Fit as Fiddles and as Hard as Nails

23/12/18
My dearie A most nice letter today it is annoying about Nurse at this season. You are right I am missing telling you a good deal of news I was awfully amused at you’re a/c of the election. I don’t know anything about Clarke ir G.D. nor what the latter thinks so Im not very interested in the result. You saw the manifesto or a sketch of it arrived by the Bishops of the C of E. I said to Thomas :_ They are not going to walk with the State any more & he said yes, because the Labour Party is going to get in soon. That was smart. He is tremendously interested in it & has written the SPCK to send full text. Today was a fearful day. I went to Cologne & bought 5 barrels of beer for Battery. General impression of cheeriness and friendliness seemed abroad. Food fair & moderate in price but indigestible. The crossing of the Rhine by the Hohenzollern Bridge is mighty. It is no good sending you a photo of the Bridge a “suspension arch” for its not till you get inside the steelwork that you get the fun. I will not soon forget it; in the half dark the great framework all built about you & the peeps of sky & river between. Here must show you :_
(Graphic illustration of the bridge)
Side elevation, but thats not the fun of it, this is really what it looks like
(Illustration)

[22 December [? 1918 ]]Reasons for believing (3)
O/C Bde returned from England today and said, as one with authority and probably a very large army will have to be kept for 5 years…..hum….haw…..of course that depends on Wilson”
I regard this as opinion of W.O. A pretty state of things when Wilson has to decide how big an army England is to have……But when the Labour Party handles out the whole dam bag of tricks theyll put up a job on that. I have marked above Private because I believe it to be true and theres no use in adding fuel to the flames of your revolutionary friend. Im anyway fond f Colonel but hes hopelessly tied to the Morning Post.
Besides I want the fun of telling it myself.
P.

[22 December [? 1918 ]]a job apart from that, promised to me they would probably release me earlier.
I am for this purpose a surveyor, construction rly & bridge engineer, speak Spanish, French, will go to South America, France, Spain, Canada, South Africa & want £400 per anum if you will come to then so please see about it dearie without a loss of time. If you could sort out someone for me to see such as somebody your father knows or the like you see Id see him on a leave in a month or 2, arrange the affair and then become an employed man instead of a drudge on the Labour market.
Reference Education scheme. I have applied for instruction in “Steel & Concrete Construction”, Veterinary Science, Spanish and some way added Poultry Farming & I am afraid O/C Brigade thinks I am pulling their leg whereas I need the first three urgently. When they asked me why the second item I said I was jealous of your knowing more about horses than I but that’s the real reason. Rather that I am ashamed of my own ignorance.
Pat
You see if I sent in my papers to King now as Id like to do now. Id lose (1) my bounties (2) Possible chance of a good job from AF215 (3) and most terrible of all would probably be conscripted before I got to Ireland & put into ranks & lose (1) & (2) for its my belief theyre going to try to keep a very big army for 5 yrs

[22 December [? 1918 ]] unlimited number of horses to have for the excercising & that you who’d appreciate it much more should have a wee bit trot on K. Ferries horse on the high road.
The sergeant was awfully perfect he sat as straight as a rush he is I believe about the best rider in the battery & a horse dealer privately.
Brigade commander has become most enthusiastic of my idea of riding 60 polo horses & says every officer must learn at once but he deprecates a joy ride in the country & on the road until the O/C of the 60 (?) gives us a certificate of goodness for he says reasonably enough that it wouldnt do to fall off in Germany from point of view of prestige in a foreign country.
Now dearie I have asked Papa will he send 2 pairs of gloves to me for Xmas. I was ashamed to ask you but must admit here and now that I lost the ones tied by a string almost at once and shortly after the yellowish wash leather. So I want please 1 ordinary to complete my faultless uniform and 1 with warm lining. Both to be brown kid outside.
I hope soon to be home on leave and am most anxious to secure an early release. I have sent in a glowing a/c of my high attainments on AFZ15 Officers” but if I could definitely get

