From H. E. Litchfield to Emma Darwin [1882–3]

Dearest Mother,

I am afraid alas! we shant get your £10, but isn't it £10 this year & £10 last? I wish you had looked at the post mark of her supposed letter of the 22^nd. wh. I am sure from internal evidence was written on the 23^rd. I can't help thinking she must have said she was that authoress to Aunt Eliz else she wd have denied it to me. Because after all she had nothing to gain. She was given to because she asked, not because she had written the wooing o't. I need not say it was not true I said you'd sent me tho' I mentioned yr name immediately—

We shd like very much to come down on Sat. but I don't want the Horaces to move. It really isn't worth while. If we have bed & breakfast at 66 Hills Rd & a fly to bring us along as soon as I'm dressed & take us back after dinner it won't tire me the least in the world—& it is all on the way for R's early start on Monday & rather simplifies it than otherwise. I c^d. bring Annie if Ida thought we shd not do, tho' I'm sure Jane & the little girl wd compass tea & toast & fires which are all we shd want.

I do feel rather in despair abt R.'s headachs, but it may be the fag end of his cold. He began a headach on Wednesday & he has only been two days without it since. He w^d.n't have come with me here only he felt so tame. Elinor & Edith have been our hostesses. Albert was down at Oxford wh. I was very sorry for for my sake tho' glad for R as it made a more placid atmosphere. Little Edith is tremendously jolly & full of her american visit wh. she intensely enjoyed. She had 7 doctors devoted to her & I longed to ask her how many proposed. If ever she gets into the dismals again & wants a mission I'm sure 10 weeks in America will be a sure & certain cure. I feel pretty well satisfied abt El. tho' I don't feel as if one cd tell how bad she may be till she has come away. Her digestion is fairly good but her exema horribly bad & I'm sorry to say rather disfiguring. I do trust it may not encrease on her face. I can hardly imagine a more dreadful misfortune than if she felt she was too ['dreadf' del] had to appear in public. It is nothing like this now, only one cant help being rather anxious. She thinks Alice has got on well, but where it seems to show is in her nerves being so shaken. She has given in to the night nurse wh. is a great step.

It was very calm & warm yesterday but quite dull. We went a turn in M^r Toons in the a.m. & in the afternoon I went even to Down. It felt very strange & desolate & ghostlike all done up in its sheets. I had a talk to Lettington abt things. He has kept the garden very nicely & greenhouse too, nothing looks at all neglected. He says he ought to have a man the end of March. Sheep are in the field wh. is rather a bother as they keep on getting in to the Sandwalk, but they hope the gaps are stopped for the present. Parslow says that the kitchen range ought to come out & have its back seen to, a pipe got wrong & M^r Jones(?) came over & says the back is worn out & the boiler is hardly safe, that it has been in 14 yrs. I think you must give orders to have it done. I saw M^rs Evans & poor [illeg] S. He looks dreadfully ill & his legs are swelling. They say Marg Hills has been & is very badly off so I left her another 10/. He is out of work & she not well eno' to do anything

Tell me about Claud— Only think Effie told Elinor one of their reasons against a tutor was expence!. When Elinor was saying her say her say as to the rashness of leaving him alone at Cannes