“We arrived at our destination at 8.30, and the men were taken straight into the barns where they are billeted.  Tea was served out immediately.

“I am billeted in a farm again.  The people are very decent indeed.  The woman gave me three drinks as soon as I arrived, offering them herself and refusing to take any payment for them; she also offered to boil me a couple of eggs, but I did not wish to put on good nature any further.  There is a nice little boy named Edmond, aged fourteen.  I talked to him in French as much as it was possible for me to do in that language.  He cannot speak English....

“Allen and I are both billeted in the same room here.  B Company Mess is in a house close by, and B Company are billeted in the barns of a farm almost opposite.

“The village we are in (Westbecourt) is geographically divided into two parts, north and south.  The southern portion, in which we are, is a valley (le Val d’Acquin).  The northern part is on the reverse slope of a hill which lies on the other side of the valley.  Battalion Headquarters is at a farm on that northern side of the high ground, just by the church.

“We rose at 10 a.m. this morning.  The weather to-day has been hotter than ever.  One perspires even when quite still.  The sun has been scorching down.  We had an inspection at 11, and the M.O. came round to inspect the men’s feet at 2.40.  Just as he was going away the Colonel turned up at the farm where B Company is in billets.  He was on horseback, in slacks and in his shirt-sleeves; to live in one’s shirt sleeves is a very common custom this weather.  He informed us that General Stockwell is coming to inspect the Battalion to-morrow!

“During the day I have been exploring the village.  It is very pretty indeed, much prettier than the last place we were at.  There are thick woods, green fields, shaded avenues—­some completely arched by all kinds of trees; and, the district being hilly, the country is thus all the more charming.  Milk is very cheap here.  I got a big bowl of milk for 1d. at one farm in the valley the other side of the hill.  It is splendid here; and we are likely to remain here some time.

“At 7.40 the padre conducted a short voluntary church parade service in an orchard behind the farm in which C Company hangs out—­just opposite the farm in which I am billeted.  Allen, Priestley, Barker, Giffin, and I were there.  The band was there for the first hymn—­it then had to go to Headquarters to play ‘retreat’ at 8 p.m.  There were about twenty men....”

Sergeant-Major Howarth, D.C.M., died at St. Omer that day, overpowered by the march of the previous day.  “He was not at all the class of man one can afford to lose, and his loss was greatly deplored,” comments the Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual.  And Sergeant-Major Howarth was not, I believe, the only casualty of the kind caused by the march.