From Emma Darwin to Leonard Darwin 29 September 1875

My dear Leo.

You have been a good boy to write so often. We have received your 3 letters in the right order—the last on Monday. There never was such a good passage. Your duties are very dull at present, but will mend. The Litches went to Q.A. on Thursday, rather hastened by his feeling more unwell. He keeps on being feverish & unwell one day & then apparently well for a day or 2. Dr A. Clark does not give a positive opinion, but hopes it is only functional mischief of the kidneys or bladder. He wants him to be very quiet, so that all that Lawn Tennis was probably bad for him— I hope they will be back in a few days. (They went to Bry St after 2 days w. Eras). Horace & G. who came at same time brought home the machine on Sat, & most of Sunday was spent in rigging it up, helped by Frank & Arthur Ruck— Contrary to their expectations it acted quite rightly, tho' it wants some improvements. Horace says he is got to that state that his first thought in the morning & the last at night is only mechanics. It agrees very well with him. Did you know that he invented a tool (to screw nuts I believe) some time ago? It has proved so useful that Mr Anderson is having some made by his pattern. Geo. is tolerable & goes on Sat. to Cam— William had 3 days rain in Switz & was not v. strong after a bilious attack. He met no pleasant people at Mürren but saw a good deal of some nice Miss Freres afterwards, walking to Grindelwald w. them & spending some evgs at the Inns w. them. He wrote from Munich & was undecided what to do so we can't write to him. Ithel is come to the Fr. His manner & look is odd. I played to him & made him play to me. He has the making of a fine player in him, but I am afraid that is a poor prospect to live upon. He is rather an anxious charge to make comf, I believe. He enjoys F's Piano. having never played on a grand one before & I hope he will practise for hours— We managed to abduct Miss Aitken on Thursday mg. in heavy rain— She does not seem the least oppressed by her unnatural life, & was very merry about being run away w. in the pony c. w. one wheel off & the shaft broken— It was well they were not killed, but she managed to turn the poney into the hedge— Also about her efforts to make Carlyle polite. He went to see West Wickham & protested he wd not be introduced to Mrs Lennard, she stammered so. However Miss A. insisted on it & he behaved quite prettily when there was no help— She sits up w. him till nearly 2. but of course gets up late. I hope we shall see her again some time. They are gone home now— Frank sends off his Article on Breeding to the Enclyc. tomorrow. He has found it very difficult & Father was at first rather in despair about it, he thought it so badly arranged; but Frank has improved it, & he says he is sure Mr Baines the Ed. will know 0 about the subject, so he hopes it will do. I hope he will not undertake any extraneous job again, he has too many irons in the fire already, which are better worth doing, being really his own work. Major K. & Louisa drove up yesterday P.M. & he had a long military talk w. G. He is no better.

Yours my dear L. | E. D