228 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xvi 



at lawn tennis. Poor dear old Leo 1 lies on the sofa, a bulky 

 monument of patience, and never grumbles a bit. We have 

 had lately many callers and this has been good for him, as 

 it has made talk. 



When you return you had better come to Down ; it is safer 

 than London, and in earnest I should think country air must 

 be better for convalescence, and there will be no business to 

 bother Litchfield. 



I am tired, so good-bye. Frank and I have been working 

 very hard at bloom 2 and the automatic movements of plants 

 from morning to night, and we have made out a good deal. 

 Good-bye, my dear, love to Litchfield how I rejoice that 



your anxiety is over. 



Your affect, father, 



C. DARWIN. 



In the autumn of 1877 mv brother William 3 became 



t/ 



engaged to Miss Sara Sedgwick. He had first known her 

 in lb6S, when she was at Keston with her brother-in-law 

 and sister, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Norton, of Cambridge, 

 Mass. William was a partner in a Bank at Southampton 

 afterwards incorporated in Lloyds. 



1 His son William had had a bad accident out riding, and Leonard 

 had fallen at lawn tennis and injured his knee. 



2 The wax coating on leaves which makes them come out dry 

 after being dipped in water. 



3 This short account of William Darwin was written after hia 

 death by his brother Francis: William Erasmus Darwin (1839- 

 1914). His was a perennially youthful spirit, and the sweetness 

 of his expressive face was but little marked by sorrow or anxiety. 

 One seemed to see in ft both the happy directness of youth and 

 the delicate gravity of old age. He was fortunate in having many 

 close friends. This is especially true of his later life: I gained the 

 impression that in the early days at Southampton he had not 

 many intimates. However this may be, he could not have been 

 long there without his lovable and transparently honest character 

 becoming known. He gradually came to be employed in various 

 public concerns, e.g., the County Council, the Southampton Water 

 Works, and especially in connection with Hartley College. In 

 these relations his name will not soon be forgotten. As regards iiis 

 private lii'e he seemed to be settling down into confirmed bachelor- 

 hood. When his mother urged him to marry, he answered in 

 words which became classical: "Why if I did I shouldn't have 

 any time to myself." But he sometimes regretted his solitude, 

 and I well remember that on my marriage in 1874, he told me 

 how happy I was in having climbed out of the pit of bachelorhood. 



