Charles Dickens sent George Henry Augustus Sala to the Crimea, to write what he observed, and Dickens worked closely with him. Sala wrote "Sketches by a Roving Englishman", and Dickens published these sketches in "Household Words". Excerpts from some of these sketches appear below.

1. "The Roving Englishman: From Constantinople to Varna", Vol. XI, No. 259, March 10, 1855, pp. 142 - 144
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   "Our servants and luggage must follow in another crazy little boat, as there is not room for them in ours. So, swift over the sulky December waters then–past many a battered hulk which shows sad signs enough of the wild hurricanes in the Black Sea;–past transport ships by the score, and smug oily commissariat officers, a little the worse for their previous night's entertainment, but keeping good hope of an appetite again by and by at the hospitable board of a contractor–past barges with a score of extremely dirty fellows, gentlemen in fezzes and baggy breeches, labouring at a multitude of oars slowly toiling along towards some ship bound for Sebastopol, there to give up their dismal and disheartened cargo of astounded peasants from the far away interior, and who are bound chiefly against their wills for the good of glory."
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   "It is said that Varna has about it a dirtiness peculiarly its own, but I incline rather to the opinion that it is merely Turkish dirtiness, and that there is nothing whatever remarkable about this little military hothouse."
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   "Officials belonging to the commissariat, and unused to riding, were holding on to the pommels of their new saddles, and jogging about uncomfortably in many directions."
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   "We found him [a Greek consular interpreter], of course, a fearful scamp, and his house seemed merely a windy, wooden, trap, for vermin, and bad smells ... The former [vermin] absolutely turned us out of bed, descending on us in such countless hosts when we put out the lights, that there was no keeping the field against them.
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2. "The Roving Englishman: From Varna to Balaklava", Vol. XI, No. 260, March 17, 1855, pp. 153 - 157
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   This article discusses the lack of British practical knowledge of the Crimea. Captains of Greek ships could have been used as pilots. "Some of these men would have been invaluable as pilots; but it seems the Naval authorities are now afraid to employ them–another fine illustration of our farsighted and able policy towards the Greeks at the outbreak of the war." As a consequence of poor planning, the Crimean War was unexpectedly prolonged into the winter. The winter cold was not planned for; adequate clothing was not available; and the ships required to provide the needed supplies were too many to enter the harbor and were greatly delayed in delivering their cargo. Thus, a decision had to be made as to whether to deliver food, clothing, ammunition or medical supplies: all four could not be delivered simultaneously. Cholera killed more soldiers than the Russians did.
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   The English sailors were unable to communicate with the Turks. As a consequence of this ignorance, the English sailors racially attacked the Turks. (In other articles by G. A. Sala, the Turks are continually referred to as "dirty", "dishonest", etc.) It is not clear: were the Muscovites the infidels or were the British the infidels?
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3. "The Roving Englishman: A Bulgarian Post-House", Vol. XI, No. 267, May 5, 1855, pp. 335 - 336
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   "A fierce gaunt man, the very personification of slothful worthlessness, now appears, and looks at us with a contemptuous scowl. Brutal ignorance and savage passions are written on every coarse line of his sensual countenance. He has small dangerous eyes, which shun the daylight; a long, straight, fox-like nose, sharpening at the point, such as I have often noticed in cunning thieves; a low, lowering forehead; and an immense thick-lipped mouth. [...] He is armed to the teeth, not figuratively, but literally; for the hilt of his straight sword projects from his waist, beyond even his bare bull neck; [...] The post-house was a foul den, so full of vermin that we were afraid to sit down and rest ourselves; [...]"
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"It is a weary conclusion to come to, but really nothing can be done in Turkey without hectoring; and all things but truth may be found with harsh words and a whip."
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4. "The Roving Englishman: The Passage of the Danube", Vol. XI, No. 273, June 16, 1855, pp. 465 - 468
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   "Here were bales of goods and heaps of military stores, crowds of dirty, ragged, desponding Turkish soldiers, waiting, seemingly, to be rained upon, and for no other purpose whatever. [...] The Bulgarian pipe appears to the most uninterested observer to belong to a people addicted to the pursuits of agriculture. [...] The Bulgarian pipe is dirty, as all Bulgarian things are ^* [...] The Bulgarians dress in a more primitive fashion than is even usual among the Turks, whose dress is always quaint and primitive. [...] It is not till you get quite close up to them and examine their faces [...] that the lion-look wears off, and the mere dull, listless, sulky lout is plainly revealed beneath it." Thus a hierarchy of racial inferiority: Europeans, Turkish, Bulgarian.
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5. "The Roving Englishman: From Bucharest to Kraiova", Vol. XII, No. 284, Sept. 1, 1855, pp. 109 - 112
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   "The state of Wallachia is a fine example of Turco-Russian rule. The principles of despotic government have been pushed just as far as they will go."
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   "Their [Wallachia] prosperity by no means agreed with the immediate designs of Russia. They were looked upon by the Turks as aliens and unbelievers. The Austrians eyed them with the lust of conquest. They were made the battle-ground of the endless wars between the Czar and the Sultan."
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   "In short, I hardly knew which to pity most: the Austrian [European] ^* army of occupation, or the people [European] ^* whom their necessities and exactions so sorely oppress."
   Note that both the populace and their rulers, being "European", are pitied, but this is not so for the non-European Turkish peoples.
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6. "The Roving Englishman: Turkish Poems on the War", Vol. XII, No. 287, Sept. 15, 1855, pp. 155 - 158
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   "[...] the war is looked upon by people in Turkey as a religious war, undertaken to resist the invasion, and to do away with the dominion of the infidels. [...] It appears, that Turkey still holds its central position, whither all other nations hasten to assemble, England and France amongst them, to fight the infidel Muscovites."