The request for the concert parties to go up to the trenches and firing-lines soon followed, and this fresh branch of work was undertaken. Only men are allowed to go in the firing-line parties, and the Y.M.C.A. cars convey them on these tours. Concerts have frequently been given under shell fire--sometimes to an audience fully armed and liable to be ordered into the trenches at any moment. Some of the most successful concerts are those for men just leaving the trenches after days of fighting, and here perhaps the music has had its most wonderful effect. It seems to act like magic on the exhausted men, strained almost beyond endurance by the ordeals they have had to face. The spell of horror is broken and their minds are turned away from all they have suffered to thoughts of beauty and happiness. The existence of the firing-line concert parties is in itself a proof of how much the military authorities appreciate the concerts and their effects. They have been quick to realise that the British Army can stand anything better than being bored. The keenness with which the concerts are anticipated, the touching patience of the men, who will wait for hours in bitter wind and rain--they would rather miss their principal meal than miss a performance,--the discussion for weeks afterwards, all prove how much the music means to them. At the outset Miss Ashwell determined that the concerts should be up to a high standard. The programmes are varied as much as possible. Classical music, selections from operas, glees, trios, and concertos, the old ballads and folk-songs, are all given, as well as popular rag-times and modern chorus songs. A “concert party” generally consists of a soprano, contralto, bass, tenor, violinist or ’cellist, pianist and accompanist, and often a ventriloquist, conjurer or reciter. “The entertainment given is a mixture of a ballad concert, a recital, and a children’s party,” writes a member of one audience. Sometimes plays are arranged, and in the autumn of 1916 Miss Ashwell herself took out a small dramatic company and acted in _Macbeth_, _The School for Scandal_, and some short modern plays. Writing of these performances, Miss Ashwell says: “We gave _The School for Scandal_ in a wood, with half our audience on the grass, the other half dangerously overcrowding the branches of the nearest trees. _Macbeth_ was given in a great hangar, with Army blankets for the walls of the banqueting-hall, and a sugar-box for the throne. _Macbeth_ was an enormous success. Its reception was wonderful. We gave it to vast audiences; they listened breathlessly in absolute silence, and then cheered and cheered and cheered.... There were never such audiences in the world before--so keen, so appreciative, so grateful.”