| Description | There is another change in their plans for Christmas. He has been working at his arrears, but he cannot say with certainty that he will be able to ask for leave on November. The powers that be take seven or eight months to answer his reports so it may be no great matter if he leaves work half finished for the next man. But he finds himself able to do work which has been a terror to him and does not want to give up that gift for a holiday. He therefore intends to send Emma and the babies home in November. If there is any chance of William going in December she will stay on, otherwise she will go alone. William turns to news of Carry [Caroline Emilia Mary Hamilton-Gordon née Herschel] and Alexander Gordon who is to command the first divison of the Abyssinian expediton. He asks that his letter is forwarded to Mrs Hardcastle, gives a joke about light from Emma, and thinks he has found a proof of the veracity of Herodotus, by finding a solid skull, which is to be discussed by the Asiatic Society. He hopes his father received the India Gazette on the Committee on Weights and Measures. |