The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-20 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

point of weather, I ever was out in. Towards morn-
ing it froze very hard, and you may guess how nice
and warm my feet were. I long for a pair of high,
waterproof boots. I sent to the commissary-general
to-day, and he has no box of any sort for me ; but I
am going to walk to Balaklava myself to-morrow,
and will tell you the result in the latter part of this
letter. I have heard nothing of beyond a
short note on my arrival, which I answered, and
asked him to send me some things which I wanted.
I suffered very much at first here for want of
blankets. At last I managed to get three, but paid a
sovereign each for them. I also at the same time
bought a dozen of port wine for 41., which I really
think saved my life when I had the cholera and
dysentery so had. People said you could not spend
money out here. Why, at Balaklava you can buy
almost anything, if you choose to pay for it and can
get it up to camp.
DEC. 24.—When I wrote these two sheets last
night I had fully intended going into Balaklava to-
day, and hoped to be able to buy a turkey, fowl, or
preserved meat from one of the fresh-arrived ships,
so as to make something like a good dinner to-morrow
(Christmas-day). But man proposes and God dis-
poses ; for it rained a perfect cataract all night, and
when I awoke my head and pillow and everything in
the tent was wet through : the rest of my body was
wrapped up in my waterproof sheet. How I longed
for one of those caps which you mentioned having
sent to me ! It has continued to rain the whole day
in a manner peculiar to the Crimea, and, as I have
quite enough of getting wet when I am on duty, I am
not in a hurry to go out unless compelled. I have
consequently lain in blankets and waterproof all day,
and don't intend to move out of them. I only wish
I was going to have the leavings of the dinner in
square to-morrow to put in my stomach. This
will be the first Christmay-day in my life, I suppose,
that I ever passed without eating plum-pudding.
CHRISTMAS-DAY.—The weather this morning is
really English Christmas—a thundering hard frost--
everything in our tent frozen. I was out to see sun-
rise over the camp, and a splendid sight it was. It
had snowed a little in the night, and the tents were
all white. This is the sort of weather for me. Lam
as jolly as a sandboy, except that my Christmas din-
ner is very fishy—ration beef, salt ham, boiled rice,
and jam! a bottle of port wine and two of some
beastliness called malaga, got from a French canteen.
After breakfast I started off to look up Mr. D—,
of the —, and my parcel, which I dream about.
Of course when I got there he had not arrived from
England, but was expected every day ; so I shall
have to trot over there again some fine day. While
I was there I thought I might as well walk on to see
our new batteries on the right which I had heard so
much of; and going there I bad a terrible narrow
escape of my life. I bad my new uniform on, by
some accident, and I was standing on a hill by my-
self, not far from an out-picket of ours, about three
quarters of a mile from a Russian battery, watching
it pitching shell every now and then at a battery of
ours about a mile to my right, when all of a sudden,
I don't know what possessed the gunner, but be took
it into his head to have a shot at me. I suppose my
new red coat attracted him, and he thought I must
be a prince of the blood at least, or some heavy swell.
I saw the shot fired, and was looking at our battery
to see it strike, when all of a sudden I heard the
beast come whistling towards me. He rushed over
my head and dashed into the ground about fifty
yards behind me. That was quite enough for me.
I was not on duty, and had no business to expose
myself ; so I made my bow to the Russian battery,
and set off at no slow walk to get under shelter of the
hill. I had not gone thirty yards when I heard
another discharge, and I said to myself "Here comes
another for me" ; and sure enough it was; but I
heard, from the peculiar whistling, that it was one
of those big shells ; and, by Jove ! he sounded as if
he was going to pitch exactly on my head. I turned
round and looked out sharp for him, so as to be able
to lie down directly. He dashed down not twenty
yards from me, and the moment he dashed into the
earth I dashed flat on my face. Then came a row as
if heaven and earth had burst, and I heard one great
piece tear away over my bead, so that if I had stood
up it must have killed me. I got up and thanked
God, and started off at a double till I got round
the hill—two such good shots as those fright-
ened me. The post is going out to-morrow, so I
must shut this up for to-night. The chief thing I
want out here is grub—preserved meat, chocolate,
biscuits ; for the beastly, bard, branny biscuits we
get I can't stomach. Some bottles of cherry brandy
would be worth their weight in gold. I saw a Times
to-day of December 5. Shall we have a peace?
How delighted I should be to get home, even after
this short absence !

