TCD MS 11274/80 folio 1 recto
My dearest I am sorry for my letter of last night if it sounded like a peevish one. I hope you didnt take it to heart. Truth to tell there were things to make one a little low and I will tell you them in a little. Nothing at all to do with me or my doings but quite different. By the way I have just heard that Benson has at last succeeded in getting wounded. I am rather glad for his sake that he got off so lightly and it will be a trip home for him and he has had very little leave. It was not bad I hear merely a snipers bullet through the head or side of it a graze partly. And another in the shoulder. Things are decent and quiet today the sky is heavy and there will be thunder, also it is going to rain very heavy this evening but of that more anon. I have got a hold of a lovely book called “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte with grand people in it. I suppose you have read it otherwise I would (council?) you to buy it and sit with it on the strand. I paid 1 fr. only for my copy. Here we are now at the 15th The month seems to be going by very slowly its thinking I am what way you are from day to day in this time and I know you too are watching the days as they go by. I am encouraging Benson to be getting home with a “Blighty” to see his wife and little baby that he has not seen. The Magnetic Variation this year is 12 days (about) A man said to me today that it would be very convenient when it became zero so that your true North & magnetic would coincide & shooting would become further simplified I find that this actually will occur