. Petrograd, past and present . e ideas of Oriental seclusion, wereobliged to attend. At these receptions they weretreated to tea, mead, preserves, chocolates and lemon-ade, while the men indulged in more potent were sent to bring along any ladies whodeclined Peters hospitality, or who despised theseWestern fashions. Petrograd was then in such a chaotic condition thatit was difficult to find the houses of the various citizens,numbering being non-existent. The streets were sounsafe that they had to be barricaded at night for fearof thieves. At each barrier stood a watchman armed
. Petrograd, past and present . e ideas of Oriental seclusion, wereobliged to attend. At these receptions they weretreated to tea, mead, preserves, chocolates and lemon-ade, while the men indulged in more potent were sent to bring along any ladies whodeclined Peters hospitality, or who despised theseWestern fashions. Petrograd was then in such a chaotic condition thatit was difficult to find the houses of the various citizens,numbering being non-existent. The streets were sounsafe that they had to be barricaded at night for fearof thieves. At each barrier stood a watchman armed,and, in addition to this, many houses were protectedby palisades against the wolves that prowled duringthe hours of darkness. What with the quagmires,ditches, robbers and frequent floods, it may be im-agined that Peters capital was far from popular withhis Muscovite subjects. They regarded Moscow andKieff as their sacred cities—not this foreign, hereticaltown built by a sovereign whom all true Russiansregarded as ThIC ) WiNTKK IM ACK, WllKKK IKIKK THE (iRKAl IHKIi /?rout an engraving oj i~lb PETROGRAD DURING REIGN OF FOUNDER 75 Many beautiful buildings came into existence at thisperiod, most of them being the work of French andItalian architects, attracted by the enormous salariesoffered. The names of Count Rastrelli the elder,Homan, Forster, Herbl, Van-Svetin, Pemone, Mater-nov and Trezine are thus associated at this stage withPetrograd, the University or House of the TwelveColleges being by the last-mentioned designer. Men-shikoff, Peters favourite minister, who began life asa pie-boy, ordered the fagade of the college to frontthe Tsars house ; towards the Neva only four narrowwindows looked out. When the Tsar returned fromabroad and saw this incongruity he was furious, and,according to his custom, belaboured the back of the child of his heart, as he termed Menshikoff, with hisoaken cudgel, which he invariably carried. A well-known French architect who dis
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