Rev. Rupert Inglis i8i 



and the mantles for the gas which ought to have arrived last 

 week had not done so. In the course of the day things got 

 more straightened out, and we had a big crowd this evening." 



December 5. — " I received my marching orders to-day and 

 am off to-morrow. I should very much like to have gone all 

 round this front with Gordon Geddes. He has been most 

 awfully kind to me. It is the sort of opportunity I shan't be 

 likely to get again. It is a pity I can't tell you straight for- 

 wardly all about things." 



December 13. — " No news as to my movements yet. 

 Yesterday was lovely. I went for a twenty-mile walk. While 

 lunching I was patted on the back by Eric Thesiger. It is very 

 nice meeting people out here. I had a very disturbed night, as 

 the bed was only five feet six inches, which made it difficult for 

 me to fit in. Then a battery of artillery lost its way in the 

 dark and one of the riders came and knocked at my window 

 to see if I could help — and I could. Then a rat came and gnawed 

 over my head for the rest of the night. I talked to it violently 

 several times, but it never stopped. My billet is in a very old 

 house attached to a mill, and is full of rats. I am feeling very 

 dirty. I haven't had a bath for nearly a week, and I haven't 

 had a change of clothes since I don't know when." 



December 31. — " Just at present they are leaving the 

 troops here such a very short time that it is difficult to do 

 anything for them. They are in one day and out the next. 

 This is New Year's Eve. I don't know why, but I have felt 

 more hopeful of things lately, though I am not expecting an 

 immediate return to my cabbage-patch — wish I did. We are 

 all very sick of the war, but I believe it's nothing compared with 

 the German sickness of it. This year they are getting all that 

 they give and a little more, and it makes a vast difference to 

 last year, when they gave us ten times as much as they got." 



January 2, 1917. — " This place is thick with generals. 

 One said to me, ' By the end of the year we should have a very 

 decent army, and it ought to be able to finish the war by the 

 end of 1917.' It's a long way ahead, and I hope for better 

 things, but still one can't tell." 



January 6. — ^" This is a great day. I have had a bath. 



