198
The Vi-res Times.
Already the outward aspect of those old battlefields has changed, in a miraculous way
as it seems to those who walked about them in time of war. Nature, and the industry
of men and women have obliterated many of the old signs of strife and destruction. The
trenches have silted in, dug-outs have been filled up, shell holes have been ploughed over,
the fields of death are fertile again with new harvests of peace. Red roofed houses have
been built in the ruins of towns and villages, which were but heaps of charred brick and
twisted iron when British divisions marched through them to the front line. It is difficult
without a map to discover the old landmarks of the war days even though one knew the
ground with the intimate knowledge that comes from dodging shell fire, and following
the track of duck boards, and watching an enemy's line of sand bags from a forward
observation post.
CADETS AT YPRES, AUGUST, 1925.
This change is good, for it is the renewal of life and peace. But in a few years it
will be harder still to convey any realistic picture of what the Warjwas like to those who
visit its fields. It is the chance of youth now that it can see many traces of what
happened, and can, with a little friendly guidance by men who were there, see very vividly
the main outlines of that stupendous drama as it was to some extent conditioned by the
lie of the land, by low-lying ridges and sunken roads and canals and waterways. Boys
a hundred years hence would give it may be what little treasure they have to walk across
this ground with one of those men who actually took part in the War, who stood in the
trenches there, who went over the top at dawn, who wore one of those tin hats which
