Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol. 5.djvu/56

 34 THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA. CHAP. From the foot of the Chersonese the North _ Valley sloped down in an eastern direction till it reached the embankment of the aqueduct, there crossed, at the time, by three bridges. A yet farther descent of only a few yards down the valley brought a rider to the left bank of the river Tchernaya, and to fords by which he might cross it. On the other side of the river, and at a distance of less than a mile, there stood the village of Tchorgoun, where Liprandi, as we know, had established his Headquarters, and gathered his main strength. This North Valley is ground on which the memory of our country- men has brooded. It was the scene of the Light Cavalry charge. The South Valley is on the Balaclava side of the ' Causeway Heights.' At its eastern extremity there is a knoll between 500 and 600 feet high, which, being joined to the Kamara Hills by a neck of high ground, juts out over the valley as a promontory does over the sea, and for a feature thus conspicuous men soon found a name. They called it ' Canrobert's Hill.' At the opposite or western extremity of this valley, the road con- necting Balaclava with the Chersonese passed up by way of the ' Col.' It is with the slope of a hill- side descending into this South Valley, and with the glory of Scarlett's Dragoons, that England will have to associate her memory of the one great fight between cavalry and cavalry which took place in the course of the war. It was of so much moment to secure Balaclava