[1]

Mar 16 1881

Down Beckenham

My dear George

We have actually had 4 bright days & Bernard enjoys wildly galloping about like a lancer without his things on & his hair flying ─ He is the happiest little man I ever saw ─ I do not believe he will even mind parting with Nanna & taking to the new maid who

[2]

comes on Monday, & I only hope Nanna will not be mortified. Your last letter was written just after the defeat & death of Sir G. Colley. It was a horrid affair & I suppose he was rash; but the deaths have turned out to be overestimated as they always seem to be. Richard was so cast down about public affairs that he wd not open his lips & I believe he thinks this is the beginning of the end & that it is all up with England ─ I fancy

[Mary Ann Westwood 'Nanna' was Bernard's nurse from 1876-1881. She was leaving to marry Arthur Parslow, son of Joseph Parslow. The 'new maid' was Pauline Badel.]

[3]

from what Leo hears at Chatham there is great cause for uneasiness about the feeling of the Dutch at Cape Town & every where in S. Africa. We had Henry Allen on Sat & he was so very pleasant & amusing I thought what fools we were not to have invited him all these years ─ He evidently finds Parlt as good as play. He is a good mimic & tells a great many amusing things & how they behave &c ­ Bradlaugh is extra polite & bowing &c

[4]

but rather a horrid countenance. He heard Gladstone talking of this cut on the head & saying he had been somewhat mortified to find he was not so tough as Lord Campbell whose life he had been reading & found that he had appeared in court the next day after a similar accident.

Laura was with us nearly a fortnight & I think she was somewhat stronger but she is very feeble & thin. She is now gone to Clapham, w. is not a good house to be poorly in.

[5]

The Litches came on Sat & brought Elsie Blunt w. them a very nice tasteful girl; but very plain ─

She is a friend of Laura's & like her visit ─

I don't think Leo has ever quite got over his attack at Coniston; & what a mercy it was you did not go there & get such a chill ─

Dr Moore walked over on Sunday & was quite satisfied about Leo ─ but when he

[6]

has a cold it pulls him down & he does not look well ─ Wm & Sara are going to Malvern I believe. He sounds to be a good deal troubled by the return of his old head symptoms which did not appear till 4 days after the fall from his horse. The difficulty is to dispose of Lily & Mlle (Norton – Sara's niece) & we shd be most glad to have her without Mlle. who wd bore F. too much.

[7]

They will with W. & Sara eventually come here I hope ─ He seems well as long as he goes out & does nothing

Uncle Eras has got to his drawing room I was glad to hear ─

It is pleasant to think now soon we may have you at home my dear old man yours E.D ─