From Elizabeth Darwin to G. H. Darwin 20 February [1881]

Dear George

I was sorry to hear that you werent very well last time you wrote but I hope you are better again now. It makes me feel very envious to hear of such warm weather & all the fruit you have been having. Mr Galton is here this Sunday very amusing as usual. Mrs Galton is billious & so not able to come which I am sorry for. Mr Galton has brought some photographs of consumptive patients the typical one of a man & of a woman. The man is a very fine looking face but much more consumptive of the man than of the woman.

Bill Marshall is also here he is quiet but very nice I think. Lenny seems to have got pretty well again, though he looks thiner. He says they have found no clue as yet to the murderer at Chatham. But Officers as well as detectives are now examining it and they hope they may.

The murder made the whole of Chatham in a ""highly nervous state"" as Penzance the Pirate sings. About 3 nights after the murder 3 officers sat up all night why I don’t exactly know, two of them together & one below in sum. One of them when it was not his turn to be on watch was `"lying awake not able to sleep & heard a window shut people go down & then up & then down again. However he thought the two other officers would have heard it so he did not get up. But the next morning the others said they had heard nothing of it & he fancied it must have been his imagination but then they discovered an open trapdoor into the roof, & they now think the murders as they believe there are two, were concealed those days after the murder, & as the precaution had been taken of locking the front door, they might have gone down found they could not get out that way, gone up to consult whether they could venture to escape through the servants quarters & then did that at last. Mr Marshall is going to build something for Mr Ruskin a building for the guild of St George at Sheffield which I suppose is high luck for him, that is if he satisfies Ruskin, for I suppose if he doesn’t Ruskin would not spare him.

Next Thursday we are going to London for a week or 8 days, we were to have gone for four days to Henrietta & four to Uncle Ras. But I think it is doubtful whether we shall get our visit now to Uncle Ras as he has not been at all well with a feverish attack in bed, but he now seems mending so it is possible we go.

The Lubbocks are now gone to London for the whole of the winter. A Report is going about that Sir John is going to be married, but somehow I don’t very much believe it. Mr Galton says he does because he thinks only a man going to be married would lecture in white kid gloves. I rather hope it is not true as we have got a little friendly with the girls & we shall have to begin again with a new Lady Lubbock. Ubadubber has still a passion for soldiers but he has awoke up to the idea that his are not well drawn but he does not seem unhappy about it. He is very proud of saying blue instead of bule, & the other day I heard him so condescending to Frank `"if I was talking to myself I should say blue but as I am talking to you I say bule. I have just been staying at Southampton & had a nice visit though poor Sara was not at all well. William does not seem to get on a bit with French poor old William & I don't believe he ever will.

Well I think I have told you all the news I have so Goodbye

Yours ever affectionate | E Darwin