We have been much favored by the weather during our stay here which makes all the difference in the world in our estimate of places. I shall always remember Norman court as a sunny, cheerful, elegant seat, even though I have to associate it with the most gloomy of political news from Rome. Soon after breakfast most of the party took their leave. Mr and Mrs Dodson on their way to Brighton, Mrs Hankey to stop a few miles before reaching London, and on only coming through We got home at about three to learn that the confederate forces had made their way over the Potomac to Frederickson in Maryland. Of course the character of the war now beings to change. Our people most elicit a good military leader or their fates is sealed. I found letters201 from my son Charles at Washington giving gloomy views of the state of things there, and denouncing all the Officers without scruple. But if all are bad, what are we to do? The right man will not spring out of the earth. I fear more the final discovery of the incapacity of the President. The remainder of my day was dull enough. It was for the most part spent in examining the various letters and papers which had accumulated during my absence. There were no Despatches from the Department. Evening I read a chapter from Mr Guizot’s memoirs on the Eastern question in 1839.