From H. E. Darwin to Emma Darwin 26 April [1866]

Dearest Mamy

I was so glad to get your letter it seemed such an age since I had heard from you. You don't sound too too flourishing alas; but I'm gld at any rate you are not in bed with a regular splitter. I think I was lucky to have got better so soon. I don't feel near so well as I did unfortunately for my Hensleigh visit & so am going to have a very quiet day today & I did have a quiet day yesterday—staying in all morning & going on a donkey on a small exped to a little village amongst the hills called Le Cannet— It is rather more than 2 miles off & I got there very comf on my ass sharing it with Hope who is not very brilliant either & can't walk much. Oh such a sweet little paradise of a village you never saw! Old fashioned to the last degree the streets almost in steps embosomed in oranges & olives so that the whole air was heavy with perfume— A kind woman let us into an orange garden & we sat on a seat looking down on the lovely view & the very lazy proceedings of a little household below—3 o'clock in the afternoon & the man & his wife sitting there in perfect idleness—the man at last with a great effort caught his cat & began kissing it—that occupied him some time—then their baby of 3 came in with a lap full of lettuces & the man stood by whilst the woman picked off their outer leaves & then with a great yawn the man went in doors & we went on—such a nice baby in a very tight pink night cap—the only thing that had any life about the place— All these little villages have a little ""cathedral"" in the most picturesque place & a little ""place"" with trees & a balcony where you look on the view— Le Cannet's little ""place"" was so beautiful I wish you cd have seen it—the oranges coming quite up underneath with their golden green then the soft grey of the olives with cypresses for a fine contrast & picturesque grey & red buildings jutting out looking down upon Cannes with all the ugly villas hidden & only the old town visible the sea & the Estrelles framing the picture. At Le Cannet for the first time I was called Goddams by a pack of norty little boys—with such handsome little brown faces & great black eyes—almost every child in Le Cannet is a perfect beauty—I never saw anything so beautiful as one child perfect features—great black eyes & the most perfect little red lipped mouth out of her clear olive face— Well I must stop rapture & go to business—sometime I must tell you about Auribeau & Napoule but not now. Write to Menton again I stay there till Tuesday—I can't tell where to tell you to write after that yet. Elinor wants to try a change & I believe we are going to an inland town above Nice. She had another doctor yesterday & he insisted on examining her back & said, as I cdn't help fearing, that it is not neuralgia but spinal irritation. It didn't pain her so much as I feared as she says a good hard touch sometimes doesn't hurt so much as a slight one but it is very very horrid— He orders german baths & says waiting will do nothing to get over this & some measures must be taken. This has made us both very low in our spirits & she doesn't know what to do about following his directions  His directions are to stay here about 3 weeks longer & thene to go to the German baths— If Miss J. S. goes with her they wd cast me off at Macon or Lyons & a somebody must come & fetch me there but perhaps Miss Smith will come home, if so, all will be well for my journey home— I might very well go from Lyons alone to meet Frank at Dijon— there are always ladies carriages & it wd save him a good piece, only then we must sleep at Dijon—as I shdn't like to run the risk of not meeting him & going on alone to Paris—stopping alone at Dijon wd be easy enough now I know my hotel— I only mean that one never can be quite quite sure in meeting of something not going wrong, & nothing in this world wd be so awful as arriving at Paris alone— However we must wait & see & very likely nobody may be wanted to meet me—or E. may have to go to Paris to consult a better Doctor— the 3 weeks more here will just make up my two months so I shall exceed it a little— I am sure now of being taken nearer home at that time & that as yet is all I can say. If poor Frank did come & fetch me he must have a day or two in Paris as a sweetener. I must go pack my clothes— I think if you will direct Darwin it will save trouble now I am splitting & in fact I always do give my name at the Post office as well as Elinor's— Don't be too dismal about us. I hope E. doesn't thk so much about her back as I shd. in her case—

Yours dearest Mamy | H. E. D

My little Mentone trip will be very delightful.

Please keep all I have said about Elinor's new doctor & German baths & her back to your self— She doesn't want her own people to know till she tells them herself