The society, therefore, is composed exclusively of the officials and of the officers who happen to be quartered in the town or the immediate vicinity.
Of all the people whose acquaintance I made at Novgorod, I can recall only two men who did not occupy some official position, civil or military.

One of these was a retired doctor, who was attempting to farm on scientific principles, and who, I believe, soon afterwards gave up the attempt and migrated elsewhere.

The other was a Polish bishop who had been compromised in the insurrection of 1863, and was condemned to live here under police supervision.

This latter could scarcely be said to belong to the society of the place; though he sometimes appeared at the unceremonious weekly receptions given by the Governor, and was invariably treated by all present with marked respect, he could not but feel that he was in a false position, and he was rarely or never seen in other houses.
The official circle of a town like Novgorod is sure to contain a good many people of average education and agreeable manners, but it is sure to be neither brilliant nor interesting.

Though it is constantly undergoing a gradual renovation by the received system of frequently transferring officials from one town to another, it preserves faithfully, in spite of the new blood which it thus receives, its essentially languid character.