262 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, xvm 



In April she wrote to me after the anniversary of my 

 father's death: " It seems to me that the actual anniversary 

 does not bring so much to one's mind as the time before it. 

 Sometimes it feels to me nearer than it did six months 

 ago." 



I think Down and the past was always in the back of her 

 mind, though she was happy in the present. She rejoiced 

 in all old associations, even caring for the " dear old azaleas," 

 brought from Down, saying, " I know then 1 faces so well." 



In a letter to me she wrote : " Bourne's wife is dead, and he 

 has brought home a very sweet-looking turnspitish dog." I 

 do not know how it would strike anyone else, but to her 

 children it seems very characteristic. It was to her an 

 interesting fact that she would meet a " sweet-looking dog ' 

 with the gardener. 



My brother Francis, who lived with my mother, had 

 become engaged to Ellen Wordsworth Crofts, in the summer 

 of 1883, and they were married in the same autumn. She 

 had been a lecturer at Newnham College. 



Emma Darwin to her son Francis. 



MY DEAR FRANK, DowN ' 1883 - 



This is only a line to say I have received your happy 

 letter and your dear Ellen's most feeling and charming 

 expressions to Bessy and me. . . . Miss Clough greeted 

 Ida, " So you have robbed me of my lecturer," as if it 

 were Ida's fault. She was very nice and sympathetic about 

 re. . . 



Emma Darwin to her daughter Henrietta Litch field. 



DOWN, July 7tli, 1883, Saturday. 



I took a holiday from letters yesterday and loitered about 

 the haystack, etc. Our strawberries are grand, and there 

 are some in the house who certainly enjoy them. I found 

 we were spending 5s. a day on cream and milk, so Mrs B. 

 and I were equally shocked and are not going to be so 

 magnificent. To-day I have a nice novel and nice work, 

 and I mean to fill up my time by looking over the wine and 

 doing any other unpleasant thing I can think of. ... 



