From Emma Darwin to Horace Darwin [15 May 1873]

My dear Horace

You saw my bit of news at the back of my letter (viz. that the Miss B’s & Miss Shaen come)   Jenny has been up 2 or 3 times & I think her v. nice & agreeable & she has a gt deal to tell about India which I like to hear (how she heard one day in Cachmere a heavy flop out of a tree & it was the fall of 2 great snakes who disappeared into her tent & they c^d only find one of them to kill it.)

She has been frightened about her baby who is poorly, but not m. amiss; but having lost one in India makes her so easily alarmed.

What do you think the plate glass costs additional 21 or £23—! However I have ordered it & F. has agreed taking it out in saying how extravagant we are & that he sh^d never have done such a thing. The weather has been bitterly cold these 2 days— I accomplished my yearly visit to the Union yesterday w. tea & sweet stuff & had the satisfaction of finding the Down old man was dead. I always feel such a hearty wish that all the old men & women were dead—

It is such amusing work watching the putting down of the tiles. It seems to require the greatest nicety & sometimes when it seems all done I see that they take up a considerable piece & lay it down again. They will not finish it this week— yours my dear | E. D