The move commenced on October 19th, the battalion leaving the village about 8 a.m. to join the Brigade column. At St. Hilaire, as elsewhere in France, as well as in England, the battalion had become very popular with their hosts, and many a tear was shed and many a kindly "God-speed" uttered as we moved off. It was a good long march, about fifteen miles in all, and though the day was cool a few fell out. The new drafts, good men though they were, had not all yet appreciated the Commanding Officer's inflexible rules in the matter of march discipline. Our destination was the Renescure area, east-south-east of St. Omer, and the road lay through Wittes and Racquinghem. Lieutenant Goulding and a billeting party went on ahead to the Proven area; but the battalion halted for the night in a series of small farms standing in a piece of country not unlike the ground round Inkerman Barracks at Woking. The morning of the 20th saw us early afoot. At 8 a.m. we were formed up on the Arques--Eblinghem--Hazebrouck road, ready to embus. There is always a certain amount of amusement at embussing. To begin with, the buses almost invariably face in the opposite direction to what is expected. Moreover, they are frequently of all sizes and shapes, and thereby upset your most careful calculations. For a man wearing full marching order, plus a blanket wound round his pack, it is no easy matter to scale a lorry. A bus--that is, a real bus--presents less difficulty; but the stairs are awkward, and the constructional expert of the General Omnibus Company did not design his seats to accommodate people requiring at least twelve inches of spare seat behind the traveller before he can hope to sit down. The scene to the uninitiated would appear to be sheer chaos. Each vehicle is surrounded by a heaving and struggling mass; and when this has been dissipated, there are still men who have to be almost literally forced into vehicles which look hopelessly overcrowded already. The operation takes time, but eventually the long column moves off. With the violent motion caused by the lack of springs and bad _pavé_ the human mass is gradually shaken into a more or less solid condition; and it is really rather remarkable that at the end of the journey anyone is sufficiently mobile to begin the process of debussing.