e
Battalion as Wynn, who was chaplain of Jesus, and Cuthbertson, the
girl of the footlights; Steed, a pianist, Propert, and others. Our
instructor, Higgins, was a topping chap, with the Military Cross. We
had an awfully jolly time on the course.

On Friday we again went into Hezdin for dinner, several of us.

On Saturday morning we saw most of them off, and Bowkett, George
Bouchier and I remained. In the afternoon Bouchier and I went and had
a hot bath at an old nunnery by the river. Dinner at the hotel, where
we spent a comfortable night.

On Sunday morning we set off at 6-0 to catch the 6-24 train, and we
arrived at Amiens about lunch-time. On the station I met half a dozen
officers from the 8th Suffolks, and talked to them about various
mutual acquaintances and of what the Battalion was doing. Then in the
town Bowkett and I met a man named Grey, who had come out from our
Reserve Battalion to the 8th Suffolks, and we went and had lunch in
the Hotel du Rhine with him and several other officers, two of whom I
had met at Cambridge. A topping dinner, including ices and
strawberries.

When we returned to the station we discovered that the train we were
supposed to go on was a crowded leave train, full of people returning
from leave, so we waited till the next. Arriving at Mericourt I had to
walk to Bresle, but got the assistance of one motor waggon and a mess
cart, and arrived at Bresle only to find that the Battery was moving
in an hour to Albert, and was going in the trenches that night. I went
to have tea, and meanwhile the Batteries went on. Then, very luckily,
I found a friend and a car that whisked me past the Batteries trudging
with handcarts on into Albert. Arrived in Albert I went on to see
Rigby, whom we were taking over from, in a small billet, but found
that we were getting a big billet in the hospital--a huge, great
place, with large rooms built in 1904, and toppingly fitted up, but
now practically empty. All our men sleep in two big double rooms, and
Kitty and I in one room, the others in a room 100 feet by 25 feet. Our
mess-room is a large, clean, dry, tiled room, with one huge window; we
furnished it with tables and chairs, chiefly taken from the old
billet, which we are not using. Fuller keeps the room smart with wild
flowers.

At 11-0 p.m. o'clock I went up to the trenches with Carroll and half
the Battery, who were going in for the night--the men in one big
dug-out and Carroll in one with two mach