From H. E. Darwin to G. H. Darwin 23 July [1867]

Dear George,

It is a long time since you've wrote to me—suppose you was too, my address after Friday will be *P B. Lethbridge Esq Tregeare N^r. Launceston Cornwall *Q We have been here rather more than a week & had a curse of thoroughly vile weather which has been provoking enough but not so aggravating as if the country here had been ecstatically pretty. It is nice regular Devonshire country, by which I mean the hills are very steep & the lanes do. with such high hedges you don't see over them. We had our first & a very pretty exped yesterday to L^d. Clifford's place Weybrook. a very pretty park & a too too hideous house. Thank heavens I do think the art of building is a little better now. The castellated pasteboard style is out of date. This hoouse would beat a good many in ugliness, & yet they evidently meant it to be handsome. The walls are 3 f^t. thick & the drawing room 50 ft long & two stories high. It makes the most glorious music room & all the time it rains Eff sings to us. She really is a wonderful singer. I think in no singer did I ever hear such power of expression of a particular kind. She sings some songs quite absolutely perfectly. Franks sends his comps & have you ordered his trousers? I was so glad to have y^r note to Mama forwarded & to hear that you are all right & I am very glad you were equal with Christie whom I want you to beat, & to hear that the unfortunate Sw.'s eye is better so altogetheryou managed to give me a good deal of pleasure on a small piece of paper. Ernest is not down here yet. They manage their affairs in a pretty slopdawdle way. They don't know whether they have paid for the shooting & are to have it. whether if they have, they are to pay the keeper, whether he has dogs, & lastly whether there is any shooting fo them to have. I have been drinking deep at the pure well of reform having just finished Questions for a Ref. Parliament with much delectation & having another thick blue book of Reform essays in prospect. Lord Cranbourne's speech too, considerably warmed the cockles of my heart. I daresay you did not read it. Well as I have 11 pages of proof to do & expect momently to be called out to croquet on such a funny sloping lawn I will stop. I shall be more than a week at Tregeare—

Goodbye dear George (y^r cousin Effie tells me I ought to tell you, you slouch very much) | yours truly | H.E.D.