Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/140

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INTRODUCTION.

nessed a coursing match, of which he gives a detailed description; he mentions also a hawking match, in which he makes particular allusion to the beautiful Tartar hounds that were used in the sport. Besides the negotiations for the peace of Poland, Herberstein had received several other communications from the emperor, one about the delivery of the Knes Michaila Lwowich Glinsky from prison, but in this particular he was not successful. As Herberstein at last saw that, in consequence of the obstinate continuation of hostilities by Sigismund, nothing was to be done for the principal purpose of his journey, he asked for his dismissal, which he received at a solemn audience, on the 20th of November, and left Moscow, after a stay of eight months, on the following day.

In his writings, he gives fewer details of this first journey to Russia than of the second. His remarks relate principally to the names of provinces and different tribes of the Russian empire, more especially on the parts of the ocean bordering it, and on the rivers passing through it. At his departure, he received from the grand-prince costly sables, ermines, and Russian hunting dogs, and several rare specimens of produce of the country. He had also made for him a comfortable travelling sledge, with fur accoutrements, and gave him an uncommonly large horse from his own stables, with ample provisions for his journey, and had him conducted to the frontier with a number of his own servants and soldiers, altogether about two hundred horsemen. At the same time a