Otterpool, Sept 12, 1915 Dear Folks; - Received your Aug.25th letter O.K. on Sat. and was, as usual, glad to get it. Got one this week from Jennie, also from Jim McGill. Glad you discovered there was no truth in that New York report that we were in France, as there is no use worrying anymore than necessary. Well, nothing exciting happening. Did not get a pass to see Clifton's people and will not be able to as passes, except for those who have not had long leave, are cut out. We have been having a fairly soft time lately. Bathing parade on Friday morning and nothing else. Filled in trenches one other day, finished it up quick and got dismissed. May state that the lieutenants turned in with shovel and worked reasonably hard. They are also carrying packs now, at times the same packs as ours. They have to carry in an active service and may as well get used to it. The chief feature this week here is the air raids in London. Several fellows were up there and say people were pretty badly scared, a number sleeping in tube stations. A lot of damage was done to property, some houses blown clean down and windows for whole streets smashed. The Zepp. could be seen quite easily but the firing was short, quite a number of people being hurt with falling shrapnel. A fair sized gun, from the town, opened fire but, as they said, it must have been six miles away-no damage. The Zepp., when it discovered it was being fired upon, dropped a kind of a bomb that exploded a little way down and enveloped the Zepp. in a dense cloud, out of view. Zepp. Also carries a searchlight on the bottom and can thus see whether it over a town or not. The trouble is, they seem so helpless to do anything, especially when it is right over London as they can do as much damage as the Zepp. But they will get them yet. They say the row it kicks up is a corker when it is traveling. You can believe it, as they have four propellers and an aeroplane has just one mostly and you can hear them for miles, I guess, or a mile at least. This has been a poor weekend, as yesterday afternoon we hung around all day to get our pay. Were not paid till about eight P.M., last to be paid and only got ten bob- 10 s. In France, we get twenty cents a day. Guess there is not much chance to spend it there, and, when we come back with a piece of ear shot off, we will be able to travel on our accumulated wealth. This writing is good but I am laying down and doing it. Gos says he writes regular, had written three letters a week. Only week he didn't write was the one he was on leave. I am going in to Hythe this afternoon, will have a small row on the canal, tea and return. A fairly pleasant spot, Hythe. It is hot today, one of the few we have had. It has also been dry for two weeks. Say, don't know if it mentioned the inspection by Kitchener and the King [George V] or not but, if I did not, it was the usual a rain but only rained on us coming home. The King is just as his pictures would lead you to believe. Could easily recognize him; he is not stout, looks pretty fit and rides well -had a swell black horse. Kitch. rides a white horse, has all kinds of ribbon, order, etc. on his left breast, completely covered. Has a huge mustache. His face is much fatter than expected. All around a good looking man. Looks quite a bit like Ketchen, commander of our brigade. I seem to have gone quite stale on letter writing. May do better later. My letter writing from France will, of a necessity, be poor affairs on a/c of the censor. Lots of Love, Perry