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the north or extreme west. Whether they have more capital than the local men, or whether it is more easy to conceal their want of capital, is often a doubtful question. Sometimes they turn out utter failures, sometimes they succeed, but without exception they drive hard bargains, and in this case my farm is not good enough or cheap enough for the applicant, he does not say which. Then I interview a party who are come down to inspect some neighbouring land with a view to starting cement works, and who are in treaty for its purchase. What will come of this scheme it is very hard to say. If it succeeds it will completely change the whole of the conditions under which this particular farm is now carried on, and it may lead to a considerable increase in its value. Anyhow I shall have the experiment tried at other people's expense, and time will show how far it is successful.

After a long day in Essex, I get hack to London and have time to get some dinner at Waterloo Station before going to Southampton, where the ship in which my wounded son is returning from South Africa is due tomorrow. Waterloo Station and Fenchurch Street are now more inconvenient, crowded and out of date than any other of the London termini. It is indeed a marvel how the enormous traffic at both of them is carried on, and considering how large a number of reserve men in the railway staff are now called up for service in South Africa it is wonderful that the traffic is got through without accident. I find the Station Hotel at Southampton much improved and full of anxious wives, mothers and friends who have come on the same errand as myself. At breakfast Yeomanry Reserve officers who have arrived from the north, and Staff officers are in evidence, and as the Canada is supposed to be delayed by fog, we go down to the wharf and watch the embarkation of a battery of artillery which has been in the train all night. The arrangements are admirable. An immense shed allows horses and men to be detrained in shelter, affords ample room for all the baggage to be arranged and sorted; warmed waiting-rooms are partitioned off for invalids and ladies. Tables provided by various benevolent societies are ready with cheap and wholesome refreshments for the men arriving and departing. Every arrangement which experience has shown to facilitate the rapid and orderly embarkation of baggage, men and horses is in working order. The men, who seem to be nearly all reservists, are almost without exception a workmanlike, superior-looking lot, and, I should think, if not so smart in appearance as we have been used to expect, are much more likely to stand the hardships of war than younger men. The horses, on the other hand, are a decidedly scratch lot taken from omnibus companies and other sources, and many of them do not look in very good condition. They are led on board through a gangway in the ship's side on to the upper deck which is entirely fitted up with strong stalls, and with very few exceptions go to their stalls without any trouble. A great number of iron hospital beds are being shipped for which no room seems to have been allotted, and the forepart of the ship is much encumbered with these and other baggage, but no doubt all will be properly stowed before the ship gets out of the Channel.

By three o'clock everything is on board and the ship is cast off amid