Series 03: John Brady Nash letters, January 1914-December 1915 - Page 245
Primary tabs
Transcription
[Page 245]
back, with a tawdry saddle, and fastenings of many colours hanging in disordered confusion fluttered by the moving air about the head and body of the beast. As for the Arab washing. No! Too much to ask one who has seen him here to believe. He hates water. The further one might go into the dessert, the greater probably becomes his hydrophobia. In fine any ordinary Australian horse could race or otherwise work the much vaunted Arab horse to a stand still in no time. Every one in these parts marvels at the "Splendid beasts" that have been brought all the way from Australia. When one sees the two side by side, he knows what it is that causes the Alexandrians, the Cairoites, or even the Arabs, to admire in the Australian horses. Good.
4-10 p.m. A cup of tea. Car. [A line of Xs and Os.] Joe. [A line of Xs and Os.] Kit [A line of Xs and Os.]
In fine, perhaps the horse-fraud perpetrated by the Arab or Egyptian legend manufacturer, is a pious one, that has added something to the happiness of the world. It pleased us boys and set our minds upon the dessert, it has done the same no doubt for French youths like unto us, and in the pages of the novel stirred up thoughts in my brain, which made the ink run out at the point of this pen freely, and it may be that the sentences when they reach Sydney will be amusing or interesting to some girls, nine thousand miles away.
1-4-15. 9. A.M.:/ Have you in the illustrated papers seen a picture and read the account about Captain Arthur Martin-Leak [Arthur Martin-Leake (1874-1953)] V.C. with a bar, and F.R.C.S. – (Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, therefore a doctor) –. V.C. with a bar means that he has won the Victoria Cross twice. A feat credited to but one other officer. (It may be but to one other man.)