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THE

LIFE, LETTERS AND LABOURS

FRANCIS GALTON

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

C. F. CLAY, Manaokh

noillioil : FETTER LANE, E.G.

ESillbiiVBll : 100 PmXCES STREET

Imrton: H. K. LKWIS, 138 GOWER STREET, W.C.

: WILLIAM WESLEY & SON, 28 ESSEX STREET, STRAND

Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.

Ifipjia: V. A. BROCKHAUS

Citt> ffiork: G. I'. PUTNAM'S SONS

Bomlmp nnti (Tnlciittn : MAOMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.

roronto: J. M. BENT AND SONS, Ltp.

iTokooi THE MARIT^EN-KAIUSHIKI-KAISHA

ab\^

FRANCIS (JALTON in 190:?.
I'roin a pliotiij^nipli liy the Autlior of tlie initinislifd picture by ('. W. Furse at Claveidoii

THK

LIFE, I FTTERS AA'n i aroirs

FRANCIS (.A;

HlRFH l8

'?V

^^ JTE

FOR ST« VTION

Krotn a plM>tii|{r«|>ii t>y

THE

LIFE, LETTERS AND LABOURS

FRANCIS GALTON

KARL PEARSON

GALION PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITV OF LONDON

VOLUME I
Birth 1822 to Marriage 1853

Cambridge :
at the University Press

UBRARY

THE ONTARIO INSTITUTE

FOR STUDIES IN EDUCATION

TORONTO, CANADA

vi Life and Letters of Francis Galton

searching. It was only the feeling that, at least in one or two aspects of
Francis Galton's later life and of his scientific work, I could perhaps put
his contributions to human knowledge moi-e adequately than possibly one
or anothei' who might take up the task, if I resigned it, and who would
liurdly grasp the bearing of that long and intimate scientific corre-
spondence between Galton, Weldon and myself, that I pei'severed in
my endeavour to give some account of a life, wherein an important
chapter of personal development must I'emain largely unrecorded.

The last source of delay has been the difficulty of collecting the illus-
trative material, with which I determined from the start to accompany
this work. The records had to be collected fi'om many sources, and it
was soon clear to me that I was collecting as much information bearing
on the family history of Charles Darwin as on that of Francis Galton.
It seemed desirable to place the two men to some extent in contrast in
my volume, showing in ancestry, in methods of work and in outlook on
life what they had in common and how they differed. Twenty years
ago, no one would have questioned which was the greater man. To-day
the work of Darwin is being largely undermined by a new view of
heredity. We are told that " the transformation of masses of popula-
tion by imperceptible steps, guided by selection, is as most of us now
see, so inapplicable to the facts, whether of variation, or of specificity,
that we can only marvel both at the want of penetration displayed by
the advocates of such a proposition, and at the forensic skill by which
it was made to appear acceptable even for a time\" Foremost among
such advocates were Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. If
the judgment given above be correct, Darwinian evolution is only
a fallacy supported for a time by "forensic skill." Its propounders
must belong to a school which will leave no permanent mark on human
thought. The last twenty years have seen a continual progress, not
only in the expansion of the methods initiated by Galton, but in the
recognition of the jaurposesto which he desired their application ; above
all we have approached nnich closei' to the conscious study of what
makes for race efficiency — to the ajiplication of Darwinian ideas to the
directed evolution of man. If Darwinism is to survive the open as well
as covert attacks of the Mendelian school, it will only be because in
the future a new race of biologists will arise trained up in Galtonian
method and able to criticise from that standpoint botli Darwinism

' Problems u/ G'ertelics, by William Batcson, p. 218, New Haven, 1913.

Preface vii

and Mendelism, foi" both now transcend any treatment which fails to
approach them with adequate mathematical knowledge.

If this view be a true view of the evolution of biological thought
in the near future, then any comparison of the relative greatness of the
two men becomes superficial. Darwinism needs the complement of
Galtonian method before it can become a demonstrable truth ; it
I'equires to be supplemented by Galtonian enthusiasm before it can
exei'cise a substantial influence on the conscious direction of race
evolution. Man has been directly endeavouring for a few thousand
years to imj^rove himself by improving his environment. Galton's
lesson — over and over again disregarded by those who profess to be his
disciples — was that little could be achieved this way, that the primary
method to elevate the race was to insure that its physically and
mentally abler members, not only had the unrecognised advantage of
natural selection in their favour, but were directly and consciously
encouraged to be fertile by the state. If my view be correct, Erasmus
Darwin planted the seed of suggestion in questioning whether adapta-
tion meant no more to man than illusti^ation of creative ingeniiity ;
the one grandson, Charles Darwin, collected the facts which had to be
dealt with and linked them together by wide-reaching hypotheses; the
other grandson, Francis Galton, provided the methods by which they
could be tested, and saw with the enthusiasm of a prophet their
application in the future to the directed and self-conscious evolution of
the human race. It is unprofitable to discuss relative gi-eatness, and
in this work I have made no attempt to do so. I see one family which
has done much for our national worth, and eveiy fact which bears on its
history and its characteristics is of interest to us all. Those who know
the real history of the one occasion on which Galton and Darwin
disagreed know how loyal Galton was to Darwin — loyal with a loyalty
far rarer to-day. Galton would not have wished me to put him in
the same rank as his master, but the reader who follows my story to
the end may possibly see that the ramifications of Galton's methods
are producing a renascence in innumerable branches of science, which
will be as epoch-making in the near future as the Darwinian theory of
evolution was in biology from 1860 to 1880, and which has encountered
and will encounter no less bigoted opposition from both the learned and
the lay. To work for that Galtonian renascence has been the writer's
main aim in life as it was also that of his chief colleague and friend —
W. F. R. Weldon. I can only hope that these volumes will contribute

viii TAfe and Letters of Francis Gallon

to the due appreciation of what Galtoii laboured to do and what he
hoped in the future might be done in this field.

It is only fitting that I should jjut on record here the ready help
I have received in innumei'able ways from Francis Galton's relatives
and friends. For letters, papers and the reproduction of illustrative
portraits I have in the first place to thank Mr Edward Wheler Galton
of Claverdon ; to his sister, Mrs T. J. A. Studdy, I owe also much in
the way of facts and portraits. Mrs M. G. B. Lethbridge, Sir Francis
Galton's niece, did invaluable work in placing in order and indexing
the letters to her luicle from I860 onwards, 'i'o the thi-ee sons of
Charles Darwin, Mr William Erasmus Darwin, the late Sir George
Howard Darwin and Sir Francis Darwin, I owe much information and
many letters. Without their ever-ready and generous aid it would
not have been possible to put before my readers so completely as I have
done the ancestral history of Charles Darwin. To Mr Francis Rhodes
Darwin and to Colonel C W. Darwin I am much indebted for particulars
and photographs of the Darwin portraits at Creskeld Hall, and to Lady
George Darwin for kindly help after the death of her husband. The
Rev. Darwin Wilmot placed at my disposal most valuable manuscript
material as to his grandfather, Sir Francis Sacheverell Darwin, as to
his great-grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, and as to the family history of
tiie Darwins. Mrs William Wavell, great-granddaughter of Erasmus
Darwin, allowed me to see her Darwin portraits and manuscripts.
Several other members of the family also have most kindly shown me
illustrative material, or provided me with data. Many friends and
correspondents of Fi-ancis Galton have allowed me to take copies of his
letters, which will find due acknowledgment in my second volume,
where these letters are used.

In the heavy pedigree work of this volume I have received con-
tinual assistance in search work from my colleague Miss Amy Barrington
and in the lal)orious drafting of the ])edigrees for engraving from the
Hon. Secretary of the Galton Laboratory, Miss H. Gertrude Jones.
My heartiest thanks are due to them both for the patience which
they have brought to their tasks, and the invariable suavity they
have shown to a frecpiently overworked and occasionally irascible
taskmaster. To my friend and colleague Professor W. Paton Ker
I am very grateful for a variety of suggestions and corrections
during proof

Preface

I am fully aware that the indolent reader will Hud uuich in this
work which he does not want and which has but little interest for him.
It is intended fundamentally as a permanent memorial to the Founder
of the Galton Laboratoiy, and embraces material which may easily
perish or be ultimately lost sight of If the said reader will only wait
a few years, I have little doubt that my material will be strained of its
more solid content and presented to him in that light and cheap form,
which we are told is a first necessity of the modern book market. My
object is a different one, namely to issue a volume to some extent
worthy of the name of the man it bears, — which may be studied here-
after by those who wish to understand him, his origin and his aims, —
I'atljer than to furnish an evening's amusement for readers however
numerous, who would just as readily study any other biography as that
of Galton, if only it chanced to be entertaining. I have been told that
the genealogical section of my book will weary its readers and narrow
its 2)ublic. I would reply that this work is not written to gain a public,
hut i^iani inenioriam i^yodere conditoris /ios^rj and is intended especially
for those who have known and loved Francis Galton in the past, or
who may in the future desire to understand and honour him.

K. r.

The Galton Labouatouy,
University of London.
Ajtril 8, 1914.

p. o.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

CHAP.

I. Foreword

III. Childhood and Boyhood

VT. Fallow Years, 1844—1849

PAGE
1

II. The Ancestry of Francis Galton 5

IV^. Lkiiiumihk and Wasdeiuaiiuk.

Part I. INIwHcal Studies and the Flight to Constantinople . . 92

V. Lkiuumihe and Waxvhiuaiike.

Part II. Matlieniatical Studies and Cambridge Pleasures . . 140

196

VII. The Reawakening: Scientific Exploration 211

Appendix :

Note I. Portraits of the Darwin Family .... 243

Note II. On the Howard Ance.stry of Charlf,s Darwin. . 244

6 2

ILLUSTRATIONS TO VOLUME I

Frontisjnerp. Francis Gallon in 1903. From a pliotograph l)y the autlior of
the unfinislied picture by C. W. Furse at Claverdon.

