Here and there in the war area . very ground. It was thesame at Ypres. There was not a living soulwithin its walls, only a gendarme or two aboutthe Cathedral and Cloth Hall to see thatnothing was taken away as a souvenir. Therewere books lying about in both places, butnothing else of value, though in the streetswere bits of shrapnel and spent shot one wasglad to have. It was a piteous scene of deso-lation, and though I knew that the frescoesand beautiful wooden carvings and sculp-tured front of the Cloth Hall had all beenperfect a year before, yet it was difficult notto feel you were in a plac
Here and there in the war area . very ground. It was thesame at Ypres. There was not a living soulwithin its walls, only a gendarme or two aboutthe Cathedral and Cloth Hall to see thatnothing was taken away as a souvenir. Therewere books lying about in both places, butnothing else of value, though in the streetswere bits of shrapnel and spent shot one wasglad to have. It was a piteous scene of deso-lation, and though I knew that the frescoesand beautiful wooden carvings and sculp-tured front of the Cloth Hall had all beenperfect a year before, yet it was difficult notto feel you were in a place which had a long-distant past, like Nineveh or old destruction was so complete, the silenceand absolute stillness so impressive, theabsence of every living person but ourselvesso marked, that one seemed to place it inones thoughts amongst the cities which hadbeen and are to be no more. We walked sadly through, and out into theopen country beyond, drawing nearer to thefiring line, which was at that time about six. AND FIRING LINE 91 miles away, until we came to the place whereour dead were buried after the two battles ofYpres. I was very anxious to find oneparticular grave, but was unsuccessful. Ithad disappeared no doubt like so many othersunder fire, and had once been where now agreat hole some nine or ten feet across andcorrespondingly wide has taken its is difficult to see why the enemy haveshelled a burial-place which is not near achurch, but in the open country, withouteven a tower to be used for observation pur-poses anywhere near it. I sought the resting-place of one whose mother I knew had a fearit would be desecrated, and though it was notto be found—perhaps I had been misinformedas to its situation—it may prove when thewar is over to be safe after all. I pluckedlittle leaves from some of the graves, andcopied down inscriptions from others whichgave great comfort to relations after I re-turned. We were unusually fortunate inhaving fine wea
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
