181
     News from Home.  A Lie of Stedman�s.
� talk of the severe winter (�just such a one
as that on which your poor, dear, grandfather
died � I dare say you remember it, and when
you ran to fetch Mr. Ladbury to him, at our
house in John street;�) � of �suffering and des-
titution in� London � of Christmas Day at
our house at which Edwin was not present,
though Charley and Sam and their wives
were.     Tanner, invited from Lewes, couldn�t 
come.     My father �continues just the same; he
grows very thin and gets weaker � the late 
cold weather has affected him much.�   Ned,
being near Neithrop, spent his Christmas Day
there, William Bolton sending a dog-cart to fetch
him.     Rosa�s letter is almost painfully affectio-
nate, pietistic and morbid.               I was an-
swering these letters when Colt came up, and
stayed for an hour or more, leaving me to con-
clued them by midnight after his departure.
  Stedman, whom I met this afternoon, told
me of a story appearing in a New Haven paper, 
asserting a visit of mine, as a quasi-spy, to
Fort Sumter, on pretext of sketching.  It evident-
ly originated in consequence of the enterprize of
Cook the photographer.
  26.  Tuesday.   A walk eastwards, returning,