From Leonard Darwin to Emma Darwin 27 May 1875

Dear mother.

It is a long time since I have heard from home now, but I hope some letter will come to Boston and be forwarded to New York whilst I am doing this northern trip. I think that I enjoyed my week at Boston as anything I have done yet. When I went there I remembered so little of the Nortons that I could not recall one of their faces, but now I feel as if I had known them all my life. I have never been at a house where they made one feel so much at home in so short a time. Nor have I been so much chaffed for a long time, of course Grace Norton did the greater part of that, but the others joined in sometimes, even M^r. Norton which I was glad of as a sign of cheerfulness. Old M^rs. Norton is wonderfully strong though her eyesight troubles her somewhat I fancy. On the whole they seem a very cheerful household. After leaving Boston I went up to Niagara and stopped there two nights, and had lovely hot weather for walking about. Niagara is famous for its honeymoons which may be seen in vast numbers during the whole year. I seem to have lost the power of writing letters whilst in America and even the exhilerating effect of being in British territory again does not seem to revive it. I am so much afraid that you must have been kept waiting by the loss of the Schiller for my letters. Goodbye mother Yrs affec son L D