direction of the wind; and with this plate he was in raptures.

He soon became weary of his residence. He found that he was too
far from the objects of his curiosity, and too near to the crowds
to which he was himself an object of curiosity. He accordingly
removed to Deptford, and was there lodged in the house of John
Evelyn, a house which had long been a favourite resort of men of
letters, men of taste and men of science. Here Peter gave himself
up to his favourite pursuits. He navigated a yacht every day up
and down the river. His apartment was crowded with models of
three deckers and two deckers, frigates, sloops and fireships.
The only Englishman of rank in whose society he seemed to take
much pleasure was the eccentric Caermarthen, whose passion for
the sea bore some resemblance to his own, and who was very
competent to give an opinion about every part of a ship from the
stem to the stern. Caermarthen, indeed, became so great a
favourite that he prevailed on the Czar to consent to the
admission of a limited quantity of tobacco into Russia. There was
reason to apprehend that the Russian clergy would cry out against
any relaxation of the ancient rule, and would strenuously
maintain that the practice of smoking was condemned by that text
which declares that man is defiled, not by those things which
enter in at the mouth, but by those which proceed out of it. This
apprehension was expressed by a deputation of merchants who were
admitted to an audience of the Czar; but they were reassured by
the air with which he told them that he knew how to keep priests
in order.

He was indeed so free from any bigoted attachment to the religion
in which he had been brought up that both Papists and Protestants