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very nice in the summer time but what with forty to fifty thousand soldiers – mostly all Canadians it is just the reverse. The town I am told has a population of about twenty thousand and during the regular summer season half as many again. It is a very compact and irregular town, that is the only description I can give it. There is nothing up to date about the stores like you find in Canada. The promenade – better known here as the Leas – along the shore, is very nice and pretty and on a clear day one can see the coast of France quite clearly. Dover is only six miles from here and Canterbury seventeen. Some week end I am going to visit both places, especially the latter.

We are camped at the foot of Caesar’s Hill – so called because Caesar once had a camp on the top. Trenches are still to be seen around the top and a splendid view is also obtainable. The C.M.R. brigade – composed of the 1st, 2nd & 3rd C.M.R’s – is in camp on the South side of the Hill. The 48th and a couple of Toronto regiments are camped on the North side. The 48th came in a few days ago so every day I see an old Victoria face. I have seen Carew Martin, John Arbuckle, Budge Parl and numerous other Victorians who left with the 1st Contingent. They all speak of Victoria as the only place on earth and I know the 2nd C.M.R. would be back in a minute if this work was over but to tell the

BC Archives, MS-1901 Box 1 File 15 / RUSSELL, Alma M., 1873-1964. Victoria; librarian. / Letters from Trooper Joseph Shires, 1915-1916.