Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Note on Russian dates
- Introduction
- 1 The colony by the banks of the Neva
- 2 Factory matters and ‘the honourable of the Earth’
- 3 ‘In Anglorum templo’: the English Church and its chaplains
- 4 ‘Doctors are scarce and generally Scotch’
- 5 ‘Sur le pied anglais’: shipbuilders and officers in the Russian navy
- 6 ‘Necessary foreigners’: specialists and craftsmen in Russian service
- 7 Masters of the Arts
- 8 ‘Out of curiosity’: tourists and visitors
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
Epilogue
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Preface
- Note on Russian dates
- Introduction
- 1 The colony by the banks of the Neva
- 2 Factory matters and ‘the honourable of the Earth’
- 3 ‘In Anglorum templo’: the English Church and its chaplains
- 4 ‘Doctors are scarce and generally Scotch’
- 5 ‘Sur le pied anglais’: shipbuilders and officers in the Russian navy
- 6 ‘Necessary foreigners’: specialists and craftsmen in Russian service
- 7 Masters of the Arts
- 8 ‘Out of curiosity’: tourists and visitors
- Epilogue
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Johnson Newman, who has not been previously named in these pages, was a devoted servant of Russia during a career spanning some fifty years, beginning in 1755 in the reign of Elizabeth and ending early in the reign of Alexander I. Initially an ‘informator in the English language’ at the Naval Cadet Corps, he moved to the College of Foreign Affairs as a translator, but in the 1770s he was to be found at the Russian embassy in London. He subsequently served in Lisbon, before returning to England in 1785 to take up the newly created post of Russian consul at Hull. He is an interesting figure not least because of his largely unsung efforts to be useful ‘tant à la Russie qu'à ma Patrie’ by the translation of literary and historical works. His own command of languages, specifically English, French and Russian, led him to recognise that ignorance of foreign languages formed a huge barrier between nations and that British ignorance of Russian was a particularly depressing example. He wrote in 1789:
Depuis l'année 1755 que je suis entré en Russie au Service, j'ai souvent été temoin oculaire par Terre et par Mer de quantité d'Anglois qui sont entrés au Service de la Russie dans tous les Departments et qui faute de sauvoir et la Langue et l'Histoire de Russie, n'ont pu communiquer leurs Idées, ni par consequent lui être util sans Interprète, avec toute leur Fidelité, Zèle, Courage et Sciences reconnus.
Newman was essentially correct in highlighting the problem and indeed, he took steps to alleviate it.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- 'By the Banks of the Neva'Chapters from the Lives and Careers of the British in Eighteenth-Century Russia, pp. 392 - 396Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996