The portraits, commencing with that of the officer in the foreground on the left, and following the natural course of the bottle, which he holds in so caressing a grasp, are those of Captain Frederick Bathurst, Captain Sir Charles Russell, Captain Charles Turner, Captain Lord Balgonie, Captain Bumaby, Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay, Colonel F. W, Hamilton, Lieutenant - Colonel Prince Edward of SaxeWeimar, Captain Higginson, Lieutenant R. "W. Hamilton, Captain Sir James Fergusson, and Captain Verschoyle. There are few of these names which are unconnected with some stirring incident of the war, some feat of individual heroism; but details of this description are inadmissible amidst the festivities of a Christmas dinner, and we forbear. It may perhaps be permitted us to express a wish, which our readers will not fail to echo, that the approaching Christmas may be as pleasantly passed by these gentlemen as the last; and that, should any future artist depict the meeting with which they celebrate its return, he may substitute for " on the heights before Sebastopol," the magic words " at home."
This is another near and interesting view of Sebastopol itself, as distinguished from its defences. Mr. Simpson's description of this drawing has ah-eady been published, and we will venture to reintroduce it here, in his own words. He says: —
" You will perceive two building-sheds, like those at Deptford or Woolwich; to the left of them is a church; a little higher up, more to the left, are some very white -looking buildings, which I understand to be the barracks; immediately above them, to the left, is a Grecian Doric building, surrounded with columns like the Parthenon; I have heard it called the public library, or military library, I am not certain which; just beneath this building commences a long ridge of high ground, which has been made into one mass of earthen fortifications, and at which they are stiU working. While I was sketching I could see large masses of men at work on them. At one end of this ground are the remains of the Round Tower. All along the side of the town is a continuous line of fortifications, trenches, and batteries, down close to the harbour. On the extreme left of the picture I have indicated a Russian battery by the smoke of its guns; this is what they call the Flag-staff Battery; it is in front of the French attack.
" If you look close, you will see in the distance Cape Chersonese, the lighthouse, and the French fleet. In the middle distance you wiU observe a long track studded with little spots like buttons; these are the outlying Russian pickets; behind every one of these lurk their riflemen, and the entire length of the left side of the valley is occupied by them. At times they venture up on the side of the valley to the right, and then occurs the scene, which I have given in the foreground, of our men skirmishing away to receive them, each side skulking behind stones, or whatever else offers a shelter.
" Besides the forts on the North side there are a great many earthen works thrown up — I have indicated most of them; there is a tolerably large village on the North side. In the foreground are the parallels which are now being constructed.
" I have put every ship exactly as I saw it on the first day of the year."...
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VIEW FROM THE HEIGHTS ABOVE BALAKLAVA,
LOOKING TOWA.EDS SEBASTOPOL.
SHOWING tH tH NOVEMBER, 1854, tH OF OCTOBER.