TIIFSDAY.—This letter ought to have gone yester-
day, but by some mismanagement our bag did not
go at all. The frost has not lasted, and the miserable
rain has set in to-night again. Our quartermaster
made inquiries yesterday at Balaklava about the
boxes for me, but there are none there, so I expect

SATURDAY,

those fellows Hayter and Powell are a take in.*
Last night, luckily for me, was a very fine one, for I
was on duty alone with 100 men for fourteen hours
on a very important and dangerous post—so the field
officer told me when he was giving me directions as
to where to retire if compelled to do so by very
superior numbers. It was about half a mile or less.
from Sebastopol, on a high road, flanked on both
sides with high and precipitous cliffs, not exposed to
the fire of any guns, but a favourite spot for a sortie;
in fact, this was the ravine that I spoke about in the
earlier part of my latter. I had never seen the plate
by daylight, and, of course, could only guess at.its
appearance, and being the junior officer in the
Crimea (a soldier of a few months) was not a little
proud of having such a post intrusted to me. How-
ever, the night passed without an attack, though the
Russian sentries, or rather spies, were close to my
sentries all night, and when I was out visiting them.
I could see the Rooshans quite plain creeping about.
to see if we were on the alert. I had a good mind
to pop at one with my pistol, but I knew that if I did.
I should be saluted by a volley from their main body,
which, of course, was just in their rear, and perhaps
get potted myself, so I thought better of it, and let.
the Bear alone. We were so close to the town that I.
heard the clocks strike, and could plainly hear the
houses smashing under the shells which the French,
were pitching in all night. G. has lent me a pack-
horse, so I am going to Balaklava to-morrow to try
and get some fresh meat on board some .Thip from
England. I hope to find the Adelaide arrived. I
hear the 18th are come, but have seen nothing of B.
I hope to get a parcel from home by him. How I
wish I had a hut of some sort out here, a tein is
miserable ; many officers have built themselves. stone
huts, and got wood for roofs from friends co board
ships. I wish —were here at Balaklava. I hear
to-day that orders were received from Lord Raglan
to prepare quarters for Omer Pacha at Balaklava
immediately. The eiderdown which I brought out
is invaluable, though it is rather a small one, and
will only make one part of me warm at once.
FRIDAY, DEC. 29.—1 was at Balaklava yesterday,
and could hear nothing of my parcels. I hope,
though, that the box sent by the Adelaide will come
all right. I made a most successful forage yester-
day, for on board a newly-arrived ship I bought st
sheep (305.), a turkey (155.) My servant and I had
an awful job to get the sheep up to camp, and did
not reach it till eleven at night. To-day we haver
mutton-chops for dinner! T. G. is going to dine
with me. The post goes to-morrow, so I must con-
clude this long rigmarole. Thank M., H., and C., for
their nice, long letters.
Yours, affectionately, A.

December 15-17.

I have only returned about half an hour from the
trenches of the advanced work, where I have been
since half-past four this morning. The rain poured
in torrents last night, and we indulged ourselves in
the luxury of hoping that this gave us the better
chance of a clear morning. However, we bad to turn
out in the midst of it (three officers and 200 men),
and started for the rendezvous, where detachments.
from the various regiments assemble previous to,
marching off for the trenches. We had to cross two
mountain torrents, which considerably damped our.
feet and legs, if not our ardour. When we reached
the ground the rest had gone on—so we followed,
tumbling in the mud at every step. At last we,
arrived opposite the twenty-one-gun battery (Gor-
don's), and the rain having suddenly changed to.
snow, we presented rather a wintry appearance as•
we entered "the covered way." This was in parts'
knee-deep in mud, through which we plodded, not.
without great exertion. As we " cleared the way"
we passed a poor fellow of the 77th Regiment lying
on the bank wounded in the shoulder, and soon after
we encountered a sharp fire of musketry, and a spent
bullet struck me in the left side, but without hurting
me at all, thank God. However, we lined the
trench without any casualty, and took up our abode
there for the day. The weather was so bleak and
cold that we were obliged from time to time to walk
about regardless of bullets flying about our ears like
bees. A marine was mortally hit in the breast, and
I saw the poor fellow carried past on a stretcher
he died in less than half an hour. As one of my
men was walking up and down close to the rampart
a Minie ball hit him behind the ear, and he fell on
his side and died without a groan ! I buried him at•
dusk outside the trench. Poor Robert Turton
sudden and awful was his death! What, and where,
were his last thoughts when death met him in that
short walk ? The Russian sentries did not molest us
while we were digging his grave, although they
must have heard us quite distinctly, for we can hear
them talking and coughing at their works. Another
of my company died this afternoon. The regiment.

• Messrs. Hayter and Powell have fully exonerated themselves-
of all blame in those matters by their letter in the Times of
Monday. The blame rests solely with the authorities.—ED,
Pam's.