460. Kuskovo, near Moscow, is a country residence belonging to Count Dmitry Nikolaivitch, about eight versts (six miles) to the south-east of Moscow. The mansion has an extensive front, terminating at one extremity in a church, and at the other in an immense group of log-houses, used as outer offices, and as lodgings for peasants. In front is a court, enclosed by an iron palisade; beyond this there is a hollow, across which a bank has been thrown up to retain a few acres of water. The bank, however, is placed in the most conspicuous point of view, and spoils the effect by showing the naked hollow on one hand, and the raised dam of water on the other. The garden front of the house looks into a natural forest, part of which has been cleared away; and the ground, after being smoothed, has been interspersed with walks and ornamental objects, and kept as pleasure-ground. In the same natural wood is the kitchen-garden, walled round, with an extensive range of hothouses, narrow, and with steep sloping roofs in the English manner. In them are grown, to a considerable degree of perfection, all the fruits to be found in the hothouses of England. These gardens and pleasure-grounds are now (1830) under the direction of a Scotch gardener. The park of Kuskovo consists of a some fish-ponds; and a small yacht, armed with cannon, and surrounded by various small sailing and rowing boats, rides constantly in the lake formed by the dam already mentioned. On Sundays and festivals there is a promenade, at which are generally present the most distinguished nobles, merchants, and common people of Moscow.
