From Emma Darwin to W. E. Darwin [9 April 1887]

My dear William

I long to hear about your voyage— the Times having promised a cyclone about the 7^th. Sunday & Monday were calm & bright; but Tuesday (when we returned home) was bitterly cold & stormy. On Wed. Bessy went to Caverswall & Leonard & Bee came here, also the Georges to dinner. G. looking m. better & pleasant & full of news— Maud quite blooming— such nice people they had met (& invited to the Grange) They were charmed w. San Jean de Luz to the end & came straight to Paris, stopping one night at Poitiers which they found so French as to be interesting, also it has a fine Cathedral—

On Thursday we had the fun of moving into the dining room, & it has kept Bee & Hen hard at work ever since, first trying one effect & then another— It is so pretty & pleasant a room that I can't imagine how we have not adopted it as drawing room long ago. The flowers look so bright in the sun light. I was greatly relieved to find that Jackson has had the luck to get a good situation w. a Shropshire S^qr. & M.P. & they were safe off the premises— I like Price the new man; but I shall find it difficult to "live up" to his decorums, about dinner & dessert &c Ellen kindly adopted one of M^rs Jacksons cats, which I have no doubt took a weight off her mind— She is to live in the lodge as she does here.

I had a visit from Gwen who is grown so portentously wise that is much more grave & not so amusing.

Horace & Ida are very happy at Rapallo, buying pots & the children at Abinger. Frank playing golf at Westward Ho. where are some Eton masters & the Austen Leighs. George called on Arthur Balfour & found him well & perfectly hardened to the brutality of the Irish members. He always thinks every thing as bad as possible so that he is not more dismal about public affairs than usual— I am ashamed of the liberals, talking of the Boycotting of the Primrose League as if it was any thing to compare with the Irish article; & of Gladstone minimizing the outrages & depreciating the Judges, & not attending to the Jury difficulty. The honesty of the party has disappeared. I am sure you both will have enjoyed a comf. sight of the Arthur Sedgwicks & I hope Theo. joined you—

What a happy letter that was of Margarets. I think it shews that she has got over her troubles & enjoys her life—

The garden is hardly forwarder than when I went away & is dismal w. rows of dead wall flowers.

my best love to my dear Sara— yours dear William | E. Darwin

Leo. delights Bernard w. a good deal of scrummaging; he must however protect himself as I can't do it for him— His app^t is not yet fixed & indeed there is some doubt about the plan—