Remember me kindly to Edwards and his charming wife, to Dick, the doctor, your brothers, Kane, Lescine, Judge Engle, and my other friends. Please to present my most respectful compliments to Mrs. Leiper, and believe me, in whatever land my lot may be cast, to be always your friend, JAMES BUCHANAN. The following brief account of one of the national fêtes is recorded soon after his return to St. Petersburg: THE FETE AT PETERHOFF, SATURDAY, JULY 1–13, 1833. The English palace was provided for the reception of the Diplomatic Corps, where we lived with Count Daschkaw, the grand master of ceremonies, Count Matuscervie, and some masters of the court. Everything was provided for us in handsome style, for which, according to custom, I paid the court servants two hundred roubles at my departure. In the morning we went to visit the gardens upon singular vehicles on four wheels and drawn by two splendid horses. I can describe it no better than by imagining a double sofa with a single back, on which ten of us could sit back to back comfortably, five on each side. The foot-board was within about a foot of the ground. The water-works are the chief object of attraction. The water is conveyed in a canal for the distance of about thirty versts to the palace of Peterhoff, which is situate at the summit and on the brink of the second bank of the Gulf of Finland. From it there is a steep descent of about thirty feet to the extensive plain on the southern shore of the Gulf, which is covered by the immense garden. It is this descent which has enabled them to present so many varieties of water-works. In the gardens above, on a level with the palace (the English garden), the water is tastefully distributed into several lakes, etc. The water falls in several broad sheets over different steps immediately in front of the palace. One range of these is gilt, and in a clear day must present a splendid spectacle. They place candles under the shutes of the water and thus have an illumination under the water, which did not, however, produce the effect I expected. There are many long walks in the gardens, I should say more than a verst in length, at the intersection of which are little lakes, and in the centre of them jet d’eaus. On the sides of these walks, and all around the little lakes, were frame-works to a considerable elevation, destined for the candles. We rode all through these different walks. In front of one of the lakes stands the little palace of Marly, built by Peter the Great. Everything is preserved there just as he left it; and it was curious to observe the progress of luxury in comparing his clothing and accommodations with those of the imperial family in the present day. There is a carp which has been in the lake for a century, with a collar round its neck. It, with others, comes to the edge of the water at the sound of a bell, every morning, to receive its breakfast.