The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-12 00:00:00

IVYLD'S MODEL OF SEBASTOPOL.

( From the Brighton Guardian of Wednesday. )
Mr. Wyld's maps of the Seat of War in the Baltic and
Black Seas have been unrivalled. In this he had done
good service to the public, for nothing could be more
useful and interesting both to the statesman and to every
individual in the nation at large than correct maps of
those places where a struggle is being carried on whose
equal in endurance, intensity, and importance is not
recorded in history, where so much of the nation's
hl )od has been poured out like water and where many
a hero sleeps whose death has fallen like the shadow of
desolation upon the hearts and homes of this country.
Mr. Wyld has, however, succeeded in outdoing all his
former efforts in catering fur the public gratification in
this respect, for he has just brought Sebastopol to our
very doors in his beautiful and unique Model of that
grand historical place, which is now being exhibited in
the Royal Pavilion. We have no hesitation in saying
that no man who has not seen this model, or who has
not been in the Crimea itself, can have anything approxi-
mating to a correct notion of the nature of the ground,
the peculiarities of the fortified positions, and the gi-
gantic operations in which the allied armies have been
engaged in the Tauric peninsular. For marvellous as
have been the descriptions given by Russell, the great
word-painter of the Times, of the battles, sieges, and the
♦arious other circumstances connected with the war,
from the opening scene at the Alma to the taking of
Sebastopol, there is one thing which the most brilliant
pen will fail to do—in fact that in which the occupation
of the pen ends and in which that of the sister art of
the brush or the modeller begins—locality. And un-
less we can realise the place, its appearance, its posi-
tion, the direction of the assault, the relative situations,
of the armies on both sides, more than half the interest of
the most vivid description is lost.
In this model we are presented with that which at
once fills up the hiatus, and gives us a perfect scene of the
war. Enteni it; the r :um the first otjeet we meet is tie
narrow bay of Balaklava, with the high reeks jutting
out at each side, like a mountain dividedi n two. Next
we see the railway, which runs from the harbour to the
English encampment, and we immediately understand
its importance. We beholl the plain of Balaklava,
where the cavalry fight took place—the only spot, as
will be seen by the model, in which cavalry could at all
manmuvre—and the fatal charge of the Light horse, on
the FOM) day. At a glance we understand the position
of the Inkerman, the hill where the fifty thousa❑d Rus-
sians crept up on the sanguinary although glorious sth
of November ; the course of the Tcheruaya ; the bridge
of Traktir which crosses it where V.. e Sardinians and
Fiench repulsed the Russian attack on the 16th of
Angust, driving them across that bridge. Without any
effort of the imagination we have a palpable view of the
trenches and parallels as they advanced towards the
devoted town, and surely if slowly surrounding it with
a circle of fire. The importance of the Malakhoff to
either side we easily understand ; for it stood on a ris-
ing ground protecting the town against the French as-
sault. The Redan, it can be seen, was only a work minor
to the Malakhoff; and the instant the latter was cap-
tured the other became untenable, for Sebastopol became
untenable, the Malakhoff dominating the town and
enabling its possessors without any trouble to cut off the
Redan irom the town. Viewing the matter in this light
and it can be viewed in no other—it becomes a matter of
the gravest surprise how General Simpson could have per-
mitted his troops to attack the Redan at all. One of the
chief features in this model is, that we can perfectly
understand the nature of the soil through which the ap-
proaches had to be carried ; and from its rocky surface
we can see what tremendous labourthere must have been
in the trenches, and what slow work they must have been.
We also get at the reason why the French were able to
cars their approaches up to the very breast of the Mala-
khoffi only a few yards intervening, while the English
were net able to carry their works nearer to the Redan
than 200 yasels—namely, the rocky soil in the front of
the latter, and the comparative absence of such an im-
pediment in the former.
Never perhaps until now could those at home see

through the depth and importance of the strategy
adopted by Prince Menschikoff in sinking the ships at
the mouth of the harbour to prevent our fleet from get-
ting beyond Fort Constantine ; for bad not this step
been adopted the allied fleet would have been in com-
plete possession of the town, and would bare had nothing
to overcome except the batteries at the mouth of the
harbour, nhich, comparatively speaking, would not have
been a very difficult task.
We have a view of where the enemy crossed over on
evacuating the South side to the North. In the north
of Sebastopol on the height there is a tremendous for-
tress, arreel with the most powerful metal ; but appa-
rently the place is not suited to lodge a large army, and
one w mid not be surprised, to argue from this fact, tat at
the Russians were now retreating towards Perekop.
We have only touched upon the salient points of
this model ; indeed our writing about it more minutely
could give no idea of Sebastopol compared to the living
palpable features which are presented by the model
itself.

We should observe that the lecturer who explains the
nature of the model and points out the several objects
which it presents, gives an added interest to the exhibi-
tion by the scholarlike intelligence and accurate know-
ledge of all the events of the war which he brings to
bear in his task ; and the visitor comes away with so
vivid a picture of the whole place that he could make a
drawing of it from memory.