PLATE

I. Facsimile of a Letter of Charles Darwin to Francis Galton on the publica-

tion of the latter's Hereditary Genius, Dec. 23, 1869 between pjy. 6 and 7

II. Facsimile of the Reply of Francis Galton to Charles Darwin's letter

of Dec. 23, 1869 ....... between 2yp- 6 and 7

to face page

III. Erasmus Darwin. From a print after a picture by Rawlinson of Derby 13

IV. Erasmus Darwin and his father, Dr Erasmus Darwin, at Chess. From

a silhouette at Claverdon in the possession of Mr Wheler Galton . 14

T^' bin. Elizabeth Darwin {nee Collier) and Dr Erasmus Darwin, Derby, 1800.
From silhouettes mounted on opal glass in the possession of their
great-granddaughter, Mrs T. J. A. Studdy . . . . . 14
V. From the MS. Boyhood of Sir Francis Saehevertjll Darwin in the
pos.session of Mr Darwin Wilmot. Mechanical Ferry designed by
Dr Erasmus Darwin for crossing from his house in Fell Street,
Derby, to his orchard. Francis S. Darwin as a child in the

Ixjat, 1789 16

YI. Ilolicrt Darwin of Elsttm (1682— 17.")4). Father of Erasmus Darwin
and great-grandfather of Charles Darwin and Francis Galton.
From a picture at Creskeld Hall by Richardson, 1717 . . 17

VI bin. William Alvey Darwin (1726 — 1783). Brother of Erasmus Darwin.
From a photograph in the possession of Mr W. E. Darwin of the
picture at Creskeld Hall ..... ... 17

V'l ler. Roliert Waring Darwin (1724 — 1816). . Brother of Pirasnius Darwin
and .author of Principia Jjotanica, or Inlrodnetinn In llie Semial
Botany of Linnaeus. Fi'om the picture at Creskeld Hall paiuted
by John Borridge, 1775 . . . 17

\'I1. Elizabeth Hill (1702—1797). Wife of Robert Darwin of Elston and
mother of Dr Erasmus Darwin. From a photograph of the
portrait at Creskeld Hall in the possession of Francis Darwin, Esq. 17

VIII. Robert Waring Darwin, F.R.S. (1706—1848). Father of Charles
Darwin. From a mezzotint of the painting in the possession of
Mr William E. Darwin. (The mezzotint was engraved before the
painting was cut down.) . . . . . . . . 17

IX. Sn.sannah Wedgwood {\1(S^ — 1817). Mrs Robert Waring Darwin,
mother of Charles Darwin. Fr-om a miniature in the possession
of Mr William E. Darwin ........ 17

XIV

Life and Letters of Francis Galton

PLATE to face 'page

X. From tlie MS. Boyhoofl of Sir Francis Sacheverell Darwin, who, being
bitten hy a dog, produced a stampede by barking as a dog to mimic
hj-drophobia. Mrs Darw^in (Elizabetli Collier), the surgeon, the
two Miss Parkers, Violetta Darwin (afterwards Mrs Galton) and
Emma Darwin are seen on the stairs, while Dr Erasmus Darwin
comos out of his study to asccn-tain what is wrong

Poem to Mrs Pole (Elizabeth Collier), afterwards Mrs Erasmus Darwin.
From a manuscript volume of poems by Dr Erasmus Darwin in
the possession of Mrs William Wavell. Words altered and erased
by Sir Francis S. Darwin ........

General Sir David Colyear, afterwards Lord Portmore (circa 1650 —
1730). Grandfather of Elizabeth Collier. From the portrait by
Van der Eanck formerly at Arthingworth Hall ....

Charles Colyear, second Earl Portmore (1700—178.5). Father of
Elizabeth Collier. From the picture by Reynolds formerly at
Arthingworth Hall .......•■

Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, afterwards Lady Portmore
(1657 — 1717). Grandmother of Elizabeth Collier. From the
picture by Kneller formerly at Arthingworth Hall

Sir Henry Savile, Scholar (1549—1622). Maternal grandfather of
Sir Charles Sedley and a direct ancestor of Francis Galton. From
a print in the possession of the author of the portrait by Marcus
Gheeraerts the Younger ........

Elizabeth Collier (1747—1832). Mrs Pole, later Mrs Erasmus Darwin,
with lu^r son Sacheverell Pole. Painted in the year 1770. Prom
a picture in pastel by Wright of Derby in the possession of
Mr Wheler Galton at Claverdon ......

Elizalieth Collier (Mrs Pole, later Mrs Erasmus Darwin) with her dog.
From a silhouette at Claverdon in the possession of Mr Wheler
Galton. Underneath, facsimile of her signature ....

XVIII. Sir Francis Sacheverell Darwin (1786—1859). Uncle and godfather
of Sir Francis Galton. From a portrait Ijy Haynes in the posses-
sion of Sir Francis' granddaughter, Mrs William Wavell .
XIX. From the MS. Boyhood of Sir Francis Sacheverell Darwin. Francis S.
Darwin and George Bilsborow while engaged in shooting pigs
witli arrows ai'o disturbed by a mad dog, which connnunicates
hydrophobia to the pigs and a horse. It is eventually killed by

the mob. 1796

XX. Three portraits of Frances Anne Violetta Dai-win (Mrs Tertius Galton)
(17S.3— 1874):
{a) In the year of her marriage, 1807. From a miniature by Thompson
in the possession of her granddaughter, Mrs T. J. A. Studdy .

XIL

XIII.

XIV.

XV.

XVI.

XVIL

Illaslrallons to Volniae I

^^'^'''^ to face patja

XX. (h) The mother of Francis Galton, aged 75. From a portrait in the

possession of tlie Galton Laboratory ...... 26

{<•) Mrs Tertius Gaiton. From a photograph taken when slic was

79 years of age 26

XXI. (a) Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel (1629 — 1723). Great-great-great-
grandfather of Francis Galton. From a print in the possession

of Mr Wheler Galton 27

(6) Sir Charles Sedley, Poet (1G39— 1701). Great-great-great-grand-
father of Francis Galton. From a print in tlio British Museum
Print Koom, which is from an original picture formerly in tiie
possession of the Duchess of Dorset . . . . . . 27

XXII. David Barclay of Youngsbury (1728—1809), Philanthropist and Slave-
Emancipator. Uncle of Mrs Samuel Galton (Lucy Barclay), great-
uncle to Tertius Galton and to Mrs Fry, and grandfather to
Hudson Gurney. From a print in the British Museum Print
Iloom after the picture by Houghton ...... 28

XXIII. (a) Ury. The home of tlie Barclays. The Friends' Meeting House

on the right. The Gothic window with shutters on the first Hoor
is that at which Lucy Barclay worked her sampler. Photograph
from a water-colour sketch ........ 30

(/>) Elston Hall. The original home of the Darwins, from a pen and

ink sketch in Mrs Wheler's MS. "The Galton Family" . . 30

XXIV. («) Captain Robert Barclay-Allardyce (1779 — 185-t). From a painting

formerly at Ury, showing him on his 1000 mile walk in 1000
hours. Captain Barclay was half-brother to Lucy Barclay . 30

{h) Robert Barclay, M.P. (1731—1797). Father of Lucy Barclay
(Mrs Samuel Galton) and of Captain Robert Barclay-Allardyce.
Great-grandfather of Francis Galton. From a print in the
possession of Mr Wheler Galton after the picture by Raeburn . 30

XXV. Samuel Galton, the Younger (1753 — 1832). From a portrait by
Langastre at Claverdon in the possession of INIr Wheler Galton

XXVI. Three portraits of Lucy Barclay, Mrs Samuel Galton (1757—1817):
((«) From a miniature taken about the time of her marriage (1777)
(6) From a silhouette taken at Bath in middle life ....
(c) From a portrait in later life in the possession of Mrs T. J. A.

Studdy ............

XXVII. Photographs of Lucy Barclay's sampler, proving her presence at Ury

when seven years of age ........

XXVIII. Mrs Sanmel Galton (Lucy Barclay) (1757—1817). From a pastel

portrait by Langastre at Claverdon in the possession of Mr Wheler
Galton 46

-11
1-1

XVI

Life and Letters of Francis Galtou

rLATK

XX L\.

XXX.

XXXl.

XXXII.

XXXIII.

XXXIV.

XXXV.

XXXVI.

XXXVII.
XXXVIII.

XXXIX.
XL.

lij face paijii
Tilt' Homes of tliu Claltoiis, being the title-page to "The Giilton
Family," an M.S. lii-story by Elizabeth Anne Wheler ("iSister
Bessy"), 1883 19

Duddeston House, the home of the .Saiiniel (Jalton.s, father and son.
From a sketch by Emma >So[)hia Galton in the jiossession of
Mrs T. J. A. Studdy ID

Uieat Ban-, The countiy home of .Samuel Ualton, jun. (1785 —
1799). Favourite meeting place of the Lunar Society. From
the photograph of a water-colour drawing in Mr.s Wheler's M.S.
" The Galtou Family " 19

(a) The Galton-Farmer house, later the Galtou Bank, in .Steeiliouse

Lane, Birmingham, now a shop ...... 50

{h) Friends' Meeting House in Bull Street, Birmingham, where the
two Samuel Galtons with their wives attended and were ulti-
mately buried .......... 50

Samuel Tertius Galton (1783—1844). Father of Francis Galton,
and husband of Violetta Darwin. From a painting by Oakley
in 1838. "Tertius Galton, who is a demi-semi Quaker in
religion, a demi-beau in dress, and loves wonders and varieties
in Science, and by profession a Whig." Letter from Dr Parr,
1812, describing his guests at dinner. Coke of Norfolk, p. 126 . 52

Tertius Galton, with his children Adele, Erasmus, Emma and
Bessie, 1837. From a silhouette by Edouard in the possession
of Mr Wheler Galton at Claverdon ...... 52

Uncle and Aunts of Francis Galton :

(a) Theodore Galton (1784—1810) 54

{b) Adele Galton, Mrs J. K. Booth (1784— 18G9) ... 54

(d) Mary Anne Galton, Mrs Schhnmelpcniiinck (1778 — 1856) . 54
(«) Theodore Galton, fiom a miniature ..... 54
(i) Adele Galton, Mrs J. K. Booth, from a photograph . . 54

Comparison of Charles Darwin, aged 51, and Francis Galton, aged

about 50, from photographs ....... 56

Nangoro, King of the Ovampo, from the first edition of Francis
Galton's Tropical South Africa. In illustration of Fiancis
Gallon's .sense of humour ....... 59

Francis Galton, aged 8. From a silhouette in his mother's MS.

