1887

Aspley Heath, August 24th 1887

It is now nearly six weeks since we took up our residence in our second home here. It seems likely to prove as we hoped it would a place of increased health & strength not only to Papa but to myself & our girls. Papa seldom complains. As for myself I have not felt the benefit of the change so quickly as he did, & having had to go to Bedford & stay over nights several times have not had quite the full proof of it having each time returned not so well as when I went; but on the whole am certainly better. Lottie & Hattie are in excellent health & spirits. The latter seems charmed with her new surroundings & (as we all do) sees new beauties in every direction we take in our wanderings in the woods. Papa has his walk in them each evening as soon as he has finished his tea, & returns for an hour & half's writing before prayers & supper.

I have had a good deal to do in Bedford & have been over for some time, at least one night each week. At a meeting of the United Temperance Committee to elect officers no one would fill the Secretaryship, & that the whole might not collapse for want of this I allowed myself to be nominated pro tern, & was unanimously elected. The first public work decided on was to oppose the extension of licenses at the Brewsters Sessions, & for this purpose it was decided to send as influential a Deputation as possible to wait on the Licensing Bench. Invitations to gentlemen & ladies to join this, notices of Committee meetings & in addition the ‘Home’^ correspondence & notices for Sept’ Committee have seemed to fill nearly every spare moment.

Tuesday Sept 13th

My first business at the Home was to tell poor unhappy Fanny that the conclusion of her holiday visit to me (when she returned the worse for drink) made it impossible for her to continue there longer, & that I had found another to take her place.