126 PINK AND SCARLET 



on the Blue River. Left flank on Peat Bog. Good 

 length and depth for about a division.^ Nothing 

 to prevent the offensive being taken up, and no 

 artillery positions for the enemy ; while the big 

 wood in the rear, with the numerous roads through 

 it, would be excellent in case retirement, etc., etc. 



Ah ! there are the caps of the hunt-servants 

 bobbing up and down above the fence about three- 

 quarters of a mile ahead, and that smoke coming up 

 above yonder rise must come from Home Grange, 

 where the meet is. A quarter to eleven ; we have 

 timed ourselv^es well. 



When nearing the end of a march thoughts of 

 camps naturally arise, and it so happens that in this 

 last mile we pass several large, sound, grass-fields 

 which would be excellent for camping purposes. 

 They all have outlets on to the road, and that 

 stream, which apparently rises in the defile woods 

 we have just passed, should give a sufficient supply 

 of water if it were dammed up, and it has not yet 

 had time to get polluted. 



Let's see. Those two fields taken together must 

 be fifteen to twenty acres, ^ we could put a brigade in 

 them. Those other two, about ten acres each, will 

 take the other brigade. Then the big field sloping 

 up to the spinney must be nearly twenty, that would 

 take the divisional troops, and the head-quarters. 

 Anyhow there must be fifty acres in all, and most of 



^ About a mile long. 



- We should learn, by looking at fields of which we know the 

 acreage, to estimate acreage roughly by the eye. 



