to E V Lucas - 1918

Description

No word from you yet, and I do hope all is going well at the Chateau.... This place seems worlds away from the Marne but in a sense it has the mark of the war on it too, for it is a lonely land. All the highlands of Scotland are denuded of their young men, there are scarcely any tourists, and we have this big hotel to ourselves -- indeed we seem to be almost the only people in Glengarry. I had to knit my teeth to come away at all and it is uphill work to make the days pass. Michael feels the dreariness and the sadness of it too and we flounder about my lochs and streams with an effort. I am out with them all day, carrying the coats. Tomorrow we are going where we were the summer of Arthur's death, 30 miles away.... I'll try to stay in Scotland four weeks, but we may make tracks south before then. Michael would like me to take him to the chateau but I suppose better not.... Now I'm off to read War and Peace.