From Ida Darwin to G. H. Darwin 13 February 1881

Dear George,

This is to shew you that I can sometimes keep a promise as well as make one, & secondarily to post you up a little in Cambridge news. I will begin with the domestic detail that we have M^r. Anson staying with us for Sunday & that he & H. have gone out to try & catch M^r. Conway our Alpine friend. So you see we are at last in a fit state to receive company & besides our anniversary dinner we had M^r. Francis the other night & we have asked two undergrads for Tuesday, which is rather an alarming thought. The firm is very cheerful & happy although it has not had many orders lately. However on Thursday the Artificial Respiration was shewn off at King’s College, London to an admiring physiological company, by Mess^rs. Dew & Ray, & it is hoped that may bring in some orders. Leonard’s Photobustoscope is to be ready by 15^th. Feb. It is almost done & sometimes works very satisfactorily, but some of the work had been done more in Mess^rs. Tisley & Spiller’s style than that of the Cam. Sci. Inst. Co, so M^r. Pye had to have it pointed out to him. On the whole M^r. Pye is still considered quite a success, & the feeling seems to be mutual. I am glad to say M^r. Dew has seen the error of his ways in calling all the workman “M^r.” & is trying to get out of the way of it, so as to give M^r. Pye alone a distinctive title. Those foolish Fulchers have taken another little house in Cam. & he still walks about in fine clothes hoping he may find some work which is not beneath him. Yesterday M^r. Dew had a final (let us hope!) interview with him in which he read him out a statement of all the transactions which had taken place between them & required him, Fulcher, to write him an answer confirming the truth of the statement. He has given him £35 which at first sight seems a great pity, but he explains & I think justifies himself by saying that he wished to leave Fulcher with exactly as much cash as he found him, so that F. may not have anything to complain of. What a chance among a 1000 that man has lost: First he had all his debts paid for him, then was started in a capital business, & has had in one way or another, £500 from M^r. Dew. I wish he had left Cambridge. Another topic of great interest with M^r. Dew just now is Gerald Balfour’s scheme for leaving Cam. & going to join M^r. Grant in Italy. The first idea was that they should go to Ischia, but altho’ that retirement might have suited M^r. Gerald’s philosophy, M^r. Grant said it wd not do for his sort of work & that he must stay at Florence. So now the idea is that M^r. Gerald shall go to Florence. M^r. Dew is immensely pleased at the signs of independence in M^r. Grant’s letters & his determination to work rather than play. One of his arguments agains the Ischia scheme was that he cd not go back to the neighbourhood of Naples & not to the Dohrns wh. had been his home before. M^r. Francis has been in a great rage with Butler. Thank the mercies, that correspondence is closed now. Henrietta & Richard both coerced that last letter of Romanes into a milder form which was a mercy. We are envying you the warmth, but you wd have been still cleverer if you had avoided that Jan^y. fortnight. Is the heat doing you good? Anyhow it is a better chance for you than your Davost expedition last winter. Horace has not been particularly spry but the shop has always given him plenty to do when he wasn’t up to drawing. He spent an afternoon not long ago at the Lab, seeing after the pendulum, but I grieve not to be able to tell you what state it is in. As for your room, I haven’t yet begun upon it. The reason is that I caught cold in that snowy weather & never left my room again in Bry. Sq. till we came back here a fortnight ago. But we are going up again soon to do all the odds & ends which were to have been done there, so I don’t despair yet.

I am sure you will be glad to hear the cats are well & my bulbs beginning to come up. We should much like to hear how you are getting on if it doesn’t bother you to write, so you see this letter is partly gratitude for favours to come.

Yours affectly | Ida Darwin