IQO A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xm 



uncheerful noises. She must make an outlet from the 

 nearest corner of her garden to get to us, which is much 

 shorter than the road ; but I mean to try to persuade her to 

 pet up a bedroom and appurtenances here, so that when she 

 spends the evening she shall also sleep here, and not have 

 any conveyance of things. I enjoy the thoughts very much 

 of her settling there. It is always interesting to see how 

 to make things comfortable. Then you must come and see 

 her here, and I shall see all the more of you. . . . 



In 1868 we took one of Mrs Cameron's little houses at 

 Freshwater for six weeks. It was a beautiful summer, and 

 we had a very entertaining time. Mrs Cameron, sister of 

 Mrs Prinsep and the beautiful Lady Somers, and friend of 

 Watts and Tennyson, was sociable and most amusing, and 

 put my father and Erasmus Darwin, who was with us, into 

 great spirits. It was there she made her excellent photo- 

 graph of my father, but the only other two of our party 

 she would take were our uncle Ras and my brother Horace. 

 I wish she would have tried my mother, but she maintained 

 no woman must be photographed between the ages of 18 

 and 7o. 



Tennyson came several times to call on my parents, but 

 he did not greatly charm either rny father or my mother. 

 They also saw Longfellow and his brother-in-law Tom 

 Appleton, full of the wonders of table-turning, spirits and 

 ghosts. Mr. Appleton described to us how he had impressed 

 Tennyson with his spirit stories, telling them to him after 

 dinner, by the light of a lanthorn in the orchard. 



Charles Darwin to his. son Horace. 



DUMBOLA LODGE, FKESHWATER, ISLE OF WIGHT, 

 MY DEAR HORACE, 2m [Ji ^' 1868 ^ 



We do not know Leonard's address, and I must 

 write to someone, else I shall burst with pleasure at Leonard's 

 success. 1 We saw the news yesterday, and no doubt you 

 will have seen it. Is it not splendid ? . . . Everything is 



Ho had come out second in the Entrance Examination for 

 Woolwich. 



