TCD MS 10247/12/47 folio 9
Aug 11th [1914]
Nice day. V. & C. went to Woodenbridge by appointment to meet the Olivers. Remount Officers were there & swarms of horses of all kinds & descriptions. £30 & £40 were said to be given for hacks out of the cars & up to £80 for really good beasts, but a great many were disqualified. V. said our Rector was there clad in a very old & disreputable shooting jacket & a pair of riding breeches, topped by a clerical hat, endeavouring to get his parishioners horses sold. The sergeant V. said nearly embraced them & [?Rilului] was unharnessed by him, Burke a small boy, V. & C. with some difficulty in the midst of prancing ramping remounts. She was then “run round” to the cow shed by the small boy the stables being already full. The French are said to have made a dash into Alsace taking Alturich & Mulhausen, but evacuated the latter again very soon. Cousin Edith arrived at 5 p.m. She reported seeing soldiers at Newcastle said to be building fortifications on the shore.
Augt 12th
Lovely glorious day. No special news. A report that the Goeben & Breslau had been bought by Turkey.
Augt 13th. Thursday.
Lovely day. Very hot. V. drove Aunt F. to see Menzies. I went on to Ballyarthur being asked to talk over getting up a working party by Mrs Bayly. Miss Menzie there & full of a talk of a German ship putting typhoid & cholera bacillus into the Edinburgh water supply sent her by her brother that morning. (which I am glad to say has never been confirmed).