trophy--a clock, mounted into a French "75" shell--was taken back to
Leicestershire by Capt. Farmer when he next went on leave.

On the 27th we again moved, this time to some farms round Widdebroucq,
just west of Aire, to be nearer our entraining station Berguette, which
with Lillers had already been reconnoitred. As Captains Hills and Ward
Jackson had already gone forward with an advance party to Marseilles, it
began to look as though we really should go East before the end of the
war--a fact which some of us were beginning to doubt. Training still
continued each day, special attention being paid to open warfare
tactics, which fortunately included more musketry and less bombing, and
we also carried out a number of route marches and field days. Scouts,
having become obsolete, were resurrected, and Field Service Regulations
rescued from the dim recesses of valises. It was a pleasant change after
the previous nine months' trench work.

At last, on the 6th January, we marched to Berguette station and boarded
a long train of cattle trucks, leaving at 4.40 p.m. The first part of
the journey was uninteresting, but after passing Paris, the train seemed
happier, went quite fast at times, and did not stop so long between
stations. The weather on the 8th was lovely, and the third day's
travelling under a hot sun was delicious; doors were pushed back, and
those for whom there was no room on the foot-boards, sat on the carriage
roofs. Finally, at 1.0 a.m. on the 9th, the train reached Marseilles,
and we marched out to a camp on the west side of the town, in a suburb
called Santi, where there were tents for all, and a large room for an
officers' mess. Here we remained 14 days in the most excellent
surroundings, and with heavenly weather.

The Staffordshires and Lincolnshires had already sailed for Egypt when