[caption id="StoriestobeTold_img1" align="aligncenter" width="435"][/caption]
  [caption id="LettersandMiscellany_img1" align="aligncenter" width="689"] The monolithic stones at Merry Maidens in Cornwall are said to have been carefree village girls who were turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday.[/caption]
  It was a beautiful moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere; and…there was a lot of commotion in the German trenches….And then they sang “Silent Night—Stille Nacht.” I shall never forget it. It was one of the highlights of my life —Albert Moren, 2nd Queen’s Regiment
  
  
  
  Fighter Boys: The Battle of Britain, 1940, by Patrick Bishop, published by Penguin Books, New York, 448 pages, softcover $16, www.penguin.com
  [caption id="TheBrindleyWaterMill_img1" align="aligncenter" width="781"] Restored and opened to the public in 1974, Brindley’s mill in Leek, Staffordshire, built in 1752, is still grinding corn. [/caption]
  [caption id="TheVillageAJournalistInvestigates_img1" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] The view toward the village and manor house of Arlescote in Warwickshire.[/caption]
  [caption id="LastOrdersPlease_img1" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] ’Twas the night before Christmas, and a young girl shares in the old Cotswold custom of dressing the door with a garland of fir cones and evergreen in December 1954.[/caption]