Driving drill this morning. Went out with Monsieur R (he knows a bit of French and we are going to try to brush it up). Went up hill past Ewshot and on to a sort of plateau used as Military area, waste and stony, with “McWhirter” silver beeches and heather. Good view of Aldershot. Wandered into a pine-grove and did sketches of wheat-stooks and distance (the real patchwork panoramas of England). Wandered on to a village called Crondall and have decided that Crondall will do us. It looks as old as the hills with quaint white cottages, with inlet beams; and a square towered church about 800 years old. The countryside is dotted over with villages and is a real job. I keep wanting to leave the army and rent a cottage for you and me to pass next summer in. What think you?
[New Zealand Artillery soldiers with gun carriages, Ewshot, c1918. National Library, ref 1/2-014101-G]
Walk March 
Correction made to “Wheat-Stook”, which I had assumed was a typo in the original. However, a “stook”, also referred to as a shock or stack, is an arrangement of sheaves of cut grain stalks placed so as to keep the grain-heads off the ground while still in the field and prior to collection for threshing. Stooked grain sheaves are typically wheat, barley and oats.
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