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narrow streets, and then to the station with its
military guards and crowds of refugees. However I liked
it: I felt I was at last getting near my work.
They had given me a carriage to myself, and I had
provided myself with a hamper and 3 books - Red Rowans [underscored],
Many Inventions [underscored] and Hardy's Return of the Native [underscored]. Scherpers
and Smuts we supposed to be lying about 100 miles
up the line, so we went very slowly. It was funny to
see the soldiers in the blockhouses along the line turning
out to meet the train with fixed bayonets, and the Kaffir
scouts and the watch-fires. By and by I fell asleep, and
wakened about 6 o'clock away up in the Karoo among
huge strong hills absolutely desert except for clumps of
heath and prickly pears and cactuses. The air was
marvellously fine and clear, and sunrise was a thing
to remember. We breakfasted at Matjiesfontein, and
I had time to have a look at Wauchope's grave.
All day we travelled through the same beautiful
broken desert country. I went out and sat on the end
of the train, and I have never felt such absolute
Sabbatical stillness as in that great desert. At Beaufort
West there was a Hussar Tommy, going up to De Aar to