We made the castles of Europe and Asia (Dardanelles) by eleven, but also reached Constantinople this morn in a thick and heavy rain, through which the Sophia, Sulieman, the Seven Towers, the walls, and the Golden Horn looked like a bad daguerrotype washed out. We have not yet heard what the Embassy or Military Hospital have done for us, nor received our orders. Bad news from Balaclava. You will hear the awful wreck of our poor cavalry, 400 wounded, arriving _at this moment_ for us to nurse. We have just built another hospital at the Dardanelles. You will want to know about our crew. One has turned out ill, others will do. (_Later_) Just starting for Scutari. We are to be housed in the Hospital this very afternoon. Everybody is most kind. The fresh wounded are, I believe, to be placed under our care. They are landing them now. The Hospital, to which Miss Nightingale refers, was to be the chief scene of her labours for the next six months, and a few particulars about it and other hospitals, in which the nursing was under her superintendence, must be given in order to make future proceedings intelligible. The principal hospitals of the British army during the Crimean War--four in number--were at Scutari (or in its immediate neighbourhood), the suburb of mournful beauty which looks across to Constantinople from the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus. The first hospital to be established was in the Turkish Military Hospital. This was made over to the British in May 1854, and was called by them _The General Hospital_. Having been originally designed for a hospital, and being given up to the English partially fitted, it was, wrote Miss Nightingale, "reduced to good order early, by the unwearied efforts of the first-class Staff Surgeon in introducing a good working system. It was then maintained in excellent condition till the close of the war."[83] It had accommodation for 1000 patients, but the Battle of the Alma showed that much larger accommodation would be wanted. [83] _Statement_, p. 13 _n._