The Express.
London, England, 1856-09-17 00:00:00

THE CROWNING OF THE
EMPEROR OF RUSSIA:

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
MOSCOW, Szre. S.

The following lea continuation of the narrative of
the events of the coronation day, which we gave
yesterday :
For no portion of the coronation ceremonial bad
more elaborate preparations been made than for the
general illumination, • &periodos of festive demon-
Gamlen for which Moscow hes peulier advantages,
from its undulating site, and the quaint grotesque
forms of many of its public buildings. Artists had
been sent for from Paris and Berlin, sod for months
befogs the day of the coronation every spire.
steeple, and "coign of vantage • bad been covered
with men, whose bosinem it was to encrust them
with a wooden framework, which, while carefully
following all its uprises of form, should at the
same time accommodate the myriads of lamps with
which it was ultimately to be furnished. To under.
stand the lurk the artists had to go through and
the difficulties they had to contend with, let us take
oar or two Justine's. At the top of " The
Beautiful Place," sod elope to the gate of the Saviour,
stands the church of Bt. Buil, with its twenty domes
and cupolas, all of different shapes and sizes, but all
of considerable altitude. I should say that, excepting
the suburban villa to! a certain mayor of Southampton.
which I had our the happiness to inspect, this church
is the greatest architectural monstrosity in the world;
and not only dcra its form outrage the grotesque, but
colour also brings in its eowerful aid, and the various
towers and cupolas—some like a plum pudding, some
a pepper-box, others affecting the coffee-pot con-
figuration—are all painted and gilt like so many
harlequins' jackets. Tradition attributes the erection
of this church to Ivan the Terrible, who, when sur-
feited with the execution of his subjects, used to eat
about building churches in which he might pray for
their souls. He employed au Italian architect, bat
furnished him with his own design, and between
the two was Bt. Basil created, to puzzle,
like the Mutello towers at home, all posterity.
So mush, it is said, was the gracious Ivan pleased with
the work, that when finished he, in the exuberance
of hie del eta, ordered the eyes of the unfortunate
Italian to be put out, lest be should pirate the Im-
perial coo ceptins, and doplioate them in tome other
land. This act may perhaps have been a little strin-
gent towards the individual, but the world has
meson to be grateful if through its means it hes been
spared the farther development of the Basilian school
of ecclesiastical architecture. To me personally St,
Basil has been since my sojourn in Moscow a beacon
of hope and a harbour of refuge, for being the only
church that has a distinct individuality about ft, it
was the only one about which I Gould not be mis-
taken, and therefore every time I lost my way, which
was pretty well every time I attempted an lode.
rodent promenade, my last chance, after having
exhausted my &taut& on unintelligent Isvodschikat
was to make foe St. Basil, from which I could always
find my way home. For the purpose of the illumination
this extraordinary church had to bs covered with a
Mme—l might almost say a basket-work—of wood ,
and hazardous indeed has been the operation. A
few days before the coronation I stopped to watch
the poor majtke poised high up in the air, and fixing
the lamps on the innumerable hooks of the frame-
work. I saw one poor fellow slung up to the top of
a high tower by a dozen mea. As he roes he
swung to and fro in the wind but when he got near
the top, the men below giving a sudden pull to bring
him " home," the rope broke, and down be auto
tumbling over and over like a ball, a distance of 260
feet. There was a shriek, a dull heavy plump, end
all was over; the poor mujik spoke or stirred,
sad his companions who had done the deed scam-
pered away in every direction, just ea in
London when the spirited charioteer runs
down a child, he thinks only of the po.
line, and lashes his horse more furiously than
before. But the work wee at last completed, and St.
Basil, and the tower of Ivan Velika, sod the whole
turreted wall of the Kremlin, miles in extent, and
the façade of the arsenal, and the other public build-
ings within the enceinte, were in due time covered
with this wooden framework, that followed every
eccentricity of outline, and was studded all over with
little lamps filled with tallow and having a very
thick wick in the middle of each. The wall of the
Kremlin was literally he:tamed throughout its entire
extent, every tree in the beautiful garden was
covered with coloured lamps, and even the (omitting
had their framework of light, through which the
water foamed and sparkled when the time ease for
bringing all the& great preparations to fruition. It
is easy to imagine how beautiful all this must have
been when lighted up and seen through the slight
mist of a hot summer's night—a mist not
demo enough to &nears the lights, bat still
sufficiently opaque to hide the more solid
material they covered. I, of course, took a carriage—
all the world, including the hosts of Pharaoh and
Bennacheeib, seemed to have taken to chariots—and
simply enough imagined that I had nothing to do
bat ride round and see the sights. Bat I forgot that
during the previous week the railway had brought
100,000 straugers into Moscow, and that all the
strangers would, like myself, be in carriages on the
night of the illumination. I did not imagine thee.
were so many old rattletraps in the world. The
police had ordered that acme bat carriages with two
berme &said have eirealatira, and oeseequently the
meet convulsive efforts bad been made to get the
teams op totheregelatioasbadard. Whinny "mho,
termed into the Vertskoi I found myself in a moment
almost overwhelmed is a stormy ocean of vehicles
of all sisal. shapes, and Wears ; so thick indeed were
the carriages that thaws was no room for foot passes.
gees, and therefore poor inept had to get into corners
and, as well as he could, keep out of the way of
Coma lance or geesdarree's sabre. How we got
along I oaanot very clearly describe. Sometimes we
went forward a little, thee we were driven back.
At one moment a Cossack would start se from a
reverie, put spurs to his little horse and gallop at us
full charge, no matter what stood in his way. Then
he would harangue the cocher, and the posher would
make a spirited reply; then our friend from the
Ukraine would seise the reins and beet no to a gyra-
tory motion, recklessly smashing everything that
came in his way with the long pole of our carriage.
At last some person of suggestive mind would
whisper "Kopek," and in a moment the descendant
of Obengis Khan would soften, let go the reins, and
allow us to roomed at our normal pace of three yards
per boar. Through this and a hundred similar inci-
dents we crawled along the principal streets, having
smile time to admire the Palace of the Priacers
Hotehechty sad the hotel of the French amblesadoe,
both of which are situated in the Vertskei. Count de
Moray's wee the only illumination in that quarter
having coloured lamps, and the mutual with the
inseam uses of white light made it both amyl-
nese and 'beautiful. When we got to the Brendle
we found that all the world had wended la the ease
direadas. There was a dead look at every gate, and
the ale sheet ages with a very Babel of exalted
teems. We bad nothing fee it bat to &send sad
walk, sad after o seheariltatreggle we at last get