History of the Childhood of her son, 1830 .... 63

Facsimile of the first page of Violetta Galton's account of the

Childhood of Francis Galton, written in 18."J0 ... 63

Illustrations to Volume I

xvu

PLATE

XLI.

to face
a portrait in Mrs

{a) diaries Darwin in early nianlioud. From

Wheler's MS. "The Galton Family"

(A) Charles Darwin in later life. From a photograph by his son,

Major Leonard Darwin ........

XLII. Erasmus Galton (1815—1909). In his uniform as a " middy," aged 13.
Silhouette in the possession of Mr Wheler Galton at Claverdon.
" My second brother, Erasmus, then a boy of twelve or thirteen,
showed himself to us in his uniform, with the dagger or 'dirk'
that was part of it." Francis Galton, Memories of my Life, p. 16

XLIII. Breadsall Priory ("Happine.ss Hall"). The later home of Erasmus
Darwin and afterwards of his widow (Elizabeth Collier, Mrs Pole).
This is the house where the joyous visits of the young Galtons to
their grandmother were made. From a pen and ink sketch of the
garden front ..........

XLIV. (rt) Breadsall Church. From a sketch. This church contains the
tombs of Erasmus Darwin, iiis widow and other members of the
Darwin family ..........

(6) Breadsall Priory. Purchased by Erasmus Darwin the Younger,
and bequeathed by him to his father, Erasmus Darwin the Elder.
From a water-colour sketch at Claverdon .....

XLV. Plan of the Larclies, the birthplace and home in boyiiood of Francis
Galton, with two inset a.spects of the house. From a plan by
Violetta Galton (iiee, Darwin) .......

XLVI. ((() Erasmus Darwin (1731 — 1802). From a painting by Wright of
Derby ...........

ih) Darwin Galton (1814— 1903). Eldest brother of Francis Galton.
From a picture by Oakley at Claverdon .....

XLVII. Three great-grandchildren of David Barclay of Cheapside :
(re) Hudson Gurney . . .

(6) Mai'garet Gurney (Margaret Barclay)

XLVIII. Francis Galton. From a portrait by Oakley of 1840 (Galton Labora-
tory, University of London) .......

XLIX. Sketch by Francis Galton of the Bishop's Gateway at Liege, visited

1838

L. (re) Emma Sophia Galton (1811 — 1904), "Sister Pemmy." From a

silhouette at Claverdon ........

(6) Elizabeth Anne Galton (1808—1906), "Sister Bessy," Mrs Edward
Wheler. From a painting by Powles in 1891 at Claverdon .
L hin. Elizabeth Anne Galt(m (1808 — 1906), " Sister Bessy." From a painting
by Easton of 1844 in the po.ssession of Mrs T. J. A. Studdy

p. G.

■page
68
68

74
74

75
76
76

91
91

xviii Life and Letters o/ Francis (Walton

PLATE to /ace page

LI. Sketches fmiii Oalton's Cambridge Lettere :

(a) The tire-placc in Galt<m's rooms with the foils, Smyrna pistols

and native lance . . . . . . . liiO

(6) The sitting-r<x)m before the removal of the sofa to the fire-place 150

LII. Sketches from (ialtons Cambridge Ijcttei-s :

(o) Pen and ink sketch of Ely Cathedral, lt!42 . 167

(6) Pen and ink sketch of King's College Chapel from the Field by

the Mill, 1843 167

TJII. From Francis Galton's sketch-book of the German tour in 1843 :

(a) Emma Galton and Julia Hallani . . .180
(6) "Sister Emma" 180

LIV. Last Days in Cambridge. Sketches from letters :

(a) Letter of Francis Galton to Tertius Galton announcing his degree 181
(6) The last meeting of the Caseo-Tostic Club, 1843 181

LV. Francis Galton. From two early photographs in the possession of

Mr Wheler Galton 211

LV big. Francis Galton's sisters. From early photographs on glass (before 1860)
in the possession of their niece, Mrs T. J. A. Studdy :
(a) Emma Sophia Galton (1811—1904), "Sister Pemmy" . .213

(6) Milicent Adele Galton (1810—1883), "Sister Delly" ... 213

LVI. Sketches from Galton's African Diaries :

(a) Rough water-colour sketch of gun set as a trap for a lion . 21-5

(6) Sample page of a diary sketch-book showing pencil "snapshots" 21.5

LVII. Sketches from Galton's African Diaries :

(a) Karupi, an Ovampo . . . . . .216

(6) Tchapupa's wife and Tchapupa, natives of Damaraland . . 216
(c) Oniutchikota, the small lake in Ovampoland, where Galton's name

was found in 1907-8 216

LVIII. Sketches from Galton's African Diaries :

(o) The Captain of the Hottentots, Jonker Afrikaner, walks off with

Galton's Law Code under his arm ...... 226

(6) Facsimile of Jonker Afrikaner's promise to keep the f)eace in

Damaraland ........... 226

LIX. Sketches from Galton's African Diaries :

(a) Nangoro, King of the Ovampo, original sketch of June 7, 1851 ;

his majesty crowned with the theatrical tinsel crown . . 237
(6) Galton's favourite hack in Damaraland 237

/IlH.^t rat ions to Volume I

XIX

PLATE

LX.

LXI.

LXir.

LXIII.

LXIV.
LXV.
LXVI.

to fa4x page
Francis Galton and his Wife (Louisa Jane Butler). In early married
life. From a phonograph in the possession of Mr Wheler Galton at
Claverdon ..........

Francis Galton and his Wife (Louisa Jane Butler). In middle life .

Pictures at Newnham Gnxnge :

(n) (William Alvey Darwin (1726 — 1783) a-s a young man

(6) Robert Darwin of Elston (1682—1754)

Thomas Foley (1617 — 1677), Founder of Old Swinford Hospital, from
the engraving in Xash's History of Worcestershire after the painting
of 1670 by William Trabute. A direct ascendant of Charles
Darwin ...........

241
242

243
243

245

Heydon Hall. The home of the Earles, now of their descendants
through the female line, the Bulwers. Fi-om an old engi-aving by
W. Ellis of a drawing by F. Repton ...... 246

Erasmus Earle (1590 — 1667), Own Sergeant to the Commonwealth.
Great-great-grandfather of Erasmus Darwin. From the picture by
Zoest at Heydon 246

Thomas Earle, Brother of Anne Earle, the great-grandmother of

Erasmus Darwin. From the picture by Zoest at Heydon . . 246

page

195

In the text :

Erasmus Darwin's visiting card. Tailpiece to Chapter V .

The three children of Erasmus and Elizabeth Darwin, Edward, Emma
and Violetta Darwin (Francis Galton 's mother). Tailpiece to
Appendix ........... 246

PEDIGREE PLATES AT END
(/;i Pocket of Cover)

PLATE

A Immediate Ancestry and Collaterals of t>ir Fraiu-i> ^-Huon.

B. Pedigree showing connection of Barclays with Noteworthy Ancestoi-s.

C. Pedigree illustrating Relationships of Freames, Barclays antl Galtons.

D. Pedigree of Abrahams, Farmers and Galtons.

K. Pedigree showing connection of Charles Darwin with Noteworthy Ancestors.

BE8UME OF THE LIFE AND LABOURS OF
FRANCIS UALTON

CHIEF EPOCHS IN THP: LIFE OF FRANCIS OALTON

Boiii F<'bniary IG, 1822. DukI January 17, 1911

A. " ApprcnliceHhip "

Age

—5

6—7

8—9

10—12

Trained under Sister AdMe
Dame School
School at Boulogne
„ at Kenil worth
13 — 15 King Edward's School, Birniinj^liani

16 Medical Education, General Hosiiital, Binning

17 „ „ King's College, London

18 1st Journey, down Danube to Smyrna ...
18 — 21 Mathematicfd Education, Cambridge

Years

— 1827
1828—1829
1830—1831
1832—1834
1835—1837

1838

1839

1840
1840—1843

B. " Journeyman Years "

22 2nd Journey, Egypt, Khartoum, Syria ...

22- — 27 Hunting and Shooting

28 — 30 3rd Journey, Tropical Africa

31 Marriage

1844—1845

1845—1849

1850—1852

1853

C. "Master Craftsman"

32—42 Art of Travel and Meteorology ... 1854—1864

New Influences :

(a) Quetelet's Lettres sur la theorie des prohahililes appli-
quee aux sciences morales et politiques ri'ranslation,

1849) 1849

(6) Darwin's Origin of Species ... ... ... ... 1859

43 First Research in Heredity (Hereditary Talent and Character) 1865

47 Hereditary Genius ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1869

50 Statistical Enquiries as to Prayer ... ... ... ... 1872

I?esume of the Life and Lahoura of Francis (ialton xxi

Age Years

48 Heredity: Anthropometry ... ... ... ... ... 1870 onwards

52 Enyliah Men of Science, their Nature ami Niirture ... ... 1874

54 Heredity: Psychoiuotry ... ... ... ... ... ... 187G onwards

56 Portraiture work ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1878onward.s

61 Human Faetdty ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1883

6G Personal Identification (arising from inquiry as to permanency

of characters). Finger-jirints ... ... ... ... 1888 onwards

67 Natural Inlieritance ... ... ... ... ... ... 1889

[Correlation and its application.s. Tliis was tlie starting-point
of the Biometric Schoo!.
72 First academic Lectures on Variation and Correlation accom-

])anied hy Lalioratory work started at University College —
October 1894. Start of BioniPtric Laboratory' ... ... 1894]

