24 SIR WILLIAM FLOWER 



keep up a constant cannonading at us, doing very little damage, 

 however. I am very glad to hear that all the inhabitants appear 

 to have left the town, and as we are going to attack them only 

 on one side (the south), the Russian soldiers will have a back 

 door to escape at ; and if they do it early they will save a good 

 deal of trouble both to themselves and to us. . . . 



Camp, Heights above Sebastopol, 

 Sunday^ October 22, 1854. 



Dearest Mother — I have just received your letter of the 

 22nd ult. You describe the home with the kettle on the 

 hearth and you wonder what are my surroundings. They are 

 different indeed. I am writing lying on the ground in a tent, 

 also occupied by Drs. Lewins, Mills, and O'Dell, our only furni- 

 ture being a railway rug, a blanket, and a great-coat apiece. 

 The sun shining brightly outside, but instead of sounds of peace 

 and comfort there is "the cannon's deafening roar"; such an 

 eternal booming and banging, whirring of rockets and whistling 

 of balls through the air you can scarcely imagine. This is the 

 sixth day this has been going on without interruption, except a 

 partial lull at night. Our camp is beautifully situated on a hill 

 commanding a view of the whole town, and of our works too, 

 just out of range of the balls, so we see everything that goes on ; 

 and an extraordinary sight it is, one set of men behind a wall of 

 earth pounding away for a week at another set of men behind 

 another wall, who return the compliment vigorously, but appar- 

 ently with very little effect on either side — a curious way of 

 settling the affairs of the world and restoring peace to the 

 nations of Europe. ... As the Avon has not yet come up, we 

 are still totally destitute of baggage, even of a change of clothes, 

 so that we are about as comfortless as may well be imagined, 

 and heartily pray for the end of the campaign. It was very 

 annoying to see "The Fall of Sebastopol" announced in large 

 letters in the Times^ when here we are and Sebastopol looking 

 as lively as ever notwithstanding our six days' bombardment. 



I do not know what the result of the siege will be, but there 

 seems to be a great mistake somewhere, as every one believed 

 that it was to be the work of a few days, or even hours, that 



