The British Expedition to the CrimeaRussell, William Howard, Sir
History
The British Expedition to the Crimea
Russell, William Howard, Sir
Crimean War, 1853-1856
Varna is built on a slightly elevated bank of sand on the verge
of the sea, of such varying height that in some places the base of the
wall around it is on a level with the water, and at others stand twenty
or thirty feet above it. Below this bank are a series of plains inland,
which spread all round the town till they are lost in the hills, which,
dipping into the sea in an abrupt promontory on the north-east side,
rise in terraces to the height of 700 or 800 feet at the distance of
three miles from the town, and stretch away to the westward to meet the
corresponding chain of hills on the southern extremities of the bay,
thus enclosing the lake and plains between in a sort of natural wall,
which is like all the rest of the country, covered with brushwood and
small trees. A stone wall of ten feet high, painted white, and
loopholed, is built all round the place; and some detached batteries,
well provided with heavy guns, but not of much pretension as works of
defence, have been erected in advance of the walls on the land side. On
the sea-face four batteries are erected provided with heavy guns
also--two of them of earthwork and gabions, the other two built with
stone parapets and embrasures. Peering above these walls, in an
irregular jungle of red-tiled roofs, are the houses of the place, with
a few minarets towering from the mosques above them. The angles of the
work are irregular, but in most instances the walls are so constructed
as to admit of a fair amount of flanking fire on an assaulting force.
Nevertheless, a portion of the inner side of the bay, and other parts
are equally accessible to the fire of batteries on the trifling hillocks
around the town. The houses of the town are built of wood; it contains
about 12,000 or 14,000 inhabitants, but there is more bustle, and
animation, and life in the smallest hamlet in Dorsetshire, than here,
unless one goes down to the landing place, or visits the bazaar, where
the inhabitants flock for pleasure or business.
General Canrobert and staff reached Varna on the morning of the 2nd of
June. He landed about mid-day, and after an extempore levee of the
French officers on the beach, proceeded to call on Sir George Brown. The
first thing they did when their Sappers arrived at Varna, before the
English came up, was to break a gateway through the town wall, on its
sea-face, to allow troops and provisions to be landed and sent off
without a long detour. This proceeding drove the Pasha of the place
almost deranged, and he died soon afterwards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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