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30 Nov.1887

Albert Dicey

My dear Darwin

When I was at your sister's [Henrietta] on Sunday, I read thro' your memoir of your father (not the letters). I cannot resist the pleasure of telling whilst the impression is vivid on my mind, what delight it gave me. I do not think one more simple & interesting, & worthy

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him could have been composed. My only regret is that your personal reminiscences were not longer. One thing I thought above all charming, almost amounting to an inspiration, i.e. the references to your mother. No one who ever knew as much of your household as I did could have felt the book otherwise than imperfect without as much said

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as you have said: yet till I saw it, I could hardly have believed it possible to say rightly what required such delicacy of feeling & of expression. I can hardly imagine anything which wd have given more pleasure to your father than this mention of her. The fact is that independently of all that makes your father's life full of interest, the book is also, to any one who was happy enough to see him, a picture of the most beautiful family life which I have seen.

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Please let me add, what is far more easily visible to others than to yourself – that you seem to have a rare literary gift – especially for biography, which I think has not often been equalted ---- I do not think it was possible to come the least across your father without feeling that one got something from him which lifted one above all the pettiness & turmoils of life –