Note 124 — Front matter (continued 5)
Reading edition
One of Lord Beaconsfield's 'purchased squadron,' an ironclad built in England for Turkey, and bought, with the Belleisle, Orion, and Neptune, at the time of the 'scare' of 1878, during the Russo-Turkish War, when the crossing of the Balkans by the Russian armies threatened Constantinople and strained the diplomatic relations between Great Britain and Russia almost to breaking-point.