E.F.C. Boulogne, France
Officers Rest House and Mess.
Dear Father.
This is the second instalment of my last letter to you written at the time of my 4th day on leave in London. The following day after writing my last letter I entrained at King’s Cross station at 10 AM and went up to Edinborough in Scotland by Peterborough, Grantham and Newcastle and arrive at a bar at 9:30 PM at Waverley Station. I then got out of the train and for a hotel to stay in at and found it difficult to get anywhere. However, after wandering from one hotel to another and finally got a room at the Waverley hotel in Princes Street opposite Scotts monument and facing Princes Park and is to get something to eat and went to bed.
Next morning, which was Sunday I had breakfast at 930 and then went and had a walk about until dinnertime. I do not think much Waverley Hotel although it was rather cheap and not suitable for an officer to stay at so went along to the Caledonian railway hotel and booked a room there. This arrangement proved quite successful as the Caledonian is a magnificent hotel and is better than the Hotel Australia as much better appointed in the way of hot and cold water, baths, restaurant, telephones, beautiful rooms and corridors built on red mottled marble with nice coloured carpets to walk on et cetera. The place was so beautifully clean and polished and so big and airy that soon became quite contended and went and reclined in a very big easy chair in the Reading room and read by the fire for two hours until dinner time at 7:30 PM. The restaurant is also magnificent room of marble and mirrors and patronised by well-to-do people and I have to be my best behaviour during the meal which I made of Hors d’ouvre, soup, fish, chicken, sweets and cheese. This cost 7/6 and after paying I went into the coffee and smoking room and ordered coffee and smoked until 8.30 to a 30 and then went and read again by the fire in the lounge until 10 p.m. when I went to bed.
The next day Monday. I rose at a 8.30 day in warm water and had breakfast of porridge with salt (scotch fashion, fish, bacon and eggs and coffee and rolls and then went out on a tour of inspection. First of all I visited the Edinborough Castle on the highest point on Edinborough overlooking Princes Park. I then went and saw John Knox’s house but did not go in. I then jumped on various trains (which are all run on a cable system) and went hither and thither all over Edinborough just to see what the City was like and arrived back for lunch at the Caledonian at 1 O’c. In the afternoon it rained hard and I thick mist enveloped the place but I managed to go along to the Carlton Hill and looked at Nelsons column and all the other sites in Carlton Hill and then went for further rides on the trains in All directions until it became dark when I had afternoon tea and then went to a picture show until 7:30 PM. I then went to dinner at the hotel after which I tried to get into the Lyric Theatre to see “The Boy” but could not get him and as it was still raining hard and bitterly cold. I decided there was no place like home and went back to the hotel made up my mind all of a sudden to go back to London by the night express and so I went and got my haver sack and boarded the 10.30 train to London. I can’t say that I saw great deal of Edinborough but what I did see like as the city is really very beautiful with very fine streets, which are mostly cobbled with granite and are very wide with wide footwalks. There are numerous public parks which must be very beautiful in season they did not look their best by any means owning to the frost and mist. There is a very good motor bus service, of covered in cars which run to all parts of Edinborough and suburbs and to the Forth Bridge. The trains are all cable trains which look well in a beautiful city as they do away with the unsightly wires overhead and are covered in double-deckers. The streets are not nearly as crowded as the London thoroughfares and one can stroll along leisurely without fear of a push to the gutters or being be run over by a bus and the crowds are a curious mixture of colonial and Scottish troops , English Tommies and civilians.
Well I had a nice comfortable trip back to London and arrived at King’s Cross at 9:30 AM and went straight to Russell Sq. Hotel pert tube for breakfast, after which I went to Leicester Sq. and caught the tube train to Highgate and stayed for lunch. This is 21st Janry at 4 O’c the same day I decided to go into Worthing to visit the Aunts there so hurried down to Victoria Station per bus and tube and caught the 4.50 train arrived at Worthing via Brighton at 7 O’c the same night. I got rather surprised the Aunts as I did not have time to send them a wire and although they were expecting me some time they did not think I would have arrived when I did. However, they were pleased to see me and prepared a meal which I demolished and then we talked by the fireside until bed time and then I went to bed in the same room as I occupied on my previous visit 18 months before.
