9th July (1917)

I have not yet seen the Northern Stars as it is light until after bed-time and on the occasions when I have been on guard it has either been bright moonlight or overcast.  Yesterday evening having received note from a Mr. Green I went after tea and hunted him up at his home in a pleasanter part of town.  We had a chic little supper – to wit – lobster salad, claret, corn-beef, gooseberry tart, cream cheese and biscuits, strawberries and cream, and a glass of port, which put me in the best of humour with myself – themselves – and things in general.

This afternoon we went for a route march of about 4 miles – a very hot and dusty march, part of the way along the banks of a canal.  The lock-gates with the overflow rushing round out of a tunnel at the side are picturesque.

[Note – Lincoln Lee was an amateur water-colour artist.  As a family we have retained a set of sketches he did in 1917 and 1918.  Almost all are the size of large post-cards.  On a number of them Lincoln indicated where they were painted or drawn, and attached some to the original version of the type-script reproduced here.  Unfortunately, most were detached at a later date, so it is a matter of guess-work as to when each image was painted and where they may best accompany the text.  Lincoln did not appear to have painted at the front itself, but there are some paintings of villages or country scenes in France which he must have done at times of leave or recreation.  The below image is marked “Farm near Chadderton near Oldham”.  Potentially it was painted in the period after his return from leave and the current post].