Soyer's Culinary Campaign: Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War.: With The Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions

perhaps, be pardoned for being vain enough to quote the gallant General’s remark prior to his leaving my kitchen, which remark encouraged me so much in the prosecution of my labours. It was thus:-- “Monsieur Soyer, Miss Nightingale’s name and your own will be for ever associated in the archives of this memorable war.” CHAPTER XIII. DEPARTURE FOR THE CRIMEA. Departure--Bosphorus gulls--The Sultan afloat--The _Robert Lowe_--Splendid scene--Godfrey Tower--Sweet Waters of Asia--Therapia--Buyukderé--The Giant’s Mountain--The Euxine--Naval cookery--Miss Nightingale and the sick soldier--Divine service at sea--Conversation with Miss Nightingale--Plans for the future--Dinner on board the _Robert Lowe_--A travelling gentleman--P. M. and the looking-glass, an anecdote--A mutiny--The prison--View of the Russian coast--Bay of Balaklava--The harbour--Cossack Bay--P. M.’s horror--At anchor--Moored for the night. The 2nd of May was the day on which we set sail for the Crimea. It was indeed a lovely day--the air was redolent with perfume and freshness; not a ripple seemed to ruffle the surface of the mighty Bosphorus, whose ever-foaming current appeared to have buried itself deep in the bed of that turbulent stream. A few caiques were seen here and there swiftly gliding over its calm surface, occasionally disturbed by the dipping of the sea-gulls. The Bosphorus gulls have a peculiar chalky colour, differing from that of the ocean bird, which circumstance, no doubt, caused Lord Byron, in his beautiful poem, to call them the ghosts of the Houris, launched to eternity in the depths of that solemn flood of romance, poetical love, and tragic reminiscence. While skimming its surface they darted now and then with the rapidity of lightning down upon a rash little denizen of the deep who had ventured too near the surface of the limpid element to bask in the warmth of the generous rays of that friend of the whole world, the sun. All was peace, love, and repose. A vaporous golden tint seemed to envelope the world-famed city of Constantinople--its mosques, forests of minarets, Golden Horn, and European and Asiatic shores, with the Oriental atmosphere so peculiar to the Bosphorus. Nature seemed to be in its most sublime humour; heaven, earth, and ocean