THE BRITISH HOTEL--DOMESTIC DIFFICULTIES--OUR
ENEMIES--THE RUSSIAN RATS--ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF A
CAT--LIGHT-FINGERED ZOUAVES--CRIMEAN THIEVES--POWDERING
A HORSE.
Summer was fairly advanced before the British Hotel was anything like
finished; indeed, it never was completed, and when we left the Hill, a
year later, it still wanted shutters. But long before that time Spring
Hill had gained a great reputation. Of course, I have nothing to do
with what occurred in the camp, although I could not help hearing a
great deal about it. Mismanagement and privation there might have
been, but my business was to make things right in my sphere, and
whatever confusion, and disorder existed elsewhere, comfort and order
were always to be found at Spring Hill. When there was no sun
elsewhere, some few gleams--so its grateful visitors said--always
seemed to have stayed behind, to cheer the weary soldiers that
gathered in the British Hotel. And, perhaps, as my kind friend _Punch_
said, after all these things had become pleasant memories of the past.
"The cold without gave a zest, no doubt,
To the welcome warmth within;
But her smile, good old soul, lent heat to the coal,
And power to the pannikin."
Let me, in a few words, describe the British Hotel. It was
acknowledged by all to be the most complete thing there. It cost no
less than L800. The buildings and yards took up at least an acre of
ground, and were as perfect as we could make them. The hotel and
storehouse consisted of a long iron room, with counters, closets, and
shelves; above it was another low room, used by us for storing our
goods, and above this floated a large union-jack. Attached to this
building was a little kitchen, not unlike a ship's caboose--all stoves
and shelves. In addition to the iron house were two wooden houses,
with sleeping apartments for myself and Mr. Day, out-houses for our
servants, a canteen for the soldiery, and a large enclosed yard for
our stock, full of stables, low huts, and sties. Everything, although
rough and unpolished, was comfortable and warm; and there was a
completeness about the whole which won general admiration. The reader
may judge of the manner in which we had stocked the interior of our
store from the remark, often repeated by the officers, that you might
get everything at Mother Seacole's, from an anchor down to a needle.
In addition, we had for our transport service four carts, and as many
horses and mules as could be kept from the thieves. To reckon upon
being in possession of these, at any future time, was impossible; we
have more than once seen a fair stud stabled at night-time, and on the
following morning been compelled to borrow cattle from the Land
Transport camp, to fetch our things up from Balaclava.
But it must not be supposed that my domestic difficulties came to an
end with the completion of the hotel. True, I was in a better position
to bear the Crimean cold and rain, but my other foes were as busy as
ever they had been on the beach at Balaclava. Thieves, biped and
quadruped, human and animal, troubled me more than ever; and perhaps
the most difficult to deal with were the least dangerous. The Crimean
rats, for instance, who had the appetites of London aldermen, and were
as little dainty as hungry schoolboys. Whether they had left
Sebastopol, guided by the instinct which leads their kindred in other
parts of the world to forsake sinking ships, or because the garrison
rations offended their palates, or whether they had patriotically
emigrated, to make war against the English larders, I do not pretend
to guess; but, whatever was their motive, it drew them in great
abundance to Spring Hill. They occasionally did us damage, in a single
night, to the tune of two or three pounds--wasting what they could not
devour. You could keep nothing sacred from their strong teeth. When
hard pressed they more than once attacked the live sheep; and at last
they went so far as to nibble one of our black cooks, Francis, who
slept among the flour barrels. On the following morning he came to me,
his eyes rolling angrily, and his white teeth gleaming, to show me a
mangled finger, which they had bitten, and ask me to dress it. He made
a great fuss; and a few mornings later he came in a violent passion
this time, and gave me instant notice to quit my service, although we
were paying him two pounds a week, with board and rations. This time
the rats had, it appeared, been bolder, and attacked his head, in a
spot where its natural armour, the wool, was thinnest, and the silly
fellow had a notion that the souls of the slain Russian soldiers had
entered the bodies of the rats, and made vengeful war upon their late
enemies. Driven to such an extremity, I made up my mind to scour the
camp, in search of a cat, and, after a long day's hunt, I came to the
conclusion that the tale of Whittington was by no means an improbable
one. Indeed, had a brisk young fellow with a cat, of even ordinary
skill in its profession, made their appearance at Spring Hill, I would
gladly have put them in the way--of laying the foundation, at
least--of a fortune. At last I found a benefactor, in the Guards'
camp, in Colonel D----, of the Coldstreams, who kindly promised me a
great pet, well known in the camp, and perhaps by some who may read
these pages, by the name of Pinkie. Pinkie was then helping a brother
officer to clear his hut, but on the following day a Guardsman brought
the noble fellow down. He lived in clover for a few days, but he had
an English cat-like attachment for his old house, and despite the
abundance of game, Pinkie soon stole away to his old master's
quarters, three miles off. More than once the men brought him back to
me, but the attractions of Spring Hill were never strong enough to
detain him long with me.
