From Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin [3 February 1863]

My dear William

I have been so busy & have had so many notes to write that I have had no time to write to you.

The weather has been beyond mentioning & is quite depressing however Horace has been out every morning to see how the hot house goes till too wet to stay out any longer. We were all to have gone to Q. A S^t today but your father these two morning has felt so exhausted & his pulse so weak I am afraid he will not be well enough— Aunt Susan left us yesterday. There was only one day that she could potter about with Brooks & look at th cows & pigs. She was much struck with our "beautiful" Berkshire pig & tried to impress it on our minds with little success.

Henrietta went one day with Elinor & Lady C. Legge to hear John L's lecture at Bromley on the lake habitation in Switzerland. He gave it very fluently & well. Harriet L. was there with John's little girl upon her lap. After it was over John came up to little Amy & asked Well Amy did you understand it all? She told him she did & Harriet added "Why should not she John. Hen. slept at Ravensbourne. Lizzy's first letter began very cheerfully but ended rather low about her spelling & being so much more stupid over her lessons than she is at home & having a theme to write which does seem to me a very difficult think for any body to do, about as difficult as a sermon. I hope she had an outing at Cumberland P. with Rose & Mabel on Sunday & we shall have her at Q. Anne S^t. next Sunday. Charles Langton has been so unwell as to make them rather uneasy. He thought it was a heart complaint but the D^r says it is only irritable &c. He has been surprizingly weak. Did you hear of M^rs Turnbull's sudden death. She is no loss to any one but her wretched drunken son, who has been in I suppose delirium tremens ever since & M^rs Rich is in great distress about him. This going to London is rather an experiment both for your father & Horace but I believe it will do them good.

I have had comf. accounts from all the chicks. Lizzy was at the play with Frank & saw Fechter & was charmed.

Yours my dear W^m

Ch. Langton is much better too.