From G. H. Darwin to H. E. Darwin 25 January 1873

Hotel de Provence | Cannes

Sunday, Jan 25. 73

My dear Henrietta

Many thanks for your letter; we have certainly been v. well treated by the world in the matter of letters.— & a letter abroad is always acceptable you know. Up to the two last days our weather has been no very enormous improvement on England— as we've had torrents of rain & v. high wind— being as I suppose our share of the Great storms you've been having;— but yesterday & today it is lovely & calm [even] with a real hot sun— & every thing looks lovely beyond expression.

We walked down to the old Church yesterday p. m. & had a most exquisite view of the bay & hills. I was utterly astonished the other day to find that this Hotel is kept by the Countess of Oxford— what a v. odd thing for an old arist. to take to innkeeping.— I suppose you knew of it before—She certainly does it v. well & I don't think I was ever in a nicer hotel & the cooking is admirable & well adapted for such as us— I hope the Langtons will come here again this year, as it will be very pleasant to have some company, tho' I don't feel the least inclination at present to try my hand with introductions— If the L's wd. let us know when they come & wd. tell me what rooms they want I cd. see after it— as it will be as well to do so soon as the hotel is v. full.—

Horace has begun his French i.e. about 1/2 an hour's work, & I am rather surprised to find that he is not quite as utterly ignorant of it as I thought. He has been rather seedy for about 3 days but was m. better yesterday.— I don't m. think I shall do any French as the place seems utterly unadapted for it.— I went to see Dr. Frank yesterday & thought him sensible— he asked me almost at once whether there was gout & dyspepsia in the family & I felt that I cd. assure him with a clear conscience that there was. I was quite impressed to find so young a man. He seems fearfully hard worked, there were about 10 patients waiting to see him when I was there— luckily for me by coming early I got in first. I have just finished Sense & Sensibility what capital fun it is— it was so long since I had read one of her novels that I thought I didn't like them— But how fearfully vulgar the people are— I suppose its true to nature but thanks good, commonplace worldly gentlemen & ladies are not so vulgar now

Yrs | G H Darwin

Please cite as “FL-0003,” in Ɛpsilon: The Darwin Family Letters Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/darwin-family-letters/letters/FL-0003