bright charm of their own and are absolutely fearless. Most of
them are descendants of the old English and Scottish chivalry.
They are intensely Conservative in opinion, not over
intellectual, but men with fine traditions and noble instincts.
They have a passion for horses and all things equine.

_September 16th, 1915._

So you have had an experience of the Zepps. I am glad London bore
it philosophically. I never imagined that it would be possible
seriously to perturb the people of England by this species of
frightfulness. As Dad puts it, "Curiosity quite mastered every
sense of fear," but if the Zepps. are to continue paying visits
to our suburb, you may have to evacuate 198 and dig yourselves in
in the garden with communicating trenches leading from your
dug-outs to Croxted Road and Herne Hill.

It is splendid how our fellows keep rolling up to fight, for,
believe me, the war is no joke out here. Very few people who have
been out think it's all a death-or-glory sort of business. On the
contrary, it is a steady and persistent strain, a strain under
which the strongest nerves are apt to give way after a time--I am
talking, of course, of the trenches. When the cavalry go into
action as cavalry, they are bound to suffer fearfully, being so
exposed, but there's no doubt that they will do their job, and
put a still greater number of the Boches out of action. This is a
war in which there is nothing picturesque or romantic. It takes
all the cheerfulness of the British Tommy to overmaster the
grinding strain of trench warfare, though as man is by nature a
fighter, he presently begins to throw off the trammels of
civilisation and live _a la naturelle_. The British soldier has
done marvels in this war. Nothing but his irrepressible spirits
and lion-hearted courage would have held up this great host of
Boches armed with new and strange implements of war and with
every weapon known to science.

_September 18th, 1915._

In an interval of relaxation, our division gave a Horse Show
to-day. To these cavalrymen, horses are as meat and drink, almost
the one topic of their conversation, at once their delight and
their business. A lot of notabilities from various places in