From H. E. Litchfield to Elizabeth Darwin 2–3 January 1872

Dear Bessy.

Many thanks for bandoline. I'm going to try what effect it has on my letters to have no intention of getting it done at a sitting. I think I wrote my last letter on abt Friday. That was the day I went to see M^rs. Vernon & drove on embankment. The V.Ls have made the kindest & funniest proposal that ever friends made. They are going to have some visitors on Jan 19^th for whom they must turn out & then Jane has sent up a letter full of the most warm entreaties that we are to go & occupy their rooms & pay them a visit. Isn't it wonderfully good? Whether we shall go or not depends on how I am, but I must write to her today & so I'll stop writing this for a while.

Wednesday. Mother wanted to know what Rs party was, so before I begin to tell abt my appearance there I'll explain what it is. You know his singing class consists of others besides Wg men seeing that women aren't men, so R. has for many years past borrowed the Wg women's rooms & given a Singing class party + other college friends. This year he got the Wg mens college rooms & had I suppose abt 180 people. Of course in 15 years it swells to a good number, & lots of them are married & settled, but they come from a long way off. e.g. one woman I talked to from Croydon. R. pays the money, gets the rooms & writes the invites & starts things generally, but M^rs. Tansley is arranger of the food & charades. She is the sort of woman he ought to have married instead of such as me. She seems to have any amount of go in her. R. of course went down early & I dressed after dinner & followed in my fly. I wore my blue poplin & William's new locket & Shetland shawl & in that attire gave great satisfaction to myself at any rate. R. was too busy to look at me wh. was mortifying. When I go in I found them blind man buffing to a great extent, almost too much so I thought, but perhaps I don't understand the manners & customs of my future friends. I was the only lady— there was the [Bowen] governess who is an Ockham girl into whose hands I rather fell. I thought her a bit of a bore for she stopped me talking to the people I wanted to talk to by chattering me at a furious rate. However she'll be singing on Thursday so I'll be able to keep out of way if I go. They played other games & all seemed to be having tremendous fun. I certainly never was in so jolly a party & then came the charades which, barring a couple of drunken men, were done very well—only I couldn't stop to the end when their star appeared, a man whom R. says makes you die with laughing. The last scene was out of the Tichborne trial supposed to be after many years & all the jurymen have died but one & he has to be kept up with brandy lest he shd die before the judge finishes his summing up. I came home soon after 11 & R. abt 1. Ellen, who was at the Cumberlan Party, didn't get home till 7  A beautiful party she says it was—certainly beautiful in length—& ""a wonderful number of young men"" which no doubt added to its beauty. It is such a lovely day I must go & dress & go out for I don't feel at all tired with dissipation.

Many thanks for Mother's letter. What a funny proceeding of Lady Lubbock. It is 20 minutes from here to Paddington so she must have stood on the steps for 40 minutes

Please give my love to Amy & ask her whether she is going to be in town now & whether if she is she'll have time to come & see me? If she sh^d. come either to come after 4 or else to lunch at 1.30 so as not to find me out. Thank her very much for the sofa rug which I hear is so lovely. I am afraid I shan't be able to put it under a glass case but I shall value it very truly as their work as well as for its own beauty. I'm just