Brittain, Vera, Diary, 22 August 1915

00000298-2.jpg
Description: 
Diary of Vera Brittain

Tabs

Case Study: 
From Youth to Experience: Vera Brittain’s Work for Peace in Two World Wars
Creator: 
Brittain, Vera
Source: 
diary
Date: 
22 August 1915
Collection/Fonds: 
Contributer: 
McMaster University Libraries
Rights: 
Vera Brittain estate; McMaster University has a non-exclusive licence to publish this document.

Identifier: 
00000298-2
Language: 
eng
Type: 
image
Format: 
jpg
Transcript: 

invasion & bombardment ever since the war began. Its obviousness as a favourable place for the former has been made apparent by William Le Queux's book "The Invasion". The latter was actually attempted some months ago, but as some military genius had moved the coast buoy, from which the Germans took their range, a mile and a half further out to sea, all the shells fell short of the land and dropped harmlessly into the water. As a guard against both these two dangers the plain between the cliff & the sea has been thoroughly entrenched & defended with wire entanglements, and on top of the cliff along the front are several machine-gun stations like the one I saw last night. On this particular Sunday morning the sea, though grey, was calm, and on the horizon a few trawlers were drifting lazily to & fro. With the passing of the night & Zeppelin dangers for the time being, & from the serene appearance of the ships, which seemed to move about as aimlessly as if the entrance to the harbour was not a perpetual menace of mines, it was almost impossible to believe that there was a war on & that this was one of the towns in England compelled to realise it most clearly.
Clare & Evelyn decided to support the myth of family respectability (they are the only ones who ever do) by going to church. I never had much opportunity for conversation with Clare, but from various remarks dropped by the family I gathered that her mind is at present largely occupied by religious doubts & difficulties both imaginary and real - a mixture of the kind which beset me at the age of fifteen & laid the foundation of my present agnostic tendencies.
Soon after breakfast Mrs. Leighton took me