‘With reference to your report upon the absence without leave of Second Lieutenant Pickersdyke, the Major-General Commanding directs me to say that as this officer was severely wounded on September 25 whilst commanding a section of the ⸺th Battery R.F.A. with conspicuous courage and ability, for which he has been specially recommended for distinction by the G.O.C.R.A., and as he is now in hospital in England, no further action will be taken in the matter.’ To be snubbed by the Staff because he had reported upon the scandalous conduct of a mere ‘ranker’ was not at all the colonel’s idea of the fitness of things. His fury, which vented itself chiefly upon his office clerk, would have been greater still if he could have seen his late adjutant comfortably ensconced in a cosy ward in one of the largest houses of fashionable London, waited upon by ladies of title, and showing an admiring circle of relations the jagged piece of steel which a very famous surgeon had extracted from his shoulder free of charge! For, in spite of his colonel, the progress of Pickersdyke on the chosen path of his ambition was now quite definitely assured. JEFFERY E. JEFFERY. FOOTNOTES [7] Brigade Ammunition Column. [8] Shelled. [9] Forward Observing Officer. _BALLIOL MEMORIES._ A NOTE BY THE HON. A. E. GATHORNE-HARDY. My article in the October number has brought me many kind letters from old Balliol friends for which I am grateful, and one or two errors have been called to my attention, which I should like to correct. Sir Courtenay Ilbert points out that I am mistaken in claiming the present Speaker as a member of Balliol College, ‘he was of Trinity, Cambridge.’ Francis Le Marchant points out that ‘Dick Webster,’ the late Lord Alverstone, and not Lawes as stated, beat Jersey in the mile race in the first Inter-University Sports held at Cambridge; ‘believe an eyewitness.’ Sneyd Kynnersley contributes an amusing anecdote about the latter’s trophies. Count Karolyi was admiring his display of racing cups, and noticing one in particular, asked what horse won it. ‘Oh,’ answered his host, ‘I won that one myself in a three-mile race.’ ‘Do you mean to say, Lord Jersey,’ said the Count, ‘that you ran three miles without sitting down!’ I should like also to correct a careless error in my quotation of Tennyson’s metrical compliment to Katherine Bradshaw. The first two lines should read: Because she bore the iron name Of him who doomed ‘_his_’ King to die, instead of, as printed, ‘_the_’ King. I am sure the exquisite ear of the author would attach importance to the correction; he would never have allowed the cadence and stress to fall on such an insignificant word and sound as ‘the.’