_December 21st, 1915._

All well after a pleasant crossing. The blundering authorities
kept us and three other leave trains six hours in ---- station,
no one being allowed to leave the platform! We eventually reached
---- at 7 P.M. The two first men I met on the boat were old
Dulwich boys, W. J. Barnard and Bobby Dicke. Barnard is a
field-gunner, and Dicke is in the 1st Royal Fusiliers. I also met
another O.A., named Corsan, who is captain in Barnard's battery.
How well I remember ragging with him in choir practices! We had a
thrilling chat over old times. Both Barnard and Corsan went
through the Battle of Loos. On reaching France we found there was
no means of getting to our respective destinations until next
morning, so we all dined together with a couple of other subs.,
one in the K.R.R.s, a mere boy in appearance but a veteran in
experience. How delightful to meet old pals, and what splendid
fellows these old public-school men are!

Everything is very festive about here just now. Officers and men
are making ready to pass Christmas in the old-fashioned way.

_December 28th, 1915._

We had a very jolly Christmas. The revellings have, in fact, only
just begun to subside. Our Brigade Major spent his Christmas in
the trenches along with his brother, a V.C. In that part of the
line there was a truce for a quarter of an hour on Christmas Day,
and a number of Englishmen and Germans jumped out and started
talking together. A German gave one of our men a Christmas tree
about two feet high as a souvenir. It is of the usual variety,
covered with tinsel and adorned with glass balls.

_January 4th, 1916._

I was indescribably grieved to read of the death of
Nightingale.[5] Himself an O.A., he was in the Modern Sixth about
1900. He was a master at the dear old school from 1907, or
thereabouts. I regarded him as one of my best friends among the
masters. The year I took on the captaincy of the Junior School
"footer," he gave me immense help as master in charge of the
Junior School games. But really cricket was his game; he was a
splendid bat on his day, a useful slow bowler and a fine
fieldsman. He was such an enthusiast for cricket that he would
take any an