30 June 1844, was Romans 15:2: “Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification.”

561  On Sunday, 16 June 1844, Mr. Williams’s text had been Galatians 1:10: “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

562  A “calash” is a “light carriage with low wheels, having a removable folding hood or top” (Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “calash”).

563  The date of the launch (4 July) must have been only tentative. See Note 603 below.

564  Timothy Abraham Curtis, also referred to in this entry as Mr. C, came to the Whistler dacha for tea on Monday, 1 July 1844.

565  Corroborating Timothy Abraham Curtis, Maxwell wrote on 5 June:

The departure of the Empress has been postponed by a very melancholy occurrence. The young and beautiful Grand Duchess Alexandra, whose betrothal and marriage I described in my letters last winter has gone into a sudden decline and her life is now despaired of. She was only on the occasion of her marriage, remarkable both for health and beauty, and her loss will affect the spirits of the Imperial family very much. It is even rumored that the Emperor has been sent for and thus will be ended all the projects of foreign travel for a long while. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 5 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36)

Nicholas I had departed St. Petersburg for England on 12/24 May 1844. Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna had been examined by Dr. Martin von Mandt, the emperor’s personal physician, on 15/27 May 1844, with a diagnosis of tuberculosis. The emperor had gone from England to Holland to visit his sister, Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna (1795–1865), consort of King Willem II (1792–1849). He arrived at The Hague on 10 June, where Mandt was waiting to inform him of the serious nature of his youngest daughter’s illness. The emperor left The Hague the following day for home (Oluf Lundt Bang, Livs Minder [Memories of Life], ed. Vilhelm Maar [Copenhagen: Nyt Nordisk Farlag Arnold Busck, 1929], p. 245). I wish to thank Hanne Quillévéré of Victoria, British Columbia, for translating passages in Bang’s autobiography pertinent to the illness and death of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna.

566  Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna (see Images 434, 444, 451) suspected that her husband was inclined to seek amusement among his social inferiors. She had been planning to foster his moral and spiritual development by reading Plutarch with him in the hope that the example of nobleminded husbands would help him (Son iunosti, p. 160). Oluf Lundt Bang (1788–1877; see Image 485), the Danish physician who was brought in at the request of the Prince of Hesse-Kassel (see Image 435) to, hopefully, cure Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna, but who corroborated Mandt’s diagnosis, recorded the young couple’s predicament: The governess, Miss Higginbotham, “asked me one day if I couldn’t see to it that the Prince not spend the whole day reading novels aloud to his consort. I spoke to the Grand Duchess about this, and she confessed that it would be better if he had some diversions. This led to a conversation about husbands who have nothing to do, and she asked me to speak to the Emperor about it. The Emperor answered that the Grand Duchess would have to decide this together with her husband, who himself would like some freedom, but didn’t dare take it because of public (in Russia?) opinion. He could scarcely go riding for an hour or so before he was blamed for having left his sick wife” (Bang, Livs Minder, p. 303).

567  This was the wedding of Joseph Senior Kirk and Charlotte Elizabeth Petersen, who “were married by banns at their residence Tsarscocelo, and in the presence of His Excellency Col. Todd, Minister Plenipotentiary from the United States of America to the Court of Russia, on this the twenty second day O.S. of June and the fourth day of July N.S., in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty four by me, Thomas Scales Ellerby, Minister of the British & American Chapel” (Returns of Marriages (with an Index). British and American Congregational Church at St. Petersburg. 1844-1886, RG 33/145, PRO). Joseph Senior Kirk was the Principal Manager at the Aleksandrofsky Head Mechanical Works.

The invitation to the Whistlers is not extant. The extant invitation to Andrew M. Eastwick reads as follows:

Mr. and Mrs. Petersen respectfully solicit the company of Mr. A.M. Eastwick at the marriage of their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth to Mr. Joseph S. Kirk, Engineer, at 7 o’clock in the afternoon on Thursday the 22 of June at Tsarskoe Selo, at the residence of His Excellency Colonel Todd, American Ambassador – and on Sunday the 25th at 7 o’clock in the afternoon, at their own residence – W.O. 7th Line No. 61 in the house of Babkoff. St. Petersburg the 16th of June 1844. (Invitation to A.M. Eastwick to the Kirk–Petersen Wedding, Eastwick Letters)

The dates given are Old Style. The New Style dates were Thursday, 4 July, and Sunday, 7 July. “W.O.” means Vasilievskii Island. Anna Whistler and the children did not attend, because Major Whistler was away.

Andrew Eastwick and his son, Edward (see Images 233, 235), attended. Andrew Eastwick described the wedding in a letter to his wife, Lydia Ann (see Image 234):

At four o’clock … we took droshkies and proceeded to town where we took the railroad cars for Tsarskoye Selo where we arrived about 6½ o’clock. The bride and groom with their attendants had taken an earlier train and were at the minister’s ready to receive us. Upon entering the house we were cordially welcomed by our worthy minister, Colonel Todd, and handed into a room where the wedding party assembled. We were introduced to company and after the usual compliments and salutations the ladies again became seated and the gentlemen all remained standing conversing with one another passing the compliments of the day. The ladies were all richly dressed, plain and nothing gaudy. In a few minutes it was whispered that the parson was in the adjoining room, when the servants entered and arranged for armchairs on one side of the room when the bridesmaid and groomman handed the conspicuous two to their seats and took the chairs on each side. All was quiet and for a few minutes we stood gazing in the face of the beautiful bride and admiring the neatness of the bridegroom, when the door of the adjoining apartment opened and the gentleman with the black robe entered with a solemn step and advanced to a table in the middle of the room. The company all rose and the interesting two with their attendants advanced to the table and the ceremony gone through with and all was pronounced okay!

The groom then saluted his bride and salutations of all their families followed; we all then advanced and took the bride’s hand and wished her much joy but none of the gentlemen saluted her with a kiss. I thought this was not altogether right, for I felt as though I would like to have a smack at her. I accordingly walked quietly over to where she was seated and gave her one of the slickest kisses that she had had and told her that it was the fashion of our country for all hands to kiss the bride but I guessed the rest of the gentlemen were too bashful. She smiled and put up her pretty little lips and such a smack you never heard.

The wine was now brought in and we all drank the health of the bride and groom in German style, by touching our glasses together before drinking. Shortly after we got through with this, supper was announced and we proceeded to the dining room where we found a table beautifully set off. Everything was of the best, but all cold. We did not set down to the table. We stood around and were beautifully helped. Our glasses were all filled with good old Madasa [sic: Madeira] when we nodded and drank to each other. We had not, however, got fairly going; they were all entirely too quiet. The servants, however, soon brought in the champagne and I proposed a toast which livened them up considerably. Then another and another followed until we got on a pretty high horse and you may depend upon it; we celebrated both the wedding and the Fourth of July. The Emperor’s and the President’s health and the health of Mr. Eastwick and his family were drank with three cheers.

We kept it going until near eleven oclock when we had to get ready for the last train of cars. We found we had not much time to spare but would have to be moving sharply or we should be left. Droshkies were ordered to the door where every man seemed to look out for himself. The bride and groom were the last or rather among the last to get into a carriage and the consequence was that they were too late. The train was just leaving as they reached the depot … I was fortunate enough to be on time. The party that was left, when they found that there was no help for them quietly drove back to Colonel Todd’s and kept it up nearly all night. I, however, was very glad that I got off or I should have been used up. Everything went off in fine style and all were highly gratified. (Andrew Eastwick to Lydia Eastwick, St. Petersburg, entry for July 5th, 1844, in letter of July 3rd, 1844, Eastwick Letters)

Maxwell was then out of the country, but was told about the wedding on his return. His comments contained the usual barb aimed at Colonel Todd: “The Colonel has a good heart, is very kind and hospitable, and even condescended to have the wedding of the young Mechanic who had difficulty about his marriage in the spring, celebrated at his house in Sarskoe Celo, on the 4 July, and under the auspices of the Embassy. The Champaigne flowed and the company I am told had a great deal of fun, enjoying at one and the same time, the hospitality and rediculous conduct of his Excellency—” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43).

568  It has not been possible to locate this note, which Anna Whistler received on Tuesday, July 2, 1844, and recorded on Thursday, July 4, 1844.

569  Anna Whistler omitted the word “other” here.

570  William Hickling Prescott (Salem, MA 4 May 1796 – 28 January 1859) graduated from Harvard in 1814. He had lost the sight of his left eye in an accident there and was forced to give up reading law because his right eye began to fail. After visiting his grandfather in the Azores, he returned home in 1817 and became a writer, a vocation his wealth enabled him to pursue despite his disability, because he could hire readers and research assistants. His first article appeared in 1821 in the North American Review. From 1829 to 1836, he worked on the History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic, which was published in 1838 and received praise from historians worldwide. His History of the Conquest of Mexico was published in 1843, followed by the History of the Conquest of Peru in 1847. The History of the Reign of Philip II (1855–58) was unfinished when Prescott died. “Prescott was more interested in action than in theory. He delighted in thrilling narrative and vivid descriptions; unlike other great historians, he expounded no philosophy of history. He wrote primarily for the reader’s enjoyment, without ever thinking of himself as a serious historian” (Max J. Hertzberg, The Reader’s Encyclopedia of American Literature [New York: Crowell, 1962], pp. 918–919). These qualities are what made Anna Whistler say that History of the Conquest of Mexico was “quite like romance.”

571  The Gellibrands and Ropeses took tea with the Whistlers on Tuesday, 2 July 1844.

572  This is Maxwell’s letter of 20 June 1844, in which he speaks of Mrs. Baird (the young widow), Wheaton, Nessel’rode, Rives, Ledyard, Hamilton, Fay, George Jones, and his tours of Berlin and Potsdam, and inquires about a Russian damsel of his acquaintance (John S. Maxwell to Major Whistler, Berlin, 20 June 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers).

573  It has not been possible to locate this letter, which Maxwell tells his mother, Agnes (Stevenson) Maxwell (see Image 54), he will “enclose … to Major Whistler … for his lady” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Berlin, June 23, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 37).

574  It has not been possible to identify the old German Baron in the interior.

575  The future (1814) Russian Bible Society (RBS) was inaugurated as the St. Petersburg Bible Society on 11/23 January 1813, its establishment having been approved by Alexander I in December 1812 (Judith Cohen Zacek, “The Russian Bible Society and the Russian Orthodox Church,” Church History 35, no. 4 (1966): p. 414). Its initial mandate “to spread the Bible only among the non-Orthodox inhabitants of the Empire” (Zacek, p. 414) was extended to include supplying Bibles to Russians as well (Zacek, p. 415). Eventually, “through the Holy Synod the [Orthodox] Church actively began to participate in the work of the Society” (Zacek, p. 415). In 1816, the RBS undertook “the first translation of the Holy Scriptures into modern Russian” (Zacek, p. 416). “The complete New Testament in modern Russian was … published … in 1821” (Zacek, p. 417), accompanied by the Church Slavonic text, which, however, could be understood by only a small portion of the population (p. 416). In 1822–1823 “a modern Russian New Testament without the parallel Slavonic text” appeared (Zacek, p. 417), making the edition less cumbersome in size and less heavy (thus easier for soldiers to carry with them) and cheaper (Zacek, pp. 417, 418). Within a short time, the RBS extended over all of Russia, becoming “an interdenominational union of all Christian faiths” and embracing all social classes (Zacek, p. 418).

But it “had encountered … opposition from its very establishment” (p. 426) from individual Russians and from the Russian Orthodox Church. Eventually this opposition became political as well as ecclesiastical, and, although Alexander I refused for a long time to abolish the RBS, in 1824 he removed Prince Alexander Golitsyn as Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Instruction and abolished the Ministry itself, an act that placed “the affairs of the Orthodox Church once again under the separate administration of an autonomous Holy Synod” (Zacek, p. 431). Golitsyn, who had been President of the RBS since its establishment as the St. Petersburg Bible Society, resigned his post and was replaced by Metropolitan Serafim (Zacek, p. 432). The Orthodox clergy alone now had the right to engage in missionary activity and “to distribute the Scriptures which had been translated and published by the R.B.S.” (Zacek, p. 433). The Church also “called for an end to the translation of the Scriptures into modern Russian” (Zacek, p. 434). Alexander I refused (Zacek, p. 434). The RBS was identified by its enemies as being affiliated “with the now-suppressed Masons and English Methodists,” and it was said that “[the] principle of publishing Scriptures without note or comment” left the individual “to interpret Scriptures on his own,” “making him fall into heresy or indifference” (Zacek, p. 434). Arguments against the freedom to interpret the Scriptures were extended to the pernicous effect this had on the peasants, who had become disrespectful and even opposed to the Church (Zacek, p. 434). Alexander I continued to refuse to abolish the RBS (Zacek, p. 435). He died in November 1825, and his successor, Nicholas I, was not “interested in the fate of the R.B.S., whose operations by this time had all but ceased” (Zacek, p. 435). When the same arguments against the RBS were made to him, he acted and in April 1826 “commanded … [the] President of the Russian Bible Society to suspend all operations both of the central and local societies” (Zacek, p. 436). In 1831, the emperor sanctioned the establishment of “a new Protestant Bible Society in St. Petersburg,” whose “activities were strictly limited to the Protestant population” (Zacek, p. 436). Throughout his reign, “the higher Church administration continued to oppose the further translation of Scriptures into modern Russian” (Zacek, p. 436). Such a translation was not made until the reign of his son, Alexander II (Zacek, p. 436). This information about the Bible Society in Russia must have been related to Anna Whistler by her friends now active in the distribution of religious tracts: Mary and William Clarke Gellibrand, Joseph Samuel Ropes, Mary and Thomas Ellerby (see Note 577 below). See also George Browne, The History of the British and Foreign Bible Society, From Its Institution in 1804, to the Close of Its Jubilee in 1854, 2 vols. (London: [British and Foreign Bible Society], 1859). For a biography of Prince Aleksandr Nikolaevich Golitsyn, see E.P. Karnovich, Zamechatel’nye i zagadochnye lichnosti XVIII i XIX stoletii s 13-iu graviurami [Remarkable and Enigmatic Personages of the 18th and 19th Centuries, with 13 Engravings], 2nd ed. (St. Petersburg: A.S. Suvorin, 1893, pp. 397–463.

576  It has not been possible to find any information about the Gellibrands’ servant, Alexa, who could be a man or a woman. Aleksa, Aleksia, and Leksa are endearing forms for both Aleksandr and Aleksandra, as well as for Aleksei (Petrovskii, Slovar’ russkikh lichnych imen, pp. 44, 45). See Note 577 for confirmation that this servant had to be a man.

577  The Annual Reports of the Religious Tract Society for 1843–1849 (hereafter, Annual Report) parallel many of Anna Whistler’s statements. Her information must have come from Religious Tract Society members such as William Clarke Gellibrand, Joseph Samuel Ropes, and Rev. Thomas Scales Ellerby, some of whom sent communications to London that were quoted in the Annual Reports. For example, the 44th report (Annual Report for 1843) states that the “nobility are taking an interest in the religious welfare of their peasantry, and give to them many of the works which have been published” (p. 75). Pilgrims in the possession of tracts said they could “obtain a night’s lodging and food for a tract” (p. 75). Without tracts, they had “to pay … three times as much in money” (p. 75). Peasants who were literate read the tracts aloud to groups of other peasants in their villages (Annual Report for 1849, p. 77). Superior officers of sailors were “happy of the favourable change” in those of their men who “read the Scriptures, and other good books” (p. 78– 79). Sometimes a group seeking tracts was so large that it “was impossible to go among them, for they would have thrown a man down”; therefore, the distributors tossed tracts to them from the windows of a house (p. 78). A similar episode with soldiers in the diaries threatened to call a halt to further distribution. Anna Whistler and her sons also pitched their tracts at some idle young men from a distance. The Annual Report for 1844 contains an interesting account of enquiries for tracts made by soldiers going home on furlough or being discharged from the army, “so that the word of God [was] now being borne up and down in some hundred knapsacks, to the nearest as well as to the farthest governments” (pp. 79–81).

578  Anna Whistler is referring to Wednesday, 3 July 1844, when she and Debo were reading aloud Prescott’s History of the Conquest of Mexico (see Note 570 above).

579  It is in the hundred of Blackheath that Woolwich is located and that Wellesley House, the home of the Maingay family, was to be found (Pigot and Co.’s Royal, National and Commercial Directory and Topography of the Counties of Kent, Surrey and Sussex [London: Pigot, 1840], s.v. “Woolwich with the villages of Charlton, Plumstead, Shooter’s Hill and neighbourhoods” [hereafter, Pigot’s Directory of Kent and the year).

580  This is probably Henrietta Maria Law (St. Petersburg 25 October / 6 November 1822 – 18 November 1892), who later married Francis Anderson. There are two entries for their marriage in the OPRS. Before marriage, Henrietta was a resident of the parish of South Leith (a northern suburb of Edinburgh) and Francis was a resident of the parish of St. George, Edinburgh. On 17 October 1848, they married at St. John’s Episcopal Chapel, Edinburgh, and the record of this appears in the OPRS for South Leith. On 24 October 1848, they were again married by the same man, E.B. Ramsay, presumably in the church of St. George, and this entry appears in the OPRS for Edinburgh. E.B. Ramsay was the minister of St. John’s Episcopal Chapel, Edinburgh, from 1830 to 1872.

581  Anna Whistler seems to be assigning a telling name to the Andersons’ poor cousin, as it has not been possible to find a character in English literature named Becky Dugude on whom it can be based.

582  This is “a dangerous modification of what, in England, is called the swinging-board, and which consists in balancing a long board across a round and stout cylinder of wood or a tree, when two persons, generally young women, … place themselves one at each end, and by certain movements raise each other alternately, but so quickly, and so effectually, that either party is by turns thrown upwards some feet from the board, and comes down upon part of it with so much increased impetus and weight, that the elevation of each person is thereby considerably augmented with a corresponding increase of risk of mutually breaking their necks” (Granville, St. Petersburgh, vol. 2, p. 397). Anna Whistler proposed that Deborah Delano Whistler describe the “gee joggle” (see Image 355) when she wrote to her first cousin, Catherine Julia McNeill (see Image 33), in Stonington.

583  James was influenced by his father’s Swedish draftsman, Hedenschoug, to read the biography of Charles XII (1682– 1718), King of Sweden, who lost the Seven Years War to Peter the Great and died in battle. It became part of his program of reading in English to his mother in order not to forget his native language. I assume he was reading an English translation of Voltaire’s Histoire de Charles XII (1731). English translations had been made by, among others, Tobias Smollett (1721–1771) (Tobias Smollett, trans., The History of Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden; and Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, by Voltaire [London: Walker & Edwards, 1817]).

584  Transport Engineer Lt. 99Colonel Thomas Drury Jr. (21 September [OS] 1801 – 8 August [OS] 1893) was the son of Susannah (Walker) Drury and Thomas Drury Sr. (RGIA: Fond 1689, op. 1, d. 1. Register British Factory Chapel St. Petersburg [1763–1812], no. 1883; PREC STP, no. 920). He and his father shared a house belonging to them in Kolomna (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 14).

585  “Scharchinka” is Anna Whistler’s pronunciation of the diminutive and endearing form for Aleksandr, spelled “Sashenka” and pronounced “Sah′shinkuh”; “Vaascha” is her pronunciation of the diminutive and endearing form for Vasilii (William), spelled “Vasya” and pronounced “Vah′syuh.” Alexander, about five years old, and William, about six years old, were the sons of Transport Engineer Lt. Colonel Thomas Drury Jr. and Caroline (Bajinsky) Drury (PREC STP, no. 5910; RGIA: Fond 207, op. 14, d. 42. Formuliarnyi spisok o sluzhbe i dostoinstve Korpusa Inzhenerov P. S. Podpolkovnika Drury za 1841 g. [Service and merit record of Transport Engineer Lt. Colonel Drury for 1841).

586  John Randolph of Roanoke (Prince George County, VA 2 June 1773 –Philadelphia, PA 24 May 1833; see Image 282), “who was the U.S. Minister here under Jackson, who was eccentric—the Russians thought insane. thus writes home his impressions of St. Petersburg in summer… ‘Never have I seen so many, and such severe cases of summer disease … I have written thus far, interrupted every five quarter of a minute, by innumerable flies, gigantic as the Empire they inhabit, which attack the face in all its vulnerable points—nose, mouth, ears, and eyes under cover of spectacles. This is the land of Pharaoh and his plagues. It is Egypt in all but fertility. The extremes of human misery and splendor here meet’” (BUHG: Colin Ingersoll Journal, pt. 1, fols. 8, 9).

587  This is Vil’gel’m Ivanovich Truveller (Frederick William Trewheeler) and his second wife, Maria Vladimirovna (Kozliakinova, or Kozlianova) Truveller (Trewheeler). See Notes 124 and 192 above.

588  The reference is to Charlotte Adams (Sanford) Barnes (c. 1807 – 12 December 1875), wife (married in 1832) of James Barnes (4 May 1807 – 12 February 1869), USMA Class of 1829, chief engineer and superintendent of the Western (Massachusetts) Railroad, 1842–1848 (George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, from its Establishment, March 16, 1802, to the Army Re-Organization of 1866–67, 2 vols. [New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868], vol. 1, p. 423; Springfield Daily Republican, December 13, 1875, p. 6 and February 13, 1869, p. 8; New York Herald, February 13, 1869, p. 32; William Richard Cutter et al., eds., Encyclopedia of Massachusetts: Biographical–Genealogical [New York: American Historical Society, 1916], vol. 1, p. 365). The Barnes family lived in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the Whistlers had lived from 1838 to 1842. In his autobiography, the Barneses’ son, John Sanford Barnes, says that Deborah (Whistler) Haden “kept up a correspondence with [his] mother” until the latter’s death (John Sanford Barnes, The Egotistigraphy of a Rolling Stone, that Gathered Moss, Herein Scraped off for the Information and Amusement of His Family, “privately published, edition limited to this one copy, New York, January 1, 1910,” p. 7, N-YHS). The whereabouts of these letters are unknown to me.

589  The Whistlers attended vespers at the Cathedral of the Lifegiving Trinity in the monastery, as Anna Whistler records seeing “a beautiful Altar peice … a painting of the Trinity.” The painting was executed by Karl Pavlovich Briullov (1799–1852; see Image 173) in 1840. The five-domed Trinity Cathedral, built by Rastrelli, was begun in 1756 and completed in 1760. The cathedral chapels were consecrated in 1761, the main church in 1763. The right chapel was consecrated in honor of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and the left in honor of St. Zaccharias and St. Elizabeth. In 1840, after the renovation of the entire cathedral, the left chapel, which had been closed for several years, was consecrated anew, this time as the Chapel of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. The monastery’s most important sacred object was kept in Trinity Cathedral in summer: the icon of St. Sergius of Radonezh, the Miracleworker. As a result, a large number of ardent pilgrims of all ages and classes would come almost every day in this season from St. Petersburg in veneration of the icon. According to legend, the icon was painted on the saint’s coffin board and brought here by the monastery’s founder from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery near Moscow. There is a cross on the icon with a piece of the holy relic of St. Sergius, given to the monastery by A.N. Muraviev (1792–1863), a famous traveler to holy places. The Cathedral was small – four and a half sazhens long and wide – and held only 600 people. Religous services were held in it only in summer, as it had no stoves (Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe 1889, pp. 197–198; Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe 1994, p. 170; Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1839, pt. 1, p. 154; Antonov and Kobak, Sviatyni Sankt-Peterburga, vol. 1, pp. 54 –55).

The Briullov painting was still in the church around 1889 (the date of publication of Pyliaev’s book cited above). E. Atsarkina, who says in her 1963 monograph on Briullov that the painting is mentioned in Somov’s list and in the annual report of the Academy of Fine Arts for 1839–1840 by A.N. Mokritskii and V.V. Stasov, gives its location as “unknown” (Atsarkina, Briullov, p. 356).

The icon-covered screen referred to is the iconostasis, which separates the nave from the sanctuary. The “gilded doors of the screen” are the Royal Doors, which “are constructed of two panels located at the center of the iconostasis, and connect the nave with the sanctuary. They are called ‘royal’ because it is believed that… Christ … is carried through them in the form of the eucharist. The symbolic meaning of the gates, and of all the images upon them, is closely associated with the perception of the sanctuary as an image of the spiritual world. This symbolism is apparent during the liturgy. The opening of the Royal Doors signifies the opening of the Heavenly Kingdom for believers. The closing of the doors reminds them of the eviction from the Garden of Eden after the Fall” (Roderick Grierson, ed., Gates of Mystery: The Art of Holy Russia [Milan: Intercultura, 1993], p. 96). Only the officiating clergy may enter the sanctuary, where the liturgy is performed. The Annunciation is always depicted on the Royal Doors (the Archangel Gabriel on the left door, Mary on the right door), because it “is understood as the beginning of the Incarnation” (p. 96). Mary’s acceptance “of the news of her miraculous conception” is interpreted as being “a penance for the Fall of humanity” (p. 96). She is “the new Eve,” who “redeems the Fall of the first Eve and begins our return to union with God” (p. 96). Also depicted on these Royal Doors are the four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, “who brought the news of the life of Christ” (p. 98).

The “unknown tongue” of the service is Old Church Slavonic.

“Of the monks and their singing it has been said that the monks are really aristocratically pleasing to the eye and sing very well, and that the simplicity of their singing is so exquisite that it ceases to be simplicity and gives a sense of refinement” (Petrovskaia, Kontsertnaia zhizn’ Peterburga, p. 46).

590  Krasnyi Kabachok (little red tavern or little beautiful tavern) (pronounced “Krahs′nee kuhbahchawk′), one of the legendary spots on the Peterhof Road, its fame sung by Pushkin and Lermontov, is located at the eleventh verst, at the Krasnoe Selo Road turnoff (see Image 407). The tavern has existed since the time of Peter the Great and has long been famous for its waffles. In winter, ice hills are constructed and enthusiasts of out-of-town excursions meet here. It was probably the first such place to cultivate gypsy choirs. On 26 December 1713 (OS), Peter the Great met Prince Romodanovskii here, and during the night of 28/29 June 1762 (OS), Catherine the Great, now head of the guards, who had just sworn allegiance to her, rested here on her way to Peterhof. Casanova (1725–1798) revelled here in 1765. A ukase of 16 November 1706 (OS) announced that “perpetual hereditary ownership” of Krasnyi Kabachok was granted to an interpreter named Semyon Ivanov for his many services to the state, with the condition that it could not be sold or mortgaged. On 3 December 1748 (OS), Empress Elizabeth issued a further ukase concerning this privilege. The head of the police, General Vasilii Saltykov, had forced the children of the deceased Semyon Ivanov to sell him the tavern (1733), but a family member appealed to Empress Elizabeth, who ordered that the deed of sale be destroyed and the tavern be given to this family member with the right to sell it to whomever she wished. Krasnyi Kabachok then changed hands frequently, even being purchased in the 1780s by the Duchess of Kingston. In 1840, it was offered for rental as an inn, after being refurbished. In that decade, its fame began to decline. Its then illustrious proprietor was Louisa Grafemus Kessenikh (Cologne 1786 – St. Petersburg 30 October / 11 November 1852; buried in Volkov Lutheran Cemetery; see Image 408). The following advertisement placed by her in the newspaper Severnaia pchela (The Northern Bee) in 1846 reveals some of her amazing career: “The owner of the oldest of Russian out-of-town taverns, the woman-warrior Madame Kessenikh, who fought in the Prussian ranks (1813 and 1814) in the uniform of an Uhlan for the independence of Europe and received a decoration for it, invites you to the Krasnyi Kabachok. She settled in Russia a long time ago to be with her military comrades and serves the guests of the Krasnyi Kabachok in her winter quarters with excellent Russian bliny and German waffles. Foreigners fear Russian bliny as they would bullets, but for Madame Kessenikh bliny are blank cartridges and she regrets that she cannot introduce our national food to the Prussian forces. You simply must come visit the heroine of the famous war that replaced bivouac fires with the peaceful fire of the hearth. At Krasnyi Kabachok you will also find ice hills.” At the end of the 1850s, Krasnyi Kabachok burned down, and its name passed to another nearby inn (Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 313–314; Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe 1889, pp. 126–129; Stolpianskii, Petergofskaia pershpektiva, pp. 21–22, 66–67; Gorbatenko, Petergofskaia doroga, pp. 117–120; Petrovskaia, Kontsertnaia zhizn’ Peterburga, pp. 86, 88, 89).

Kessenikh, who held dance classes in Petersburg at the German Society at Izmailov Bridge, arranged them at Krasny Kabachok as well. Dance classes were dance gatherings with an entrance fee for anyone belonging to the “noble class,” even if only seeming to belong by their dress (Petrovskaia, Kontsertnaia zhizn’ Peterburga, pp. 86, 89). Further details of her biography may be found in T.L. Piletskaia, “Luiza Kessenikh-zhenshchina-ulan” [“Luiza Kessenikh: Female Uhlan”], Novyi chasovoi [The New Sentry] 3, no. 2 (1995): pp. 210–217; and Vladimir Kessenikh, “Khoziaika ‘Krasnogo kabachka’” [“The Innkeeper of ‘The Little Red Tavern’”], S.-Peterburgskaia panorama [Panorama of St. Petersburg] 8 (1992): pp. 34–35.

591  Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich (9/21 September 1827 – 13/25 January 1892; see Images 420, 436) was sixteen. The two “little” sons of Nicholas I were Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich (27 July / 8 August 1831 – 13/25 April 1891), who was twelve, and Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich (13/25 October 1832 – 5/17 December 1909), who was eleven (see Image 420) (V. Durasov, comp., Rodoslovnaia kniga Vserossiiskogo dvorianstva [The Genealogical Book of All-Russian Nobility] [St. Petersburg (“City of St. Peter”): R. Golike i A. Vil’borg, 1906], vol. 1, p. 20). Their presence “in the ranks” is confirmed in the following court journal entry:

23 June [5 July] At 5 o’clock His Majesty, the Heir Apparent, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich and Prince Alexander of Hesse rode out on horseback to the St. Petersburg exit to meet the Cadets of various military educational institutions, who had crossed through [the grounds of] the dacha ‘Alexandria’ to their Peterhof camp. With the Cadets were Grand Dukes Nikolai Nikolaevich and Mikhail Nikolaevich (see Images 420–423, 425, 439).

    His Majesty and Their Highnesses, after accompanying the Cadets to the camp, went to Tsarskoe Selo. (RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal)

For an enchanting description of the youngest cadets, see Richard Southwell Bourke, St. Petersburg and Moscow: A Visit to the Court of the Czar, 2 vols. (London: Henry Colburn, 1846), vol. 2, pp. 3 –7.

592  Camp exercises for the students of military educational institutions had been suspended just before the War of 1812; they were reinstated in 1828. From then on, every year for six weeks, the students lived in tents set up between the upper garden and the English garden at Peterhof. The village of Novaia, which had been located on this spot, was removed to a spot beyond Peterhof, in the direction of His Majesty’s personal dacha, and the area that had until then been arable land was in 1832 turned into a military field. The grand dukes endured the same hardships as the other students. When the summer field exercises, maneuvers, and Imperial inspection were over, the students had to storm the Samson cascades in the presence of the Imperial family. This they did at a signal from the emperor. Drenched and knocked off their feet by the water, they made their way to the upper landing, where those first to reach it were rewarded by the empress with small prizes made of semi-precious stones (A. Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa [A Description of Peterhof] [St. Petersburg: Imperatorskaia Akademiia Nauk, 1868], pp. 48–50; Stolpianskii, Petergofskaia pershpektiva, pp. 63–64, 70).

593  See Note 583 above about James’s reading aloud in English to his mother in order not to lose his fluency in his native language.

594  Maxwell’s letter is the one from Berlin, 20 June 1844, mentioned in Note 572, NYPL: AWPD, Part I. It was being taken to Major Whistler by Major Trouvellier (see Notes 124 and 192 above).

595  Maxwell devoted much space to discussing the travails of Joseph S. Kirk, the “young American … who has lately come out to Russia, and who is employed in the steam engine factory of our new colony at Alexandroffsky, [who] took it into his head to fall head over heels in love with a young Russian damsel. He proposed to her in real go ahead style, was of course accepted, and being a man of energy took immediate measures to bring about the consummation of his wishes” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36). There also had to be a Lutheran ceremony. Kirk discovered from the priests, however, that the wedding could not take place until he provided such documents as a baptismal certificate. Colonel Todd, Maxwell, and Abraham Gibson, the Consul, thereupon conferred to see how the difficulties could be resolved without what looked to be a six-month delay. Maxwell drolly describes how each based his remarks on his own individual romantic experiences. Nor was the effect of a possible bribe overlooked (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of June 8 in letter of June 2, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 36).

Andrew Eastwick’s invitation to the wedding shows that the problem was resolved: the Lutheran ceremony took place three days after the ceremony at Colonel Todd’s residence, which had been declared American territory. Eastwick’s letter to his wife also justifies Anna Whistler’s misgivings that the wedding might become a drunken revel, which she deemed disrespectful to any bride (entry of July 5 in letter of Andrew Eastwick to Lydia Eastwick dated St. Petersburg, July 3rd, 1844 and invitation to A.M. Eastwick to the Kirk–Petersen wedding, Eastwick Letters).

596  On 24 June / 6 July, the feast of the Birth of John, the honest, praiseworthy Prophet, Forerunner and Baptizer of the Lord, is celebrated (Mesiatsoslov i Obshchii shtat Rossiiskoi imperii na 1842 g. Chast’ pervaia [Calendar and Complete Staff of the Russian Empire for 1842: Part I] [St. Petersburg: Imperatorskaia Akademiia Nauk]). The service takes place in the church of St. Sergius and there is a procession around the monastery.

597  Isaiah 45:22: “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

598  See, for example, Exodus 16.

599  A small monastery burial ground evidently existed from the time the monastery was founded. In the reign of Catherine the Great, persons from distinguished and aristocratic families began to be buried here. The cemetery became the resting place of families such as Ol’denburg, Apraksin, Stroganov, Potemkin, Sheremetev, Zubov, Engel’gardt, Naryshkin, Opochinin, Golenishchev-Kutuzov, Razumovskii, Frederiks, and Stenbok-Fermor. Many of the grave monuments were considered works of art. In the nineteenth century, the cemetery became one of the most beautiful in Europe. Apparently, a list of some monuments from this destroyed cemetery may be found in the archive of the State Museum of City Sculpture in St. Petersburg. The museum itself contains salvaged cemetery monuments, but many thousands perished during the Soviet period (A.V. Kobak, “Unichtozhennye kladbishcha” [“Destroyed Cemeteries”], in Istoricheskie kladbishcha Peterburga Spravochnik-putevoditel’ [Historical Cemeteries of Petersburg, A Handbook and Guide] [St. Petersburg: Chernyshev, 1993], pp. 552–555, 562). Anna Whistler would have been affected by the monument, because she had lost “two little boys” to death. I inquired personally in July 2003 of Iurii Piriutko, a specialist on the city’s cemeteries and one of the authors of the aforementioned book, about the monument to the two children, but he could not identify it.

600  Anna Whistler would have written this Sunday entry on Monday, 8 July, and then a separate entry for Monday, 8 July, a practice she sometimes engaged in. Mr. G referred to in this entry is William Clarke Gellibrand; Mr. R is William Hooper Ropes; Mrs. Ropes is Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes; sister Alicia is Alicia Caroline Margaret McNeill. The little Normans cannot be identified.

The Ropeses still lived on Galernaia Street, and it is from here that everyone went to greet Aunt Alicia.

601  The Mermaid arrived from London in 7 ½ days on 25 June / 7 July (Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti 144, Wednesday, June 28 [July 10 NS], 1844).

