1882-1884] A Garden Party at the Grove 267 



Emma Darwin to her son Leonard. 



CAMBRIDGE, Friday [1884 t]. 



. . . Our garden party, thanks to the weather, looked very 

 pretty, and there was plenty of talk. If it were not for the 

 bother of talking, and still more of listening, I should like 

 it very well, but my mind is not free enough. I pretended 

 to know everyone, and only came to dire disgrace on one 

 occasion by rashly mentioning a name. 



Emma Darwin to her daughter Henrietta Litchfield. 



DOWN, Tuesday [July, 1884]. 



To-day by my request Miss A. is going to bring the 

 Miss B.'s, their next-door neighbours, the family with the 

 horrid brother. They feel quite like pariahs in the village, 

 nobody speaking to them, owing to the brother, who is 

 something like insane and imbecile and violent and ill- 

 behaved. I explained not calling, owing to my age. 



My mother was always ready to hold out a helping hand 

 to people in a position less interesting than the ' poor," 

 those just a little below herself in cultivation and social 

 rank. She could of course do very little for these girls ; but 

 she knew that her asking them to her house would in some 

 degree soothe their mortified feelings. The details of her 

 thought and care for others would be tedious to relate, 

 but it would not be giving a true picture of her life if it 

 were not told how constantly her mind was occupied 

 with arrangements for giving pleasure or saving suffering. 



The following letter relates to the school at Down, where 

 the schoolmaster was too severe to the children. Mrs Skin- 

 ner, her coachman's wife, had children at the school. 



DOWN, Monday [Aug., 1884]. 



... I went to Mrs Skinner about the school, and she had 

 put down the dates of the punishments. It was four times in 

 the week, besides a violent flogging for some moral offence. 



