| Description | "I can assure you that when I look at the four large sides of paper I have to write on before I can finish the letter I feel serious doubts as to finding news enough to fill them up. Our life here is not in the least what you would fancy active service to be, it is of the most monotonous kind ... Glad as I was to come into the country and see it no pleasure now would be greater than getting out of it again more particularly as there seems to be no chance of seeing a Russian to make a little excitement. We lost our only chance at Silistria the other day where we most certainly ought to have been to have helped to raise the siege and bothered the Russians in their retreat across the Danube. When it came to the point and we were actually to go up there it was found that the Commissariat was totally unprepared and that every horse and cart in the place had suddenly disappeared, so that we were quite fast and could not move one inch. We are now about 40 miles from Silistria, advancing very slowly and I suppose there is no hurry as I do not think the authorities French or English know exactly where to go, and as I understand that the Russians are naturally retreating beyond the Pruth I cannot see why we go up the country at all. The news has just arrived here that one hundred thousand Austrians are at and ready to march into the principalities if the Turkish Government ask at any moment. This I should hope would make the war a short one, tho' how we are to do Nicholas any harm except by taking Sebastopol, I cannot see. However I cannot say I have any wish to go there, as they say we most lose ten thousand men, which is no joke. I do not believe they have any intention of trying it at present. We had a visit from the Pasha the other day. He was really astonished at our troops as he had never seen European armies before except the Russians. He was particularly delighted with the Horse Artillery, who charged up to him and in a very few seconds their guns to pieces and galloped away without them leaving them in fifty pieces all strewn about. He said that every English soldier could beat six Russians and he only wished he commanded some at those odds. He is a very nice looking old man. I went to see Colonel Dixon the other day. His promotion has sent him home to his great delight I am sure. He went off two days ago in the Caradoc from Varna. We have just had intelligence that there has been a fight at a place called Montchack(?) at which six hundred Turks were killed and we lost 3 officers, two of whom were surveying the country and I suppose would join in the fun and by their dress were of course a mark for rifles at once. It is quite clear that the Turks on open ground cannot stand for a minute, but behind walls they fight wonderfully. I heard an account from an officer who was at Silistria nearly the whole of the siege. The way the Turks fought there was something surprising. In one of the outworks the Russians were so close that the defenders dare not show themselves and for fifty days the Turks held it, having dug holes to secure themselves from the bullets and grape shot which was incessantly poured in, waiting with fixed bayonets, and every time the Russians attempted to storm the breach, these fellows jumped up and drove them back. It was no doubt our arrival at Varna and immediately marching up the country that caused the Russians to retreat, as they did not know that we were in such a fix for means of transport, but still it would have been nice to have done it by force. The heat here is very much in the day time I think it would be almost too much for you. I am writing in my tent now at 9.4 which is pretty We never stir out from 9 O'clock in the morning until about 4 in the afternoon when it becomes cooler with generally a slight breeze. I have just been interrupted in my letter by a most tremendous thunder storm with such rain in two minutes the place was in a swim and I had to hold on tightly by the pegs to prevent the wind blowing the whole thing over. Your waterproof cloth is now covering everything and a most useful thing it is. If you fancy an open plain surrounded with base hills and a small lake at one end with a little village at the other and a few little white spots in the middle, where our camp is, you have our present house at once [I hope George enjoyed Ascot, it would be quite new to her and of course she would be the admiration of all. There is always good fun at Chelford and many parties. I suppose this letter will find you at the sea somewhere. I am very glad Regie has passed his degree. The question is will he take orders afterwards. I have not heard from him yet. I can fancy that the damp has affected the organ in the Church but do not get a new Bellow or anything of that sort as there is no occasion. A little leather and ½ an horn (?) would remedy all the mischief. We do not know where we shall winter yet. I hope it may be England as we are all sick of this business. I do not think anything would induce one to stop here another moment. You can buy a lamp here for 3 shillings and a Turkey for 10 pence, cheap enough but what is the use of them if you cannot cook them. P.S. Do not let this letter go into strange hands as I am afraid some of them do. They are only meant for your reading." |