602  This is the Russian word for “clerk,” spelled “artel’shchik” and pronounced “artel′shchik.”

The function of the artelshchik is described as follows:

It will easily be imagined that the straightforward English merchant, equally accustomed and compelled to trust his dependents in the various responsibilities of a counting-house, found but a slippery colleague in the merry, lazy, thieving Russian; at the same time the wages of the English to their inferiors being as much higher as their treatment was more humane, it became the interest of both parties to reform an evil which gave the one a bad servant, and deprived the other of a good master. A company, or artell, … has, therefore, been formed which pledges itself for the honesty of its members, or makes good the deficiencies which a dishonest member may occasion. The privileges and certainty of good employment are the inducement to enter, and there is not an English merchant house in Petersburg who does not employ one or more of these Artellschiks. (Rigby, Baltic Letters, vol. 1, letter 4, pp. 74–75)

603  See Note 563 above. There was no launch on Sunday, 7 July 1844, either. It finally took place on Saturday, 19/31 August. The Andrei, 84 guns, was launched in the New Admiralty (Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti 196, Sunday, 27 August [September 8 NS], 1844, p. 883). See BUHG: Colin Ingersoll Journal, pt. 2, fols. 6–8, for the detailed description of a similar launch in August 1847.

604  Daniel 6:16: “Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.” Anna Whistler’s sentence is incomplete.

605  The members of the Harrison family who arrived were Sarah (Poulterer) Harrison (see Note 274 above); Annie Harrison, born in Philadelphia, 13/25 December 1839; and William Henry Harrison, born in Philadelphia, 11/23 December 1837 (PREC STP, no. 5558, p. 329). See Harrison in Appendix E and Image 227.

606  Mrs. Ropes in this entry for Monday [July] 8ƫ [1844] is Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes. The book referred to is History of the Conquest of Mexico (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1843) by William Hickling Prescott. See Note 570 above.

607  Persons mentioned in the entry for Tuesday [July] 9ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill (my sister, Aunt Alicia); Sarah and Joseph Harrison Jr. and their children, Annie and Henry (the Harrisons); Mary Gent Hirst (Miss Hirst); Ann Elizabeth (Main) Anderson (beautiful Mrs. Anderson); William Clarke and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (the Gellibrands); Mary Brennan (Mary); Charles Donald Whistler (that little one); and John Winstanley (Uncle Winstanley).

608  “A la palette de Raphael” was an art supplies store on Bol’shaia Morskaia Street (F.I. Bulgakov, I.K. Aivazovskii i ego proizvedeniia (60 let khudozhestvennoi slavy) [I.K. Aivazovskii and His Works (Sixty Years of Fame as an Artist)] [St. Petersburg: A.S. Suvorin, 1901], p. 45). See also Anna Whistler to James Whistler, St. Petersburg, 4 December NS 1848, GUL: Whistler Collection, W370.

609  The correct expression, which means “to the dacha,” is spelled “na dachu” and pronounced “nuhdah′choo.”

610  At the Gellibrands’, they met Thomas Scales Ellerby (18 March 1810 – 11 June 1892) and his wife, Mary (Bealey) Ellerby (c. 1810 – 18 August 1885). See Ellerby in Appendix E and Images 256–257.

611  Miss McMasters’s first name is not given in the diaries nor in the BRBC STP 1845. The latter document lists her simply as “at Mr. Charles Wood’s, governess” (f. 39). Judging from the list of sponsors at the receiving of Charles John Wood into the Church on 14/26 July 1845, she is probably Anne Caroline McMaster (PREC STP for 1845, p. 326). This seems to be corroborated by the fact that the Woods later named a daughter Anna Caroline (29 August / 10 September 1847 – 22 May / 3 June 1850). The child died at the age of two years and nine months and was buried in the Smolensk Cemetery (PREC STP, no. 6068, p. 401).

612  Helen (19 October 1835 – 27 February 1919), Catherine Elizabeth (20 January 1837 – 30 October 1920) and William Nicholson (20 August 1838 – 27 July 1919), born in England, were the children of the Wood family in St. Petersburg in 1844. Their mother, Lydia (Procter) Wood (see Image 272), was expecting another child shortly. Charles John was born on 29 September / 11 October 1844, the first child of the Woods to be born in Russia (PREC STP for 1844, p. 315). I wish to thank Rev. Eric Wood of Bruton, Somerset, great-grandson of Charles John Wood, for providing me with the birth and death dates of all the Wood children. See Wood in Appendix E.

613  Although it has been “established” that James was born on 10 July (his father’s announcement when he was born), Anna Whistler continued to give 11 July as the day he was born. She received on 5 November 1877, from Kate (Prince) Livermore, a book of daily readings called Day Unto Day (Margaret L. Bennett, comp., Day Unto Day [Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1873], GUL: Whistler Collection, W174). On the days corresponding to birthdays and deaths of loved ones, she commented on the person. The reference to James’s birthday and the comment are written next to the date “July 11”: “James Abbott MacNeill Whistler’s birthday, my first born son.” Moreover, James’s poem to his mother, while dated 10 July 1844, was presented to her on the 11th.

614  This is Carl Hedenschoug, Major Whistler’s draftsman. See his biography in Appendix E.

615  James’s note to his father reads: “My Dear Father You will remember better than I do when I was born on the 4th july 1832. Aunt Alicia was with us then in Lowell and she has come here again to have some fun on my 10 Birthday. This afternoon I am to have a party of little friends, and I am so glad you have come home in good time. I have drawn a head of a Russian priest for you. John and Tom Drury have come out here to spend their vacation and I like them very much. Now my dear father as I have told you all that I can think of, I must say Goodbye. James” (James Whistler to George Washington Whistler, [Peterhof Road, 11 July 1844], GUL: Whistler Collection, W652). MacDonald says the whereabouts of the drawing of the head of a Russian priest are unknown and dates James’s note “1842,” probably on the basis of its incorrect statement about James’s birth (MacDonald, Catalogue Raisonné, p. 1)

John Thomas Drury (b. 2/14 August 1833) and Thomas Anthony Drury (b. 6/18 May 1836), mentioned in James’s note, were the sons of William Drury (11/22 April 1800 – 30 January / 11 February 1864) and Elizabeth (I’Anson) Drury (26 May / 7 June1800 – 22 May / 3 June 1869) (married St. Petersburg 6/18 August 1827) (PREC STP for 1833, pp. 176 and for 1836, no. 4246, p. 209). See Notes 731 and 738 below; see also Bryan I’Anson, The History of the I’Anson Family (London: Henry Good & Son for The Genealogical Society, 1915), pp. 43–44. GUL: Whistler Collection H1 is, I believe, the paper band that was around James’s note to Deborah.

616  James copied for his mother a poem by the Irish poet, Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 26 February 1852), entitled “To My Mother Written in a Pocket Book, 1822” (A.D. Godley, ed., The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore [Oxford: Oxford University Press; London: Humphrey Milford, 1929], p. 535). Moore was the author of such well-known works as Lalla Rookh (1816), “The Harp That Once Through Tara’s Halls,” and “Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms.” His devotion to his mother was noted by the Dictionary of National Biography (s.v. “Moore, Thomas [1779–1852]”) as “one of the most amiable features of his character.”

617  This was James’s first letter to his mother. Her comments about it in the diary indicate that for her “filial love” was a “holy feeling,” and she prayed that it might “never desert him.” She responded with a note in which she alluded to the duty of a child and mother to one another: “Peterhoff road. July 11th. 1844. My own darling James. You know not how those lines to your Mother touched her heart this morning! So full of the holy sentiment of a child’s affection and duty to her who ten years ago folded him with joy in a maternal embrace, dutiful and gentle” (Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Peterhoff Road, 11 July 1844, GUL: Whistler Collection, W351). On the envelope she wrote: “For my dear James on his tenth birthday. his Mother has nothing more to enclose than her Love, and may the expression of his be exhibited in his life.” How intense and constant were her feelings on the subject is underscored by the fact that on 10 February 1878, when James was 43 years old and still leading a life she disapproved of, she returned his letter to him, after writing him a response of a kind that no one would like to receive, on the letter he had sent her almost thirty-four years before. It begins: “So may it be my precious Jamie! altho during the 34 years since you copied the verses, you have as often, let flatterers & the love of Jamie usurp my place in your affections” (Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Hastings, 10 February 1878, GUL: Whistler Collection, W350).

In Day Unto Day, under the entry for 11 July, she marked with an “X” a text by S.A. Brooke that she clearly thought appropriate to James’s life: “How magnificent a thing might life become, could we but turn away from all temptations to do our own will, and say to the tempters, were they even father or mother, — say, in the strength of Christ, “I cannot: wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” 3 … So perfect was the unison of his will to God’s that his feeling was not, I must, or even, I ought, but, “I delight to do thy will”; “My meat and my drink are to do my Father’s will.” 4 — S.A. Brooke.” [3Luke ii.49. 4John iv.34]” (Bennett, Day Unto Day).

618  Deborah Whistler Haden to James Whistler, no date, no place, written in French, GUL: Whistler Collection, H1, is a response to a note from James that she describes as “Your note … a nice remembrance of this anniversary of your birth.” I believe it should be identified as [Peterhof Road July 11, 1844]. It has not been possible to locate the note from Aunt Alicia.

619  The birthday being celebrated at Mr. Drury’s may have been that of William Leighton Drury, his grandson, who was born on 1/13 July 1832 (PREC STP, no. 4106, p. 161). Although the family of William Leighton Drury did not come to live in the empty house on Mr. Drury’s estate until early August, several of the grandchildren were there at the time of James’s birthday.

620  29 June / 11 July was the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. All places of business and all schools were closed (Mesiatsoslov na 1842 g.). See Fedosiuk, Chto neponiatno u klassikov, p. 16.

621  Persons mentioned in the entry for Friday [July] 12ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Joseph Harrison Jr. of the firm of Harrison, Winans and Eastwick (Mr. Harrison); Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes, wife of William Hooper Ropes (Mrs. Ropes); and Anne Caroline McMaster, the Wood children’s governess (Miss McMaster).

622  Persons mentioned in the entry for Sat [July] 13ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: the beggar child, Andrea, and his mother (little Andrea and his mother); Anna Whistler’s half-sister Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill (my sister Alice, Aunt Alicia); Joseph Samuel Ropes, William Hooper Ropes’s brother (Mr. Joseph Ropes); and William Bonamy Maingay and his sister, Emma Maingay, Debo’s best friend, now living in England (Mr. W Maingay, Emma).

623  A building belonging to Vorontsov was located on Malaia Morskaia Street No. 13, in the First Admiralty District, Second Ward, and his shop, selling ready-to-wear clothing, was probably here (Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, p. 37).

624  By “organist” Anna Whistler meant “organ grinder.” Street musicians played on St. Petersburg streets on a variety of instruments, but the largest contingent consisted of organ grinders (Petrovskaia, Kontsertnaia zhizn’ Peterburga, p. 90).

625  The Russian word for “laundress” is spelled “prachka” and pronounced “prah′chkuh.”

626  The Russian word for “it’s all right,” “it’s nothing,” “never mind,” is spelled “nichevo” and pronounced “nyeecheevaw′.”

627  The cousins of Joseph Samuel Ropes were probably George Henry Prince and possibly Franklin Henry Hooper. See Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall in Appendix E.

628  Franklin Henry Hooper was an orphan and also had no living brothers and sisters (Charles Henry Pope and Thomas Hooper, comps., Hooper Genealogy [Boston: Charles H. Pope, 1908], pp. 148–149). I doubt that he is the right Hooper cousin; however, he is the only Hooper whose name appears in the passport applications recorded in 1844 before June (NAUS: Passports, M1371, roll 2, p. 16, passport no. 1902). Perhaps Anna Whistler made a mistake when she said “his brother” had worked for Whistler in Springfield.

629  It has not been possible to locate the note from the terminally ill Mary Gent Hirst.

630  Starting about 1830, 1/13 July, the birthday of Empress Aleksandra Fyodorovna (see Images 420, 424), was celebrated at Peterhof (see Images 400, 402) as a public holiday (before then it had been celebrated on Elagin Island; see Image 409). When 10 p.m. struck, three rockets were set off as the signal for the illumination to begin, and in an instant, as if by magic, the somber masses of trees were sprinkled with diamonds. Thousands of fires in various charming shapes sparkle everywhere, reflected in the waters and turning them to gold, and in the centre of an enormous blazing star brightly burns the monogram of the August heroine of the festivities. Wherever you turn your gaze there are bewitching and marvelous pictures. Looking from below up at the palace, you see mountains of fiery water plunging into an abyss. On one side the pond of Marly Palace, decorated along its edge with flaming ribbons and festoons, draws your attention; on the other side the open sea sprinkled with Russian vessels, their yardarms covered with interwoven fiery garlands. The tall column of water from the Samson fountain turns into a burning column and sparks scatter in the shapes of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. Fiery peristyles hang over the canal. Further away majestically towers a colossal shield, shining like the sun, and proudly bearing in its center the name “Aleksandra” in fiery diamonds. Orchestras from the Guards regiments play in various locales of the gardens without cease, one replacing another, and the sounds of the music fusing with the noise of the water increase the enchantment. The Imperial family, accompanied by courtiers and foreign emissaries, moves about in wagons amidst the tightly packed crowd of merrymakers. The public carouses all night, leaving the garden only at dawn (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, pp. 21–38. Pushkarev’s description of these festivities is extracted from Bur’ianov’s extremely detailed description: Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, pp. 173–174). For further information about the festivities of this day, see Richard Wortman, Scenarios of Power: Myth & Ceremony in Russian Monarchy, 2 vols. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995–2000), vol. 1, pp. 328–331.

631  One of the means considered beneficial in folk medicine to treat pulmonary tuberculosis was the use of animal remedies. “In the case of sheep or cows the inhalation of their breath was regarded as beneficial so that the patient was made to sleep among a flock of sheep, in a byre … or butcher’s shop” (J.D. Rolleston, “The Folklore of Pulmonary Tuberculosis,” Tubercule 22 (1941): p. 57). There were “those who regarded the exhalations of cow houses as a sure remedy; no less a scientist than Joseph Priestly attributed the cure of his daughter to those fumes” (René Dubos and Jean Dubos, The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man, and Society [New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987], p. 136). “This practice apparently persisted through much of the nineteenth century. In La peau de chagrin, Balzac speaks of a Swiss consumptive who cured himself by breathing in, extremely slowly, the ‘thick air of a cowhouse’” (Dubos and Dubos, p. 256). Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna was placed in the cowshed on the Imperial model farm in Tsarskoe Selo overnight, but could not endure the treatment. She was then placed in the small lodge, one of the three buildings making up the farm (see Images 458–459). See also Jerrmann, Pictures from St. Petersburg, p. 220; Bang, Livs Minder, p. 248.

632  As Anna Whistler did not write in her diary on Sunday, this entry was most likely written on Monday, 15 July. The “little Normans” in this entry cannot be identified.

633  Matthew 26:13: “Verily I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also be this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.” The tenor of Rev. George Williams’s sermon on charity was based on the story of the woman who anointed Christ’s head with all of a precious ointment she had, causing an outcry from his disciples, who felt it could have been sold for a large sum to help the poor. Christ answered that she had wrought a good work upon him, because she had done it for his burial; thus Mr. Williams’s exhortation to his congregation to relieve not only the material but the spiritual needs of others.

634  Persons mentioned in the entry for Wed [July] 17ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Anna Whistler’s half-sister Alicia Caroline Margaret McNeill (my sister, Aunt Alicia); Colonel Ivan Frantsevich Bouttatz, Major Whistler’s colleague and a family friend (Col Bouttatz, the Col); the terminally ill Mary Gent Hirst (Miss Hirst); the American envoy to Russia, Colonel Charles Stewart Todd (Col Todd); Timothy Abraham Curtis, a merchant of the Liverpool firm of Bury, Curtis and Kennedy (old Mr. Curtis, Mr. C); Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna (dear daughter the Grand Duchess, blooming bride); Emperor Nicholas I (the great man); Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel, husband of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna (Prince of Hesse Castle); and William Miller, a merchant and suitor of Deborah Delano Whistler (Mr Miller).

635  “On his arrival in St. Petersburg, the stranger receives a carte de séjour, or permission of residence, in exchange for which he delivers up his passport, which is deposited in the archives of the Alien Office until his departure” (see Image 150) (Jerrmann, Pictures from St. Petersburg, p. 75).

636  Count Aleksandr Khristoforovich Benkendorf (Benckendorff) (1783 – 23 September / 5 October 1844; see Image 308) was “Head of the Third Department of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancery (Chief Director after 1839) and Chief of Gendarmes from 1826 to 1844.” In March 1841, when Nicholas I appointed a committee to study a project for a St. Petersburg–Moscow railway, he chose Benckendorff to head it. In January/February 1842, Benckendorff was made chairman of the Construction Commission, which was to direct and supervise the construction of the approved railway (the Commission was abolished later in the year, when the Department of Railways was created). Benckendorff’s home (No. 15) was located on the Fontanka River between Chain (Tsepnoi) Bridge and Semionov Bridge, in the Second Ward of the Liteinaia District. As one walked along the Fontanka from his house towards the Grand Neva, the Summer Garden was visible on the other side of the Fontanka (P.S. Squire, The Third Department: The Establishment and Practices of the Political Police in the Russia of Nicholas I [New Haven, CT: Cambridge University Press, 1968], pp. 106–131; Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, pp. 12, 15–16, 17–18, 40; Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, p. 5. Nistrem’s address guide was dedicated to Benckendorff). Elizabeth Rigby executed a portrait of him and his wife.

637  The Summer Palace (see Image 148) stands on a plot adjoining Laundry (Prachechnyi) Bridge and is preserved as a relic of olden days. It contains several memorable things: the large clock said to have been bought by Peter the Great in Holland; the full-length portrait of Peter the Great in a cuirass and Danish uniform; various furniture purported to have been made by Peter the Great or used by him and by his daughter, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. Built in 1711, the Summer Palace was intended as a summer residence and therefore an extensive garden was laid out around it (the present-day Summer Garden; see Image 149), in which popular festivities took place on Sundays. In 1725, a separate building with a salon for the festivities taking place in celebration of the marriage of Tsarevna Anna Petrovna (Peter’s daughter) to the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein was added to the Summer Palace. In 1731, this addition was destroyed and replaced with a wooden house in which Empress Anna Ioannovna lived, and later the Duke Biron (he was arrested here in the final days of his regency). In the reign of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (see Image 413), the Summer Palace was restored to its original state, as it had been in the time of Peter the Great, and remains so to this day. In winter, the palace is closed; visitors are admitted only in spring and summer.

The Summer Garden occupies the entire area between the Grand Neva, the Fontanka, the Moika and Swan (Lebiazhii) Canal. The Swan Canal separates it from the Tsarina’s Meadow, also called the Field of Mars. The Summer Garden is about 250 sazhens long and about 100 sazhens wide. At first, it occupied the area of the present-day Garden, and all of the Tsarina’s Meadow, which at that time was also planted with trees in the form of a park. The garden then also included land set aside for the Mikhail, or Engineers (Mikhailovskii, or Inzhenernyi), Castle, and for the garden that now belongs to the Mikhail Palace (the Upper Summer Garden). The first plans proposed building the Summer Garden according to the rules of French horticulture of the time, with a grotto, covered avenues, and fountains and cascades, for which a water conduit from the Ligovskii Canal was built. These plans show the following structures: the Summer Palace, near Laundry Bridge; a grotto, in which in summer there is now a confectioner’s shop; a post house that was located on the spot where the Marble Palace stands and that was taken down in 1738; and the salon in which festivities took place (that is mentioned above in the information on the Summer Palace). This project was carried out. The garden had, in addition, a collection of rare birds and animals. It was decorated with lead statues depicting figures from Aesop’s fables and a large number of marble statues and busts from Italy. In the reign of Catherine the Great, the Summer Garden was embellished with new structures, such as fountains, cascades, statues, ponds, artificial hills, grottos, temples, and Chinese and Egyptian gazebos, but it suffered during the storm and flood that raged on 10 September (OS) 1777. The Garden was knocked down, and many trees were broken. They were raised and propped up. The iron clips holding the branches to the trunks were still visible in 1838, when Bur’ianov’s book appeared. The fountains destroyed by the storm had not been restored by that date. Particular attention must be drawn to the magnificent iron fence with granite posts, begun in 1778 and completed in 1784, which extends in front of the Garden on the Neva River side. It was built by the architect Iurii Matveevich Fel’ten (1730–1801), who was director of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. Its granite columns were cut from whole pieces, are two sazhens high with a diameter of three feet, and are placed on the same kind of pedestals six cubic feet thick. The fence has three gates decorated with gilded depictions of baskets of flowers, etc. The elegant design, quality of the materials, fine columns decorated at their summits with vases and urns, the bright gilt of the darts and rings all make the fence unique. In recent times, the furthest-lying avenues of the Garden have been turned into paved roads for horseback riding and phaeton driving. An elegant urn of Elfdahl porphyry, the gift of the King of Sweden, was placed in 1839 on the side where the Engineers Castle stands. From the very start, the Summer Garden was intended for the public and remains so today. Fashion draws the largest crowds here from Thomas Week (Fomina nedelia) to Whit Monday (Dukhov den’). On the latter holiday, there is a big celebration that in days gone by included the choosing of brides, especially by the merchant class. After that, the Summer Garden becomes the domain of people who spend the summer in the city and have no other place where they can enjoy the shade of trees. They can take advantage of the coffee house in the garden, the owner of which often hires musicians for Sunday performances. One may also enjoy the mineral waters in the Summer Garden instead of having to go to the main establishment in Novaia Derevnia, while outside the Summer Garden on the Neva in a charming two-storied moored house one may take the cure by means of steam and cold baths (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, pp. 262–266; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 221–222, 334-335; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 662–663; Agapkina, Èntsiklopedicheskii slovar’ A–Ia Slavianskaia mifologiia, pp. 381–383).

638  On 5/17 July, the Feast of St. Sergius, there is a service in the Church of St. Sergius the Miracleworker and a religious procession around the monastery.

639  It has not been possible to ascertain who the “old admiral” is. If English, he may have been Admiral Aleksei Samuilovich Greig (6 September 1775 [OS] – 18/30 January 1845; see Image 297) or Admiral Alexander Ogilvy (c. 1765 – 26 March / 7 April 1847 (PREC STP for 1847, p. 349; 25 March is given in BRBC STP 1845, fol. 43).

640  “5 July [17 July]. 2:15 P.M. His Majesty arrived at the Alexandria Dacha from Tsarskoe Selo, having left there at twelve o’clock and having stopped in on route at the St. Sergius Monastery during the service for St. Sergius” (RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, fol. 355v).

In August 1825, Alexander I gifted to his brother Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich a confiscated parcel of land owned by the State Treasury. When the Grand Duke became Emperor Nicholas I later that year, he undertook the building of a new Imperial residence on this land, naming it in 1829 “Alexandria” in honor of his wife, Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna (Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, pp. 444–447).

641  The same entry for 5 July [17 July] in the Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal (see previous Note) also describes Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna’s condition of the previous day: “she spent yesterday pleasantly. Her cough was extremely moderate and expectoration was easy. There were no chills or fever and only toward evening was there any agitation. Her Highness exhibited an appetite in taking breakfast and dinner. Sitting by the window for several hours, she hardly coughed. She had a pleasant nap of three-quarters of an hour. Her sleep during the night was poor and interrupted by expectoration. Towards morning she rested more easy.”

642  The reference is to Charles Collins Parker (3 August 1823 – 28 December 1848), MD, University of Pennsylvania, 1846. He was companion to Colonel Sylvanus Thayer (see Note 645 below) during the latter’s trip through Europe. See the biographies of Colonel Sylvannus Thayer and Charles Collins Parker in Appendix E (hereafter, Thayer and Parker) and Images 318–319.

643  This is Abby Hortense (Chew) Swift (1822 – 10 April 1898), who, on 15 September 1842, married McRee Swift (15 April 1819 – 5 April 1896), son of General Joseph Gardner Swift. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

644  Thomas John Chew (28 January 1777 – 21 July 1846) and Abby Hortense (Hallam) Chew (13 September 1791 – 21 March 1874), married in September 1812, were the parents of Abby Hortense (Chew) Swift. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

645  This is Colonel Sylvanus Thayer (9 June 1785 – 7 September 1872), USMA Class of 1808; military engineer; superintendent USMA (1817–1833), while George Washington Whistler was a cadet there. Maxwell later wrote: “His old precepter at West Point Colonel Thayer, was out here this summer and was I understand highly delighted with the golden opinion entertained by all for his former pupil” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, October 15, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 45). Thayer and Parker were probably staying at the misses Benson’s boarding house (H. Memminger, Seraing near Liége, June 5, 1844, Sylvanus Thayer Papers, USMA Library [hereafter, USMAL: Thayer Papers], vol. 7). See Benson, and Thayer and Parker, in Appendix E, as well as Images 318–319.

646  “Col B” is Colonel Ivan Frantsevich Bouttatz, Major Whistler’s colleague and friend in the Department of Tranport and Public Buildings. In 1842, he traveled to America to accompany Major Whistler to Russia.

647  Persons mentioned in the entry for Friday [July] 19ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Colonel Sylvanus Thayer (Col Thayer); Charles Collins Parker, medical student traveling with Thayer (Mr. Parker); William Clarke Gellibrand, English merchant (Mr. Gellibrand); William Hooper Ropes, merchant (Ropes); Timothy Abraham Curtis, member of the Liverpool firm of Bury, Curtis and Kennedy (Mr. Curtis); and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand and Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes (the ladies).

648  In the days when sugar was not yet known in Russia, wine, beer, and vodka were sweetened only with honey; therefore, a great variety of drinks in Old Russia went by the name of “mead.” The following recipe is for cranberry mead: one kg. of honey, 2 liters of water, one liter of cranberry juice, 5 gr. of spices, 100 gr. of yeast. Pour the water into the honey; boil, removing the foam. Pour into a large bottle (or tub), add the cranberry juice and spices (cinnamon and cloves), and the yeast and allow to ferment for two days. Then close up the bottle, keep in a cold place for about three weeks, pour into bottles and cork up (Mikhailov, Pravoslavnaia kukhnia, p. 195).

649  This was probably Alexander Thal (St. Petersburg 5/17 November 1802 – St. Petersburg 8/20 January 1886), who was the consul general for Hanover in St. Petersburg from 1842– 1860. However, James Thal (St. Petersburg 22 January / 3 February 1801 – St. Petersburg 11/23 August 1866), who had been vice consul for Hanover in St. Petersburg from 1835–1841 and was consul in Moscow from 1842–1844, is a possibility (Dr. Annette von Boetticher, Niedersächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Hanover, Germany, to E. Harden, 23 August 1994; Amburger Datenbank, IDs 80404, 80424).

650  Persons mentioned in the entry for Sat [July] 20th who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Thomas Nelson Hirst, who ran a private school in St. Petersburg (Mr. Hirsts gate); his terminally ill sister, Mary Gent Hirst (my invalid friend, my poor suffering friend); and her Russian servant (her good Elona).

651  Persons mentioned in the entry for Monday [July] 22Ơ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church (Mr Williams); Anna Whistler’s half-sister Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill (Aunt Alicia); the little Normans, who cannot be identified; and Alexander and William, the sons of Colonel Thomas Drury, and possibly William Leighton, the son of William Drury (the Druries).

652  The work being read aloud appears to be the anonymously published work by David Hume, A True Account of the Behaviour and Conduct of Archibald Stewart, Esq; Late Lord Provost of Edinburgh, in a Letter to a Friend (London: M. Cooper, 1748). It has been pointed out that although Hume’s job as tutor to the Marquess of Annandale had “the unanticipated advantage of keeping Hume out of Scotland during the Jacobite uprising of 1745,” his absence “did not prevent him from later writing, with every appearance of authority, a defence of the conduct of the lord provost of Edinburgh during the rebellion” (Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. “Hume, David [1711–1776]”). I wish also to thank James L. Mitchell, curator of Rare Collections at the NLS, for his help with the identification of this work.

653  There are three notes from Willie Whistler at GUL: one undated, to his aunt, Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill; one dated “Juillet 9 1845 Petersbourg” to “Mon cher frère,” his brother James; and one to his father (GUL: Whistler Collection, W969).

654  Persons mentioned in the entry for Wed [July] 24ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill (sister, my sister); Mary Gent Hirst (Miss Hirst, the dear Invalid); Thomas Nelson Hirst, her brother (to Mr. Hirsts); and Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church (Mr. Williams).

655  They had taken a third-story apartment in the house of Ritter, at No. 237 English Embankment, opposite the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. In Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, the house is numbered 13 on the English Embankment and 26 on the Galernaia Street side (pp. 3, 39).

656  The Russian word for “oarsman” is spelled “pirosvozchii” and pronounced “pirossvaw′shchee.”

657  The name of the five-kopek coin is derived from the word for “five” and was spelled “piatak” or “piatachok” (Fedosiuk, Chto neponiatno u klassikov, p. 53).

658  The Whistlers’ family doctor, Dr. James Rogers, also attended Mary Gent Hirst.

659  The reference here is to Rev. James Slade (2 May 1783 – 15 May 1860), divine and author. The work referred to here is Twenty-one Prayers Composed from the Psalms, for the Sick and Afflicted. It was first published in 1828. Each of the twenty-one Psalms included there is accompanied by a prayer based on it. This section is followed by other forms of prayer for the sick that are partly adopted from “well known devotional writers” and partly original. The final section consists of occasional prayers, e.g., for the dying, for those in violent pain, for those of advanced age (James Slade, Twenty-One Prayers Composed from the Psalms, for the Sick and Afflicted, 4th ed., [London: J.G. & F. Rivington, 1839]).

Educated first by his father, Slade then attended Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating in 1804, and was ordained a priest in 1807. He was vicar in a number of places until his post as vicar of Bolton, which he held for almost forty years, and in which he became widely known. He was “[i]n advance of his time on many questions,” especially concerning “church reform and education.” He devoted much attention “to the education of the working classes … The Bolton parish church Sunday schools became famous under his care … In 1846 he founded the Church of England Educational Institution for boys and girls of the middle class and for evening students … He was also the founder of the Poor Protection Society.”

His other published works included Annotations on the Epistles (1816), Lessons for Sunday Schools, Selected from the Scriptures (1823), An Explanation of the Psalms As Read in the Liturgy of the Church (1832), Plain Remarks on the Four Gospels (1818), A Letter on Church Reform to the Bishop of London (1830), Plain Parochial Sermons, 7 vols. (1835–1847), and A System of Family Prayer (1837) (Dictionary of National Biography, s.v. "Slade, James [1783–1860]”).

660  This is Baron Eduard Andreevich de Stoeckl, junior secretary to the Russian Mission in Washington. See the biographies of Stoeckl, Howard, Swift, Ironside in Appendix E and Image 286.

661  This is Engineer General Jean-Antoine Maurice Destrem (July 1787 – 10/22 November 1855), called Moris Gugonovich by the Russians. He was director of the Department of Planning and Estimates of GUPSiPZ. His cultural accomplishments prompted Anna Whistler to describe him in this entry as “very intellectual.” See his biography in Appendix E and Image 246.

662  See Note 52 above. Jean Robert and Cecilia (Flour or Flouer) Poizat, who had been on the Acadia in 1843 with the Whistler family, had three children at this time. The new baby is never called by name in APS: Scaliger, nor does she appear in the 1850 Census for West Chester, Pennsylvania, when the family was living there. She is most certainly Amata Poissat, legitimate daughter of Johannes, born in France, who died of brain fever on 27 April 1850 at age six in West Chester, Pennsylvania (Death Register of Holy Trinity Church, 1810– 1828 and 1849–1871, PAHRC). Mary, who seems older than Charles, had been in Philadelphia “last summer.” Because the date of this diary entry is 24 July 1844, it suggests that “last summer” means 1843. Mary, too, does not appear in the 1850 Census mentioned above. Charles’s age at this time is not known, but he is listed in the 1850 Census as nine years old. He appears in the Philadelphia directories for many years until 1882. It has not been possible to locate this letter. See Poizat in Appendix E and Image 78.

663  Persons mentioned in the entry for August 1ƪ Thursday who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: William Clarke Gellibrand, English merchant, and his wife, Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (Mr. G, the Gellibrands); Elona, the servant of the terminally ill Mary Gent Hirst (poor Elona); Mary Gent Hirst (Miss Hirst); Sophia (Gordon) Hirst, Mary Gent Hirst’s sister-in-law (her Sister); Thomas Nelson Hirst, Mary Gent Hirst’s brother (her brother); Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church (our Pastor Mr. Williams, Mr. W, our young Clergyman, our young pastor); Anna Whistler’s half-sister, Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill (Aunt Alicia); Rev. Dr. Edward Law, chaplain of the English Church, on leave in England (Mr. Laws practise); and Colonel Pavel Petrovich Mel’nikov, head of the Northern Administration of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway (Col Melnikoff).

664  The superior to whom Major Whistler was immediately responsible was Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmikhel’ (30 November [OS] 1793 – 3 February [OS] 1869), head of the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings, appointed to the post in August 1842, shortly after Whistler’s arrival in Russia. See his biography in Appendix E and Image 243.

665  Little is known of Sophia Morgan (Greenock, Scotland 1808 – Merchiston, Edinburgh 13 April 1872). She was the daughter of Francis and Isabella Margery (Carmichael) Morgan. She first met Alicia McNeill in Russia in the summer of 1844, and they became close friends. Sophia Morgan was married on 30 October 1856 in Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, to John Rodger (Greenock, Scotland bap. 4 September 1796 – 26 March 1868) (IGI for Midlothian; OPRS for Renfrewshire; Will of John Rodger, Ref. SC70/1/159 1868, Edinburgh Sheriff Court). Her husband was a banker. Their house was called Fairbank. Alicia McNeill (see Image 39), who died suddenly in Linlithgow in 1863, was buried from Sophia (Morgan) Rodger’s house (William Charnley to “Madam”, Preston 23ƨ October 1863, GUL: Whistler Collection, C76; Anna Whistler to Mr. Gamble, London, 10–11 February 1864, GUL: Whistler Collection, W516; The Scotsman, Tuesday, Sept. 22, 1863; London Evening Standard, April 16, 1872).

666  Dorothea Halliday (bap. 2 January 1810 – Steyning, Sussex 20 February 1880) married Francis Baird (28 February / 12 March 1802 – 13/25 March 1864; see Image 275) on 1/13 October 1828 (PREC STP, nos. 3756, 7614).

667  Miss Morgan lived in town with old Mrs. Baird, at the home of Francis and Dorothea (Halliday) Baird in the house they owned on Miasnaia Street, near the Baird works, in the Fourth Admiralty District, Third Ward (Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti 170, Tuesday, July 29 / August 10, 1847; Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, vol. 1, pp. 22, 81). Francis and Dorothea Baird also had a dacha on the Peterhof Road, the location of which it has not been possible to determine.

668  Anne Elizabeth Main and Matthew Anderson were married on 13/25 July 1838 (PREC STP for 1838, p. 237). Their anniversary had been celebrated on the previous Thursday.

669  It has not been possible to locate this note from Eliza (Lamb) Maingay that her husband, William Maingay, brought to Russia, and her son, William Bonamy Maingay, delivered (see Images 258–260).

670  It has not been possible to locate these letters of Emma Maingay (see Image 263), also delivered by William Bonamy Maingay (see Image 260), her brother.

671  Anne Elizabeth (Main) and Matthew Anderson had one son at this time, Henry Main, born 13/25 August 1840 (RGIA: Fond 1689, op. 1, d. 3 Register British Factory Chapel St. Petersburg [January 1831 – December 1846]; PREC STP for 1840, p. 266). Therefore, the Anderson boys referred to here would have included the sons of other members of the Anderson family, most likely of Frances (Simpson) and John Anderson (who owned the house), who had a son twenty years old and five sons thirteen years of age and under; and possibly of Sarah (Phillips) and Robert Anderson, who had two sons, seven and five years of age.

