onel is very severe on those who use
bad language, and if he hears any he says, 'I tell you I will not
allow it. If you want to use such language go out on to the veldt and
swear at the stones, but I will not permit you to contaminate the men
by such language in the lines. I won't have it!'"

Not all battalions in the British army are built that way, nor do all
British officers row in the same boat with that aforesaid colonel.
Nevertheless, I am prepared to echo the opinion expressed by Julian
Ralph concerning the officers with whom he fraternized:--"They were
emphatically the best of Englishmen," said he; "well informed, proud,
polished, polite, considerate, and abounding with animal health and
spirits." As a whole that assertion is largely true as applied to
those with whom it was my privilege to associate. Most of them had
been educated at one or other of our great public schools, many of
them represented families of historic and world-wide renown. It was,
therefore, somewhat of an astonishment to see such men continually
roughing it in a fashion that navvies would scarcely consent to do at
home; drinking water that, as our colonel said, one would not
willingly give to a dog; and sometimes sleeping in ditches without
even a rug to cover them.

Wild assertions have been made in some ill-informed papers about these
officers being ill-informed, and even Conan Doyle complains that he
saw only one young officer studying an Army Text-Book in the course of
the whole campaign; but then, when kits are cut down to a maximum
weight of thirty-seven pounds, what room is there for books even on
tactics? The tactics of actual battle are better teachers than any
text-books; and a cool head, with a courageous heart, is often of more
value in a tight corner than any amount of merely technical knowledge.
It is true that some of our officers have blundered, but then, in most
cases, it was their first experience of real war, especially of war
amid conditions entirely novel. It was more personal initiative, not
more text-book; more caution, not more courage that was most commonly
required. To inspire his men with tranquil confidence, one officer
after another exposed himself to needless perils, and was, as we fear,
wastefully done to death. But be that as it may the Guards' Brigade,
men and officers alike, I rank among the bravest of the brave; and my
association with them for so long a season, I reckon one of the
highest honours of a h