From Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin [late 1876]

My dear William

I suppose you will enquire for letters at Pit so I will venture one— I thought you a little below par at Down, & I hope you will get a spirt up there. G. & Horace came on Wed. to go to the Royal Soc. Soirée & F. went w. them! There was such a crowd he only cd behave liked a crowned head shake hands & before he enter on any talk, some body else came up. Many of them he did not know, & one was so affectionate he was ashamed to ask & parted from him with the greatest effusion. I don't think it will be worth while his going again— However it did him no harm—

We came to No. 6 on Tuesday & go home tomorrow having been v. prosperous & Eras. very pleasant & brisk apparently— F. actually saw Mr Ruck this mg. & found him v. like other people & not difficult to get on with— They are in lodgings & I persuaded him to call—

We shall have T.H. & possibly Ida on Sat 5 if we came in your way you mt turn up but it is not v. likely. Frank came yesterday for a lesson & slept. & reported 2 teeth thro'.

I am sorry that Eliz has had a worry about Lena & C. L. in our absence  She is gone to Paris for a few weeks & apparently does not mean to return to Eastwood but leaves the children w. C.L. She has taken a small house at Bournemouth. It sounds crazy— She parted on good terms w. C.L—

G's Astronom. paper is to be printed in the Transact & has been examined & highly approved by Sir W Thompson & Col. Clarke (but I believe you know all this). G. is m. pleased—

yours dear W. | E. D