From Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin [23 January 1887]

My dear William

(I have paid M^r Town his £9)— I am enjoying feeling well again & going about the house— If the weather had been warmer I sh^d have been out of doors a week ago— My difficulty is to avoid being over heated—

I hope you read M^r Goschen's first speech at Liverpool—

There was such a bold spirit about it— I trust he will get in— Are not you surprized at the general warmth of feeling about Lord Iddesleigh It is a credit to England, as shewing that the sterling virtues are more valued than the brilliant ones though Lord I was not without those— It is like the feeling for Francis Horner, only he was a dull man, which Lord I. is far from being— I hear such praise of Dowden's Life of Shelley that I find I shall be driven to get it, in spite of my being tired of the name of Shelley & having vowed I w^d never read another line about him— Don't trouble yourself to read "Arthur Hamilton" an imaginary biography by a son of the Arch. of Cant– It has been greatly praised & I think it raw & presumptuous as the book of a youth of 22 or so is likely to be, when he ventures on all sort of subjects— He makes his hero a prig— which is more like a woman's writing

Leonard is pretty well again— He has nearly finished his celipse work. They are going on Thursday for a few days tennis & sea air at Brighton, but he used up so much of his leave by his W. Indian trip that he can't obtain much now—

Frank read his Botanical paper at the Linnean last week & took Miss Bateman w. him. She had helped him v. m. in his experiments She was the only woman ever admitted & they had to alter a rule for the purpose, but received her very kindly. He played in Beet's Septett at the Concert on Wed. & got great credit, & it the bassoon is almost a solo in parts—

The pigamy is quite a good looking baby now & her eye less of a blemish— Bernard enjoys his school but looks ragged & pale again, not as well as he did when he came from Bassett–-

I am glad Sara thinks Ellen so judicious about him— She certainly has not fallen into any of Effie's mistakes & Bernard is fond of her & perfectly comf. w. her—

I hope her D^rs prescrip. will continue to suit her— Maud is advised to take arsenic for a year! I used to like it when I was younger—

My best love to my dear Sara— I am sorry to think how m. I missed of you & her visit— you must come again all the sooner

yours my dear William | E D