cricket, for which there was plenty of room around the huts, we
generally managed to pass a very pleasant four or six days' rest.




CHAPTER III.

"THE SALIENT."

22nd June, 1915. 1st Oct., 1915.


On the 22nd June, 1915, after resting for five days in the Huts, where
General Ferguson, our Corps Commander, came to say good-bye, we marched
at 9.0 p.m. to Ouderdom, while our place in the line was taken by the
50th Northumbrian Territorial Division, who had been very badly
hammered, and were being sent for a rest to a quiet sector. At Ouderdom,
which we reached about midnight, we discovered that our billets
consisted of a farm house and a large field, not very cheering to those
who had expected a village, or at least huts, but better than one or two
units who had fields only, without the farm. It was our first experience
in bivouacs, but fortunately a fine night, so we soon all crawled under
waterproof sheets, and slept until daylight allowed us to arrange
something more substantial. The next day, with the aid of a few
"scrounged" top poles and some string, every man made himself some sort
of weather-proof hutch, while the combined tent-valises of the officers
were grouped together near the farm, which was used as mess and
Quartermaster's Stores. Unfortunately, we had no sooner made ourselves
really comfortable than the Staffordshires claimed the field as part of