74 Measurement of Plants and .\nimals Committee, Royal Society 1896

67,77 Law of Ancestral Heredity (1889)1897

79 Jliometrika founded. Galton writes a preface and becomes con-
sulting Editor 1901

79—89 Eugenics movement 1901—1911

82 Research Fellowship in Eugenics in University of London.

"Eugenics Office" .' 1904

85 Transformation of "Eugenics Office" into the "Eugenics Labora-

tory" and its association with the Biometric Laboratory 1907

89 Death and by bequest Foundation of the Galton Professorship

and Endowment of the Laboratory of Eugenics in the
University of London ... ... ... ... ... 1911

Chief Posts and Honours

Royal Geographical Society, Gold Medal (Member of Council for many

years) 1853
Fellow of the Royal Societ,/ (Gold Medal, 1886; Darwin Medal, 1902;

Copley Medal, 1910; Member of Council, 1865-6, 70-2, 76-7, 82-4) 1856
British Association (Sectional President, three times. Geography 1872,

Anthropology 1877, 1885, and General Secretary 1863-7, Member

of Council ; twice asked to be President)
Member of Meteorological Committee (Council) ... ... ... ... 1868 — -1901

Chairman of the Kew Observatory Committee ... ... ... ... 1889 — 1901

Anthropological Institute (President, 1885-9; Huxley Medal, 1901)

Linnaean Society, Darwin-Wallace Medal ... ... ... ... ... 1908

Cambridge: Rede Lecturer ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 1884

Honorary D.Sc. 1895

„ Honorary Fellow of Trinity College 1902

Oxford: Honorary D.C.L 1894

„ Herbert Spencer Lecturer... ... ... ... ... ... 1907

' The Laboratory existed from this date ; the name Biometric was given to it after tlie naming
in November lyOO of Biovietrika, when the terra Biometry was invented, see Life of Weldon,
Biometrika, vol. v, p. 35.

xxu

Life and Letter>t of Franci-'f Galfou

ANALYSTS OF FRANCIS GALTON'S WOllK

Travel, (i) Pnictise

(ii) Art: of Travel

of Campaigninc; (Lecturps at Aidcr.slKit cainp)
Vacation Tourists
Last Memoir

(15 iimiiioirs, etc.)

II. Physics. Meteorology: (12 luemoirs) chiefly

Design of Instruments (12 memoirs)

I I I. Heredity.

First Paper: Hereditary Temperament and Character
Hereditary Genius ...

Yean
1840, 1844, 1850-2

1855
1856
18G0
1881

1861—1873
1850—1906

1865
1869

(i) Physical Characters, Anthropo-
metry, 1873—1894
Influence of Town and Country (1873).
Anthropometry in Schools (1874).
"Nature and Nurture" (1876). An-
tliropometric Laboratory (1882). An-
thropometric Instruments (1877 — 89).
Records of Families (1884), etc. etc.
(over 30 memoirs).

(ii) Menial Characters, Experimental

Psyckoloyy, 1876—1896
Measurement of tlie Senses, Auditory

(1876), Muscular (1883), Visual (1884),

etc. etc.
Analysis of Mental Processes, Free will

(1879), Visions and Imagery (1879—

82), Arithmetic by smell (1894), etc.

(18 memoirs).

(iii) Human Faculty (1883). (Life History Allium, and Record
of Family Faculties, 1884.)

(iv) Portraiture :

Composite Portraits 1878—1885

Just perceptible Differences ... ... ... ... 1893

Photographs of Pedigree Stock 1898

Numerali.sed Profiles ... ... ... 1910

etc. etc. ( 1 2 memoirs)

(v) Direct Experiments and Observations on Heredity :

Transfusion and Pangenesis ... ... ... ... 1869 — 71

Twins 1876

Man : Stature, Eye Colour, Temper 1886—1887

Sweet Peas 1886

Pedigree Moth Breeding 1887

"Evolution" Committee 1896

Bas.sett Hounds ... ... ... ... ... ... 1897

etc. etc. (10 memoirs)

Resume of the Life and Labours of Francis Gallon xxiii

IV. DevpJopment oj Utatin/lcal Theory:
Departure from Qiietelet
Statistical Scales
Percentiles and Grados ...
Ogive Curves

Geometrical Mean (Fechner'.s I^aw)
Regression

Correlation and its Measurement
" Ranks " and the Correlation of Ranks
First and Second Prizes, i.e. relative value of extreme ability
(16 memoirs)

V. Application to Theory of Heredity :
English Men of Science
Laws of Heredity
Inheritance and Regression
Natural Inheritance

[Point of Departure of Biometric School]
Law of Ancestral Heredity
Noteworthy Families

(36 memoirs and books, etc.)

V'l. From the measurement of characters for inheritance naturally
arose the problem of their permanence :

(i) Personal Identification and Description
(ii) Finger Print Investigations ...
(13 memoirs, etc.)

VII. Application to Huinan Affairs: Euyeiiics :
Hereditary Talent and Character
Gregariousness in Cattle and Men
Hereditary Improvement
Marks for Physical Fitne.-is
Possible Improvement of Human Breed
Eugenics Addresses and Essays
(17 memoirs, etc.)

Years

1869
1870
1870—1907
1875
1879
1885
1889
1889
1901

1874

1876-7

1885

1889

; 1889 1), 1897
1906

1888
1891—1902

1865
1872
1873
1889
1901
1901-10

I am inclined to agree with Francis Galton iu believing that
education and environment produce only a small effect on the mind
of anyone, and that most of our qualities are innate.

CHAIILES DARWIN.

CHAPTER I

FOREWORD

To more than one reader of this biography the death of Francis
Galton, following within five years that of one of the keenest of his
friends and lieutenants, Walter Frank Raphael Weldon, meant not
only the loss of a revered leader, but of another personal friend and
counsellor. Some of my readers will remember quite recent visits, and
fertile talk in the white-enamelled, sunlit drawing-room at Rutland
Gate, with its collection of Darwin, Galton and Barclay relics ; the table
at which Erasmus Darwin wrote, alongside the easel with its powerful,
if unfinished, portrait by Furse, telling — as the highest phase of art
alone can tell — why and even how Francis Galton inspired men. To
such visitors anything written here must appear incomplete and one-
sided ; the atmosphere of a really great man — and such unquestionably
Francis Galton was — cannot be reproduced in words ; the tones of
voice, the subtle sequences in phases of thought, the characteristic
combinations of physical expression and of mental emphasis, which
make the personality, can only be suggested by a great master' of words,
or at best outlined by a famous craftsman ; the student of science,
unless he be endowed with a poet's inspiration, must fail to provide even
such adumbration. Nor again is it easy to portray the essential features
of a man who is at least one generation older than yourself There are
in life two barriers between man and man more marked, perhaps, than
any others, the reticence of age to youth, and the reticence of age to
age. The friends we have grown up with from our youth, whose
emotions and beliefs have been moulded under like physical and mental
environments, we may perhaps truly know ; we have caught their
individuality before age laid constraint on its fullest expression. But
the friends of adult life have no common mental history — the com-
munity of like growth fails them ; they stand to each other even as
great civilised nations whose culture and art may be revered and
understood, whose knowledge and customs aid but do not replace home

p. G. 1

2 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

growths. In youth friends are as primitive tribes, they raid each
other's preserves both to destroy and to capture what they do not
themselves possess ; they mould each other's mental growth by friction
and combat, rather than by peaceful interchange of commodities ; the
barrier of age to age, or of age to youth is wanting, and we actually
know our friends in the very making of their characters. The friend-
ships of age and age, and of youth and age possess many factors which
fail the friendship of youth and youth ; there is probably no wiser gift
a parent can wish for a child than the rare friendship of youth and age,
and this even if it verges on hero-worship. But neither such friend-
ship, nor that of age with age, is the one which best fits the biographer
for his task of measviring the circumstances which have influenced
a life, or of portraying the mental evolution of what he has only known
in its ripest form. Francis Galton was seventy years of age before the
present writer knew him personally, although the written influence
began five years earlier ; he was seventy-five at least before intimacy
ripened into a friendship which grew in closeness with the years.
This, and the age difference of between thirty and forty years, might
disqualify, and indeed do disqualify the writer for any attempt at what
he understands by genuine biography — fi:'om a portrayal such as Arnold
gives us of Clough, or Hogg of 8helley — the intense reality which
springs from a personal and intimate knowledge of youthful develop-
ment. But to be drawn in this sense we must die young, before at
least our contemporaries have lost the will and power to wield the pen ;
and there are but few who achieve and die young in the field of science.
Francis Galton, and therein the Fates were kindly, was not one of
these. He was over fifty years of age before much of his best work
was done ; he was sixty-seven when his Natural Inheritance was
published, the book which may be said to have created his school.
For although his methods were developed in papers of the preceding
decade, that book undoubtedly first made them known to us, and
found him the lieutenants who built up the school of modern statistics.
Other work of the highest value and of permanent usefulness in many
branches of science Galton achieved before he was fifty, but the first
central fact of his life is the relative lateness of much of his most
inspiring work. His greatest contribution to method was published
after he was sixty ; his greatest appi'eciation of what that method
might achieve for man was hardly pressed on public attention before

Foreivord 3

he was eighty. How then shall one, who knew him — however inti-
mately-— only in the last years of life portray the mental evolution
which was proceeding stage by stage for fifty years before friendship
began ? A very slight introspection tells each one of us how complex
was the scaffolding by which the structure of our own intellectual
opinions has been reared ; how many attempts, how many failures,
how many moulding men and things have contributed their part !
How little of this do even our life-long intimates know, how little
finds its expression in diaries, letters or the printed word ! Could
such things enable one to understand the whole nature of a man, the
present writer, owing to the extreme kindness of the relatives and
friends of Francis Galton, would have small need to lament the failure
of his task. But the sense of failure has grown as these pages took
form. The man of strength and character, who knew what he wished
to accomplish and carried it through ; the leader who inspired us is
there — even as we read him in Furse's portrait — but the evolution
of the man — the story of the mental growth, which should be the aim
of every genuine biographei- — is seen but darkly and from afar ; it is
but faintly shadowed in the written word and screened to dimness by
those barriers of which the author has spoken. For reasons such as
these he can only hope to place before his readers some phases of Francis
Galton's life and some aspects of his scientific work. The real story of
that life, the steep ascents, leading to wider horizons, won as all victorious
minds have won them by struggle with earlier opinions and with a less
developed self, the arduous final acceptance of new ideas as triumphant
certitudes ; these things the writer can but trace as they appear in-
distinctly to him ; others will and must interpret in their own way,
and will doubtless reach different view-points.

