substituted for the tapestry and decorations of Peter and his successors. The paintings, as the inscription states, were made in 1882 by two "brothers Bieloosov, ikon painters, peasants of the village of Palekha." Chancellor and his companions when ushered into the Golden Palace encountered Ivan the Terrible. "The Russian Tsar, sitting on a lofty couch, arrayed in robes of silver, and now wearing a different diadem. In the middle of the room stood a huge abacus with a square pedestal, surmounted with a succession of orbicular tiers, which regularly tapered towards the culminating point, and was adorned with such profusion of plate and costly rarities that it was almost overburdened with the great weight of them, and the greater part were of the choicest gold. Four vases, conspicuous by their size, served specially to enhance the splendour of the other golden vessels, for they were nearly five feet in height. Four tables, placed separately on each side of the hall and raised to the height of three steps above the floor, were bespread with the very finest napery and attended by a numerous company." One thing which surprised Chancellor was the great reverence shown the Tsar when he spoke, by the whole company "rising simultaneously and bending low their bodies with a sort of gesture of adoration, silently resume their seats." The Terem is a building of five storeys, each higher one smaller than any below and the topmost but a single room, with a porch leading to the flat roof from which, before blocked by the Great Palace, a splendid view was obtainable. The ground floor was built early in the sixteenth century, but serves now for storerooms only, and the one above, reached by a door _under_ the staircase, consists of a private suite formerly the workrooms of the palace and now utilised for the preservation of old charters. The staircase with carved stone steps is separated from the palace by the "gilt-wicket" which formerly divided the private from the state and court rooms of the palace. It is of a quite ordinary design when compared with the much more elaborate wrought metal-work found elsewhere in the palaces and churches of the Kremlin. The first room reached was originally the "vestibule," but serves now as a breakfast-room; the cases contain the old seals of the Kingdom; the walls and vaulted roof covered with pictures and the stove of fine old glazed Russian tiles, a variety of faience the secret of whose manufacture has been lost. Near to this room is the Council Chamber, and, further, what originally served as the private room of the Tsars, but was latterly used as a throne room. In the bronze casket is the deed of election which appointed Mikhail Theodorovich to the throne. In the "Krasnoe Ugol," or "Grand Corner," is the seat of the Tsar Alexis with a carpet before it, the handiwork of his daughters. The window adjoining is that from which Dmitri, and other rulers, lowered the basket for the