along the road to within half a mile of Wulverghem. Here, at "Packhorse"
Farm, we were met by guides of the Welsh Regiment (Col. Marden) and
taken into the line.

Our first sector of trenches consisted of two disconnected lengths of
front line, called trenches 14 and 15, behind each of which a few
shelters, which were neither organised for defence nor even
splinter-proof, were known as 14 S and 15 S--the S presumably meaning
Support. On the left some 150 yards from the front line a little
circular sandbag keep, about 40 yards in diameter and known as S.P. 1,
formed a Company Headquarters and fortified post, while a series of
holes covered by sheets of iron and called E4 dug-outs provided some
more accommodation--of a very inferior order, since the slightest
movement by day drew fire from the snipers' posts on "Hill 76." As this
hill, Spanbroek Molen on the map, which lies between Wulverghem and
Wytschaete was held by the Boche, our trenches which were on its slopes
were overlooked, and we had to be most careful not to expose ourselves
anywhere near the front line, for to do so meant immediate death at the
hands of his snipers, who were far more accurate than any others we have
met since. To add to our difficulties our trench parapets, which owing
to the wet were entirely above ground, were composed only of sandbags,
and were in many places not bullet proof. There were large numbers of
small farm houses all over the country (surrounded by their five-months'
dead live stock), and as the war had not yet been in progress many
months these houses were still recognizable as such. Those actually in
the line were roofless, but the others, wonderfully preserved, were
inhabited by support Companies, who, thanks to the inactivity of the
enemy's artillery, were able to live in peace though under direct
observation. In our present sector we found six such farms; "Cookers,"
the most famous, stood 500 yards behind S.P. 1, and was the centre of