From there, they wanted to take a detour to Norway. The Norwegian roads being sandy, too, they left their heavy carriage and most of their luggage in the care of Mr and Mrs Gross, who stayed behind in Gothenburg. Anne and Ann bought a small, much lighter coach and hired a Scottish–Swedish coachman to take them around Norway, along the roads recommended in the brand new Handbook for Northern Europe (1838). Over the coming months, this travel guide became Anne’s bible, and was consulted and compared with reality at every stage.
They set out on 26 July 1839. We know what they experienced up to 13 October thanks only to the letters Anne Lister wrote to her friends, as the next twenty pages of her diary remained empty; all the new experiences and incessant travelling kept Anne from transcribing her pencil-written loose notes. We were charmed with Christiania, Anne wrote to Mariana Lawton about the city now known as Oslo. Nothing can exceed the beauty of its situation at the head of one of the largest and loveliest of the Norwegian fjords. But, said everybody, see Bergen, see Drontheim. We set off – the scenery from Christiania to Gaousta-fell [Gausta, the highest mountain in the south of Norway, at 1,883 m] is indescribable – the winding fjord, and little lovely lakes, and rock, and dark pine-forest, and towering mountains, and Norwegian cottages. But the weather became bad. In Bolkesjö in the Telemark region, they lost two days to heavy rain; and seeing that we had no present hope of better, we very reluctantly turned back.6 In Oslo, they bought gifts for their loved ones in England – Anne sent Vere Cameron a small barrel of anchovies – sold their light coach and returned to Gothenburg by steamer; thankful to be on terra firma again. Never passed a worse water night, I was too ill to bear speaking or moving.7
Reunited with their carriage and servants, they crossed Sweden to the east via Örebro, Västerås and Enköping. They arrived in Stockholm on 22 August; with a southern climate, it would rival Naples? I had no idea of the beauty of situation of so many northern towns.8 Prompted by the recommendations in the handbook, Anne and Ann hired a new guide and undertook our fortnight’s tour, via Upsala (the pink mead at Upsala as good as the best pink champagne) to all the mines, from top to bottom, which was very interesting.9 Anne went to the most important Swedish iron ore mines of the time at Dannemora, the famous copper mine at Falun and the silver mine in Sala. While she was learning about mining technology in the hope of solving the Listerwick Colliery’s groundwater problems, Ann preferred to sit in the sunshine and sketch.
We had enjoyed everything, and had met with kindness everywhere,10 Anne summed up their stay in Sweden. We liked the good, honest Swedes, who were always very civil, and always ready to do our liking.11 They also grew accustomed to the fresh-strewed juniper in their rooms; only the food was not quite to their taste; tho’ it is not the land of gourmands, tho’ we had rarely met with butcher’s meat except in great towns, and had drunk milk, or coffee, or the limpid steam, yet still we had been well, and fared well on pancakes and a soft cake they call limpa of which I was exceedingly fond.12
Back in Stockholm, Anne and Ann confronted their fear of water and boarded a two-day ferry to Åbo/Turku. That took them into Russian territory, as Finland had been annexed by the tsar in 1809 and converted into a Russian grand duchy. Particularly on the coast, the previous centuries of Swedish rule have left their mark to this day, and their Swedish courier could negotiate in his native language at the mail stations. They made fast progress on the well-maintained roads, especially when our driver was seated on the boot-box, and I drove his four horses abreast,13 in the Russian or ancient Greek style, rather than harnessed behind one another. They spent two nights in Helsinki, the new capital of Finland, which they found quite charming.14 To end the predominance of Swedish Åbo, the new Russian rulers had declared Helsinki, an insignificant town closer to the Russian Empire, the capital. They erected neoclassical buildings modelled on St Petersburg; the senate square still resembled a construction site, so that Helsinki came across as extremely modern to Anne and Ann. Our journey through Finland has been really a very agreeable and a very economical one, and we have seen the country and the people – the latter always civil and ready to do their utmost to please, and the former well-farmed and interesting.15 Anne wrote about everyday details such as the fresh fir branches placed on the thresholds of houses and the beautiful white moss and dried yellow marigolds put at the bottom between the glasses of the windows.
