France

September 2^nd 1916

Friday.

My dear Ethel,

I received yours and Harry’s letter yesterday.  The second place Harry says the fellow in his orderly room has been to is where I was.  I notice from your previous letter that in Worcester you suffer as we do here.  Scarcely anything is marked up that we are likely to buy & when you go & enquire you wonder whether you ought to beat them down, what the actual price of the article is to the French and how mad they think you are.  I hope your furniture has arrived safely by now.  Mother told me you have a house and I am glad you are settled.  We had no chance of going to High Mass at the last place & it is doubtful if we will while we are here as we have plenty of training to go through.  I am glad you are an enemy of Charlie Chaplin.  Will you support any league I found with the object of his extermination?  Now for the fulfilment of my promise.  The town is a very big one & has some very quaint corners.  A canal and river flow through it.  One of them has an avenue of trees each side forming two long promenades.  The main streets are rather grand.  Shops exist in large numbers.  There are about three large churches.  We were all of the opinion the largest was a Cathedral.  There are one or two monuments.  One is to a chevalier who was martyred in seventeen something for refusing to salute a procession.  His age was nineteen.  The monument was erected by socialists who consider him (what I call) a pioneer of free thought.  Notre Dame, the largest church, is very beautiful.  The front is magnificent and the best part.  It is very old and on similar lines to that of Wells only much smaller.  Carved figures stand in all sorts of corners & niches & have the appearance of being very interested in the goings-on of modern people.  Half the church is modern unfortunately, and the two halves don’t seem to harmonise in the interior or on the exterior in the least.  The oil paintings are very nice.  In this district – this is very difficult to describe – up above the altar is an aperture & through it can be seen a saint (the Virgin Mary or to whomever the shrine is dedicated) in the middle of the clouds.  It is rather peculiar & the saint seems to be very far away.  Without exception a little of the clouds has drifted over the side of the opening!  Have I made this the least bit clear?  When you are about the town only the old part seems to be visible.  Consequently the church looks very imposing & causes the inside to be disappointing.  Joan D’Arc is a very important saint in this town.  We went into another big church (1829 or 80) & found it far more beautiful than the other.  Were it an Anglican Church it would not be called “High” by any means.  It is a very lofty building, has two “rose” windows, few images – I expect a Frenchman would say no images – and is fitted out properly.  We had to talk French – or rather try to – much more here & consequently one or two of us are becoming very fluent on eating topics.  I should have written you long ago but we seem to be so busy what with work & this town.

I will now close – you will not doubt it – with love.

            Yours affectionately,

                        Allan

On Active Service envelope addressed to Harry R King, Esq., c/o The Surveyor of Taxes, The Avenue, The Cross, Worcester. England.  Ans^d 10/9

Postmarked FIELD POST OFFICE 124 3 SP 16.  Hexagonal Passed Field Censor 3274 cachet.

Signed WA Blount