After a good night rest I rose at 8.30 and had a nice breakfast of fish and toast and marmalade and read the paper and talked of all sorts of domesticties with the Aunts by turns and then I was marshalled by Aunt Emily for a walk. I imagine the idea was to show me off to neighbours and friends. In the afternoon Aunt Clara and I went all to Brighton and got off the train at Hove and then walked along the seafront to the Pier of Brighton and then had tea after which we went back to Worthing from Brighton station.
I was much impressed with Brighton as living a very pretty residential as well as a business town and it must be a fine place to spend the summer as well. I stayed with the Aunts another night and left next afternoon ie on 23rd of January and bid them farewell most tenderly- in fact I actually had to kiss them both and Aunt Emily saw me off. I arrived back in London at 6:30 PM and met as prearranged the Hookhams at Lyons popular caf� near Piccadilly. Mr Hookham and Mrs Hookham and their demobilised son Jack and myself then had dinner amidst great pomp and splendour and then went along to the theatre and saw a thing called ‘Going Up’ which we all enjoyed. We then caught be to train to Highgate and went home and talked and talked by the fire side until 2 AM when we finally went to bed.
I rose 11 AM next morning after having had breakfast in bed and after lunch I went and did some shopping in London and then went out to Putney again to bid farewell to them. They were all most kind and good to me this time as I think they were just beginning to understand my colonial habits etc and Mrs Uncle George went to bed early so I was able to spend a pleasant evening with Uncle George and the others. We examined all the family curios played the gramophone and smoked and talk about the war etc and during the conversation I was forced to recount lots of experiences and how I won my MC and so on until about 11 o’clock which we all retired.
In the morning there was a procession to my room and the several members of the family formally presented me with souvenirs and said goodbye and then left for their daily occupations. I left at 10:30 AM and believe in left behind a better impression of good behaviour than before. I then went to the Australian Club in Piccadilly and stayed there the night and caught the early next morning train for France which I reached via Folkestone and Boulogne at 4 PM on the 26th.
Now not having had sufficient of travelling about during the past fortnight I must now decide on a flying visit to Paris. So I caught the express and went to Paris via at the Abbeville and Amiens and arrived there next night at 5 o’clock at the Gare-du-Nord. I went straight to the Alsace Hotel and booked a room at Fr.18 per night for two nights and made my head quarters as it was handy to the station. After fooling about for a few hours and after a good meal which cost about Fr.20, I went to bed.
Next day, I began my sightseeing. I first took a walk of 3 miles down Dunkirk Avenue to the Gare-de-Lyons passing the Place de la Republique, the Place de Bastille and by then it was lunchtime so I had lunch in a caf� near the station. After lunch I took a train to the Louvre which is a colossal Museum and perhaps the biggest and finest building I have ever seen. It contains specimens of statuary and ancient Egyptian, Assyrian and Roman and Greek stone work and carvings of these relics are all beautifully mounted on marble pedestals. But I thought that the palace itself was the most wonderful thing of all.
Then I skolled through the Jardian Des Tuileries examining all the statutes and architecture as I went and then presently came to the Champ Elysecs. Then I inspected the Grand Palace and Palace of Fine Arts also the Hotel De Ville. After that I went over the bridge of Alexandra 111 and walked down pass the Chamber of Deputies to the Parthenon and the Eiffel Tower and the Garden of Mars where I also saw that big wheel. Then I recrossed the River Seine and had a look at the Trocadero and by this time it was becoming dark so I had tea man American ‘caf�’. I had dinner at the Gare St Lazare then went back to the Hotel for two hours and went to a picture show.
Next day I inspected Notre Dame Cathedral, the Church of Magdeline Cyclorama Place D’Etoile, Versaillis Gate, Gare D’Orleans, the Military College, Triumphant Arch and the Bourse and consider I saw a good deal during my two days stay.
In addition I have travelled about on the trains, buses and underground railway and also studied the people in cafes and on the streets etc and altogether was very much impressed with the magnificence of Paris as compared with the more stolid buildings of London. In Paris life is more free and the streets are wider and less congested and although I could easily have spent a week site seeing I am glad I went to Paris, even if the stay was so short. I then caught the train at 9:30 PM from the Gary de Nord and here I am waiting at the officers club Boulogne until it is time to catch the train for Charleroi at 730 tonight.
I saw a good deal in 14 days don’t you think?
From your son.
Walter
Page 1 of 3