Shortly before Vyborg (Viipuri) they heard their first Russian and thought the male costume this morning very pretty and picturesque – a white frock coat and red belt or blue. The women wore a strong linen, dark with narrow red stripes, [...] and a white handkerchief on the head. When they reached the border to Russia itself, however, they were not allowed to cross. Our books, I believe, were all taken out of the carriage and looked at. But, as desired, I copied the list I have and signed it, and enclosed it in an envelope and sealed it with my own seal, to be forwarded to St. Petersburg. I engaging to go within six weeks to the Committee of Censorship to claim the list. We are thus allowed to take all our books and things and go in comfort – but only after an involuntary night at the border. The next morning, our Subdouanier lifted the barrier and bowed and through and off we went.16
On the afternoon of 17 September 1839 we drove over the magnificent Neva into the city of palaces,17 built on a swamp only some hundred years previously by tens of thousands of serfs and forced labourers and declared the capital of Russia. They took rooms at Mrs Wilson’s English hotel and explored St Petersburg with an English-speaking guide. Anne and Ann stayed twice as long as intended, three weeks in all, and still had not seen everything by the end; we cannot imagine anyone a finished traveller who has not been there. The amateur of pictures who has closed his grand tour without a visit to the Hermitage palace, ought to die of the spleen forthwith. They visited the art collections three days in a row. On what was at that time Russia’s only railway they went out to the royal palaces and gardens at Tsarskoye Selo. In the Botanical Garden on Aptekarsky Island, they made a long list of trees, shrubs and flowers they wanted to plant back home.
Although the censors did not object to any of their books, Anne and Ann did have to submit to the authorities’ regulations and register themselves and their servants with the police, and also apply for and pay for a pass to continue their journey to Moscow. In comparatively liberal Britain, restrictions like these – on travel and thinking – prompted harsh criticism of Nicolas I, who was considered the most reactionary of the nineteenth-century autocratic rulers in Europe. The Russians could not read any criticism of his policies, however, as there was no free press in the country. That did not trouble Anne. She regretted we were unlucky in not seeing the Imperial family, which she nonetheless claimed was one of the handsomest families in Europe.
From St Petersburg, Anne and Ann travelled non-stop to Moscow, covering 435 miles in five days. On 12 October 1839 they took a large excellent apartment here in a sort of Hotel Garni kept by an English family,18 and known as Mrs Howard’s. They immediately set out on a quiet reconnoitering walk by ourselves, strolling down their street, Bolshaya Dmitrovka, to the Bolshoi Theatre, ending up on Red Square and coming across St Basil’s Cathedral – gorgeously grotesque – we have seen nothing like this church – then walking through the gate of the Saviour Tower (Spasskaya) in the Kremlin. What can exceed the view of Moscow from here – its motley grouping of European and Asiatic style, its hundred churches and its pomp of domes! I had no idea of such a scene – all my expectations were exceeded!19 Not until Moscow had Anne Lister found the time and inclination to return to her diary.
Over the next two weeks, a guide not only showed them the usual sights but also gained them access to private palaces when the owners were away. He even took them to the Moscow reservoir and the Sparrow Hills, a wooded ridge along the Moskva River, these days the ‘green lung’ of the huge city and the site of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. There, Anne and Ann viewed a sad spectacle that took place every Sunday: the departure of the exi
led on their long march to Siberia. The German physician Dr Haas explained the procedure, telling them that new arrivals, if they are ill [...] are sent to the hospital till cured or, if incurable, remain to die comfortably. Anne imagined the five-and-a-half-month march to Siberia to be similarly comfortable. Walk never more than 22 versts (14.5 miles) a day, and rest every 2 days. The state paid for their food and clothing, she noted, and none are sent for forced labour but those condemned to great crimes – murder, and was the other crime brigandage? The lesser delinquents merely sent to colonise the country, and some parts in the south have a better climate than Moscow. To the woman who considered the London treadmill harmless, exile to Siberia seemed like a stay at a sanatorium, especially as all who are sent as colonists, whether serfs at home or not, are freed.20 At the time, Britain transported its own criminals to Australia, including many of the Chartists Anne Lister so disapproved of.
