ut with horses, etc. However, we got off up to time and entrained at
Huntingdon, wondering if it would be three days or a week (at most)
before we were charging Uhlans.
But our destination was only the Lincolnshire coast--Grimsby.
Fortunately thirty-six hours terminated our stay there, and we trekked
off south, eventually halting at Hogsthorpe, a village about three
miles from the coast. The two remaining regiments of the Brigade were
one in Skegness and the other half-way between us and Skegness.
For the next few months we moved from one village to another in the
neighbourhood of Skegness. "We dug miles of trenches along the
coast--we erected barbed wire entanglements for the sea to play
with--we patrolled bleak stretches of coast day and night, and in all
sorts of weather--we watched patiently for spies and Zeppelins, and we
were disappointed. Nothing happened; the Germans would not come."
Christmas was spent at Skegness, and in spite of alarms and excursions
we had an excellent regimental dinner, very largely due to the
generosity of our friends in Scotland. The ladies of the Regiment
opened subscription lists for "Comforts" for the Regiment, and
everyone who was asked not only gave but gave generously. Wherever we
went our "Comforts" followed us, whatever we asked for we got and,
except on Gallipoli, we were never without our own private stock of
Grant's or Inglis' oatmeal. We owe a lot to the generosity of our
friends in Scotland.
[Illustration: CROSSING THE BRIDGE, ST IVES.
_To face page 6_]
[Illustration: LIEUT. R.G.O. HUTCHISON AND MACHINE GUN SECTION, 1915.
_To face page 6_]
From Lincolnshire we moved again south to Norfolk. King's Lynn was
found to be unsatisfactory as a billeting area, so we trekked on to
Fakenham which proved to be our final resting place in England. By now
our training had so far advanced that we were not kept at it quite so
hard, and we had more time for sports. We had polo, cricket, and all
kinds of games, and on 3rd June mounted sports which were most
successful.
We spent the summer putting on the finishing touches, and did some
very useful bits of training, including some fairly ambitious schemes
of trench digging and planning, which proved invaluable later on, and
which was a branch of knowledge in which many Yeomanries were
conspicuously lacking. Also, by this time, a few courses of
instruction had been started at the larger military centres, and we
had several office
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