Item 04: G. O. Hawkins letters to his family, 2 January 1915-November 1917 - Page 230
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[Page 230]
1654 G.O.Hawkins
APOS 23
No 5 Con Depot
BEF
FRANCE
[following text at top of page]
Glad you and Sheila and Bee are well again
Look after yourself dear and never fear for my luck and sleep will not fail me
1
Dear Beatrice
The sandy soil with its covering of grass and moss is yet damp with rain from yesterdays grey and sombre sky, but I have discovered a patch in a hollow of the pine planted duns where fallen needles, already dried and warmed by the morning sunbeams; have overspread this cushion of soppy green with a goblin-like fabric of woven brown.
So generously have the pines cast their faded needles that the mat thus formed is springy of texture and soft with the thickness of comfort.
It is altogether delightful to lie on, for the sweetness of the woods is in it as an essence, from which the warm sunlight of Heaven distills that ever subtle incense which edges out thoughts and wafts beyond. That incense which seems no less than an offering made by nature at communion, where the transitory and concrete are linked with the unseen everlasting
Here, as in a cup of warmth, I can rest; and here I can write almost undisturbed