From Emma Darwin to Leonard Darwin 26 February [1877]

My dear Leo—

We have been much excited by Dickie's suggestion of the possibility of your getting Capt Abney's situation. It wd be of course delightful for us to have you settled there.

We have had a nice little visit from Old Collium. Fr. was away at Kew most of the time. He went there to hunt out plants for F. & evidently liked his visit. Mr Dyer was most kind & offered to give instructions in the theory of botany, which was very kind in so busy a man— There was a dinner party on the Sat. & Willy played v. tidily on the violin accomp. by Harriet. Mrs Hooker very nice as hostess. By the way the bassoon or Old Grumbler as it is commonly called is a great success & Fr. works hard at his practising & makes great progress— He can play a little w. the piano already; but makes a very gruff noise—w. his master says he is not to mind & that it will soften w. practice  Wm is gone today to London to dine w. Cap. Jones (the jolly man who went w. him & Horace to Paris) at the Wyndham & then go to the Monday Pop. or something less profound which Wm seems to think wd suit Cap. J. better. Wm dined w. him on Thursday before coming here & had so awfully good a dinner that he was some time getting over it; so he begged Cap. J. this time only to give him a steak & rice pudding or so. Wm has had to part with James his groom for drinking. He is a loss I think; but W. is so m. from home that he ought to have a trustworthy man. We expect Hope today but not Godfrey. I am sending the new carriage which with Druid the Barlaston horse & the brown mare looks quite a credit to the family to fetch her. The Club has just had a squeak for its life. The idiots knowing there was £1100 in hand were bent upon breaking up to get hold of the money; but it requires 5/6 of the members to be unanimous & there was a sufficient remnant of common sense left in the old members to enable them to stop it— Mr Nash attended the meeting w. Frank & was of great us w. his good sense, good humour & tact— Fr. read a letter from F. on the subject—which he has also printed & distributed to every member. The whole plot has been set on foot by Lewis of the Old Jail for some ends of his own—

We have received the German Album, w. you might have seen in the Times— It is beautiful in velvet; but for a permanence it had better have been leather. Bessy will have told you her own news. It is a gt take off that Ithel is there as I am sure she can't feel at ease with him for a minute.

We expect Mrs Atkin for a short visit in 3 weeks— Her coming upset Fr. more than any thing has done (she came unexpected) to lunch & stayed an hour or two). I don't think he will feel it again—

We are in hopes that his house is let, to a married niece of Mrs Innes, nice people apparently. They are going to enlarge it. Yours my dear old man— It is pleasant to think of April.

Yours E.D—

F. is taking a good deal to the baby— We think he is sort of Grand Lama he is so solemn— Fr is a very bold nurser & tumbles him about quite boldly—