From Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin [9 August 1877]

My dear William

We have enjoyed our 2 days entire quiet Uncle F. having gone on Wed. & At Eliz. guests on Thursday.

We had a v. successful pic nic w. the children in the orchard on Tuesday, & it did q. as well as a wilder place—

Lena is capital for those of things & we heard the little flock came marching up singing from the other house all 2 & 2—

On Wed. we had the Miss Teesdales & Lena to luncheon & a small concert & lawn tennis till the showers put a stop to it.

Geo. arrived just before lunch & buckled to like a man— The eldest T. is a nice girl I think but all their ways of thinking are so opposite to ours that I don't think Bessy can be intimate with them.

Your little Scotch friend is more common place than the eldest.

Yesterday F. was q. delighted by the receipt of a letter from Prof. Cohn of Breslau (one of the first Bot. phys of Europe) approving of Fr paper on Teazle, of which he had verified all the exp. & thinks it a most important discovery. F. wants to send his letter to Nature to spite the Royal Soc; but I doubt whether Prof. C– will allow it as he is sure to mean to publish on the subject.

On Wed— Leo came home to report that the photog. of the plants had failed, so George has set to to draw some of them, & he does it so well that it is best of all— & a new thing is better for him than going on w. his difficult subjects

After the bad acct of Aunt Fanny I wrote to Effie to propose giving up our visit— She answers that if she continues no worse she had m. rather we came, chiefly for T. H's sake who w^d be m. disappted if F. did not go— She speaks most warmly of the comfort of his sympathy & help— There has been a return of slight congestion of the lung & she is v. weak— They have a professional nurse now & find her a g^t comfort. Poor F. is v. m dejected. So we leave it undecided till the very day. Ida has promised to go on the Thames w. the Litches & Lenny— Horace gives him a g^t deal of good advice on the subject w. L. received with the composure you may imagine, & I think the lovely Adelaide goes for something on the other side—

We expect the Abneys today He is pleasant but we have never seen her— She is devoted to lawn tennis.

I think I improved Uncle Frank's mind a little by making him read the Spectator on the Atrocities. The Times corresp. makes on q wonder at the good behaviour of the Russian army to the Turkish wounded after finding the headless & mutilated corpses of their own dead & wounded—

Yours my dearest Old Man | E. D

F. says D^r Dobson is a very good nat—

Here's y^r £30— I expect you do not make money by us—

D^r Dobson is a good zoologist & has written chiefly on bats & had some corresp. w. F.