lic
house was appealing to them at the time, so I halted my men, and by
sending mounted officers in every direction, with luck I caught some
of them. And here we are again, and very comfortable. Of course, we
still have our early rising to contend with, but otherwise for the
moment things are pretty straight. These Irishmen are most amusing
fellows; they can't be treated like the English soldier: one has to be
much more strict with them, and ride them at other times with a much
lighter hand. For the next few months, unless Germany collapses at
once, there will be _heavy fighting_ for us. I am glad to hear that
the Russians are driving these knaves back. What it really means is
that when the Germans fight a successful action, they lose a certain
number of men whom they cannot replace, and use up ammunition which
they cannot make in a hurry, and so the war gradually draws to its
conclusion, I trust.... I had to fly away just then to deal with my
many prisoners and my companies also. I am sorry you have had illness
in the house; I am so used to sickness that it hardly appals me when
it applies to other people. For instance, since I came out here, if
you multiply the number of my Father's town house in Porchester
Terrace by 10 [number invalided, 470] you will be below the numbers
who have been invalided from my Bn. since I came to France, and before
that there was Hursley Park, Winchester, and the voyage home from
India, when I lived amongst sick men for some unknown reason. The
weather is now varying between skiffs of snow and bright gleams of
sunshine, but very, very cold....

_March 9th, 1915._

Many thanks for your letter. My new puttees will be most useful, as my
old ones are full of holes. We have, during the last day or so, had a
strong wind, and the ground is drying up wonderfully, so it will not
be so hard on puttees for the future. As a rule, when one walks
across country, and struggles through muddy trenches without one's
horse, one wears puttees if one is not wearing long gum boots; these
latter keep the legs and feet drier, but the difficulty is that they
are too heavy to walk very far in them. I had a long letter from Meta,
which I enclose. I am sending two badges to the children from my old
coat. I thought they might like them. I look forward very much to the
cake you are sending, as the last parcel went astray. My new coat came
last night. It is made out of