From Emma Darwin to Sara Darwin 14 September [1881]

My dear Sara

We were glad to have your card from Rheims & quite surprized that you shd have had a rough passage  I suppose one can never tell at this distance. We left bright Sun at Worthing & have had wet & gloom till this mg, tho' the barom. has been so high as to be quite puzzling.

I liked Mr Rich better than I had done before, not that I disliked him but there is a simplicity about him; & his value for F's visit is almost pathetic. F. told him what a large fortune he had just inherited; but he wd not hear of altering his will. I wish he would, as I always have felt rather a dislike to that bequest— It has been a great relief to F. making up his mind about his will— We shall be disgustingly rich & F. is thinking of reckless of extravagance in the matter of Chutnee & Bananas & Bessy & I have been running riot in bulbs & flowers— Leo is scheming a new tennis court, which is most puzzling in this place & we have several schemes, none of them very good. I think the asphalt will be a gt improvement as tennis is even more valuable in winter than summer—& there as far as I see our extravagance will end— I have been trying in vain to make Bessy care about it— Frank I know was quite hopeless. I am going to look at George's paper tho' he assures me I shall not care for it. We have had a card from Hen. in a sleeping car between Aix & Chambery—much rain but prosperous in other respects. [Hon] I hope you have done with rain now. Some of the corn here has been out for a month & is much sprouted. U. Hensleigh is gone to Staffordshire to hunt ghosts & I have no doubt he will have good sport as he will believe every thing he hears. At Fanny & the Alfreds at Ventnor. The little boy is her chief pleasure now. Fr. is going a little tour w. D^r Moore to Canterbury. Just the man to go with, as he knows all history. Margaret Shaen hastened home from York as her brother Arthur was worse, & I am afraid there is great cause for uneasiness about him—

Mrs Mulholland came to tell us about York—which she enjoyed much not troubling herself the least about science 

Johnny Lubbock devoted himself to making an audience, & went to the most neglected sections, & if he found many people coming in he took himself off to a more unpopular one 

Yours my 2 dear ones | E. Darwin

Shall I send on your habit shirt?