own South--things which were felt so much that their impression
increases rather than diminishes. It is difficult at times to realise
what is happening. Somehow other things keep one from realisation at
the moment, but afterwards these other things diminish in importance
and the real impression becomes more clearly defined.

[Illustration: XXXV. _British and French A.P.M.'s Amiens._]

I painted General Lord Rawlinson at Bertangles, which was then his
headquarters, a charming man with a face full of character. He paints
himself, and was good enough to take great interest in the sketch I
painted of him. He had a mirror put up so that he could see what I was
doing. This wasn't altogether a help to me, because, at times, perhaps
when I was painting the half-light on his nose, he would say: "What
colours did you mix for that?" By the time I had tried to think out
what colours I had mixed--most probably not having the slightest
idea--I would have forgotten what part of the head I was painting and
what brush I was using. But Bertangles in August was lovely, and the
lunches in the tent, even though full of wasps, were excellent.
Certainly H.Q. 4th Army was well run.

A little later the H.Q. 4th Army moved to the devastated country close
to Villers Carbonelle on the Peronne side. It was a wonderful bit of (p. 082)
camouflage work. This great H.Q. just looked like an undulating bit of
country even when right up beside it. I remember standing in the
middle of it one frosty moonlight night, and it was impossible to
believe that there were hundreds of human beings all around me there
in the middle of that abomination of desolation.

I also painted Brigadier-General Dame Vaughan Williams of the
Q.M.W.A.A.C.'s at her H.Q., St. Valery--a strong-minded, gentle,
earnest worker, much loved by those under her. She held a chateau in a
large garden and held it well. The mess was excellent.

Some civilians had now come back to Amiens, and it was possible to get
a room in the "Hotel de la Paix," so I left St. Valery and came to
live there. This hotel escaped better than any other house in Amiens
from the shells and bombs. The glass was, of course, broken, and
slates knocked off, but that was all, except where little bits had
been knocked out of the walls by shrapnel. It was wonderful to be
there and watch the town coming to life again week by week.

After a time the Allied Press came and patched up their chateau, or
parts of it. Some of