From Emma Darwin to H. E. Darwin [c. 20 April 1867]

My dear Body

What a day yesterday was. I never did. The boys got thro' it wonderfully & in the afternoon Sir John & Prof. Fawcett called & asked G. to dinner (& you too)  He is the man we saw at the Pop. that day, very animated & agreeable. He said if he lived 20 or 30 years longer he fully expected that women w^d be regularly taking their degrees at Ox. & Cam. like men (not living in the Colleges of course)  He spoke of the female exams as most useful, especially for governesses, & said that experience contradicted the expectations formed viz. that the girls w^d try for a smattering in many lines, for they generally kept to one & did it more thoroughly than men. I am sure he w^d have sympathized about Eyre but he talked so I c^d not edge it in.

He is so enormous that Sir John looked like a little boy as he led him away. He says he always likes to see women at his lectures & that many of them are attended by women

Kittlums was low and morose yesterday w^d not eat or drink & when turned out rushed off to his cave— He is happier today but does not like the boys & is up in my room. You had beeter get the girls to coach the boys a little in waltzing they w^d all like it.

D^r Hooker & willy `(alas! are coming Sat. till Monday so that settles Amanda if we had any doubts before— G. had a pleasant dinner sat by a Miss Herschel who is staying down at the Dow. She says she is always hearing ""There goes M^r Darwin"" but she has always been too late to see him. He had such a great dea of talk with M^r Fawcett after dinner. Tyndall was there but did npt talk much also Lady Colville. Lady L. says 150 are coming to the ball & she does not see how they can dance—

Yours E. D.

I had a headache yesterday but revived in the evg.