Galton of all men would not have desired this biography to be a
panegyric. To be of service it must be, as he would have wished it,
the life of a real man, of a man who makes mistakes, who has wandered
from the path, or stumbled, who has striven after the wholly dlusory,
or towards things beyond his individual i-each. The difference between
the ordinary mortal and the one of subtler mind is not that the former
strays, and the latter does not, but that the deviations in the one case
leave no permanent impress, while in the other they are coined into a
golden experience, which forms the wisdom marking the riper life.
Hundreds of men have failed to reach distinction or gain immediate

1—2

4 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

profit by their school education, by their college careers, by their
professional training, or by their early travels. There was a period
when Galton's fate seemed to hang in the balance, when it appeared
as if he would become an English country gentleman, whose pleasure
lay in sport and whose aim in life was good comradeship. Then the
instinct for creative action mastered his nature, and every apparent
failure of the past seemed to have borne, not bitter fruit, but a golden
experience essential to labours, which the reaper had never foreseen
when he garnered his harvest. That conception is the key to the first
thirty years of Galton's life. It will be found, we think, a clue to the
lives of many men of power, who strive in turn to-wards numerous goals,
before they have learnt to realise their fitting sphere of achievement.
Such apprenticeship with all its possible bungling, such Lehr- und
Wanderjahre, can only be reckoned as idle when the matured journey-
man fails to produce his masterpiece.

Of one thing we are certain, that the reader, who will follow
patiently our hero through the great and the little, through the
apparently trivial and the apparently vital incidents of this story,
cannot fail to fall in love with a nature, which met life so joyously,
and from childhood to extreme old age was resolved to see life at its
best and be responsive to its many-sided experiences. Because Galton
was a specialist in few, if any directions, because he appreciated with-
out stint many forms of human activity, he was able to achieve in
many spheres, where the established powers with greater craftsmanship
but narrower outlook had failed to recognise that there were still
verities to be ascertained. In the " fallow years " Galton wandered
joyously through life, but he had been and he had seen, and he was
thus trained, as few specialists are trained, to achieve in a marked
degree.

CHAPTER II

THE ANCESTRY OF FRANCIS G ALTON

It is only fitting that an early chaptei' of the life of Francis Galton
should be devoted to some account of the ancestry of a man, M'ho did
so much to make the world at large appreciate the value of a good
series of forbears. To some it may seem that Francis Galton in his
Memories may have said all that is needful on the point of ancestry ; to
others the mere statement that he was a grandson of Erasmus Darwin
and a half-cousin to Charles Darwin may appear to account for his
ability and for the directions of his scientific work. To a third group
of persons, which has been much in evidence of late, the doctrine that
mental characters are inherited appears to be not only absurd, but
a sign of mental depravity in its upholdei-s ; they would probably
consider without investigation that both Charles Darwin and Francis
Galton were intellectually the product of their environments, and that
all further inquiry was wasted energy. Because there are so many able
men whose ancestry is insignificant, the group to which I refer has
never mastered the paradox that, while ability is inherited, a majority
of able men have not had a noteworthy ancestry. Pairs of exceptional
parents produce exceptional sons at a rate more than ten times as great
as commonplace parents, but because exceptional parents only form
about one-half per cent, of the community exceptional men as a rule
have not had a noteworthy ancestry.

It is peculiarly fitting in this place to turn to the question of
ancestry, because if there is one point in his work that Francis Galton
laid emphasis upon it was that the mental aptitudes are hereditary.
His three chief works, Hereditary Genius, English Men of Science and
Inquiries into Human Faculty were essentially devoted to the thesis
that mental characters are inherited in the same manner and at the
same rate as the physical characters. Even in his Natural Inheritance,
Galton's fourth great book, he writes :

"We may therefore conclude that the same law... which governs the inheritance
both of Stature and Eye-colour, applies equally to the Artistic Faculty" (p. 162).

6 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

And again in the Fortnightly Review for 1887 :

" I shall have fulfilled my object in writing this paper if it leaves a clear impression
of the great range and variety of temper among persons of both sexes in the upper and
middle classes of English society ; of its disregard in Marriage Selection ; of the great
admixture of its good and bad varieties in the same family ; and of its being nevertheless
as hereditai-y as any other quality."

Or lastly in 1904, writing in Nature (August 11) of his investiga-
tions into "Natural Ability among the Kinsfolk of Fellows of the Royal
Society," Galton says :

"The result of this inquiry is to prove the existence of a small number of more or
less isolated hereditary centres round which a large part of the total ability of the
nation is clustered, with a closeness which rapidly diminishes as the distance of kinship
from its centre increases."

To these and many other published statements of Francis Galton
could be added many memories of private talks. But perhaps the
memorable letter of 1869', in which Charles Darwin acknowledges the
receipt of Galton's Hereditary Genius, may suffice to demonstrate how
early Galton taught the heredity of the mental characters. It runs as

follows :

Down, Beckenham, Kent, S.E.
Dec. 23 (1869?).
My dear Galton,

I have only read about 50 pages of your Book (to the Judges), but I must
exhale myself, else something will go wrong in my inside. I do not think I ever in all
my life read anything more interesting and original. And how well and clearly you
put every point ! George, who has finished the book, and who expresses himself just in
the same terras, tells me the earlier chapters are nothing in interest to the latter ones !
It will take me some time to get to these latter chapters, as it is read aloud to me by
my wife, who is also much interested. You have made a convert of an opponent in
one sense, for I have always maintained that, excepting fools, men did not differ much
in intellect, only in zeal and hard work ; and I still think there is an eminently
important difference. I congratulate you on producing what I am convinced will prove
a memorable work.

I look forward with intense interest to each reading, but it sets me thinking so
much that I find it very hard work ; but that is wholly the fault of my brain and not
of your beautifully clear style. Yours most sincerely, Ch. Darwin.

The point to which Charles Darwin was converted was the
principle that intellectual ability is hereditary. That much of that
ability consists in the faculty for hard work is a further principle with

' The letter is so characteristic, that I have reproduced it here followed by
Galton's reply on the day of receipt : see Plates I and II.

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The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 7

which most of us would also agree with Darwin — not the least Galton
himself — with the proviso, that that mental faculty also is largely
subject to hereditary control.

And Darwin did not hesitate to give expression to his conversion
in Tlie Descent of Man published two years later (Ed. 1885, p. 28).

" So in regard to mental qualities, their transmission is manifest in our dogs, horses
and other domestic animals. Besides special tastes and habits, general intelligence,
courage, bad and good tempers, etc., are certainly transmitted. With man we see
similar facts in almost every family ; and we now know, through the admirable labours
of Mr Galton, that genius which implies a wonderfully complex combination of high
faculties, tends to be inherited ; and, on the other hand, it is too certain that insanity
and deteriorated mental powers likewise run in families."

The chief conclusion of Galton's work, the most fixed principle
of his teaching, was the like inheritance of the mental and physical
characters. Many passages in his writings show that he fully appre-
ciated the modifications introduced by environment, but these modifica-
tions can be for any character plus or minus in effect, and on the
average the hereditary factor comes out as the main controlling
feature.

It seems only a few months ago that talking with him over the
almost bitter feeling which the work of the Galton Laboratory on
environment had called forth, he said : " I wish they (the critics of
that work) would study the subject of twins," and referred to his
investigations of 1875. I wonder how many of those critics have
studied Galton's papers on twins ! Had they done so, would they
have supposed that the contrast of Nurture and Nature was a new
fad of the Director of the Eugenics Laboratory, and had not been
recognised and rendered definite by Francis Galton himself Let
such study the section in Hereditary Genius entitled " Nature and
Nurture," and its words :

" When nature and nurture compete for supremacy on equal terms in the sense to
be explained, the former proves the stronger. It is needless to insist that neither is
self-sufficient ; the highest natural endowments may be starved by defective nurture,
while no carefulness of nurture can overcome the evil tendencies of an intrinsically bad
physique, weak brain, or brutal disposition. Differences of nurture stamp unmistakable
marks on the disposition of the soldier, clergyman, or scholar, but are wholly insufficient
to efface the deeper marks of individual character" (p. 12).

How did Galton try to solve the relative sti-engths of " nature
and nurture" — this " convenient jingle of words," as he terms it, which

8 - Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

" separates under two distinct heads the innumerable elements of
which personality is composed " ? He noted that twins are of two
kinds — those born physically and mentally alike, and those born as
unlike as oi'dinary brothers and sisters. He proceeded to determine
how far like twins were differentiated by unlike environments, and
how far unlike twins were rendered like by their common nurture.
He discovered that whatever the environment like twins remained
alike and unlike twins remained unlike, even as they were born. Thus
he sums up his History of Twins, as a Criterion of the Relative Powers
of Nature and Nurture :

"Tliere is no escape from the conclusion that nature prevails enormously over
nurture wlien the differences of nurture do not exceed what is commonly to be found
among persons of the same rank of society in the same country. My only fear is that
my evidence seems to prove too much, and may be discredited on that account, as it
seems contrary to all expectation that nurture should go for so little. But experience is
often fallacious in ascribing great effects to trifling circumstances. Many a person has
amused himself by throwing bits of stick into a tiny brook and watching their progress ;
how they are arrested, first by one chance obstacle, then by another ; and again, how
their onward course is facilitated by a combination of circumstances. He might
ascribe much importance to each of these events, and think how largely the destiny of
the stick has been governed by a series of trifling accidents. Nevertheless all the sticks
succeed in passing down the current, and they travel, in the long run, at nearly the same
rate. So it is with life, in respect to the several accidents which seem to have had a great
effect upon our careers. The one element, which varies in different individuals, but is
constant for each of them is the natural tendency ; it corresponds to the current in
the stream, and inevitably asserts itself." {Journal of the Anthropological Institute,
1875, p. 391, etc.)

