Battalion H.Q. and one company were lodged at Senechal Farm, near Lacouture. This was one of the large moated farmhouses, so common in the district, and consisted of the usual hollow rectangle of buildings, surrounding a pond and a midden. It was supposed to accommodate 500 men, but never more than about half that number occupied it while the Battalion was in the area. A second company was quartered in a similar, but smaller, farm about half a mile distant; a third occupied billets in the village of Lacouture; and the fourth was in houses on King’s Road, on the way to the trenches. Considering how near the Battalion was to the front line, these billets were quite comfortable. The country around was very flat and intersected by ditches; much of it was under cultivation, and the inhabitants hardly seemed to realise that there was a war. The owner of Senechal Farm, who was a very important man in the district, certainly did very well out of the troops; not only did he receive considerable sums for billets, but an estaminet, which he ran on the premises, was well patronised, and must have been a very profitable concern. Dotted about the district were a number of fortified posts, some in a very bad state of repair. The Battalion was required to find “caretakers” for about ten of these posts, and the “flat cart”--that cart which carried on so long with the transport, in spite of its official “destruction” about once every three months--came in very useful for taking rations to these men. On March 13th the Battalion relieved the 1/5th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regt. in the Right Sub-sector of the Ferme du Bois Sector. Here it remained, inter-relieving with the same battalion, usually every six days, until the latter part of May. This period was very uneventful. The line was exceptionally quiet--almost the quietest the Battalion ever held. Casualties were very slight; in fact, on occasion, a six-day tour in the line was carried through without a man being injured. Owing to the low-lying and damp condition of the country trenches could not be dug, and the defences consisted entirely of breast-works. The material for these had been obtained from “borrow-pits,” which quickly filled with water and so became additional obstacles to the enemy. Millions of sandbags must have been used in the building of this line. The shelters occupied by officers and men were built into the parados, and were comparatively comfortable. Such a line was quite satisfactory, indeed almost luxurious, in quiet times. But it was the worst type possible to occupy in a bombardment, for none of the shelters were more than splinter-proof, and breast-works are poor protection against shell fire.