From the human thieves that surrounded Spring Hill I had to stand as
sharp a siege as the Russians had in that poor city against which we
heard the guns thundering daily; while the most cunning and desperate
sorties were often made upon the most exposed parts of my defences,
and sometimes with success. Scores of the keenest eyes and hundreds of
the sharpest fingers in the world were always ready to take advantage
of the least oversight. I had to keep two boys, whose chief occupation
was to watch the officers' horses, tied up to the doorposts of the
British Hotel. Before I adopted this safeguard, more than one officer
would leave his horse for a few minutes, and on his return find it
gone to the neighbourhood of the Naval Brigade, or the horse-fair at
Kamiesch. My old friends, the Zouaves, soon found me out at Spring
Hill, and the wiry, light-fingered, fighting-loving gentry spent much
of their leisure there. Those confounded trowsers of theirs offered
conveniences of stowage-room which they made rare use of. Nothing was
too small, and few things too unwieldy, to ride in them; like the
pockets of clown in a pantomime, they could accommodate a well-grown
baby or a pound of sausages equally well. I have a firm conviction
that they stuffed turkeys, geese, and fowls into them, and I
positively know that my only respectable teapot travelled off in the
same conveyance, while I detected one little fellow, who had tied them
down tight at his ankles, stowing away some pounds of tea and coffee
mixed. Some officers, who were present, cut the cords, and, holding up
the little scamp by the neck, shook his trowsers empty amid shouts of
laughter.
Our live stock, from the horses and mules down to the geese and fowls,
suffered terribly. Although we kept a sharp look-out by day, and paid
a man five shillings a night as watchman, our losses were very great.
During the time we were in the Crimea we lost over a score of horses,
four mules, eighty goats, many sheep, pigs, and poultry, by thieving
alone. We missed in a single night forty goats and seven sheep, and on
Mr. Day's going to head-quarters with intelligence of the disaster,
they told him that Lord Raglan had recently received forty sheep from
Asia, all of which had disappeared in the same manner. The geese,
turkeys, and fowls vanished by scores. We found out afterwards that
the watchman paid to guard the sheep, used to kill a few occasionally.
As he represented them to have died a natural death during the night,
he got permission to bury them, instead of which he sold them. King
Frost claimed his share of our stock too, and on one December night,
of the winter of 1855, killed no less than forty sheep. It is all very
well to smile at these things now, but at the time they were
heartrending enough, and helped, if they did not cause, the ruin which
eventually overtook the firm of Seacole and Day. The determination and
zeal which besiegers and besieged showed with respect to a poor pig,
which was quietly and unconsciously fattening in its sty, are worthy
of record.
