1 5 August 1917 My dear Daddy No news and I have no letters
to answer as something has gone wrong
with the post and letters have not
been forwarded yet. I know there
are lots for me somewhere and so
I will have a great read one of these
days. They will all come together I
expect. I am sure they will very soon
come as things are getting straightened
out here now. This is a nice
bright sunny morning and every place
drying up well but I never recollect
such continuous rain at any time
before. However there is one
consolation and that is that the
huns cannot build trenches in the wet. Certainly the rain has done for
him this week what all the guns
in Germany could not have done 2 2
However it is only delayed.
The rain has also done an awful
lot of damage to crops. They were
very heavy and just ripe and
now they look as if they had
been rolled. There are some very nice villages
near here where we can get
tea or dinner and we are allowed
out as much as we like as we are
only here to wait until we are
needed again. You need not be imagining that
I am wading about in water or
anything like that. I am in a nice
comfortable farm house and have
a nice comfortable bed every night.
And yet I do not feel satisfied
I would much rather be where the
regiment are. I am afraid my
old regiment have had rather a rough
time but I have not been able to
get any particulars yet. 3 3.
I think I have got a very good
servant again. The one I got after
poor Gault was killed was no good,
so we parted. However I have got
a good one this time. The leave
for the men is very good now.
We are sending as many as 12
per week sometimes. A few officers
are getting away also so if it remains
open my turn may come sometime
about the end of September. I wonder could you get me a
couple of good lead pencils and put
them in a parcel. I still have the
indelible but I cant write anything
that might get wet with it. The
best pencil made now that the Austrian
Koh-E-noor is gone is the Royal
Sovereign H.B. They ae 4d each but
I have used one constantly for the
last six months and it is nearly 4 4.
worn out. If you cannot get
them any thing will do. It is
impossible to get a good pencil
out here. Are any of my letters
ever opened by the Base Censor? He wouldn't find much information
if he did. I went out yesterday afternoon
to a town near here and I
travelled in quite a variety of ways.
1st I went for a bit in a cart. Then
another bit on a motor lorry. Then
walked a bit. Coming back I
started in the side car of a motor
bike and finished up again by
walking not because the motor
broke down but because but
because it was not going any
further. I have just been thinking that
this day week will be the 12th
you must take Bobby out this 5 5
year and I hope you will have
a very good day. It will be a
great day for Bobby. With luck
I will get a shot at a partridge
or pheasant. I wonder will it be
a good grouse year. I rather
think not as it was too dry if
you had it as dry as we had.
It should be very good for
partridge and pheasants. It is
very good indeed that you are
meeting so many. This is a very sultry day as the
heat wet is drying out of the
ground with the hot sun. I wrote to Mrs Waters Jasfar
since & Governor during the
week. I took advantage of the
wet days. We got an order
yesterday to move and so we all
packed up and got ready to go 6 and then got a message cancelling
the whoe thing. I see great talk
in the papers of the caterpiller plague
in England. That is what you told
me about weeks ago. Flies are
a great nuisance out her now.
They give us sticky paper now in
the rations for catching them. No more news now as with
very best love to all from
Your most affec. Son
Willie