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saw a very odd representation of 'The Private Secretary'.
One had to have military passes and the countersign to move
a yard from the station. The train stopped the night at
Bloemfontein, and I slept on board and wakened next
morning at another dusty desert called Kroonstad where
I breakfasted. There I found two other soldiers I knew -
young Haig of Bemersyde and a man Rawlinson who used
to be at Trinity. I got their company all the way to
Johannesburg, where they were going for 3 days' leave, having
been fighting continuously for 6 months. I heard from them of
the disaster to Lovats' Scouts, when Jonny Murray (Lord Ewbank's son)
and the Colonel, a brother of Lord Mansfield, were killed.
About 4 o'clock we crossed the Vaal at Viljoens
Drift and entered the Transvaal. From there to Johannesburg
the country was very pretty - quite green, with a fair amount
of water and some very pretty farms.

We got to our destination about 8 o'clock on Friday
evening. I had travelled in 21 days about 8000 miles and
I felt very well but very dirty. I went straight to Heath's
Hotel and wallowed in a hot bath. It is a large, comfortable
building, full of soldiers and their wives, but the food is bad
owing to the difficulties of getting supplies. It was a great
pleasure to get into a bed with sheets where one could roll
about, after the narrow bunks on the steamer and the narrower ones
on the train. In the morning (Saturday) I went and reported