From Horace Darwin to Emma Darwin [1881]

Dear Mother.

We got here yesterday and it is now the most beautiful morning, not a cloud or a breath of wind, fresh & not cold thought the grass is covered with hoar frost & brilliant sun. The hills are pybald with snow patches, & the distant parts of the valley are filled with sea fog & with the hills sticking out from it; the near parts of the valley are misty, & the whole thing is very fine.

Now I will begin at the beginning & tell you what has happened; I nursed the pendulum down all the way not exactly on my knee but the next thing to it, in the hope which proved vain that the delicate silver wire would not get broken. Next morning I found it had broken, & then I found that I (or Mr. Pye) had forgotten to put any more wire into the box, so I telegraphed for more & Ida brought it down; this did not delay the work much as there lots more to be done. I worked all Friday & all Saturday & met Ida at the train which should have brought her at 6.30 but did not do so till 7.15, & as there was a dinner party in our honour at 7.30 we had to bustle up & were only about 20 minutes late. We were stopping at the Astronomer Royals house, which is at the foot of the Calten Hill on the top of which is placed the Observatory. He is a nice old man with a long white beard, keenly interested in his work, but even more so in Artic exploration, which he has done himself & he knows all what is going on. He will talk about these things which is pleasant. Mrs. Copeland is the second Mrs Copeland & a german, & I think I might say is very german; we liked her too & the whole family gives one a very pleasant impression of happiness.

Our dinner party consisted of a Professor Crystal a Cambridge man, two girls not much good & the family music master who teaches the youngest girl quite a little mite to play the fiddle which she does very well. He played in the evening, & they are all very musical. I spent most of the time on the top of the Calten Hill, & very pleasant it was up there, bright sun all the time but too much haze to get a view, in fact only once did I see the Firth. Ida went & spent one night with Lady Agnes MacLeod who is Lord Iddlesleigh’s daughter, I was very sorry that I could not get my work done; things went wrong a bit & I only just got every thing finished in time to come on here yesterday with Ida.

Yours affec | Horace Darwin