know where Long Stratton is.— I have been much pleased at the way Mayor speaks of you.—² It seems very odd not having you rushing up & down the House with your Photographs & very dirty hands.—³ Mamma has been today & yesterday in London to see Aunt Eliza, (who seems very weak & ill),⁴ but she comes back tonight. By the way I think, it not amiss that you did not take your Photography, as you w^d. have had no time for school work; but it was very kind in Miss Mayor offering a room.— The foundations are laid out for new rooms, & on Monday the Bricklayers begin in earnest.— the room looks jolly & big, & I often feel dreadfully ashamed of my extravagance.⁵ How fond Lenny is of metaphors, which he uses so unconsciously, I heard him this morning in sand-walk wood shouting “here is a tree full of nuts—oh such a lot—they are all crushed overboard.”⁶

Good Bye my dear old Gulielmus

Your’ affect. Father | C. Darwin