Such work as the Galton Laboratory has done was to give quanti-
tative definiteness to this conclusion of its founder. And, in view of
it, would it not be idle in this biography to pass over the nature — the
ancestral factor — and spend our time chiefly on the nurture of Francis
Galton ? To those of us who believe in alternative inheritance, to
those again who favour its more fashionable Mendelian phases, there is
nothing marvellous in transcendent intellectual power being associated
with one member of a Darwin or with one member of a Galton
fraternity. To those who put their faith in nurture as the controller
of mental characters, it must be a standing miracle that brothers
reared under identical environment should fail to show the same
ability, or showing the same ability should be so diverse in their
physical attributes or in other mental characters !

The Ancestry of Francis Gait on 9

So much then can be said in favour of the study of Francis
Galton's ancestry. While he himself has told us in broad outline
what he owes to the strains which were mingled in his blood, there
is much that he has not referred to, that possibly he could not refer
to, either from modesty or ignorance. I have heard him speak with
keen appreciation of his Quaker forbears ; but I doubt if he knew,
or if even we now know all they suffered for their faith. Besse's
record, in his Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers,
is little more than a list of fines, imprisonments, and deaths, yet it
occupies two large folio volumes, and the present writer, from a study
of the Yorkshire records alone, knows how incompletely it represents
all that occurred. Of that other wider side of his ancestry — which
indeed helped the Apologist Robert Barclay to lighten the grave
op23ression directed against the early Society of Friends by actively
soliciting his royal kinsmen in their favour — of this side of his ancestry
Galton rarely if ever spoke. Yet it is one that we cannot pass over.

As one who has dealt with many family pedigrees, chiefly of the
professional classes, the writer's experience has been of the following
kind. In ascending backwards we pass, perhaps through the squirearchy,
eventually into the yeoman class. Here there is no hope of going
further than the church registers (say to 1600) will carry us, or perhaps
the wills a hundred years further. We leave the family on the soil,
and we have no trace of further distinction or knowledge of its ever
being anything but autochthonous. If a member reached, before that
date, celebrity by marked ability, he was either an ecclesiastic who
left no offspring, or he and his family were raised to the noble class.
Once reach the yeoman class, and there is little hope of going beyond
the data in the deeds of the yeoman's chest. A second method of
terminating our ascent is to reach a bar-sinister, beyond which in more
recent times there is only perhaps feeble family tradition, or in early
times little screened disgrace, or even much pride. Lastly we may
find ourselves passing into a noble or royal family, which for generations
has maintained its position by its physique and mentality. And here,
perhaps, we may recognise a distinct difference between what this
means now and what it meant before 1700. From our earUest know-
ledge of European history, till something like the 17th century, there
was a continuous and most stringent selection of all noble and
royal stocks. To retain your head on your shoulders and yet rise to

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The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 11

distinction in your country meant immense resoui'ce, activity and
mental ability. Men like Alfred the Great, Friedrich Barbarossa, or
William the Conqueror, were kings because they were essentially men
preeminent in ability in their days ; and to show in the male line a
continuous descent of ten generations, as the de Bruces did, signified
that the family had craft to gain and strength to hold the acquired.
The game at politics meant death to the checkmated, often destruction
of their stock and forfeiture of their land. Thus it came about that royal
and noble blood, from early mediaeval times almost to the close of the
Stuart period, really signified stocks of physical and mental strength ;
and the earlier we go back the more certain is this truth. To anyone
whose ancestry carries him to such noble or royal lines, there will be
little difficulty in linking on to most of the great names of early
European history.

To follow step by step backwards the pedigree of one man like
Francis Galton till we can go no further, but find all our lines fail us,
is perhaps the most instructive lesson in history that is possible. The
biographer has learnt more history, social and political, in the present
inquiry than he had ever done before. One sees not only our own
times linked up with great names in the past, but one feels that
yeoman, squire, noble and king form a more homogeneous whole than
we have hitherto appreciated with our narrow class distinctions ; and
we realise that the stocks which led to famous men of old may exhibit
them to-day in methods more in keeping with our social ends.

It seems to me that the pedigree showing the noteworthy ancestry
of the Barclays is in itself a full reply to those who think it sufiices to
say that Francis Galton was a grandson of Erasmus Darwin ! Francis
Galton owed much to his Darwin descent, but he owed not less to
other strains, and notably to the firmness, conviction, toleration, and
business aptitude of those Quaker strains of Galton, Button, Farmer
and Barclay which formed nearly half his heritage.

I trust that Pedigree B' may show the reader reason enough for
taking a wider view than Galton himself has given us of his past family
hi.story ; for indicating as he himself has indicated that it is neither to
be wholly neglected, nor summed up in any one line of descent. The
nurture of comfortable homes, good schools and our leading universities
was provided for both Charles Darwin and Francis Galton, but it was

' See end of this volume.

2—2

12 Life ami Letters of Frmicis Gallon

provided also in like measure for literally hundreds of their contem-
poraries. If nurture could produce such mental characters as we find
in both, then we should count such men by the tens instead of by
units. Nurture indeed ! Let us listen to what Galton himself says
of his school — the King Edward's School at Birmingham :

" The literary provender provided at Dr Jeune's school disagreed wholly with my
mental digestion. The time spent there was a period of stagnation to myself, which for
many years I deeply deplored, for I was very willing and eager to learn, and could have
learnt much, if a suitable tejicher had been at hand to direct and encourage me."
(^Memories, p. 21.)

Or, again, try Darwin ! Writing of Shrewsbury, his school, he says :
" The school as a means of education to me was simply a blank," and
again of his course at Edinburgh :

"The instruction at Edinburgh was altogether by lectures, and these were intolerably
dull, with the exception of those on chemistry by Hope ; but to my mind there are no
advantages and many disadvantages in lectures compared with rea^ling." {Life, i, p. 36.)

At Cambridge both cousins took Poll degrees. Darwin says that his
three years at Cambridge were " wasted as far as the academical
studies were concerned, as completely as at Edinburgh and at school."
Galton wondered at the narrowness of Cambridge, " for not a soul
seemed to have the slightest knowledge of, or interest in, what I had
acquired in my medical education, and what we have since learnt to
call Biology" {Mem.ories, p. 59).

Undoubtedly their Cambridge time gave Darwin and Galton much
— friends and the leisure to develop on their own lines. But in neither
case was it nurture moulding the men, it was nature making the best
use of an uncongenial environment.

It may be said that the nurture was not that of school or college,
but the nurture of the home. Both men were the exceptional members
of generally able stocks. That in many respects their home-conditions
were sympathetic goes without saying, but these home conditions were
similar to those of others of their own stock and of many contem-
poraries. It may be said that their common grandfather was a man
of distinction, and that although his writings were open to the world,
Charles Darwin and Francis Galton, although born after Erasmus's
death, came by family tradition more closely in touch with his teaching.

Yet here is what Charles Darwin wrote of his grandfather's chief
work ; he is speaking about his Edinburgh acquaintance wath R. E.

Plate III

ERASMUS DARWIN (17:31— 1802).
From a print after a picture by Ravvliusoii of Derby.

The Ancestry of Francis Galton 13

Grant, afterwards Professor of Comparative Anatomy in. University
College, London, to whom that College owes its fine Grant Library:

" I knew him well ; he was dry and formal in manner, with much enthusiasm
beneath this outward crust. He one day, when we were walking together, burst forth
in high admiration of Lamarck and his views on evolution. I listened in silent
astonishment and as far as I can judge without any effect on my mind. I had previously
read the Zoonomia of my grandfather, in which similar views are maintained, but
without producing any effect on me. Nevertheless it is probable that the hearing rather
early in life such views maintained and praised may have favoured my upholding them
under a different form in my Origin of Species. At this time I had admired greatly
the Zoonomia, but on reading it a second time after an interval of ten or fifteen years,
I was nmch disappointed ; the proportion of speculation being so large to the facts
given" (p. 38).

In a letter to Alphonse de CandoUe written shortly after Charles
Darwin's death in June, 1882, Francis Galton says :

"Thank you very much for your interesting brochure on Charles Darwin, analysing
the causes that contributed to his success. It has been a great satisfaction in all
our grief at his loss, to witness the wide recognition of the value of his work. He
certainly as you say appeared at a moment when the public mind was ripe to receive his
views. I can truly say for my part that I was groaning under the intellectual burden of
the old teleology, that my intellect rebelled against it, but that I saw no way out of it
till Darwin's Origin of Species emancipated me. Let me, while fully agreeing with the
views expressed in the pamphlet in all important particulars supply a few minor
criticisms which it might he well to mention."

After a reference to economic matters Galton cites the words of
de CandoUe that the descendants of the " poete physiologue" had
certainly read at the right moment the works of their grandfather,
and continues :

" I am almost certain of the contrary in every case except Charles Darwin (and I
doubt whether he had) — [as we have seen, he certainly had read the Zoonomia\. To
myself the florid and now ridiculed poetry was and is intolerable, and the speculative
physiology repellent. I had often taken up the books and could never get on with
them. Canning's parody The Loves of the Triangles quite killed poor Dr Darwin's
reputation. It just hit the mood of the moment, and though my mother never wearied
of talking of him, his life was to me like a fable only half believed in. That much the
same was the case with some of Charles Darwin's sons, I can I think affirm."