672  The term “Circassian beauty” refers to an exoticized image of women from Circassia, in the North Caucasus. The reputation of Circassian women as extraordinarily beautiful and spirited, while still respectful and obedient, rendered them attractive commodities in the Turkish slave trade. This “historical image of idealized feminine aesthetics” also pervaded artistic, literary, and popular culture from “its initial appearance in the novels and theatrical plays of the seventeenth century” (Setenay Nil Doğan, “From National Humiliation to Difference: The Image of the Circassian Beauty in the Discourses of Circassian Diaspora Nationalists,” New Perspectives on Turkey, 42 (2010): pp. 77, 82). In the 1800s, “this identification of the Circassian and Caucasian as the most perfect representatives of whiteness had taken hold of the public imagination” (Gregory Fried, “A Freakish Whiteness: The Circassian Lady and the Caucasian Fantasy,” Mirror of Race [2013], online journal), and the term was used extensively to market beauty products in American and Europe. In 1843, “Circassian Hair Dye, for changing light, red, or grey hair to a beautiful brown or black,” was sold in Baltimore for one dollar a bottle (“Circassian Hair Dye,” Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-pga-08523, advertisement flyer). While Anna Whistler would have ignored the association of Circassian beauty with concubines, she probably was aware of the beauty products and would have known the term from literary allusions. Known as the beautiful Mrs. Anderson, Anna Whistler’s acquaintance, Anne Elizabeth (Main) Anderson, had dark eyes, presumably dark hair, a sweetness of manner, and sang affectingly, the attributes of a Circassian maid.

673  Astrakhan’ is a city on the Volga River delta near the Caspian Sea.

674  Sunday was 28 July 1844.

675  Dr. James Rogers attended James Whistler and Mary Gent Hirst on Monday, 29 July 1844.

676  Tuesday was 30 July 1844.

677  Mr. Hirst’s house was No. 31 Fifth Line (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 25; Nistrem, Adres-Kalendar’, p. 204).

678  Wednesday was 31 July 1844.

679  The Book of Psalms of the Old Testament consists of 150 psalms, 73 of which are indicated to be “of David.” They are “Hebrew sacred songs and poems,” the themes of which “concern … praise to the Lord, … personal joy and sorrow, national redemption, festivals and historical events” (Joan Comay, Who’s Who in the Old Testament Together with the Apocrypha, vol. 1 of Who’s Who in the Bible, 2 vols. [New York: Bonanza Books, 1980], p. 101).

680  An examination of the Russia Company Minute Books for several years on either side of 1844 shows no mention of a new organ for the English Church at St. Petersburg. There is correspondence about a new organ for the English Church at Moscow that arrived there in early 1841. The Russia Company did not want to spend more than £100 for the Moscow organ. Perhaps the organ for St. Petersburg was bought by the congregation there directly, thus bypassing the Russia Company. Anna Whistler’s figure of £1000 seems rather high (entry for August 1ƪ Thursday [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I; Russia Company Court Minute Book 1834–1844, CLC/B/195/Ms 11741/012; Russia Company Court Minute Book 1844–1869, CLC/B/195/Ms 11741/013).

681  Johann Promberger (Vienna 15 September 1810 – Vienna 1890) was the organist of the English Church in St. Petersburg. One source says that he held this position in 1841; another source says he came to Russia in 1843. He also taught the piano in St. Petersburg for more than forty years, concertized, was a composer, and constructed the musical instrument called the “melodion.” In the 1840s and 1850s, he was music critic for the St. Petersburgische Zeitung, writing under the pseudonym of “—mb—.” An excellent performer on both the organ and piano, he was limited as an organist by being able to play the organ only within the confines of a church. A.N. Serov relates how in a concert in 1869, Promberger had to play works for the organ by Frescobaldi, Rameau, and D. Scarlatti on the harmonium because of the lack of an organ in the concert hall. Together with G. Ernst, he was the first performer in Russia of Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata” (11 March 1847) (L. Roizman, Organ v istorii russkoi muzykal’noi kul’tury [The Organ in the History of Russian Musical Culture] [Moscow: Muzyka, 1979], p. 246; Petrovskaia, Kontsertnaia zhizn’ Peterburga, p. 159; G.B. Bernandt and I.M. Iampol’skii, Kto pisal o muzyke [Who Wrote about Music], 4 vols. [Moscow: Soviet Composer Publishing House, 1974], vol. 2, p. 308; I.F. Petrovskaia, Muzykal’noe obrazovanie i muzykal’nye obshchestvennye organizatsii v Peterburge 1801-1917 Èntsiklopediia [Music Education and Social Music Organizations in Petersburg 1801-1917. An Encyclopedia] [St. Petersburg: Petrovskii fond, 1999], pp. 15, 115, 298). Some of Promberger’s writings in German are listed in Who Wrote about Music.

682  Horatio P. Southgate was born in Portland, Maine, on 5 July 1812. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1832, then attended Andover Theological Seminary. “He applied for orders” in the Episcopal Church in 1834 and was confirmed in October of that year. In July 1835, “he was ordained deacon in Trinity Church, Boston … and soon afterwards was appointed by the Foreign Committee of the Board of Missions to make an investigation of the State of Mohammedanism in Turkey and Persia.” “On … returning to the United States he was ordained bishop in St. Paul’s Chapel, New York City, on October 3, 1839.” “He was appointed missionary to Constantinople in 1840, and served for four years in that capacity, during which time he made a tour through Mesopotamia. The Episcopal Church having resolved henceforth to send bishops into the foreign missionary field, [he] was consecrated bishop for dominions and dependencies of the sultan of Turkey in St. Peter’s Church, Philadelphia … 26 October 1844.” In 1845, he returned to Constantinople until 1849. On returning to the United States, “he offered his resignation, which was accepted by the house of bishops in October 1850.” “He received the degree of S.T.D. from Columbia [University] in 1845 and … from Trinity [College] in 1846.” “He was elected bishop of California in 1850 and of Ha[i]ti in 1870, but declined.” “In 1851 he went to Portland, Maine, and organized St. Luke’s Parish.” In 1852, “he accepted the rectorship of the Church of the Advent, Boston, which he held until the close of 1858.” “In the autumn of 1859 he became rector of Zion Church, New York City, … resigning in September 1872,” because of failing health. He then retired to Ravenswood, New York. He died on 12 April 1894 in Astoria, Long Island. He married in January 1839 Elizabeth Browne, who died in August 1850 and with whom he had six children. His second marriage, in December 1864, was to Sarah Elizabeth Hutchinson, with whom he had seven children and who survived him. His chief publications are: Narrative of a Tour through Armenia, Kurdistan, Persia and Mesopotamia, 2 vols. (New York, 1840); Narrative of a Visit to the Syrian (Jacobite) Church of Mesopotamia (1844); A Treatise on the Antiquity, Doctrine, Ministry, and Worship of the Anglican Church, in Greek (Constantinople, 1849); Practical Directions for the Observance of Lent (New York, 1850); The War: Its Origin and Its Consequences (London: James Madden, 1855); Parochial Sermons (1859); and The Cross Above the Crescent: A Romance of Constantinople (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1877). All quotations are from Appleton’s Cyclopaedia, s.v. “Southgate, Horatio.” Other sources consulted are: N. Cleaveland and A.S. Packard, History of Bowdoin College with Biographical Sketches of Its Graduates from 1806 to 1879, Inclusive (Boston: James Ripley Osgood, 1882), pp. 436–437; General Catalogue of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine A Biographical Record of Alumni and Officers 1794–1950, sesquicentennial ed. (Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College, 1950), p. 65; New York Times, April 13, 1894; Obituary Record of the Graduates of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine for the Year Ending 1 June 1894, 2nd series, no. 5. (Brunswick, ME: Bowdoin College, [1894], pp. 187–188.

683  Reverend John Henry Hill (11 September 1791 – 1 July 1882) was born in New York City. He graduated from Columbia University at 16 and became a businessman. On 26 April 1821, he married Frances Maria Mulligan (see following Note). After twenty years in the business world, he entered the Protestant Episcopal Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, and was ordained a priest in Norfolk in 1831. When in that same year his church established a foreign mission in Greece after the expulsion of the Turks, he volunteered for service and went with his wife to Athens, where they opened the first schools for boys and girls in the new Greek kingdom. The following year, the Greek government undertook the education of boys, and the Hills took upon themselves the education of girls and the training of teachers. In addition to operating a paying school called “Mrs. Hill’s Private Boarding and Day School for Children of the Higher Classes,” they also ran “The American School” in the Agora for the poor, free of charge. The quality of female education offered by the Hills caused their school to become a model for other schools in Greece, especially because they did not attempt to proselytize. Rather, “Dr. Hill never tried to disturb the religious beliefs of the Greek girls he taught, but took care most conscientiously to establish them, providing that they be taught the orthodox catechism by a worthy Greek cleric or theologian,” because he “saw that what Greece needed was simply education, and that the proselytism which aims at drawing away Greeks from their national faith, could only injure Greece, disturbing the bases of the religion of the nation … He reverenced the Eastern Church, as ancient, preserving the Christian traditions of the first ages, and fitted, if anything was lacking to her, in due time, when education of her clergy and laity was more advanced, to set things in order for herself.” Mr. Hill was also for thirty years the chaplain of the British Legation. He constantly refused offers of decorations from the Greek government, but in 1881, on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of “The Girls’ School,” King George I sent him an official letter of thanks. In 1877, he became blind but continued his work with his wife’s help. His funeral was a public manifestation of sorrow, and he was accorded the honors given a grand commander (Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. “Hill, John Henry”; Journal of the Proceedings of the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Virginia…Nineteenth…of May, 1831 [Richmond, 1831], pp. 12; The Churchman, July 15, Aug. 5, 12, 26, 1882; The Church Eclectic, Oct. 1882, pp. 627–9; New York Times, July 9, 1882; New-York Evening Post, April 27, 1821). Letters of Rev. Hill are in the collection of the Archives of the Episcopalian Church in the United States in Austin, TX (Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society: Greece, Crete, and Constantinople Records, 1828–1909, RG67-4 through 8).

John Stevenson Maxwell, in his travels after leaving Russia permanently, visited Athens (December 1844). Here, he attended church on Christmas Day and was invited to Christmas dinner by Mr. Hill, who asked him whether he “was connected with M Hugh Maxwell … an old [school] friend of his in New York,” because the resemblance was so strong (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Trieste, entry of Dec. 26 in letter of Dec. 16, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, letter no. 49).

684  Frances Maria Mulligan (10 July 1799 – Athens, Greece 5 August 1884), daughter of Attorney John W. Mulligan (13 April 1774 – New York 17 January 1862) of New York City and Elizabeth (Winter) Mulligan (Louisville, KY 1777 – 18 January 1840) married John Henry Hill on 26 April 1821 (Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. “Hill, John Henry”; New-York Evening Post, April 27, 1821). The paying school she and her husband ran in Athens was called “Mrs. Hill’s Private Boarding and Day School for Children of the Higher Classes.” Frances (Mulligan) Hill had “the superintendence of the internal arrangements of the school,” and she “and the young ladies her helpers from America,” including her sister, Frederica Mulligan, were described as “indefatigable in their labors” ([Simeon H. Calhoun, American Bible Society (ABS) agent for Greece], “Calhoun’s Trip to Greece,” ABS Historical Essay #15, Part III (American Bible Society Archives, n.d.), p. D-12; Walter Barrett, The Old Merchants of New York City, 2nd series [New York: Greenwood, 1968], p. 279, first published in 1863 by Carleton [New York]; Don S. Armentrout and Robert Boak Slocum, eds., An Episcopalian Dictionary of the Church; A User-Friendly Reference for Episcopalians [New York: Church Publishing, 2000]). Frances (Mulligan) Hill took on a greater task in the school’s operation when her husband went blind five years before his death, and she continued to run the school until her own death (Dictionary of American Biography, s.v. “Hill, John Henry”). Over one hundred letters written by Frances (Mulligan) Hill are held by the Archives of the Episcopalian Church in the United States in Austin, Texas (Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society: Greece, Crete and Constantinople Records, 1828–1909, RG67-3).

Maxwell called Mrs. Hill “a most excellent and universally beloved woman.” It turned out that she was a schoolmate of his Aunt Maria, and said she knew his mother. He reported that Mrs. Hill was brought up at Sing Sing, New York (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Trieste, entry of December 26 in letter of December 16, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, letter no. 49).

685  “They are very highly respected, and have done much for Greece, having educated many hundred young people, and this winter a young lady from their school was made lady of honour to the Queen, and is now the most admired of all at Court for her beauty and accomplishment” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Trieste, entry of Dec. 26 in letter of Dec. 16, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, letter no. 49).

686  This is Dr. James Ronaldson Handyside (29 July 1798 – 11/23 December 1872), physician to the Gellibrands and Ropeses.

687  Reverend William Henry Newman (1783 – Flatbush 10 January 1852) was ordained a deacon on 3 July 1835 by Bishop Alexander V. Griswold (1766–1843), bishop of the Eastern Diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States. It has not been possible to ascertain when Rev. Newman was ordained to the priesthood. In 1838, he was minister at St. John’s Church, Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, Ohio; in 1839–1840, at Trinity Church, Newark, Ohio; in 1841, at Wakefield, Rhode Island (Wayne H. Kempton, Archivist–Historiographer of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, to E. Harden, 12 November 2010).

From 1841–1844, he was Rector of Christ’s Church in Westerly, Rhode Island, not far from Stonington, Connecticut. The latter did not have an Episcopal church, and the one in Westerly had not been long established. In 1833, the Rev. Erastus De Wolf preached at Westerly but “no church … was embodied.” In 1834, the Rev. John A. Clark “was instrumental in organizing” it. “It dates from November 24, 1834. The first pastor … was Rev. James Pratt.” In 1835, Christ’s Church was built, and in 1836 the parsonage. “[Rev.] Pratt officiated till December 26, 1839” and was succeeded by Rev. Newman (Frederic Denison, Westerly (Rhode Island) and Its Witnesses, for Two Hundred and Fifty Years 1626–1876 [Providence, RI: J.A. & R.A. Reid, 1878], p. 198). When the Whistlers lived in Stonington in the 1830s, they used to travel by hand car to attend services in Westerly (“The early years and boyhood of James MacNeill Whistler,” by Miss Emma W. Palmer, GUL: Whistler Collection, P44).

On 12 May 1844, Rev. Newman became rector of St. Pauls Church, Flatbush, Kings County, New York. On 27 November 1850, he became rector of the Church of the Messiah in Brooklyn, New York. He died in Flatbush on 10 January 1852 at the age of 69. His funeral took place on Wednesday, 14 January 1852, at St. Paul’s Church. He was last listed in the Episcopal Church Annual in New York in 1852 (Wayne Kempton, Archivist–Historiographer of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, 12 November 2010; New York Times, January 15, 1852; The Evening Post (New York), January13, 1852; New York Observer and Chronicle, February 5, 1852; Brooklyn Eagle, January 12, 1852; Inventory of the Church Archives of New York City, Protestant Episcopal Church, Diocese of Long Island, vol. 2, Brooklyn and Queens [New York: The New York City Historical Records Survey, September 1940], p. 24; enclosure from Mariam Touba, N-YHS, to E. Harden, 23 March 2011). I wish to thank Melanie Delva, Archivist at the Vancouver School of Theology at the University of British Columbia, for initiating the North American search that resulted in this biography of Rev. William H. Newman.

688  Mr. Williams read from “The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians.” “The theme of this brief letter is God’s eternal purpose in establishing and completing the universal Church of Jesus Christ … In developing such luminous figures of the church as the body of Christ …, the building or temple of God …, and the bride of Christ …, the author suggests the glorious privilege and destiny of believers as well as their duties” (New Oxford Annotated Bible, p. 1417). Its famous image is that of “putting on the whole armor of God” in order to be able to resist evil.

689  State Councilor Aleksandr Petrovich Mel’nikov (c. 1798 – 10/22 May 1873), referred to also as Mr. M. in the entry for August 1 Thursday, was entrusted to administer the construction section in the Second Department and the section of the Imperial Carriage Establishment in the Office of the Imperial Stables (RGIA: Fond 472, op. 32 (323/1125), d. 925.
Formuliarnyi spisok A.P. Mel’nikova Mart 1847g. [Service record of A.P. Mel’nikov March 1847], and Fond 472, op. 257/1273), d. 56. O naznachenii pensii vdove byvshego Sovetnika Pridvornoi Konniushennoi Kontory, Deistvitel’nogo Statskogo Sovetnika Mel’nikova, ne razdel’no s det’mi, po osoboi Monarshei milosti. 27 Iun’ia 1873g. … 10 Augusta 1873g. [Concerning the granting of a pension to the widow of former Councilor of the Office of the Imperial Stables, Actual State Councilor Mel’nikov, indivisibly with her children by special Imperial favor. June 27, 1873 … August 10, 1873]). See Mel’nikov in Appendix E.

690  Aleksandr Petrovich Mel’nikov was married to Nadezhda Filippova, which is how a spouse’s name (first and patronymic) was recorded in a service record (see previous Note for service record file number). According to the memoirs of Baron Andrei Ivanovich Del’vig (1813–1887), a transport engineer, her name was Nadezhda Filippovna Victorova (Baron A.I. Del’vig, Moi vospominaniia [My Memoirs], 4 vols. [Moscow: Moskovskii Publichnyi i Rumiantsovskii muzei, 1912–1913], vol. 1, p. 40). She is referred to as Madame M in the entry for August 1ƪ Thursday. Colonel Pavel Petrovich Mel’nikov was a bachelor. See Mel’nikov in Appendix E and Image 247.

691  Persons mentioned in the entry for Friday Aug 2Ơ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: the terminally ill Mary Gent Hirst (Miss Hirst, this dear lady, the sufferer, dear invalid, a saint); Mary Gent Hirst’s sister-in-law, Margaret (Gordon) Hirst (Mrs. Hirst, this Sister); Anna Whistler’s half-sister, Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill (my sister, Your Sister, my Sister, sister in Christ Jesus); Mary Gent Hirst’s servant, Elona (good Elonas arms); and Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church (Mr Williams visits).

692  Hebrews 12:6: “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

693  Many years later, when she was 68 years old, Anna Whistler spoke similar words about her husband: “I often have thought that my husband went to Russia for a greater work than the St. Petersburg & Moscow Railway building, his graceful & intellectual qualities and firm religious principles made his example win many to prefer domestic culture, to frivolity or dissipation, we honored & hallowed the Lords Day” (Anna Whistler to Mr. James H. Gamble, Chelsea, November 5 and 22, 1872, GUL: Whistler Collection, W546).

694  1 Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” This quotation is used by Anna Whistler to deal with the idea of the reunion of glorified spirits, so important to her.

695  Matthew 25:12: “But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.” This quotation is taken from the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. The foolish virgins are excluded from the wedding, because they had to go buy oil for their lamps and thus were not present to welcome Christ like the other members of the bridal party. Anna Whistler believed that not making Jesus “the object of our supreme attachment” in life meant not being prepared to enter heaven at death.

696  Persons mentioned in the entry for Monday [August] 5ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Thomas Nelson Hirst and Sophia (Gordon) Hirst, brother and sister-in-law of Mary Gent Hirst (Mr. and Mrs. Hirst); the terminally ill Mary Gent Hirst’s servant (poor Elona); Thomas Scales Ellerby, pastor of the British and American Congregational Church (Mr. Ellerby); Mary (Bealey) Ellerby (his sick wife); Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church (Mr. Williams); and Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes, wife of William Hooper Ropes (Mrs. Ropes).

697  Abraham Priest Gibson (10 July 1791 – 30 November 1852) was the American consul general in St. Petersburg (1819–1850). See his biography in Appendix E (hereafter, Gibson) and Image 279.

698  Revel was seized from Charles XII of Sweden in 1710 by Peter the Great, who founded a naval port there. It “is situated on a small bay on the south side of the Gulf of Finland, two hundred miles west-southwest of St. Petersburg” (Sears, Description of the Russian Empire, p. 60).

699  I Kings 19:18: “Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.”

700  Mary Gent Hirst, age 47 years, died on 23 July /4 August 1844, and was to be buried on 27 July /8 August 1844 (PREC STP for 1844, p. 312).

701  This is Sarah (Lake) Hodgson (Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales c. 1806 – London 2 January 1875). She was the wife of John Hodgson (Newcastle upon Tyne 1 January 1790 – Margate, Kent 24 September 1855), member of a leading family in Newcastle upon Tyne and of the firm of Thomson, Bonar and Co., London and St. Petersburg. They were married by license on 14 January 1833 at the church of St. Mary Newington, Surrey, South London. They had seven surviving children: Mary Ann (St. Pancras, London 4 December 1829 – St. Pancras, London c. 1901), John Evan (Camberwell, Surrey 1 March 1831 – 1895), Hannah (St. Petersburg 23 February / 7 March 1835 – after 1891 Census), Sarah (St. Petersburg 11/23 July 1839 – 14 February 1919), Thomas Lawrence (13/25 December 1840 – buried 15 May 1922), Fanny (St. Petersburg 8/20 June 1842 – 1916), Jane Maria (St. Petersburg 1/13 July 1845 – 25 July 1924). Mary Ann married in London on 16 July 1851 Sir Thomas Miles Riddell (3rd Baronet of Strontian and Ardnamunchan, MP). John Evan, artist and historical painter, married Helen [?], 26 years old (1861 Census for St. Marylebone, London, 5 Hill Road), born c. 1835 in Riga, Russia. The remaining five siblings were unmarried (Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury, September 28, 1855; 1851–1911 censuses, IGI; Pall Mall Gazette, January 6, 1875; National Probate Calendar [UK], 1919). Anna Whistler garbled the surname twice, calling Mrs. Hodgson Hodges and Hodson.

702  Elizabeth Charlotte Hodgson, aged 7 months and 3 days, died on 23 July /4 August 1844, and was buried on 26 July / 7 August 1844 (PREC STP for 1844, p. 312). She was born on 20 December 1843 /1 January 1844 and baptized on 3/15 February 1844 (IGI).

703  William Hooper Ropes’s ship Czarina had as a passenger Martha Reed Ropes (13 June 1826 – 21 August 1888), his youngest sister, who had been detained in Cronstadt (list of marriages and issue, HUBL: Ropes Papers). She had been to St. Petersburg on various occasions, beginning in 1834, but lived with William and Mary Anne (Codman) Ropes, her father and his second wife, and their children, whose home was now in Boston. Having failed to resolve his sister’s predicament, William Hooper Ropes was now turning to Colonel Charles Sterwart Todd, the American envoy, for help. See Ropes, Gellibrand, Prince, Hall in Appendix E.

704  Persons mentioned in the entry for Wed [August] 7ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes, wife of William Hooper Ropes (Mrs. Ropes); her sister-in-law, Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (Mrs Gellibrand); William Bonamy Maingay, brother of Deborah Whistler’s close friend in England (Mr. Wm. Maingay); Kirk Boott Whistler and Charles Donald Whistler, Anna Whistler’s deceased little sons (my Kirkies, little Charlies); Catherine Julia McNeill, first cousin to Deborah Whistler (Jule); Maria (Cammann) McNeill, Anna Whistler’s sister-in-law (dear Maria); and Henry Cammann McNeill, Anna Whistler’s deceased nephew (dear Henry).

705  Susannah (Walker) Drury, wife of Thomas Drury Sr., had died, aged 78 years, on 24 February /8 March 1842, and was buried on 2/14 March 1842 (PREC STP for 1842, p. 283). Thomas Drury, widower, and Mary Little (bap. 26 July 1797 – 21 November / 3 December 1868), spinster, were married on 28 October / 9 November 1843 (RGIA: Fond 1689, Register of the Chapel of the British Factory St. Petersburg January 1831 – December 1864, op. 1, d. 3, no. 5341). The landlady was therefore a recent second wife.

706  One of the Russian words for “Thank you” is spelled “Blagodarstvuyte” (pronounced “Bluhgahdar′stvooyti”). The gardener was using the shortened form of this word, spelled “Bladaste” and pronounced “Blahdah′sti.”

707  This is the Russian word for “dear mama” or “mommy,” spelled “mamen’ka” and pronounced “mah′minkuh.”

708  It has not been possible to ascertain who this friend was.

709  The letter from Mary in America received by Anna Whistler on 7 August 1844 cannot have been from Mary Brennan, who was then at the dacha. The girls referred to here are the daughters of Maria (Cammann) and William Gibbs McNeill (see Image 31): Mary Isabella (see Image 32) and Eliza. This identification seems confirmed by the fact that the family of William Gibbs McNeill, except for Mary, is reported in the girls’ letters to be off to West Point. It has not been possible to locate these letters.

710  The initials JDP bring to mind the brother of Kate Prince, John Dynely Prince Jr. (bap. Hayfield, Derby, England 6 June 1814 – Pawtucket, RI 9 March 1862), who married Mary Travers (1822 – 26 May 1874) on 29 July 1844 in Trenton, New Jersey. They had a son, also John Dynely Prince (b. New Jersey 27 May 1845; bap. Lowell, MA 5 July 1845; d. New York 20 November 1883) (M1372: Passport Applications 1795–1905, roll 181, passport no. 19164; Boston Transcript, November 21, 1883; IGI).

711  Persons mentioned in the entry for Thursday [August] 8ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: the deceased Mary Gent Hirst (Miss Hirst, dear Mistress); Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church (Mr Williams); Elona, servant to Mary Gent Hirst (poor Elona); Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, Anna Whistler’s half-sister (My Sister); William Clarke Gellibrand, English merchant (Mr Gellibrands carriage); Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, sister of the newly arrived Martha Reed Ropes (Mrs. Gellibrands Sister); Colonel Charles Stewart Todd (the Cols representations); Martha Reed Ropes (young countrywoman, Miss Martha Ropes); and William Hooper Ropes, brother of Martha Reed Ropes (Mr. Ropes).

712  Mary Gent Hirst’s age in the register is correctly given as 47 years (PREC STP for 1844, p. 312). Anna Whistler, however, says the figures “her age 37” were on the coffin in silver characters.

713  The English are for the most part buried in the Smolensk Lutheran, or Evangelical, Cemetery, which is called Smolensko Cemetery (from the Russian adjective “Smolenskoe”) in the Parish Register of the English Church at St. Petersburg. On the basis of the recommendation made by the Commission for Building in St. Petersburg, in 1738 a new decree was issued by the Synod concerning “places where burials should take place.” In this decree, the future Smolensk Cemetery (Orthodox) near Black River (Chernaia rechka) on Vasilievskii Island is mentioned for the first time. The ukase of 1756 brought into existence two of the most famous burial grounds of Old Petersburg, which still exist today, in the twenty-first century: the Smolensk and Volkov cemeteries. As regards the Smolensk Cemetery, the ukase of 1756 simply confirmed the already-established tradition of burial in the northwestern section of Vasilievskii Island near Chernaia rechka, between Lines 18 and 23. The wooden church here of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God was consecrated in the autumn of 1760. The cemetery was surrounded with a fence, and a trench for drying out the marshy site was dug from the western side. Chernaia rechka was also renamed after the Smolensk Church and called the Smolenka River. The delapidated wooden church was rebuilt in 1772 and consecrated as the Church of St. Michael the Archangel. In 1786–1788, on the site of two almshouses built in 1762, the Smolensk Temple (khram), a stone edifice, was built. Although the Smolensk Cemetery suffered greatly during the catastrophic floods of 1777 and 1824, it continued to remain one of the important and famous cemeteries of St. Petersburg. Starting in the 1820s, pilgrimages began to be made here to the grave of Blessed Kseniia of Petersburg (canonized in 1988). Primarily inhabitants of Vasilievskii Island were buried in this cemetery, but frequently funeral processions made their way here from other parts of the city, too. Traditionally the intelligensia was buried here: university professors, academicians, artists, actors, writers. On the right bank of the Smolenka River, in the southern part of Golodai Island, there was from 1747 a cemetery for foreign inhabitants of St. Petersburg belonging to various faiths, of which Protestants made up the largest group. A significant number of the foreigners lived on Vasilievskii Island. The founding and history of the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery is closely connected with the oldest Lutheran Church in St. Petersburg, that of St. Catherine. The cemetery was registered with this church, subordinated to its church council and intended above all for the non-Orthodox inhabitants of Vasilievskii Island. Since German Lutherans predominated among St. Petersburg’s foreign inhabitants, in the eighteenth century foreign cemeteries were most often called Lutheran or German, although Catholics (who until the mid-nineteenth century had no burial ground of their own), Anglican, Reformed, and other denominations were also buried here. This particular Lutheran cemetery acquired the name Smolensk Lutheran, or Evangelical, Cemetery after the Church of the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God was built (1760) in the neighboring Orthodox cemetery. In 1791, an Armenian Cemetery was also established nearby (Kobak, Istoricheskie kladbishcha Peterburga, pp. 22, 24, 25, 286, 288, 290, 309; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 292–293; Antonov and Kobak, Sviatyni Sankt-Peterburga, vol. 3, pp. 183–188). When Anna Whistler says their horses could not take them to the island where the Smolensk Lutheran Cemetery was located, she may have had in mind the distance, as they had to traverse Vasilievskii Island and then cross onto Golodai Island, and the fact that the road to the cemetery could be muddy.

714  There is some confusion here. William Ropes’s sister, Martha Reed Ropes (13 June 1826 – 21 August 1888), is meant, and she was supposed to be on the Czarina, but documents show that Colonel Todd asked that Miss Sarah Louisa Ropes (19 July 1819 – 5 October 1910), arrived on the Corea, be permitted to land and permission was received (Records of Foreign Service Posts. Diplomatic Posts. USSR. Vol. 165. Miscellaneous Sent. Todd. 1841-1846. Major General Dubel’t to Colonel Todd, 26 July 1844, RG84: Reel 35/14, NAUS). Major General Leontii Vasilievich Dubel’t (1792–1862; see Image 311) was chief of staff of the Corps of Gendarmes and director of the Third Department (Security Police) of His Majesty’s Own Chancery from 1839 under “Benckendorff [see Image 308] until the latter died” on 23 September / 5 October “1844 and to Benckendorff’s successor Orlov (see Image 312) until both retired in 1856” (Squire, Third Department, p. 142). For further information on Dubel’t see Squire, pp. 142–166.

715  Anna Whistler meant “Strel’na.” When one is going in the direction of Peterhof, Strel’na is next after the Trinity-Sergius Monastery and is located on the seventeenth verst of the Peterhof Road. An elevated spot on the shore was chosen by Peter the Great as a suitable place for quickly crossing the Gulf of Finland to Cronstadt. First a wooden palace was built here; then, in the teens of the eighteenth century, the construction of a stone staging palace, the closest of the Imperial palaces to St. Petersburg, was begun. The palace (see Images 398–399), its main façade facing the sea, stands on the crest of this elevation, which descends to the Lower Park in a series of three terraces. The proximity to the sea, the features of the natural relief of the shore, and the rich water resources of the area suggested great possibilities for the creation of a park with a system of canals and fountains. A system of horizontal and vertical canals and one circular canal, in the center of which stands a small island, emerges into the Gulf of Finland and also approaches the palace, making it possible to arrive at the palace by boat. A series of architects worked on the palace: Jean-Baptiste Leblond (1679–1719), N. Michetti (1675–1759), M.G. Zemtsov (1688–1743), T.N. Usov (1700–1728), A.N. Voronikhin (1759–1814), and L. Rusca (1758–1822). In 1722, Peter, who had lost interest in Strel’na, gave it and the unfinished palace to his daughter, Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna (1708–1728), as an engagement present. In the reign (1730–1740) of Anna Ioannovna (1693–1740), the palace burned down. Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (1709–1761; reigned 1740–1761; see Image 413) ordered it rebuilt according to plans by Rastrelli, but the Seven Years War interfered with its completion. It remained unfinished and in a state of neglect until 1797, when Paul I (see Image 417) gave Strel’na to his son, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich (1779–1831), who set about having the palace restored and the park built. In the summer of 1800, he moved there, living first in the wooden palace and then in the west wing of the stone palace. In December 1803 /January 1804, the entire palace burned down again and, in 1804, was once more rebuilt. After this, the palace did not undergo changes for close to half a century. Strel’na was Konstantin Pavlovich’s favorite place in summer. After his death, it passed to his nephew, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich (1827– 1892; see Image 436). In 1847, a new cycle of construction was begun (by A.I. Shtakenshneider [see Image 194] and others) that greatly changed the ensemble of buildings and grounds. The wooden palace was still standing when the Whistlers were in Russia (V. Ia. Kurbatov, Progulki po okrestnostiam Leningrada: Strel’na i Oranienbaum [Walks in the Environs of Leningrad: Strel’na and Oranienbaum]. [Leningrad: Izdanie Leningradskogo Gubernskogo Soveta Professional’nykh Soiuzov 1925], pp. 16–29; Stolpianskii, Petergofskaia pershpektiva, pp. 35–46, 69; Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe 1889, pp. 205–226; Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, pp. 596–598). Anna Whistler does not record any visit to the two palaces, but does seem to have visited the grounds of the Orlov or the L’vov estates, which were also in Strel’na (Gorbatenko, Petergofskaia doroga, pp. 210–212; Iu.A. Duzhnikov, Po Izhorskoi vozvyshennosti [Along the Izhora Heights][Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1972], p. 39; Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, pp. 598–605). The estate was the property of Aleksei Fyodorovich Orlov, who became head of the Corps of Gendarmes and of the Third Section (Security Police) on the death of Aleksandr Khristoforovich Benkendorf in 1844 (see AWPD, Part I, Note 636).

716  The third sister was either Elizabeth Hannah Ropes (14 May 1825 – 25 November 1921; see Image 267), or the word was used to mean their sister-in-law, Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes.

717  That she was Martha Ropes is corroborated as well by Maxwell, who had been abroad and did not meet her until 16 October 1844. His account of her arrival in St. Petersburg is, unlike Anna Whistler’s, humorous:

Yesterday I dined at Mr Gillebrands and met there among others, a Miss Ropes from Boston a sister of MƤ Gillebrand. She is quite young, about 17 and one of the merriest Boston girls you ever saw. Her passport was out of rule and upon her arrival the poor little damsel was detained at Cronstadt by the police, gaurded [sic] by a sentinel and though she was a [sic] liberty to march about town in Cronstadt, she was always attended by an escort, ‘armed and equipped as the law directs’ – The fun of it was she took it all in good humour and while her relatives here were in a state of consternation, Miss Martha was playing heroine and with her gaurd [sic] of honour, visited the governor and the great folk of the harbour. It was only after a note from the Chief of the Police to the Governor had been obtained that her ladyship was relieved from her warlike attendants and permitted to come to town. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of October 17 in letter of Oct. 15, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 45)

See also Maxwell, Czar, pp. 59–60.

718  Sarah Dwight Bliss (3 June 1826 – 8 September 1896) was the daughter of the Whistlers’ friends in Springfield, Massachusetts, George (16 November 1798 – 19 April 1873) and Mary Shephard (Dwight) Bliss (24 February 1801 – 12 February 1870).

719  Persons mentioned in the entry for Saturday [August] 10ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: William Maingay (Mr. Maingay); William Bonamy Maingay (his son); and Thomas Drury Sr. (my landlord).

720  On 10 August 1844, Martha (Kingsley) McNeill (see Image 22) turned sixty-nine years old.

721  Henry Cammann McNeill’s funeral had taken place on 10 August 1840. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

722  Persons mentioned in the entry for Sunday [August] 11ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: the deceased Mary Gent Hirst (dear Miss Hirst, that blessed Saint); the deceased Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna (Grand Duchess Alexandrine); and the Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church (Mr Williams). Although dated Sunday [August] 11ƫ, this entry is acknowledged as having been written on Monday, 12 August in the entry for that day.

723  This is Charlotte Leon (20 April 1764 – 24 January / 5 February 1847), pensioner. See her biography in Appendix E (hereafter, Leon).

724  Anna Whistler mentions factual and anecdotal details of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna’s death, funeral, and burial in a number of diary entries (see also Images 444–460). What she relates depends on what she has been told by others, as she could not understand well or read Russian. In the notes for each of her entries, I have given the information from entries in the Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal corresponding to those same dates. Although sometimes the same details are not given in the diary entries and in the Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal on the same day, by the time of the last note concerning these events, the reader will have all the details from the Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal that can corroborate, correct, or enlarge upon Anna Whistler’s diary entries. The material is being presented in this way in the interest of consecutive narrative and sustained emotional impact. Comments on the unsuitable behavior of Prince Friedrich of Hesse will, of course, not be found in the Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, but the emotional impact of its dry official entries is surprisingly moving.

The Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna died in her mother’s study in the New (Alexander) Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. A separate Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal was kept for the period from the day of her death through the day of her burial and the departure of her husband from Russia (RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal. Zhurnal. O konchine i pogrebenii v Boze pochivaiushchei Velikoi Kniagini Aleksandry Nikolaevny. S 29 Iiulia po 5e chis: Avgusta 1844 goda [Journal concerning the decease and burial of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna, reposing in God. From the 29th of July through the 5th of August [OS] 1844] [hereafter, RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, O konchine … Aleksandry Nikolaevny).

29 [OS July/NS 10 August] Saturday. At 8 o’clock in the morning Her Highness Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ brought from the field church by Archbishop Bazhanov. Present at this ceremony in the Study of Her Majesty, where Her Highness had been staying during her illness, were their Imperial Majesties and Prince Friedrich of Hesse, Her Highness’s spouse. — while at this time Their Highnesses the Heir to the Throne and His Spouse, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, the Grand Duchess and Princess of Mecklenburg, the Duke of Leuchtenburg, Prince Alexander of Hesse and Christian of Holstein were in Her Majesty’s dining room.

At 9:15 in the morning Her Imperial Highness Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna was delivered of a child in this same Study of Her Majesty and the Almighty favored to bestow upon their Imperial Majesties a grandson, and upon Her Imperial Highness and Her Spouse a Son, to whom a prayer was read by Archbishop Bazhanov and the name Wilhelm given. [The word “Prematurely” is written in the margin by this paragraph.]

Soon after this the newborn baby was christened according to the rites of the Lutheran faith by Pastor Avenarius of the Lutheran Church in Tsarskoe Selo, which ceremony took place in the dining room located next to the Study.

The Sponsors were Their Imperial Majesties, the Landgraf of Hesse and His Spouse the Princess Louisa and Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Zondersburg-Glucksburg.

At 10:45 the newborn infant Prince Wilhelm passed away in this same room.

At 4:20 in the afternoon … in the abovementioned Study Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna departed this burdensome life for eternal bliss in the Presence of Their Imperial Majesties and Their Imperial Highnesses the Heir to the Throne and His Spouse, Grand Dukes Konstantin Nikolaevich and Mikhail Pavlovich, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna, the Grand Duchess and Princess of Mecklenburg, the Duke of Leuchtenberg, Prince Peter Oldenburg, Friedrich the Spouse of Her Highness, Alexander of Hesse and Christian of Holstein.

Present at the dinner table of Her Majesty in the dressing room were Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna and the Grand Duchess and Princess of Mecklenburg.

His Majesty declined to hold a dinner table.

At half past seven in the evening a requiem mass was performed over the body of the deceased Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna by Archbishop Bazhanov in the presence of Their Majesties and Their Highnesses and certain persons comprising the Imperial Suite.

Then commenced the reading of the Holy Gospel in turn by archbishops and archdeacons of the Court near the body of Her Highness.

30 [OS July/NS 11 August]. Sunday

… At two o’clock in the afternoon, the body of the infant Prince Wilhelm was placed in a lead coffin by the Ladies of the Chamber of Her Highness the deceased Grand Duchess. The coffin was sealed in the presence of the Marshal of the Court Count Shuvalov and Major General Prince Suvorov, who were on duty, and it was then placed in a wooden coffin covered with gold brocaded cloth and silver tulle, after which it was carried by Count Shuvalov and Prince Suvorov into the room where the deceased Grand Duchess was lying and was placed on a table prepared for it. (RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, O konchine … Aleksandry Nikolaevny, fols. 372r through 376r)

Archbishop Vasilii Borisovich Bazhanov (1800–1883) was the Imperial Confessor. The Pastor of the Lutheran Church in Tsarskoe Selo from 1823 or 1824 to 1850 was Peter Gustav Avenarius (Wuoles, Ingermanland 31 January 1794 – Wuoles, Ingermanland 15 May 1854) (Erik Amburger, Die Pastoren der evangelischen Kirchen Russlands vom Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts bis 1937. Ein biographisches Lexikon [Pastors of the Protestant Churches of Russia from the End of the 16th Century to 1937: A Biographical Dictionary] [Lüneburg, Germany: Institut Nordostdeutsches Kulturwerk–Martin-Luther-Verlag, 1998], pp. 97, 251).

725  “This World is All a Fleeting Show” is a poem by Thomas Moore (Thomas Moore, Irish Melodies and Sacred Songs [New York and Boston: C.S. Francis, 1854], pp. 147–148). “This world is but a fleeting show” is also a line in Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, but this seems unlikely as Anna Whistler’s source.

726  This was the Hodgson family. See Notes 701 and 702 above.

727  Richard Miller (27 July 1818 – 12 January 1890) was the invalid brother of William Miller, merchant and honorary British vice-consul in St. Petersburg.

728  1 Kings 21:20: “And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord.”

729  1 Corinthians 2:9: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”

730  This work seems to have been written anonymously. Subsequent works by this author are announced by the publisher only as having been written by “the author of Scriptual Instruction for the Least and the Lowest.” This suggests that the author may have been a woman.

731  William Leighton Drury and John Thomas Drury were the grandsons of the Whistlers’ landlord, Thomas Drury Sr. William Leighton was born on 1/13 July 1832 (PREC STP for 1832, p. 161), John Thomas on 2/14 August 1833 (PREC STP for 1833, p. 176). See Note 738 below.

732  Alice Handyside, daughter of Dr. James Ronaldson and Sophia (Fock) Handyside, was born on 3/15 December 1836 (PREC STP for 1836, p. 219).

733  Mary Handyside, daughter of Dr. James Ronaldson and Sophia (Fock) Handyside, was born on 27 April /9 May 1839 (PREC STP for 1839, p. 253). She died, age 13 years and 3 months, on 23 July /4August 1852 (PREC STP for 1852, p. 433). Mary and Alice were motherless.

734  The Whistlers’ family physician was Dr. James Rogers (1810 – 11 July 1890), physician to the British Legation. See his biography in Appendix E.

735  “31. [OS July/NS 12 August] Monday. From two o’clock in the morning until 6 o’clock in the morning Her Highness was embalmed by Doctor Ru. With him were the Imperial Doctor, Dr. Markus, and the swaddling nurse of the deceased Grand Duchess.

At ten o’clock in the morning a requiem mass was performed over the body of the Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna, reposing in God, in the presence of Their Majesties and Their Highnesses, by Archbishop Bazhanov and the Archdeacon and singers, and after this the body of Her Highness was placed by the Ladies of the Chamber in a coffin covered with gold brocaded cloth and silver tulle with four tassels of the same kind in the corners.

After this began the ceremonial removal of the body of Her deceased Highness from the Study of Her Majesty to the field Church through the private garden onto the terrace and thence into the oval hall and then by way of the rooms leading toward the field Church … the body of the deceased infant Wilhelm remained in the Study. With it was the Adjutant of Prince Friedrich of Hesse, Lindholm. After the liturgy the public was admitted for its farewell … into the corner Study of Her Highness, where the Pastor of the Lutheran Church, Avenarius, gave a speech over the body of the deceased infant.

After this the coffin with the body of the infant Prince was carried through a dark corridor to the Emperor’s entranceway.

… After bringing the coffin with the body to the abovementioned entrance, the pastor got into a waiting parade Carriage drawn by 6 horses harnessed in tandem and received the coffin with the body handed to him by persons of the Court, and then it was accompanied by the abovementioned persons of the Court in various equipages, except for the Emperor, and was driven to the Lutheran Church in Tsarskoe Selo.

On arrival at the Church the coffin with the body was taken from the Carriage by the persons of the Court accompanying it and brought into the Church, where it was placed on a catafalque covered with mourning cloth. At this time a brief speech was made by Pastor Avenarius, after which the persons of the Court, having kissed the coffin, returned to the New Palace and thence to their places of abode” (RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, O konchine … Aleksandry Nikolaevny, fols. 378r – 381v).

Dr. Ru is Actual Privy Councilor (1st grade) Ivan Fyodorovich Rühl (1769–1846), doctor at the Obukhov Hospital in St. Petersburg. He was appointed in 1823, and became imperial physician and court doctor to Empress Maria Fyodorovna, mother of Nicholas I.

Dr. Markus is Mikhail Antonovich Markus (Kursk 26 December 1790 – St. Petersburg 27 July 1865) of the Moscow landed gentry. He finished his course of study in the Moscow Medical Academy at the age of eighteen and in three years was Doctor of Medicine. His dissertation was entitled “De natura et medela ulcerum-gangræ nosorum et de exima rarum in iis sanandis utilitate.” He was seven years a doctor in the army. He was a participant in the Fatherland war of 1812 as well as in foreign campaigns, and was the head doctor of Russian hospitals in France. On returning to Russia in 1819, he settled and practiced in Moscow, where he became a famous doctor, collegiate councilor (6th grade), and inspector and head doctor of the Golitsyn Hospital (1825–1837). In 1834, he was called to St. Petersburg to treat Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, sister-in-law of Nicholas I. He became imperial physician to Empress Aleksandra Fyodorovna, a member of the Medical Council in 1837, and its president in 1841. He also founded St. Olga’s Hospital for the Incurably Ill. On 19 February 1858, he celebrated his fiftieth anniversary of service. As of 1859, he was inspector of the institutions of which Empress Maria Aleksandrovna, wife of Alexander II, was patroness. He ultimately achieved the rank of privy councilor (3rd grade). Among his published works are “O razdroblenii mochevykh kamnei” [“On the Smashing of Kidney Stones], Vestnik zdraviia [The Harbinger of Health], pt. 2, 1828; and Kratkoe rukovodstvo dlia vrachei k poznaniiu rossiiskikh zakonov, uchrezhdenii i gosdarstvennoi sluzhby [A Short Handook for Doctors to Acquaint Them with Russian Laws, Institutions, and the Civil Service] (St. Petersburg, 1843).

He attended K.P. Briullov in the late 1840s, when the latter was seriously ill. In gratitude, Briullov painted his portrait, it is said, in 1848, the whereabouts of which are unknown to me (N.G. Mashkovtsev, comp., K.P. Briullov v pis’makh, dokumentakh i vospominaniiakh sovremennikov [K.P. Briullov in Letters, Documents and Memoirs of His Contemporaries], 2nd ed. [Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Akademii khudozhestv SSSR, 1961], pp. 237, 301).

736  Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna (Louisa-Maria-Augusta, Princess of Baden) (Karlsruhe 13/24 January 1779 – Belev, Tula Province 4/16 May 1826; see Image 419) had died eighteen years before. There had, however, been other royal deaths since then, e.g., that of Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna (Sofia-Dorotea-Augusta-Luisa, Princess of Württemberg) (Stettin 14/25 October 1759 – St. Petersburg 24 October /5 November 1828; see Images 415–416) and of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich (Tsarskoe Selo 27 April /8 May 1779 – Vitebsk 15/27 June 1831) (Kuz’min, Rossiiskaia imperatorskaia familiia, pp. 147–149, 177–182, 210–214).

737  Persons mentioned in the entry for Tuesday [August] 13 who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Colonel Charles Stewart Todd, the American envoy (the Col); and Thomas Drury Sr. (Our landlord).

738  William Drury (10/22 April 1800 – 30 January / 11 February 1864) (PREC STP, no. 1809; no. 7600, p. 774) was the eldest son of Susannah (Walker) and Thomas Drury Sr. Like his father, he was a white-lead manufacturer (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 14). He was married to Elizabeth I’Anson (b. after 22 October 1793) on 6/18 August 1827 (PREC STP, no. 3664). They had ten children: Jesse Ann, b. 22 February / 6 March 1828 (PREC STP for 1828, page reference missing); Elizabeth Sophia, b. 1829 (p. 133); William Leighton, b. 1/13 July 1832 (p. 161); John Thomas, b. 2/14 August 1833 (p. 176); Edward Alfred, b. 1834 (p. 192); Thomas Anthony, b. 1836 (p. 209); Frederick Henry, b. 1838 (p. 235); Anthony James, b. 1839 (p. 258); George Galt, b. 1841 (p. 277); Albert Charles, b. 1844 (p. 313). Elizabeth (I’Anson) Drury was the daughter of Henry I’Anson (bap. 11 April 1773) and Elizabeth (Woolloton) I’Anson (married 22 October 1793). She was the niece by marriage of Sir James Leighton (b. c. 1770 – Greenford, Middlesex 7 March 1843), court physician to Alexander I and for a time in the 1820s to Empress Aleksandra Fyodorovna. They lived at 44 Catheringoff Perspective (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 14). It has not been possible to ascertain the name of the French governess.

739  “1 [OS August / NS 13 August] Tuesday. … At six o’clock in the afternoon the coffin with the body of the deceased Grand Duchess was covered with a lid when Their Majesties were not present, but before that, after dining, Their Majesties spent some time by the body of Her deceased Highness …

  … The coffin with the body was lifted from the catafalque and carried through the concert hall and the Corridor between the rooms of the Grand Dukes to Their entrance … After being brought to the abovementioned entrance, the coffin with the body was placed in a waiting landau drawn by 8 horses harnessed in tandem; two personal servants also got in to support the Coffin … on the back of the landau stood two Court footmen …

  At 7:35 in the evening the melancholy procession started from the entrance for St. Petersburg and the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul …

  At 9:30 in the evening the body of the deceased infant Prince Wilhelm was taken from the Lutheran Church in Tsarskoe Selo by the Adjutant of Prince Friedrich of Hesse, Lindholm, and brought in a Court Carriage to the Lutheran Church of [St.] Anne … Toward 10 o’clock in the evening those who were on duty arrived at the Fortress of Sts. Peter and Paul at the summoning of the Department of Ceremonial Affairs … in mourning … and assembled in the house of the Commandant of the Fortress … After the arrival of the melancholy cortege from Tsarskoe Selo at the Peter and Paul Fortress everyone passed into the Cathedral … At 10:30 Her Majesty arrived at St. Petersburg from Tsarskoe Selo via railway … and went by carriage to the Elagin Palace … At 1:30 in the morning His Majesty and Prince Friedrich of Hesse arrived at the Elagin Palace by open carriage from the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul” (RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, O konchine … Aleksandry Nikolaevny, fols. 383r – 391v).

740  Persons mentioned in the entry for Wed [August] 14ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, Anna Whistler’s half-sister (my Sister); Colonel Ivan Frantsevich Bouttatz, Major Whistler’s colleague and Whistler family friend (Col Bouttatz, Col B); and Mr. Eduard de Stoeckl, junior secretary of the Russian Legation in Washington (Mr. Stoeckl).

741  It has not been possible to locate this letter. Thomas Woodcock Winstanley (9 February 1805 – 19 July 1844) was the nephew of John Winstanley. See Winstanley … Cragg in Appendix E.

742  Robert Smith (c. 1782 – 27 November 1863) was a cotton manufacturer living at Chaddock Hall in the township of Tyldesley in the Parish of Leigh. He was the brother of Esther (Smith) Ormerod, wife of Richard Ormerod, and, therefore, was uncle to Ann Ormerod, who in early 1847 married Rev. John Clarke Haden, uncle of Francis Seymour Haden. Anna Whistler had made Robert Smith’s acquaintance on her first visit to England in 1829–1831 and met him again in the summer of 1847.

743  “The St. Petersburg Military Governor General, honored to receive at two o’clock in the morning today a handwritten Imperial rescript of gratitude, hastens to communicate it to the inhabitants of the Capital.

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich!

After accompanying the body of My deceased Daughter to its final dwelling place the first requirement of My heart is to entrust you with announcing to the inhabitants of the Capital how deeply and utterly We all are touched by the general sympathy shown to Us, both during the prolonged terminal illness of Our Dearest deceased Daughter, and at Her death, and finally this very night. Such manifestations of general feeling are not new to Me; until now they have been displayed on days of joyous events; but when it has pleased God to try Us with a most severe blow, what can be more comforting to Our parental hearts, when bowing before His Will, than to see so strikingly, so tenderly that Our grief is a general grief, the grief of the entire family of the people entrusted to Me by God. We thank you like a father for your filial love. In this love is Our solace, and for Me the strength to continue on My difficult way.

May these mutual feelings be a pledge, in the days ahead as well, of the good fortune of Russia.

            We remain ever favorably disposed toward you

                     Nicholas

                     Elagin Island

                     2 August 1844 [14 August NS]

                     after 1 in the morning”

(RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, O konchine … Aleksandry Nikolaevny, p. 371a recto). This is a printed sheet.

The military governor general of St. Petersburg in 1844 was Adjutant General and General of Infantry Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Kavelin (see Image 314) (V.A. Frish and I.P. Vysotskii, S.-Peterburgskaia stolichnaia politsiia i gradolnachal’stvo. Kratkii istoricheskii ocherk [St. Petersburg Capital City Police and City Administration: A Brief Historical Essay] [St. Petersburg: Golike i Vil’borg, 1903], facing pp. 136, 152; Iakov Dlugolenskii, Voenno-grazhdanskaia i politseiskaia vlast’ Sankt-peterburga 1703–1917 [The Military-Civil and Police Forces of St. Petersburg, 1703–1917] [St. Petersburg: Neva, 2001], pp. 118–122).

English geologist Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (1792–1871; knighted 1846; see Image 192), who was received by Nicholas I not long after the funeral of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna, so that he could present a copy of his work on Russia, reported in his journal that the emperor described that night to him as follows:

On then asking after the health of the Empress, his countenance all at once changed, and taking my hand, which he warmly pressed, “Yes,” said he, “we have also had a terrible trial, but I have indeed had a test of the affection of my people which has touched my heart. As regards the death of my dear daughter” (and here the tears burst from his manly eyes), “I wished to have her buried at night, without any pomp whatsoever, accompanied by a single battalion and some followers. What was then my astonishment to see the whole population from Tsarskoe Selo to the citadel (twenty versts) forming such a dense column that my horse could hardly walk through it. The sight of this multitude on their knees praying for us, and sharing in the deep silence the anguish of my soul, truly touched my heart. Then I felt what it was to possess the love of one’s people.” (Archibald Geikie, Life of Sir Roderick I. Murchison, 2 vols. (London: John Murray, 1875), vol. 2, pp. 35–36)

744  Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna (see Images 434, 444, 451) became so thin that her wedding ring kept falling off her finger, so her father gave her a very small one that stayed on. He had the pavilion she asked him for built. He helped carry her down into the garden, where she wanted to go, but she could not remain there. When she died, he tried to assuage his grief by exhibiting an unusual amount of energy rather than crying. He tried to avoid all the funeral solemnities. He did not like black or tears. He did not return to Tsarskoe Selo again and set about to change the shrubs below her room and the balcony and everything that reminded them of her illness (Son iunosti, pp. 165, 166).

745  The first five classes of Court servitors were required to don mourning for three months, starting from the day on which Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna died (RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, O konchine … Aleksandry Nikolaevny, fol. 377v).

746  “In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of thee, O Lord, who for our sins are justly displeased? Yet, O Lord God most holy, O Lord most mighty, O holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death” (Book of Common Prayer … in the United States, p. 265; Oxford Book of Common Prayer, p. 97). This is one of the “seven texts … collectively known as ‘funeral sentences’ and ‘as a burial service’”; see “The Order for the Burial of the Dead” in the Book of Common Prayer … in the United States (pp. 262–266) and the Oxford Book of Common Prayer (p. 97).

747  Olga Nikolaevna (see Images 420, 432) records the following in her memoirs: Aleksandra Nikolaevna “reported having dreamt one night of dying and said ‘My God, can it be that I won’t be able to carry the baby for the full nine months?’ adding, ‘God’s will be done’” (Son iunosti, pp. 163–166).

748  Sophia Higginbotham (23 July /3 August 1797 – 1/13 July 1854), daughter of John and Amelia Higginbotham (PREC STP for 1854, p. 159), was governess to Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna. When Aleksandra Nikolaevna first fell ill, she expressed the wish to see her “Miss.” Miss Higginbotham, whom she called “Miss Higg,” came to her “dear child” and remained with her to the end (Son iunosti, pp. 163, 165). Sir Roderick Impey Murchison (see Image 192) wrote in his journal:

The Emperor was near his dear child when she made her last sign to him to approach her, when kissing her and putting his ear to her expiring voice, she said, “Papa, never forget the person to whom I owe everything.” This allusion was to Miss Higginbotham, the governess of this excellent and beautiful young princess, and no nobler trait of her character could she have left behind her. (Geikie, Life of Murchison, vol. 2, p. 36)

Miss Higginbotham was also held in great esteem by Nicholas I (Bang, Livs Minder, p. 301), which may be one of the reasons why Dr. Martin Wilhelm von Mandt, his personal physician, disliked her (Bang, p. 247). It was Mandt who correctly diagnosed that Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna had tuberculosis instead of whooping cough, the diagnosis of the emperor’s previous personal physician, Dr. Georg Rauch (1780–1864), who was hard of hearing and therefore unable to use the stethoscope. She had been treated chiefly with baths, being kept in cold temperatures, and other forms of hardening on the initiative of Miss Higginbotham (Bang, p. 244). There were many clashes between Mandt and Miss Higginbotham. Dr. Oluf Lundt Bang (see Image 485), the Danish physician who was requested by Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel, husband of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna, to come to St. Petersburg and treat her, confirmed Mandt’s diagnosis. He felt that Denmark would suffer a great loss in the death of Aleksandra Nikolaevna, who was known throughout the entire country for her goodness (Bang, p. 303). He also attributed the fact that she was equally cultured both emotionally and spiritually (“on the heart’s as well as on the spirit’s side”) to the influence of Miss Higginbotham (Bang, p. 303). An anecdote showing Miss Higginbotham’s sometimes-teaching-while-teasing relationship with Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna may be found in the memoirs of the wife of the director of the Imperial Chapel Choir, Elizaveta Nikolaevna L’vova (1788–1864) (“Rasskazy, zametki i anekdoty, iz zapisok Elizavety Nikolaevny L’vovoi” [“Stories, Notes, and Anecdotes from the Memoirs of Elizaveta Nikolaevna L’vova”], Russkaia starina 28 [August 1880]: pp. 800–801). Miss Higginbotham visited Bang in Copenhagen later that year. The newspaper noted on 8 October 1844 that she had arrived on 6 October and had stayed at the Hotel d’Angleterre (Bang, p. 303). Presumably she came on the French steamship Amsterdam, which docked in Copenhagen en route from St. Petersburg to Le Hâvre, and she may have journeyed on to England on the English steamship Mermaid, which left Copenhagen for London on Wednesday, 9 October (Bang, p. 303). Her name ceases to appear in the Mesiatsoslov as of 1845. On 2/14 September 1851, she and John Wilson, widower, were married by banns, according to the Rites of the Church of England by Rev. Dr. Edward Law (PREC STP, no. 6186, p. 416). Sophia (Higginbotham) Wilson died at the age of 56 years and eleven months on 1/13 July 1854 and was buried in the Smolensk Cemetery on 5/17 July 1854 (PREC STP, no. 6526, p. 473). See also O. Iu. Solodiankina, Inostrannye guvernantki v Rossii (vtoraia polovina XVIII – pervaia polovina XIX vekov) [Foreign Governesses in Russia: Second Half of the 18th – First Half of the 19th Century] [Moscow: Akademiia, 2007], pp. 345–347, 447; Martin Mandt, Ein deutscher Arzt am Hofe Kaiser Nikolaus I. von Russland. Lebenserinnerungen von Professor Martin Mandt [A German Physician in the Court of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia: The Memoirs of Professor Martin Mandt], ed. Veronika Lühe, intro. Theodor Schiemann (Munich and Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1917), pp. 241–350.

749  Another anecdotal source of the story of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna’s death says: “Toward evening the Grand Duchess began to grow weak. With great difficulty she turned her head towards her parents, husband and her adored governess M-me Sophie Higgenbotten [sic] and said, barely audibly, ‘Goodbye, goodbye, it’s time for me to go to sleep’. With difficulty she then turned onto her other side and fell asleep forever” (V.P. Marin, “Iz dnevnika babushki. 1842– 1846 g.g.” [“From My Grandmother’s Diary. 1842–1846”], Nasha starina [Our Old Days and Ways] 6, no. 42 [1915]: pp. 528– 529). Mandt, who was also present at the death, says she said loudly and clearly: “goodbye, goodbye” or else “good night” (Mandt, Ein deutscher Arzt, p. 350). She is also said to have asked her governess to put a portrait of Nicholas I into her coffin (Solodiankina, Inostrannye guvernantki v Rossii, p. 347).

750  “2. [OS August/NS 14 August]. Wednesday. At 7 o’clock in the morning the public was permitted to enter the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul and all kissed the hand of Her Highness … At 9 o’clock Metropolitan Antonii arrived at the Cathedral … performed a funeral service and the Divine liturgy. At the conclusion of the liturgy admittance of the public was halted. At twelve o’clock Their Majesties and Their Highnesses arrived at the Cathedral … heard a funeral service … At the conclusion of the funeral service the persons of the Court kissed the coffin and then the tombs of the emperors: Pavel Petrovich, Aleksandr Pavlovich and of the Empresses Maria Fyodorovna and Elizaveta Alekseevna and departed for the places of their abode, after which the public was admitted… His Imperial Majesty appointed August 4 [August 16 NS] as the day for burial of the body of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna” (RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, O konchine … Aleksandry Nikolaevny, fols. 394v–399r). Grigorii Antonovich Rafal’skii (1789–1848) was the Metropolitan of Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Estonia, and Finland from 1843 to 1848 (Slovo pri pogrebenii pervenstvuiushchego chlena Sviateishego Sinoda, Vysokopreosviashchenneishego Antoniia, Mitropolita Novogorodskogo, Sanktpeterburgskogo, Èstlandskogo i Finskogo, i raznykh ordenov Kavalera, proiznesennoe Preosviashchennym Innokentiem, Arkhiepiskopom Khersonskim i Tavricheskim, v Aleksandronevskoi Lavre, 1848 goda noiabria 19 dnia [The Sermon at the Interment of the Highest-Ranking Member of the Most Holy Synod, His Eminence Antonii, Metropolitan of Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Estonia and Finland and Cavalier of Various Orders, by His Eminence Innokentii, Archbishop of Kherson and Taurida, in the Alexander Nevskii Monastery on the 19th Day of November in the Year 1848] [St. Petersburg: in the Synodal Printing House, 1848], Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library, accessed 4 March 2023; “Clerics of Novgorod and St. Petersburg,” Saint Petersburg Encyclopædia, accessed 4 March 2023).

751  Persons mentioned in the entry for Thursday [August] 15ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: William Hooper Ropes (Mr. Ropes); Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, Anna Whistler’s half-sister (Aunt Alicia); Dorothea (Halliday) Baird (Mrs. F. Baird, Mrs. Baird, Mrs. B); Mary Elizabeth (Mosley) Law, wife of Rev. Dr. Edward Law, chaplain of the English Church (Mrs. Law); three of their four daughters in Russia, probably their unmarried daughters Henrietta Maria Law, Emily Mosley Law, and Isabella Sarah Law, the fourth, Caroline, having gone to England with her father (her three daughters); and Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church (Mr. Williams, our young Pastor, our Revd friend).

752  It has not been possible to determine the location of the dacha of Francis and Dorothea (Halliday) Baird. It is not mentioned in Pyliaev, Zabytoe proshloe; Lovell, Summerfolk; or Gorbatenko, Petergofskaia doroga.

753  John Halliday (c. 1765 – 6/18 September 1854) died aged 88 years and 8 months (PREC STP, no. 6549).

754  Sarah (Weddell) Halliday (24 May 1783 – 11/23 April 1846) died aged 63 years (PREC STP, no. 5594). She married John Halliday on 29 June 1810 in Edinburgh (Carlisle Journal, July 7, 1804).

755  “A la russe … meant that each dish in a course was brought in one after another,” as opposed to “a la français,” where “all the dishes forming part of a course were laid out on the table at the same time. Europeans complained about [the former] because … ‘No meat, vegetables, etc. appear on the table so you know nothing of what is to come’” (Anne Odom, Russian Imperial Porcelain at Hillwood [Washington, DC: Hillwood Museum and Gardens, 1999], p. 27).

756  In 1831–1833, the newly married George and Anna Whistler lived in Paterson, New Jersey. The Mrs. Dickerson mentioned here is therefore probably Sydney Maria (Stotesbury) Dickerson (Hibernia, NJ 27 December 1788 – Paterson, NJ 17 June 1853), daughter of John Dickerson of New York, captain of a Pennsylvania Regiment in the Continental Army. She was the wife of the Honorable Philemon Dickerson (Succasunna, NJ 26 June 1788 - Paterson, NJ 10 December 1862). After receiving his education in Philadelphia, Philemon Dickerson settled in Paterson, New Jersey, where he practiced law and entered politics. He served in the State Assembly in 1821–1822, was New Jersey representative in the 24th Congress, twelfth governor of New Jersey in 1836–1837, and then served again in Congress in 1839–1841. Appointed a district court judge by President Martin Van Buren, he served in this post from 1841 until his death. Dickerson “also served as a city official in Paterson,” and “was instrumental in procuring its city charter in 1851.” The Dickersons were married on 13 April 1816, in Trinity Church Parish in New York. They had four children (IGI; Wesley L. Baker, Dickerson & Dickinson Descendants of Philemon Dickerson of Southold, Long Island, N.Y.: also Long Island Descendants of Captain John Dickinson of Oyster Bay [Chicago: Adams, 1978], pp. 417–419; Paul A. Stellhorn and Michael J. Birkner, The Governors of New Jersey 1664–1974: Biographical Essays, [Trenton, NJ: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1982], pp. 108–110).

757  The “Patriot” of Montrose arrived in Cronstadt on 30 July / 11 August 1844, a Sunday. Peter Roy, master, died on Wednesday, 2/14 August, the day after coming to St. Petersburg, and was buried on Saturday, 5/17 August 1844, by George Williams, officiating minister (PREC STP, no. 5421, p. 313). He was baptized on 7 April 1808 in Queensferry, West Lothian, Scotland, the son of Peter and Jean (Sutherland) Roy. He served for some years on the ship Albion prior to joining the Patriot, on which he made two trips as master before his death. One was on 1 April 1844 to Pernau, reporting at Hull on 8 July 1844. The second trip was from Hull to St. Petersburg on 15 July 1844. The Patriot, under a new master from among the crew, reported at Dundee on 21 September 1844 (Agreements and Crew Lists: Series I, Muster Rolls and Agreements 1747–1860, BT 98/404, PRO).

The OPRS gives the following details of the marriage of Peter Roy on 14 January 1844 at Montrose, Scotland: “Mr. Peter Roy Shipmaster, Shore and Miss Catherine Morris, Market Street were proclaimed in order to marriage and no objections offered.” His widow was Catherine Millar Morris (b. Dundee, Angus, Scotland 25 January 1810; bap. Dundee, Angus, Scotland 28 January 1810), daughter of Robert Morris and Mary (Crichton) Morris.

758  Four brothers of Dorothea (Halliday) Baird are listed in the IGI and the OPRS: James Rogerson Halliday (bap. 14/28 February 1812 – 15/27 February 1856), John Halliday (bap. 14 June 1816 – 1863), William Halliday (bap. 18 January 1818) and Matthew Thomas Halliday (bap. 13 April 1822 or 1823 – 1872). Dorothea and James were baptized in Scotland (Lasswade, Midlothian); their siblings (including two other sisters) in St. Petersburg (IGI; Amburger Datenbank, ID 84226).

759  It has not been possible to locate this letter written to Eliza Isabella (McNeill) (Wellwood) Winstanley (see Image 40) and John Winstanley in Preston.

760  The Gillebrands are William Clarke and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (see Images 265–267). The Ropes are William Hooper and Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes.

761  “3. [OS August/NS 15 August] Thursday … The lid was placed on the coffin in preparation for the burial … While the body of Her Highness was in the cathedral the lid was always placed on the coffin in the presence of Their Majesties. The coffin was open only at the final farewell … When Their Majesties were not there and when the public was saying farewell it was open …

4. [OS August/NS 16 August] Friday. Day of the burial of Her Highness Aleksandra Nikolaevna … the Coffin was lifted from the catafalque … it was carried to the place of burial prepared on the left side in front of Grand Duchesses Anna Mikhailovna and Aleksandra Mikhailovna … the coffin was lowered into the grave on a cloth, and then Metropolitan Antonii sprinkled it with Holy water and consigned it to the earth. After this the Metropolitan gave earth to His Majesty and to the Heir to the Throne. They threw it onto the coffin with a little shovel, and after Them Their Highnesses and Their Serene Highnesses did the same and bowing to the coffin departed for the place of their abode … Her Majesty… heard a funeral service in the Elagin Palace Church but did not attend the burial.

After the burial and before the departure for Peterhof, the members of the State Council made their goodbyes in the dining room of Elagin Place to Prince Friedrich of Hesse upon returning from the Fortress of Sts. Peter and Paul. At 12:45 [p.m.] Their Majesties and Their Highnesses departed on the steamship “Nevka” for Peterhof and on route dinner was served for 17 persons. On arriving at the harbor they drove to the dacha Alexandria … At 8:15 Their Majesties and Their Highnesses rode to the harbor to see off Prince Friedrich of Hesse … and Prince Christian of Holstein, who were leaving for their homeland on the steamship “Kamchatka,” to which the Heir to the Throne and Prince Alexander of Hesse accompanied Their Serene Highnesses. Adjutant … Lindholm, having taken the body of the deceased Prince Wilhelm … from the Lutheran Church of St. Anne, left St. Petersburg on the commercial steamship “Amsterdam” for his homeland” (RGIA: Kamer-fur’erskii zhurnal, O konchine … Aleksandry Nikolaevny, fols. 402v–409v). The coffin with the baby’s body was taken to the family seat at Rumpenheim and interred in the burial vault in the castle park (Andreas Dobler et al., Die mitgift einer Zarentochter: Meisterwerke russischer Kunst des Historismus aus dem Besitz der Hessischen Hausstiftung Museum Schloss Fasanerie [The Dowry of a Daughter of the Czar: Masterpieces of Russian Art of Historic Importance in the Possession of the House of Hesse Foundation Museum Schloss Fasanerie] (Eurasburg, Germany: Minerva, 1997), pp. 120, 121, plate 26b).

In 1897–1908, a new mausoleum for members of the Imperial family was added to the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul. The coffin with the remains of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna was transferred there on 23 September /6 October 1911 and reinterred on 28 September /11 October 1911 (Iu.V. Trubinov, Velikokniazheskaia usypal’nitsa [The Mausoleum of the Grand Dukes and Duchesses] [St. Petersburg: Chernoe i beloe RN, 1997], p. 150; V.B. Gendrikov, Velikokniazheskaia usypal’nitsa v Petropavlovskoi kreposti [The Mausoleum of the Grand Dukes and Duchesses in the Peter and Paul Fortress], Arsis Publishers, 1993 (museum brochure); revisit by me to the mausoleum in July 2003.

762  Prince Friedrich of Hesse-Kassel (see Image 445) donated a sum of money equal to the value of the precious objects in the dowry of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna (see Images 434, 444, 451) for an institution to be set up in his name and hers, to be called The Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna Institution Established by Prince Friedrich of Hesse. It was decided that the most appropriate institution would be a hospital for women with incurable chronic diseases who would not be accepted by the regular city hospitals. Ten of the fifty beds were to be set aside for pregnant women with a “serious illness.” The Aleksandra Women’s Hospital (see Image 460), located on Nadezhdin Street, was completed toward the end of 1847 and opened on 29 July / 10 August 1848, the third anniversary of her death. The architect was Aleksandr Pavlovich Briullov (1798–1877) (Sanktpeterburgskie vedomosti 176, Friday, August 4 [August 16 NS], 1844, p. 791; N.I. Kuskov and A.N. Lapotnikov, comps., Kratkii istoricheskii ocherk 50-tiletnego sushchestvovaniia Aleksandrinskoi zhenskoi bol’nitsy, uchrezhdennoi v pamiat’ v Boze Pochivaishchei Velikoi Kniagini Aleksandry Nikolaevny [A Brief Historical Sketch of the First Fifty Years of the Aleksandra Women’s Hospital Established in Memory of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna, Who Reposes in God], ed. E.V. Pavlov [St. Petersburg. V. Kirshbaum, 1899], pp. 1–9; Antonov and Kobak, Sviatyni Sankt-Peterburga, vol. 2, pp. 219– 220).

