Cocks letter diary, 1916-1919 / Verner Cocks - Page 40
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[Page 40]
If I could only make you realise the great time I have had - the great officers & men I am with you would never stop envying me.
The trip through Devonshire to Salisbury is beyond my description. Never before had we seen such rich country such gorgeous forests such green fields. You have no conception of the depth of meaning in the phrase "the green fields of England". Of course Devonshire is supposed to be the prettiest county in England & we are here just in the best months of the year. Had a beautiful sunny day to see it & we were the only troops that traveled in the day light. Getting into port last was certainly a blessing in disguise. The country is undulating & as far as the eye can reach one can see these beautiful fields - meadows - marked off by hedges - no fences, appearing like a draft board. Every inch of the country is cultivated even in the railway enclosure. The fettlers are allowed to cultivate the land for themselves, so that the train always seems to be running through cabbages or other vegetables. To look on this & think war is a crime. One would not help fighting for such a land & to imagine in a state like Belgium & France is in, is inconceivable. It seems a crime for me to try describe it. I will never be satisfied until I persuade you both to take this trip on. The picturesque little villages we passed through each with its old church, one imagines how the parson ever gets a congregation as there are sometimes only a dozen houses round about, the brooks, the roads chalky white & always hidden between hedges all go not only to confirm our idea of "beautiful old England" but to extend it a hundred fold.
Sometimes a meadow would be a mass of yellow with buttercups & Cowslips. Another would be red with poppies & one would look like waving silk as the tops of the wheat sway in the breeze. At a distance others look like billiard cloths of all shades of green. We passed through Exeter, where the Mayoress treated us to tea & buns. In fact all along the line people rushed out to see us and wave a welcome. One incident struck us very much. Looking away down in the middle of a meadow there were two little
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