{"id":3433,"date":"2018-03-13T15:03:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T15:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kildare.ie\/ehistory\/?p=3433"},"modified":"2025-11-12T16:18:38","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T16:18:38","slug":"an-athy-yeomans-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/an-athy-yeomans-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"An Athy Yeoman\u2019s Letter, 1900"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leinster Leader,<\/em> 23 June 1900<\/strong><\/p>\n

An Athy Yeoman\u2019s Letter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Songs, Society, and Tea<\/strong><\/p>\n

An Athy man has received the following letter from his brother, at present serving in the Yeomanry in South Africa:-<\/p>\n

\u201cStellenbosch Camp, 28th May, 1900.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy Dear\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/u>, – It is time to think of writing to you, but as we are not playing at soldiers now, as we were at the Curragh, my own time is very scarce.\u00a0 We are at this Camp a fortnight, but we are leaving to-day for Colesberg, which is five hundred miles from here, and then we proceed to Kroonstadt in the Orange Free State.\u00a0 It is strange but true that we know very little about how the war is proceeding out here, as we never see a paper.\u00a0 We had a very pleasant time during our stay in Colesberg. It is a town of about 6,000 inhabitants.\u00a0 Half of the people in it are rebels, and the other half loyalists. The latter portion gave our 74th Company a big entertainment one night. It was something in the nature of a smoking concert. I was the first on the list to sing with \u201cThe Heart Bowed Down,\u201d and I had to give an encore with \u201cTerrence\u2019s Farewell to Kathleen,\u201d for which I was further encored, but I had to make an excuse on the following evening. I had an invitation to dinner from the wife of the High Sheriff of the district, a lady named Honey. Big Smith, Manly, and myself went. We had a very jolly night, and on a few evenings afterwards we had to go to afternoon tea. There are four pretty girls in the family. Young and another fellow named Smith went to the Protestant minister\u2019s to tea last night. They say they had a good time. We also had a general holiday on the 24th May, the Queen\u2019s birthday.\u00a0 There were gymkhana sports held by the officers of the Vermount Camp quite convenient to where we are, so you see we are not altogether without amusement.\u00a0 Although there are three or four companies of Yeomanry in this Camp, the Irish are the only company that got any entertainment by the public. I also have a standing invitation from those people \u2013 Honey \u2013 to a picnic when I come back if I don\u2019t get a Boer bullet. The officers brought our company on a mountain climbing expedition last week. We rode about 14 miles, and then left our horses at the base, when we proceeded on foot with our rifles. The mountains are full of buck, a sort of deer. We brought back four, from which we dined very well. I am rather pressed for time, so I must conclude with the hope that all at home are well. Tell all the boys in Athy that I was enquiring for them, and also the girls.<\/p>\n

Your affectionate brother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leinster Leader, 23 June 1900 An Athy Yeoman\u2019s Letter Songs, Society, and Tea An Athy man has received the following letter from his brother, at present serving in the Yeomanry in South Africa:- \u201cStellenbosch Camp, 28th May, 1900. \u201cMy Dear\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 , – It is time to think of writing to you, but as we are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-history"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kildare Local Studies","author_link":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/author\/localstudies\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3433"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8346,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3433\/revisions\/8346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kildarelibraries.ie\/ehistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}