1 S.S.a.3 July 18th /16 My Dear Mother, yrs of july 7th & 10th & enclosures, also
... paper sent on, all came yesterday morning
Quite imaginary , I fancy, rumours that no letters
were being sent to France, like so many other
rumours, pure imagination, any way as far as concerns
our people. I don't know about visiting forces, but
probably their letters go just the same time here on
Sunday after 3 like at my last place. Above also here,
a small town of some 5000 inhabitants, quite
pretty spot on the Moselle. I fancy will be here only
till next Sunday, but don't know. Fine now & quite
warm today. I have a nice large room over a jeweller's
shop & the landlady brings me up my petit dejeuner every
morning, for which & the room I pay 12f50 a week!
My sharer & I feed together at a little cafe in
the town, the patron & his wife feed at the other end of
our table at dejeuner & she waits on us & eats
between times & he & she get up at intervals to
attend to various soldier customers who keeps stopping
in for their wine . All this makes a little change
from living all together & the many (at times) stresses, which
one gets rather tired of. My sharer, a very nice
steady fellow, was in the army, what a difference army training makes, such a different respectable
type to the average sharer with no army training. I 2
was sorry in a way to leave. When we were there I found
at the hotel, nice people I made friends with & at one
garage too, they would not charge my sharer any thing
for his room! How too funny Josie Corbally marrying
Herbert Nimmi where did they meet. He came out
to us last August for 6 months, but just after I left
Gerard over to go to Paris in Nov He broke his
leg tobogganning & was in hospital there for a time
& then convalesced home. I lunched with him at
the North Club in March & within a day or two
of Josie lunching with me at Jules! I wonder if
they knew one another then. He is not a bad chap
about 48 rather fussy & I fancy probably £1000 to
£1200 a year, I say this as a mere guess. He
told me he intended to live in England in future.
I think they are quite a well known family in
N.I., Wales, stations etc. & he has a married sister
in England. I should say very Prot. of the Sydney sort
I know, but I may be wrong. I confess I can't
understand Josie marrying him, however it is
not more curious than many other marriages we
all know of. Personally I should not care for the
job of being Mrs Nimmi, but I'm sure he
is probably a good, kind hearted soul & after all
Josie was not just 21 last week! Right thing for
her to marry & settle down, probably tired of
wandering about staying with people & with a,
I fear, large crop of young widows coming on,
girls can't be too particular if they want husbands.
I have written to congratulate both. She is a very good 3 sort & I hope she is very happy with her Herbert. I wonder
where they will be married. I imagine any thing R.C.
will be very novel to him. I had no idea you
were 75 on 10th July, I never knew any family birthday
& never did, stupid of me, but being so many
years away I suppose I forgot them if I ever knew
them. I'm glad you are going to Thu.. today for
a bit & I suppose Turbotstown too if they are there.
Better go later to England so you can stay a month
at least once you are there, or 6 wks. Coughton for 2 or
3 wks, Southend & Aunt M. & no doubt they will meet
you at Euston. A line from Sean, he has been
staying with PJ, Alice is or was in Ireland.
Good news from all fronts this morning. Yes, our
casualty lists are, I fear many, but it has to be
if ever the war is to end. You can imagine what
it has been in this country amongst the millions
fighting here for nearly 2 years! Trise's letter was
interesting, her news of Aunt M. was not very
good. I suppose she may go on for some considerable
time, on the other hand she may go off fairly
suddenly. Thanks for Hayes bill. I will send him
a chq. soon. My world always seems better & happier
away from home! Yes, I think I have got all your
letters. Rifle Brigade does sound rather expensive esp.
for most, poor Maurice & regt. would be nice
& not so expensive; they go in for being so hard up
I don't know why so keen on an expensive regt.
However after war I fancy a lot of that will
change all referral Rifle Brigade I suppose are killed 4 I don't suppose such extravagant habits will be
possible with most formation & formally with army
of the future. I should not suppose there would be
much difficulty in fitting into Rifle Brigade or any
other boys now a days. It is quiet here & one is not bombarded by aeroplanes
which is an advantage, we had 3 bombardments
in the three weeks I was at the last place. They
have taken to bombarding one at night & fly
quite low, you can hear them very plainly
but hard to see. Has Mr. de Munck got a job yet.
I wonder if Augustus did or was able to do any thing
for him. Yes, I fear it has been a wet june
in England & Ireland. Here very wet. Probably we
shall have a lovely Autumn. I hope Rudolph is all right, they must be always
anxious about him. Our new army seems to have
done splendidly, lots of praise in French papers about
it. The Russian recovery is wonderful. Josie is sure to take her Rimmi over to Donadea
& he will be shown to Maud & to
perhaps you will see him. Ireland seems very
unsettled. What are they going to do with the
wretched country, why on earth they could
not leave it alone & never introduce a Home
Rule Bill. W will become a sort of mild m...
I suppose,cheerful!> Vast love
.......... son Arthur One or two nasty f.... of d.........
make me rather doubt if
I shall be able to stay
winter out here.
..... 5 A. J. Dease
S.S.A.3 M....A.... 25/7 Turbotstown
Coole
Co Westmeath I.M. Lady Dease
Celbridge
Ireland 16+16=32 Irelande.