Nov 10/18
Dear Mother
A lovely parcel arrived from you today, containing a gorgeous new Shetland woollie and some soap & scent & a wee sponge & some baths salts & cocoa & 2 lavender bags- Most acceptable my dear Mother, each and all of them, and very very many thanks indeed. The soap has arrived in the nick of time, and the bath salts & scent are very welcome, as also is the sponge – it’s very cold o’nights nowadays & sleeping in a tent one wants a woollie & really the grey one you sent me before is rather worn out now- I see the note inside is dated Aug 31st, so the parcel’s not been so very long on the road-
A lovely day today. Being so near the river & down rather low we get thick mists each morning with a watery sun trying to shine through- But later in the day it gets really lovely, warm & sunny but thank goodness the real heat is out of the sun for 4 or 5 months at any rate- The general & I have been riding about all the morning looking at people building railways. I met some officers of Jim’s regiment who were at work on the line. He is up the river a bit, making a road they tell me, & is quite fit & well. His regiment came under a good deal of shell fire in this last show it seems, but did not have much actual infantry fighting-
I enclose a key to some photographs I sent Ben- I am sending you the same set, but the censor rules won’t let us send photographs & the key in the same letter. Of course it does’nt matter now I suppose, but no orders have come round relaxing the censor rules so till then I suppose we must stick to them-
I had a cable from Nell, dated Nov 7th, so now I am wondering why she sent it whether (1) My original cables did go after all, (the ones I sent after the battle of 30th Oct & the Turkish surrender saying I was alright & you were not to worry;) or (2) You have some official news of me : very silly of them if they did send you a wire as there was no earthly need to- You see I sent my 2nd cable to Nell long after the 7th (the one telling her I was alright & she was to tell you, as I had no more money left!) so her cable must be in answer to something, mine or official, before that. What a muddle! Anyhow I’m quite alright & fit as a fiddle.
Lots of love & again many thanks for lovely parcel
yr loving son
Ted