763  “The Prince of Hesse, who has left, … is represented to have acted in the most shameful manner. He was drunk every day and night since his marriage, associated with grooms and horse jockies, and behaved in the most wicked and outrageous way imaginable. He took off with him every scrap of the trousseau of the bride amounting to near one million of dollars and left the jewels only upon receiving a handsome gift in gold –” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43).

764  Proverbs 22:1: “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.”

765  Anna Whistler’s two visits were to be to Mrs. Roy and Mrs. Margaret (Gordon) Hirst, sister-in-law of the recently deceased Mary Gent Hirst. Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill wished to visit Sophia Morgan (1808–1872), who was staying with “old Mrs. Baird” (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 39) at the home of Francis and Dorothea Baird.

766  As Anna Whistler says the hotel was in the Galernaia, it must be Mrs. Wilson’s boarding house. The misses Benson’s boarding house on the English Embankment was sometimes referred to as “the home of the American Sea Captains” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43). See Benson in Appendix E.

767  Psalm 23:4: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

768  It has not been possible to ascertain who this other captain from Montrose was. Catharine (Morris) Roy was one of five daughters and two sons of Robert and Mary (Crichton) Morris, all of whom were born in Dundee, Scotland. Her four sisters were Jean (b. 8 June 1797), Isabell (b. 9 December 1799), Janet (b. 27 May 1803), and Caroline (b. 4 March 1814); her brothers were Robert Jr. (b. 18 February 1802) and David Rutherford (b. 22 March 1812).

769  Hymn 188, “Few Are Thy Days,” is based on Job 14: 1, 2, 5, 6. The first stanza is: “Few are thy days, and full of wo, / O man, of woman born; / Thy doom is written, Dust thou art, / To dust thou shalt return” (Hymns Suited to the Feasts and Fasts of the Church and Other Occasions of Worship [Philadelphia: Protestant Episcopal Female Prayer-Book Society of Pennsylvania, 1839], pp. 218–219).

770  Peter Roy’s brothers were: George (bap. 2 March 1806) and David (bap. 5 August 1819). Like him, they were baptized in Queensferry, West Lothian, Scotland (IGI).

771  Psalm 23 of The Book of Psalms begins “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

772  The nine crew members of the Patriot, seven of whom were from Montrose, are listed in Agreements and Crew Lists: Series I, Muster Rolls and Agreements 1747–1860, BT 98/404, PRO.

773  This reference is to Arthur Austin, Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life: A Selection from the Papers of the Late Arthur Austin (Edinburgh: William Blackwood; London: T. Caddell, 1822). Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life is a series of short tales that reveal “the humble under-plots that are carrying on in the great Drama of Life” (Austin, p. 83). The characters are wise, upstanding people, both rich and poor, of uncommon righteousness. In its tone, strong providential message, and humble acceptance, Mrs. Roy’s personal history, narrated to Anna Whistler and Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, resembles these stories.

774  The Russian word for “it’s all right,” “it’s nothing,” “never mind,” is spelled “nichevo” and pronounced “nyeecheevaw′.”

775  The Russian words for “it’s not necessary” are spelled “ne nado” and pronounced “nyeenah′duh.”

776  The Russian word for the copper ten-kopeck coin is spelled “grivennik” (Fedosiuk, Chto neponiatno u klassikov, p. 53) and pronounced “gree′vennyeek.”

777  See Appendix G for an example of a landowner’s permission for a female serf to live and work in St. Petersburg in 1854.

778  Mary Brennan had been away for part of the summer, but Anna Whistler does not say where she was. The diary entry indicates that her trunk contained things from Stonington, Connecticut, that had been stored in it when they left for Russia in 1843.

779  Anna Whistler was writing on Monday, 19 August 1844 about Sunday, 18 August.

Persons mentioned in this entry for Sunday [August] 18 who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes, wife of William Hooper Ropes, merchant (Mrs. Ropes); Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church (Mr Williams); Susan (Poulterer) and Joseph S. Harrison Jr., and possibly their children, Annie and Henry, who lived at Alexandrofsky (The Harrisons); William Leighton Drury and John Thomas Drury, the grandsons of Thomas Drury Sr. (the newcomers, the little Drurys); the unidentified little Norman children; Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, Anna Whistler’s half-sister (Aunt Alicia); and Mary Brennan, the Whistlers’ servant (Marys trunk).

780  2 Kings 5:12: “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.” This is the story in which Elisha tells Naaman how his leprosy may be cured, but Naaman at first questions the means.

781  Reverend George Williams was also replacing Rev. Thomas S. Ellerby (see Image 256) at Alexandrofsky. The latter had gone to Revel with his sick wife, Mary (Beasley) Ellerby.

782  Persons mentioned in the entry for Monday [August] 19ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Thomas Drury Sr., the Whistlers’ dacha landlord, whose bathhouse Anna Whistler used (Drurys bath house); Susan (Poulterer) and Joseph S. Harrison Jr., and their children, Annie and Henry, who lived at Alexandrofsky (the Harrisons, Mr H, Annie Harrison); Fyodor, the Whistlers’ dvornik (Fedor); Kirk Boott Whistler, who died at the age of four in 1842 (Kirkie); Thomas DeKay Winans, partner in the firm of Harrison, Winans and Eastwick, who also lived at Alexandrofsky (Mr Winans); and Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, Anna Whistler’s half-sister (My Sister).

783  In 1825–1826, on the former site of some brick works on the seventh verst from St. Petersburg, on the Schlüsselburg Road, the Russian government built the Aleksandrovskii State Iron Works. The works replaced a factory that had been founded at another spot by Charles Gascoigne and closed in 1824 as a result of damage caused by the extraordinary flood of that year. The Aleksandrofsky State Iron Works produced both steam engines and other types of metal objects, such as iron iconostases with gold and silver trim; busts, portraits and statues; parts (columns, railings) used in constructing buildings, and small objects. The State Iron Works was leased in 1844 to Harrison, Winans and Eastwick for building the engines and rolling stock of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway and became called the Aleksandrofsky Head Mechanical Works of the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway (see Images 223–225) (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 214; Haywood, The Beginnings, p. 51; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, p. 12; F.V. Dombrovskii, Polnyi putevoditel’ po Peterburgu i vsem ego okrestnostiam [Complete Guide to Petersburg and All Its Environs] [St. Petersburg, 1896], pp. 304–315; Gorbatenko, Petergofskaia doroga, pp. 47-48). Along the Schlüsselburg Road (which begins at the Nevskii Gate), there were many other factories as well: approaching the Aleksandrofsky Head Mechanical Works one passed, e.g., the Imperial Glass Factory (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, pp. 205–208) and Binar’s [sic] Silk Factory and his glove factory (Bur’ianov, pp. 209– 211); beyond the Aleksandrofsky Head Mechanical Works were the Imperial Porcelain Factory (Bur’ianov, pp. 216– 223) and the Aleksandrovskaia Manufactory (see Image 242), which produced cotton and linen cloth and goods and playing cards (Bur’ianov, pp. 223–234). Bur’ianov’s guide praised highly the dwellings of the workers at these factories. For a description of the Alexandrovskaia Manufactory, see the entry for Saturday [May] 10ƫ [1845], NYPL: AWPD, Part II, and accompanying Note 138.

784  For a description of the Eastwick home, in a building in which they lived on the first floor and the Harrisons on the second, see Joseph Harrison, Jr. to Stephen Poulterer [his father-in-law], Alexandroffsky, February 27, 1849, HSP: Harrison Letterbook No. 1; Andrew Eastwick to Lydia Eastwick, Alexandroffsky Cast Iron Foundry near St. Petersburg, June 2, 1844, and Edward Eastwick to Lydia Eastwick, Alexandroffsky, July 19, 1844, Eastwick Letters; John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, May 17, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 35; Eastwick in Appendix E; and Images 239–240.

785  The reference is to John Sanford Barnes (12 May 1836 – 23 November 1911), son of Charlotte Adams (Sanford) Barnes (c. 1801 – 12 December 1875) and Major General James Barnes (4 May 1807 – 12 February 1869), USMA Class of 1829, chief engineer and superintendent of the Western (Massachusetts) Railroad, 1842–1848. The were the Whistlers’ friends in Springfield, Massachusetts.

786  Nicholas I did not visit the works until 4/16 March 1847 (entry for Wednesday March 23ƨ [1847], NYPL: AWPD, Part II).

787  The number of Americans employed at Alexandrofsky Head Mechanical Works was small, as was the number of Englishmen. All of them, “except four English workmen,” were in supervisory positions. In addition to Joseph Senior Kirk, the principal manager, “[t]hree Americans and five Englishmen were principal or assistant foremen in the Locomotive or Truck Departments” (Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, p. 259, 260).

According to Joseph Harrison Jr., when Nicholas I visited the Alexandrofsky Head Mechanical Works in March 1847, the principal English foremen in the Locomotive Department were J.D. Thompson and J. Jones, while S. Orange was an assistant foreman. In the Boiler Department, the English foremen were Ashworth and Pullan. In the foundaries, the principal English foreman was Langfield. The principal American foreman in the Locomotive Department was S. Harrison, while the principal American foremen in the Truck Department were R. Wright and J. Howard (Joseph Harrison, Jr., The Iron Worker and King Solomon, 2nd ed. [Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1869]: appendix, p. 71).

The Americans may have seemed to Anna Whistler to be content, but although “some … were good workers … Many … demanded very high salaries and would not remain because they could not adjust to life in Russia, finding it boring and alien. Harrison felt that all they wanted was the greatest amount of money in the shortest amount of time.” The Englishmen “came increasingly to be preferred,” because their salary demands were more modest (Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, pp. 260– 261).

788  Shakespeare did not coin the expression “all’s well that ends well,” which was first a proverb. “The earliest version known in print is in the 13th century English prose poem The Proverb of Hendyng.” “John Heywood was probably the first to put the proverb into the form we now use … in A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbs in the English tongue, 1546.” “Shakespeare was well acquainted with Heywood’s work and wrote All’s Well That Ends Well in 1601” (“The Meaning and Origin of the Expression: All’s Well that Ends Well,” The Phrase Finder website).

789  Joseph Senior Kirk had therefore known George William Whistler sometime in the period 1834–1837, when the latter was twelve to fifteen years old. Major Whistler was at the time superintendent of the machine shops of the Proprietors of Locks and Canals of Lowell, Massachusetts. Mr. Kirk’s wife was Charlotte (Petersen) Kirk.

790  Timothy Abraham Curtis, of the Liverpool firm of Bury, Curtis and Kennedy, was leaving on Saturday, 24 August 1844 for England.

791  Their guest was William Robertson (2 April 1819 – 17 February 1890), USMA Class of 1840. See the biography of the Robertson family in Appendix E.

792  Mr. Robertson left Russia on Saturday, 17 August 1844.

793  “Sarschinka” is Anna Whistler’s pronunciation of the diminutive and endearing form for Aleksandr, spelled “Sashenka” (pronounced “Sah′shinkuh”); “Vaascha” is her pronunciation of the diminutive and endearing form for Vasilii (William), spelled “Vasya” (pronounced “Vah′syuh”). Alexander, about five years old, and William, about six years old, were the grandsons of Thomas Drury Sr., the Whistlers’ dacha landlord.

794  Hedenschoug was born in February, so he seems not to have told the Whistlers the truth. He came from a well-to-do family in Stockholm, which he appears to have told them about. He elicited great sympathy from the Whistlers for a long time, perhaps also hiding his alcoholism. See his biography in Appendix E.

795  Because he had become so attached to Hedenschoug, James adhered to the latter’s preference for Charles XII over Peter the Great. The most famous biographies of both monarchs were written by Voltaire, but James was reading aloud to Anna Whistler in English as part of a program to retain his fluency in his native language. Among the possible English translations he could have read is Smollett’s.

796  Persons mentioned in the entry for Wednesday [August] 21ƪ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: the recently arrived Martha Reed Ropes, sister of William Hooper Ropes and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (Martha Ropes); and William Miller, a merchant and honorary vice-consul in St. Petersburg, and his invalid brother, Richard (the Mr Millers).

797  Peterhof (see Images 400–403) is the main Imperial estate on the southern littoral of the Gulf of Finland, the culminating point, as it were, of the entire system of the Peterhof Road. The brilliant era of Peterhof belongs to the reign of Nicholas I (see Images 420–423), whose permanent summer residence it became starting in 1832. New parks were added to already existing ones, thus enclosing the town in a green ring. The town was enlarged considerably and extensive new regions came into being, populated with private homes and dachas in classic, Swiss, Gothic and other styles, that were immersed in gardens. Peasant fields and the roads in the southern part of the area were given an orderly appearance and villages built anew (Gorbatenko, Petergofskaia doroga, pp. 234, 260). Anna Whistler’s selective description of Peterhof in this diary entry shows that they entered the main gates and walked through the Upper Garden at the back (south façade) of the Great Peterhof Palace. The palace is built with its front (north façade) at the edge of a natural terrace on the boundary of the Upper and Lower Gardens. This terrace towers almost sixteen meters above the Lower Garden. They then descended to the Lower Garden, with its grotto and fountains below the front of the palace, and went to the eastern part of this garden where they visited the bath house with its pool and Monplezir (Mon Plaisir) Palace on the Gulf of Finland. The gardens were filled with beautiful objects in the form of fountains, statues, bas reliefs, urns, cascades, and the Tsarina’s pavilion on an island in a pond. Anna Whistler did not record that they also visited the Hermitage (or, Other Monplezir), but other evidence in the diaries supports this.

798  As one approached Peterhof, one would pass on the Peterhof Road the estates of Znamenka, Mikhailovka, the Private Dacha and Sergievka, all belonging to members of the Imperial family.

Znamenka was located between the Peterhof Road and the Gulf of Finland, more easternly than Alexandria. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, this territory belonged to A.D. Menshikov. After passing through the hands of several magnates, it was acquired in 1755 by Field Marshal General A.G. Razumovskii. It was then that it began to take on the features of a wealthy summer residence. In the 1790s, it passed from Razumovskii to Senator I.V. Miatlev and belonged to this family until 1835. Nicholas I bought it from the Miatlevs’ improverished heirs for a million rubles and presented it to his wife, just as he had Alexandria. It belonged to her at the time of the Whistlers’ stay in Russia.

Mikhailovka bordered on Znamenka on the west side. Here there were several estates, including one called “Favorite” belonging to Menshikov, which was preserved until the 1760s. In the 1830s, the three estates located here became the property of the Imperial family. It was decided to build a summer dacha here for the youngest son of Nicholas I, Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich, whence the name of the estate.

The Private Dacha is located three kilometers to the west of the Upper Garden of Peterhof. After 1727, and up until 1730, this was a seaside grange with a two-storied stone house belonging to Prince Aleksei Dolgorukii. In 1733–1736, it belonged to the famous publicist and orator, Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich. In 1741, it was presented to the future Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, and in her reign a large wooden palace was built here. This palace was dismantled in 1798–1801. In 1843, the Private Dacha was presented by Nicholas I to Grand Duke Aleksander Nikolaevich, the future Alexander II.

On its west side, the Private Dacha borders on Sergievka, named for one of the magnates who owned it. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, it belonged to one of Peter the Great’s courtiers, A.I. Rumiantsev, from whom it passed to his son, Field Marshal P.A. Rumiantsev-Zadunaiskii. In 1822, the Rumiantsevs sold the grange to the Naryshkins. The Naryshkin dacha was acquired by order of Nicholas I for his daughter, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, on the occasion of her marriage to the Duke of Leuchtenberg, and came to be called the Leuchtenberg estate. From 1839 to 1842, the architect, A.I. Shtakenshneider (see Image 194), built a palace here resembling an Italian country villa, and in 1845–1846, a small chapel (A.G. Raskin, Petrodvorets Dvortsy-muzei, parki, fontany [Petrodvorets: Palace–Museums, Parks, and Fountains] [Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1988], pp. 186–191; N.I. Nikulina, Prigorody Leningrada Arkhitekturnyi putevoditel’ [The Environs of Leningrad: An Architectural Guide] [Leningrad: Stroizdat, Leningradskoe otdelenie, 1982], pp. 67–68, 75-79. See also Gorbatenko, Petergofskaia doroga, pp. 219–282).

799  The main entrance to the Upper Garden from the Peterhof Road consists of monumental gates in the form of two ten-meter-high stone pylons. Starting at these pylons, the Upper Garden is enclosed on three sides by a massive wall of stone pillars with reliefs of lion masks alternating with wooden spears. The wall has six gates. The pylons are decorated with paired Corinthian columns. The columns support a wide, detached (raskrepovannyi) cornice and volute-shaped pedestals for sculptures. The massiveness of the pylons emphasizes the lightness of the tracery of the forged gates attached to them, which are simple and severe in style. Through the gates may be seen the terrace of the Upper Garden, a fifteen-hectare area in front of the south façade of the Great Peterhof Palace. These main gates were built in 1754 (N.I. Arkhipov and A.G. Raskin, Petrodvorets [Peterhof] [Leningrad and Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1961], pp. 153, 156. See also Raskin, Petrodvorets Dvortsy-muzei, p. 28; Nikulina, Prigorody Leningrad, p. 14).

800  Anna Whistler is referring to the Great Peterhof Palace (see Image 400). The construction of a modest stone palace on the hill, was started in 1714 by order of Peter the Great (see Image 411), under the supervision of the architect, Johann Braunstein. Ultimately, it became the centre section of the entire Great Peterhof Palace. In July 1746, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (see Image 413) requested the architect, Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, to build side wings of stone onto this main structure. Rastrelli submitted a general plan for the entire palace, in which the right wing connected with the palace church and the left wing with “the building under the coat of arms.” Rastrelli’s plan also proposed remodeling the center section of the palace so that the entire façade would have a uniform look. The remodeling was completed in 1754. Peter’s monogram remained in the center section, while Elizaveta Petrovna’s was placed on the wings.

The enlargement of the palace ultimately resulted in clearly defined structural masses on either side of a central structural mass and alternating in a certain rhythm. The central three-storied part of the palace is marked by an elegant high-figured roof crowned with a gilded vase with garlands of flowers and winged geniuses. This section is flanked on either side by symmetrical three-storied sections, each with a somewhat less high tent-style roof. Connected with the central part are the two basic and largest three-storied wings, which face onto the Upper Garden. In sharp contrast, next come the glassed-in arcades of single-storied galleries with balustrades. These culminate in the two-storied church building and the “building under the coat-of-arms.” The church has five gilded cupolas. The “building under the coat-of-arms” has a roof in the form of a four-sided cupola of white iron with gold decorations. A three-sided, three-headed Imperial eagle weathervane, two-and-a-half feet high and weighing 16 poods, was placed on the summit of this cupola in 1751 (a pood is the equivalent of 16.38 kilograms), but whichever way it turned, it seemed double-headed. The palace is 134 sazhens long and 8 sazhens wide. The exterior was painted yellow with white trim.

The first and third floors were for the retinue, the second contained luxurious rooms where at times members of foreign Imperial families were housed (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, pp. 86–88; Raskin, Petrodvorets Dvortsy-muzei, p. 5. For a different account, see N.G. Sharubin, Ocherki Petergofa i ego okrestnostei ([Sketches of Peterhof and Its Environs] [St. Petersburg: s.n., 1868], pp. 6–7). A description of the rooms and of many of the pictures to be found in them, including the famous Rotari (1707–1762) portrait gallery, was published by Geirot (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, pp. 88–93; see also Raskin, Petrodvorets Dvortsy-muzei, p. 63.) It does not seem, however, that the Whistlers ever saw the interior of the palace. In both diary entries about a visit to Peterhof (1844 and 1846), the family of Grand Duke Aleksandr Nikolaevich (see Images 425–428) was in residence, which precluded visits by tourists. Nor do extant Whistler family letters contain references to any visits by them to this palace.

The last large-scale changes to the Great Peterhof Palace were being made while the Whistlers were in Russia and were concluded after their departure. In 1845–1850, according to Shtakenshneider’s plans and under his direction, a third floor was being added above the eastern (garden) façade. The apartments of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (see Image 432), who was married in July 1846 to the Crown Prince of Würtemberg (see Image 433), were being remodeled (I.M. Gurevich, V.V. Znamenov, and E.G. Miasoedova, Bol’shoi Petergofskii dvorets [The Great Peterhof Palace] [Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1979], p. 27; Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 93).

801  The water actually came from other sources. In 1868, Geirot explained the system. The water for the Peterhof fountains comes to Peterhof by means of two water-supply systems: an old one and a new one. The old has as its source the springs located in the villages of Elagino, Zaborod’e, Gladino, and Khabino. The new starts from the pond at the village of Levolovo; in the pond are combined the springs of the villages of Vil’puzi and Lapino. All of these villages are at a distance of approximately twenty to twenty-six versts from the Great Peterhof Palace. Halfway along the route, the two water-supply systems unite and from there on the water flows partly through a natural bed and partly through a man-made canal. At the village of Nizino (six versts from the Great Peterhof Palace) is the so-called Shinkarka sluice, by means of which in autumn and winter excess water is drawn off from Peterhof by the Strel’na River, and at that time, only the amount of water needed for replenishing the Peterhof ponds flows into them. The inhabitants of the town constantly use the water from these ponds for their own needs. In the summer, all the water from the Shinkarka sluice flows, first as a small river and then as an open canal, into the Tserkovnyi and Bab’egonskii ponds. At the latter pond, the water divides: one part of it goes to the Samson basin, which is the main reservoir of water for the fountains of the upper garden as well as for the Samson fountain and the Great Grotto. This basin is 300 sazhens long, 15 sazhens wide, and up to 3 sazhens deep. The other part of the water is directed from the Bab’egonskii pond into the ponds of the English garden and the ravine, and flows as well into the main water reservoir of the Peterhof Lapidary Works, i.e., the large reserve pond. Both systems supply water at the rate of 4,536 cubic feet per minute, or 75.6 cubic feet per second. When all the fountains are playing, the amount of water used per second amounts to 108.52 cubic feet (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, pp. 124–125; T.B. Dubiago, Russkie reguliarnye sady i parki [Russian Formal Gardens and Parks] [Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo literatury po stroitel’stvu arkhitekture i stroitel’nym materialam, 1963], pp. 144–146; Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, pp. 159–164, 197). It is almost a commonplace among Russian authors of books on Peterhof to express their pride in the fact that the Peterhof fountains could play more frequently and longer than those at Versailles.

802  Anna Whistler is referring to the Great Cascade of the Great Grotto below the Great Peterhof Palace (see Image 400). Along the sides of the grotto are two cascades in the shape of gigantic staircases, each consisting of seven steps. These steps are decorated with sixteen gilded copies of ancient statues; vases, some purely decorative and others from which fountains gush; and twenty-four bas-reliefs. The entire grotto complex contains forty-one statues and twenty-nine bas-reliefs. Its chief effect comes from all the fountains playing at the same time. For a layout of the Great Cascade, see N.V. Vernova, Petergof Bol’shoi Kaskad [Peterhof: The Great Cascade] (St. Petersburg: Gos. muzei-zapovednik Petergof–EGO, 1996), pp. 31, 103.

803  The Samson fountain (see Image 400) is located on the main compositional axis of the Lower and Upper Gardens. It stands in a basin in front of the Great Cascade. From the basin a canal leads down to the Gulf of Finland.

There is evidence to suggest that the Samson fountain was erected after 1725, that is, after the death of Peter the Great (see Image 411), and that either Catherine I (see Image 412) had it put up no later than 1727 (the year of her death) or that it was put up in the reign of Anna Ioannovna, since no works were carried out in the reign of her predecessor, Peter II (1727–1730). There is also evidence that it was already in place in 1735 (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, pp. 18–19, 71).

This largest fountain at Peterhof consists of the colossal nude figure of Samson, three meters high, standing on a pedestal made to look like a cliff, and tearing apart the jaws of a lion. The beast is standing on its hind paws with the claws of its front paws sunk into Samson’s left thigh. Out of the vanquished lion’s mouth shoots a seventy-foot-high jet of water, three inches in diameter, its spume spilling over the statue and pedestal. The jet had previously been one hundred feet high because the main Samson reservoir had been higher than the present one, but it is said that Empress Elizaveta Petrovna ordered the jet reduced because of the dampness caused in the palace by the spray in windy weather (Sharubin, Ocherki Petergofa, p. 15). Eight dolphins splash at Samson’s feet, and the half-figures of four lions, representing the four corners of the earth, look out of four semicircular niches in the granite pedestal. Streams of water flow from their mouths. The victory of Samson over the lion is an allegory of the victory of the Russians over the Swedes, of Peter the Great over Charles XII at the Battle of Poltava on 27 June (OS) 1709, the feast day of St. Samson. Young James Whistler was interested in Peter the Great and Charles XII through Hedenschoug, his father’s draftsman, but we do not know whether he was aware of the symbolism of Samson and the lion in its Russian context. He was most likely excited by the height of the Samson figure and of the jet of water. This gilded bronze group, the work of M.I. Kozlovskii (1753–1802), was installed in 1802 (Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, pp. 69–71). It replaced the original Samson group, made of gilded lead, executed by the sculptor, K. Rastrelli, in the 1730s (Sharubin, Ocherki Petergofa, p. 15; Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, p. 71; Vernova, Petergof Bol’shoi Kaskad, pp. 17–18).

804  Nymphs, tritons, and frogs on the rim of the basin shoot crisscrossing jets of water, while behind them, in front of the Great Grotto, jets flying from the mouth of a serpent coiled around the right hand of two facing gladiators interweave (see Image 400) (Kurbatov, Petergof, pp. 40–41, 56–57). This is probably “the fencing of some of the gilded figures with water” that diverted James.

805  The bath house was an indoor pool in a building with an open roof, built in the reign of Catherine the Great (see Image 414). Built first in the eastern part of the Menagerie Pond, it was rebuilt in 1774–1776 according to plans by Fel’ten, this time over the entire pond. The fountain in the pond thus came to be located in the center of the pool (Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, p. 111), which was 50 sazhens long and 15 sazhens wide (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 80). The fountain was remodeled into a system where its freely pulsing jet was encased in a metal cylinder crowned by three interconnected gilded discs with over one hundred eighty small tubes along their edges. The discs and tubes were turned by a water wheel. When the fountain played, long sparkling jets of water like rays of sunlight flew from the discs, giving the ensemble the name “Sun” fountain. Around the fountain were four dolphins spurting jets of water from their mouths (Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvoret, pp. 111–112). Geirot, in 1868, said the pool had retained its original appearance, despite having been repaired several times (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 80). He described it as “an elongated rectangular structure, which is decoratively painted on the outside so that this enormous structure in the middle of the garden will not seem heavy and will harmonize with its surroundings as much as possible” (Geirot, p. 80). It was also painted decoratively on the inside (Kurbatov, Petergof, p. 80; E. Ducamp, ed., The Summer Palaces of the Romanovs: Treasures from Tsarskoye Selo, trans. Barbara Mellor, ill. Marc Walter (London: Thames & Hudson, 2012), p. 145; Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 42). As one entered there were several alcoves for changing.

806  The building Anna Whistler is referring to is Monplezir (Mon Plaisir), located in the eastern part of the Lower Garden (see Image 402). The name Monplezir also applies to the complex of auxiliary structures associated with this palace. Monplezir was the first palace Peter the Great (see Image 411) ordered to be built in the eventual Peterhof complex (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 8). To save time on his frequent visits to the fortifications on Kotlin Island, he usually travelled via the south shore of the Gulf of Finland. At the spot most convenient for crossing to Kotlin Island, a small landing had been constructed and nearby two buildings for stopovers. It was on the shore not far from these two buildings that he ordered the small brick staging palace, some say in Dutch style, to be built (Geirot, pp. 7–8; Kurbatov, Petergof, p. 47). Its construction was begun in 1714 and completed in 1724 (Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, pp. 94, 99). It consisted of a square central building with a spacious tiered mansard roof crowned with a large carved vase. A gallery was attached to the east and west sides of this building. At the end of each gallery was a small pavilion, also with a tent roof and with a smaller vase (G.N. Goldovskii and V.V. Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir v nizhnem parke Petrodvortsa [The Palace of Monplezir in the Lower Garden of Petrodvorets], 2nd ed. [Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1981], pp. 4, 11; Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, p. 99; Raskin, Petrodvorets Dvortsy-muzei, p. 129). The central building consisted of a large main hall with three rooms each on the east and west sides (Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, p. 6). With its view of the Gulf of Finland, it became the favorite summer residence of Peter the Great (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 27; Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, pp. 10–11; Sharubin, Ocherki Petergofa, p. 19). When he came to Peterhof, he would usually sleep at Monplezir (Sharubin, p. 19; Kurbatov, Petergof, p. 55). The sea air, he said, cured him better than any medicine; the architecture reminded him of his days spent in Holland (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 27; Sharubin, Ocherki Petergofa, p. 8). At the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, service wings were built. These elongated, adjoining single-story buildings were connected to the palace by small stone arches. They contained a dining room, pantries, rooms for the retinue, and the bathroom and bath of Peter the Great (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 75; Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, p. 99). Further off to the east were a bathhouse and kitchens, built in 1726 by order of Catherine I (Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, p. 10). These outlying buildings were subjected to many more changes than the palace itself. An especially large number of the changes were made in the reign of their daughter, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna. In 1748, she had Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli remodel the modest kitchens into an Assembly Hall, its walls decorated with tapestries woven at the Imperial tapestry works founded by her father (Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, p. 12). This is just one kind of change made by the daughters of Peter the Great to which Anna Whistler is alluding. Catherine the Great had the wooden terrace in front of Monplezir replaced by a marble one and the wooden balustrade along the shore replaced by one of pudozh stone (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, pp. 40, 76). Monplezir underwent major repairs several times: after the flood of 1770; in 1802, after a severe storm that had occurred in November 1801; and, for the third time, in 1825, after the famous flood of 7/19 November 1824; but it was never remodeled and changed. It was left looking as it had in the reign of Peter the Great and became a relic of his life (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, pp. 76–77; Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, p. 99).

The central part of Monplezir consists of a large main hall with a tent-shaped ceiling decorated with paintings of the four elements and with stucco moldings of allegorical figures depicting the four seasons. Apollo and four characters of the Commedia dell’ Arte are depicted in the painted plafond. The walls are panelled with dark oak, and the floor is of black and white checkered marble (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 77; Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, p. 36; V.N. Gusarov, N.V. Vernova, and V.V. Znamenov, Petergof v akvareliakh Aleksandra Benua [Peterhof in the Watercolours of Alexander Benois] [St. Petersburg: Art of Russia, 1996], p. 42). The north side of the hall faces the terrace and the sea, the south side the garden. There are three rooms each on the east and west sides of the hall. On the east side in Peter’s time were the Chinese (or Japanese) room, the kitchen, and the pantry. Nicholas I ordered that the pantry, a small room with windows looking out upon the seashore, be called the bedroom of Peter the Great. It already bore this designation when the Whistlers visited Monplezir and retained it until World War II. Here, the bed, bed linen, dressing gown, slippers, and nightcap of Peter the Great were carefully preserved (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 77; Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, pp. 49, 53, 58–60). The kitchen had blue and white Dutch tiles on its walls, a stone-tiled floor, a huge stove with trivets, and dishes and cooking utensils from Peter’s time (Goldovskii and Znamenov, pp. 44–49). The Chinese (or Japanese) cabinet was lined with black lacquered panels, to which were attached little gilded wooden shelves holding Chinese (or Japanese) porcelain (Goldovskii and Znamenov, pp. 28–36; Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, p. 93; M. Izmailov, Monplezir, Marly i Èrmitazh (dvorets i pavil’ony Petra I) [Monplezir, Marli and the Hermitage: The Palace and Pavilions of Peter I], 3rd ed. [Moscow, Leningrad: Gos.izd-vo izobrazitel’nykh iskusstv, 1933], pp. 28–30; “Dvorets ‘Monplezir’” [“‘Monplezir’ Palace”], Khudozhestvennye sokrovishcha Rossii 7–8 (1902): p. 206). On the west side of the hall in Peter’s time were the secretary’s room for his duty officer, the bedroom, and the Sea study, so called because of its view. When the Whistlers viewed these rooms, and up until World War II, the bedroom was called the study and the Sea study was called the reception room (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 77; Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, pp. 53, 56–58; Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, p. 92). The pavilions, galleries, Chinese (or Japanese) room, and secretary’s room were located on a single axis and made up the enfilade of public or reception rooms (Arkhipov and Raskin, p. 92). The walls of almost all the rooms and of the galleries and pavilions were covered with Dutch and Flemish paintings bought at auction in Holland personally by Peter the Great and through his agents (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, pp. 13, 27, 78; Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, p. 96; Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, pp. 20–28, 41–43, 70–87 and passim). This was the first picture gallery of its time in Russia (see following Note). The ceilings of almost all of these rooms were decorated, like that of the main hall, with an allegorical scene and sculpted plaster. On the south side of Monplezir, between the wings, was a beautiful shady garden containing some oaks and cedars planted by Peter the Great himself (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p.78). It is divided by two avenues in the shape of a cross into four parterre squares. In the center of the garden is the “Sheaf” fountain, called the “Crown” fountain in the period when the Whistlers were visiting. In each of the parterre squares there is a flowerbed with a symmetrical design. The “Crown” fountain emerges from a pedestal of limestone tufa. Its central vertical jet shoots to a height of twenty feet, and it has around it two rows of sloping fountains, one higher than the other. The water from the fountain falls into a circular basin and pours out of it from five marble spillways, and then into pipes, which empty into the sea. In the center of each square of the garden is a “Bell” fountain, each of which is a copy and is decorated with a bronze figure, representing Apollino, Jacopo Sansovino’s (1486–1570) Bacchus and Canova’s (1757–1822) Psyche and Faun with Baby Goat, all of which were cast in 1817. From the mushroom-shaped tops of the pedestals on which these four statues stand, water flows forming a glass-like cloche around the pedestal (Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, pp. 105, 108). The garden contains hidden “trick” fountains, some located in benches, that suddenly and unexpectedly turn on, wetting the unwary visitor (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 78; Arkhipov and Raskin, Petrodvorets, pp. 112–114). The side of the house facing the garden had windows down to the floor and struck some viewers as resembling a conservatory rather than a dwelling (Izmailov, Monplezir, p. 10). The side facing the sea was more interesting: red brick walls with white seams between the bricks; windows with shutters; the high, tiered roof. The terrace here was also of brick, with a stone balustrade, the landing beyond the balustrade covered in marble tiles (Izmailov, pp. 10–12, 13). The view from the terrace was of the city, the sea, Cronstadt, and the northern shore of the Gulf: “to the right, when the weather is clear, glitter the spire of the Peter and Paul Fortress and the dome of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and on the opposite wooded Vyborg shore, in the dark oak foliage, can be seen the white country palace built by Peter I and called by him ‘The Oaks’ … ; to the left menacing Cronstadt with its forest of masts towers above the sea; the view of the water and the ceaseless lapping of the waves complete the feeling of enchantment” (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 76).

Monplezir, with its view of the sea, shady garden, and flower-covered parterre with magnificent fountains, was one of the favorite and most frequented spots at Peterhof. Emperor Nicholas I, out of respect for the memory of his great ancestor, would, when at Peterhof, go every morning at eight from his residence, Alexandria, to visit Monplezir, from where he would then walk to the Great Peterhof Palace to his day’s work in the study of Peter the Great (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 79; Izmailov, Monplezir, pp. 43–44; Son iunosti, p. 26). A particularly charming commentary on Monplezir is to be found in Kurbatov, Petergof, pp. 46–55.

807  Monplezir housed the first major picture gallery in Russia and one of the first collections in Russia of the works of Western European artists, predominantly seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Dutch and Flemish.

