TCD MS 11290/25 folio 1 recto
(30 March [?1918])
Dear Mary
I am in a country now which would delight your heart higher than I have ever been before I should think and within ten minutes walk of the highest hill in the country.
From its top you can see the sea in the distance over the tops of a lower range of hills the dead sea a bit of the valley of the Jordan and away north when it is clear enough a snowy peak no less.
This I think must be near Damascus as I have a vague idea that it is a famous town for its gardens which are watered by streams whose source is in the infernal snow.
You would get a fine sketch if you were good enough looking from my bivy down the valley