London

11 Dec^r 1844

My Dear Mother

I had a very cold journey but it was of no consequence, as I found a blazing fire in the library. At Slough we took in the better part of Eton School, happy creatures the holidays just beginning –

Today was pitch dark, I had candles all day, and made no attempt to leave the house until dinnertime; but considering it as altogether a dies non, ^<1> made up my mind to occupy myself with internal affairs – It requires a very powerful imagination to be able to believe that within 500 miles there should be regions where the sun is shining at that very moment with cloudless splendour.

Your aff^te

Henry

Pray cut out of the Globe ^<2> of Tuesday the article about the antiquities at Khorsabad near Nineveh

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Notes:

1. Dies non juridicus, a day when no law transactions may be made.

2. The Globe (London).