Up until 1980, the identification of the “fine pictures” at Monplezir that Anna Whistler mentions would have been almost impossible. An inventory of the collection had been made in 1728, three years after Peter the Great’s death, but it was for the most part vague in that it did not give the artists’ names or subjects of most of the pictures, which then numbered two hundred and four (Stählin, Zapiski, vol. 2, pp. 5–6). This was rectified somewhat by the inventory of 1746–1747, in which seventeen of the pictures now in the museum were identified (Stählin, p. 6). In 1980, however, some other very important eighteenth-century inventories were published. An article appeared entitled “Opisaniia imperatorskikh zhivopisnykh kollektsii v Peterburge i zagorodnykh dvortsakh, sostavlennye Iakobom Shtelinym” [“Descriptions of the Imperial Picture Collections in Petersburg and in the Outlying Palaces, Compiled by Jacob Stählin”], Muzei 1 (1980): pp. 173– 193), written by the art historian K.M. Malinovskii. (The article was extracted from Malinovskii’s forthcoming two-volume work on Stählin – Zapiski Iakoba Shtelina ob iziashchnykh iskusstvakh v Rossii [Jacob Stählin’s Notes on the Fine Arts in Russia], noted above – which appeared in 1990. Stählin’s notes are translated by Malinovskii from German, and the volumes are equipped with an introductory essay and commentary.) Malinovskii published the detailed inventories of the art collections of the Imperial palaces of St. Petersburg and its environs compiled in the eighteenth century over a period of forty years by Jacob Stählin (Memmingen, Schwabia 9 May 1709 – St. Petersburg 25 June [OS] 1785) (Stählin, Zapiski, vol. 1, pp. 7, 22), who came to Russia at the age of twenty six, with a university education, experience as a poet–translator, and a knowledge of ancient and modern languages, music, allegory, numismatics, and fine arts, to be a professor at the Academy of Sciences. His work in the arts began when he was put in charge of the Engraving Department of the Academy of Sciences in 1738. At this time, he made his first descriptions of Imperial art collections, including Monplezir. In 1742, he left his work at the Academy of Sciences and became tutor to the Heir to the Throne. For forty years, he designed the firework displays and illuminations for the Imperial Court, one of the original purposes for which he had been invited to Russia. His closeness to the court opened the doors for him to St. Petersburg high society, resulting in his amazing knowledgeability about the private collections of St. Petersburg and the decor of these homes. His famous published work was Podlinnye anekdoty o Petre Velikom [True Anecdotes about Peter the Great] (Leipzig, 1785). He lived in Russia for fifty years, dividing his activities among the academic, art, and court worlds. His notes about the fine arts in Russia are considered the first experiment at creating a history of Russian art. They include information on painting, sculpture, architecture, engraving, mosaics, tapestries, fireworks and illuminations, the art of medal-making, theater, music, ballet and dance art, as well as the history of picture collecting in Russia and the description of all the important Imperial and many private art collections.

The inventories for the picture collections of Monplezir, the Hermitage, and Marly at Peterhof were compiled in 1738–1739 by Stählin and the Swiss artist George Gsell (1675–1740), who had been a broker of pictures in Amsterdam when Peter the Great (see Image 411) was buying them, and had come to Russia at his invitation (Stählin, Zapiski, vol. 2, pp. 5, 11). The collection of Monplezir in their inventory at that point numbered one hundred and eighty pictures (Stählin, p. 6). In most instances, partly because of Gsell’s previously acquired expertise, Stählin not only gives the name of the artist but also precisely identifies the subject, and in describing the picture stresses details that make it possible to recognize the picture even today (Stählin, pp. 5, 11) The Monplezir inventory, almost exhaustive in its completeness, increased the number of identifiable pictures in Monplezir to seventy three, while work accomplished by the late 1980s in searching for the pictures catalogued by Stählin made it possible then to view more than half of the original Monplezir collection (Stählin, p. 6). Of this original collection, ten pictures are now in the collection of the palace-museums and parks of Petrodvorets (the Russian translation equivalent of “Peterhof” used since 1944), three are displayed at the Great Peterhof Palace, one is in Marly, and nineteen are in the Hermitage (Stählin, pp. 6, 61–71). Stählin’s inventory was also used extensively in preparing a new catalogue (1st ed., 1976), of the one hundred forty-seven pictures in Monplezir in the 1970s (Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, pp. 70–87).

We cannot say that in 1844 the Whistlers saw at Monplezir all the paintings Stählin described in 1738–1739. In August 1745, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (see Image 413) had ordered Lucas Pfandzelt (1716–1788) to remove some pictures from Monplezir to Petersburg (Stählin, Zapiski, vol. 2, pp. 61, 62). Other pictures, which were considered impossible to repair, had been placed in storage in 1747 (Stählin, p. 63). According to the inventory of 1797, compiled by order of Paul I (see Image 417) for all the Imperial palaces, there were then one hundred seventy-three pictures in Monplezir (Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, p. 23). The flood of 1824 caused great damage to the picture gallery of Monplezir: thirty-five pictures were badly damaged and suffered as well from a poor job of restoration (Goldovskii and Znamenov, p. 23). My registered letter of inquiry addressed to Goldovskii and Znamenov concerning further inventories of Monplezir up through 1844 went unanswered. A positive note, however, is that of the thirty pictures transferred from Monplezir to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, most were not transferred until 1882 (Goldovskii and Znamenov, p. 69). Some of Stählin’s attributions and subjects have been shown to be incorrect, but this does not change what the Whistlers saw, only what they thought it was, if they were told at all. By comparing Stählin’s inventory with the paintings still at Monplezir in the 1970s, we can get an idea of some of what they might have seen (in the following list, S = Stählin, Zapiski, and G/Z = Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir): Adam Silo (1674–1760): Ships on a Roadstead (G/Z, p. 81, no. 96) and City Roadstead (S: pp. 17, 18, 65, nos. 54, 57; G/Z: p. 82, no. 106); Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633–1707): Ships on a Calm Roadstead (S: pp. 28, 30, 69, no. 136; G/ Z: p. 73, no. 24); Andries van der Horn (1600–1679): Boat Landing (View of a Canal in Saardam) (S: pp. 26, 27, 69, no. 128; G/Z: p. 73, no. 27); Jan van Huchtenburg (1647–1733): Horse Fair in Italy with Roman Ruins or Horse Fair (S: pp. 27, 68, no. 123; G/Z: p. 74, no. 35); in the manner of Roelant Savery (c. 1576–1639), but attributed today to Jan van Kessel (1626 – c. 1679): Orpheus with Many Animals or Orpheus Taming the Animals (S: pp. 25, 68, no. 123; G/Z: p. 75, no. 39); Adriaen van Salm (1660–1720): two marine paintings, one called Amsterdam Roadstead (S: pp. 22, 23, 67, no. 93 or 94; G/Z: p. 77, no. 60); Gillis de Winter (1656–1720): Dutch Town or Landscape with Country Church (S: pp. 18, 21, 67, no. 86; G/Z: p. 77, no. 55); Pieter Casteels III (1684–1749): Vase of Flowers (S: pp. 19, 65, no. 60; G/Z: p. 82, no. 101); Abraham Storck (c. 1635 – c. 1710): City Wharf or Seaport with a Church on the Shore (S: pp. 18, 20, 66, no. 71; G/Z: p. 82, no. 104); Rombout van Troyen (c. 1605– 1656): 2 paintings: The Destruction of Sodom or Lot Fleeing from Sodom and Aeneas Fleeing from Troy (attributed today to Daniel van Heil (1604–1662) (S: pp. 15, 63, nos. 26, 27; G/Z: p. 85, nos. 130, 131); Jan van Balen (1611–1654): Pallas Athena and the Muses or The Nine Muses on Parnassus (S: pp. 30, 31, 70, no. 165; G/Z: p. 85, no. 132); Richard Brakenburg (1650–1702): Christ and His Pupils at Emmaus or Supper at Emmaus (S: pp. 23, 67, no. 95; G/Z: p. 79, no. 70); Karel Breydel (1678–1733): 2 battle scenes: Cavalry Battle and End of the Battle (S: pp. 17, 65, nos. 58, 59; G/Z: p. 82, nos. 98, 99); Adriaen van der Werff (1659–1722): Vertumnus and Pomona (S: pp. 13, 62, no. 17; G/Z: p. 87, no. 146). Outstanding works by several famous painters listed by Stählin were transferred to the Hermitage in 1882. They include Jan Steen (1626–1679): Young Man Who Has Gotten a Servant Girl Pregnant (known today as The Marriage Contract) (S: pp. 27, 30, 69, no. 133); Joos de Momper (1564–1635): Hermitage with Hermits (S: pp. 31, 70, no. 169); Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606–1669): The Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau (known today as David and Jonathan) (S: pp. 21, 22, 66–67, no. 85).

Stählin’s inventories are in the archives of the Academy of Sciences in the Manuscript Division of the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg.

808  Throughout this passage, Anna Whistler seems to be discussing a visit solely to Monplezir (see Image 402), and therefore seems to refer to paintings in it executed by Peter the Great himself. Fettyplace’s journal, however, makes it clear that it was the Hermitage at Peterhof (see Image 403) that was “adorned with … many rough specimens of Paintings by the great monarch” (entry of Sunday 30th July 1848, PEM: Fettyplace Journal; Fettyplace visited Peterhof on Friday, 28 July 1848). This means that Anna Whistler and the boys visited the Hermitage as well as Monplezir. This building was intended to complement Monplezir, as its earliest name – the Small, or other Monplezir – implies. Its construction was begun in the summer of 1721, and the decoration of the interiors finished after Peter the Great’s death. After some changes made to it in the 1740s and 1750s, which included covering the walls of the upper salon on the second floor with paintings hung in trellis fashion and replacing a lifting chair by a staircase at the end of the eighteenth century, no major changes were made to the Hermitage for the next two hundred years (Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, p. 422). This would have been its appearance when the Whistlers saw it.

809  Goldovskii and Znamenov, Dvorets Monplezir, pp. 58, 60; Raskin, Petrodvorets Dvortsy-muzei, p. 135; Kurbatov, Petergof, p. 49.

810  In the secretary’s room of Monplezir there was a panel of Carrara marble carved in high relief, depicting allegorically the glory of the reign of Peter the Great (Geirot, Opisanie Petergofa, p. 77; “Dvorets ‘Monplezir’,” p. 191). Peter is depicted as a hero full of majesty, dressed in Roman armor, presenting an olive branch to a Russia worshipping on its knees before him. All around are the figures of abundance, trade, and the arts and sciences. The relief was executed by the German sculptor Johann Georg Österreich, in the reign of Catherine the Great, who liked to demonstrate her obeisance before the genius of Peter the Great and her own role as the continuer of his legacy (Izmailov, Monplezir, pp. 17–18). But Anna Whistler records that she saw an ivory carving of Catherine I and Peter the Great. According to a catalogue published in 1966, an exhibit in that year in the Gallery of Peter the Great in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg included a rectangular ivory panel with a relief depicting the coronation of Catherine I (see Image 401). At the left, Peter the Great, standing under a baldachine, places the crown on the head of Catherine I, who stands at the right. Above is the inscription “1724 Crowned in Moscow” (V.N. Vasiliev, Pamiatniki russkoi kul’tury pervoi chetverti XVIII veka v sobranii Gosudarstvennogo ordena Lenina Èrmitazha Katalog [Monuments of Russian Culture from the First Quarter of the Eighteenth Century in the Collection of the State Order of Lenin Hermitage Catalogue] [Leningrad and Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1966], p. 189). It sounds as if this is the panel Anna Whistler saw, but perhaps in another building at Peterhof. Objects connected with Peter the Great were also found in Marly Palace.

811  Persons mentioned in the entry for Thursday [August] 22Ơ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: William Hooper Ropes, merchant, and his wife, Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes (Mr. and Mrs. Ropes); John Stevenson Maxwell, secretary of the American Legation in St. Petersburg from July 1842 until November 1844 (Mr. Maxwell); and William Clarke Gellibrand, English merchant, and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, his wife (the Gellibrands).

812  It has not been possible to locate the letter from Emma Elizabeth Maingay (see Image 263), Deborah Whistler’s lifelong friend, who had recently left Russia permanently with her family to live in England.

813  Maxwell wrote to Major Whistler from Hamburg on 15 August 1844, informing him that he had received his letter from Tchoodvoo (Chudovo [pronounced “Choo′duhvuh”]), where Colonel Pavel Petrovich Mel’nikov (see Image 247) lived, dated 16/28 June. He told the Major of places he had been to and some of the people he had met. His hair had grown back in. He asked: “And how much of my present enjoyment of life do I owe to you? How am I indebted to you for kindness beyond all estimate during a long period of illness, and who can estimate the value of the many happy hours I have passed in sweet familiar intercourse with you in the strange land of Russia. When I forget you my dear Major, may my right hand forget her cunning. and I hope with (what in Bulwers novels is always printed in Capitals and ornamented with startling notes of admiration) Time!! and Experience!! to prove worthy your friendship and regard.” He urged the Major to visit Germany before returning home: “Visit your relatives at in Nassau, … let Miss Whistler hear the German opera in its magnificence and the boys the pure brogue of the Fatherland.” He had met with a young Count “attached to the person of Prince Menchikoff, who complimented you and who had seen us often together in our walks about town.” And in closing he asked the Major “to present [his] very respectful compliments to Mrs and Miss Whistler, to request the boys to sharpen the fish hooks and prepare for poetry” (John S. Maxwell to George W. Whistler, Hamburg, August 15, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers). Major Whistler’s letter to Maxwell is not among the Maxwell Papers.

Maxwell is urging a trip to Germany because the Cammann and Rodewald families, who were connected by marriage with the family of Anna Whistler’s brother, William Gibbs McNeill, both had German origins. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E and Images 31–33, 41.

814  Reverend Dr. Edward Law (see Image 253) had a maternal aunt, Cecilia Markham (9 February 1783 – 30 March 1865), who married, on 6 December 1808, the Rev. Robert Philip Goodenough (19 October 1775 – 20 April 1826). They had eleven children, of which seven survived childhood. Although Rev. Dr. Law was in England in the summer of 1844, it is possible that the Miss Goodenough in St. Petersburg was one of his first cousins: Cecilia (8 October 1810 – 1869), Frederica (4 December 1811 – 1875), Laura (13 April 1813 – 1862), or Louisa (24 September 1821 – 1887) (Sir Clements Markham, Markham Memorials, 2 vols. [London: Spottiswoode, 1913], vol. 2, pp. 50, 51–52; IGI).

815  Of the two hymns mentioned, it has not been possible to find “Thy Will Be Done.” In the case of the second hymn, it has not been possible to find the exact words: “Thou meet’st me where’er I go.” Hymn 150 (opening lines: “What secret place, what distant star, / Is like, dread Lord to thine abode?”), by Thomas H. Gill in The Service of Song for Baptist Churches contains in the second verse the lines: “Vain searchers! But we need not mourn; / We need not stretch our weary wings; / Thou meetest us, where’er we turn; / Thou beamest, Lord, from all bright things” (Samuel Lunt Caldwell, The Service of Song for Baptist Churches [New York: Sheldon, 1876], pp. 105–106, in the section called “God – His Attributes”).

816  Matthew 12:36: “But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”

817  Miss Morgan is Sophia Morgan (1808 – 13 April 1872), daughter of Francis and Isabella (Carmichael) Morgan, who married John Rodger, a banker, and from whose home in Linlithgow Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill was buried in 1863. See Note 665 above.

818  Mrs. Baird is Dorothea (Halliday) Baird.

819  The “old lady” is Sophia (Morgan) Baird (1771 – 10/22 February 1856), widow of Charles Baird, called “old” to distinguish her from other Baird women.

820  Edward John Morgan (1812 – 14 May 1876) was “for some time … the senior partner” in the firm of Egerton Hubbard and Company in St. Petersburg (W.E. Hubbard, “Our Grandmother’s Family – the Morgans,” in Some Account of the Hubbard Family from Family Records, Recollections and Traditions [Sevenoaks, UK: Printed by Joseph Salmon for private circulation, 1917], no pagination; see also The Pall Mall Gazette, May 15, 1876). He is also referred to in this entry as Mr. M. See the biography of the Morgan and Parland families in Appendix E (hereafter, Morgan and Parland).

821  In the southern United States, “simlin” refers to a species of summer squash having a scalloped edge (Andrew F. Smith, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), s.v. “squash”).

822  Catherine Allan (d. 30 November 1855) was the eldest daughter of Sir William Allan’s brother, John. She married in Edinburgh, on 22 June 1851, Herbert Cautley Blackburn (Roisin A. Kennedy, The Subject Paintings of Sir William Allan (1782– 1850), 2 vols. [MLitt thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993], vol. 1, p. 208n96; Roisin Kennedy, Dublin, to E. Harden, 16 March 1994; Monumental Inscriptions Pre 1855, Dean Cemetery, no. 2111; IGI).

823  Persons mentioned in the entry for Monday [August] 26ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Rev. George Williams, Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s summer replacement in the English Church, who was preaching his last sermon there (Mr Williams); Mary Elizabeth (Mosley) Law, wife of the incumbent chaplain of the English Church (Mrs. Law); Anna Whistler’s half-sister, Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill (my Sister); Lydia (Proctor) Wood, wife of the English cotton-spinning factory manager, Charles Wood (Mrs Woods, Mrs Wood); and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, wife of the English merchant Willam Clarke Gellibrand (Mrs Gellibrands party, Mrs Gellibrands wing).

824  Miss Forester, a governess (BRBC STP 1845, fol. 19), also called “Miss F” in the entry for Monday [August] 26ƫ, was probably Constantia / Constance Forrester (St. Petersburg 1796 – St. Petersburg 10/22 November 1878). She was the daughter of Francis Forrester, widower, who married Mary Barts, spinster, in St. Petersburg on 31 August /11 September 1791. They had three other daughters: Catherine Margaret (b. 1793), Elizabeth (b. 1794), and Maria (b. 1801). Catherine Margaret married William Atkinson in St. Petersburg on 24 April /6 May 1829. Neither Elizabeth nor Maria seems to have married in Russia, and only Constantia/Constance died there with their maiden surname. Thus, because she seems to have made a life in Russia, she may be the Miss Forrester of Anna Whistler’s diaries.

825  2 Corinthians 3:9: “For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.”

826  Henrietta Sarah (Markham) Law (30 May 1764 – 15 August 1844) was Rev. Dr. Edward Law’s mother (Sir Clements Markham, “The Printed Pedigree of the Markham Family of Morland,” Markham Memorials, vol. 2, pp. 51, 52).

827  See Note 824 above. Whichever one of the misses Forrester is the Miss Forrester of Anna Whistler’s diaries, she could have male and female cousins with a variety of surnames, if one or both of her parents had siblings; moreover, the child aged four in 1844 could have been born outside Russia. However, a search was made for children baptised in St. Petersburg who were born around 25 August 1840 (the date being discussed in the diary entry of 26 August 1844), the date of the celebration of their birth (i.e., not necessarily their birthday). A very good candidate for the child whose birthday was being celebrated on the 25th is Henry Main Anderson, the son of Matthew Anderson and Anne Elizabeth (Main) Anderson, who was born on 13/25 August 1840. Matthew Anderson and Anne Elizabeth Main were married on 13/25 July 1838. Henry Main appears to be their first child. They also had a daughter named Minna, who was born on 2/14 November 1842 and died 9/21 April 1843. Matthew Anderson (and therefore his wife, through marriage) would seem to be a cousin of Miss Forrester, because a Matthew Anderson, the son of Matthew Anderson and Anna (Barts) Anderson, was born on 9/20 July 1798 in St. Petersburg. Matthew Anderson Sr. and Anna Barts had married in 1786. As Barts is an uncommon surname, there is strong evidence that Anna (Barts) Anderson and Mary (Barts) Forrester were sisters, because the ages at death given in their burial entries indicate that they were born in around 1762 and 1760–1761 respectively. Thus, if Matthew Anderson, the father of Henry Main Anderson, was indeed the same person as the Matthew Anderson born in 1798, he could well be a first cousin of the misses Forrester (b. 1794, 1796, and 1801), and his wife would be called a cousin to them as well. The idea that there is a connection between the Andersons and the Forresters is further supported by the fact that one of the witnesses at the marriage of Francis Forrester to Mary Barts in 1791 was a Matthew Anderson. Also, three of the witnesses at the marriage of Catherine Margaret Forrester to William Atkinson in 1829 were M. Anderson, Frances Anderson, and John Anderson.

828  On the fourth birthday of his son, Wilberforce (Turvey, Bedfordshire 20 August 1807 – Turvey, Bedfordshire 16 January 1825), Rev. Legh Richmond (see Image 189) wrote him a letter in the form of a poem, consisting of nine quatrains, in which the final four words of each quatrain are “just four years old.” It begins: “It was early this morn as I waked from my rest, / An unusual emotion sprang up in my breast: / The occasion of this, do you wish to be told? / ’Tis my little boy’s birthday – he’s just four years old.” The poem is quoted in full in Domestic Portraiture as an illustration of the method employed by Richmond in the early religious education of his children (Domestic Portraiture, pp. 162, 178, 180–181; Grimshawe, Memoir of Richmond, p. 536).

829  Ekateringof (see Images 405–406), named for Catherine I, wife of Peter the Great (see Images 411–412), consists of a park with an ancient wooden palace, avenues for carriages, a music hall, gazebos, a children’s playgound, and eating places. Although the park was named for her, the palace itself was nevertheless usually called the Peter I Palace (see Image 405). On the seashore there is a pavilion (the farm), which serves as the summer dacha of the military governor general of St. Petersburg. The park is open to the public in spring and summer. On 1/13 May and on Trinity Day, there is always a public celebration here. Ekateringof was established by Peter the Great (see Image 411) together with its wooden palace, which was built in the spring of 1711, to commemorate his first sea victory over the Swedes in May 1703. He presented it to his wife as a summer residence. After his death, it fell into neglect. In 1745, Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (see Image 413) expanded the palace, but most of the new additions were destroyed, and the palace was mostly restored to its original appearance. In 1796, Ekateringof was made part of the city and included in the then newly established Fourth Admiralty District. In 1800, Emperor Paul I (see Image 417) entrusted Ekateringof to Count von der Pahlen (1745– 1826), at that time governor general of St. Petersburg. In 1804, it was transferred, with all appurtenances, to the jurisdiction of Count A.S. Stroganoff (1733–1811). These measures did not help, and the palace became dilapidated, the woods were fenced in, and – because the site of the garden was marshy – swamps formed, making Ekateringof impassable in bad weather. In 1823, Count M.A. Miloradovich (1771–1825), then military governor general, submitted and received Alexander I’s approval of plans for the restoration of Ekateringof. Work was begun in June 1823, and concluded in November of the same year. The most beautiful structures, the music hall and some of the pavilions, were the work of the architect, Auguste Monferrand (1786–1858), who designed the version of St. Isaac’s Cathedral being built at this time (see Image 119). In a single summer, a canal was dug, roads and paths laid, the palace rebuilt, the swamps filled in, the ponds cleared, little bridges erected, more than a thousand trees planted, and a children’s playground created. Gutuev Island, which lies opposite, was cleared, and the fishermen’s houses on it were elevated architecturally to resemble rural buildings in the environs of Rome. Ekateringof became once again a palace to which the inhabitants of Kolomna and the Semyonov and Izmailov regiments come, generally by water, to take Sunday excursions. There are many dachas here, distinctive among them that of V.G. Zhukov (1796–1881; see Image 323). The workers from his tobacco factory camp in the Ekateringof fields at haying time, accompanying their work with the singing for which they are famed. Moreover, villages that become populated with summer people abut on Ekateringof. On Sundays in summer, regimental music plays. Ekateringof is one of those places where smoking is permitted, although it lies within the bounds of the city. Its upkeep is maintained by the city (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1839, pt. 1, pp. 312–317; Pushkarev, Putevoditel’, pp. 312–317, 464; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 234, 664–666; Grech, Ves’ Peterburg 1851, pp. 213–215; Konechnyi, Progulki, p. 311; N.I. Batorevich, Ekateringof Istoriia dvortsovo-parkovogo ansamblia [Ekateringof: A History of the Palace-Park Ensemble] [St. Petersburg: Iskusstvo, 2006], pp. 106–125, 151–165, 175, 241). The artist, Karl Gampel’n (between 1796–1808 – after 1880), captured the 1/13 May public holiday in an engraving (aquatint) executed in 1825–1826 called Ekateringof Celebration (Ekateringofskoe gul’ianie) (see Image 406). Ten meters long and nine-and-a-half centimeters high, it depicts the celebration of 1824, after the park’s restoration. For an analysis of Gampel’n’s piece, including the meaning of his inclusion of himself, the artist, in it, see S.I. Velikanova, “Graviura K. Gampel’na ‘Ekateringofskoe gulianie 1-go maia’ kak istochnik arkhitektury i byta Peterburga 1820-kh godov” [“K. Gampel’n’s Engraving ‘Catherinhof Celebration of May 1st’ as a Source for the Architecture and Everyday Life of Petersburg in the 1820s”], in N.V. Iukhneva, ed., Staryi Peterburg: Istoriko-etnograficheskie issledovaniia [Old Petersburg: Historical–Ethnographic Studies] (Leningrad: Nauka, 1982), pp. 190–99. Anna Whistler was not attracted by the first of May spectacle, but when Lydia (Procter) Wood (see Image 272) had a pied-à-terre at Ekateringof in summer for making daily trips there with her children, Anna Whistler came at least once to visit her with James and Willie. She received the invitation on Friday, 23 August 1844.

Vasilii Grigorievich Zhukov (1796–1881; see Image 323), a tobacco manufacturer, produced a cheap pipe tobacco in his St. Petersburg and Moscow factories from the 1820s to the 1850s. One of the most prestigious awards of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, the Zhukov Award, was named for him as one of their biggest philanthropists. His choir of workers, directed by him, was famous for its singing (Nikolai Leskov, The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories, trans. and ed. Richard Pervear and Larissa Volokhonsky [London: Vintage Books, 2013], 354, 568; Leo Tolstoy, Childhood, Boyhood, Youth, ed. and trans. Judson Rosengrant [London: Penguin Classics, 2012], pp. 253, 407; Batorevich, Ekateringof, pp. 152, 156, 175; “History,” on the Russian Geographical Society website).

830  Over the canal leading to the palace is a charming and light little iron bridge. At the entrance to the bridge there are gates from both sides shaped like three arches. Along the sides of the canal is an embankment separating off two clear ponds. In the middle of the ponds, out of respect for antiquity, trees planted in Peter the Great’s time or before his time have been preserved. All along the palace there is a gallery which descends to the canal from both sides. The ponds are shaded by spreading birches. From the other side of the palace, a long avenue for pedestrians stretches through the entire grove. The Peter I Palace is a two-story building of simple architecture, but nonetheless quite spacious. Near it is a gallery from which the curious can see the arrangement and decor of the rooms on the lower floor. The palace has been restored to its former appearance. Its side walls are the same as they were in Peter’s time. The restoration was unusually difficult to effect. From the windows of the palace, ships can be seen sailing by, one after another, like the continuous series of scenes in a panorama. The palace is more spacious now than it was in Peter’s time. The section starting at the hearth room with the two-story hall was added on by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (see Image 413). The two stories contain twenty-one rooms. On the lower floor, the decor is much as it originally was: the cupboards, chairs, and all the objects are very plain and correspond to the simple life led by Peter the Great (see Image 411). Upstairs, where no decorations remained, the rooms are decorated quite luxuriously. The palace contains many precious mementos of Peter the Great, some made by him, others gifted by him and donated by the descendants of recipients to decorate the restored palace. In every room there is an icon; the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God in front of Peter’s bedroom is the same one that was here when he was alive. The palace also contains a library of Russian books relating to the history of Peter the Great. On the upper floor there are rooms filled with Chinese objects. Other rooms on this floor are decorated magnificently with furniture and hangings that once embellished the chambers of empresses Catherine I (see Image 412) and Elizaveta Petrovna (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, pp. 153–167; Batorevich, Ekateringof, pp. 126–131).

Bozherianov, explaining that a part of Peter the Great’s possessions and curiosities of his era were transferred from the Ekateringof Palace to the Petrine Gallery of the Imperial Hermitage in the early 1850s, says that a description of all the things in the Ekateringof Palace may be found in Pushkarev’s guide (I.N. Bozherianov, “Ekateringof,” Russkaia starina 41 (March 1884): p. 629). As one of Pushkarev’s guides was published in 1843, it would therefore seem possible to identify everything to which Anna Whistler refers. Actually, however, Pushkarev’s description is limited to those things he thinks may be of particular interest to the visitor (Pushkarev, Putevoditel’, pp. 313–317). Far more detail about the contents of the Ekateringof Palace rooms can be found in Bur’ianov’s guide for children, which, while charming and patriotic, is also very knowledgeable (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, pp.153–167). His descriptions are too extensive to be reproduced in their entirety here. They, too, do not cover all the objects Anna Whistler selects for mention.

831  Assuming that “attempts at the arts and sciences” includes objects made by Peter the Great, only two such attempts are cited by Bur’ianov and Pushkarev. In a splendidly decorated corner room on the upper floor of the palace there is a wooden snuffbox under a glass cloche, with the inscription “From His Majesty, made by his own hand, presented to Lieutenant Joseph Botom [sic] of the Navy” engraved on a little brass strip. Peter made the snuffbox with a non-removable lid, the upper half of which slides open (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 157; Pushkarev, 1839, pt. 1, pp. 314–315; Pushkarev, Putevoditel’, pp. 314–31; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, p. 236; Batorevich, Ekateringof, p. 128). In Peter’s bedroom on the first floor there is a plain old pine bed devoid of decoration that is avowed by oldtimers to be his own handiwork (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 155; Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1839, pt. 1, pp. 313–314; Pushkarev, Putevoditel’, pp. 313–314; Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, p. 235).

832  There is some reference to Chinese embroidery in the Ekateringof Palace in the following Note, but Anna Whistler’s comment in the diary text does not make clear what kind of embroidery she means.

833  There were several rooms with Chinese objects on the upper floor of the palace. At the top of the stairs, one sees a model of a Chinese galley, Chinese lanterns, and two human-sized stuffed dolls, representing subjects of the emperor, made of silk and attached to lacquered boards. On the walls were views of amusement parks with kiosks and sailing boats. In a nearby room were Chinese lacquered screens with gilt on black, with a picturesque depiction of the ceremonial departure of the Chinese emperor in his chariot, accompanied by his suite. In the same room were Chinese cupboards, chests of drawers, and bureaus with many drawers, some of them secret; these objects were as remarkable in their inner structure as in their outer appearance. Of two large pictures, one made on satin depicts flowers and birds with extraordinary liveliness, while the other, made on wood, with ivory figures pasted on and colored, represents a view of Chinese buildings in the countryside, the hunt, and a public celebration. The decor of these rooms reaches its high point in several chairs of unusual shape, the lacquered chamois pillows of which are supported on gilded monster heads. A curtain in Chinese taste covers the door. There are also straw blinds, two fans and, finally, ten elongated satin pictures embroidered with silk and depicting multi-colored parrots and luxuriant roses, songbirds on bushes in fields, etc. One cannot help but be astonished at the freshness of the flowers, the brightness of the colors, the brilliant play of colors in the silk, and the liveliness in imitating nature. To the side is another small Chinese study. Here, there are remarkable tables with landscapes on black with gilt and marble screens with charming depictions of a Chinese wedding. The arrival of the bridegroom, the emergence of the bride-to-be from her father’s house, etc. are represented on the ten panels of the screen in small pictures, below which at the bottom are fruits and flowers. In addition to the extraordinary artistry of their finish, the screens give a curious picture of Chinese customs. All these objects were probably brought from Peking during the lifetime of Peter the Great by Captain of the Life Guards Lev Izmailov, whom he sent as minister plenipotentiary to the emperor of China. Izmailov left St. Petersburg with ten thousand rubles for the purchase of various articles in Peking. One can also presume that some of the pieces of furniture were gifts in exchange for those sent to the Chinese emperor by Peter the Great. There is no specific mention, however, of a Chinese cabinet with ivory inlay (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, pp. 160-163. Pushkarev mentions only a few objects and gives no detail (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1839, pt. 1, p. 312; Pushkarev, Putevoditel’, p. 315; Batorevich mentions a large number of objects [Ekateringof, pp. 132–137]).

834  Bur’ianov and Pushkarev describe some of the upper-story rooms as magnificently decorated. In one, they say, the walls were covered with white velvet with bouquets of flowers depicted on it. In other rooms, Bur’ianov says, the furniture was covered with tiger velvet, satin and damask (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 164), but Pushkarev says these materials covered the walls (Pushkarev, Putevoditel’, p. 316). Anna Whistler probably meant tapestries, however. In yet another room, Bur’ianov says, the walls were decorated with tapestries by Russian artists, except for one of flowers and fruits by a foreign artist so realistic that birds could be deceived by it (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 164). Pushkarev mentions Bathsheba Bathing (Kupaiushchaiasia Virsaviia), also called Bathsheba at the Fountain (Virsaviia u fontana), woven in 1727, and Dogs in a Slaughterhouse (Sobaki v boine), woven in 1755, as noteworthy (Pushkarev, Putevoditel’, p. 316). Neither tapestry is from Peter’s lifetime. For all the preceding information about Ekateringof, see also Pushkarev, Nikolaevskii Peterburg, pp. 234–238, 664– 666; Batorevich, Ekateringof, pp. 126–140). Batorevich deals with the tapestries on pp. 131–132.

835  An Imperial order in 1840 permitted the introduction of dachas within the non-Imperial part of Ekateringof, and the lands there started to be leased for that purpose (Batorevich, Ekateringof, p. 166). Mrs. Wood was renting one room in someone’s “summer house.”

836  The Athanasian Creed is a “profession of faith which has been widely used in Western Christendom. It expounds the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation, adding a list of the most important events in the Lord’s life; it includes “anathemas against those who do not believe its affirmations” (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, s.v. “Athanasian Creed”).

837  Reverend Capel Molyneux was born on 2 December 1804 at Loseley mansion, Surrey, England. He was the eldest son of Ella (Young) Molyneux and John Molyneux of Gravel Hill, Salop. He entered Christ College, Cambridge University, Michaelmas 1822 and was Scholar in 1823, BA in 1826. He was “sometime in the Army.” He was ordained deacon (Worcester) in 1828 and priest (Hereford) in 1829. He was canon of Trinity Church, Woolwich, 1842–1850; canon of the Lock Hospital, Harrow Road, London, 1850–1860; vicar of St. Paul’s, Onslow Square, 1860–1872 (resigned). He married, firstly, Maria Carpenter, daughter of Admiral Carpenter, in June 1831. They had five surviving children: Maria Jane (d. 10 January 1916); Caroline (d. 15 March 1927); Eliza (d. 20 March 1920); Ella (d. 15 August 1915); and Julia (d. 2 January 1927). He married, secondly, in 1870, Eugenia Grace, widow of Lt.-Col. Alexander Murray. He died on 27 December 1877, age 73, at Cannes. He was the author of Baptismal Regeneration Opposed Both by the Word of God and the Standards of the Church of England (London: R.B. Seeley and W. Burnside, 1842); as well as Israel’s Fortune; The World to Come; Gethsemane, lectures delivered in Lent (1854); and Broken Bread, Short Comments for Family Use (1855). His portrait may be found in Christian Cabinet Illustrated Almanack (London: Office of the Christian Cabinet, 1860), pp. 30–31 and in Illustrated News of the World (1862) (Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography, 4 vols. [London: Cass, 1892], vol. 2, p. 918; Alumni Cantabrigienses, vol. 4, p. 436; Crockford’s Clerical Directory for 1890, p. 436).

838  “Regeneration” refers to the “the spiritual rebirth which, according to traditional theology, is effected in the soul by Baptism” (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, s.v. “regeneration”). The title of Rev. Molyneux’s book on baptismal regeneration suggests that he felt it to be “opposed both by the word of god and the standards of the Church of England.” See his biography in the previous Note.

