CHAPTER XI.
LORD NOVGOROD THE GREAT Departure from Ivanofka and Arrival at Novgorod--The Eastern Half of the Town--The Kremlin--An Old Legend--The Armed Men of Rus--The Northmen--Popular Liberty in Novgorod--The Prince and the Popular Assembly--Civil Dissensions and Faction-fights--The Commercial Republic Conquered by the Muscovite Tsars--Ivan the Terrible--Present Condition of the Town--Provincial Society--Card-playing--Periodicals--"Eternal Stillness." Country life in Russia is pleasant enough in summer or in winter, but between summer and winter there is an intermediate period of several weeks when the rain and mud transform a country-house into something very like a prison.

To escape this durance vile I determined in the month of October to leave Ivanofka, and chose as my headquarters for the next few months the town of Novgorod--the old town of that name, not to be confounded with Nizhni Novgorod--i.e., Lower Novgorod, on the Volga--where the great annual fair is held.
For this choice there were several reasons.

I did not wish to go to St.
Petersburg or Moscow, because I foresaw that in either of those cities my studies would certainly be interrupted.

In a quiet, sleepy provincial town I should have much more chance of coming in contact with people who could not speak fluently any West-European languages, and much better opportunities for studying native life and local administration.

Of the provincial capitals, Novgorod was the nearest, and more interesting than most of its rivals; for it has had a curious history, much older than that of St.Petersburg or even of Moscow, and some traces of its former greatness are still visible.