Neuve Eglise, at the top of the road, had been badly wrecked by German
shells. I went up there one night with an officer friend of mine, to
see the scene of desolation. We were halted by some of our cyclists
who were patrolling the road. Whenever they stopped me at night and
asked who I was I always said, "German spy", and they would reply,
"Pass, German spy, all's well." My friend and I went down the street
of the broken and deserted village, which, from its position on the
hill, was an easy mark for shell fire. Not a living thing was stirring
except a big black cat which ran across our path. The moonlight made
strange shadows in the roofless houses. Against the west wall of the
church stood a large crucifix still undamaged. The roof had gone, and
the moonlight flooded the ruins through the broken Gothic windows. To
the left, ploughed up with shells, were the tombs of the civilian
cemetery, and the whole place was ghostly and uncanny.
Near the huts, on the hill at Bulford Camp was a hollow in the ground
which made a natural amphitheatre. Here at night concerts were given.
All the audience packed together very closely sat on the ground.
Before us, at the end of the hollow, the performers would appear, and
overhead the calm stars looked down. I always went to these
entertainments well provided with Players' cigarettes. A neat trick
was played upon me one night. I passed my silver cigarette case round
to the men and told them that all I wanted back was the case. In a
little while it was passed back to me. I looked into it to see if a
cigarette had been left for my use, when, to my astonishment, I found
that the case had been filled with De Reszke's, my favourite brand. I
thanked my unknown benefactor for his graceful generosity.
The field behind the huts at Court-o-Pyp was another of my (p. 097)
favourite camping grounds. It was on the Neuve Eglise side of the
camp, and beyond us was some barbed wire. About two o'clock one night
I was aroused by an excited conversation which was being carried on
between my friend Ross in his bivouac, and a soldier who had been
dining late and had lost his way. The young fellow had got it into his
head that he had wandered into the German lines, and Ross had great
difficulty in convincing him that he was quite safe. He was just going
off with mind appeased when he caught sight of my pyramid tent on a
rise in the ground. "What's that?" he cried in terror, evidently
pointing towards my little house. "That's the Rev. Major Canon Scott's
billet" said Ross with great dignity from under his rubber sheets, and
the man went off in fear of his identity becoming known. He afterwards
became an officer and a very gallant one too, and finally lost a leg
in the service of his country. But many is the time I have chaffed him
about the night he thought he had wandered into the German lines.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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