"  i6t/i  Sept. — I  was  to  have  left  to-day  for  Kiev,  but
heavy  rain  has  fallen  and  the  roads  are  impassable.
"  iSt/i  Sept. — Potocki  and  I  drove  last  night  to  Czerny
Ostrov  and  dined  at  the  house  there  of  a  certain  Countess,
once  a  woman  of  some  fashion  at  Paris  in  the  days  of
Napoleon  III,  still  full  of  gossip,  ancient  and  modern,  for
she  goes  yearly  to  Nice  for  the  winter.  At  Czerny  Ostrov
she  has  a  nice  villa  with  gardens  and  grounds,  and  a  select
circle  of  such  fashionable  friends  as  the  town  affords,  with
an  ancient  admirer  much  dyed  and  painted.
"  Then  Joseph  and  I  travelled  on  through  the  night  and
arrived  in  the  morning  at  Kiev.  The  country  for  thirty
miles  or  so  south  of  Kiev  is  a  great  oak  forest  with  spaces
of  cleared  land — no  very  large  trees,  but  growing  well,
they  say,  for  the  first  IOO  years,  till  their  roots  come  to  the
gravel,  when  their  growth  is  stopped.  Oaks  and  birches
are  evidently  the  natural  growth  of  the  country,  with  alders
in  the  swampy  places  and  a  few  other  trees,  though  there
is  a  certain  admixture  of  Scotch  firs,  new  comers  I  should
say.  The  Dnieper  is  the  boundary  beyond  which  the  great
fir  forests  of  the  north  begin.  The  cleared  land  is  a  wide


222  To  Kiev  with  Potocki  [1895

desolation  of  stubbles  and  beetroot,  stretching  for  miles
without  hedge  or  landmark.
