From Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin [17 November 1861]

My dear William

Your father says that he wrote such a very dull note that I will try a codicil to it. M^r Mead has just sent me in his resignation & I expect the whole corps to got to smash before long. The boys came on Saturday & were very jolly. George hard at work on M^r Kings moths. On Monday he had some fits of giddiness which I think w^d have prevented me sending him back if they had come on earlier in the day. We have not heard from them since so I suppose it turned out to be nothing

Your father has been in bed one day & I another this week from cold. He is not very well yet & my 3 brothers come tomorrow from St Leonards where they have been staying a few days, so I hope he will be better tomorrow. He wrote to a Lady Dorothy Nevill near Petersfield about orchids & she writes him the most cordial invite to come & see them & take whatever he likes.

Lizzy is visiting on her own hook at the Thorleys & I suppose enjoying herself as she begs to stay a little longer. Miss Pencorn Rose & Mabel are staying at the Hawkshaws & were to drink tea with the Thorleys  Etty did not see Fechter in Othello & she & Hope are quite wild to go but they cannot get a Chaperone   as it was as it was so dreadfully harrowing Aunt Fanny w^d not go on any account & Effie who went would not for the world go again.

H—tta (we are beginning it in earnest) walked as far as the larch wood the other day. She goes on with her cold tub every morning. George tells us he is 2^nd boy in Math. The 1^st boy Carpmael is a long way ahead of him. We have not a horse to our backs & I dare say we shall be an age before we get one.

Sir John & Lady L. are come from abroad  He was laid up with the gout at Geneva for a fortnight. Poor old Reeves is very ill with what we suppose is delirium tremens as he is quite frantic sometimes.

Lenny & Skimp are become so devoted to Miss Ludwig they stay all evening with her & Skimp was found reclining with his legs on 2 chairs & his head on her lap. Miss Pugh likes her new people very much but that does not go for much. You shall have Orley Farm when we get it. Aunt Cath. has the Oct Number. Your father goes to town on Wed. & will read his Primula paper at the Linnæan if he is pretty well. Goodbye my dear old man

It seems an age since we saw you. Are you grown bald or grey headed or fat?

I met Montagu Lubbock the other day walking in the village with his arm in a sling. He looks delicate still. We have regular January weather now, a sharp frost & quite bright & still. I dare say you are not so cold.