pleasure to watch, though whether it did any damage to the enemy we
never discovered. Finally, on the 16th, having taken no part in the
battle, we marched to some farms near Doulieu, and thence on the 19th to
a new area near Bailleul, including the hamlets of Nooteboom, Steent-je
(pronounced Stench), and Blanche Maison, where we stayed until the end
of the month, while the rest of the Brigade went to Armentières for
their tours of instruction.

Our new area contained some excellent farm houses, and we were very
comfortably billeted though somewhat scattered. The time was mostly
spent in training, which consisted then of trench digging and
occasionally practising a "trench to trench" attack, with the assistance
of gunners and telephonists, about whose duties we had learnt almost
nothing in England. General Smith Dorrien came to watch one of these
practices, and, though he passed one or two criticisms, seemed very
pleased with our efforts. We also carried out some extraordinarily
dangerous experiments with bombs, under Captain Ellwood of the
Lincolnshires and Lieut. A.G. de A. Moore, who was our first bomb
officer. It was just about this time that the Staff came to the
conclusion that something simpler in the way of grenades was required
than the "Hales" and other long handled types, and to meet this demand
someone had invented the "jam tin"--an ordinary small tin filled with a
few nails and some explosive, into the top of which was wired a
detonator and friction lighter. For practice purposes the explosive was
left out, and the detonator wired into an empty tin. Each day lines of
men could be seen about the country standing behind a hedge, over which
they threw jam tins at imaginary trenches, the aim and object of all
being to make the tin burst as soon as possible after hitting the
ground. We were given five seconds fuses, and our orders were, "turn the
handle, count four slowly, and then throw." Most soldiers wisely counted