My Dear Father,

I was rather afraid the brokerage would turn out a failure, we shall have to choose one out of the ones M^r A. knows;² I am very sorry to hear that poor Aunt Charlotte is so unwell, I suppose winter coming on is very bad for asthma.³

If I had known the boys had been coming home last Sunday, I would have come too; I think I shall come this day fortnight or three weeks.⁴ You will be astonished to hear that I am up to snuff enough to manage by myself for a short time, that is with the help of the head Clerk; M^rs A. went up to London yesterday, and M^r A. took her up, so that I had to wind up all the business yesterday and it was a very full day; he is not coming back till Tuesday, so that I shall be the cock of the walk on Monday; the head Clerk is a very nice old man, who has been there 45 years, so that in any difficulty I can always go to him. I like M^r A. better than ever and we get on perfectly together. I went up and had a quiet dinner with them on Friday, no body there but Cap^t. Forrest who is a very nice man, and I had a very pleasant evening.⁵ I have come round to the opinion that M^rs A. is a much greater beauty than I had thought her; I can see they despise Southampton society, and know very of the town’s people; she shuddered when I mentioned Capt Vignole’s dinner, and said she had been there once and never means to go again.⁶

I don’t think I have ever given you an account of my day here, and one day is as good as a hundred; 7.30. a.m. a very mild rap at the door; from 7.45. till 8 I generally manage to get up, I then dress up to decency pitch and go down and put the tea in the pot, and have a soliloquy before the fire what to have for breakfast. The general result is an egg, or some times a rasher, or perhaps yesterday’s cold chop warmed up, but this morning a lovely kidney came up quite unexpected like. I have breakfast over by about 8.45., I then stand before the fire or have a quiet strum, till M^rs. Pratt appears to have a solemn Confab. about dinner, and to praise yesterdays dinner or this mornings kidney, or anything to do with the establishment, of which she is mighty proud.⁷ After we have made up our minds about dinner, it is about time to be off, as I have to be there by 10 minutes to 10, and it is quarter of an hour’s walk; M^r A. does not come in till 10.30. I always find M^r Fall there with the keys, ready for me to open the save and strong room.⁸ when it is opened and the Clerks have taken out all the books, I get out the money, and the notes, and drafts and bills &c, and then I have to look among the bills to see if any are coming due, and enter the things, drafts and bills notes powers of attorney and all sorts of things that come down from Lubbock; then theres the daily letter to write to Lubbock’s to say that we have theirs, and to tell them whats what to do for us;⁹ then after that there is the Ledger to be culled over, that is to see if all the business done the day before, has been put down to each separate person concerned; by this time it gets to be about 11.30, or 12. And then the times comes in, and one takes it easy, till some odds & ends want doing, of which there are generally plenty; if there is nothing to do, I finish the times or read a book, till about 1—when I generally try to do a little mathematics, but they come rather stiff after a bustling morning, and I am getting in rather a fright about my degree¹⁰  

at about 2 or $\frac{1}{2}$ past I go out and get a turn, sometimes $\frac{1}{2}$ an hour’s some times less sometimes more; before I go in I get a Sandwich or butter and roll or a bun or two, at a pastry cook’s just opposite; it is by this time from 3 to 3.30. so that there is only $\frac{1}{2}$ hour more before we wind up, which is rather a long job if there is anything wrong, but we generally get away from 4.30 to 4.45: at about 5 wet or dry I go out for about a 6 mile walk, and get back for dinner at 7; I find mathematics an awful try after dinner, I sit before the fire reading a book or something, till I begin to feel sleepy, then comes the tug, am I to go to sleep or not, my general resource is to go the pianoforte and have a frantic strum, to annoyance I should guess of the widow below me; the widow and I are just Box and Cox,¹¹ just as I go out she comes down to breakfast, and soon after I go out my walk she comes in from hers so that I have never seen her except her back once; if the piano wakes me I do some mathematics and then read a book and so to bed; and so on; one after the other without much change.

They are going to get up Volunteer Engineers here under patronage of Sir H. James, and M^r A. gave me a hint as if he knew for a fact they were going to come and ask me to belong; but I have had enough volunteering.¹² Would it be the correct thing to go and call again on Sir H. James as he was not in; I should think not—¹³ it has been a lovely day but rather cold; on Sunday I have dinner at two to suit M^rs P. after dinner I went a good long walk;

I hope you will be up to your primula paper   I suppose it will be rather longer than the generality.¹⁴

I am your affect son | W E Darwin

am I ever to have “Orley Farm”¹⁵