From H. E. Litchfield to Emma Darwin 26 March [1883]

Dearest Mother,

I hope I shall have a line from Bessy with a better account of you & the household generally today or tomorrow. This lovely weather will be all in your favour if it goes as far as Camb. I am so glad for the sake of the Review & Holiday makers generally.

All the children have gone on the beach with some young friends to dig. I'm glad to hear that they are allowed to do anything so vulgar. I hope the nurses bonds are relaxing— Uncle C. tells me Mildred kicks over the traces sometimes (very quiet kicks they must be) & the nurse comes to complain, but he only answers he finds her always very docile & good. I am glad to learn that tho' they have no window open at night they have the door ajar fastened with a chain, at least he thinks so, & several times I have come upon the nursery window open. So I hope Sara took too low a view of their health conditions. We went a round of calls yesterday. first a M^rs. Goodwin, sister in law of Albert, who is a great friend of the Bunneys. Her husband had an awful illness at Venice. The delirium was so tremendous it took 4 men besides the nurses to hold him & they all feel that M^r Bunney saved his life & hers too I shd think. They've got the eldest boy there, such an ugly youth exactly like his father. The Mother is quite pretty & it is horribly unlucky that they all resemble him like peas. so frightfully plain  His poor face wd do for a gargoyle with no change in it. Widows get a great many lifts. a good shipping line is going to take him without premium & let him change his mind at the end of a year if he doesn't like it. Also all her furniture etc etc is coming home free gratis in a [P.FO]. You'll be glad to hear we've our £600 even when printing & stamps are paid. Then we called on Lena. She is a clever woman. She has made a little nutshell of a house in a common row of shabby villas (the Red Ho is let) look quite pretty with the [scourings] out of superfluous furn^e from the other house. Uncle C. can't imagine why she is always so poor except that he thinks she gambles on the Stock exchange. She has between £2 & 3000 per ann & her [chîen] cost her under £400 all told. How his mind does run on money. Last night we had a grad discussion on the ways & means of Uncle Harry & Uncle Hensleigh. I got completely muddled as to whether we were wondering why they were so poor or why they were so rich. In fact I believe we wondered in both directions. It felt a little indecent before the children, but one has to go his road. The stiffness & impenetrability of his mind continually strikes one fresh of course we have had Edmund's marriage settlement all over, again— M^r Massingberds follies are a great jig. He is a sort of Tuke to him. He is delighted now to prove to him what a fool his lawyer has made of him in not letting him settle Gunby on Steevie. He is very full of Alice Massingberd's fortune wh. he thinks in a shaky way & teaches her how to rise up & fight for it.

Our last call was on M^rs. Humfray. They have just made acquaintance with Lena, so I hope the children will get to know each other—

I think this is all my news. R. has been delightfully well here & so have I. I do thk it a very healthy place.

Goodbye dear M. | Your H.E.L.