THE RELIEF OF
MAFEKING

HOW IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY
MAHON'S FLYING COLUMN; WITH
AN ACCOUNT OF SOME EARLIER
EPISODES IN THE BOER WAR OF
1899-1900

BY

FILSON YOUNG

WITH PORTRAITS AND PLANS

METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
1900

FIELD-MARSHALL LORD ROBERTS, K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., V.C.

TO
M. C. D.

PREFACE

The proprietors of the Manchester Guardian have kindly allowed me to make use of their copyright in the letters written by me to that newspaper during the first half of the year. The substance of the letters has been reproduced in the hope that home-staying folk may find in them something of the atmosphere that surrounds the collision of armed forces. It is a strange and rude atmosphere; yet it pleases me at this moment to remember not so much the strangeness and rudeness as the kindness and good-fellowship that made a dreadful business tolerable and the memory of it pleasant. Many friends of these brave days I may not see again, but if their eyes should ever light on this page I would have them know that it contains a greeting.

FILSON YOUNG

London, July 31st, 1900

CONTENTS

Part I.

ENGLAND IN TIME OF WAR

Part II.

IN THE WAKE OF THE ARMY

Part III.

LORD ROBERTS'S ADVANCE TO BLOEMFONTEIN

Part IV.

AN EXPEDITION WITH LORD METHUEN

Part V.

WITH THE FLYING COLUMN TO MAFEKING