6th December 1943

Monday
Up early.  Fine, very cold.  Hundreds of rooks flying round the bare trees at Gunhill.

We have all been watching with considerable amusement, the establishment of a brothel in a house in Military Rd, immediately opposite the office.  This afternoon there was a sudden flood of hot water in the garden of this house, running out of the joint of a blocked wastepipe and it was quite obvious someone had just been having a bath.  Shortly after 2 Yanks came out, very noisy, with two of the girls with them, and went up town together.  A third woman waved goodbye from the step.  From the smoking chimneys there seems to be a fire in every room.  Three or four times during the last fortnight, a furniture van has delivered new arm-chairs, commodes, tables etc.  It seems odd to have a “house of ill fame” in this respectable street.  

Called at Rallings' for tea, and then went to stables to get a truss of hay for the jennet at the mill.  Wheeled it on my cycle, and in Harsnett Rd, met pretty little Marjory Bolingbroke (Mrs Purser) with her little girl, now aged 3.  It seems a long while since the walks on Hythe Marshes, when I was 17 and she was 14.

Left at 6, and went first to Lark Hall by Raydon, to see the Pentons.  Had a job to find the place, as the moon was behind clouds and there was some fog.  Mrs. Penton looked dreadfully ill, and is dying of cancer.  Went to ask about milk, as we get so little at the cottage now, and when Jacquie comes we must have more.  Lark Hall looked very fine.  Penton has executed some murals which are extraordinarily good.  It must be terrible for him to live there alone with his dying mother.

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