75
THE YPRES TIMES
Saturdayréveillé, 7.0; Mess Orderlies, 8.0; car at the door at 9.0; our
morning trip was:
Essex Farm, Yser Canal Bank, Boesinghe, Pilckem, Langemarck, Poelcapelle, Houthulst Forest,
Passchendaele, Tyne Cot Cemetery, Zonnebeke, Hooge, Sanctuary Wood, Zillebeke Lake, Hill 60,
Shrapnel Corner, Lille Gate, Ypres.
In the afternoon the party broke up into pairs, and "Feathers and I took
a five-mile ramble, which embraced the following points of interest:
Menin Gate, Potijze, Oxford Road, Wieltje, St. Jean, White House, Canal Bank.
Feathers pointed out a trench he had taped out, and his Company dug in
1917 along Oxford Road (Ypres, of
coursebut on examination this
proved to be apparently only some
eight inches deep, although of normal
width and several hundred yards long,
so it is to be inferred that his men
must have been of very short stature,
Or, like all good armies, so we are
told, moved on their stomachs. His
disclaimer that the trench had since
been filled in and had later settled,"
was felt to be a poor excuse.
The other two, left to their own
devices, were understood to have dis
played interest in Patisserie Beige,"
although it was later pointed out that
this interest was chiefly academic,
though partially gastronomic, but at
the time the worst was feared.
The Sunday trip was as
follows
Lille Gate (Ypres), St. Eloi, Wytschaete,
Messines, Ploegsteert, Armentières, Neuve
Chapelle, Festubert, Pont Fixe (La Bassée Canal),
Cuinchy, Cambrin, Annequin Fosse, Loos, Lens,
Vimy Ridge (where iron rations were consumed
on the edge of a shell-hole), Neuville St. Vaast,
La Targette, Souchez, Notre Dame de Lorette,
Aix-Noulettes, Noeux-les-Mines, Béthune,
Estaires, Bailleul, Locre (frontier), Kemmel,
Reninghelst, Poperinghe, Vlamertinghe, Ypres.
AT SANCTUARY WOOD.
On Monday we entrained at 9.27 and reached Ostend at 11.30. A walk through
the town and along the Front, where no doubt many a foreign feminine heart
fluttered at the sight of such British masculinity. Lunch. Embarked, 2.30.
Sailed, 3.0. Dover, 6.0. Dinner on train, arrived at Victoria, 8.30. Total cost
per head for the entire trip, including fare (2nd class on the train and ist class
on the boat), hotel accommodation, meals on train, boat, and in hotel, car for
above referred to trips, ample sufficiency of wines, etc.£9 10s. I cannot imagine
a cheaper four-day trip, or a more interesting one.
