Notes of a tour in Finland (Part III)

Teksti on julkaistu kirjassa The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction: containing original papers; historical narratives; biographical memoirs; manners and customs; topographical descriptions; sketches and tales; anecdotes; select extracts from New and Expensive works; poetry, original and selected; the Spirit of the Public Journals; Discoveries in The Arts and Sciences, etc. New Series. Vol IV. London 1843

The posting arrangements of Swedish Finland are excellent, and even where no courier had been sent in advance we never were detained for horses, the charge for which seems so ridiculously low, that from Abo to St Petersburg, a distance of about 650 versts, or 420 English miles, our expense for two horses certainly did not exceed a hundred rubles, or about 4l. 3s. 4d. English, a sum scarcely sufficient to convey a carriage from London to Brighton.

Our fellow traveller, who kindly undertook to manage the paying department for us, often translated to me the expressions of thanks made by the rustic postboys on receiving 20 copecks (which is 2d.) for having driven a stage of 16 versts, such as "I am your grateful servant for life,” or some other phrase equally strong; and though at first sceptical as to whether such a trifle could really excite these feelings, yet, on attentively studying the triumphant smiles which the boys exchanged with each other on receiving this reward, the satisfaction expressed by their words was fully confirmed by the expression of their youthful faces, which would hardly deceive, as they were

"Just at the age, 'twixtboy and youth,
When thought is speech, and speech is truth."

One of the little Finnish Jehus was so diminutive that a friend, M. de M., jocularly presumed to question his capability to drive, which, naturally enough, roused the urchin's feelings, and caused him to boast of having once driven a carriage with four horses, and on being cross-questioned as to who was in the carriage, he replied, with perfect candour and simplicity, “Mr Demidoff's dog, and all his kitchen utensils.”

So much pleasure do trifles afford here that any philanthropist, whose means to afford gratification to his fellow creatures are more limited than his desires, might gladden the hearts of a score of little Finlanders while travelling in this country by what an English postilion would receive with dissatisfaction,

Everything in Finland is, however, proportionably low, for horses may be purchased at from 3l. to 4l. English each, and, on inquiring the cost of wooden houses, I was informed that an inn of several rooms in which we had comfortably slept in Swedish Finland, might have cost about 10l. to build, and one of very superior appearance which was pointed out, scarcely more than 20 l.