The essays and stories contained in this book are reprinted for the greater part from the _Morning Post_, by whose kind permission I have been allowed to republish them here. My thanks are also due to the Editor of the _Oxford and Cambridge Review_ for permission to republish the article on Andreev’s _Life of Man_; and to the Editor of that brilliant but too short-lived periodical the _Ne Plus Ultra_ (published at Eton), for allowing me to make use of a story called “The Amorphists,” which appeared in its columns. My thanks are due to Mr. H. Belloc, who kindly read the proofs of this book for me. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE A JOURNEY IN THE NORTH 1 DOWN THE VOLGA 21 SKETCHES IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH RUSSIA: 1. THE RELIGION OF RUSSIAN PEASANTS 57 2. A CONVERSATION WITH A LANDOWNER 70 3. THE BIRTH OF THE BELL 80 CONVERSATIONS WITH DIMITRI NIKOLAIEVITCH: 1. ENGLISH LIBERALS IN RUSSIA 89 2. BYRON 96 MODERN LITERATURE IN RUSSIA 113 THE RUSSIAN STAGE 122 A RUSSIAN MYSTERY PLAY 136 A DREAM IN THE DUMA 158 A ZEMSTVO REPORT 170 ANTI-SEMITISM IN RUSSIA 180 PRINCE OUROUSOV’S MEMOIRS 189 STORIES POGROM 203 THE ANTICHRIST 214 “DIRGE IN MARRIAGE” 223 THE GOVERNOR’S NIECE 233 A POLICE OFFICER 243 THE AMORPHISTS 254 SHERLOCK HOLMES IN RUSSIA 264 RUSSIAN ESSAYS AND STORIES A JOURNEY IN THE NORTH I started at night. The battle for a place in the third-class carriage was fought and won for me by a porter. A third-class carriage in Russia is not at all uncomfortable if you have a thick blanket, because every passenger has a right to the whole length of a seat. Three people can sit on the seat but only one can lie on it. The other two lie in berths above you or below you, as the case may be. At the end of the seat is a passage, and then there are further seats stretched horizontally across the windows. The seats are made of wood, and if you have a thick blanket and a pillow they are quite as comfortable as any other bed. The differences between railway carriages in Russia and in England is that the Russian carriage is broader and bigger. Every carriage (whatever the class) is a corridor carriage. The first class is divided into separate compartments, but in the second and third class there is no partition and no doors dividing the corridor from the seats occupied by the passengers.