Letters from Albert Charles Cox to his mother, 1915-1916 - Part 14

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feel a bit cool yet. The farmhouses

strike one as being very old for the

buildings are so built to form a square  

into which all the straw & horse manure

is thrown & left until needed. We

thought they were very lazy or short

of labour at first, but I believe the

same conditions exist in England.

Three of us share a room in which

there is a beautifully soft bed & I

have it until my valise comes to

hand. It managed to get lost somehow

on the train, but it is expected to

arrive to-day. Champagne is pretty

cheap (Moey & Chandon 3/6 a bottle) but

we have not seen much of it for

none of us have been paid for about

three weeks & are all broke.

9.

None of the farmers own more than about

a couple of acres, & one never sees a fence,

but hedges take their place in most cases.

It is not at all uncommon though to see

a wheat patch alongside the road without

a fence of any kind. The houses of course

are very close together & in every one, I

think, you can buy wine, (1/6 a bottle)

& quite good too although not very

intoxicating. None of the inhabitants

can boast of good looks, but some

of the little kids have lovely peachy

complexions. We are all progressing well

with the French, but the accent they

have here is not quite what exists

in the best society. Religion appears to

be a big factor in these peoples lives for

at short intervals along the road you

10

come across small altars in a little

stone or wooden building just off the road

as well as a crucifix or small statue of

Mary etc. to be seen in a tree every

100 yards or so.

The butter is made by dogs by means

of what you might call treadmills. There

is a large wooden wheel outside the

house round the inside of which the

dog runs, so revolving the wheel which

in turn revolves the churn inside the

butter box ^in the house. of course they know when

the butter is made, for the dog can't

turn the wheel any longer. Rather a

good idea isn't it. Strange to relate

there has not been any rain for the last

two days, the the sun has been pretty warm

11

3/7/16.

Received two letters from you to-day

dated 7^th & 9^th May. which were the

first for about a couple of   one months.

Hope you have not been worrying too

much over the absence of my letters

lately, but you can quite understand

the reason for the delay now. I don't 

think it would do any harm if you

altered my address accordingly.

Will close this here & get it

away. Sorry for the delay, but

will send you a wire about the

time my last letter should reach

you if I can. Best of love

from Bert

France

14/7/16

Dearest,

Nine months to-day since I left on the Port

Lincoln, but a last I have my desire to a certain

extent for we took over a few days ago & have

been under fire, although only light. But this is

not war, it is magnificent as the French General

said of the charge of the Light Brigade. Coldham &

myself are living a few hundred yards behind the

line in a farm house which up till a few days

ago remained untouched, xxxx when a shell

lobbed into the middle of it & sent its owners off in

a great hurry apparently for there is quite a decent

amount of crockery & other conveniences in it,

to say nothing of a good stove. There is a vegetable

garden containing beautiful green peas, potatoes,

lettuce, onions, etc.etc. & together with our rations

living is pretty high class. We are sleeping in what

was once the stable (two stalls) but you would

never think it to see it at present. Beds, shelves

2

tables, chairs etc are in plenty & the boys have a

fine barn with plenty of straw to sleep on. We

can walk about almost anywhere during the day

when their observation baloon is not up, but

machine guns make it a bit warm at night.

Nevertheless a chap would be unlucky to get

in the road of a bullet just yet. There is not

much sleeping to be done at night, but there is

practically all day. It will be quite weird to be

told I am late in coming home when I return,

after becoming used to such late hours. Shells

are going ^over from both sides but they are kind

enough to keep them sufficiently high to miss us.

We pass through some pretty fair sized

villages on the way out here, & had a very

comfortable bed & good feed in one of them. The

billeting system is a much better idea (from

the soldiers' point of view) to pitching tents.

Unfortunately though, the inhabitants of this

country have not the same devotion to baths

as we have, & a bathroom is very rare, hence

yours truly has only managed to obtain two

3

sponge baths in a fortnight, but the weather is cool

& we sleep in our clothes. I wish I could have

a photo taken of me in my gas helmet, (not for

the purpose of showing my beauty) but to let you see

what they look like. Awful contrivances, but perfectly

safe from gas.

Letters will take a little longer to reach you

now I suppose as they go through England. You had

better come & live there as we shall be able to write

letters one day & have them delivered the next.

Don't be very annoyed with me though, not

writing you of my whereabouts, but up to the present

there have been no opportunities of doing so since

arriving in France. May be able to get one off in a 

few days though.

No more news at present

Best of love to all from

Bert

1 DRL 220