22nd Dec. [? 1918 ]
My dearie, One rather good letter from you today about Noll & the Puff Puff on the road, you tell these things better than a book written by a great scholar. I can always see the whole of it and what is passing in his mind which you read so easily. I am glad you even had that wee bit ride on K Ferries horse I had a full sized ride on a pony a fat black pony without any shape at all but a neck tie like a bear. It was a glorious day but not by any means what you would call a glorious ride though I enjoyed it extremely. It was a very mild ride the aim was instructional to teach Brian who had only been on a horse once he trotted very fast it must have been agonizing to him as when I got on his brown pony afterwards I found that he was quite a handful to pull up once he started and I could see that Brians center-of-gravity was a in a position of unstable equilibrium. A sergeant of the 60 ?pds whose horses they were came out with us on a tall high-handed contemptuous charger. He said to Brian look at the way the Capt. rides. Nobody has ever said that before, as a matter of fact I felt nearer proper control than ever before but of course the bear pony was very easy to manoeuvre as you didnt have to pull him to turn or anything like that but just indicate with your calf which way to turn or put a rein gently against his neck & he did it.
So that it isnt fair at all dearie that I should have practically an

[16 August 1918] I suppose Ive told you Gun and All story that I refused to earlier If not Ill tell it to you some other letter not tonight.
Good night now dearest
Pat

[16 August 1918] & thoughtful except about Ireland which he seems to hate. He has asked me to play cricket next Sunday. I dont know what it is but probably the offices of the Bde v the ASC of the Bde.
You are right, a lot of work is carried on at night but that is the workmens choice & any night work I have ever had men on before has been paid for as time and a half. Further the Chief Point is that it is more than one and a half times more unpleasant to be shelled at night than at day and with machine gun fire & barbed wire I think there is a bigger difference still.
The poem was by Sigfried Sasoon.
Willy has managed an extension of a forthnight. I expect L. Smith worked it for him

[16 August 1918] what he had been making was virtually a packing case it was rather droll.
About the Leave. It is a very good idea of yours to start arrangements right away. The difficulty would be that I wouldnt know for certain till the day before. But probably I would know approximately within a week a week before in which case I’d wire , “Meet me the Queens Hotel Chester night (or morning) of such & such a day. “Morning” would mean I was hoping for to catch the 8.30am of the day mentioned “Night” that I was travelling by the 8.45 PM of the day mentioned.
There are two more of our Btn before me and I am along way behind the 2nd as he went last Nov. However it is said that there is to be a further increase in an allotment soon.
Did I tell you I dined with the Colonel the other night a nice man easy and kind hearted

16/8/18
My dearie No letter tonight as indeed was expected after my good four yesterday.
It was again a pleasant day today I expect some retribution will be owing to us for the easy and quiet time we have been having. Indeed ever since the famous 21st and ensuing fortnight things have been very calm with us. I wonder if Noll will remember me when I come back.
I believe that the next leave is to take place in a week or so. That will leave me second with a biggish gap.
However there should be great opening up of leave when the wet weather sets in. It is to be hoped that they will not go in for mid-offensives this fall. I do not expect that there will ever be so fine a summer again.
I am glad Noll is learning his little prayers.
Very lovingly
Pat

[30th March [?1918] ]should begin to work at it just now and doubly so that Alice Stoney should be butting into it. I can well picture saying that in Douville was in a hurry and giving a little laugh. She is very silly I think.
LSmith drove up to here this morning bringing your letters and parcels but I didnt see him as I was in bed having been at work all day yesterday & most of the night. I am afraid today I am monstrously sick of the War and hate it very much also I feel today the Germans will be enabled to stand rather advantageously on a rather strong position. No I cannot see that destroying furniture & trees does not come under the head of military necessity, In “a war of material” all material is very valuable trees are not trees but cover for guns, chairs and tables are so much value to Haig limited as they would be to Harrods limited. Oh yes the Elephants are very much a thing of the past worse luck. We are all scattered about now. I am doing a lot of motor-cycling the roads are middling but not to bad altogether.
I cannot write any more now dearie. I will write a nicer and a longer letter soon. The bleak cold rain is beastly. I would like a square store house to live in.
Yours lovingly
Patrick
We dont get any news these days, but I imagine the French are making some good progress