They contain a theatre, a library, two or three clubs, and large houses belonging to rich landed proprietors, who spend the summer on their estates and come into town for the winter months.

These proprietors, together with the resident officials, form a numerous society, and during the winter, dinner-parties, balls, and other social gatherings are by no means infrequent.

In Novgorod the society is much more limited.

It does not, like Kief, Kharkof, and Kazan, possess a university, and it contains no houses belonging to wealthy nobles.

The few proprietors of the province who live on their estates, and are rich enough to spend part of the year in town, prefer St.Petersburg for their winter residence.