TCD MS 10822 folio 1 recto
Nov 1st [1916]. Left Charing cross at 11.45 by the Staff train. Never before have I seen the Platform looking so gay – red hats everywhere. The crossing was a rough one from Folkestone and the deck was a very wet place. Owing to the raid a few days before we were well escorted by torpedo boats and cruises. The torpedo boats had a very poor time of it, being constantly completely buried by the spray. On arrival at Boulogne I found that I had to spend the night there and leave early the following morning. On the journey I met at lunch the “Second in Command” at Kew gardens and we had some very interesting conversations about plants.
Nov 2nd. A pouring wet morning. Left Boulogne at 7.26 a.m. by a slow train and then had to change at Etaple & St Pol. At St Pol we had nearly two hours to wait and so I went and had lunch in the town. On arrival at Aubigny our rail head, I found no arrangements made to get back, but got a lift in an A S C car as far as Avesnes and then managed to find a Divisional car which I persuaded to take me on to Berlencourt where the Battalion are in billets. It is a pretty but poor little village at the bottom of a valley and very wet.
Nov 3rd & 6th. Nothing of importance to chronicle. The days are mostly fine and the nights wet. It is extraordinarily mild weather too. The mornings we spend on a range that we have made in the valley, where all the companies can shoot and drill. The afternoons I either go for a walk or a ride. There is a clear chalk stream in this valley in which are some quite nice sized trout. The banks are marshy and just the place for snipe and it is a regular rough strip of country, full of interest and bird life. I rode over one afternoon to Grand Rullecourt and had tea with the 8th Batt, another day I had a very pretty ride through Beech woods, now a lovely colour. If we remain here any length of time we will have sports, boxing, rifle matches, paperchases, and all kinds of amusements for the men.
Nov 7th -11th. The weather is vile, it pours with rain nearly every day and the mud is now horrible. It is very difficult to carry on any training under these conditions. The Battalion has managed to get into