The spot selected for the Scutari Monument about to be erected, though not in the centre of the Cemetery, will be a lasting national testimonial to the memory of the brave, as it will form a landmark which cannot fail to be seen from the Sea of Marmora, Pera, Stamboul, the Isles des Princes, Kadikoi, &c. &c. The tombstones, though not numerous, are well executed and in good preservation: amongst them may be mentioned those of the Honourable Grey Neville, 5th Dragoon Guards, and Henry Neville, Grenadier Guards, sons of Lord Braybrooke, surviving each other only six days—both wounded at Inkermann. There is also a memento to William Frederic Viscount Chewton, son of the Earl of Waldegrave, killed at Alma, September 20th, 1854.
The wooden cavalry barracks present a most desolate heap of ruins and destruction, and are about to be removed.
We were now obliged to return through the grand Champ des Morts, the vast and mournful spot where millions of souls have rested for centuries in the dark shade of the cypress forest; and I can assure you, Mr. Editor, that the day was anything but one of gaiety, but, on the contrary, very solemn though interesting.
With the highest consideration, I have the honour to remain, &c.
Our next stay was at Malta, where I received a most gratifying reception from the governor, military and civil authorities, as well as from the gentlemen of the press. A stay of ten days in that city of ancient chivalry will in my memory form an historical page of most agreeable reminiscences, and could I have accepted all the dinners offered me by the officers of various regiments, whom I had met in the Crimea, three months would hardly have sufficed in fulfilling the invitations. To Colonel Haley of the 47th, I cannot but feel grateful for the magnificent banquet he gave on the occasion, when about fifty of the heads of the army there stationed sat around the festive board, and at which our epicurean soldier distinguished himself by concocting a most excellent potage aux crevettes, and two dressed fish, peculiar to Malta.[32]
Our next stay was at Marseilles, and being accompanied by Mr. Robertson, the celebrated photographist of Constantinople, we once more degustated the celebrated bouillabaisse. We afterwards took a stroll through the part of France so lately inundated, where we met the celebrated Horace Vernet; after a few hours at Lyons, we reached Paris the same evening, which to our astonished eyes displayed quite a new aspect, with her Rivoli rods of fire, magnificent palaces, and stupendous streets. Above two years had elapsed since my last visit, and had created, under the guidance of the imperial wand of Napoleon III., these wonders. After gazing with amazement over that far-famed city, I retired to my native place, Meaux en Brie, the birthplace of Bossuet, which I had not visited for upwards of twenty-six years, having only a local interest in the place, I being the last of my family left. During the progress of this work, when returning to Paris, I had, after an application, the honour of an interview with his Imperial Majesty the Emperor, who took a most vivid interest in the descriptive narrative I gave him of my Eastern mission, and entered into the most minute details on hospital and camp cookery, &c. Our interview took place at the Chateau des Tuileries, and lasted about half an hour; and after submitting and explaining to his Imperial Majesty a model of my field-stove, he desired to have an ordinary one forwarded from London, to serve as a model for his army. His Majesty also took a vivid interest in the perusal of my simple hospital dietary and army receipts. The affability of his Majesty towards me in alluding to his high appreciation of my services in the East, more than repays me for my very humble duties.[33]
In accordance with my aforementioned promise, having already gathered so much matter for this narrative work, I find myself compelled to reserve what I have so carefully collected for another work, already mentioned in a note at the foot of preceding page, in which I shall insert only the dishes most renowned in each country, and thus render them practical everywhere. I have, during my six months’ travels since leaving the Crimea, personally visited and become acquainted with the cookery of Russia, Turkey, Germany, Greece, Malta, Italy, and France, also that of its great provincial towns—of the latter till now unknown to me. They all enjoy a high reputation for peculiar dishes so much esteemed by the real gourmet. With Strasbourg, my culinary peregrinations closed. I addressed to the local paper of that antique and interesting city the following letter respecting the production of its delicious foies gras and erroneous Inquisitional Romance:—
Article published in the “Courier du Bas Rhin.”
It has been said and generally credited in England and in France, that the enormous development of the fat livers is obtained by a system of torture inflicted by the Strasburghers upon the unfortunate goose, the protecting bird of the Capitol. A certain English publication states, “they are confined in dark cellars, nailed to the floor by the feet before a slow fire which is kept constantly burning, and they are then crammed to repletion, so much so that the first cramming keeps the digestive organs in action for weeks. This system of torture, worthy of the mysteries of the Spanish Inquisition, dries up the frame of the poor bird to a skeleton, and thus the liver acquires its enormous development under the combined influence of cramming, want of exercise, and the constant slow heat.”
“I am happy,” says Monsieur Soyer, “to show there is no truth in this statement, and, from personal observation while at Strasbourg, to be able to contradict those absurd fables so long credited in England. I can certify that the geese intended for fattening are allowed to roam about the farms and grass-fields in Alsace till they are seven or eight months old, kept in flocks, and well watched and tended.