r to return to Pretoria at once. So they
left us this morning. And here are we, the Silly Sussex, still sticking
to it, like flies on treacled paper. As Nobby says, "Grouse all day and
you're happy. That's the way in the Army." He is quite right, and I am
sure most of us Yeomen, myself unexcepted, have the true military
spirit. For we really ought to be very good and contented in this
charming valley, where, "if it were not for the kopjes and the snipers
in between," we might lead a perfect Arcadian life. I shall miss our
Roughs. Some of them are rare good fellows, and always cheery. To see a
Rough come into camp after a good day's scouting on the farmhouse side
of the valley, was a sight never to be forgotten. Across his saddle, _a
la_ open scissors, would be two large pieces of wood, usually fence
posts; oranges dropping from his nosebag; on one side of his saddle a
fowl and a duck on the other; a small porker from his haversack; the
ends of onions or such like vegetables would be protruding, and his
broad-brimmed hat or bashed-in helmet would be garlanded with peach
blossoms, resembling a joyous Bacchanalian, and the unshaven, dirty face
underneath wreathed in smiles. We have destroyed a lot more waggons and
houses, and lifted several hundred of cattle, besides getting some
prisoners. How the women must hate us! Their faces are invariably
concealed by the large sunbonnets which they wear, year in and year out.
These articles of headgear have huge flapping sides, which their wearers
apparently always use for wiping their eyes or noses with. This custom
or fashion saves them a deal of time and trouble in fumbling for the
usual inaccessible pocket. I daresay you have often read that the veldt
is burnt by the Boers, to make our khaki visible on the black ground.
More often than not a veldt fire is caused by accident, not design, a
carelessly-dropped match doing the trick. As regards showing up our
khaki, it is bad for dismounted fellows, but for the mounted men
preferable to the sun-dried grass, for as nearly all our horses are
bays, roans, chestnuts or blacks, they show up terribly on unburnt stuff
and are almost invisible on the burnt.

Thursday, October 18th. We are very up-to-date out here, as the
following will show you:

'Twas uttered in vast London city
By _lion comiques_ without pity,
Provincial towns were not belated,
But showed they, too, were educated;
In many a rustic, quiet retreat,
Bucolics,