User:GRuban/Kochubey Family Chronicle

Кочубей А. В. Семейная хроника : Записки Аркадия Васильевича Кочубея. 1790-1873. - СПб., 1890. http://elib.shpl.ru/ru/nodes/23234-kochubey-a-v-semeynaya-hronika-zapiski-arkadiya-vasilievicha-kochubeya-1790-1873-spb-1890#mode/inspect/page/5/zoom/4

Kochubey A.V. Family Chronicle: Notes of Arkady Vasilyevich Kochubey. 1790-1873. - St. Petersburg, 1890.

From p. 200, last paragraph to p. 201, penultimate paragraph:

At that time, the governor of Chernigov was my relative Alexander Alekseyevich Frolov-Bagreev. This Bagreev, while on holiday in Petersburg, there married the daughter of the well known Speransky - Elizabeth Mihailovna. After the wedding he came to our estate to introduce his wife to his mother. Elizabeth Mihailovna was an intelligent and lovely woman, and, even though not pretty, was at the time still very fresh; it seemed that the spouses loved each other very much, but afterwards, after arriving in Petersburg, lived in discord.

As regarding Bagreev, this was a big simpleton: as in Abbot Nikol's boarding house, even at the time when he was governor, everyone made fun of him. However, he was good natured and not spiteful. I know the following anecdote about him.

Touring his governate, Bagreev was passing through the city of Konotop, where his carriage was loaded on the street. He got terribly angry, called the old man who was mayor, and had fulfilled this duty for twenty years, and began to scold him, but the mayor calmly answered Bagreev:

"Your Excellency, don't you know which city you are in?"

"Of course, in Konotop, apparently."

"So that means that here the horses are stamping, that is why the city is called Konotop," answered the mayor. ["Koni" in Russian - horses; "top" - stamp]

Bagreev, despite his anger, could not resist smiling at this dodge by the mayor, and the matter ended there. Returning to my story.