From Emma Darwin to H. E. Darwin [8 February 1870]

My dear Body

Here is a letter from F. waiting for y^r address & as it does not seem v. heavy I will fill it up. Your weather at Mentone does not seem to have been everything you c^d wish— I think one great charm as well as g^t blemish of that country is its being all olives so that a bright winter day looks just as well as summer  G. was to have gone back yesterday but was sore throaty & staid till today when Bessy is gone w. him very happy for a play & to stay till Sat. when she comes back w. him. Much as she always enjoys Effie I think she did this time even more than usual, & they had a good deal of talk about Bonn. F. is hard at work on the moral question of man & had talks w. Snow about defining religious feeling, in w. she only admitted to love & reverence & left out fear, but owned she was mistaken after all. F. is deeply interested in the question & I wish it was over as it absorbs him too much & he had to lie by one day. He is going to try the new cob today sent down by Geo. John pronounces it sluggish w. is all right at first. Lenny went Sunday evg. & we shall hear today about Responsible. He hada v. middling hunt on Sat. & I am glad to think he will never be desperately fond of it. Horace went wed. & has rec^d his mare all safe—

The little Rouses have scarletina & they have taken a house for pupils w. is v. pleasant as being away from Mrs R. Your paper looks v. knowing in Scientific Opinion. Geo. has sent an acc^t to it of a rainbow he saw last Sat. coming down— Up above the sun, v. faint & this shape * P shaped like the letter U but and wider * Q w. his name too. The servts ball is to take place tomorrow after being put off for a week for Parslow's gout. (F. is putting Polly into his man book but I doubt whether I shall let it stand, a fond grandfather is not to be trusted.) It is the anecdote of her comforting you for being slapped. She did nearly the same to Bobby the other day when she heard Frank crack his whip outside & she seemed to think Bobby might have been whipped. She can't endure the sound even when asleep & it makes her so uneasy she comes for protection  Lenny says `""Every thing is changed here but I am first under officer in the B. division, wh. is as high as I c<sup>d</sup> be. Cardew is the divisional under officer for the C. divis. Besides us 2 there are only Corporals. (This last is not consistent). There is one responsible under off. for the A. Divis. w. Cardew will be next term. Y<sup>r</sup> pleasant letter to Bessy is just come in. I am sorry about y<sup>r</sup> cold. It was over weight 1/. which I don't think the last was. Effie said they had once to pay 1/. too. It is double of the whole what it ought to be. Yours is decidedly more than $\frac{1}{4}$ oz. & only 2 sheets. I can't think how we have not had more to pay always. The Huxley controversy was begun by a very harmless letter of Huxley's saying that the Irish were no more Celts than the Devonshire & Cornwall people. Whereupon a `""Devonshire man controverted him, beginning with a harmless sneer enough about Huxley being fond of cutting up men & monkeys, whereupon Hux. wrote ferociously & vulgarly, & the Spec. wound up by giving him a scolding. I will see what I can send you of the whole batch. I shd quite expect H. Parker to be pleasant on that promiscuous sort of occasion. I am going today to see Mrs Dayman. Aunt Eliz. is come home & pretty brisk. The cob has too bad a cough to be ridden. I have finished as much of Confucius as I can stand. It is very curious & high morality in many parts

Goodbye