Unlike in European St Petersburg, Moscow’s streets were full not only of Orthodox Russians but also of Sunni Tartars, Galician Jews and Shi’ite Persians, Lutheran Germans, Circassians and Finns. Anne and Ann found the Russian Orthodox church service both strange and attractive in equal measure. The Greek catholic worship is a step above the Roman catholic in splendour and antiquity. I have got accustomed to the Byzantine style of church, and gilded domes, and silver, and sky-blue, and sea green, and every colour you can name.21 They also took part in Muslim Friday prayers. All that the Mullah or clerk (in white muslin turban and yellowish flowery-pattern caftan) requested of us was that we would not speak nor tread upon the carpets, and he civilly set us some sort of old box to sit on. Not a word spoken – never saw people more orderly.22 Anne was very impressed by the city she had been longing to see for so many years. Without exception Moscow is the most picturesquely beautiful town I have ever seen. There is no drawback, no poor, ugly part. All is only more or less good, and many parts are singularly beautiful. The first impression is most striking, and first impressions go on improving.23
The weather turned painfully cold in October. Ann Walker, who thought they had reached their destination, had had enough, according to Phyllis Ramsden, and would like to go home.24 Anne Lister wanted to wait until December to see whether the snowy roads would be passable by sleigh and then set off again for the south. Their conflict was overwritten by new social contacts arising from England. Anne had sent the British ambassador a letter of recommendation from Lord Stuart de Rothesay, with the request to put her in contact with the governor general of Moscow, Prince Dmitry Vladimirovich Golitsyn. At four in the afternoon of 7 November, Anne and Ann were received for a formal dinner at the governor’s palace. Prince Golitsyn’s niece, Madame Apraxina, was the hostess, and this honour meant that Anne and Ann were invited by other families of Moscow’s aristocracy, including the director of the Moscow Botanical Garden, Alexander Grigoryevich Fischer von Waldheim, and his father, the zoologist and palaeontologist Gotthelf Fischer von Waldheim, a friend of Alexander von Humboldt and – another student of Georges Cuvier in Paris, though this was before Anne’s time. Count and Countess Panin took great care of the two travellers. Countess Alexandra spoke English – which was unusual for members of the Russian aristocracy, who usually conversed in French – and was very good and talkative and agreeable.25 The Panins took them to the theatre, the natural history museum, the university printing press, a school for technical drawing, an orphanage and the Cholera Institute. Aside from that, the Countess took them along to a Russian steam bath – and what a scrubbing I did get.26 Anne and Ann were also invited to society occasions; handsome houses, balls in the best Parisian style, and a great many pretty girls. One dame in particular, is one of the finest women I ever saw, and Venus de Moscova.27
This Venus was also lodging with Mrs Howard, initially, and was called Sophia Alexandrovna Radzivill née Urusova. She was three years younger than Ann Walker and married to a royal aide-de-camp. The princess actually had obligations as a lady-in-waiting in Petersburg, but the court and her husband had allowed her to move to her parents’ home for the winter, due to ill health. She stayed at the hotel while waiting for her rooms at her parents’ palace to be prepared. A very agreeable, clever, stylish person,28 Anne wrote after their first meeting over tea. A week later they felt mutually attracted. On 12, 14 and 16 November, Anne wrote her conversations with the princess in her journal, in her code, which Ann could not read, and wonders if they are seeing too much of each other. Three days later, Anne decided they were seeing too little of each other and finds AW’s constant presence v. irksome. For the first time, Anne did not regret that Ann spoke so little French and so could not follow everything Anne Lister and Sophia Radzivill had to say to each other. The princess, for her part, was curious and asks AW’s history.29
Yet Anne was enticed even more by Persia and Baghdad than by Sophia Radzivill’s beauty. To get there, she intended to cover the next long stretch to the Volga by sleigh and then continue along the frozen river to Astrakhan and finally cross the Greater Caucasus to Tbilisi. The Russian Empire had been expanding since the mid-eighteenth century, through a complicated series of brutal wars, up to the Black Sea and the Caspian. A fragile peace treaty had been signed with Turkey in 1829, but devastating conflicts still lay ahead for the region. To this day, Russia has never succeeded in incorporating the entirety of the Caucasus. Ambushes and armed uprisings were everyday occurrences in 1839. In Moscow, Anne and Ann heard the story of a French couple who were abducted by Cherkessians and never seen again after no ransom was paid. Nobody crossed the Greater Caucasus if they did not have urgent military or professional reasons to do so. While the men among their acquaintances competed over the best suggestions for their journey, the women advised them against it; they also declared Anne absolutely insane for attempting it in winter. Daytime temperatures in Moscow went down to -26 °C in mid-December, too cold for snow.
