From H. E. Litchfield to Elizabeth Darwin 26 August [1873]

My dear Bessy

I was just meaning to earn a letter from you when your pleasant one came in— I can't think either why the Railway Company takes so much trouble for you—& I can't think why they don't charge. Even then I shdn't have thought it worth while as it must delay the train hooking you on at Waterloo Junction. I'm glad you had a nice day in the New F. I daresay Stoney Cross looks just as quiet & deserted as it did when At Cath & I were there so many years ago. What a long long time it does seem & yet it cant be more than 12 years. I am very sorry to hear abt George. It is extremely disappointing—

Yesterday was a very charming day quite warm & nice but I wasn't well & so I did nothing all day but sit in the Balcony except going across to the other house for meals  R. went a nice walk down into the woods below which are so lovely. He even got down to the vines & chestnuts. Now he is reading his Helmholz very virtuously & I am laying on my sofa to write  Even out in the balcony it is rather glaring to write or read.

I am afraid I shan't be very strong any of the time. but it will be very nice even if I have to make up my mind to nothing but loafing & an occasional ride— R. sits about in the morning w. me & then gets a 3 or 4 hour walk in the pm. I am in great hopes the time here will answer to him in a health view. He hasn't had a ghost of a headach since we left England—& has felt vigorous & well. It is far more of a change than we sh^d have got any where in England. I rather wish he had got a walking companion. There is a young Stansfield who seems an active lad whom I want him to try. This boy is the most wonderful devourer of strawberries & cream. After he has helped himself generally to two good platefuls if he finds that everybody else can no more—he empties the dish however much there may be left. There is nobody else we have cottoned to at all. A pretty little woman who lives next door to us on our balcony has taken to cutting us because we sit out a good deal & I have two two chairs are for a footstool. I suppose these rooms were inhabited before by people who didn't use the balcony & so she got to consider all [one] end of it her property & so can't make up her mind to resign it. Last night the Pension was in a good deal of excitement. She & another young woman had gone out to gather ferns in the afternoon & hadn't come back by half past 8 when it had been some time quite dark. However they did come back before 9 none the worse having only gone too far down hill & found it took longer to mount than they thought. The rest of our copensioners are mostly rather common looking Swiss & large Irish family with a dotty Papa who has a mania for shutting up windows.

I am afraid I have missed todays post so that you'll be rather a time without hearing from me. I wish you would let me have Pouts & Franks next letters—most especially Pouts—- I want to hear how he gets on with his charger. Also will you send a $\frac{1}{2}$ to Alice saying I have written to Elinor ""Poste Restante Bagnerès de Luchon"" so that if she won't naturally get it she may ask for it. It isn't strictly true to say I have written but I shall have written before you get this. If the weather is fine R. thinks of going a little trip to Chamonnix. I sh^d like him to go now whilst Im not very strong so as not to have them go away when I'm a bit stronger. We've had a thunderstorm today for a short time & tho' it seems fine enough now I don't feel that it is very settled.

M^r Stansfield is quite as enthusiastic about this place as the Hensleighs & says it is the most beautiful place he ever saw. We sh^d like to ask him a little about Politics but we daren't—whether he is not ashamed of Gladstone for keeping Ayrton in—-& what is the look out for next session. He says Gladstone constantly surprises him by his youth  They came over & spent the evening here one day & brought cigarettes & I & M^rs Stansfield smoked in the most brazen way. They would leave me $\frac{1}{2}$ dozen which R. says he shall throw away to put temptation out of my way.

I hear of Father being mad about a new thing every letter. last time it was leaves & water whatever that may be & now it is bloom of fruit. It is funny how like the bloom on mountains is to the bloom on fruit— As I see it now on the Dent du Midi it looks exactly like.

Well I think I've written myself out & will go to my Logic & my german novel—when I've stodged my self with Logic I take to my novel as second piece of duty.

So Goodbye— your H.E.L.