BURFORD'S PANORAMA: SEBASTOPOL.
Ever on the alert for scenes of prevalent public interest, and prompt at producing them full and complete when it occurs to one that he may be about setting to at the task, Mr. Burford has added this week to his many former achievements a view of the City of Sebastopol and the sur- rounding Fortifications ; " taken from the centre of the vast plateau occupied by the Allied armies to the South side of the city, close to a gorge that separates the English from the French approaches, and whence the ground gradually slopes downwards to the harbour." This " vast plateau," swelling into mounds and hillocks here and there, but essen- tially smooth ground throughout, occupies the whole foreground of the great circular area ; bounded by successive chains of hills and crags for about three-quarters of its extent, and by the sea for the fourth. Cape Chersonese, Kamiesch Bay, the city itself, the ruins of Inkerman, Ba- laklava—names but lately firstleard from English lips, now how familiar! —succeed each other as chief points in the expanse; not to mention the too numerous forts of the defenders, the guns, batteries, and other siege- works, of the assailants. The scene possesses great picturesque natural beauty; and its broad clear sky, blue sea, and overlooking mountains, here blunt and verdure-clad, there peaked and snow-blanched, have been rendered with Mr. Burford's best skill. Mr. Selous also, to whom the figure-painting belongs, as usual, has plentifully diversified the ground with groups easy and appropriate. In one respect the printed descrip- tion of the catalogue hardly seems to have been fully adhered to,—as the plain cannot be said to be " now all bare, brown, well-trodden earth, strewn with stones, without the least vegetation."
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