Lce. Corp. J.F. Davidson Writes.(FROM ENGLAND)
Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Davidson, Camborne, have received following letter from their son who enlisted at Calgary with the 50th Battalion.
Bramshot Camp, Hampshire, England, Nov. 14, 1915.
You will know by now that we are in England. We certainly had a dandy trip from Calgary to here; the train trip took 6 1/2 days and the boat trip took a little over seven days. The boat we crossed on was a dandy one and I had a second state room near the centre of the boat, so I got very little rocking and our grub was good all the way. We had a nice trip from Plymouth up here through the southern counties of England and here we are about 41 miles from London and about twelve miles from Aldershot, so we are in the prettiest part of England. We can see three counties from our camp. Hampshire, Surrey and Kent, and near us are some very historic places.
At Liphook there is a blacksmith shop that the poem, 'The Village Blacksmith' was written about. That is two miles from here. Also in the same place IS a tavern in which Sir Francis Drake had his last meal before going out to fight the Spanish Armada. So we are on the old coach road from London to Portsmouth, but I would not give one live town in Canada for all the places I have seen, yet as far as business goes, and everything is dearer here than in Canada, even tobacco, and the money over here is a nuisance. It is not very hard to get on to, but the pennies and half pennies are heavy.
We are going to be in this camp for about ten weeks anyway, so we will be here for Christmas. I am going up to London for a few days next week so I will have more to write about next time. We have a camp here of about 30,000 Canadians and our sister regiment from Calgary, the 12th mounted, is camped about a mile from us, also the 8th Mounted from Kingston. If there are any of the boys you know from Cobourg and vicinity, let me know when you write again.
We have very good quarters here in wooden buildings with floor and a coal stove in each. About thirty men are allotted to each building about 60 Ft. long by about 24 Ft. wide, and 9 ft. walls. We each have a straw mattress and four blankets. So we will not be cold while here. Best regard to all friends,
Lce.-Corp. J.F. Davidson.
No. 134,183, 50th Battalion, C.E.F., Bramshot Camp, England.
