This, however, did not prevent him saying farewell to his old friends. Amid all the bustle of preparation he found time to call at the cottages of not a few in the grounds and in the village, to shake hands with their inmates before he left; not, it is said, without forebodings that it was for the last time. To a friend in Edinburgh who, in saying 'good-bye,' expressed the hope that he would soon be back again with fresh laurels, he replied with a shake of the head, 'I don't half like the job we {179} have got; we have a very hard nut to crack with these Boers.' On Sunday, the 8th October, the General and Mrs. Wauchope attended as usual the service in New Craighall Parish Church. It forms a part of the parish of Liberton, and the church was erected chiefly for the large mining portion of the population at the east end of the parish, in which the General took so much interest. He liked the simple, natural, artless form of the Presbyterian service, and as his minister has since remarked, 'We know how reverently and heartily he worshipped, and the pleasure he had in hearing and in joining in the singing of the old psalms and paraphrases, without any accompaniment.' It was his last quiet Sabbath in Scotland. With a view to avoid fuss he slipped away that evening by rail for London, without some of his nearest friends knowing he was off, to see to the embarkation of his brigade. The Highland Brigade was made up of the Seaforth Highlanders, the Second Battalion Royal Highlanders (or Black Watch), and the Gordon Highlanders--three crack Scotch regiments, which any man might have been proud to command. The two first embarked for South Africa at Tilbury Fort on the 21st and 22nd October in the transports _Mongolian_ and _Orient_ respectively, the total equipment in the latter being about 1200 officers and men, including staff of a cavalry brigade, medical corps, etc. These were followed a fortnight later by the Gordons under Colonel Downman from Edinburgh, among the citizens of which city officers and men had earned an honoured name. General Wauchope joined the transport _Aurania_ at Southampton on 23rd October, and some of his letters written on the eve of embarkation are touching illustrations of kindly interest in others, and specially in those {180} dependent on him. To his old friend and colonel in the first Soudan Expedition, Colonel Bayly, he writes:-- 'MY DEAR OLD COLONEL,--Many thanks for your kind and affectionate letter. I wish you were going out in charge of the brigade. I shall sadly miss your wise counsels. Well, I will do my best; and this I know, whether I succeed or fail, you will stick up for me.--Yours ever, A. G. WAUCHOPE.' To Mr. Martin, the manager of the Niddrie Collieries, he wrote as follows:-- 'SOUTHAMPTON, 23_rd October_ 1899.