to link up the farms by telephone, but his lines, which consisted of the thin enamelled wire issued at the time, were constantly broken by the farmers’ manure carts, and the signallers will always remember the place with considerable disgust.  One farmer was very pleased with himself, having rolled up some 200 yards of our line under the impression that all thin wire must be German.  The rest of the Brigade had now arrived, and the other three Battalions were much annoyed to find that we were already experienced soldiers—­a fact which we took care to point out to them on every possible occasion.  Our only other amusement was the leg-pulling of some newspaper correspondents, who, as the result of an interview, made Major Martin a “quarry official,” and Lieut.  Vincent a poultry farmer of considerable repute!

On the 11th March we marched to Sailly sur la Lys, better known as “Sally on the loose,” where with the Canadian Division we should be in reserve, though we did not know it, for the battle of Neuve Chapelle.  The little town was crowded before even our billeting party arrived, and it was only by some most brazen billet stealing, which lost us for ever the friendship of the Divisional Cyclists, that we were able to find cover for all, while many of the Lincolnshires had to bivouac in the fields.  Here we remained during the battle, but though the Canadians moved up to the line, we were not used, and spent our time standing by and listening to the gun fire.  A 15” Howitzer, commanded by Admiral Bacon and manned by Marine Artillery, gave us something to look at, and it was indeed a remarkable sight to watch the houses in the neighbourhood gradually falling down as each shell went off.  There was also an armoured train which mounted three guns, and gave us much pleasure to watch, though whether it did any damage to the enemy we never discovered.  Finally, on the 16th, having taken no part in the battle, we marched to some farms near Doulieu, and thence on the 19th to a new area near Bailleul, including the hamlets of Nooteboom, Steent-je (pronounced Stench), and Blanche Maison, where we stayed until the end of the month, while the rest of the Brigade went to Armentieres for their tours of instruction.

Our new area contained some excellent farm houses, and we were very comfortably billeted though somewhat scattered.  The time was mostly spent in training, which consisted then of trench digging and occasionally practising a “trench to trench” attack, with the assistance of gunners and telephonists, about whose duties we had learnt almost nothing in England.  General Smith Dorrien came to watch one of these practices, and, though he passed one or two criticisms, seemed very pleased with our efforts.  We also carried out some extraordinarily dangerous experiments with bombs, under Captain Ellwood of the Lincolnshires and Lieut.  A.G. de A. Moore, who was our first bomb officer.  It was just about this time that the Staff came to the conclusion that something simpler