Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 216
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[Page 216]
[At the top of this and following pages of this letter is the word "Girls". Not transcribed.]
to such extent that when seated at the breakfast table, 8 o'clock, my discussions with porridge, fried bacon, bread, apricot jam, a little butter, and tea were fully satisfactory to me. Much better these days, since opportunity has been present for a gallop morning & evening.
3-30 p.m. It is seldom that anything informative is spoken at our dining table, but at luncheon today, Colonel Martin spoke a couple of sentences which may be the reason for disorganisation and delay which is amongst us now & which has been for two weeks. He said – "It was understood by the Allies that the Greeks were prepared at a given date to have 100000 soldiers ready to take the field on the side of the Allies, but when the time arrived they failed to keep the promise." This statement fits in with the political crisis which took place at Athens about two weeks ago, and if the soldiers were being reckoned with their not being up to time may have thrown on Britain and France the necessity for finding troops to go to the Dardanelles to the assistance of the warships which are trying to force a way by water to Constantinople.
The sky has been overcast for the most part of the day, while now the sun is invisible, the air is still at Mena House, and in other land one might be a prophet for rain.
8-30 p.m. – Tabbie, Joseph, dears. Do you remember the Nile grass that used to grow in Obbie's garden? And of which you oft times brought specimens to our home in Wallsend when you & I were younger. A long green stalk, with, spreading from its topmost end, an umberella-like inflorescence (Flowering portion of the plant)? This evening I saw a large quantity of it midst the water of the Nile on the edge of a canal. The sight took my mind back, in swiftness far exceeding the lightening, to Obbie (R.I.P.), her garden, you in your childhood days. How strange an