In the autumn of 1876 my brother Frank, who was my father's secretary and lived at Down, lost his wife and came with his new-born baby Bernard to live in the old home. The shock and the loss had a very deep effect on my mother and I think made her permanently more fearful and anxious. The baby was a great delight to both my parents and she took up the old nursery cares as if she was still a young woman. Fortunately little Bernard was a healthy and very good child so there was not much anxiety, but it greatly changed her life. She writes: “Your father is taking a good deal to the Baby. We think he (the Baby) is a sort of Grand Lama, he is so solemn.”

The following letters are to me at Kreuznach, where I was with my sister for my companion. My father and mother were taking their frequent summer change, first at Leith Hill Place and then at Basset. From now onwards the majority of the letters here given are from my mother to me ; when therefore there is no heading, it is to be assumed that this is the case. She wrote to me nearly every day when we were not together, and I have kept all her letters.