839  Matthew 3:15: “And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.”

840  Tuesday [August] 27th was the third birthday of Charles Donald Whistler (Charlie), who had died on board the John Bull on the way from London to St. Petersburg in September 1843. Anna Whistler devoted this entry to her immediate family’s dead children. They included Kirk Boott Whistler, who had died at the age of four, in 1842, and whom she does not mention by name. She referred to the two of them as “both my darlings.” She also recalled Joseph Swift Whistler (Joe), who had died on 1 January 1840, at the age of fifteen. She mentions as well George William Whistler (George) (see Images 12–13), who was not well and had been with her and the rest of the family in the happy days on the Acadia from Boston to Liverpool. On that first leg of the journey to St. Petersburg, Charles Donald Whistler had celebrated his second birthday.

841  Anna Whistler omitted the word “eyes.”

842  In this entry for Wed [August] 28ƫ, Anna Whistler describes the activities of Tuesday 27 August. Despite her grief, she had allowed herself to be persuaded by Deborah Whistler to accept Colonel Todd’s invitation to Tsarskoe Selo.

Persons mentioned in this entry who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Charles Stewart Todd, American envoy (Col. Todd); Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, Anna Whistler’s half-sister (Aunt Alicia, Aunt A); Pyotr, the coachman (Coacher, Péotre); Andrea, the beggar child (Andrea); Kirk Boott Whistler, who had died in 1842 (Kirkie); Eliza (Lamb) Maingay, mother of Emma Maingay, Deborah Whistler’s closest friend in St. Petersburg (Mrs. Maingay); Eliza Maingay, daughter of Eliza (Lamb) Maingay (Eliza Maingay); and Colonel Todd’s servant (Miller).

843  All verst markers are made of wood, except for those on the route from the capitol to Tsarskoe Selo and Peterhof: here they are made of stone (see Image 395). At each verst there is a beautiful obelisk-shaped pillar of natural granite with a number on it. On the road to Peterhof, one passes 26 such markers (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 2). As late as 1991, a stone verst marker could still be found in the southwest corner of the Upper Garden at Peterhof with the number “29,” indicating its distance from the post office in St. Petersburg. In the nineteenth century, when the distance indicated by the verst markers began to be calculated from the city limits, the number “29” was changed to “26” (S.B. Gorbatenko, “Novye stranitsy rannei istorii Petergofa” [“New Pages in the Early History of Peterhof”], in Nevskii Arkhiv Istoriko-kraevedcheskii sbornik [Nevskii Archive: A Historical–Local History Collection] [Moscow and St. Petersburg: Atheneum Feniks, 1993], p. 155n6). See also D.A. Kiuchariants, Antonio Rinal’di (St. Petersburg: Stroiizdat SPb, 1994), pp. 117, 158, 159.

844  See the detail of the gable end of a log cottage in Image 355, showing the “jumping board.”

845  On 15/27 August, the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin is celebrated by the Orthodox Church (Mesiatsoslov na 1842 g.; Fedosiuk, Chto neponiatno u klassikov, p. 17; Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, s.v. “Assumption of the BVM”). See Image 382 of an icon celebrating this feast day.

846  “The road [to Moscow] was really excellent, and we observed in various places several handsome wells, built of granite, and ornamented with sphinxes, in the antique style” (William Rae Wilson, Travels in Russia, 2 vols. [London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, 1828] vol. 2, p. 1). It has not been possible to find an image of either the classic stone fountain or the classic stone well referred to in this entry.

847  In 1792, at the end of Catherine the Great’s reign, Giacomo Quarenghi (1744–1817) began the construction for her favorite grandson of a great palace, called the New (Alexander) Palace (see Images 388, 447). It was located in the northeast end of the New Garden and “to the east of the main entrance to the Catherine Palace,” its “main façade overlooking a pond” (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 102; Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 210; Hamilton, Art and Architechture, p. 201; Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 299). It was essentially completed in May of 1796, the year of Catherine’s death. On 12 June (OS) 1796, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich (the future Alexander I; see Image 418) moved in (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 210). When he became emperor five years later, he moved to the Catherine Palace (see Image 385), which he preferred. Nicholas I (see Images 420–423), however, preferred the New (Alexander) Palace. He would move to Tsarskoe Selo in early spring and stay until the end of May, when the troops went to camp near Peterhof for maneuvers. When maneuvers were over, the Court would return to Tsarskoe Selo and then move back to St. Petersburg about 24 November (Vil’chkovskii, p. 211). In 1800, the palace was stuccoed and “the architectural detail was delineated in white against a yellow background” (Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 301). In contrast to the Catherine Palace, the exterior of the New (Alexander) Palace is marked by a simplicity and severity of style (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 211). There are “no window surrounds and only a drip line separating the first and second floors” (Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 301). The building consists of a main façade with two perpendicular wings. Two perpendicular pavilions extend from along the main façade. A “double Cornithian colonnade” of snow-white stone unites the two pavilions and “create[s] an enclosed entrance court” (Brumfield, pp. 299, 301). The building has a dentilated cornice “surmounted by a balustrade” (Brumfield, p. 301). The colonnade also carries the entire entablature of the Corinthian order and the balustrade, which are continued above the entire building. The proportions of the colonnade are faultless. It is particularly fine when looked at from up close, from the inner courtyard. The free-standing columns are perceived then against the background of the sky and the landscape of the park. The entrances into the building are situated along the sides of the colonnade in the gable ends of the pavilions. This compositional feature marked a departure from the accent on the central axis of the building traditional to the architecture of Classicism. The palace did not have a main entrance marked by a portico and pediment, and therefore also did not have a sharply defined main façade (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 102). On the park façade at the rear there is a “projecting central pavilion with [a] dome” (Hamilton, Art and Architechture, p. 201). This feature, too, did not accent the central axis of the building. The palace does not dominate the park ensemble, but is part of it and unites harmoniously with the landscape, in this respect differing essentially from the Catherine Palace (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 102). While the interior of the palace underwent significant changes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the external appearance did not for more than one hundred fifty years (Petrov, pp. 102, 103). In 1817, lilac bushes were planted in front of the palace and colonnade. They spread, eventually partially hiding the palace from view (Petrov, p. 103), as can be seen in Image 388. In front of the colonnade, between the wings, there was until 1847 an open macadamized area (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 211). In 1838, two cast-iron statues, each of a youth playing an ancient Russian game, were placed in front of the colonnade. The models for them were sculptures executed by pupils of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and shown at the annual Academy exhibition in 1836: a youth playing “knucklebones” (babki) by N.S. Pimenov (1812– 1864) and another playing “nail into the ring” (svaika) by A.V. Loganovskii (1810–1855) (for illustrations of these games, see Images 356–357) (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 102; Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 211). Although not intended for installation in front of the palace, they are said to combine successfully with the Classical colonnade (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 103). In 1843, the first electromagnetic telegraph in Russia was set up in the study of Nicholas I in the New (Alexander) Palace, connecting with the study of the director of the Main Administration of Transport and Public Buildings, Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmikhel’ (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 211). Except for their 1846 visit to the newly built oratory in this palace, Anna Whistler does not record visiting any other part of it.

For a description of “babki” see the entry for Tuesday 13ƫ May [1845], NYPL: AWPD, Part II, and accompanying Note 149. “Swaika … consists in pitching an iron bolt, the head of which weighs sometimes a great many pounds, within the circle of an iron ring, previously fixed flat on the ground… The bolt is whirled around in the air, being held by the point for that purpose; and when it strikes the earth, such is the force with which it penetrates the ring, that it requires the united power of two men to uproot it once more. When the player misses the centre of the ring, he passes the bolt to the next player, and pays a forfeit” (Granville, St. Petersburg, vol. 2, p. 397).

848  The pseudo-Gothic Armory (Arsenal) (see Image 391) stands in the Alexander Park on the spot once occupied by a Baroque pavilion called Mon Bijou that had been designed by S.I. Chevakinskii (1713– 1770s); it was redesigned by Rastrelli for Empress Elizaveta Petrovna (see Image 413) and built between 1747 and 1754. Mon Bijou consisted of a central octagonal two-tiered brick structure with a cupola and with four single-storied adjoining rooms extended from it on intersecting diagonals (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 195; Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 241). It was considered a gem of Russian Baroque architecture. Adam Menelaws (1753–1831), remodeling it as a dwelling for Alexander I (see Image 418), modeled it on a pavilion at Shrubs Hill, a Gothic castle in England. The work was begun by him in 1819. After his death, supervision of the construction was given to Alexander A. Ton (1794–1881). The work was concluded in 1834. In the remodeling, four hexagonal, three-tiered towers were fused into one whole with the central two-storied mass that remained from Mon Bijou, each tower being joined to it by one of its six sides. The tower walls are finished off with cornices and crenelated parapets. Each of the towers is crowned with a Gothic turret. Wide window openings were cut through the walls of the central mass. The whitewashed plaster platbands and arches above the windows stand out against the brick walls, which were left unplastered as in medieval English castles (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 111; Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, p. 120). The windows had transoms with insets of Gothic designs. Many of the windows contained panes of old German and Swiss glass depicting Biblical stories, German and Swiss sixteenth- and seventeenth-century subjects, and armor and weapons of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (F. Gille, ed., Tsarskosel’skii muzei s sobraniem oruzhiia, prinadlezhashchego Gosudariu Imperatoru [The Tsarskoe Selo Museum and the Collection of Arms Belonging to His Majesty the Emperor] [St. Petersburg: A. Bauman, 1860], pp. 26, 40, 62, 70–71; Benois, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 218; Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 111). The remodeled building became a museum housing a rich collection of ancient arms and armor (see Image 392) that Nicholas I (see Images 420–423) had started in 1811, when a young Grand Duke. The collection, housed since 1817 in the Anichkov Palace in St. Petersburg (see Images 133–134), had been transferred to the Alexander Palace when he became emperor. The subsequent expansion of the collection led to the decision to house it in the pseudo-Gothic building, which, on the basis of an order issued by Nicholas I in 1834, was to be called the Armory (L. Tarasiuk, Starinnoe ognestrel’noe oruzhie v sobranii Èrmitazha. Evropa i severnaia Amerika [Old Russian Firearms in the Collection of the Hermitage: Europe and North America] [Leningrad: Iskusstvo, Leningradskoe otdelenie, 1971], pp. 8, 9).

The names of some of the rooms differed over the years. In 1842, Pushkarev’s guide noted on the first floor the Generals’ Room, picture room, library, Indian Room, and Her Majesty’s cloakroom and bedroom, and on the second floor the dining room, Russian or Slavonic Room, Polish Room, and Turkish Room (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, pp. 74–76). A plan of the Armory published in the 1860 catalogue describes the lower floor as consisting of a vestibule, large hall, study, empress’s room, library and Russian Room, firearms room, Albanian Room and main [stone] staircase. On the upper floor were located the Hall of Knights, the Indo-Muslim Room, the Turkish Room, the Indo-Persian Room and [iron] staircase (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, plan facing title page). Prior to this, the Indo-Muslim Room had been the Russian Room (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. 147a, 266). The Albanian Room did not carry this name when the Whistlers visited the Armory. It was set up after the death, in 1849, of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, who willed his collection of arms to his nephew, the Heir to the Throne, Grand Duke Aleksandr Nikolaevich (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. 86–87). The empress’s room was another name for the bedroom (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. vi, ix). The dining room was the Hall of Knights (identified by descriptions of the coats-of-arms of the Russian provinces on its walls) (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, p. 131; Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, p. 75). The blinds in the Armory were red (Benois, Tsarskoe Selo, p. xxxiii). Instead of the proposed marble floors, Nicholas I chose wooden parquet floors (Benois, p. xxxii). Objects were displayed in cases and cupboards in the rooms and towers as well as on the winding staircases and on the slender iron columns supporting the staircases. Groups of objects were picturesquely hung on the walls as units (trofei). The items exhibited were labelled (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. 91–130). In 1836, rules for visitors were approved. The public was allowed entrance on Wednesdays and Sundays from ten to six, in winter until two. Distinguished guests with tickets could visit every day. A guest book was kept for recording the names of acceptable visitors and keeping out undesirables. (I checked the Hermitage Archives in July 2003 and was told that these guest books are not in their collection.) When the Court was in residence at Tsarskoe Selo, admittance to the Armory was by special order. Special officers were attached to the Armory (Benois, Tsarskoe Selo, p. xxxiii). They were non-commissioned Guards veterans (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 197). There were guides (entry for Wed [August] 28 [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I) and guidebooks (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 119). See also Rigby, Baltic Letters, vol. 2, letter 26, pp. 264–266.

In 1840, Charles Seyger (Russian initials: K.I.), librarian to Nicholas I, died. His replacement was Florian Gille (1801– 1864), who filled the two posts of head of the palace libraries and of the Division of Antiquities at the Hermitage. He was director of the Armory for some twenty-five years. During his tenure, the collection grew from three thousand to five thousand objects (Tarasiuk, Starinnoe ognestrel’noe oruzhie, p. 9). In 1886, now numbering over seven thousand objects, it was transferred to the Hermitage (Tarasiuk, p. 11). It is possible, however, to have a good idea of some of the objects Anna Whistler’s party saw at the Armory through publications that appeared long before the transfer. In 1840, the first catalogue of the collection in the Russian language, prepared by K.I. Seyger, was published: Katalog redkogo, starinnogo i vostochnogo oruzhiia, khraniashchegosia v sobstvennom Ego Imperatorskogo Velichestva Arsenale v Tsarskom-Sele [Catalogue of Rare, Ancient and Eastern Arms in His Imperial Majesty’s Own Armory in Tsarskoe Selo], 2 vols. (St. Petersburg: Eduard Prats, 1840). It was actually an inventory of 2747 items, grouped according to twenty categories, such as “armor,” “shields,” etc. (F. Gille, comp., Tsarskosel’skii muzei s sobraniem oruzhiia, prinadlezhashchego Gosudariu Imperatoru [The Tsarskoe Selo Museum and the Collection of Arms Belonging to His Majesty the Emperor] [St. Petersburg: A. Bauman, 1860], pp. vii–viii; N. Kondakov, comp., Imperatorskii Èrmitazh Ukazatel’ otdeleniia srednikh vekov i èpokhi Vozrozhdeniia [Imperial Hermitage: Guide to the Division of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance] [St. Petersburg: Imperial Hermitage, 1891], p. 9). In 1835, a serial edition of lithographs of outstanding objects in the Armory was begun. These lithographs were based on watercolor drawings executed by A.P. Rockstuhl (1798– 1877) and others. It was completed and published in 1853 in French with the title Musée du Tsarskoé-Sélo ou collection d’armes de Sa Majesté L’Empereur de toutes les Russies. Ouvrage composé de 180 planches lithografiées par Asselineau d’apres les dessins originaux de A. Rockstuhl, avec une Introduction historique par Flor. Gille (St. Petersburg, 1835–1853). This edition was continued and published in 1869 by the librarian of Alexander II, E. Kaemmerer (Kondakov, Imperatorskii Èrmitazh Ukazatel’, p. 9). It contained explanatory texts in Russian and French and a historical introduction on medieval arms, and appeared under the title Tsarskosel’skii arsenal ili Sobranie oruzhiia prinadlezhashchego Ego Velichestvu Gosudariu Imperatoru Aleksandru Nikolaevichu. Po risunkam Gg. Professora A.N. Rokshtulia i N.A. Bogdanova s poiasnitel’nym tekstom sostavlennym Deist. St. Sov. E. Kemmererom zavedyvaiushchim Sobstvennymi Ego Velichestva Bibliotekami i Arsenalami [The Armory at Tsarskoe Selo or the Collection of Arms and Armor Belonging to His Imperial Majesty Aleksandr Nikolaevich. Based on Drawings by Messrs. Professor A.N. Rokstuhl and N.A. Bogdanov, with an Explanatory Text by Actual Councilor of State E. Kaemmerer, Director of His Majesty’s Libraries and Armories; the title is then repeated in French], edition of Messrs. A.A. Il’in and N.K. Flige, printed with His Majesty’s permission (St. Petersburg: Obshchestvennaia Pol’za, 1869) (Kondakov, Imperatorskii Èrmitazh Ukazatel’, pp. 9–10). In 1860, two editions, Russian and French, of a detailed room-by-room catalogue with an introduction by Gille appeared. They were called Tsarskosel’skii muzei s sobraniem oruzhiia, prinadlezhashchego Gosudariu Imperatoru [The Tsarskoe Selo Museum and the Collection of Arms Belonging to His Majesty the Emperor] (St. Petersburg: A. Bauman, 1860) and Notice sur le Musée de Tsarskoé-Sélo renfermant la collection d’armes de Sa Majesté L’Empereur (St. Petersburg, 1860) (Kondakov, Imperatorskii Èrmitazh Ukazatel’, p. 10). In 1891, Senior Curator N. Kondakov’s catalogue to the arms and armor collection in the Hermitage – Imperatorskii Èrmitazh Ukazatel’ otdeleniia srednikh vekov i èpokhi Vozrozhdeniia [Imperial Hermitage Guide to the Division of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance] – was published. These publications have been helpful in ascertaining and describing some of the objects that were of particular interest to the Whistlers.

Rokshtul’s given names were Aloisius Gustav. The Russians called him Aloizii Petrovich. His initials therefore appear sometimes as A.G. and sometimes as A.P. Why the initials A.N. appear in the abovementioned publications is not known to me.

849  The Armory had in its collection suits of German, Italian, French, Swiss, Austrian, Spanish, Hungarian, Polish, Czech, Indo-Muslim, and Persian armor. The specific reference in the diaries is to two elegant suits of Maximilian armor of German workmanship from the beginning of the sixteenth century that were worn by Nicholas I (see Images 420–423) and Grand Duke Aleksandr Nikolaevich (see Image 420) during the medieval “carousel” which took place in Tsarskoe Selo on 23 May /4 June 1842 to celebrate the silver wedding anniversary of Nicholas I and Empress Aleksandra Fyodorovna. The “carousel” set out from the Armory and proceeded to the esplanade of the Alexander Palace, where a tournament was held. Sixteen cavaliers and sixteen ladies participated. The ladies were in medieval dress, the cavaliers in sixteenth-century armor from the Armory. The armor worn by Nicholas I and Grand Duke Aleksandr Nikolaevich was taken from the empress’s room (bedroom) of the Armory. The young grand dukes were dressed as pages (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, pp. 196–197; Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. ix, 66–67, 107, 109, 133, 134–136; Benois, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 218). For further details and differing numbers see Wortman, Scenarios of Power, vol. 1, p. 340. Plate 1 of Kaemmerer, Tsarskosel’skii arsenal, illustrates the suit of armor worn by Nicholas I, Plate 5 that worn by his son. Both plates are accompanied by texts in Russian and French. A portrait of the Imperial family during the 1842 carousel was committed to canvas by Horace Vernet (1789–1863) in 1843 (see Image 420). Aleksandra Fyodorovna dominates the painting, seated on a white horse in the center. To her right is Nicholas I, and beyond him and further in the background Grand Duke Aleksandr Nikolaevich and the Duke of Leuchtenberg, her son-in-law. Behind her to her left are the grand duchesses Olga Nikolaevna and Aleksandra Nikolaevna and Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich. To her left in the foreground stand the little grand dukes, Nikolai Nikolaevich and Mikhail Nikolaevich (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. ix–x; Wortman, Scenarios of Power, vol. 1, p. 340). An excellent discussion of the symbolism of such carousels may be found in Wortman, Scenarios of Power, vol. 1, p. 340.

For stories about the affectionate relationship of Nicholas I with his horse and its grooms, see A.I. Mikhailov, “Imperator Nikolai Pavlovich v razskazakh ego sluzhashchykh” [Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich in Stories by His Servants”], Russkaia starina 67 (April –July 1890): pp. 361–364.

850  It has not been possible to identify this gun in any of the books cited in Note 848, NYPL: AWPD, Part I, as they list many guns with very long barrels. According to the curator of the Hermitage Armory, Dr. Iurii Miller, it is difficult to identify this gun without a more detailed description of it (Iu. Miller, St. Petersburg, to E. Harden, 19 October 2001).

851  “There is precise information that these stuffed horses were bought in St. Petersburg in the 1830s” (Iu. Miller, St. Petersburg, to E. Harden, 19 October 2001).

852  See Image 393. The 1840 catalogue describes the saddle simply as covered with silver plates (bliashki) (Seyger, Katalog redkogo oruzhiia, vol. 2, p. 157). It is described in the 1860 catalogue as made of silver with convex chasing (vypuklaia chekanka) (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, p. 137). The plate illustrating the saddle does not help clarify either statement (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, vol. 4, p. 263, plate 30). The pommel had the elegant form of what was thought to be a curving swan’s neck (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, p. 137). In both catalogues, it is recorded that the saddle had belonged to Tipoo Sahib (1751–1799), the last Nabob of Mysore (Seyger, Katalog redkogo oruzhiia, vol. 2, p. 157; Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. viii, 137). Neither catalogue records his armor or horse. The 1840 catalogue explains that the other saddle parts grouped with Tipoo Sahib’s saddle do not belong to it (Seyger, Katalog redkogo oruzhiia, vol. 2, pp. 157–158). The 1860 catalogue describes some armor placed near Tipoo Sahib’s saddle, but says it is not his (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. 136–137). His sword was located elsewhere in the Armory and is described in the 1860 catalogue (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. 220–221). Later scholarship has established that the saddle was acquired for the Arsenal in 1836 in Paris from the collector F. Civilotti, as belonging to Tipoo Sahib (Iu. Miller, “Sedlo i sablia Tippu-Saiba” [“A Saddle and Sword Belonging to Tipoo Sahib”], Soobshcheniia Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha [Reports of the State Hermitage Museum] 10 [1956]: pp. 45–46). It has been suggested that the bird’s head is that of the mythological bird Garuda, which appears frequently in Indian art (Miller, “Sedlo i sablia Tippu-Saiba,” p. 46). The seat of the saddle is covered in red satin with a white design (Miller, “Sedlo i sablia Tippu-Saiba,” p. 46).

853  Dr. Miller made an inquiry of the Department of Antiquities at the Hermitage. It has in its collection ancient Greek and Roman weaponry and some helmets from the Crimea, where archaeological excavations were carried on from the beginning of the nineteenth century, but no helmet from Herculaneum (Iu. Miller, St. Petersburg, to E. Harden, 19 October 2001). If we assume that Anna Whistler could have made a mistake in her attribution, we can propose that the object she saw was an ancient Greek bronze helmet, totally covered with rust, with two ear protectors, and decorations on it of consummate taste, found in a tomb in the environs of Kerch, a seaport in the Western Crimea, near ancient Panticapaeum (Seyger, Katalog redkogo oruzhiia, vol. 2, p. 140, item 405).

854  See Image 394. This enormous lock was on the door of the Great Hall (Hall of Knights). It was found in 1839 in Jerusalem, in a ditch that encircled the wooden tower of David, and was obtained by the Russian consul in Jaffa, who sent it to the then minister of Finances, Count Kankrin, for presentation to Nicholas I. The lock is made of forged iron, weighs 38½ pounds, is square in shape, and is more than nine inches across. The mechanism consists of a cylinder four inches in diameter. The key, which is thirteen inches long and weighs five pounds, fits into an opening made in the iron casing of the cylinder and at a certain distance from the orifice of the cylinder presses on six springs of the most clever construction, as a result of which the lock opens. To lock it again, one has only to remove the key and the springs return to normal position and go back into their chambers, once again uniting the opened parts. In the lower part of the lock may be seen an indentation which probably held a silver plate with a depiction of the cross of Jerusalem on it, but unfortunately the plate has been lost. The two sections comprising the head of the key also form a cross of Jerusalem. The coat-of-arms of the Jerusalem Latin Kingdom consists of a shield, on the silver of which is depicted a double gold cross, which is counter to the rule of heraldry that requires that color should not be placed on color nor metal on metal. This deviation from the accepted rule was made so that later generations should seek a valid reason as to why this incorrect coat-of-arms (armes à enquérir) was formed. The external appearance of the lock, together with its size and weight, prove that it was used for locking city or tower gates, while the representation of the cross of Jerusalem repeated on the lock and key may serve to indicate when it was made – probably at the end of the twelfth century, when the Crusaders still held Jerusalem. The lock has survived intact and in good working order, thanks to its thick iron walls, while the mechanism is located so deep that it could not be subject to rust. It was also preserved by the dry Jerusalem soil and the hot climate (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. 129–130; Williams, Holy City, [pp. 504–505]); Illiustratsiia. Ezhenedel’noe izdanie vsego poleznogo i iziashchnogo [Illustration: A Weekly Publication of All Things Useful and Elegant], 2nd year, vol. 3, no. 25 [July 6, 1846] [no. 61]: pp. 390–399).

855  Both sets of equestrian accoutrements appear in Kaemmerer, Tsarskosel’skii arsenal, and both are cited as the gift of Sultan Mahmud II (1784–1839). The first set mentioned by Anna Whistler was presented to Nicholas I (see Images 420–423) as a token of gratitude for aid rendered in 1833, when he sent a detachment of Russian troops to Unkiar-Skelessi to stop Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali, who, after defeating the Turks at Nezib, was menacing Constantinople. This gift consisted of a saddlecloth, harness, pistols, holsters, and stirrups. The saddle cloth was made of dark blue cloth with a red cloth border and gold fringe. Along the border and in the corners were embroidered in thread of gold arrows, quivers, and torches intertwined with laurel leaves and decorated with large diamonds. All the remaining pieces, except for the stirrups, were also studded with diamonds. The other set, consisting of a saddlecloth, harness, pistol holsters, and a saber, was sent to Nicholas I by Sultan Mahmud II after the conclusion of the Peace of Adrianople in 1829. The saddlecloth was made of pale lilac-colored cloth with diamonds along the border. The diamonds were placed in designs sewn with thread of gold depicting garlands of flowers and leaves tied with ribbons and bows. In the corners of the saddlecloth were military trophies also sewn with thread of gold and decorated with diamonds. The fringe on the saddlecloth was also thread of gold and decorated with brightly colored silk tassels. The saber had a Damascus steel blade 35 English inches long. The other parts of the saber and the scabbard were of gold, covered with pale lilac enamel with diamond garlands like those on the saddlecloth. The remaining pieces were made of glossy black leather and decorated with gold armatures and with many diamonds set in small panels of chased gold. The 1829 set is represented in Plate 29 of Kaemmerer, Tsarskosel’skii arsenal, the 1833 set in Plate 30. The detail given above is taken from the text in Kaemmerer, Tsarskosel’skii arsenal (facing the plates). Both sets are also described and historical detail given in the 1840 catalogue (Seyger, Katalog redkogo oruzhiia, vol. 2, pp. 3– 4) and the 1860 catalogue (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. 201– 202). Dr. Edward Maynard also drew these and enclosed the drawing in a letter to his wife in September 1845 (see Image 332). See also Lincoln, Nicholas I, pp. 199–207.

856  Pushkarev recorded in 1842 that the Armory had a portrait of Charles XII and plaster masks of Peter the Great (see Image 411) and Charles XII (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, p. 74). In the 1860 catalogue, the portrait and masks are described in greater detail (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, pp. 80–81). Reference is made in the 1860 catalogue to Swedish cuirasses transferred to the Tsarskoe Selo Armory from the Narva Armory (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, p. 122), but no mention is made in these works of bejeweled swords taken from the Swedes in battles between Peter the Great and Charles XII. In response to this passage, Nils Drejholt of the Royal Armory in Stockholm pointed out that “there might be swords or sabres set with precious stones belonging to Swedish officers, but then they must have been taken as booty during the war or gifts from officer colleagues, they were never used in the field” (Nils Drejholt, Stockholm, to E. Harden, 18 January 2002). Dr. Yuri Miller said it would be rather difficult from such a description to establish which swords in the collection were the right ones, as the collection contains numerous swords of this type decorated with precious stones. It is possible, however, that trophies taken by Russian troops during the Northern War with Sweden did end up in the Armory at Tsarskoe Selo (Iu. Miller, St. Petersburg, to E. Harden, 19 October 2001).

857  Anna Whistler is referring to the Great Hall, or Hall of Knights, the octagonal room with a high vaulted ceiling on the second floor of the Armory (see Image 392). At the base of the vaulting, all around the hall, hung shields with the coats-of-arms of the provinces, painted by Fyodor Pavlovich Briullov (1793–1869). Here, too, were represented in natural size tableaus of a duel and a knight’s initiation (Bur’ianov, Progulka s det’mi, vol. 3, p. 117; Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, p. 75; Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, p. 131; Benois, Tsarskoe Selo, p. xxxiii; Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, p. 112).

858  The basement floor of the Armory had rooms for servants and accommodations for housekeeping; on the lower (ground) floor were a vestibule, two reception rooms, a hall, a study, a library, and a bedroom; on the upper floor were a large hall and several adjacent studies (Gille, Tsarskosel’skii muzei, p. ii). The abovementioned bedroom was also referred to as the “Empress’ room” and would have been at one time the sleeping quarters of Empress Elizaveta Alekseevna (see Image 419), wife of Alexander I (see Image 418). Pushkarev pointed out in 1842 that “Her Majesty’s bedroom” had in it a cross given to Nicholas I (see Images 420–423) by Grand Duke Aleksandr Nikolaevich (see Image 425) on 6 December (OS) 1837 (Pushkarev, Opisanie Sanktpeterburga 1842, p. 75).

859  Plans for turning a part of the empress’s study into an oratory were in process as early as 11/23 August 1844, less than a month after the death of her daughter (RGIA: Fond 487, op. 5, d. 1902. Po ustroistvu molel’noi komnaty v Novom Dvortse 11 Avgusta 1844g. – 20 Sentiabria 1848g. [Concerning the installation of the Oratory in the New Palace 11 August 1844 – 20 September 1848] [OS]). For a description of the completed oratory see the entry for August 12/24ƫ Monday [1846], NYPL: AWPD, Part II and accompanying Note 487 and Image 452.

860  Although the work went on for more than a year, memorial services were held in the oratory on 28 July /9 August 1845, during remodeling, to commemorate the first anniversary of Grand Duchess Aleksandra Nikolaevna’s death (RGIA: Fond 516, op. 28/1618, d. 154. Zhurnal Kamer-Furierskoi dolzhnosti po polovine Gosudaria Imperatora Nikolaia Pavlovicha, 1845 [Chamberlain’s Journal for the Apartments of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich for 1845], fol. 370v).

861  “The Bible teaches plainly, that as we die, whether converted or unconverted, whether believers or unbelievers, whether godly or ungodly, so shall we rise again when the last trumpet sounds. There is no repentance in the grave: there is no conversion after the last breath is drawn. Now is the time to believe in Christ, and to lay hold on eternal life” (John Charles Ryle, Practical Religion: Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians, 3rd ed. [London and Ipswich: William Hunt, 1883], p. 318).

862  Grand Duke Aleksandr Nikolaevich (see Image 425) would be returning from the maneuvers at Krasnoe Selo.

863  The problem of supplying water for the ponds of Tsarskoe Selo was solved in 1749 by bringing it from springs near the village of Bol’shoe Vittolovo, six kilometres northwest of Tsarskoe Selo. This water supply was later found to be insufficient and a new source was found, but at a greater distance. A conduit built between 1772 and 1787, in the reign of Catherine the Great (see Image 414), brought water from springs located in Taitsy, the estate of A.G. Demidov, sixteen kilometres from Tsarskoe Selo, and solved the water supply problem for the ponds and for drinking for a whole century (Vil’chkovskii, Tsarskoe Selo, p. 23; Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, pp. 14, 16).

864  There was a Chinese Village in the New (Alexander) Park, the construction of which had been undertaken in 1782 by Charles Cameron (1745–1812). It had originaly been “designed by V. Neelov [1722– 1782], possibly with the participation of Rinaldi” (c. 1710– 1790) (Brumfield, History of Russian Architecture, p. 280). While reflecting the reality of “a renewed interest in trade and political expansion in the direction of China,” “the creation of such artificial environments also signalled an ability to transform reality, a confrontation of nature and artifice characteristic of imperial estate design since the time of Peter I” (Brumfield, p. 270).

One of several Chinese bridges, the Great Chinese Bridge (Bol’shoi Kitaiskii most) Anna Whistler mentions, located close to the New (Alexander) Palace, was a stone bridge (see Images 389–390). The railings of this wide, flat bridge consisted of tall granite amphorae connected to one another by interwoven branches of imitation coral, forged from wrought iron and painted red. The side walls of the bridge were faced with pink granite. There were four granite pedestals in the center portion of the bridge, two on each side, in a line with the amphorae and located above those points of the bridge where it rested on the edge of the grassy banks. On the pedestals at this time were four plaster Chinese figures dressed in national costumes of various colors and seated cross-legged. Each figure held a lantern on a pole in one hand. (Petrov, Pushkin: Dvortsy i parki, pp. 100–101; Lemus et al., Muzei i parki Pushkina, p. 83; S.S. Bronshtein, Arkhitektura goroda Pushkina [The Architecture of the Town of Pushkin] (Moscow: Gosudarstvennoe arkhitekturnoe izdatel’stvo Akademii arkhitektury SSSR, 1940), p. 34; Pamiatniki arkhitektury prigorodov Leningrada, pp. 114–115).

865  Anna Whistler and Debo went to a house in Tsarskoe Selo where the employer of the governess, Miss McLean, lived. The house of Varvara Alekseevna Olenina (see Note 867 below and Image 306) was located in the Second District of the Third Ward on the corner of Kuz’minskaia and Kolpinskaia streets, numbered 173 and 174 (RGIA: Fond 485, op. 3, ed. khr. 801 Tsarskoe Selo. 2aia chast’ III Kvartal General’nye plany uchastkov N 173, 174 na uglu Kolpinskoi i Kuz’minskoi ulits i fasady doma na nem, prinadlezhavshikh Oleninu i Stepanovu. Arkh. Nikitin N.E. 1840e, 1870e gg. [Tsarskoe Selo, Second District, Third Ward. General Plans of plots 173 and 174 on the corner of Kolpinskaia and Kuz’minskaia streets and facades of the house on it belonging to Olenin and later to Stepanov. Architect N.E. Nikitin. 1840s and 1870s]. On a plan in this file proposing changes to the house in the 1860s, there is evidence that the widowed (in 1843) V.A. Olenina became the owner in 1845.

866  Neither Miss McLean’s first name nor important dates of her life appear in any of the documents I have consulted. Some additional information about Miss McLean and her life as a governess can be inferred from material in the Olenin Archive in the Rukopisnyi otdel Rossiiskoi natsional’noi biblioteki (RNB OR) [Manuscript Division of the Russian National Library], St. Petersburg. One item is a list, dated 7 February 1842, of subjects to be studied, set by the father of Miss McLean’s charge when his daughter, nicknamed Aty (or Attie), was seven. They are: religion, Russian, French, German, English, geography, history, arithmetic, penmanship, drawing, music, and dancing. This is followed by a timetable showing that she had lessons every day of the week, including Sunday, when for one hour in the morning she studied religion. The second item is a letter written by Aty to her father, when she was seven. Dated 9 June 1842 and written in good English, it mentions Miss McLean twice: “if I am good and learn well, dear Papa will you buy me a Microscope, I have been learning about Snow, and Miss McLean tells me that it is very curious to look at it through a Microscope … Miss McLean begs to be remembered to Grand Mama and yourself.”

On a third item, which consists of verses in English, it says “Atty, aged 10 years!” In the hand of her mother, but apparently written at a much later date, it says: “To me” and “In childhood how well she wrote but later …” The material copied here by the child is called “The Tzar and the two Shepherds.” It begins: “The Tzar has wandered from the city-gate.” The Tzar then meets two shepherds in succession. The first cannot by himself manage his “poor lean flocks,” decimated by the wolf because the shepherd’s lazy dogs sleep in the shade. The Tzar is comforted to see that there “is another sovereign, just like me.” But as he continues to wander, he meets “the loveliest flock that ever grazed” and finds their shepherd under a linden tree, playing a pipe. Though a lamb strays and the wolf appears, that shepherd’s vigilant dogs drive the wolf away. All the while, the shepherd goes on playing. The Tzar loses all patience with him and berates him for his lack of concern despite his success, but receives the answer: “Tzar! here no evil can betide my sheep / My dogs are faithful and they do not sleep.”

