JOURNEY FROM St. PETERSBURG TO TZARIT2IN.
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manufa&urer, for inftance, exemption from military fervice, orother perfonal immunities.
On the 2ift we proceeded on our journey to Valdimir, underan inceflant but light fall of fnow: and towards the eveningwe arrived at this ancient grand-ducal refidence, which is nowthe feat of a provincial government. I have formerly fpokenmuch in praife of this town, both for its healthful fituation anddelightful environs. At prefent it appears to ftill greater ad-vantage, being embelliihed with many modern houfes built offtone, and feveral good dwellings of wood, which, at fomediftance from the town, attra£t the eye of the traveller, parti-cularly on the heights beyond the river Kliafma. It is, how-ever, to be regretted, that, from its fituation in a fandy country,thinly inhabited, and for want of manufactures and commerce,this town, though in other refpects both pleafant and confider-able, will fcarcely ever be raifed to a flourifhing ftate.
The preceding thaw had rendered the ice on the riverKliafma fo unfafe, that we difcovered innumerable flaws, andthat it could not bear the horfes on the oppofite bank. Onalighting, with my travelling companions, and while I wasendeavouring to condu£t them to the bank, I had the misfortuneto fall as deep as my loins into a fiflure which was covered withdrifts of fnow. As there were no houfes on the bank, and it wasftill more dangerous to repafs the river, I was under the painfulnecefhty of procceding in wet clothes on the long ftage of thirty-feven verfts, (about twenty-five Englifh miles,) to the recentlyprivileged county-town of Sudogda; which, however, pofleflesfew advantagesover a village. Thebad effeösof this accident,withrefpeft to my health, did not appear tili the fubfequent fpring;
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