TCD MS 10823 folio 20 recto
[April-Sept 1918] forgetting the time, he would be seldom punished.
We were especially lucky, in the amount of freedom allowed <us> outside the camp. On arrival we were all given parole cards, on which was written an undertaking that while we were outside the camp we would not attempt to escape or make any preparations for escape. This card we handed in at the gate every time that we left the camp. At half past nine in the mornings there was always a walk till half past eleven and again in the afternoon there was either what was called a “Yachting Party” or a Bathing Party from two till four o’clock. Many of the mercantile marine being clever carpenters had during their captivity made model yachts and these they used to race across the lake every afternoon. This was a good opportunity for those that wanted to take a book out and lie down by the side of the lake; others used to make it the occasion for a rendezvous with Germans who frequently came down here for a holiday from Berlin. The Bathing party used to go down to the Swimming Baths and have a good swim in the lake. We were not supposed to go more than 50 yards out under penalty of being confined to camp for three days, but several times I have swum out to islands 800 yards out and even across the lake for which the penalty was eight days confinement to camp, punishments which I always managed to avoid <thanks to being on good terms with our sentries>. For parties of under twenty officers, we were supposed to have one sentry and for parties over twenty two sentries. These of course could not, in