One could well believe it.
Tugs puffed out to meet us, pilots climbed aboard, and we slowly
steamed up the long sinuous channel, past Edgecombe to Davenport. All
the warships being built or equipped, the forts, the training ships
and the docks, indeed every point of vantage was thronged with
cheering crowds of people,--civilians, soldiers and sailors. Cheer
after cheer from our Canadian soldiers responded to those from our
English friends as we slowly made our way up the channel. It seemed as
though everybody had gone crazy.
It was a never-to-be-forgotten reception; we felt that we were indeed
a part of the Empire in spirit as well as in name. About three o'clock
we came to anchor, and during the afternoon ship after ship followed
in and anchored alongside. At night we crowded up even closer to give
the late-comers room. For the first time on our trip the vessels were
all brilliantly illuminated, the bands played, the giddy ones danced,
and all were happy to be once again in sight of solid land. At dinner
the commandant, Col. Williams, made a speech and called for three
cheers for our Captain, and never, I suppose, did any other Captain
receive such hearty cheers and such a tremendous "tiger." It was the
culmination of a marvellous and historic trip.
The trip to Salisbury by motor next day was a dream--a dream of hedges
and great trees meeting over-head; of hills and valleys with little
thatched cottages and villages nestling in them, of beautiful estates
and sheep, of quaint old English farms, of ancient towns and villages.
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