Bowler war diary, 21 May-July 1917 / William (Bill) Gordon Bowler - Page 40

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[Page 40]

Intervals, and they were old Hayseeds. We began to realise the price Blighty was paying in this war. Along the railway line, in the property of the Railway CO'y, we saw miles of potatoes, worzels, and scarlet runners growing. Every available yard of soil appears to be under cultivation. Intense culture is the order of the day, And so we raced ob through Devon, the birthplace of men who have made England and her Navy what it is today. We gazed on country familiar to such men as Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Richard Grenville, Drake, Frobisher, etc., now the home of men and women the descendants of such men and their followers, who are true to type. We crossed to Somerset where we saw some very fine cattle and sheep, also similar green fields, thatched roofed houses, and running streams, that we had seen in Devon. We ran out along the sea coast for awhile, and saw hundreds of children paddling in the water. They all waved hats, spades, and buckets to us, as we went by. We turned again inland, and soon pulled up at Exeter, where the Mayoress supplied us with hot tea and long currant bun, brown in colour, that tasted very good. The boys had great fun with the girls and boys selling chocolates and cigarettes on the Station. The Zomerzet dialect amused them and our chaps pretended to be very dense, so that Billy-boy would have to make lengthy explanations about the price etc, of everything. All the boys and girls appeared to us to be brothers and sisters. They all had the same fat apple cheeks, and wore almost the same clothes. We entrained again, and travelled on through Somerset and entered the County of Wiltshire. It was now about 5 oclock and we saw dozens of women and girls in the fields seated on

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