ard of a wagon. It was seen
wandering near the road between this and Alexandria, and the men in
the wagon commandeered him at once, and here he will remain. I am a
fairly good skirmisher myself, and when a wagon pole, for which I was
responsible when unloading at the docks, did not turn up, I had two in
its place in no time. We afterwards found that neither of them would
fit any of our wagons. The cook has been handicapped in his work by
having no table, but to-day he has one about 12 feet long which he
tells me he got "over the road" last night when it was dark. Agassiz,
our transport officer, requests us to look out for a picket rope; he
would like it two inches thick and about 100 feet long. Rather a big
order but should not be beyond our combined efforts.

_April 6th._--Two Infantry Brigades, our Ambulance (89th) and the West
Lancashire Ambulance (87th) were inspected by General Sir Ian
Hamilton. Like ourselves he is an Aberdonian, being a member of the
Hamilton family of Skene House. We had a very dusty day, all returning
to camp quite grey.

In the afternoon I visited Alexandria with Stephen and Thomson and had
tea at the Hotel Majestic in the Square of Mahomet Ali, the finest
part of the town, then we flattened our noses against shop windows and
bought a few odds and ends for home. The shops along the street to the
left of the Bourse (Rue Sheref Pasha) were good and interesting,
especially one that sold only Egyptian goods--Tawa's--where we made
most of our purchases.

Then I chanced to come across Fiddes and Morris driving down this
street when they hailed me and announced that they had just come from
the Excelsior Hotel, the headquarters of the 29th Division, with the
news that our bearers had to set off for the front before morning, and
that I was one of the three officers who were to accompany them. We
finished our shopping, and I went to Cook's office and wrote two post
cards, then drove out to Mex, we all meeting round the mess table to
hear the latest orders.

_April 7th._--Hung about all day in expectation of the promise from
H.Q. that they would 'phone to us when it was decided at what hour we
were to start. No message came during the day, then after 9 p.m. an
officer came in from our Brigade H.Q., saying they were wondering at
the boat "why the devil we were not on board". After a little 'phoning
we discovered we had been overlooked, and we were ordered to march at
once as our boat was to sail