Fresh pork, in the spring of 1855, was certainly one of those luxuries
not easily obtainable in that part of the Crimea to which the British
army was confined, and when it became known that Mother Seacole had
purchased a promising young porker from one of the ships in Balaclava,
and that, brave woman! she had formed the courageous resolution of
fattening it for her favourites, the excitement among the frequenters
of Spring Hill was very great. I could laugh heartily now, when I
think of the amount of persuasion and courting I stood out for before
I bound myself how its four legs were to be disposed of. I learnt more
at that time of the trials and privileges of authority than I am ever
likely to experience again. Upon my word, I think if the poor thing
had possessed as many legs as my editor tells me somebody called the
Hydra (with whom my readers are perhaps more familiar than I am) had
heads, I should have found candidates for them. As it was, the contest
for those I had to bestow was very keen, and the lucky individuals who
were favoured by me looked after their interests most carefully. One
of them, to render mistake or misunderstanding impossible, entered my
promise in my day-book. The reader will perhaps smile at the following
important memorandum in the gallant officer's writing:--
"Memorandum that Mrs. Seacole did this day, in the
presence of Major A---- and Lieutenant W----, promise
Captain H----, R.A., a leg of _the_ pig."
Now it was well known that many greedy eyes and fingers were directed
towards the plump fellow, and considerable interest was manifested in
the result of the struggle, "Mrs. Seacole _versus_ Thievery." I think
they had some confidence in me, and that I was the favourite; but
there was a large field against me, which found its backers also; and
many a bet was laughingly laid on the ultimate fate of the unconscious
porker.
I baffled many a knavish trick to gain possession of the fine fellow;
but, after all, I lost him in the middle of the day, when I thought
the boldest rogues would not have run the risk. The shouts and
laughter of some officers who were riding down from the front first
informed me of my loss. Up they rode, calling out--"Mother Seacole!
old lady! quick!--_the_ pig's gone!"
I rushed out, injured woman that I was, and saw it all at a glance.
But that my straw wide-awake was in the way, I could have torn my hair
in my vexation. I rushed to the sty, found the nest warm, and with
prompt decision prepared for speedy pursuit. Back I came to the
horsemen, calling out--"Off with you, my sons!--they can't have got
very far away yet. Do your best to save my bacon!"
Delighted with the fun, the horsemen dispersed, laughing and
shouting--"Stole away! hark away!" while I ran indoors, turned out all
my available body-guard, and started in pursuit also. Not half a mile
off we soon saw a horseman wave his cap; and starting off into a run,
came to a little hollow, where the poor panting animal and two Greek
thieves had been run down. The Provost-marshal took the latter in hand
willingly, and Piggy was brought home in triumph. But those who had
pork expectancies, hearing of the adventure, grew so seriously alarmed
at the narrow escape, that they petitioned me to run so desperate a
hazard no longer; and the poor thing was killed on the following day,
and distributed according to promise. A certain portion was reserved
for sausages, which, fried with mashed potatoes, were quite the rage
at the British Hotel for some days. Some pork was also sent to
head-quarters, with an account of the dangers we ran from thieves. It
drew the following kind acknowledgment from General B----:
"Head-Quarters.
"My dear Mrs. Seacole,--I am very much obliged to you
indeed for your pork. I have spoken to Colonel P---- as
to the police of your neighbourhood, and he will see
what arrangement can be made for the general protection
of that line of road. When the high-road is finished,
you will be better off. Let me know at the time of any
depredations that are committed, and we will try and
protect you.--I am, faithfully yours,
"M. L. B----."
For the truth was--although I can laugh at my fears now--I was often
most horribly frightened at Spring Hill; and there was cause for it
too. My washerwoman, who, with her family, lived not half a mile from
us, was with me one day, and carried off some things for the wash. On
the following morning I was horrified to learn that she, her father,
husband, and children--in all, seven--had been most foully murdered
during the night: only one of the whole family recovered from her
wounds, and lived to tell the tale. It created a great sensation at
the time, and caused me to pass many a sleepless night, for the
murderers were never discovered.
