Agreeableizing

1840 May Friday 15 2 3/4 a.m. 12 Réaumur 14 1/2° at 3 a.m.   could not sleep for heat and fleas – these arched Earth-covered rooms very close – 2 little windows about 24 X 18 inches ? pierce the 2 or 3 foot thick walls (ours a corner room) – Should guess the room about 5 X 4 yards and perhaps about 4 yards high to the crown of the arch – I could not live comfortably in the Eastern souterrain houses – Too cellar-like – Caravanserai court 50 X 60 yards, the latter and longer, the Entrance side – Must have been handsome in its day – Now a heap of ruins inside – All the rooms but 6 or 7 roofless and more or less filled with rubbish – Probably about 50 rooms – The town very picturesque – Surrounded by ruins extending to a considerable distance – On the river Ganja – Wood bridge over it – Mountains become hills (left) at Elizabethpol, and (right) (going towards Baku) seem to leave us now at 6 a.m. and the eye wanders up endless plain to the right – Charming drive over ...

1840 May Thursday 14 5 10 1/4 Up when we ought to have been off – but George never calls us – had forgot his watch ! Lies to the last minute, and we awake when we can – Breakfast – our rice as at Tiflis – Very fairly good room and good stationhouse on an eminence, as usual – Fine view of the mountains and the 2 headed giant Kasbek peering above the rest towards the Eastern extremity of the range in sight – Off at 7 25/.. – Ann and I and George and our Cossack and all our baggage on a large high heavy chariot drawn by 4 oxen and our kibitka followed – 25 minutes in getting down to the river Astapha 1/4 to 1/2 miles from the house prettily situated on the high ground above – 7 25/.. to 9 1/4      Astaphrinskii Ridu}                            versts             ...

1840 May Wednesday 13 6 10/.. 12 3/4 Very fine morning; Réaumur 12 1/2 at 6 1/2 – Breakfast at 7 35/.. – to 8 1/4 with pother of letters again, etc.   Had to write in Russian the name of each English person on each letter – Not off till 9 35/.. – 9 35/.. to 12 50/.. Tiflis to Kodi                    (25) 1 40/.. to 4 5/.. Kodi to Mutchanesh           (27) 4 3/4 to 6 27/.. Mutchanesh to Saiatchesi    (22) 7 to 9 10/.. Saiatchesi to Astaphrinskii        (21)                                                              ...

1840 May Tuesday 12 7 1/2 11 Very fine morning. Réaumur 12 1/2° at 7 1/2 a.m.   Breakfast at 9 – Had put on my pelisse – Took it off again – Starved in it without the white upper petticoat underneath it as at home – Put on my merinos – Breakfast soon over – At accounts, etc., till now, 11 25/.. George not come in with the passports – till now 3 25/.. Wrote my letter (6 lines) to Mr. Parker at top of page 3 of Ann’s letter to Mr. Adam, and copied it – and wrote out accounts and long settling long talk with the master of the house to prove 30 days at 2 1/2 = 75/. silver and that 24 wax lights at 1 abasse or 20 silver kopeks + 1 abasse over = 5/. – and that, having paid 100/. assignats in account, and in giving 5/. assignats now, = 30/. + 50/. = 80/. Silver.   He wanted 32 days – Then said the agreement was made in assignats = 10/. per day – No! He came into my reckoning at last, and agreed to take charge of all we left behind – He said all the English came to his...

1840 May Monday 11 6 20/.. 1 20/.. Fine morning – Beautifully clear – The short line of haycocky, snowy mountains never so  distinct – Kasbek one point of just seen from our windows peeping above the hills  to the extreme right (northeast) – Réaumur 11 1/2° now at 6 1/2 a.m. We really go to bed soon and get up soon – Ready at 7 50/.. – Sat down to write – Dressed – Breakfast over at 10 10/.. – Then finished my letter to Countess Alexandra Panin. then had Mr. Tolstoy for a few minutes – he was gone before 11 10/.. – Note this morning just before breakfast from Madame Latchinoff – Did not open it till I had written out the note written just before getting into bed last night – Then added a P.S. – All this done by 11 1/4 – Her note very civil, begging me to correct the passage (at the end nearly) purporting that a battallion of Russian infantry was slaughtered at Etchmiadzin at the moment of watering their horses – Wrote ‘au moment ou le bataillon se désaltéra...

