The Gables, Flitwick
Monday 23rd July 1917
About a week ago your correspondent was tooling around near Ypres when he came across someone he know. He is currently 208898 Driver Munns, C., of 146th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery but in happier times was plain Cyril Munns of The Gables in Church Road, Flitwick. This lovely old house was, until quite recently, an old inn dating back to at least the 17th century named the Swan.
Driver Munns was not a happy man. he had just received a letter from the solicitor of his landlady, Miss Brooks of Flitwick Manor. It seems that the garden of The Gables does not look the way it should and evidently Miss Brooks had cause to disparage it on her way past it either to or from the manor. The way their loved ones at home are treated matters a good deal to T. Atkins, esquire and if he perceives unfairness he is quick to anger. I let readers decide for themselves on whether Driver Munns has cause for upset by reproducing the letter he sent to the learned gentleman.
“Dear Sir, I am in receipt of a notice from you regarding the way my garden is kept, and you say it is in a very untidy and not cultivated condition. Sir, I beg to inform you that I am on active service in France, fighting for the likes of such as you and the good lady at the Manor who makes the complaint. Dear Sir, kindly inform Miss Brooks from me Driver Munns that I am here fighting to protect her estate and if she wishes me to cultivate that little piece of garden ask her to get me out of the army and I will do so. Otherwise it won’t worry me if her estate gets burnt down so long as it does not burn that lovely shanty (The Gables) down at the bottom of the hill and ask her if she is doing as much for her King and country as I am in threatening to turn my wife out of home in my absence. This letter is only as good as my wife received.”
Source: SF84/5/168/6
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