On opening the shutters to my great surprise the sky appeared blue and the early rays of the sun were imparting their brilliancy to the vivid green of the grass far and near. It is this last feature that makes the English landscape in winter so cheering. On going won to breakfast we exchanged the usual salutations of the day. The children received their respective presents, and then a portion of us went to Church. The attendance was fully and the service customary, with the single exception of the reading of the odious Athanasian creed. The sermon was on the nativity but without force. In the afternoon I seized an hour of leisure in order to prepare my letters of the week to Charles and John. My anxiety about the former is not diminished by the news we get today of an adverse result in a great battle at Fredericksburgh. I took a walk on the same road I selected just one year ago, and watched the sunset from a bridge a short distance beyond the spot at which I then stopped, noting the hour as twelve minutes before four o’clock just as before. The day uncommonly fine in both cases. We had a large dinner with all the children at table, and a drawing of little things out of a so called pie, which amused the young ones, after which some games. But there was no country party as last year. Bed at midnight.260