The Letters of Arthur Martin-Leake October 1917

 

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14/10/17

My dear Mammy

Arrived safely at my destination late last night, after a somewhat troublesome journey. At Folkestone it looked as if the crossing would be quite good; there was no wind blowing & the sea was calm. However the fiddles were on the tables & the boat had had a bad crossing in the morning. We started off quite nicely & it was not till we had gone some way that we began to get into bad weather & it got worse & worse till we got into Boulogne. Of course I was pretty seasick & went straight to bed on landing. The train next day which should do the journey at about 10 miles per hour in 6½ hours took from 11am till 9pm.However this did not matter much because it gave me plenty of time to get over the effects of mal-de-mere [sic], & naturally I did not mind fasting a bit. Am quite all right now & have started work again. Everything is just the same & the more or less peaceful time on this front continues.

The weather in France has been horrible & there has been a great deal of rain. A lot of the country near the coast is muddy water & the rivers overflowing. It is rather astonishing as we had nothing of this kind in England. It is wonderful that they can keep on with the fighting & it must be very bad & trying for the men. In spite of this they seem to be doing well. I called on the Boltons & am writing to Bella to tell her what he said.

I hope you are very fit & not doing too much. Am looking forward to being home again before long.

Y[ou]r affect[iona]te son
A.M. Leake

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