ecords, including the
drawings and sketches, some of which are real works of art. Regimental
crests and badges are often shown with the utmost attention to detail
and, in one place which we afterward occupied, one of the walls bore
an elaborately carved tablet enumerating the campaigns and battles of
one of the oldest British line regiments, together with a list of the
honors, V. C's. and so on, won by members thereof. On one of the walls
at Captain's Post one of my boys, Charlie Wendt, carved a large maple
leaf upon which he inscribed the names of all our squad. He was killed
a few days later and others at various times and of that whole list, I
am the sole survivor. I would give a great deal to have that bit of
wall here in my own home.

Meantime, the _Allemand_ has gone away and we are free to continue our
journey to the front line.

In an orchard behind the house we entered a communication trench and
after a few final words of advice from the guide as to the necessity
of keeping our heads down wherever the walls were low, started on the
mile-long trip. We learned that the trench by which we were going in
was named Surrey Lane, in honor of the West Surreys who constructed
it. At various points we came upon intersecting trenches, most of
which were marked with the name of the point to which they led. One, I
remember, was "Wipers Road"; not that it ran all the way to Ypres but
led in the direction of that place.

Except for an occasional large shell, whispering overhead, consigned
from Kemmel to Warneton or vice versa, and the distant muttering of
the French guns away to the south, everything was quiet and peaceful,
and had it not been for the ruined buildings and torn-up roads it
would have been difficult to imagine that we were in the midst of a
battle-field.

Passing through all the maze of cross trenches, we finally reached
the front line which we found to be what we afterward called a
"half-and-half" trench; that is, it was dug down to a depth of perhaps
four feet and built up about the same with sand-bags, making it
possibly eight feet from the bottom of trench to top of parapet. It
was quite dry and clean and comfortable and proved that the Buffs and
Surreys had not been loafing during the summer. I'm afraid we did not
properly appreciate it at that time, but as I look back over all the
time that has passed since, I am compelled to admit that it was the
finest bit of trench we ever occupied.

We had no mo