ourselves with inventing new names for the batteries, so that the
intelligence map may be kept up to date with fullest details. This spur
henceforth is to be known as Gun Hill, probably because the weapon
already in position there has made itself conspicuously unpleasant by
shelling the headquarters and intelligence offices. From it three
successive shells were fired this morning into or near the convent where
Colonel Dick-Cunyngham, Major Riddell, and other convalescent wounded
have their quarters. Middle Hill gun only fired a few rounds to-day, and
was promptly silenced by our "Great Twin Brethren," the howitzers of
Waggon Hill.

_December 2._--We are not left long in doubt as to the meaning of those
new works on Gun Hill. A Creusot 94-pounder has opened from there,
shelling in rapid succession Sir George White's headquarters camp, the
Royal Artillery, and the Imperial Light Horse, who have their parade and
playground pitted by marks of this fire. People say that "Long Tom" has
been shifted from Pepworth's to the new position, but the shells, with
their driving-bands grooved deep and sharp, tell another story. It is a
new gun, or little used, and probably fresh from Pretoria. Its range is
great, and gives easy command of the ravine in which our cavalry are
bivouacked by the riverside. One shell has already burst there, wounding
a man of the 18th Hussars, but fortunately the enemy cannot see the
result of this fire, the river for a mile in length being screened from
his view by intervening hills.

_December 4._--One may skip Sunday when it is uneventful in its perfect
peace, as yesterday was, and be deeply thankful for the rest that is
given to us once a week when shells cease from troubling. The weather
has changed suddenly from brilliant sunshine and almost tropical heat to
cloudy skies that send the temperature down to shivering point. Few