at we were rather sick of
campaigning if accompanied by jaundice and other ills of the flesh.

_Saturday, 7th July._--At 8.30 a.m. went on by train to Ladysmith
which I reached at 8 p.m., and got into Durban the next morning at 9
a.m. A lovely morning and a nice country covered with pretty gardens
and flowers--such a change from that awfully dried up Northern Natal.
I secured a room at the Marine Hotel, feeling ill and glad to get
sleep and oblivion for a time.

_Wednesday, 11th July._--The weather at Durban is lovely and I am
already feeling better. Have met Nugent of the _Thetis_ and Major
Brazier Creagh, also down with jaundice. My letters have lately all
gone wrong, but to-day I received a batch to my great delight.

And now I must perforce close this record of personal experiences,
written perhaps more to amuse and satisfy myself than for the perusal
of others; more especially as this being a personal Diary I have been
obliged by force of circumstances to use the pronoun "I" more than I
would otherwise wish. The war seems played out so far as one can
judge. It appears to be becoming now a guerilla warfare of small
actions and runaway fights at long ranges; these furnish of course no
new experiences or discoveries to Naval gunners; in fact, the sameness
of them is depressing, and what with marching, fighting, poor living,
dysentery, and jaundice, I humbly confess that my martial zeal is at a
much lower ebb than it was a year ago. Yet time may produce many
changes and surprises, and I may yet find myself again at the front;
who knows!

* * * * *

_Thursday, 26th July._--The quick return to health which the change to
the warmth of Durban effected made me only too glad to get back to the
front again with the object of "being in at the death." I travelled up
as far as Ingogo with Captain Reed, R.A. (now a V.C.); thence on to
Sandspruit, and on again in a Scotch cart, which Major Carney, R.A.,
M.C., lent me, to Grass Kop, a hill six miles off the station and some
6,000 feet high. Ugh! I shall never forget the drive and the jolting,
and the sudden cold after Durban weather. Still I was able to rejoin
my guns before dark, and to receive them over from Lieutenant
Clutterbuck who had been sent to relieve me when I was obliged to
leave the front. He fortunately had a share in taking this hill with
the Dorsets when in command of my guns. With a whole battalion at
first of Dorsets under Colo