From H. E. Litchfield to Leonard Darwin 8 January [1876]

2 Bry

Sunday Jan 8th

Dear old Leo.

It is a long time since I've written to you—& it is a good morning for doing odd jobs— R. is doing his man's sums & then gng to write a begging letter to the Mercer's Co to ask them to give a little coin to the W.M.C. & I've only got two pr. of stockings to mend & to write to my Ma. It is a horrid hard frost now—the therm I believe says it is colder than it was in Dec. but as yet we have had no snow & that is a great mitigation of [frost]. It looks so funny to see them sowing salt all the way along Oxford Street. You think they are so very hopeful to expect any crop from such a barren soil & it looks exactly like sowing. I suppose after all it may be a doubtful good to the poor horses. The Omnibus Co, as I daresay you saw, had 100 horses laid up with sore legs from the frozen salt & water irritating them, after the last frost. I wd rather have a sore by myself than tumble down on the granite—but then I shd go to bed & not be driven out with it.

I hear from Mother, Father cdn't get to the Sandwalk yesterday, from snow drifts—so perhaps it is rather cool to talk of no snow. Amy & Frank & Bessy came up to the Shaen ball yesterday

Please cite as “FL-1466,” in Ɛpsilon: The Darwin Family Letters Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/darwin-family-letters/letters/FL-1466