xlvi BIOGKAPUICAL SKETCU. 



The departure of the troops was approaching. Lord Arthur formed the idea of returning 

 to England through Russia, and in the interval made arrangements to try to effect an exchange 

 into a line regiment in India or the Cape. As long as the division was complete he declined to 

 take leave ; but he now contemplated a start for the interior of the country. The war had closed too 

 soon to confer any benefit upon him, except, perhaps, that he had served ten months towards the 

 completion of the three years necessary to give him the rank of full Colonel, and that he had received 

 the Medal and Clasp for Sebastopol, the Sardinian War Medal, the Turkish War Medal, and the 

 Medjidie. Since he landed he had not been absent from duty a day, except when suffering from 

 cholera. At the close of May the 56th regiment had been taken away from his division ; the 9th 

 and 13th had already embarked, and the 30th was in daily expectation of orders ; the Guards alone 

 remained. He found himself obliged eventually to relinquish his grand Russian tour ; but he 

 carried out his project of a run through the interior of the Crimea, and accomplished the ascent 

 of the " Chatar Dagh." The summit was gained with difficulty, but it was enveloped in a sulky 

 mist. He waited for two hours, and then, giving it up as a bad job, descended ; but scarcely 

 had the bottom been reached when out burst the sun in full splendour, driving the rolling mist 

 before it. Without losing time in vain regrets, he recommenced the ascent, and was rewarded by 

 a glorious view. 



We have now exhausted the series of letters addressed to his father and other members of 

 his family by Lord Arthur Hay with unfailing regularity during the siege. It is not for a 

 moment claimed that they throw any new or startling light upon what has been so familiar to the 

 world for nearly a quarter of a century ; but it is of interest to record the impressions the conduct 

 of the war made upon the mind of one qualified to criticize military operations, whose regard for 

 stern truth was proverbial. It must occur to those who peruse the letters that the writer rarely 

 pronounced his opinion on any matter connected with the siege without first considering the 

 bearings of the case with calmness. He did not hesitate to accord praise when it was merited, 

 but at the same time he never shrunk from finding fault when it was deserved. He often 

 saw high commands entrusted to men he knew to be incompetent ; but he only spoke of such 

 errors with regret as tending to prolong the struggle. He never spared himself when duty was 

 in question. His great anxiety was for active work ; his great punishment was enforced 

 idleness. Perhaps the best testimony to his character and capacity as an officer is to be found 

 in the following letter from the veteran chief who survives him, which was written to his Avidow 

 very recently in answer to a request that he would let her have any letters of her deceased 

 husband which he might possess, for the jmrpose of this mcinoir. Having informed Lady 

 Tweeddale that he had always made a point of destroying letters, the writer says : — 



" 1 had not lived on intimacy with Arthur before he was appointed A. A. G. to the division I 



