1888-1892] Sequah at Cambridge 289 



The general routine is that a rheumatic man is helped 

 up into the van where he takes a sort of dram and is rubbed 

 for 20 minutes or so, the band playing loud to drown his 

 cries. He comes out, and Sequah asks him to dance, which 

 he does. [Sequah] makes great sums by the sale of his 

 medicine, which is in fact whisky and laudanum or some 

 anodyne. But he also throws about sovereigns and gives 

 them to unsuccessful cures ; and in one case, to an old woman 

 who was not cured, he said, ' ' I can do nothing for you, but 

 here is a plaster on your shoulder which I am sure will suit 

 you." It proved to be a 5 note. " Sequah " is a company 

 with many agents. Young women are anxious to touch 

 him as they believe it will make their love affairs succeed. 



CAMBRIDGE, Sunday, October 2Qth, 1890. 



William and George went a pilgrimage to a General 

 Bulwer's, a beautiful place in Norfolk, to see the picture of 

 an Erasmus Earle, an ancestor. I sneered at them with 

 great contempt for such a fool's errand; in spite of that, 

 however, they enjoyed their trip. 



This autumn my mother had a scheme for giving pleasure 

 to her poorer neighbours by opening out a strip of her field 

 parallel to the Huntingdon Road. It was bordered with 

 trees and she wished to make it a kind of play-place 

 for the children. The plan was, however, found to be 

 impossible. 



Emma Darwin to her daughter Henrietta Litchfield. 



Nov. 14, 1890. 



I opened my boulevard scheme to George, who did not 

 disapprove so much as I expected. Horace doubts whether 

 it would be much valued. 



Here are a set of fine trees giving pleasure to no creature, 

 and my proposal is to put a close paling half way along 



