In the afternoon I visited several beautiful churches, a museum, and an exhibition of Verestchagin’s famous war pictures.
On the _21st October_ I returned to the Kremlin and visited its churches, which are stored with priceless icons, golden vessels, gem-studded crucifixes, and silken vestures stiff with gold and precious stones. In striking contrast to such wealth, some of the chapels had dirty, uneven brick floors, and were horribly dark. Afterwards I passed through the Treasury, until I was weary of looking on diamond-studied saddles, bejewelled swords and guns, thrones, crowns, the regalia and coronation robes of all the Russian Czars, etc., etc. Altogether the wealth of the Kremlin must represent scores of millions of pounds in value.
The bazaars of Moscow are far-famed, though more so in Asia than in Europe. I passed through the newest and largest. It struck me as being more extensive than the Crystal Palace, though not so lofty, and I was told that it contained under its roof a thousand shops of the best class.
At 10 p.m. that night I left the hotel in pouring rain and drove to the station, where I was soon on board the trans-Siberian express, which started at 11 p.m. In my coupé were two Russian Officers and a Japanese--all hurrying eastward in anticipation of a Russo-Japanese war. The most interesting part of my journey now commenced. I was about to go where but comparatively few Englishmen have ever been, and to pass through a region chiefly known to the civilized world as a place of exile, a place of horror, a dreary wilderness of frost and snow and wind, a place to which the words “ye who enter here must leave all hope behind” were ever applicable. The greater part of this journey of over 5,000 miles from Moscow to the Far East, which I was about to make in a few days in a _train de luxe_, was, until recently, made by the wretched exiles on foot, taking from one to two years.
_22nd October._--Passed through flat, uninteresting country. Much wheat cultivated. No trees, no hedges, no ditches and but little grass. Cloudy and depressing. Inhabitants ill-clad and poverty stricken. Miserable houses with mud or wooden walls and thatch roofs. Some were built partly below ground for warmth, while earth heaped up round the walls and over the roofs, gave them the appearance of enormous potato heaps, having a door, chimney, and two or three windows. Churches were the only substantial buildings.