SEVERN & SOMME SEVERN & SOMME BY IVOR GURNEY Private, of the Gloucesters LONDON: SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD. 3 ADAM STREET, ADELPHI, W.C.2. 1917 _First published in 1917_ _All rights reserved_ TO MARGARET HUNT PREFACE This book stands dedicated to one only of my friends, but there are many others to whom I would willingly dedicate singly and in state, if that did not mean the writing of forty books of verse and dedications--a terrible thing for all concerned. So that, under the single name and sign of homage and affection, I would desire such readers as come to me to add also: To my father and mother; F. W. Harvey (also a Gloucestershire lad); Miss Marion Scott, whose criticism has been so useful, and she so kind, in spite of my continued refusal to alter a word of anything; the Vicar of Twigworth; Herbert Howells (and this is not the last time you will hear of him); Mr. Hilaire Belloc, whose “Path to Rome” has been my trench companion, with “The Spirit of Man”; Mr. Wilfred Gibson, author of “Friends,” a great little book; many others also, including Shakespeare and Bach, both friends of mine; and, last but not least, my comrades of two platoons of the-/-[A] Gloucesters, who so often have wondered whether I were crazy or not. Let them draw their own conclusions now, for the writing of this book it was that so distracted me.... This is a long list, and even now does not include old Mrs. Poyner, who was so jolly and long-suffering, nor my boat _Dorothy_, now idle in the mud; though a poet sang of her full of glory at Framilode. [A] The publication of Battalion Nos. being strictly forbidden by the Military Authorities, we have to leave the identification of the platoons referred to by Mr. Gurney to those whom it concerns.--S. & J., LTD. Even as I write the list becomes fuller, farther extended, yet a soldier must face pain, and so it remains shorter by far than might be. I fear that those who buy the book (or even borrow), to get information about the Gloucesters will be disappointed. Most of the book is concerned with a person named Myself, and the rest with my county, Gloucester, that whether I die or live stays always with me--being in itself so beautiful, so full of memories; whose people are so good to be friends with, so easy-going and so frank. Some of the afore-mentioned people I have never had good fortune enough to meet in the flesh, but that was not my fault. I hope they will forgive my using their names without permission. Ah, would they only retaliate in kind! That is, however, not likely, as I never was famous, and a Common Private makes but little show.