hole down which they could escape in case of fire. It is a
wonder we did not have more fires in our billets than we did.

The trenches assigned to our Brigade were to the right of Fleurbaix.
They were poorly constructed, but as the time went on were greatly
improved by the labours of our men. The Brigadier assigned to me for
my personal use a tiny mud-plastered cottage with thatched roof and a
little garden in front. It was in the Rue du Bois, a road which ran
parallel with the trenches about 800 yards behind them. I was very
proud to have a home all to myself, and chalked on the door the word
"Chaplain". In one room two piles of straw not only gave me a bed (p. 044)
for myself but enabled me to give hospitality to any officer who
needed a billet. Another room I fitted up as a chapel. An old box
covered with the silk Union Jack and white cloth and adorned with two
candles and cross served as an altar. There were no chairs to be had,
but the plain white walls were not unsuited to the purpose to which
the room was dedicated.

In this chapel I held several services. It was a fine sight to see a
group of tall and stalwart young Highlanders present. Their heads
almost reached to the low ceiling, and when they sang, the little
building trembled with the sound.

Every night when there were any men to be buried, I used to receive
notice from the front line, and after dark I would set out preceded by
my batman, Murdoch MacDonald, a proper young Highlander, carrying a
rifle with fixed bayonet on his shoulder. It made one feel very proud
to go off down the dark road so attended. When we got to the place of
burial I would hold a short service over the open graves in which the
bodies were laid to rest. Our casualties were light then, but in those
days we had not become accustomed to the loss of comrades and so we
felt the toll of death very bitterly.

It made a great difference to me to have a house of my own. Previously
I had found it most difficult to get any place in which to lay my
head. On one occasion, I had obtained permission from a kind-hearted
farmer's wife to rent one corner of the kitchen in her two-roomed
house. It was on a Saturday night and when the family had retired to
their room I spread my sleeping bag in the corner and went to bed. I
got up when the family had gone to Mass in the morning. All through
the day the kitchen was crowded, and I saw that if I went to bed that
night I should not have the opportunity