ining troops of the
Division on this march, and by a complicated series of moves from
their billets we got them strung out on the road, and pushed on by
12.30. The troops were mostly artillery, engineers, and train, and the
only other infantry that joined me were the West Kent, now under their
own C.O., Martyn.

Other troops were also on the move through Bailleul, and we had a
weary time of it getting through. It was dark before we had filed
through the big market-square with its old brick church tower and
Town Hall; and even then, though billets had been arranged for in the
country beyond for the rest of the troops, we had the devil's own job
before our own headquarters could find a resting-place. We wanted to
put up at Dranoutre village, but the village was full of the 3rd
Cavalry Brigade, and we should have been in front of our own lot; so
after a depressing wait in a tiny pothouse near Dranoutre, whilst St
Andre and Weatherby and Moulton-Barrett scoured the country, we
eventually settled down in a little farmhouse at Hille, a few hundred
yards inside the Belgian border. Not so bad, but tiny, and crowded
with not only the proprietor and his numerous family, but with a
number of refugees from further east. My own bedroom was about 6 feet
square and full of stinking old clothes, but I was lucky to get one at
all.

It seemed curious being amongst inhabitants many of whom understood no
French, but only talked Wallon or Flemish. I found my reminiscences of
the South African Taal came in quite usefully; but the best
communicators were the Lowland Scots, who, thanks to their own strange
dialect, managed to make themselves quite decently understood by the
natives.

Here we stayed for a few days--to be accurate, until the morning of
the 5th November. My own "outfit" consisted of the West Kent,
Cheshires, and two companies Bedfords, and the West Ridings were
subsequently added. At one period I was given the K.O.S.B.'s as well,
who were in Neuve Eglise; but they were taken away from me on the same
day, and so were the West Kent. There was, in fact, a glorious jumble,
battalions and batteries being added and taken away as the
circumstances demanded. Even the two companies Bedfords were spirited
away for forty-eight hours, leaving me with the decimated Cheshires as
the only representatives of the 15th Brigade, but with two battalions
of the 13th and one of the 14th superadded, as well as an R.E. company
(17th). Meanwhile the