ury, Lake, a decent kid, Bowquet
and two others, quite a jovial crowd in all. We all live in a large
brewery, all the batteries in barns, &c., and the officers in the
house--big, deserted bedrooms, with camp beds or bedsteads, and
thousands of doors, secret and otherwise.

We breakfast at 8 and start work at 8-30, and with intervals on to 4
or 5. Kitty has been teaching my battery the Stokes gun, firing dummy
shells, &c. Our Adjutant is an A.S.C. man, and James, the Divisional
Trench Mortar Officer, is in command. Parcel, with topping cake,
received; many thanks! All the parcels you mention in your last letter
have been received all right.

We are having appallingly rainy days. Most evenings the men play
inter-battery soccer matches.

The officers are going to play the men, but it is wet to-night. I am
afraid that there is little of interest in this letter.

Much love to all, from your loving Son, ALEC.

April 23rd.

My darling Mother,--

We are all still together, with not much to do and plenty of time on
parade to do it in. I will give you one of my men's description of
their billet: "I am situated at present in country not unlike
Welphine. Our billet is pretty decent, on the first floor of a large
building, which bears a slight resemblance outwardly to a Workhouse.
What an existence! Look up 'Dante's Inferno,' and you will get some
idea of every soldier's environment." I am afraid that our mess is
none too quiet at times itself, though at present they are all quietly
playing cards and reading. To-day being Sunday Kitty and I had a
holiday and had breakfast in bed at 9-30.

I am just recovering from rather a bad cold; we all have come in for
one, and it seems to make most of us rather argumentative on all
subjects relating to trench mortars, various regiments, &c., being a
motley collection of regulars, New Army and Special Reserve, and
Territorial officers drawn from all sorts of regiments and
representing every branch of the army except the R.E. We have R.F.A.,
E.G.A., R.H.A., A.S.C. and Infantry. Rather a cosmopolitan crowd, and
we, most of us, all hold different views on every possible subject
that turns up, but we manage to agree on the whole.

Last night Brand and I took our beds outside. It is topping weather at
present--very hot, but I like hot weather. Our mess-room leads out
into a sort of terrace with a wild gard