i8o
THE YPRES TIMES
the north it is a reminder of leave-train days. One recalls the train steaming in,
money-changing at the various kiosks, a quick drink, a bite at one of the stalls,
an inquiry as to the best train for home, a few days in the home town, and back
again to Victoria and Armageddon. To-day we are met by a smiling official of
the League, escorted to our reserved carriages, and again, after a lapse of ten
years, en route for Dover.
Leaving Dover in glorious sunshine, the returning warrior instinctively expects
the boat S.M. to order the wearing of lifebelts, or looks to see if the escorting
T.B.Ds. are with us; but no, those days are now but a memory, so he settles down
to have a pleasant trip, free from the haunting dread of years ago. We are
quickly out in the Channel, and in about an hour and a half the sand dunes of
Belgium can be seen in the distance, and we can pick out the hamlets of La Panne
(where the Belgium Royal Family lived all through the war), Bray Dunes, Coxyde,
and the town of Nieuport, with all the memories of that mustard-gas attack in
1917, and at last the fine buildings of Ostend hove in sight. After struggling
through the horde of Belgium porters, hotel touts, guides, etc., we are glad to
feel the soil of Belgium beneath our feet once again. In a few minutes we are
seated in the train for Ypres, hungry and ready to do full justice to the fine dinner
awaiting us at the hotel on our arrival.
Many of the pilgrims had travelled long distances; one, a young girl, came
alone from Liverpool to see the grave of her father; an old couple from Scotland
whose two sons rest in Zonnebeke, and many widows making the journey for the
first time, and a fair sprinkling of ex-Service men returning to scenes and memories
of the grim old days spent in the mud and muck of the Salient.
Ypres is a town reborn. One can recall the days of 1915, when, though badly
battered, it still had a considerable civilian population clinging to their homes; 1918,
the whole place ground to dust and occupied only by the troops and the rats; 1928,
transformation, fine hotels, shops, and buildings, the beautiful Place de la Gare
with the flowers now in full bloom, and except for the Cloth Hall and the Ramparts
there is no evidence of the strife and struggle of only a few years ago. The
tradespeople are not, as is generally supposed, out to do the tourist down; on the
contrary, nearly all the prices of commodities are fair and reasonable, and one is
always treated with the greatest respect and courtesy, whether shopping or out
walking; the Belgian is only too pleased to be of service to the traveller, and apart
from the war associations of Ypres, as a centre for seeing Belgium and Flanders
one might do much worse than choose this historic town.
The cemeteries, of which, alasthere are so many, are havens of peace and
beauty; tenderly and reverently kept by ex-Service-men gardeners, whose work is
deserving of the highest praise. They are places of silence and sadness. Long
rows of white stones, true in line to an inch, intersected with close-cut grass walks,
and each grave covered with the most beautiful flowers, there is no difficulty in
finding the grave of the loved one, and it is indeed pathetic to see the dear old lady
cutting a bloom from her lad's grave, to be carefully and sorrowfully taken back-
to the homeland for which he died.
An excellent motor service, run by an enterprising Britisher in Ypres, is at the
service of the pilgrim, and any portion of the far-flung battlefront can be visited
either by private car or charabanc, at very low cost, and perhaps it would be of
interest to describe briefly one of these outings.
Leaving the hotel in the forenoon, we visited, amongst other places, Estaires,
Merville, Bois Grenier, Armentières, where we had tea, and returned via Messines,
Hill 60, and the Lille Gate, back in time for dinner. Halts were frequently made,
and a guide pointed out the places of interest en route. A surprising feature
of the tour is the many beautiful and artistic Regimental and Divisional memorials
passed on the way.