Without being, perhaps, as hard on "poor Dr Darwin" as his
grandson, I think we must admit that it was the hereditary taste or
bent of the Darwin stock that Erasmus transmitted to his grand-
children and not an environment or even a sympathetic tradition. In
studying the works of Erasmus Darwin, it is indeed difficult not to be

14 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

repelled by the florid language or the want of reasoned inference drawn
from marslialled facts. Part of this is due to his date, but not all, for
his time carries us to the Wollastons, Young, Kerwan, Priestley and
Smeaton, some of whom were close intimates of Darwin himself, to
say nothing of the great continental physiologists, naturalists and
mathematicians. Darwin's defects were partly due to his environment,
the incessant occupation of a most popular physician, which hindered
the possibility of a life wholly devoted to science, the smaller interests
and the want of friction with the best minds which must often occur in
narrow provincial circles — though the neighbouring Birmingham was in
those days a centre of considerable mental activity. Yet beyond all this
there was something of the prophet about Erasmus Darwin. He had
thrown oflP the old teleological dogmas and was seeking a new theory
of life, and he had inspirations even if his poetical representation of
them wearied his grandsons and in no lesser degree wearies a still
more modern reader. To start examining the characters of living
forms not with a view of seeing in them evidence of design, but of
testing their utility to the owner and how he or his stock might have
acquired them, was a real step forward. Had Erasmus Darwin been
by calling a man of science and not of medicine, doubtless many of
his inspirations would have perished under his own analysis. Others
would have stood his trained criticism, and been established by
marshalled facts — as true scientific knowledge. As it is we regard
him as a most interesting pei'sonality, almost as a man of genius ; but
rather as evidence of the general ability of the Darwin stock, than as
a powerful environmental or traditional factor influencing the develop-
ment of either Charles Darwin or Francis Galton '.

With our present views on heredity, we look upon Charles Darwin
and Francis Galton as drawing their ability from the same reservoir as
Erasmus Darwin did, but we realise that it only flowed from him to
them in the sense that he was the conduit, not the source of the
ability.

' This view was fully accepted by Francis Galton himself. Writing of men of
science in his Hereditary Genius (1869) he says: "The number of individuals in the
Darwin family who have followed some branch of natural history is very remarkable —
the more so because it so happens that the tastes appear (I speak from private sources
of knowledge) to have been more personal than traditional. There is a strong element
of individuality in the different uiembers of the race which is adverse to traditional
influence."

Plate IV

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The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 15

It is worth noting here that we cannot, when judging of the ability
of the Darwin stirp, confine our attention to Erasmus and Charles.
Erasmus Darwin's brother — the elder Robert Waring Darwin —
published a Principia hotanica or Introduction to the Sexual Botany
of Linnaeus. The present writer is not able to judge its merits, but it
ran through several editions, and illustrates at least the taste and bent
of the stock. We note how the scientific work of the Darwins begins
de novo in this generation with the two brothers Robert Waring and
Erasmus'. The sons of Erasmus by his first wife were Charles, Erasmus
and Robert Waring, the father of the greater Chai-les the younger.
It is difficult in this case to separate out the personality of Erasmus
the elder from that of his sons. Yet I think there is evidence that
there was independence. Charles died from a dissection wound at the
early age of 20, and a prize essay of his on pus and mucus and his
proposed doctor's thesis were afterwards edited by the elder Erasmus.
In the prize essay we find a numljer of experiments, in the thesis a
round of clinical observations discussed in moderate and straight-
forward language. Only occasionally, as in the peroration of the
thesis, do we feel sure that we read the words of the father, Erasmus
himself:

" I beg, illustrious professors, and ingenious fellow-students, that you will recollect
how difficult a task 1 have attempted, to evince the retrograde motions of the lymphatic
vessels, when the vessels themselves, for so many ages, escaped the eyes and glasses of
philosophers ; and if you are not quite convinced of the truth of this theory, hold,
I entreat you, your minds in suspense, 'till ANATOMY draws her sword, with happier
omens, cuts asunder the tenets which entangle PHYSIOLOGY ; and, like an augur,
inspecting the immolated victim, announces to mankind the wisdom of hkaven"."

In the same manner it is not possible to judge fairly of the
thesis of Robert Waring Darwin which was published at Leyden in
1785, and afterwards in the Philosophical Transactions, 1786. The
author was at the date of publication only 19, and Charles Darwin
asserts that it was written by Erasmus. It largely reappears in the
Zoonomia, but contains more appeal than the elder Darwin usually

' I hardly think we can class Robert Darwin their father in this category; see how-
ever Life and Letters of Cliarles Darwin, I, p. 3.

' Even the printing of Heaven in smaller capitals than the Sciences is characteristic
of Erasmus Darwin's muse, although when reprinting the essay in his Zoo)i,omia, Vol. i,
p. 512, he seems to have become conscious of the difficulty and transposed the sizes !

16 Life and Letters of Frcmcls Galton

makes to experiment'. The second son of Erasmus the elder, Erasmiis
the younger, seems to have been in character moi-e Hke his nepliew
Erasmus Alvey Darwin, the brother of Charles and friend of Thomas
Carlyle and his wife. He is reported to have been interested in
statistics, and although we do not lay much stress on this point, it
deserves notice with regard to later developments of ability in the
Darwin family. Erasmus Darwin the elder seems to have had distinct
mechanical ability, and physical tastes ; he was ingenious in mechanisms
— as perhaps the sketch of his ferry at Derby, taken from a brief
autobiography of his son, Sir Francis Sacheverel Darwin, will indicate
(see Plate V). He was also in constant touch with a number of men
working with distinction at mechanical problems. He invented a wind-
mill to grind colours" for his friend Wedgwood, which after approval by
Watt was not only used, but continued to be used till a steam-engine
by Boulton and Watt replaced it. To Darwin again Watt first imparted
under pledge of secrecy his plan for improving the steam-enginel In-
directly also we find Darwin intelligently interested in astronomical and
physical matters, such as the returns of comets predicted by Halley,
the nearest approach of comets to the earth as discussed by Bode, or
the experiments on mixing colours and on the nature of primary
colours by his friend Samuel Galton — his grandson's paternal grand-
father. On the whole we see in Erasmus Darwin most of the scientific
tastes which have been developed with greater thoroughness by his
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

When we look at these four generations of scientific workers,
the variable nature of their work — medical, biological, mathematical,
mechanical — the wonder is not that ability has been maintained, but

' Erasmus himself, in 1788 {Botanic Garden, Part n, p. 262), certainly approves the
attribution of the memoir to Dr Robert Darwin. The paper dealing with "ocular
spectra " is an interesting one, the earliest as far as I know which drew attention to
the " contrast colour " seen by an eye fatigued by looking at a given colour.

^ Meteyard, Life of Josiah Wedgwood, Vol. n, pp. 29 and 447.

^ Owing to the kindness of Mr Darwin Wilmott I have been able very fully to
examine the commonplace book of Erasmus Darwin ; it gives the reader a far more
favourable opinion of Erasmus than his poems — designs for various mechanisms altei'nate
with accounts of medical cases, and with suggestions for experimental treatment. It is
a most interesting and valuable book from both tlie historical and social aspects. His
originality was shown in )iis attempt to inoculate against measles ; this made his son
Robert very ill, and his daughter Elizabeth is reported by some to have died as a result.

Plate V

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Plate VI

ROBERT DARWIN of Klstoii (1 082 -17-54).

Great-grandfather of C'harles Dar«iii and Francis (ialton. From the portrait
ai Creskehl painted hy llicliardson ahout 1717-

Plate VI bh-

WlLLIAiM ALVKV DARWIN (1720— 178.3).

Bidtlier of Erasmus Darwin. From a ])li(it()jfrapli in the possession of

Mr William E. Darwin of the picture at Creskeld.

Plate VI tcr

ROBERT WARING DARMIX (1724- OHK!).
Hi'Other of Dr Erasmus Darwin.
Author of the Prinri/iia Hotunica, or Introduction to tfie Se.riiat IMmii/ of Liim/itii-i.
From the picture at Ch-eskehi painted l)y .lohn Horridife, 177-').

Aged 51

Plate VII

ELIZABETH HILL (1702—1797).

Wife of ll()l)ert Darwin of Elstoii, mother of Dr Erasmus Darwin. From a photograph

of the portrait at Creskehl in tlie possession of Francis Darwin, Esq.

Plate VIII

ROBKllT WARING DARWIN, F.H.S. (176G-1848).

Father of Charles Parwin. From a mezzotint of the painting: in the possession of Mr William Erasmus Darwin.

(Till' mezzotint was enjjraved Ijefore the paiiitinji: was cut down.)

Plate L\

SUSANNAH VVEIXat'OOD (17(5o— 1817).

Mrs Robert Waring Darwin, mother of Charles Darwin. From a

miniature in the possession of Mr William Erasmus Uarvvin.

The Ancestrij of Francis Gallon 17

that we can find so little trace of it in the genei'ations of Darwins before
Erasmus. They belonged more recently to the smaller squirearchy
and ultimately to the yeoman class. As far as a full pedigree has
yet been traced the Darwin stock is linked by the marriage of
Erasmus' great-grandfather William Darwin with Ann Earle to a stock
of considerable ability. Ann's father Erasmus Earle (whence ulti-
mately the name Erasmus) was " Own Serjeant " to the Commonwealth,
a lawyer and diplomatist of some distinction, from whom through
the female line the Lytton Bulwers or Bulwer-Lyttons trace descent (see
Plate LXII). There is no evidence, however, of any member of the
Earles having had scientific ability, and such distinction of the more
literary kind as might come from this family must have laid dormant
for two generations. Until the pedigree of the Hills is more fully
worked out, I am inclined to think that Erasmus Darwin's mother,
Elizabeth Hill of Sleaford, may have brought some of their exceptional
ability into the family'. Her portrait (see Plate VH) shows her to
have been a lady of much character and her husband Robeit Darwin
(see Plate VI) is reported to have composed the verse :

" From a morning that doth shine,

From a boy that drinketh wine,

From a wife that talketh Latine,

Good Lord deliver me ! "

where the third line is suggested by Charles Darwin to have had some
relation to the learned character of Robert's own wife I

So far we have kept to Charles Darwin's line of descent in the
Darwin family, i.e. that connected with Erasmus Darwin's first wife Mary
Howard (see Note II, Appendix). It seems likely that a certain delicacy,
but possibly also a certain increase of sympathy and gentleness, was
brought into the Darwin stock by this lady ; she died at 30 years of age.

For eleven years Erasmus Darwin remained unmarried ■, then at

' I have examined all the available wills of the Sleaford Hills and the church
registers in the hope of linking up Erasmus Darwin with Sir John Hill, the botanist,
who .sprung from Lincoln, but I have found no link so far.

