Though the weather was fine overhead, there was about ten inches of mud in the unpaved and uneven streets of Balaklava, which caused us to be half-an-hour going a distance that might, under ordinary circumstances, have been accomplished in ten minutes. On our arrival at the General Hospital, we were received by Miss Wear, the matron of the hospital, “under Miss Nightingale.” Miss Nightingale requested me to try and find Doctor Henderson, who unluckily, as we thought through a mistake, was waiting for us at the Sanatorium on the Genoese heights. In his absence, Miss Wear and the medical superintendent showed us over the wards, which were crammed full of sick and wounded. We then visited the general kitchen, which, though rather short of cooking utensils and accommodation, was kept tolerably clean. A civilian cook was engaged making rather good soup, but it had boiled too fast. At all events, it was a satisfaction to me to find some one willing to improve, as he observed. Promising to send him my receipts and have his kitchen comfortably arranged, and to supply him with a few tin utensils, we left him. We next went to the extra-diet kitchen, which was anything but a comfortable one, though Mrs. Davis, who made the extra diets, managed pretty well, by dint of perseverance and a deal of trouble. She was compelled to use preserved soups, which are not wholesome for delicate or weak stomachs, and are, moreover, generally served up too strong, as scarcely any one who uses them will take the trouble to read the instructions pasted upon each case, and add the proper quantity of water required. These are at all times better adapted for persons in health than for the sick, always excepting the essence of beef (see Hospital Diets), which, when properly seasoned according to my receipt, is really very good. I made a list of what apparatus and kitchen utensils were required, and then we left Miss Davis, much pleased with Miss Nightingale’s kind remarks, my approbation of her services, and, above all, very proud of having, two days before, been visited and highly complimented by Lady Stratford de Redcliffe and the other ladies. Lord Stratford and family had passed us at sea the day before, on their return to Constantinople, on board the _Caradoc_; a circumstance I much regretted, as I had anticipated the pleasure of accompanying Lord and Lady de Redcliffe to the various camp and hospital kitchens. We then left the General Hospital, and ascended to the Sanatorium by a narrow and almost perpendicular road cut out of the rock; in consequence of the ups and downs, it took us full three-quarters of an hour to accomplish the distance, and very uncomfortably too, the roads being so dirty. The view during the ascent is transcendently beautiful and refreshing--the sight of the harbour beneath filled with ships, the chain of rocky mountains, distant view of the Guards’ camp, the village of Kadikoi, its