judging from the
numerous questions contained in letters of enquiry directed to me.

ACCOMMODATION.--The main three-storey building was a converted German
artillery barracks, with the gravelled courtyards used for exercising
divided by a disused riding-school. The prisoners consisted of about
seventy-five French, living on the ground floor, and eighty-five
British, mostly R.F.C., taken at the Somme, living on the second
floor, and from one hundred and fifty to two hundred Russians on the
third. The rooms each contained from four to ten beds, according to
the size, which we usually stacked two deep so that they should take
up as little space as possible. With the aid of wall paper, deck
chairs, tablecloths and the like, obtainable at the canteen, together
with pictures from home, some of the rooms looked very cosy indeed.
Each one contained a stove, which at first we were able to keep well
supplied, as it was possible to buy coal in addition to the ration,
though latterly there was a considerable shortage. Mattresses were
either spring or made of old straw, and sometimes contained little
creepy-crawlies. My record evening catch numbered twenty-five, and
this little collection afforded some exciting races. By the way, I
might add that if one puts a match to them they go off "pop." The
Germans rendered slight assistance, but the Keating's contained in our
parcels soon got them under way. The sanitary conditions were not
good, but I must admit to having seen a little disinfectant. Part of
the time we were allowed a common room of our own, but latterly had to
share one with the Russians. Washing was sent to the town weekly. A
medical orderly was on the premises during the day, and a doctor came
two or three times a week. Before leaving we were inoculated against
smallpox, typhoid and cholera. This was a most obnoxious proceeding
which took place every six or seven days, until the doctor had jabbed
us all six times in the chest with his confounded needle. French and
Russian orderlies were provided, each detailed to look after one or
two rooms.

RECREATION.--At first it was possible to play football, but that was
soon stopped. Rackets, boxing and a sort of cricket were played in the
riding-school; once or twice a week we organised a concert or a dance,
theatrical costumes being hired from the town on parole. The Russians
had a really first-class mandoline and balalaika band, with which they
played many of their waltzes and c