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

My dear George

We have actually had 4 bright days & Bernard enjoys wildly galloping about like a lancer without his things on & his hair flying— He is the happiest little man I ever saw— I do not believe he will even mind parting with Nanna & taking to the new maid who comes on Monday, & I only hope Nanna will not be mortified. Your last letter was written just after the defeat & death of Sir G. Colley. It was a horrid affair & I suppose he was rash; but the deaths have turned out to be over estimated as they always seem to be. Richard was so cast down about public affairs that he w^d not open his lips & I believe he thinks this is the beginning of the end & that it is all up with England— I fancy from what he hears at Chatham there is great cause for uneasiness about the feeling of the Dutch at Cape Town & every where in S. Africa.

We had Henry Allen on Sat. & he was so very pleasant & amusing I thought what fools we were not to have invited him all those years.

He evidently finds Parl^t as good as a play. He is a good mimic & tells a great many amusing things & how they behave &c— Bradlaugh is extra polite & bowing &c but rather a horrid countenance

He heard Gladstone talking of this cut on the head & saying he had been mortified to find he was not so tough as Lord Campbell whose life he had been reading & found that he had appeared in court the next day after a similar accident.

Laura was with us nearly a fortnight & I think she was somewhat stronger but she is very feeble & thin. She is now gone to Clapham, w. is not a good house to be poorly in.

The Litches came on Sat. & brought Elsie Blunt w. them a very nice tasteful girl; but very plain—

She is a friend of Laura's & liked her visit—

I don't think Leo has ever quite got over his attack at Coniston; & what a mercy it was you did not go there & get such a chill— D^r Moore walked over on Sunday & was quite satisfied about Leo— but when he has a cold it pulls him down & he does not look well— W^m & Sara are going to Malvern I believe.

He sounds to be a good deal troubled by the return of his old head symptoms which did not appear till 4 days after the fall from his horse— The difficulty is to dispose of Lily & M^lle— & we sh^d be most glad to have her without M^lle. who w^d bore F. too much.

They will viz W. & Sara eventually come here I hope— He seems well as long as he does nothing

Uncle Eras. has got to his drawing room I was glad to hear—

It is pleasant to think now soon we may have you at home my dear old man yours E. D—