Whilst I am upon the subject of Crimean thievery, I may as well
exhaust it without paying any regard to the chronological order of my
reminiscences. I have before mentioned what I suffered from the
French. One day I caught one of our allies in my kitchen, robbing me
in the most ungrateful manner. He had met with an accident near Spring
Hill (I believe he belonged to a French regiment lent to assist the
English in road-making), and had been doctored by me; and now I found
him filling his pockets, before taking "French" leave of us. My black
man, Francis, pulled from his pockets a yet warm fowl, and other
provisions. We kicked him off the premises, and he found refuge with
some men of the Army Works Corps, who pitied him and gave him shelter.
He woke them in the middle of the night, laying hands rather clumsily
on everything that was removeable; and in the morning they brought him
to me, to ask what they should do with him. Unluckily for him, a
French officer of rank happened to be in the store, who, on hearing
our tale, packed him off to his regiment. I gathered from the
expression of the officer's face, and the dread legible upon the
culprit's, that it might be some considerable time before his itch for
breaking the eighth commandment could be again indulged in.
The trouble I underwent respecting a useful black mare, for which Mr.
Day had given thirty guineas, and which carried me beautifully, was
immense. Before it had been many weeks in our store it was
gone--whither, I failed to discover. Keeping my eyes wide open,
however, I saw "Angelina"--so I christened her--coming quietly down
the hill, carrying an elderly naval officer. I was ready to receive
the unconscious couple, and soon made my claim good. Of course, the
officer was not to blame. He had bought it of a sailor, who in his
turn had purchased the animal of a messmate, who of course had
obtained it from another, and so on; but eventually it returned to its
old quarters, where it only remained about a fortnight. I grew tired
of looking for Angelina, and had given her up, when one day she turned
up, in capital condition, in the possession of a French officer of
Chasseurs. But nothing I could say to the Frenchman would induce him
to take the view of the matter I wished, but had no right to enforce.
He had bought the horse at Kamiesch, and intended to keep it. We grew
hot at last; and our dispute drew out so large an audience that the
Frenchman took alarm, and tried to make off. I held on to Angelina
for a little while; but at last the mare broke away from me, as Tam o'
Shanter's Maggie did from the witches (I don't mean that she left me
even her tail), and vanished in a cloud of dust. It was the last I
ever saw of Angelina.
More than once the Crimean thievery reduced us to woeful straits. To a
Greek, returning to Constantinople, we entrusted (after the murder of
our washerwoman) two trunks, containing "things for the wash," which
he was to bring back as soon as possible. But neither upon Greek,
trunks, nor their contents did we ever set eyes again. It was a
serious loss. The best part of our table-cloths and other domestic
linen, all my clothes, except two suits, and all of Mr. Day's linen
vanished, and had to be replaced as best we could by fresh purchases
from Kamiesch and Kadikoi.
Perhaps the most ridiculous shift I was ever put to by the Crimean
thieves happened when we rose one morning and found the greater part
of our stud missing. I had, in the course of the day, urgent occasion
to ride over to the French camp on the Tchernaya; the only animal
available for my transport was an old grey mare, who had contracted
some equine disease of which I do not know the name, but which gave
her considerable resemblance to a dog suffering from the mange. Now,
go to the French camp I must; to borrow a horse was impossible, and
something must be done with the grey. Suddenly one of those happy
thoughts, which sometimes help us over our greatest difficulties,
entered into my scheming brains. Could I not conceal the poor mare's
worst blemishes. Her colour was grey; would not a thick coating of
flour from my dredger make all right? There was no time to be lost;
the remedy was administered successfully, and off I started; but,
alas! the wind was high and swept the skirts of my riding habit so
determinedly against the side of the poor beast, that before long its
false coat was transferred to the dark cloth, and my innocent _ruse_
exposed. The French are proverbially and really a polite and
considerate nation, but I never heard more hearty peals of laughter
from any sides than those which conveyed to me the horrible assurance
that my scheme had unhappily failed.