102
The Ypres Times.
AT BAY AT YPRES.*
By Lt.-Col. P. R. BUTLER, D.S.O.
Still continuing our retreat, we left Roulers early on the morning of the 14th October,
but not before we had made arrangements for sending our worst cases of footsoreness,
etc., to Ypres by train. It was about a 12 to 14 miles' march by the way we were going,
it was raining hard, and the road was certain to be heavy.
In the circumstances it might have been better if we had decided to go round by the
main road that runs at first N.W. from Roulers for about three miles, and then S.W. to
Westroosebeke but we went instead by the shortest route, via Oostnieuwkerke, and the
saving in distance was quite outweighed by the much worse state of the road. The
men had recovered much of their wonted cheerfulness on this day, and during one of
the halts I heard a company singing. The air was that of Home, Sweet Home." The
words were (four lines to song) We're here because we're here, We're here because
we're here We're here because we're here, We're here because we're here
I see from my notebook that we did not get to Ypres until the afternoon, but I think
it must have been before the hour mentioned in the following entry
"14.10.14. 4.45 p.m. On Place at Ypres. Wonderful Town Hall. Coats of arms
on roof. Aeroplane prisoners."
Ypres is (or, alas, was) a very beautiful and quaint old town, containing wonderful
buildings. The Place d'Armes is the centre of the town, and along great portion of this
is the historic building variously known as the Halles, the Linen Hall, the Markets, the
Cloth Hall, and the Town Hall. This building struck my fancy in a way impossible
to describe. In its vast ground-level vaulted chamber hundreds of horses were stabled,
while above in the great frescoed galleries soldiers were billeted. It was of grey stone,
with a lofty belfry that was in process of restoration, and to which the scaffolding still
clung. The roof was of enormous extent, sloping down overthe walls from a great
height, and on it, gleaming in the sun, were four painted escutcheons of the ancient Counts
of Flanders. Behind the Town Hall was the Cathedral of St. Martin, a noble edifice.
The houses round the square were all old, and had gables and overhanging eaves, and
sun-blistered shutters opening flat against their walls. I marvelled greatly that I had
scarcely even heard of Ypres it was so beautiful.
A hostile aeroplane had been brought down that morning by our Horse Artillery
(of the 3rd Cavalry Division), and shortly after we entered Ypres it was brought in in
triumph on a motor-lorry. I think there were two prisoners with it. They had-been
captured hiding in a wood.
Later in the evening I was sitting in the window of my billet, high up over the square,
when I heard the clatter of many hoofs on the cobble-stones below. I looked out, and
saw it was a troop of the 10th Hussars, who had brought in some Uhlan prisoners. The
fading light glinted from the drawn swords of the escort, and the whole setting of the
scene was picturesque in the extreme, j
We spent the whole of the 15th quietly enough in Ypres. In the Town Hall I saw
the frescoes, depicting incidents in the history of the city, from the date of the defeat
of the English long ago down to our own day. These frescoes were either modern, or
restored for about half the length of the great hall, and for the other half they were old
and faded. I suppose all share a common destruction now. There were groups of
French officers in the long gallery, and we gravely saluted each other as we passed. From
the Town Hall I went to the Cathedral of St. Martin, which was also in pathetic process
of restoration. Inside that big building everything was very quiet and solemn. There
were a few soldiers, French, Belgian, and English moving about. I did not know at that
^Reprinted, by kind permission, from A Galloper at Ypres," by Lt.-Col. P. R. Butler, D.S.O.,
published by Fisher Unwin.
fOur advanced parties had found Uhlan Patrols actually in Ypres.Author.