ON THE WELSH BORDER

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 12 October 1917, Page 1

ON THE WELSH BORDER

The following interesting letter, dated July 12, was written by a lady who formerly lived in Dunedin : I have left London, as I think I told you I proposed doing during the summer. I am now on the borders of Wales, and from a short distance up the road from where I am staying one gets a good view of the Welsh hills. I am lodging at a country house which is a kind of amateur farm. It is situated about three-quarters of a mile from Moreton-on-Lugg station arid about two and a-half miles from Hereford, the latter being next station by rail from Moreton-oq-Lugg. The country round about is very lovely, typically Englisn rolling land, consisting of meadows (which I am always making the mistake of calling paddocks), enclosed with hedges and dotted over with trees. Here and there a village, consisting of a few scattered houses of red brick, for the most part, and the usual little stone church, surrounded by its churchyard. In this special village there are no shops and no post office, only a few cottages and farms, the church, the vicarage, and a very nice manor-house, surrounded by its garde:! and enclosed by a high brick wall. -In the fields as one walks along one sees herds of the special breed of Hereford cattle, redbrown for the most part, with ""white faces and long, straight, forward-pointing horns. They produce excellent beef, but- are not so good on the "milking stunt. The weather just now is very pleasant, not too warm—veiy good for the hay. which is being harvested. Yesterday we had tea in the havfield—made a fire there and boiled the kettle. It was a pleasant view of trees and rolling country in the distance, and in the foreground the farm workers raking the hay up into mounds, whilst others were loading" it on to the waggon. The house is a comfortable, oldfashioned one, very pleasant and-homey to live in. There is a nice lawn at the side, on which I am at present seated under a spreading acacia tree writing this letter, and behind the house is a nice vegetable garden and orchard. The raspberries and currants are in a cage of wire netting safe fVom the depredations of birds, and we can go in and feast at will. It is many years since I had the opoprtunity of eating fruit freely from the tree, and you may imagine lam enjoying it. The sparrows, who apparently do not eat /the frujt. can get through the meshes of the netting, and one has built a neat little nest- in a currant bush. Some time back there was a rent in the netting, and a cuckoo found her way inside, and-, as is the way of her tribe, laid her egg in the nest. Mrs Sparrow in due course hatched out a cuckoo, and here is this creature literally filling the whole liesf, whilst the sparrow's eggs are kicked outside. It is a vicious little wretch, and makes to peck at one quite savagely when one looks into the nest. On Monday last I walked into Hereford with two of the boarders, atid we put in the day there. There is a nice little cathedral, which dates back t"> very early days. It" is not, of course, so fine as some of the large cathedrals, but still it is well worth a visit. I must say Ido enjoy postering round new places which have a character of their own. The cathedral itself, with a good part of the town, was destroyed in e&jly Norman times in an onslaught by,, the Welsh, banded together with a Saxon noble, who had been outlawed and sought revenge. It lay in ruins for some time, hut was eventually rebuilt, altered, and restored from time to time until it reached its present form. _ The country round about here is a- great cider-making dist-riot, and one sees apple trees everywhere. Most of them appear to be old tree 3, and look as though they hadly wanted the pruning knife. They grow in the grass, and, I should say, get no attention. They would give fruitgrowers in New Zealand the cold shudders. However, the apples come along, and in this house we drink nothing but cider for dinner and supper. It is rather'sour, but a very pleasant and refreshing drink. VVJhen we leave here we are going up the YaJley, which has the reputation of being very beautiful. After I leave them I hope to go on into Wales, and study the Welsh in their own country. I left London on Saturday morning, and had an exciting send-off. I had got my packing finished, and was just strapping a macintosh on to my suit case preparatory to running downstairs,, when there was a 60imd of guns firing. I thought at first it was anti-aircraft practice, as they had been latterly in the habit of practising daily. Presently, however, it got too loud and insistent for practice, and the housemaid came running into my room in a state of excitement. We looked out of the window, but could see nothing at first. In a few moments I espied the Taubes hovering over London like a ' swarm of bees or flies. I counted 19, and I could plainly see the puffs of black smoke, either from our own or their guns, floating amongst them. They were over the city and more easterly part of-London. After watching for a while, with a deafening din of artillery going on, one of the machines detached itself from the rest and came flying" in our direction. Not knowing whether it was one of our machines or a Taube, I made a hasty descent to the ground floor. The whole affair was soon over; but when I went out to get a taxi not one was to be had—they were all engaged : everybody. T suppose, either dashing to see if their relatives and friend? were safe, or to see what damage had been done. There is no doubt the English are an amazingly calm people. When 1 went out into the square, people were all standing in the doorways, but there was no particular excitement. In the streets .folk were walking along just as usual. Occasionally ! noticed a group talking, anc someone pointing to the sky, evidentlj ' describing what he had 6een, but that wa' all. When J got into my train, v peopl< were sitting half-asleep in the corners o the carriages, just as though things hat I heen going on in the usual way. As foi me, T felt far from ordinary. I "can assun you, and suffered from a rattling headach f in consequence. T had a letter from a friend yesterdav j. written from somewhere behind "the lines s and he told me they were having a cricke . match with some of the Australians; si . evidently thev were having a nice littl , spell out of the trenches. People in Nev s Zealand must be getting very pessimisti accounts -of the food question' in England e There is plenty of meat and enough flour if the population will only abide bv th regulations. Sutrar is certainly scarce i London, and all commodities are vpr dear, but potatoes are now coming int the market, and in a short time will li plentiful-. They say later on eggs will b , frightfully dear, because fowl feed costs s • much, and owners have killed off larg numbers of their fowls in consequence.