on, the hailstones being as big
as walnuts and even as golf balls; the horses in camp broke loose and
stampeded, tents were blown down and flooded; several poor enteric
patients died from the wetting, and we had a very bad time. Meanwhile
important changes have gone on; Ladysmith has been emptied of Sir
George White's troops; Sir Charles Warren and General Coke are gone to
Maritzburg; the Naval Brigade is broken up, and our Naval guns are
turned over, alas, to Artillery Mountain Batteries. Captains Scott and
Lambton are made C.B.'s; the _Powerful_ has left for England, and the
_Terrible_ leaves for China; our flag is hoisted at Bloemfontein, and
the tone of the Foreign Press has altered; still more troops are
pouring out from England, and we hear that 40,000 more men are to be
landed before April, which is a very good precaution.

_Friday, 23d March._--There are rumours that the Boers have evacuated
the Biggarsberg hills, and at any rate all our troops are moving on to
Elandslaagte. The Dublins celebrated St. Patrick's Day on the 17th
with great _eclat_, and all the Irish soldiers throughout Natal wore
the shamrock. They have behaved splendidly all through the operations
and it is a pity that the Irish nation is not more like the Irish
soldier.

_Sunday, 25th March._--Out of hospital to-day, but so weak that I can
hardly walk a yard, so I have to give in and go down country much
against my will. General Kitchener of the West Yorks told me of a
private house of the Suttons' at Howick, near Maritzburg, and strongly
advised me to go there; so I left Ladysmith on the 27th and got a warm
welcome from the Honourable Mr. and Mrs. Sutton and their family who
were most kind; and on the best of foods I soon began to pick up. The
house is a very pretty combined country and farm house facing the
Howick Falls, 280 feet high, of the Umgeni River. While here news came
of the disaster at Sanna's Post and the capture of 500 of the Irish
Rifles at Reddesberg, so we are all disappointed and think the end of
the war further off than we thought. My twenty-seventh birthday on the
1st April passed quietly in this peaceful spot, and after a pleasant
stay I left on the 13th, my lucky day, fairly well, although still a
stone under weight. I was very sorry to leave my more than kind
friends and hope to meet them again some day.

_Saturday, 14th April._--Reached Elandslaagte and rejoined the Naval
Brigade at the foot of the historical kopje wh