The icy weather and their acquaintances’ appeals convinced Ann Walker of her wish to go home; the return journey would be adventurous enough. When she also proved v. hesitant abt expense of further travelling, Anne was in a panic and categorically declared she would not go back under any circumstances. Count Panin then suggested Ann Walker should stay in Moscow & let AL do the winter journey with another companion, at which Ann responded, aghast, that she ‘would rather die on the road than be left here.’ 30 There could be no compromise between the two of them. Phyllis Ramsden describes the situation as critical: Discussion of plans to separate when they get back home. Yet abroad, Ann felt even more dependent on Anne, who was impossible to talk out of her plans – as ever. Ann Walker caved in the next day; all put right with AW for the time being.31
Anne Lister’s only concession to the warnings against the trip was to take great care over their travel equipment. Her own carriage would be of no use beyond Moscow, so Anne bought two new vehicles. The servants got a Russian kibitka, a simple wooden wagon with a canvas roof open at the front, which could be set on runners in winter and wheels in summer. For herself and Ann, she found a vehicle between kibitka and coach, with a passengers’ cabin, doors and windows. The wainwright made two luggage crates to fit the coach, which were used as seating for the coachman outside and the ladies inside. On Count Panin’s advice, mattresses were also made for the cabin, to be buttoned up against the back and also at the bottom of the seat so as not to slip off. Advises our never sleeping on the sofas we meet with – will be devoured. But always put our own mattress in the middle of the floor, the vermin will then be some time reaching us. Aside from that, the count recommended putting hay at the bottom of the kibitka and over that a common carpet – the great thing will be to keep our feet warm. To help on that front, they had knee-high leather boots made, lined, like their new heavy coats, with fur. They also got hold of a wolfskin to throw over us in the carriage32 thanks to the count’s advice, and a food heater operated by means of hot water. They were to be grateful for all the count’s advice.
The question of who was to accompany them a
s servants was also highly important. Their maid, Grotza, stated point-blank that she would only leave Moscow for home. Anne gave her a good reference so that she could find another post until Anne and Ann returned to take her back to England. Her husband was prepared to come along to the Caucasus, providing he could turn back at the ladies’ expense at any time if the conditions appeared too unfamiliar and difficult for him. More important than Mr Gross, however, was finding local staff who would bring them back safely from such remote regions. Via their Moscow links, they came across a courier for the state postal service who was to arrange everything related to horses, coachmen, roads and accommodation up to Tbilisi. Their hairdresser put them in touch with a former serf, George Tchaikin, who had bought his freedom for 2,000 roubles. He had been to Paris with a former master, learned French and gained an idea of what Western Europeans held dear. George was in the process of buying the freedom of his fiancée, twenty-three-year-old Dominica, who was known as Domna. Seeing she was a nice-looking little person,33 Anne took her on as her new maid. Domna and George were to marry before their departure.
Snow fell at last in the second week of January 1840. With their new coaches, equipment and servants, Anne and Ann went on a trial run to Sergiyev Posad, home of the most important Russian Orthodox monastery, forty-five miles north of Moscow. At first I felt smothered in our little machine. Opened and shut my little window from time to time to peep out as well as for air. Very fine day and we were quite warm enough by dint of cloaks and being so covered in. However, we slid along the hardened snow with a tremulous motion and noise like that of being near the engine in a steam-boat. They spent the night in the monastery’s guesthouse and viewed the monastery the next day. How picturesque! How well worth coming to see! This fortress-like convent, this Kremlin sanctuary with its 8 picturesque towers and high white walls is very striking.34 They attended two services and even gained a brief audience with the abbot. They returned in the dark – also part of the trial run – and reached Moscow at two in the morning.
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