We are all still together, with not much to do and plenty of time on
parade to do it in. I will give you one of my men's description of
their billet: "I am situated at present in country not unlike
Welphine. Our billet is pretty decent, on the first floor of a large
building, which bears a slight resemblance outwardly to a Workhouse.
What an existence! Look up 'Dante's Inferno,' and you will get some
idea of every soldier's environment." I am afraid that our mess is
none too quiet at times itself, though at present they are all quietly
playing cards and reading. To-day being Sunday Kitty and I had a
holiday and had breakfast in bed at 9-30.
I am just recovering from rather a bad cold; we all have come in for
one, and it seems to make most of us rather argumentative on all
subjects relating to trench mortars, various regiments, &c., being a
motley collection of regulars, New Army and Special Reserve, and
Territorial officers drawn from all sorts of regiments and
representing every branch of the army except the R.E. We have R.F.A.,
E.G.A., R.H.A., A.S.C. and Infantry. Rather a cosmopolitan crowd, and
we, most of us, all hold different views on every possible subject
that turns up, but we manage to agree on the whole.
Last night Brand and I took our beds outside. It is topping weather at
present--very hot, but I like hot weather. Our mess-room leads out
into a sort of terrace with a wild garden all round. It must have been
very pretty before the war, even in its deserted state it is very
nice; forget-me-nots and bits of lake and stream everywhere. I feel as
fit as a fiddle and am as brown as a berry.
And guess what time I was up this morning--6-0 a.m., and it will be
5-0 a.m. to-morrow for a field day. When you are in rest you do just
twice as much work as in the trenches. But the only think I dislike is
moving.
I am waiting very impatiently for our gramophone to arrive, it is so
topping out in the open at night. I am afraid that I have been a long
time writing this letter, but, as you know, we are still in rest, and
I have little news. In addition, we have been kept very busy. To-day
(Sunday) we paraded at 4-15 a.m. (just think of me on parade at 4-15!)
and I wasn't late; we had a field day, lugging heavy guns about in the
heat, and firing dummy rounds. Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed it.
To-night Lake and I went for a bathe in the river. As I think I have
told you the country is very like Cambridge, or rather more like
Norfolk Broads, streams everywhere, wide rivers and small streams
intersecting all the fields, so that, unfortunately, wherever you take
a short cut you have to jump all sorts of ditches, and already three
of us, including myself, have bathed in our clothes. Leading off the
rivers are smaller rivers, and everywhere by the riverside are small
white farms, each owning two or three flat-bottomed boats like large
canoes, shaped like gondolas, and they go everywhere in them, and take
their horses too.
I hope to come home for leave on the 1st of June, but leave may be
cancelled before then. We have an allotment of leave for the Battery,
but I cannot take the first leave myself. Thank you very much for the
pleasant parcel, with pyjamas and papers, received the other day.
Well, good-night, little mother, you can always know that the fewer
letters I write the more harmless time I am having, because I have
less to tell.
Much love to all, from your loving Son,
ALEC.
May 7th.