The list is a somewhat lengthy one, and to endeavour to amass a representative collection of all the things enumerated would be a formidable task. It is, therefore, much the wisest plan either to collect the above objects in a general way, specializing at the same time in two or three definite directions, or else to collect everything possible pertaining to one definite regiment. The latter method is, of course, the one which appeals most to army men and their immediate friends. Those of us who elect to confine our attentions to regimental collecting should first procure a history of the regiment selected. From this work we shall then be able to find out what battles our chosen unit has fought in; what particular history it possesses; what noted soldiers have brought it fame; where it has been quartered from time to time; what customs specially belong to it; what changes have been made in its dress, and so forth. Such knowledge will afford us much help; it will teach us what objects to seek for and what to pass over. We shall not be led to search, say, for a Ghuznee medal if our chosen regiment was formed later than 1842, nor shall we hunt through the files of _The Times_ for Wellington's dispatches concerning the Battle of Waterloo if our regiment took no part in the campaign. * * * * * There are one or two kinds of military curios which we should not attempt to collect. First, we should avoid all such large objects as take up more house-room than we can afford to spare them, and secondly, we should refrain from accepting objects the genuineness of which it is impossible to verify. Concerning this latter class, it may be appropriate to mention that we have never visited the battlefield of Waterloo without meeting a particularly eloquent man who always tells us that he has just had the good fortune to dig up some trophy or other of the famous fight. Naturally he is prepared to let us share in his good fortune, and consequently names a price for the article. Needless to say, the country of origin of the trophy is Germany, and the date of construction some time in the twentieth century. Probably, other battlefields besides the one at Waterloo are infested with unscrupulous curio vendors, so that the collector will be well advised if he refrains from purchasing any article unless properly authenticated--especially on battlefields. [Illustration: QUEEN VICTORIA'S CHOCOLATE BOX SENT TO THE SOLDIERS FIGHTING IN SOUTH AFRICA, 1900.] [Illustration: PRINCESS MARY'S CHRISTMAS BOX SENT TO THE SOLDIERS FIGHTING IN FRANCE AND BELGIUM, 1914.]