1840 May Sunday 10 8 3/4 1 40/.. Finish morning, Réaumur 10 1/4° at 10 a.m.   About before breakfast at 10 1/4 to 11 – Then had Mr. Besoc and then Captain Tolstoy, who staid after Mr. Besoc and till after 1 – I had just turned all my things out of my bag to begin packing before they came – All the rest of the day packing and putting away my papers etc. (to be left behind) in the top of my Moscow portmanteau, and put my own dresses and Ann’s in the portmanteau to be left behind – About 8, went down to see about the kibitka packing – ’Tis now 9 and we have not dined or had tea – Madame Latchinoff sent the translation of her voyage to Erivan by 10 this morning (before breakfast) – It seems, after all, that Mr. Tolstoy (not Captain – only Lieutenant as yet) likes better reading than that of light travels etc. etc. His favourite work, Mignard’s French Revolution, 4 volumes octavo and likes Hume and Gibbon and Robertson – The Black Sea, said Besoc and Tolstoy, very st...

1840 May Saturday 9 8 1 40/.. Windy, but fair, finish morning.   Réaumur 11 3/4° now at 8 55/.. a.m.   Breakfast – Captain Tolstoy till 11 55/.. (Mr. Chevostoff for a few minutes about passport about 11 1/4), when (at 11 55/..) Madame Galovin’s carriage (chariot and 4 horses) came to take us to make our pour prendre congé calls – Off at 12 1/4, Ann and I for the 1st time without our fur cloaks – to the Kotzebue’s, Madame and Mademoiselle the General’s sister – Mentioned my present idea of going to Baku and back here – then to Koutais, and then being ready for Mr. Obuvian and Ararat – but would let him know on our return – Then to the Braïkos – admitted – the General himself (good man) and Madame and her 2 daughters – very civil – Then to Madame Vassilikofski – Not at home – Left cards – To the dames Georgiennes,   all at home – Madame Griboudief, and Princess Dadian at the piano – Pressed the latter to sing – She very shy and afraid, but did sing a R...

1840 May Friday 8 8 1/2 3 Rain in the night, and the Place dirty this morning.   Dampish, foggy morning even till now 11 1/4 (breakfast at 9 55/..) – The mountains quite covered – Then copied into business letter book the character given on leaving Moscow to Grotza, and that given to Gross at Astracan, and my letter from here to Mr. Marc – And then had Mademoiselle Kotzebue and then Madame Latchinoff till 2 5/.. She had translated into French above 1/2 hour account of her journey to Erivan and brought it and read it to me – Prettily written – Praised it very much – She will let me have the whole on Saturday night to take with me – and will leave for me (chez le General Braïko) her compilation of a sort or modern history or what of this country – She is writing a larger work, an historical work – but in the form of a Roman – I questioned her as to why she did not take a higher line of authorship – She dreaded criticism – Nothing to fear for a Roman , if her style ...

1840 May Thursday 7 8 20/.. 2 35/.. Fine morning Réaumur 12° at 9 a.m. breakfast over at 9 55/.. Ann had a little bowel complaint last night and has it this morning – Ann writing to her sister in the other   room, occupied by the servants while Nikolai was here – I sat down to write to Princess Radzivill.   Dissatisfied with what I had written in English, began another letter in French – Interrupted perpetually – Mr. Chevostoff called about 11 1/2 or after and staid till 12 – Very civilly came about the carriage – Done – Had not heard of any bad news from Vladicavkas – The Russian consul in London or the Secretary of Embassador can put the Seals on baggage for Russia – did not seem to think so highly of Murray’s Geography or to be so anxious to have the work as his wife seemed to insinuate – Could get whatever books he wanted – would not have us bring the work for him – Knows Bremner – a bachelor gentleman living near New York – never thought of his giving hims...