[4] I have since learned that this gentleman during the campaign did so much good, and was so earnest in his endeavours to relieve the sufferings of the wounded at the battle of Inkermann, the allied as well as the Russian troops, that I intend to devote a page of this work to him, and also mention the names of the generals and others who spoke in such high terms of his exertions.
[5] I had bought a cash-belt, but upon trying it, on the point of our departure, I found it too short. This circumstance caused me to place everything in my pocket-book.
[6] That his Majesty was going early in March to the Crimea I can assert as a positive fact. Having met with many unbelievers on this subject in the Crimea is the cause of my relating this anecdote; and no doubt nothing but the following unexpected news could have prevented his majesty from following out his determination.
[7] A magnificent palace, dedicated to the Empress Eugénie, designed by the Emperor, is now in course of erection near the spot.
[8] This remark may probably come to the notice of his friends, and lead to a monument being erected to his memory, which, no doubt, he well deserves.
[9] I earnestly recommend the adoption of this plan in every public institution, civil or military. For example, put in the caldron, which we will suppose holds fifty gallons, so much water, so many pounds of meat, vegetables, salt, pepper, and sugar; add the barley, light the fire; stir now and then with a long wooden spaddle to prevent the barley sticking at the bottom of the caldron; when boiling, reduce the fire. Simmer gently two and a half hours, if mutton is used; if beef, three hours. Never skim it, only take the fat off, if any, which use for other purposes, or instead of butter (see Hospital receipt in [Addenda]). If two or more boilers are required, the quantities given in the scale only need increasing.
[10] If I dwell so minutely upon these apparently frivolous details, it is only because I wish to show that I did not introduce anything until it had first met with the approval of the medical gentlemen.
[11] I believe I am correct in stating that, in the French army, one soldier has to cook for a squad of sixteen men, while in camp: and that he has charge of two canteen kettles. I always saw five or six men cooking for a company in each kitchen; there were ten kitchens to a regiment of ten companies. This the soldiers told me themselves.
I make this remark to corroborate what I afterwards said in Paris before several French officers who contradicted me, but who, I believe, were not in the Crimean war. They stated that they only had two cooks to one company while campaigning. Upon making inquiries of a corporal who had charge of that department in his regiment while in the Crimea, he assured me that it was one man to each kettle, and not one to two—afterwards divided into two messes, forming a squad of nine or ten men, which would be equal to one hundred men to a regiment of one thousand in strength, instead of eight, as I at first calculated, or about ten squads to a company. While in barracks, comparatively speaking, it only requires a few men per regiment.
[12] If I have here related this anecdote, it is with the intention of showing the effect produced by the report upon all engaged in the hospitals, who felt that a gentleman of that age, though very capable, might, with his antique notions, upset what was then going on so well.