Writing to Pips late in the evening, he recounted his day spent journeying into Bethune: ‘I find sitting in a shelter all day does one no good and you can’t feel well when you don’t do any exercise to keep you fit’. He had been given a lift part way by a ‘motor lorry’, but had then walked the remaining 5 miles. It had been a long time since he had seen such ‘out of the way articles’ as woollen socks, or gloves, or since he had seen a chemists or a greengrocer. He was not there for long before he started home, but first he called in to an Estaminet (which had a ‘special room for officers’), and enjoyed a 3-franc lunch in the company of a Major who ‘told me of our latest successes’.
He savoured the delights of walking through an untouched countryside:
‘It was a lovely day and the country, which is not naturally pretty, looked remarkably fresh for the time of the year; to see old French peasants pottering about in their gardens and fields gives a pleasant relief from the usual sights here – it is even a relief to see houses that have not been battered out of recognition, and gardens that have not been knocked in – yet however far one goes from the line there is always that inevitable shell hole in the garden wall, or in the road, or somewhere.’
Letter to Pips, 15 November 1916. By permission of the Surrey History Centre (Ref: 2332/1/1/3/110)
His evident relief at being out in the countryside was the counterpart to the increased anxiety that had arisen from the shelling that had occurred in his area over the previous two days:
‘I am afraid that my nerves have suffered since I have been out here – I sometimes (especially when going through trenches alone at night) get very jumpy, and a missile going off near me has much more effect than when I first came out here – I suppose this will wear off in time, or at least I hope it will, or it may help me get home with “Shell-shock”.’
In the meantime he was thinking of trying to become a specialist in something – anything where there is a ‘real interest, instead of a monotonous waiting in filthy trenches, which is the work in quiet parts of the line’. He had always loved to specialise in something, so his main interest in his off-duty hours now was in trying to puzzle out which was the best specialist course to take. In the meantime, he would try to learn a bit about mining work by following the RE officers around, if they’d let him. ‘I don’t suppose I should ever be able to learn enough about the work to be transferred to the RE, but what does it matter trying – it can do no harm.’
[Next letter: 16 November]