From these items we can infer that in August 1844 Miss McLean had been governess to Aty for at least two-and-a-half years; that somewhere in that long day of study, in addition to the subjects in the timetable set by the little girl’s father, she introduced her, and early, to the then unfeminine subject of science, and captured her interest; and that like many a British governess she attempted to give her foreign charge a political education along the way (RNB OR: Fond 542, no. 1011, Stoianovskaia (rozhd. Olenina) Al-dra Grig. Pis’ma (2) ee k ottsu, napisannye v 7-letnem vozraste, raspisanie zaniatii, i igrushechnoe izobrazhenie karety i uprazhneniia v angliiskom iazyke [Stoianovskaia (born Olenina) Al-dra Grig. Two letters to her father written at the age of seven, a timetable of lessons, a toy depiction of a carriage and exercises in the English language.]) The “toy depiction” consists of pictures of three types of carriages: one black and white, and two colored. On the back of each, it says “Made by Crichton and Feild Edinburgh,” who were “coachmakers of Leith Walk” (Jeremy Howard, William Allan: Artist Adventurer, with contributions from John Morrison, Sara Stevenson and Andrzej Szczerski [Edinburgh: City of Edinburgh Museums and Galleries, 2001], p. 43).

Miss McLean was still with the family in the early 1850s, when the widowed Varvara Alekseevna was living on her Voronezh estate as well as in the city of Voronezh, and Aty was at least sixteen (N.N. Ogloblin, “Iz zapisnoi knizhki” [“From My Notebook”], Nasha starina 5, no. 11 (1914): p. 489).

Miss McLean was the close friend of both Mrs. Eliza (Lamb) Maingay and her daughter, Eliza Ann Maingay. The Maingay family had returned to England permanently in May 1844. See Maingay in Appendix E and Images 259, 262.

867  As Anna Whistler had just made the acquaintance of Miss McLean, she may have had in mind three other governesses. It has not been possible to determine who they were, but Miss McMaster was probably one of them.

868  Varvara Alekseevna (Olenina) Olenina (3/15 February 1802 – 15/27 September 1877; see Image 306) was the elder daughter of Aleksei Nikolaevich Olenin (28 November /9 December 1763 – 17/29 April 1843; see Image 307), from 1811 until his death director of the Imperial Public Library and from 1817 until his death president of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts. Her name was pronounced “Ahlay′nyeenuh,” which Anna Whistler heard as “O Lainy.” Olenina had a weak constitution, and both she and her daughter were so short that, as she told it, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich called them “dwarfs” (Ogloblin, “Iz zapisnoi knizhki,” p. 489). They had inherited their tiny stature from Olenina’s father, whose surname had engendered the pun “O le nain” (“Oh, the dwarf”) (Mary Stuart, Aristocrat–Librarian in Service to the Tsar: Aleksei Nikolaevich Olenin and the Imperial Public Library, East European Monographs, no. 211 [Boulder, CO: East European Monographs; New York: Columbia University Press, 1986], p. 71).

869  The daughter was Aleksandra Grigorievna Olenina (29 August /10 September 1834 – 21 January /2 February 1899), called Aty, who at this point in August 1844 was almost ten years old. She married Nikolai Ivanovich Stoianovskii (31 December 1820 / 12 January 1821 – 20 July / 2 August 1900), who became an actual privy councilor, state secretary, and member of the State Council. He also wrote a biographical essay about his wife’s grandfather, Aleksei Nikolaevich Olenin (A.A. Olenina, Dnevnik. Vospominaniia [Diary, Memoirs] [St. Petersburg: Gumanitarnoe agentstvo – Akademicheskii pro''ekt, 1999], pp. 229, 240–241n25). The aforementioned memoirist was Anna Alekseevna Olenina (11/23 August 1808 – 15/27 December 1888), the sister of Varvara Alekseevna Olenina.

870  Henriette Wilhelmine (Bohlen) Halbach (15 September 1803 – 14 March 1870), and her daughter Alwine Halbach (6 March 1829 – 16 April 1890) were friends of Anna Whistler’s from Philadelphia. They were related to her sister-in-law, Maria (Cammann) McNeill. See the biography of the Halbach family in Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

871  Varvara Alekseevna Olenina’s parents, upon their marriage in November 1791, were given a three-story house at 125 Fontanka in the Third Ward of the Third Admiralty District, between the Semenov and Obukhov bridges. After she herself married, the house was given to her in 1824 as a dowry (L.V. Timofeev, V krugu druzei i muz: Dom A.N. Olenina [In the Circle of Friends and Muses: The Home of A.N. Olenin] [Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1983], pp. 10, 260). For differing information see Olenina, Dnevnik, p. 213n248.

872  On 3/15 February 1823, Varvara Alekseevna Olenina married a distant cousin, Grigorii Nikanorovich Olenin (1797 – 25 July / 6 August 1843) (see Image 306), son of Nikanor Mikhailovich Olenin and his third wife, Ekaterina Petrovna (Savel’eva) Olenina. As of 1827, he was a retired captain of the Guards General Staff. In 1830, he entered the civil service and carried out special assignments for the Ministry of Finance; in 1832, he became a member of the State Council and in 1840 achieved the fourth-highest grade in the Table of Ranks, that of actual state councilor. His resemblance to Emperor Alexander I (see Image 418) was apparently remarkable (Olenina, Dnevnik, p. 195n152). He died three months after his father-in-law. Varvara Alekseevna Olenina was thus in mourning for both her father and her husband when Anna Whistler met her, and had herself been confined to bed for seven months due to an attack of paralysis after these two deaths (Olenina, Dnevnik, p. 39).

873  An exquisite watercolor portrait of V.A. Olenina and her husband, executed by Karl Briullov in Rome in 1827 (today in the State Tret’iakov Gallery; see Image 306), does not, in my opinion, show a beautiful woman. The resemblance of her husband to Alexander I (see Image 418) can be seen in the bust of the former by Samuil Ivanovich Gal’berg (1787– 1839), also executed in Rome in 1827 (today in the State Russian Museum) (Olenina, Dnevnik, p. 195n152, 211n243).

874  It has not been possible to ascertain who this Russian general was.

875  Varvara Alekseevna Olenina had one brother, two of whose sons could have been Colonel Todd’s guest that afternoon. The eligible sons of her older brother, retired Major General Petr Alekseevich Olenin (21 December 1794 / 1 January 1795 – 22 August / 3 September 1868), were Aleksei Petrovich (26 January / 7 February 1833 – 1910) or Sergei Petrovich (b. 11/23 January 1834). His other sons were too young, as were those of her younger brother, Aleksei Alekseevich Olenin (30 May / 10 June 1798 – 25 December 1854 / 6 January 1855) (V.V. Rummel’ and V.V. Golubtsov, Rodoslovnyi sbornik russkikh dvorianskikh familii [Genealogies of Russian Noble Families] [St. Petersburg: A.S. Suvorin, 1887], vol. 2, pp. 231– 233; Olenina, Dnevnik, p. 163n9, 216n261).

876  It has not been possible to ascertain who the captain of the Horse Guards was.

877  The village of Pavlovskoe was presented at the end of 1777 by Catherine the Great (see Image 414) to her son, the Heir Apparent, Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich (1754–1801; see Image 417), and his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Fyodorovna (1759–1828; see Images 415–416). Here, in the 1780s, the Scottish architect Charles Cameron (1745–1812) built for them the Great Stone Palace, a villa in the Classical style, and was entrusted as well with creating a park, which resulted in seven individual landscape parks with temples, pavilions, sculpture, ponds, bridges, pastoral buildings, a dairy, and a farm. In 1796, when Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich became Emperor Paul I, the villa, as his official residence, was remodeled and expanded and the estate called Pavlovsk (P.E. Bukharkin, ed., Os’mnadtsatoe stoletie [The Eighteenth Century], vol. 1 of Tri veka Sankt-Peterburga Èntsiklopediia [Three Centuries of St. Petersburg: An Encyclopedia], 3 vols. [St. Petersburg: Filologicheskii fakul’tet Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, 2006], bk. 2, pp. 74–82). At the death of the Dowager empress in 1828, the estate passed to her son, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich (see Image 439). He agreed to permit the St. Petersburg–Tsarskoe Selo Railway to be extended into the park territory of Pavlovsk with its terminus at a pleasure garden (see Image 384). At his death in 1849, the estate passed to the second son of Nicholas I, Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich (see Image 436), whose property it was until 1892 (L. Koval’, Pavlovsk. Dvorets. Park. Putevoditel’ [Pavlovsk: The Palace, The Park: A Guide] [St. Petersburg: Art-Palas, 1998], pp. 21–28).

Anna Whistler uses the word “Pavloski,” which is the masculine nominative adjectival form “Pavlovskii” from the name of the estate, Pavlovsk. It would be clear to Russians that the expression intended was “Pavlovskii vokzal,” or “the Pavlovsk pleasure garden.” The second “v” in “Pavlovskii” is hard to hear and sometimes not pronounced.

878  Miller was Colonel Todd’s servant. It has not been possible to ascertain the name of the chasseur who replaced La Ronne.

879  It has not been possible to ascertain who the head gardener with “the supervision of the whole town” was. I believe Anna Whistler meant that the head gardener of the Imperial part of Tsarskoe Selo also supervised the landscaping of the entire town of Tsarskoe Selo.

880  The member of the Imperial family about whom this anecdote is told was Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich (see Image 439), the owner of Pavlovsk, and the person to whom he complained was the “pensioned officer [who] has superintendence of the grounds” (Jerrmann, Pictures from St. Petersburg, p. 218). This officer and the head gardener are not likely to be the same person (see previous Note). Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich did not suffer gladly any breaches of established behavior by his officers and was frequently the butt of jokes such as this (Vilinbakhov, Faibisovich, and Letin, Khrabrye dela vashi, p. 32).

881  The idea of creating a pleasure garden at Pavlovsk (see Image 384) belonged to the builder of the Tsarskoe Selo Railway, Franz von Gerstner (1796–1840). After the Tsarskoe Selo–Pavlovsk stretch was opened on 22 May (OS) 1838, he started the first musical evenings, which began as musical entertainment “by local ensembles and military bands” during dinner, and also dancing. Actual concerts were established somewhat later. In the early years, the railway administration thought the Pavlovsk Pleasure Garden could function year round. The director of the winter concerts, whose brief term lasted for part of 1839, was the Austrian violinist, choirmaster, and well-known composer of ballroom dances, Iosif Labitskii (1802–1881) “from Karlsbad in Bohemia.” A troupe of Moscow gypsies also had a successful run during the winter months, along with Labitskii. But despite their success, in January 1840 the administration of the railway took a decision to eliminate the winter performances. Overlapping with Labitskii’s tenure and appointed as the first permanent director of summer concerts at the Pavlovsk Pleasure Garden was Jozef Hermann (see Image 201), from Vienna, who performed there for six summer seasons (1839–1844). Hermann’s successor from 1845–1848 was Johann Gungl (1828–1883). He was replaced by his uncle, Joseph Gungl (1810–1889), who gave concerts with his Berlin Symphony Orchestra in 1850–1855. From 1856 through 1865, and in 1869, the director was the famed Johann Strauss (1825–1899). While the first forty plus years were devoted to ballroom music, classical music was also performed, and a military orchestra at times vied with the concerts (N.B., “Pavlovskii vokzal” [“The Pavlovsk Pleasure Garden”], Stolitsa i usad’ba [The Capital and the Country Estate] 40–41 [September 1, 1915]; Haywood, Beginnings, pp. 127–128, 136, 138–139, 140, 141-142; Petrovskaia, Kontsertnaia zhizn Peterburga, pp. 118, 124, 140, 178; Rozanov, Polina Viardo-Garsia, pp. 24– 62).

On 3/15 January 1844, almost all of the Pavlovsk Pleasure Garden burned down. By 13/25 May of the same year, the building was already rebuilt and reopened (Rozanov, Polina Viardo-Garsia, p. 37). Once again, Anna Whistler saw a freshly restored building.

882  For Hermann, see previous Note.

883  Anna Whistler wrote a second entry dated Wednesday [August] 28ƫ that described the activities of that day.

Persons mentioned in this entry who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Sarah Adams, niece of Major Whistler and his first wife (Sarah Adams); Martha (Kingsley) McNeill, Anna Whistler’s mother (Mother); Maria (Cammann) McNeill, sister-in-law, and Catherine Jane (McNeill) Palmer, sister of Anna Whistler (Sisters); William Bonamy Maingay, brother of Debo Whistler’s dear friend in England, Emma Elizabeth Maingay (William Maingay, Mr. M); and William Clarke Gellibrand, English merchant, and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, his wife (the Gellibrands). It has not been possible to ascertain the name of William Maingay’s coachman. In this entry, it is established that the Gellibrands’ dacha was located on the estate next to the one on which the Whistlers were living.

884  It has not been possible to locate this letter from William Gibbs McNeill to Major Whistler.

885  These houses were the Old Corner House in Stonington, Connecticut (see Image 37), and William Gibbs McNeill’s house at 67 Irving Place in New York.

886  These were Anna Whistler’s Florida relatives. Charles was her brother, Charles Johnston McNeill (6 March 1802 – 2 March 1869); Sophia was Sophia Hermes (Gibbs) Couper (7 November 1812 – 20 March 1903); and Kingsley was Kingsley Beatty Gibbs (25 July 1810 – 16 October 1859). Sophia and Kingsley were Anna Whistler’s first cousins, the children of her mother’s sister, Isabella (Kingsley) Gibbs (13 January 1774 – 21 January 1838) and George Gibbs. Laura was Laura (Williams) Gibbs (1820–1892), the second wife of Kingsley Beatty Gibbs (married 14 January 1841). They were all apparently visiting in New York and Connecticut (Jacqueline K. Fretwell, “Kingsley Beatty Gibbs and His Journal of 1840–1843,” El Escribano: The St. Augustine Journal of History 21 (1984): pp. 53, 61, 69, 86; Margaret Gibbs Watt, The Gibbs Family of Long Ago and Near at Hand, 1337–1967 [Jacksonville, FL: Printed by the author, 1967], pp. 17, 20, 29–30, 77, 88, 100). See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.

887  Persons mentioned in the entry for Thursday [August] 29ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Catherine Julia McNeill, Deborah Whistler’s first cousin (Jule); Sarah Adams, Deborah Whistler’s first cousin (Sarah Adams); Emma Elizabeth Maingay, Deborah Whistler’s close friend in St. Petersburg, now returned home to England (Emma); Reuben Goodale Fairbanks, an American employed in building the St. Petersburg–Moscow Railway (Mr. Fairbanks, Mr. F); Pyotr, the Whistlers’ coachman (our Péotre); William Clarke Gellibrand, English merchant, and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, his wife (the Gellibrands, Mr. G, Mrs. G); William Hooper Ropes, merchant (Mr. Ropes) and Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes (Mrs. Ropes, his little wifes) of the Gellibrand party.

888  “The English theologian and historian Thomas Fuller appears to be the first person to commit the notion that, ‘the darkest hour is just before the dawn’ to print. His religious travelogue A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof, 1650, contains this view: It is always darkest just before the Day dawneth. The source of the proverb isn’t known. It may be Fuller himself, or he may have been recording a piece of folk wisdom. In 1858 … Samuel Lover attributed the notion to the Irish, in Songs and Ballads.” (“The Meaning and Origin of the Expression: The Darkest Hour,” The Phrase Finder website).

889  The reference is to Mary Swift (1826–1884), daughter of Captain William Henry Swift (6 November 1800 – 7 April 1879) and Mary (Stewart) Swift (c. 1804 – November 1837). Her married name was Ironside. She was Deborah Whistler’s first cousin, as her father was the brother of Major Whistler’s first wife. See Stoeckl, Howard, Swift, Ironside in Appendix E.

A silhouette was made by Auguste Edouart of Captain William Henry Swift at Saratoga Springs, New York, on 14 July 1842, of which it has not been possible to locate an image (Jackson, Ancestors in Silhouette, p. 225).

890  Reuben Goodale Fairbanks’s wife was Lucy S. Webb (b. Windham, CT 24 November 1806). They married on 11 March 1831 in Windham, Connecticut (certified copy of the Fairbanks/Webb Marriage Record, Office of the Town Clerk for the Town of Windham, Willimantic, CT). In 1844, Reuben and Lucy Fairbanks then had four childen: Mary Eleanor (b. 16 June 1837); Henry Webb (b. 9 September 1840); Sarah Lucy (b. 23 September 1841); and Annie Julia (b. 29 January 1843). Mary Eleanor was 7 years old; Henry Webb was almost 4; Sarah Lucy was almost 3; and Annie Julia was 17 months old. See Fairbanks in Appendix E.

891  Attempts to ascertain whether Mr. Fairbanks’s family was in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, produced negative results. The censuses were of no help, as the time period was between the 1840 and 1850 censuses. Anna Whistler frequently made mistakes in recounting details of other people’s biographies. Perhaps the family went to Litchfield, New York, while Mr. Fairbanks was away, to stay with his relatives. See Fairbanks in Appendix E.

892  Anna Whistler is referring to the recent takeover of Tahiti by the French and the exile of its queen, Pomare IV (1813–1877; see Image 293). Pomare was queen from 1827 until her death. She was deposed in November 1843 by the French, who then made Tahiti their protectorate. In March 1844, Queen Pomare was taken by the British at her own request to the island of Raiatea, where she was to live in exile for almost three years. She wrote to Queen Victoria, pleading for British protection, but received a letter from Lord Palmerston, who said only that “Her Britannic Majesty … was ‘strongly interested’ in the prosperity of the islands, but ‘must decline entering into any engagement of the kind suggested’” (David Howarth, Tahiti: A Paradise Lost [London: Harvill Press, 1983], p. 213; see also Edward Dodd, The Rape of Tahiti, vol. 4 of The Ring of Fire, 5 vols. [New York: Dodd, Mead, 1983], chapters 5–15).

893  “Darbys and Joans” is a reference to devoted, long-married couples, especially of advanced years. The probable source is an eighteenth-century song: “The Joys of Love Never Forgot: A Song” (Gentleman’s Magazine 5 (1735), p. 153):

Old Darby with Joan by his side,

You’ve often regarded with wonder;

He’s dropsical, she is fore-ey’d,

Yet they’re ever uneasy asunder.

Together they totter about,

Or sit in the sun at the door;

And at night when old Darby’s pot’s out,

His Joan will not smoak a whiff more.

894  The misses Wilks were the daughters of Grafton (bap. Leeds, Yorkshire 17 December 1779 – St. Petersburg 24 May / 5 June 1830) and Elizabeth (von Kettler) Wilks (bap. St. Petersburg 30 August (OS) 1791 – St. Petersburg 28 September /10 October 1864), who were married in St. Petersburg on 28 June /10 July 1813. The daughters were: Cornelia (bap. 20 January 1815), Mary Ann (3/15 October 1819 – 30 October 1895), and Elizabeth (b. 24 April /1 May 1824). Of the three, Cornelia was born in Leeds, Yorkshire. Mary Ann Wilks married Henry Richard Cattley (27 October 1818 – 13 December 1898) on 17/29 May 1846; Cornelia Wilks married Charles Moberley, widower, Russia Company agent in St. Petersburg, on 25 September /7 October 1846 (PREC STP, nos. 2525, 5609, and 5644).

895  “Home, Sweet Home” was written by John Howard Payne (1791–1852), American actor and playwright. Originally, the song was part of the opera Clari, the Maid of Milan (1823), music by Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (1786–1855) (Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak, Oxford Companion to American Theatre, 3rd ed. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004], s.v. “Clari, the Maid of Milan”).

896  1 Corinthians 1. This epistle begins with Paul’s salutation to the Corinthians and continues with his exhortation to unity.

897  Persons mentioned in the entry for Friday Sept 13ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: John Stevenson Maxwell, secretary to the American Legation (Maxwell, Mr. Maxwell, Mr. M, his young friend, his friend, his young master, their kind friend, her countryman, our young friend); Le Ronne, Maxwell’s servant (Le Rond); Deborah Delano Whistler (Sister); William Clarke Gellibrand, English merchant, and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, his wife (the Gellibrands); Martha Reed Ropes, sister of Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (Martha); and Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes, sister-in-law of Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand and Martha Reed Ropes (Mrs. Ropes, Mama).

898  “I reached the Imperial City on Wednesday - Sept 11Ƭ at 12 M. after an absence of precisely three months – less four days … There was my friend the Major [see Images 7–8, 21] on the outskirts of the crowd, and several other well known faces to give me welcome” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43).

899  Anna Whistler says “in my heart” because she did not actually go to meet the boat, but waited in their rooms at Dom Ritter. Maxwell explains:

I thought of proceeding to the Hotel de Paris, but the Major, knowing perhaps the queer things that sometimes happened there, insisted that I should not, and prevailed upon me to go to Miss Benson’s, near at hand, upon the river, and a few doors from the house he had taken for the winter. He went with me. I knew Miss Benson, as hers was the house the American Minister had occupied last winter - I engaged rooms and this done, “Come”, said the Major “MƤ Whistler is waiting to see you”. I went out with him and I soon discovered this lady upon the balcony of an adjoining house. It was the house. a part of which they had hired. I entered and of course was rejoiced to find myself in the presence of so good a friend. They had I suspect come to town to meet me, for I left them when I they stepped into a carriage to return home, having promised to join them in the evening. (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43)

Maxwell may have intended to say “It was the Ritter House.” There is no blank space, but there is a carat between “the” and “house.” See Benson in Appendix E.

900  “I then paid my respects to the Consul, who is in a most miserable state of health, and learned from him that Colonel Todd, had left only three days before to attend the coronation at Stockholm” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43). Abraham P. Gibson (1791–1852; see Image 279) was from 1819 to 1850 the American consul in St. Petersburg.

901  “I … jumped into the cold water of the Neva, dressed and rode out to Dom Drury, where I found myself as happy as if I had just reached home. The boys were glorious - Miss Whistler as musical and as amiable as ever, and I was introduced to Miss McNeil, a maiden Sister of MƤ Whistler, who left the Highlands to winter here. I remained one day in the country and learned all that had transpired during my absence” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43).

902  “As the boat came along side the pier, I discovered my old servant, standing all ready, on duty, as stiff as a poker, his moustaches curled up on both ends, and displaying in his visage no signs of joy except those that shot out of his eyes” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43).

903  Anna Whistler pointed out on several occasions that Aunt Alicia was an American because she had been born in North Carolina.

904  Maxwell humorously alluded to a privilege of his post: “Holding my passport open before me, and displaying before the crowd of officials the great seal of state attached thereto, I marched freely and unimpeded upon the strand and the luggage - including the despatches; that is, a hundred real Havanna’s for the Major and a dozen cambric handkerchiefs for MƤ Whistler; followed after” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43).

905  Emily Mosley Law was born on 7/19 November 1827 (d. 2/14 February 1880), but there was another daughter, Isabella Sarah, born on 30 March /11 April 1830 (d. 1/13 February 1866). However, the name Emily is given in the diary as that of the youngest Law daughter (PREC STP for 1830, p. 142; Foster’s Peerage, p. 264). See Law in Appendix E.

906  This is a Russian command meaning “faster,” spelled “skorey” and pronounced “skahray′.” Anna Whistler adds an English suffix that gives it the meaning “urging him to go faster.” The cart is called a “lineika” (pronounced “linyey′kuh”).

907  Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes had to go to Louisa Harriet Ropes, her youngest child (b. 18 November 1843).

908  Todd had left a letter with Major Whistler for Maxwell when departing for the coronation in Stockholm: “It was his wish that I should remain for the winter in his society, that he could not give me, leave of absence, but would if I insisted receive my resignation … Of course I must remain for two or three weeks until his return, when I shall I think make my arrangements and leave Russia” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 15, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 42; and an unnumbered letter to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, Hamburg, Aug. 31, 1844).

909  The Whistlers’ apartment was in a house “a few doors from” the misses Benson’s boarding house and was “a very fine one” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, entry of October 4 in letter of September 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43). The house was registered in the name of Mariia Ivanova Ritter, wife of a Narva merchant, Robert Vil’gel’mov Ritter. Announcement of its purchase was recorded on 24 June (OS) 1837 in a register listing city residents (Tsentral’nyi gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv Sankt Peterburga (TsGIA SPb) [Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg]: Fond 781, op. 4, d. 78 Alfavit gorodskoi obyvatel’skoi knigi “R” [Alphabetical book, letter “R”, of city residents], 1820, fol. 34. Although dated 1820, the volume goes up to 1873. The address of the house was No. 237/293 English Embankment, First Admiralty District, First Ward. Anna Whistler clearly recorded in her first diary entry after moving in that it was called Ritter’s house and noted this fact more than once. The family lived on the third floor.

Two books by T.A. Solovieva on the history of the buildings on the English Embankment – the second (2004) a fuller version of the first (1998) – while they give much valuable information, require further research on the house in which the Whistlers lived. These books create several problems, the most important of which is the ownership of the house. Apparently, this particular building was unusual in that at times “[in] its history it was divided into two separate houses,” “then united into one again” (T.A. Solovieva, K prichalam Angliiskoi naberezhnoi. Putevoditel’ [To the Piers of the English Embankment: A Reference Guide], Po ‘glavnoi ulitse’ Sankt-Peterburga [Along “The Main Street” of St. Petersburg] [St. Petersburg: Icarus, 1998], p. 164; this is a bilingual Russian–English edition, but the translation given here is mine). The Whistlers are said to have lived in the house on the right, but the owners from whom they rented are given as the Shakhovskoi family, members of the nobility, to whom the house belonged as of 1796 (Solovieva, K prichalam, p. 153). The name of Ritter is not mentioned at all in conjunction with either the right or the left house. In a phone conversation, Solovieva, in answer to my objections, said she would research further, but I have not since heard from her; therefore, the only information about the building that can be accepted by me for the time being is the record in the “Book of City Residents” and what Anna Whistler herself writes about their home. For a discussion of house ownership in St. Petersburg, see Krasnova, Domovladeniia Sankt-Peterburga, pp. 212, 214, 215.

910  Persons mentioned in the entry for Sept 23ƚ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Thomas Drury Sr., the Whistlers’ dacha landlord, and his wife, Mary (Little) Drury (Mr. Drury, our good old landlord, the Drurys); William Clarke Gellibrand, English merchant, and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, his wife (Mr G, the Gellibrands); Alexander Drury, son of Colonel Thomas Drury Jr. and Caroline (Bajinsky) Drury, and grandson of Thomas Drury Sr., the Whistlers’ dacha landlord (Tscharsinka); William Hooper Ropes, whose family were now the Whistlers’ neighbors across the hall in Ritter’s house (Mr Ropes); John Stevenson Maxwell, secretary of the American Legation (Mr Maxwell, this countryman of ours); Joseph Samuel Ropes, brother of William Hooper Ropes and Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand (Mr Joseph Ropes); George Henry Prince, first cousin to Joseph Samuel Ropes, Mary Tyler (Ropes) Gellibrand, and William Hooper Ropes (Mr Geo Prince). The dacha neighbors were Thomas Drury Sr. on one side and William and Elizabeth (I’Anson) Drury, his son and daughter-in-law, on the other side.

911  On Tuesday, 17 September 1844, the Whistlers returned to St. Petersburg.

912  Mary T. Gellibrand to Wm. Ladd Ropes, Peterhoff road, Sept. 7/19 [1844], MHS: Ropes Papers. William Ladd Ropes was her first cousin.

913  On Tuesday, 24 September 1844, Major Whistler (see Images 7–8, 21) left on another inspection trip with Count P.A. Kleinmikhel’ (see Image 243).

914  On Friday, 20 September 1844, the family wrote letters to be sent with the diplomatic courier.

915  Anna Whistler called her brother, William Gibbs McNeill “Mac” (see Image 31).

916  George Henry Prince noted the evening of Saturday, 21 September 1844 in his journal:

Sept. 11/23, 1844. On Saturday I dined at the house of Major Whistler, or “The Major” as we call him here among ourselves. Had a good dinner and enjoyed myself much after dinner … Mis[s] Whistler (the graceful “Debo” - Deborah) sang and played on both piano and harp. The Major gave us some Irish songs and the little boys made sports for us. Mrs. W. seemed pleased to have her countrymen as guests and spared no trouble to have all first rate. There were three of us - M. Maxwell, Joseph (Ropes) and your humble servant. (Raymond and Prince, “Whistler,” p. 13)

917  Mr. Hedenschoug is intended, but Anna Whistler wrote only half of his initial. What looks here like an uppercase F in her cursive writing is the first half of an uppercase H.

918  Persons mentioned in the entry for Thursday [Sept.] 26ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Charles Donald Whistler, who had died a year earlier on the John Bull en route to St. Petersburg (Charlie, little one); George William Whistler, the eldest Whistler child (gentle George); Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, Anna Whistler’s half-sister (“Aunt Alicia”); Joseph Swift Whistler, who died at the age of fifteen on 1 January 1840 (Joe); Henry Cammann McNeill, who died at the age of ten on 7 August 1840 (Henry); Count Pyotr Andreevich Kleinmikhel’, head of the Department of Transport and Public Buildings (Count Kleinmikhel’); Aleksandr, the Whistlers’ servant (Alexander); Fyodor, the Whistlers’ dvornik (Fedor); William Hooper Ropes, whose family lived across the hall from the Whistlers (Mr. R., Mr. Rs); George Henry Prince, Mr. Ropes’s first cousin (Geo Prince); John Stevenson Maxwell, secretary of the American Legation (Mr. Maxwell, Mr M); Hugh Maxwell, father of John Stevenson Maxwell (his fathers farm); William Clarke Gellibrand, English merchant (Mr. Gellibrand); Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes, wife of William Hooper Ropes (Mrs. Ropes); Ellen Gellibrand Ropes, Mary Emily Ropes, and Lousa Harriet Ropes, daughters of Willam Hooper Ropes and Ellen Harriet (Hall) Ropes (children); Mary McNeill, daughter of William Gibbs McNeill and niece of Anna Whistler (Mary McNeill).

919  On Sunday, 22 September 1844, Anna Whistler did not go to church, because she was overcome by memories of Charles Donald’s death on the Alexandra a year before on 24 September.

920  “Aaglitzkie Tscierkoff” means “English Church.” The adjectival form given here was used in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and appeared in the literary works of Nikolai Leskov in the nineteenth century. Anna Whistler would have learned it from her English friends, who were making an “in joke.” For a linguistic explanation, see Maks Fasmer, Ètimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language], ed. B.A. Larin, trans. and with additions by O.N. Trubachev, 2nd ed., 4 vols. (Moscow: Progress, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 60– 61. In regular Russian parlance at this time, “English Church” would have been “Angliiskaia tserkov’.”

921  1 Thessalonians 4:13: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”

922  The message of 1 Corinthians 15 is the resurrection of the dead, with Christ’s resurrection as the pledge of our own.

923  See John 11: 1–44, also on the resurrection of the dead.

924  See Notes 139 and 140 above. On 4 November 1844, Major Whistler received his first letter from George, dated 26 April 1844, Honolulu, Oahu, Sandwich Islands. George had been in Honolulu three days when he learned of a vessel sailing for Kamchatka and took the opportunity to write and bring his family up to date on his life from the time he had left Anna Whistler at Travemünde. The Lausanne, in which he had sailed to the Sandwich Islands, was not going to the mouth of the Columbia River, as originally scheduled, but returning immediately to the United States. As George did not wish to arrive in the United States in winter, he planned to leave the Lausanne and visit the various islands, returning home on another ship the next summer (1845). He was in good spirits. His health had improved constantly from the time of his departure from New York, so much so that he considered himself quite well. He had had some hard times, however: they had “lost all their fresh provisions and vegetables soon after sailing and lived upon nothing but salt pork and beef and rice for 140 days” (Major G.W. Whistler to General Joseph Gardner Swift, St. Petersburg, entry of November 5 in letter of October 28, 1844, NYPL: Swift Papers). It has not been possible to locate the letter of young George Whistler, the contents of which Major Whistler imparts to Gen. J.G. Swift (see Image 11).

925  1 Thessalonians 4:15–18: “15 For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

It has not been possible to identify the friend who sent Anna Whistler this volume concerning resurrection.

926  Sweet Louly is Louisa McNeill, daughter of William Gibbs McNeill (see Image 31) and Maria (Cammann) McNeill, who died on Ash Wednesday 1840 at the age of eight (Anna Whistler to James Whistler [no place given] Monday morning Oct 30th [1853], GUL: Whistler Collection, W439). This letter was written in 1853: i.e., in the same year as the death of William Wyatt McNeill, which occurred on 4 June 1853 and is mentioned in this letter.

927  Major Whistler (see Images 7–8, 21) and Count P.A. Kleinmikhel’ (see Image 243) had left for an inspection trip on Tuesday, 24 September 1844.

928  William Ropes and Company’s counting house had moved to its new location in the Ropeses’ apartment during the summer of 1844 (Raymond and Prince, “Whistler,” p. 11, entry of July 5/17, 1844).

929  Communicants of the Russian Orthodox Church were required to take a weekly bath.

930  The autumnal equinox occurs on 22 or 23 September. The sun crosses the equator and makes day and night of equal length everywhere on earth. “Equinox” also refers to gale-force storms that occur in this period (Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “equinox”).

931  Anna Whistler is referring to Wednesday, 25 September 1844.

932  The boxes would go to Cronstadt on Friday, 27 September, and the ship would sail for New York on 28 September. The ship was the Elsinore, Captain Julius, who “has now on board his ship the greater part of my effects and some presents for you” (John S. Maxwell to Mrs. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Sept. 30, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 43).

933  Mary T. Gellibrand to Wm. Ladd Ropes [her first cousin], Peterhoff road, Sept. 7/19 [1844], MHS: Ropes Papers.

934  Persons mentioned in the entry for Friday [Sept.] 27ƫ who have appeared earlier in the diaries are: Martha (Kingsley) McNeill, Anna Whistler’s mother (dear Mother); Alicia Margaret Caroline McNeill, Anna Whistler’s half-sister (Sister Alice); Eliza Isabella (McNeill) (Wellwood) Winstanley, Anna Whistler’s half-sister (my Twin Sister Eliza); and John Stevenson Maxwell, secretary of the American Legation (Mr. Maxwell).

935  “Moscow silk,” was not, strictly speaking, silk. A factory named “Moscow Silk” was opened in 1820 on the bank of the Moscow River in the former Savvinskaia patriarchal district by the Moscow merchant, Rodion Dmitrievich Vostriakov, who owned it for 35 years. It came to occupy a prominent position among textile and trimmings factories in Moscow. The Moscow Silk Factory produced calico, which is a printed cotton fabric (“Moscow silk,” Wikipedia, acccessed 4 March). Anna Whistler was therefore buying high-quality, fast-printed calico cloth to send to her family in Stonington and New York.

936  “Kazan shoes” are boots of soft leather without demarcation of a sole and heel (see Image 365).

937  In explaining to his father (see Image 55) about the six packages he was sending home and hoped would “reach New York before Christmas,” Maxwell pointed out that one box contained presents “from Mƣ Ropes for Mƣ [George] Newbold [(1780–1858)] the President of the Bank [of America],” while the “box sealed with purple ribbon [was] from MƤ Whistler” and was to be sent “to Mƣ Cammann’s office [Cammann and Whitehouse] in Wall Street with word to send it to Stonington.” In the event that his father should balk at suffering “any inconvenience in this matter,” Maxwell urged him to do it anyway, and reminded him: “I have, in illness and in health, found friends and companions in the families of Messƥ Ropes and Whistler and for the latter I hold an affection both true and steadfast. There is nothing under heaven that is fair that Major Whistler would not do for me, and I assure you, there is nothing honourable I would not do for him” (John S. Maxwell to Mr. Hugh Maxwell, St. Petersburg, Oct. 5, 1844, N-YHS: Maxwell Papers, no. 44). See also Emma W. Palmer to E.R. Pennell with copy of a note from James Whistler to his cousin, Amos Palmer, Letters Relating to Whistler, LC: P-W, box 296.

Amos Palmer (1827–1861) was the son of Anna Whistler’s brother-in-law, Dr. George Edwin Palmer (1803–1868; see Image 36), and his first wife, Emma Ann (Woodbridge) Palmer (1802–1839), and brother to Emma Woodbridge Palmer. See Whistler … Fairfax in Appendix E.