=The Crimean Medals.=--In December 1854 Queen Victoria commanded that a medal bearing the word "CRIMEA" should be struck, and that bars for the ALMA and INKERMANN ("the soldiers' battle") should be awarded to those who had taken part in the battles; but the world had wondered at the "death-ride" of the Light Brigade--on October 29th, 1854--and so no one was surprised when, in February 1855, a clasp for BALAKLAVA was granted to those who rode so bravely into the jaws of death, and, wonder of wonders, came out again; likewise to the Heavy Brigade and to the regiments engaged in the vicinity. The bar for SEBASTOPOL was added to the list in October 1855, so that the four-bar medal illustrated is a complete record of one of the greatest of modern wars, significant because of the fact that we fought shoulder to shoulder with our old adversaries the French, and side by side with the Turks and Sardinians against the Russian Army. The medal, designed by W. Wyon, represents on the reverse a Roman warrior with a flying figure of Victory crowning him with a laurel wreath; to the right of the figure is the word CRIMEA arranged perpendicularly. The obverse is the same as that on the Peninsular and India General Service medals. The bars are the most ornate of the whole series given with British medals. A special bar for AZOFF was given to the Navy. The suspender is of a very appropriate character, suggesting a palm wreath issuing from a conventional cusp. The ribbon is of pale blue with yellow edges, and, be it noted, the ribbon for the Baltic medal--illustrated facing page 296--granted to sailors and a few marines, is yellow, with pale-blue edges. The Baltic medals were all issued unnamed, as were also the Crimean; but some recipients of the latter had their name and regiment engraved privately. Others were officially named later, with the same stamps as were used for the Army General Service and early Kaffir War medals, in square Roman capitals. Five bars in all were issued, but four is the greatest number awarded with any medal. The bars should read upward from the medal as follows: Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, Sebastopol, but a number of the medals were issued without the bars being fixed, and the order is consequently sometimes found to be inaccurate; care should therefore be taken to verify the record of the person named on the medal. Many medals were issued before the grant of the bar for Sebastopol at the end of October 1855, and many exist without this bar, although all who took part in the battles of Balaklava and Inkermann were entitled to it. The troops who landed in the Crimea after September 9th, 1855, the day Sebastopol fell, were not entitled to the medal unless they had been engaged against the enemy after that date.