Letters from Norman Griffiths Ellsworth to his Mother, 1916 - Part 12 of 28

Caledonian Hotel, 
Inverness, Scotland
April 18^th 1916 

Dearest Mater, & all at Home,
A line to say that
I am still going strong, like Johnnie Walker, &
am thoroughly enjoying every minute of my tour.
We left Edinburgh at 9.25 yesterday morning,
changed trains at Perth at midday, & then passed
thro' very pretty but hilly & rugged country.
Stirling Castle was passed, the sense of olden
battle times, also Bannockburn, & Calloden.
The rivers are very shallow, but flow
very fast & they wind in a charming way
at the foot of the different hills, & in amongst
townships etc. The highland cattle are
very rough & shaggy looking creatures, & are
living right at the top of the hills & amongst
the snow. We arrived at Inverness at 4-30
in the same afternoon, but as we did not
care for the locality of the place where it
was intended that we should stay, we came
here, which is a little more expensive, but
far more comfortable, and our money is
lasting surprisingly well. The town itself
is, of course, very old, & not a great deal to
(over

see, but the river Ness, is very pretty & has
some nice walks. The locality is very
strong in Churches, & a certain amount of
rivalry exists in the Scottish belief, as there
is a Free Church, a Reformed Scotch church,
& the High Presbyterian Church, & each is
trying to outdo the other two.
The Scotch dialect
is very hard at times for us to understand at
times, & we generally have to guess what is said.
To-morrow, we go on to Aberdeen, & after
two days there, go on to Glasgow, & then back
to Edinburgh, then on to Crewe to go to Ireland.
I am feeling splendid, & I hope that
you are all the same. Give my Love
to all at Home & enquirers & relations
& accept the same from
Your loving son.
Norman.
P.S.
A few Post Cards for Dear Mab inside
N.

[*Went to see 
Tittell Brune in 
"The Girl from upstairs," & 
did not know her, as 
she has altered so. It was 
a very poor house. 
but a good play. N*] 

New York, Hotel
Tottenham Court Road. 
London, England. 
April 26^th 1916. 

My Dearest Mother & all at Home,
Just a few
lines hoping you are all well, as I am glad
to say that I am not only still going strong,
but have never felt better in my life than
I do at present, & am glad to say that
I am thoroughly enjoying every minute of
my holiday & tour, & only wish that you
were all with me.
I came back from Scotland 
on the 24^th, to attend the Anzac show
in London on the 25^th, & we were giving
given the most magnificent reception from
the population of London, who turned up
in one vast crowd, & threw flowers &
cigarettes & all that sort of thing at us,
& cheered themselves hoarse at us, &, in
fact, we felt rather swelled headed
at the way we were treated, & they way
people shook us by the hand, & women
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Page .2.  
embraced us, & wept over us & all that kind
of rot, & attempted to cry "coo-ee", & some
very wonderful noises these attempts developed
into, that one could only guess that it
was meant for "coo-ee", however, we really
appreciated it all very much, & will never
forget it as long as we live. As for the
girls, –-- well, they simply flung themselves 
at our boys, & they marched along
in the procession too.
We left Waterloo
Railway Stn, & proceeded thro' all the
famous streets & thoro'fares, & on passing
the War Office, K of K looked down on
us & actually smiled at us, so we gave
him a great cheer. Later on we found
our little Birdwood waiting for us, &
the cheer we gave him almost blew
him out of the street into the Thames.
On arrival as the Abbey, we were all
shown into seats, to the accompaniment
of the grand organ, as which the famous
Organist Sir JF. Bridge presided. The
Anzac band then rendered Handels

Page 3.
"Largo", & the King & Queen, accompanied
by K. of K., Sir Ian Hamilton, Gen Sir
W. Robertson, Gen Birdwood, & others, &
these all took their seats, & then service
commenced, (copy enclosed) after which,
the "Last Post" was sounded by 8 Buglers
from the Chancel, & we filed out again,
to go to the Hotel Cecil & afterwards to
the Theatre, where speeches etc, & a play
were given. Really, our lads, on the
whole, looked fine & big, & seemed to
impress everyone with their physique,
(especially the girls) & one could not
but feel proud at being an Australian
The weather was perfect, & the sun
shone on the whole show, & made every
thing look so nice, & our lads in their
new tailor made uniforms seemed to
revel. in it. The girls here have gone
crazy of the Australasians, & will do
anything for us.
To-morrow, we go back
to Scotland, & continue our tour, including
Glasgow; Crewe; Dublin; Killarney & Cork.
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Page 4  
I am doubtful if the Ireland trip will
come off, as there are Riots, etc there, &
there is some talk of "leave" being cancelled 
in Ireland, but so far, no word
has reached our headquarters of it, so
we are going on, as before.
I have been
sending you P.Cs & letters from each
place that we have been to, so I hope
that you received them alright. I, of
course, have had no letters from Melb,
since I left Hospital, as I left word
for all my letter to go to Gravesend,
so I will get them all when I go there,
but I hope that you are all well.
I do not think that I will be sent to
The Front for some little time yet, as the
French Gov^t do not want Enterics over
there, but all the same, if I get half a
chance to go over, you bet I'll go, as I
am just longing to see my boys again,
but I would not take work in England
at any cost, as there are too many
malingerers here already, dodging their "bit" 
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Page 5. 
Promotions are flying about in all directions 
now, but I would not take any
if it was offered me, after the way our
boys were treated on the Peninsular.
Yardley, I believe, has a "cold footed"
job at our Base at Abbey Wood, so, if
this is true, he is no better than we thought
of him some time ago.
Our trip to Scotland 
has been simply delicious, & the
scenery & country, charming, & on our
way from Aberdeen to Edinburgh, we
came along the sea coast, for some
time, & saw the Fleet patrolling out a
bit, & they looked fine too. We had
the pleasure of coming over the "Firth of
Tay" bridge, & also the mighty "Firth of
Forth" bridge, which is 2½ miles in
length, & it is a marvellous structure.
We attended St Giles Cathedral in
Edinburgh on Easter Day, this, of course,
is the greatest & biggest Cathedral in
Scotland. We were surprised at
there being no holiday on Good Friday
(over 

[*The Secret of the French success at
Verdun, was their Turpenile shells, which
kill by concussion only) *]

Page 6. 
Work as usual, & all shops & business
places were open. Aberdeen is a
splendid, & almost every house is built
of granite, & the roads are paved with
granite, & the place is nicely laid
out with gardens & lawns, & statues
etc. Each house has a very nice
garden & lawn to it, which is not so
with the houses in Edinburgh. We had
a chance of seeing the docks where all
kinds of Naval craft were being built,
but of course, could not go near. We
two Australians caused people to stop
work in Aberdeen, & gape at us, & we
were described as Indians, Cow-boys,
Canadians, & in fact, anything but Australian
& the way people stared at as, made us
feel very uncomfortable at times.
Well, dear,
I must close now, hoping you are all
well, hoping that the war is over soon, with
regards to relatives, & love & all the
rest of it, to you all, I am always
Your loving son
Norman.   

1 DRL 266