From Emma Darwin to G. H. Darwin 16 February 1881

My dear George

I got your letter of the 9^th this mg. & I was very glad to find that your bad bout had not pulled you down more. The politics are as flat as ditch water now the Irish fun is over. Bessy returned from Basset yesterday. W^m & Sara had a pleasant dinner at the Sellars, meeting only the brother & his wife (Gertrude Smith that was).

I suppose M^rs Gladstone is a wonderful goose—She was in the house when Gladstone was attempting to speak & interrupted so many times by the Irish, & kept saying "Poor dear, he has not had his egg flip. Then she asked Lady Granville whether her carriage was waiting, & it last went off in a cob to get the egg flip—tho' how she c^d get it or give, it to Gladstone I can't think. I was sorry to hear that the sober hard working Forster is given to gambling—w. is hardly credible. Fr. gave his long promised lecture at Keston (a rechauffée of his former one on plants & insects). He had quite a brilliant audience. M^rs Whitmore & Isabel M^rs Ned Norman & Lord Sackville &c & he came home pleased & owning that it had been a success—

Leo is quite well, but greatly pulled down which [is] a wonderful improvement to his appearance— F thanks you for your translation. He is actually not going to answer the foolish man (I must own he did write to say he had rec^d the letter but c^d not read it)—

W^m struggles on heroically about French with very little progress— Sara is plagued w. constant headaches & her horse has turned naughty.

Yesterday was bright & warm & I got out of doors w. I don't very often manage. F^r heard about M'Lennan—from M^rs W. He has a man attendant, but frightens him by storming at him when things go wrong—so I think he won't be there long. Fr rode & saw M^rs M. the other day. The fever still continues but he is no worse she looked better. Alice said that you had made out that M'Len. Therm was not accurate & that the D^r (a homeopath) had found it too high, & he told Alice that M^r M. felt quite flat that his temp. was so much lower than he thought.

F. has lost eczema & is pretty well.

Yours my dear G— | E. D.

Uncle Ras has been very unwell keeping his bed—