T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 141

[Cloud] To A. E. Chambers. LH 4/13/42 t.XI.23 Dear Mahomet I've been consciously waiting to know my week-end plans. I've got... week, & so we may not get passes: but if I can I've got to attend a service (with Jack Sherrard's descendant) on that day at Westminster. So don't come here & look for me this week-end. I'm probably booked. Bovington is a place you visit at your own risk. Wool Rly. Station S.W.R. and 3 miles of a walk thence hither. Here is the original of Macbeth's blasted heath, & there is no place to stay. You will have to put up at the Bless. Meer (...) a fool, about 200 yds from the station. I'M Pt. Stay [erased by order ...words] 1st Depot Battalion: and as the Depot always slor- of men we do guards every third day, but not regularly. So don't come for one night, or you may find me stuck where I can't talk to you. Battn is of guard not permitted. Chances mount 5.30 P.M. & come off about 5.P.M. Not a windy place, morally speaking. My duties are fatiques & formal parades 7.45 AM to 12 noon, & 1.30 to 5.30. Wed. afternoon (after 2p.m.) and Sat. after 12 noon.& Half page missing Places: clean second-hand from Poyle,Charing Cross Road. Fairish to dull reading.Some of the dialogues are more interesting. Have you read Tolstoi's "War & Peace"? A marvellous novel of the Napoleonic wars. Also you might like his Kreutzer Sonata, a religious-philosophical work. Tolstoi is a giant. I'm not wholly resourceless in Bovington: found a ruined cottage near camp (a mile out ) & took it for 2/6 a week. Have roofed it & am flooring it. At present one chair & a table there were. Am hoping for a book case this week,& a bed next week but cash isn't too plentiful & needs are many. I'll let you know for week after next if I might do you to stay in. There is firewood & you are good at bed-making No floor-ventails. Fairly nice. About a dozen good books already. Too many people talking to me can't write. R. 133