December 25 Friday – Christmas – In London Sam wrote in his notebook:

LONDON, 11.30 Xmas morning. The Square & adjacent streets are not merely quiet, they are dead. There is not a sound. At intervals a Sunday-looking person passes along. The family have been to breakfast. We three sat & talked as usual, but the name of the day was not mentioned. It was in our minds, but we said nothing [MTB 1027].

Clara Clemens wrote of this period that “We did not celebrate Thanksgiving day or Christmas, but,

     “Wet with silent tears

      Those graves of memory where sleep

      The joys of other years.” [MFMT 184].