| Description | Kinglake was the historian of the Crimean War. To Colonel Hibbert thanking him for his co-operation in supplying details of actions in which he was engaged. "I shall be grateful to you for all that you may be pleased to send me on the subject of the war, more especially about Inkerman and the 18th of June 1855; and I trust you will not readily omit any circumstances from an apprehension of their not being sufficiently important; for in the course of the somewhat difficult task which I have undertaken I often find that I gain material enlightenment from a knowledge of facts which at first might appear almost trivial. Your narration of what you came to know of the engagement of the 26th (not 25th) of October is beautifully clearand will be of important service to me as showing accurately the dispositions of the pickets and the incident of the caves is curious, interesting and new.....I have lately returned from the Crimea (whither I went in order to study the ground) and I now understand what no words could accurately convey to me, I mean the peculiarity of the position occupied by the troops of General Codrington brigade in reference to the Inkerman ridge. The Russian authorities were most kind and attentive in facilitating my surveys and by a great stroke of good fortune General Todleben himself came and went over the defences with me." 28 Hyde Park Place, Marble Arch, London W. |