the noblest field that a horseman or a horse gunner could wish.  The riflemen clung to the hills, French’s troopers circled warily upon the plain, gradually contracting the Boer position by threatening to cut off this or that outlying kopje, and so the enemy was slowly herded into Colesberg.  The small but mobile British force covered a very large area, and hardly a day passed that one or other part of it did not come in contact with the enemy.  With one regiment of infantry (the Berkshires) to hold the centre, his hard-riding Tasmanians, New Zealanders, and Australians, with the Scots Greys, the Inniskillings, and the Carabineers, formed an elastic but impenetrable screen to cover the Colony.  They were aided by two batteries, O and R, of Horse Artillery.  Every day General French rode out and made a close personal examination of the enemy’s position, while his scouts and outposts were instructed to maintain the closest possible touch.

On December 30th the enemy abandoned Rensburg, which had been their advanced post, and concentrated at Colesberg, upon which French moved his force up and seized Rensburg.  The very next day, December 31st, he began a vigorous and long-continued series of operations.  At five o’clock on Sunday evening he moved out of Rensburg camp, with R and half of O batteries R.H.A., the 10th Hussars, the Inniskillings, and the Berkshires, to take up a position on the west of Colesberg.  At the same time Colonel Porter, with the half-battery of O, his own regiment (the Carabineers), and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, left camp at two on the Monday morning and took a position on the enemy’s left flank.  The Berkshires under Major McCracken seized the hill, driving a Boer picket off it, and the Horse enfiladed the enemy’s right flank, and after a risky artillery duel succeeded in silencing his guns.  Next morning, however (January 2nd, 1900), it was found that the Boers, strongly reinforced, were back near their old positions, and French had to be content to hold them and to wait for more troops.

These were not long in coming, for the Suffolk Regiment had arrived, followed by the Composite Regiment (chosen from the Household Cavalry) and the 4th Battery R.F.A.  The Boers, however, had also been reinforced, and showed great energy in their effort to break the cordon which was being drawn round them.  Upon the 4th a determined effort was made by about a thousand of them under General Schoeman to turn the left flank of the British, and at dawn it was actually found that they had eluded the vigilance of the outposts and had established themselves upon a hill to the rear of the position.  They were shelled off of it, however, by the guns of O Battery, and in their retreat across the plain they were pursued by the 10th Hussars and by one squadron of the Inniskillings, who cut off some of the fugitives.  At the same time, De Lisle with his mounted infantry carried the position which they had originally held.  In this successful and well-managed action the Boer loss was ninety, and we took in addition twenty-one prisoners.  Our own casualties amounted only to six killed, including Major Harvey of the 10th, and to fifteen wounded.