This description of a corridor will apply, making proper allowances for differences of detail, to the ward which is the subject of this drawing. One figure which the artist has introduced into it will be recognised with feelings of unutterable admiration and respect by many now in England, who beheld the original engaged in her brave and devoted labour of love.
They will recall her as they saw her in the days gone by, when her presence cheered the bed of pain and sickness, and made its light penetrate even the thick darkness of the valley of the shadow of death; when men, wasted by disease and fevered with wounds, watched for her gentle ministrations and her words of consolation, even as they who watch for the morning; when she walked in the beauty of the holiest charity and love through scenes of horror and of anguish which thrilled hearts for which battle had no terrors, and when the rough soldier, in his untaught but noble chivalry, kissed her shadow on the wall as she passed along. Long may England possess such daughters to tend such sons!
PLATE LXXV.
CHURCH OF ST. PETER AND
In looking at Sebastopol from the heights, one of the principal objects which attracted the attention of the spectator was a very beautiful classic building erected on a commanding site. By the use of a glass its details were found to be Grecian-Doric, and that the Temple of Theseus, at Athens, had been the model upon which it had been designed. It was very pleasantly surrounded with small trees and shrubs; and two elegant poplars, which are very favourite trees with the Russians, grew up in graceful harmony with its pillars. Many were the inquiries as to what this building was, and numerous were the purposes ascribed to it. For a long time it was the " military clubhouse," then it was "the public library," "the theatre," and "the hospital"; but, after entering the town, one glance at the interior of the building convinced you of the inaccuracy of all these suppositions — the arrangements, so peculiar to the Greek Church, left no doubt as to the character of the edifice. Since the taking of the place it has been burnt, and, instead of the handsome church, we have now a very picturesque ruin. In this view you are looking north — on the one side of the church you get a peep of the Public Library, on the other is the Admiralty and the unfinished church with the dome and the rear of Fort Nicholas, beyond which you get a glimpse of the north side of the harbour.
THE EAST.
It may not be amiss here to say a few words descriptive of the architecture generally of Sebastopol. With one or two exceptions, all the public buildings were after the Greek style. The large Marine Barracks, or " White Buildings," were very pure Greek; there were one or two exceptions to the style, the principal of which was the unfinished church above mentioned. A Western architect would find some difficulty in defining to what style it belonged; the first impression might be that it was Gothic, but its dome was Moorish, and its arches were of a similar character, whilst it had Byzantine capitals, Greek architraves and pediments, making altogether a strange architectural medley, but at the same time not an unpleasant-looking