Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/57

in the language of the people, Pskov or Obskov. It was formerly very extensive, and had its own jurisdiction; but in the year 1509, Ivan Vasileivich took possession of it through the treachery of some priests, and reduced it to servitude. He also took away the bell, by the ringing of which the senate used to be summoned to the parliament of the republic; and by dispersing the citizens through the colonies, and sending Muscovites into their place, he utterly abolished their liberty. Hence it followed, that in place of the more refined and, consequently, more kindly manners of the people of Plescov, were introduced those of the Muscovites, which are more debased in almost everything. For there was always so much integrity, candour, and simplicity in the dealings of the Plescovians, that they dispensed with all superfluity of words, for the purpose of entrapping a buyer, and briefly stated the case exactly as it stood. I would here mention by the way, that the Plescovians still wear their hair parted in the middle, — not in the Russian, but in the Polish fashion. Plescov lies thirty-six miles westward from Novogorod, forty from Ivanovogorod, and as many from Velikiluki. You must pass through this city in going from Moscow and Novogorod to Riga, the metropolis of Livonia, which is sixty miles distant from Plescow.

The country of Votska lies twenty-six, or, at the most, thirty miles north-west of Novogorod, leaving the fort of Ivanovogorod on the left. In this country it is related as a miracle, that all animals, of whatever kind, that are brought into it, change their colour to white. This place seems to demand that I should make a slight allusion to the places and rivers near the sea, as far as the borders of Sweden. The river Neva, as I have already said, divides Livonia from the Russian's dominions, from which, if leaving Ivanovogorod you go along the seashore northward, you come to the river Plussa, at whose mouth lies the fortress of Iamma. Twelve miles from Ivanovogorod, and as many from Iamma,