TCD MS 10821 folio 33 recto
[July 17th 1916] a very bad state I am afraid. I had a good bath in the afternoon. Not so much shooting all round.
July 18th. Another wet night, but the day improved as it went on. I managed to find a coiffeur in Arras who had not fled & who cut my hair for me. He was at the time having a quarrel with his wife. We have an officer & a platoon of the Sherwood Foresters attached to us for instruction. In the evening we went up into the trenches into a sector that I had not been in before. The trenches were in places badly knocked about by trench mortars, but ordinarily the place is quite quiet.
July 19th. A beautiful day & the trenches are rapidly drying up. We had luckily a very quiet day, scarcely any shelling & life was quite pleasant. These trenches are full of all kinds of rats & mice. The night passed quite peacefully, only a few small mortars were sent over. Besides patrols trying to catch a Boche & wiring parties mending our wire, most of the men were employed in digging out some of our trenches that had been filled in by shells & mortars.
July 20th. Another fine day. The morning was quite quiet. We were told that some generals were coming up to visit our trenches, but they never