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[Page 100]
France,
22nd October 1916.
Dear Chas,
Well old Son I've had my leave to Blighty and some time too. Have been back now about a week, and I can promise you it's a great strain coming back to hard work, hard tucker and hard beds, after ten days of luxury and comfort over there. I was unfortunate in not seeing Billy, but arrangements wouldn't fit in at all.
London is a wonderful place, greatly overcrowded of course and very dirty, in fact it's hard to get away from the smoke etc., in England, unless you get out in the country somewhere away from the manufacturing centres. The main thing that strikes you first is the marvellous arrangements they have for dealing with the traffic. There are underground and overhead roads for foot and horse traffic, underground Railways and tramways, tubes, motor buses, and taxis by the million, and the way they get away with the traffic is wonderful. You'd want a nerve to drive a taxi in London. To see the crowd passing to and fro from a Tube Station in the City or over London Bridge in the busy hours you'd wonder if there was a war on or not. Don't think their Tram Service is as good as Sydney's, the double deckers they use are too slow and cumbersome. They can show us a lot of points as regards train travelling though we only saw 2nd classes on the Railways, 1st and 3rds and the latter is easily as good as the first class at home. All the Railways are of course privately owned, which will probably account for the comfort provided. We never saw many of the sights of London, as we only had one whole day there, while it wants months to do it properly. We did our best though, and went to most of the more interesting places we could get in, in so short a time. St. Paul's Cathedral is a beautiful place and came quite up to expectations. The Guild Hall where all the Public Banquets etc., are held, has some wonderful examples of Statuary, and round the walls are huge original paintings of old time famous events, such as The Opening of the First Parliament, Signing of Magna Charta etc. Also saw the Art Gallery which is the same as other Art Galleries you have seen only larger. We saw a good deal of England in the short time we were there though. Had better explain that "we" means a pal of mine in the Company, who went over with me. First of all we went up to Bermingham and spent the first week-end there. This is a very large and dirty City, with big Manufacturies now chiefly engaged on Munition work. Next to Leeds. Larger than B'ham but practically the same. Then on to Leicester, much smaller than the other two Cities but cleaner and prettier. From there we went down to Eastbourne for three days, a very pretty and beautifully laid out place on the Sea Coast. From here we came up to Ealing, a Suburb of London, and about half an hour from the City, per underground. Our last day we spent in London