From Emma Darwin to Elizabeth Darwin [26 September 1879]

Dearest B.

I will write a long prose & you shall send it on to Hen, as it will only lose one day—

You will be glad to hear that the awful job of speaking to Lett. took place yesterday. F. looked q. pale at the thoughts of it & was proportionably relieved afterwards. Lett. took it v. quietly & said he had found the responsibility too great, & that he quite agreed that the new man must be entirely head of every thing. The wages not being lowered is the principal thing of course to him.

The new man has been 14 years at Lord Walsinghams viz all his life as he is only 28. He is to come & be looked at & also look about to see how he likes the place; but Sir J says there are so many gardeners out of place that I am sure he will jump at it.

Here is a beaut day for yr morning at Sheerness— It sounds a lively sort of place— Geo. went *P [symbol for yesterday] *Q & he thinks that Horace is sure to come home on Monday in order to fix his plans & have a nice idle time after Thursday— He says he keeps thinking of ""tomorrow week"" he writing on Wed— He did not go to London for the little sight of Ida—thinking it better not— He is hard at work drawing for D. Smith. The Lovegroves called *P [symbol for yesterday] *Q to wish Goodbye—quite cheerful & saying that Mr Lovegrove took it m. the most to heart— They have taken a house at Dulwich m. the cheerfullest suburb & the boys are to go to the College school—

Lady L. is said to have pleurisy & is not yet out of danger I believe—

Fr. had a tidy dinner at the Forrests, full of rank & fashion, Teesdales & Freers & a Mr Vicars from near Orpington. Mr Teesdale has been staying at the Romanes, for shooting I suppose— I am going to begin the great job of trenching the border in