2io A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xv 



Emma Danoin to her aunt Fanny Allen. 



DOWN, Tuesday [27 Sept., 1872]. 



Yesterday 3 sons went in different directions to look for 

 a house for us, as I have persuaded Charles to leave home 

 for a few weeks. The microscope work he has been doing 

 with sundew has proved fatiguing and unwholesome, and 

 he owns that he must have rest. Horace came home the 

 fortunate one, like the youngest brother in a fairy tale. He 

 has found nice lodgings on Sevenoaks Common, which is 

 uncommonly pretty, and there is Knole Park, too, close at 

 hand. . . . 



What an affecting and natural letter poor Jenny's 1 was. 

 There is hardly a pang in life so sharp as hers; but she 

 showed so plainly that she was exerting herself to ths 

 utmost to bear up. I was surprised she could think of the 

 new baby as any consolation. It will be the best consola- 

 tion no doubt; but at first she will feel that no baby wil 

 make up in any degree for the right one. 



Whilst staying in these lodgings at Sevenoaks they be- 

 came acquainted with the merits of a verandah, and this led 

 to a large verandah being made at Down. It had a glass 

 roof, and opened out of the drawing-room. So much of all 

 future life was carried on there, it is associated with such 

 happy hours of talk and leisurely loitering, that it seems to 

 us almost like a friend. The fine row of limes to the west 

 sheltered it from the afternoon sun, and we heard the hum 

 of the bees sucking the honey-sweet lime flowers as we sat 

 there. They used to get drunk on the honey and lie half 

 dead underneath a danger to us as little children playing 

 about on the grass. In front were the flower-beds and the 

 dial, by which in the old days my father regulated the 

 clocks. Polly, too, appreciated the verandah and became 

 a familiar sight, basking in the sun, curled up on one of the 

 red cushions. After my marriage she adopted my father 

 and trotted after him wherever he went, lying on his sofa 

 on her own rug, during his working hours. 



1 Jane, tlie youngest daughter of Harry and Jessie Wedgwood 

 and wife of Major Can, had lost her first baby. 



