se of the piles of
sandwiches, bread, cheese, pies, and tarts, which had been prepared
for the hungry spectators. At last, some officers, who expected me
long before, came to look after me, and by their aid we reached the
course.

I was better off at the next meeting, for a kind-hearted Major of
Artillery provided me with a small bell-tent that was very useful, and
enabled me to keep my stores out of reach of the light-fingered
gentry, who were as busy in the Crimea as at Epsom or Hampton Court.
Over this tent waved the flag of the British Hotel, but, during the
day, it was struck, for an accident happening to one Captain D----, he
was brought to my tent insensible, where I quickly improvised a couch
of some straw, covered with the Union Jack, and brought him round. I
mention this trifle to show how ready of contrivance a little
campaigning causes one to become. I had several patients in
consequence of accidents at the races. Nor was I altogether free from
accidents myself. On the occasion of the races by the Tchernaya, after
the armistice, my cart, on turning a sudden bend in the steep track,
upset, and the crates, containing plates and dishes, rolled over and
over until their contents were completely broken up; so that I was
reduced to hand about sandwiches, etc., on broken pieces of
earthenware and scraps of paper. I saved some glasses, but not many,
and some of the officers were obliged to drink out of stiff paper
twisted into funnel-shaped glasses.

It was astonishing how well the managers of these Crimean races had
contrived to imitate the old familiar scenes at home. You might well
wonder where the racing saddles and boots, and silk caps and jackets
had come from; but our connection with England was very different to
what it had been when I first came to the Crimea, and many a wife and
sister's fingers had been busy making the racing gear for the Crimea
meetings. And in order that the course should still more closely
resemble Ascot or Epsom, some soldiers blackened their faces and came
out as Ethiopian serenaders admirably, although it would puzzle the
most ingenious to guess where they got their wigs and banjoes from. I
caught one of them behind my tent in the act of knocking off the neck
of a bottle of champagne, and, paralysed by the wine's hasty exit, the
only excuse he offered was, that he wanted to know if the officers'
luxury was better than rum.

A few weeks before Christmas, happened that fearful exp