The British Expedition to the CrimeaRussell, William Howard, Sir
History
The British Expedition to the Crimea
Russell, William Howard, Sir
Crimean War, 1853-1856
The bulk of the convoy arrived and cast anchor in Varna Bay before the
evening, and the disembarkation of the troops was conducted with such
admirable celerity, that they were landed as fast as the vessels came
in. Large boats had been provided for the purpose, and the French and
English men-of-war lent their launches and cutters to tow and carry, in
addition to those furnished by the merchantmen. The Rifles marched off
to their temporary camp under canvas, about a mile away. The 88th
Connaught Rangers followed, and on our arrival, the bay was alive with
boats full of red-coats. The various regiments cheered tremendously as
vessel after vessel arrived, but they met with no response from the
Turkish troops.
With difficulty I succeeded in getting a very poor lodging in the house
of an Armenian dragoman, who forces himself on the staff of the English
consulate, and, in company with several officers, remained there for
several days, living and eating after the Armenian fashion by day, and
"pigging" in some very lively "divans" at night, till my horses and
servants arrived, when I proceeded to Aladyn. In consequence of
instructions from home, Mr. Filder gave orders for the issue of rations
for self, servants, and horses.
[Sidenote: BULGARIAN CART-DRIVERS.]
Varna is such a town as only could have been devised by a nomadic race
aping the habits of civilized nations. If the lanes are not so
ill-paved, so rugged, and so painful to the pedestrian as those of
Gallipoli; if they are not so crooked and jagged and tortuous; if they
are not so complicated and fantastically devious, it is only because
nature has set the efforts of man at defiance, and has forbidden the
Turk to render a town built upon a surface nearly level as unpleasant to
perambulate as one founded on a hill-side. After a course of 100
miles,--by shores which remind you, when they can be seen through fogs
and vapours, of the coast of Devonshire, and which stretch away on the
western side of the Black Sea in undulating folds of greensward rising
one above the other, or swell into hilly peaks, all covered with fine
verdure, and natural plantations of the densest foliage, so that the
scenery has a park-like and cultivated air, which is only belied by the
search of the telescope,--the vessel bound to Varna rounds a promontory
of moderate height on the left, and passing by an earthen fort perched
on the summit, anchors in a semicircular bay about a mile and a half in
length and two miles across, on the northern side of which is situated
the town, so well known by its important relations with the history of
the struggles between Russia and the Porte, and by its siege in 1829.
The bay shoals up to the beach, at the apex of the semicircle formed by
its shores, and the land is so low at that point that the fresh waters
from the neighbouring hills form a large lake, which extends for many
miles through the marsh lands and plains which run westward towards
Shumla.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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