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[Page 43]
a dozen or so he went off. I lay awake for some time in my dug out, a snug little place, not because it wasn't bombproof (no more than a London house, for it is only tarpaulin over a shallow hole in the ground) but because a telephonist was installed in it and from time to time he had to light a candle to take down messages that were coming through. After a while I went off to sleep and had a fair night's rest. This morning I had breakfast in bed and then went out with my canvas to the position I had decided to work from. By bad luck the day was cloudy but as I only drew, that didn't so much matter. The place where I worked was an abandoned dug-out, once occupied by some Tommies who had been shelled out and it gave me a fine view of the scene I've already told you of. In the middle foreground is a camp of mules: beyond them, those batteries and still further beyond them a succession of gentle rounded rises all full of hidden batteries. I made, I think, the best landscape drawing I've ever made and on my way back met an orderly who had come out to look for me, for it was far past lunch time. I was very glad of the mug of hot tea which he brought and which was all I took until I got back to camp, when I had a proper lunch. My hosts Lieuts. Reid and Partis had gone out and won't be back until tea-time but the diggers, always appreciative, crowded round and approved. "God blime, there's old Corbie church and there's Villers Bret; and the saw mills; and Vaire wood" and so on. It's a great life. The diggers have just lined up at the double (the "toot" (tout-de-suite) they call it), the signal being the noise of a gas-rattle. They rush up in mock fear, dixies in hand and full of joyous obscenities, get their evening meal and duck off again. They're always singing and cursing merrily - the lightest hearted jokers in the world.
Bois d'Escardonneuse
14/7/18
This morning Reid's batman, a very good natured chap but a great talker, carried my traps down to the abandoned dug-out I use as a studio. The air was fine and clear and