s in charge of one of the pickets
on top of the already referred to kopje. The ascent of that kopje, oh
dear! This morning I was sent on to another kopje directly in front of
the one we had occupied during the night, to find out if an infantry
picket was holding it. The going was too awful. As usual, the distance
was greater than it looked, and only having had half-a-messtinful of
coffee and a biscuit for breakfast on the preceding day, and a mouthful
of half-boiled trek ox, which had to be gulped down before ascending the
iniquitous hill in the evening, minus tea and water, I did not half
appreciate the lovely sunrise and view which were to be seen gratis from
the various summits. It was a long time before I got back to our little
encampment (I slipped down on the rocks several times from sheer
exhaustion), and found to my delight that coffee had been kept for me. I
wolfed it all, the grounds not excepted, and, bar stiffness and,
paradoxical to remark, a general feeling of slackness, was soon myself
again. Our Sussex ex-Police, about fifty in number, are at another nek
about a mile off, under Messrs. McLean and Wynne. Of course, they have
not brought our mails; they managed to call for them when the office was
closed. I was sorry to hear that a friend in the Devons (Trooper
Middleton), who went into hospital the last time we were at Pretoria,
has since died of enteric.

Monday, October 22nd. It really seems absurd giving days names out here!
To-day, we Sussex men, who number about half-a-dozen, are being exempted
from duty, as we expect to join our fellows who are at the other little
pass. Once the various companies are re-formed, we shall be under a sort
of new old _regime_. We are wondering anxiously what our fresh cooks
will be like. The ones we have at present are not bad fellows; indeed, I
call them Sid and 'Arry, which means an extra half-pannikin of tea or
coffee. Yesterday afternoon we had a gorgeous thunderstorm, the
lightning being incessant. I laid under some trees with a blanket and
overcoat covering me, smoking, and with one hand slightly protruding,
holding a _Tit-Bits_ paper, which I read till it became too pulpy. A
couple of our Sussex fellows have just ridden in; their lot strike camp
and return as far as Rietfontein this evening, and so this letter goes
with them.

Tuesday, October 23rd. Still at the same place. Yesterday, at about the
identical hour as on the preceding day, a big thunderstorm came o