With Rimington

With Rimington

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Title: With Rimington
Author: L. March Phillipps
Release Date: February 21, 2005 [EBook #15131]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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WITH RIMINGTON
BY
L. MARCH PHILLIPPS
LATE CAPTAIN IN RIMINGTON'S GUIDES

SECOND IMPRESSION

LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
37 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND, W.C.

1902
All rights reserved

DEDICATION
_This book is dedicated to the memory of my friend Lieutenant
Gustavus Coulson, D.S.O., of the King's Own Scottish Borderers, who
fell at Lambrechtfontein on May 19, 1901._
_The Colonel in command writes that in that action Lieutenant Coulson
rallied some men and saved a gun from falling into the enemy's hands.
He lost his life in bringing off a wounded man from under the enemy's
fire. For this deed, the last of many deeds as brave, he was
recommended for the Victoria Cross._
_I knew him from his childhood, and on the march from Lindley to
Pretoria, and thence far south to Basutoland, we often rode together,
and talked of West Country sport and his Devonshire home and faces
that we both knew and loved there._
_A keen soldier, a cheery comrade, and a brave and kindly English
gentleman, he stands, it seems to me, the very type of those gallant
boys who in this South African war have died for England_.

PREFACE
These letters were written without any idea of publication, and it was
not until I had been home some months that suggestions from one or
two sources caused me to think of printing them. They appear much as
they were written, except that sometimes several letters dealing with
the same event have been thrown into one; and occasionally a few
words have been added to fill up gaps. In no case have I been wise after
the event, or put in prophecies which had already come off.
The parts in inverted commas are extracts from note-books which I
used to carry about in my pocket, and these passages I have left just as
they were jotted down, thinking that such snap-shots of passing scenes
might have an interest of their own.
It is unlucky from a descriptive point of view that the big actions and
fine effects should all have occurred during the first part of the war,
leaving the dulness and monotony for the later stages. During the last

six months of my service it was not my chance to see any important
action, though slight skirmishing was constant, and I find therefore
nothing in the later letters of a very exciting nature.
Such as they are, however, these letters contain a quite faithful account
of things that happened under my own eyes throughout the chief stages
of the western campaign. During the early part of the war many things
happened that were splendid to see and that it gave me great pleasure to
write about. During the later stages nothing particularly splendid
occurred, though the patience and endurance of our men were in their
way fine; but some things happened which were, as we say, regrettable;
and these things also are in their turn briefly described.
L.M.P.
15 BURY STREET, ST. JAMES'S, S.W.

CONTENTS
LETTER PAGE
I. ORANGE RIVER CAMP 1
II. BELMONT 8
III. GRASPAN 15
IV. MODDER RIVER 22
V. THE 4.7 30
VI. MAGERSFONTEIN 34
VII. A RECONNAISSANCE 43
VIII. SCOUTING ON THE MODDER 49
IX. THE ADVANCE 59
X. RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY 63
XI. PAARDEBERG--THE BOMBARDMENT 73
XII. PAARDEBERG--THE SURRENDER 77
XIII. POPLAR GROVE 83
XIV. BLOEMFONTEIN 89
XV. MODDER REVISITED 97
XVI. JUSTIFICATION OF THE WAR 104
XVII. THE MARCH NORTH 112
XVIII. PRETORIA 126
XIX. THE MARCH SOUTH 139
XX. PRINSLOO'S SURRENDER--I 151
XXI. PRINSLOO'S SURRENDER--II 165

XXII. FIGHTING AND TREKKING 173
XXIII. WRITTEN FROM HOSPITAL 185
XXIV. FIGHTING AND FARM-BURNING 192
XXV. THE SITUATION 205
XXVI. PLAIN MISTER! 217

WITH RIMINGTON

LETTER I
ORANGE RIVER CAMP
ORANGE RIVER, November 18, 1899.
The sun is just rising on Orange River Camp. Our tents are pitched on
the slopes of white sand, soft and deep, into which you sink at every
step, that stretch down to the river, dotted with a few scraggy
thorn-trees. There are men round me, sleeping about on the sand, rolled
in their dark brown blankets, like corpses laid out, covered from head
to foot, with the tight folds drawn over their feet