Admiralty Pier, Dover.

[Page Heading: THE SHELLING OF LAMPERNESSE]

The fighting has had a sort of lull here for some time, but there are
always horrible things happening. The other day at Lampernesse, 500
soldiers were sleeping on straw in a church. A spy informed the Germans,
who were twelve miles off, but they got the range to an inch, and sent
shells straight into the church, killing and wounding nearly everyone in
it, and leaving men under the ruins. We had some terrible cases that
day. The church was shelled at 6 a.m., and by 11 a.m. all the wounded
were having soup and coffee at the station. I thought their faces were
more full of horror than any I had seen.

The parson belonging to our convoy is a particularly nice young fellow.
I have had a bad cold lately, and every night he puts a hot-water bottle
in my bed. When he can raise any food he lays a little supper for me, so
that when I come in between 12 and 1 o'clock I can have something to
eat, a lump of cheese, plum jam, and perhaps a piece of bully beef,
always three pieces of ginger from a paper bag he has of them. Last
night when I got back I found I couldn't open the door leading into a
sort of garage through which we have to enter this house. I pushed as
hard as I could, and then found I was pushing against horses, and that a
whole squad of troop horses had been shoved in there for the night, so I
had to make my entry under their noses and behind their heels. Pinned to
the table inside the house was a note from the parson, "I can't get you
any food, but I have put a bottle of port-wine in your room. Stick to
it."

I had meant to go early to church to-day, but I was really too tired, so