From H. E. Litchfield to Leonard Darwin and Bee Darwin 16 October 1882

My dear Leo & Bee—

This is my last letter actually—& I feel as if you'd only just been gone. It was nice to hear from M^r. Spottiswoode of your safe arrival—and now I suppose you are busy eno' & very hot—hard as it is to imagine when we are advancing fast into winter. How you must have rejoiced to say Goodbye for ever to the bad cookery & the noise of the engines— I feel I shd have risked the sulks of the Captain & struggled with the underdone meat. We haven't done what you told us to, & now we are very sorry—instead of writing letters all along we've enquired when the mail goes & put it off—so you'll get a whole flock of letters all about the same bit of life—

We've just had our second letter from W^m.—the poor old fellow was dreadfully put out by the voyage—his digestion entirely stopping working & it has taken him a whole week to begin to get well. He wrote from Stockbridge wh. he thought as delightful as ever & where Sara was pretty well. They do bring home Marg^t. back with them wh. I'm very glad of— They won't stay for Arthur Sedg^ks. wedding as it is put off but they'll make friends with the young lady. W. says he'll take the brown mare—the Forrests have taken Daisy—M^r Evans takes Hector & 4 of the hens—so the live stock is being gradually disposed of—

Mother has been wonderfully better since her Eastbourne trip—in fact I think she is quite well. We have had a visit from Aunt Fanny & Uncle Hensleigh & today she has had a still more tiring affair—a luncheon of M^r. Husley & Rachel lasting till the 4 o'clk train. They were both very nice & Mother & Bessy both made the amende honorable to Rachel— She was gracious & cordial & not overpowering in any respect. Sir John & M^r Huxley had been over on the Sunday afternoon. I think Mother's wonderfully calm nature made her hardly dread these visits. She wd have liked to have seen Mr Huxley