Book XII.
Novogorod.
——
Sect. I.
Description of the City of Tversk.—Torjok.—Convent of St. Barlaam.
Thus we set out for Moscow on the morning of Saturday the fourth of Ab (August), accompanied by the Archbishop of Servia, an interpreter, and servants; and proceeded a distance of ninety versts, till we came, on the morning of Monday the Feast of the Transfiguration, to an ancient convent, by the title of the Assumption of Our Lady, built of stone, and under the Patriarch's jurisdiction, situated most beautifully, in the neighbourhood of a village called Klin (كلين) where we assisted at Mass.
Thence we went to a convent in the form of a castle, by the name of the Holy Nativity; and passing the large and celebrated River Volga, we travelled ninety other versts; having performed, in all, one hundred and eighty versts from Moscow; and came to a town, with a castle, by the name of Tversko. It is a bishopric, of which we formerly mentioned the bishop. Before we arrived at it, there came out to meet us, first of all, the Heads of the Convents; then the Deputy Archbishop, the Voivode, and the Town Magistrates, accompanied by the Clergy, carrying bread and salt, according to custom; and they took us to the large stone Sobor Church, dedicated in the name of the Divine Manifestation: in it is the body of one of the Kniazes, a new Saint; and around it are four other churches. They made us alight at the new Archiepiscopal palace, which commands a view of the gardens and the fish-pond: and first came the Emperor's Lieutenants, to present to us some of the various kinds of beautiful fish caught in the River Volga, that runs in the neighbourhood of the town.
