From Emma Darwin to H. E. Litchfield 23 November [1881]

Dearest H.

I do so pity you about your thumb. I think you wd find it easier to write w. yr left hand like this *P ⁠⟨⁠backwards writing that says "looking a keep cd we and", above which the author of this letter has written "looking a keep cd we and" forwards⁠⟩⁠ *Q glass in the room to read it by. Does he think it a worse job than he did at first— It seems Mr Challis the Plumian Prof. has rallied again wh. is a relief to Geo. but not to be wished for on his own account.

F. is at last getting some reward for these months at the microscope in finding out something quite new about the structure of roots. However it makes him work all the harder now. Among his idiotic letters a good lady writes to ask him whether she may still kill snails wh. do her so much damage or are they as useful as worms. Also a gent. from Australia to enquire why the blackened & white stumps of trees all about do not affect the colour of the lambs as they did in Jacob's time. I thought he must be joking but F. said he was quite serious.

We have pretty nearly got up the books from Q.A. but having had to lower the bookshelf we have more than we know what to do with & they are many of the unbound ones so utterly black—

There are ten men at work at the wall so it will get on pretty fast— Poor Old Flyer literally muddy up to her eyes is carting manure into the enclosure before the breach in the wall is built up— She looks so virtuous. The track, across the fields swallows up flints without end—

We are very much charmed with Lord G. Paget's account of the Crimean war, a subject I dislike so much that I am surprized to like to so much; but he only tells what he saw himself & he was in England at the worst of the horrors.

F. is so very much in love w. Lady G. too, who was there part of the time. His passion for her has to feed upon very little; but he is convinced she is beautiful by the way she was coaxed & fêted & Marmora's Italian Band to play to her every where. All about Cardigan is amusing— Lord G. thinks it such surprizing good luck if he behaves decently & you escape coming to a quarrel with him— He speaks constantly of the extreme beauty of the Crimea. We have also begun Lyell (wh. has been most favourably reviewed in the Times) the scrap of Autobiog. is pleasant— We shall not be very long over it, as I skipped at one blow 75p. of a tour abroad, every sight & church done as methodically as Guide Book. One letter giving an account of a conversation w. Humboldt was interesting. He is nice & good in his letters but not the least spirit about them. He hated all his schools very much & no doubt there are fewer disagreeables now. I horrified F. the other day by saying that I thought the French plan of having supervision in the dormitories was very good— What can boys do better at night than hold their tongues & go to sleep— It is no advantage that they shd have uproarious games, & if bullying takes place it is sure to be at that time. G. was very miserable as a little boy till they got that room to themselves (not to mention all the bad talk)—

F. expects to like it a good deal & had no difficulty in writing to Mrs Lyell about it. She has kept herself entirely in the background & prints the letters without a word of those tiresome introductions w. biogs are so fond of.

Goodbye my dear w. love to R. | yrs E.D