This peaceful and romantic scene contrasts forcibly and naturally with the preceding view, which represents a large portion of the same ground, serving as the theatre of one of those sanguinary struggles in which the admiration, roused by the most exquisite beauties of nature, is for a while suspended by the absorbing interest attaching to the actors in so terrible a tragedy.
Following the course of the Tchernaya from the village of Tchergoun on the right of the picture, the spectator reaches the nearer of the two hills occupied by the Sardinian outposts on the morning of the 16th August. Immediately behind this is the bridge by which the aqueduct crosses the river, surmounted by a rising ground, on which a body of Russians, independent of those who attacked the Traktir l^ridge, was directed, with the intention of taking the French position in flank. The Traktir Bridge is the last one visible in this direction. From this point the river winds in a course whose true direction is nearly due north, to the bold and picturesque gorge of Inkermann, through which it empties itself into the harbour of Sebastopol. A battery which is visible cresting the left Inkermann heights is that of the Champ de
I o u.
BALAKLAVA.
Bataille, constructed by the French subsequently to the 5th November, 1854. In the extreme distance is the plateau occupied by the Kussians, Khutor Mackenzie being just indicated on the ridge, nearly in the centre of the picture, to the right of the telegraph. From this point the Mackenzie Farm road may be traced along the heights, winding down the plain, which it reaches at a point beyond the more distant Sardinian redoubt. In the plain below, and a little to the left of Khutor Mackenzie, is a village, near to which is a small mamelon, on which the advanced cavalry picket of the Sardinians was posted. The foreground is occupied by two or three groups of Sardinian officers of the line, and bersaf/lieri, or sharpshooters— the latter are easily to be distinguished by their picturesque-looking hats, ornamented with plumes of cocks' feathers.
The valley of the Tchernaya is remarkable for its luxuriant verdure, and for the numerous and beautiful wild flowers which in spring burst forth on all sides in the most lavish profusion: whilst at intervals clumps of trees, principally the prickly-leaved ash, relieve the eye and diversify the landscape. That part of the valley which surrounds Tchergoun is preferred by Clarke even to the boasted scenery of the valley of Baidar. Here, surrounded by tall poplars, is a very singular-looking polygonal tower, covered by a dome, which was supposed by that accurate and entertaining traveller to have been built as a place of refuge for the inhabitants of the village, at a time when the Black Sea swarmed with corsairs, who invaded the coasts, and ransacked the peaceful valleys of the Crimea.
PLATE LVI.
BALAKLAVA,
Shewing the State of the Quays and the Shipping in May, 1855.
This drawing may be taken as a pendant to the one entitled " Balaklava, looking towards the Sea," and, independent of its great artistic merit, is valuable as paying an impartial and unanswerable tribute to the memory of the late lamented Admiral Boxer, an officer whose devoted and unremitting exertions for the public service could not protect him from the detraction with which at one period almost every person holding a post of responsibility in the Crimea was visited. The admirable order and arrangements of the harbour, whereby so many vessels of the largest size were accommodated within its narrow limits, without crowding or confusion, and a clear gangway maintained for boats going from ship to ship, or vessels entering and departing; the water, which, in the earliest days of the occupation threatened to become more foul than the Thames, and more noxious than a cess-pool, so scrupulously preserved from impurity that it almost resembled an inland lake; the substantial and ample quays, patiently and laboriously constructed with stone, procured by blasting from the solid rock — all these vast and important improvements were due to the unwearying activity and the constant personal supervision of that faithful and conscientious servant of the public, who, like
THE SEAT Oi' WAK
SO many of his fellow-labourers, sacrificed his life in the discharge of his duty to a country, whose ingratitude, the rickety offspring of imijatience and misrepresentation, was not destined long to survive its parents. Without favour, affectation, or exaggeration, Mr. Simpson tells the plain, unvarnished tale of whose truth he was an eye-witness: and this, the proudest monument which could be raised to the memory of Admiral Boxer, appeals with an equal force of vindication to the candid judgment of friend and foe. Si monumentum rcqitiris, circumspice.
PLATE LVII.