_The ikons_ include the most prized Mary of Vladimir attributed to St Luke, which was brought from Tsar Grad--Constantinople--to Kief, taken by Andrew Bogoloobski to Vladimir and brought to Moscow on the Tartar invasion. It is regarded as miraculous, having saved the city from Tamerlane, and on subsequent occasions. Tsars and people alike in past generations have regarded this picture as their Palladium. Of its artistic merits it would be idle to write; black with age and discoloured by the accidents incidental to preservation in an oft burned city, it is as represented in the frontispiece. Completely enveloped, but hands and face, in precious metal and handsome garniture, it exhibits a richness of decoration few articles of _vertu_ can equal; the gems alone being valued at upwards of £100,000, and the great emerald itself at £10,000. The next ikon of importance is that of the Holy Virgin of Jerusalem, which, according to tradition, was the work of the apostles. Taken to Constantinople in the fifth century and to Kherson in the tenth, it came thence to Moscow--but others say, it is but a copy, the original having disappeared during the French occupation. On the right of the royal doors is the image of our Saviour in the golden chasuble, painted by the Greek emperor Manuel, and brought from Novgorod the Great in 1478. By its side is an ikon with most brilliant colouring representing the Assumption, which is said to be the work of the metropolitan Peter, the founder of the church; but if it be not his handicraft is still a remarkable specimen of the ikon painter's art in Russia of the fourteenth century. These, with others, are all on the lower tier. On the tiers above are usually placed: highest, the Madonna and the Infant Jesus, the fathers of the church in pre-mosaic days, portraits of persons mentioned in Genesis; on the second stage, the prophets from Moses to Jesus Christ; on the third, incidents in the life of the Saviour illustrative of church feasts; on the fourth, portraits of the saints of the orthodox church; on the fifth, the sacred ikons. _Other pictures_ in the cathedral include portraits of the patriarchs and saints; many frescoes on a gold ground are ranged around the four pillars that support the central cupola; and, on the walls, the martyrdoms of orthodox saints are depicted. A bas-relief, supposed to represent St George slaying the dragon, has been identified by Sneguirev as once part of a triumphal arch the Christians erected in Rome to Constantine the Great.