■•' From the standpoint of heredity it is of interest to know that he had in the
interval two natural daughters whom he educated ; he set up a school and wrote a book
on female education for them, and provided his own later daughters as pupils. One of
these ladies afterwards married a doctor and hei' son became a distinguished surgeon.
This lady and her future husband are shown in the "hydrophobia" staircase scene from
the MS. autobiography of Sir Francis S. Darwin's boyhood : see Plate X.

p. G. 3

18 Life mid Letters of Francis Galton

50 he married the widow of Colonel Edward Sacheverel Pole. This
lady, Elizabeth Collier by name, was famous for her wit and beauty ;
Darwin made passionate poems (see Plate XI) to her even before her
husband's death, and when she was ill he is reported to have spent the
night outside her chamber window. Elizabeth Collier (see Plate XVII)
must have been a noteworthy beauty in her day and had many younger
suitors when Erasmus Darwin won her after only six months of widow-
hood. In old age she was a striking figure to her grandchildren,
spending her days wholly outdoors supervising her gardener's and
labourers at Breadsall Priory, and her house was visited by her
grandchildren with the greatest enjoyment. Of her ancestry we
can piece together but little, and that tradition, not certainty.
Family tradition states that she was a natural daughter' of Charles
Colyear, second Earl of Portmore (see Plate XIII). Lord Portmore
was a very well-known social figure in his days. He was one of
the leading men on the turf in its early period, and his name occurs
repeatedly in the old form of racing — namely, matches between two
horses, agreed for a certain date between two owners. First as
Captain Colyear and then as Lord Portmore from 1720 to 1760 we find
him engaged in such matches with the Duke of Leeds, Sir Nathaniel
Curzon, Lord Godolphin, etc., all notable figures in the early horse
racing and horse breeding world. It was a world which centred chiefly
round Newmarket Heath, and was largely self-contained. When
Peregrine, the Duke of Leeds, dies, his widow Juliana marries Lord
Portmore ; their daughter, Lady Caroline Colyear, marries Sir Nathaniel
Curzon, and the son of Peregrine, Thomas fourth Duke of Leeds, marries
Mary Godolphin in 1740, and ultimately comes into possession of Gog-
Magog House (with the grave of the Godolphin Arab) near Cambridge.
In such environment we have to look for the mother of Elizabeth Collier,
who is reported to have been the governess to the Duchess of Leeds'
daughters. Lady Caroline and Lady Juliana. It is significant of the
higher sense of responsibility of those days, combined as it was with
much greater looseness of morals, that we find in the family records that
the natural children were often brought up in touch with members of
the legitimate family and provided for in much the same way. Thus we

' She was brought up in good society under the charge of a Mrs Mainwaring of
Farnham, of wliom Elizabeth Collier always spoke with great affection, and whom she
occasionally visited.

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/}u/i ■ /'Zc<yi. , c^i</aZ ,i4t^^/y-U/y , ^€. y^^z^^^u£ inoyhy, [^

I'oi'm to .\hv Pole (Klizalietli (dllioi-), aftenvards .Mrs Krasmus Darwin. Krom a manuscript volume of poems by
l)r Krasmus Daniin in tlie possession of .Mrs \\'illiam Wavell. Words altered and erased by Sir Francis S. Darwin.

Plate XII

GKNERAL SIR DAVID COLYEAR, afterwards Lord I'ortmore {mrcu l(i.50-17:!0).
From the portrait l>y \'aii der Baiick formerly at Artliiiigvvorth Hall.

CHARLKS COLYEAR, Second Earl I'oitmoi-e (1700—1795).
From the picture I)y Reynolds formerly at Arthiiigworth Hall.

Plate XIV

CATHERINE SEULEY, Countess of Dorchester, afterwards Udy Portmore (1657—1717).
From the picture by Kiieller formerly at Arthiugvvortli Hall.

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 19

find Erasmus Darwin's natural daugliters were intimates ot'his family';
Colonel Edward Sacheverel Pole gave the family living to a natural son
who bore the name of Pole and was beloved by Darwins, Galtons and
Poles alike. Our first knowledge of Elizabeth Collier is her marriage
on April 10, 1769, to Colonel Pole in the little church at Radbourne.
Why should a natural daughter of Lord Portmore appear in Derby-
shire '{ We think there is no doubt that the true explanation is to be
found in the fact that the Curzons were next neighbours to the Poles,
and that Lady Curzon, formerly Lady Caroline Colyear, would be half-
sister to Elizabeth Collier. She brought her natural sister with her
to Derbyshire, and there Elizabeth married. In tracing the parentage
of Erasmus Darwin's second wife to Lord Portmore, we have linked up
Francis Galtons grandmother with a number of names of great his-
torical interest.

Charles Colyear himself — commonly called "Beau Colyear" — a
name justified by the portraits I have seen of him, was chiefly cele-
brated for his horses and his equipages. But his father (see Plate XII)
was a man of gi-eat distinction. He served as a soldier of fortune
under William of Orange and came with him to England, afterwards
serving in Spain and Flanders —

"one of the best foot officers in the world, is very brave and bold; hath a great
deal of wit ; very much a man of honour and nice that way, yet married the Counte.ss
of Dorchester "

writes a contemporary of him. Catherine Sedley, his wife, had been
mistress to James the Second". Portmore was a soldier of fortune raised
to the peerage by his achievements in the field. Catherine Sedley, what-
ever we ma}' think of her morals, was undoubtedly a woman of very great
character and of great wit. A sample of this is provided by her
astonishment at the intensity of the Duke of York's passion for her:
" It cannot be my beauty," she said, " for I have none ; and it cannot
be my wit, for he has not enough to know that I have any."

The portrait of her by Kneller^ till recently at Arthingworth Hall

' There are frequent visits and letters to and from these Miss Parkers, and they are two
out of the four children in the sketch of the staircase at Dr Darwin's house : see Plate X.

' Catherine Sedley was a kinswoman of the Ohurchills, whether through the
Drakes or not, I have been unable to ascertain. Thus she was probably related to
Arabella Churchill, and possibly to both Barbara and Elizabeth Villiers — a subject
which would form a fitting study for a thesis on heredity.

' Sold at Christie and Manson's in 1913.

3—2

20 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon.

(see Plate XIV), does not support the view that she was entirely
lacking in lieauty. It is not wholly unlike Wright's portrait of Elizabeth
Collier (see Plate XVI), and we think in the youthful Violetta Darwin
and in other members of the stock descended from Elizabeth Collier
and Erasmus Darwin we may find traces of Catherine Sedley.

And if we are to judge a royal mistress, we must turn to her time
and parentage ! Her father was one of the lewdest men at Charles II's
court, and even Pepys, by no means himself an ascetic, was shocked at his
profligacy. Yet he was a man with real literary power, his prose style
is " clear and facile," and his plays and poems had such a contemporary
reputation that Charles II said of him that " his style, either in writing
or discourse, would be the standard of the English tongue." Later in
life Sedley somewhat redeemed himself by parliamentary activity and
his advocacy of William IIP. He will ever be remembered by his

lyrics :

"Love still has something of the sea,
From whence his mother rose";
or :

" Phillis is my only Joy,
Faithless as the Winds or Seas,
Sometimes coming, sometimes coy.
Yet she never fails to please " ;

and these at least settle that he knew how to handle his mother tongue.

His portrait from a print in the British Museum is given in Plate XXI.

Sir Charles Sedley's wife was Elizabeth Savage, who came of a

distinguished line, and his mother was the Elizabeth Savile, of whom

Waller wrote :

" Here lies the learned Savile's heir.
So early wise and lasting fair.
That none, except her j-ears they told.
Thought her a child or thought her old."

Thus we link up with Sir Henry Savile (see Plate XV), the most
scholarly Englishman of his date, the founder of the Savilian professor-
ships of geometry and astronomy at Oxford, tutor to Queen Elizabeth,
Warden of Merton and Provost of Eton. On the other hand Sir William
Sedley", Sir Charles' paternal grandfather, founded the Sedleian

' He is reported to have said that if King James made his (Sedley's) daughter a
countess, he had been even with him in courtesy by making James' daughter a queen !
' I have not been able to discover in Oxford any portrait of Sir William Sedley.

Plate XV

SIR HENRY SAVILE, Scholar (1549^1 (>2:i).
Maternal grandfather of Sir Cliarles Sedley and a direct ancestor of Krancis Galton.
From a print of tlie portrait by Marcus (jlieeraerts tlie Younger in the possession
of the author.

I'hdc XVI

ELIZABETH COLLIER (1747—1832).
Mrs Pole, later Mrs F^rasnins Darwin, witli her sou Saclie\erel Pole.
Painted in the year 1770. From a picture in pastel hy W'riglit
of Derhy in the possession of Mr Wlieler Galton at t'laverdon.

PMc XVII

KLIZABETH COLLIER (Mrs Pole, later Mrs Erasmus Darwin) witli her Ao^.
From a silhouette at Claverdoii in the possession of Mr \\nieler CJaltoii.

The Ancestn/ of Frawia Galton 21

professorship iii Natural Philosophy at Oxford. It is not without interest
that the grandson of Savile and Sedley in the sixth degree should have
founded a professorship in his turn.

One of the most noteworthy points connected with this branch of
Francis Galton's ancestry is the tendency to die out in the male line.
Sir Henry Savile left an only daughter, Sir Charles Sedley an only
daughter, the Colyears ceased to be in the male line, the Darwin family
springing from the Darwin-Collier marriage has ceased to be in the
male line, and this is true whether we follow it in either Galton or
Darwin branches. The women of the stock have children, but their
sons again are childless or nearly childless. This is far too wide-
spread a phenomenon to be the result of chance; we must probably
conclude that childlessness of the male is a definite heritage of the
Savile-Sedley ancestry. It provided keen wit, courtly manners,
literaiy power, and love of adventure, but handicapped the sons with
this fatal dower.

Of Elizabeth Collier's mother I am less able to speak definitely.
I have sought for families of Collier which would be at all likely to
be in touch with the racing circle of Godolphin, Leeds, and Portmore.
The only one I have found was next neighbour to Gog-Magog House,
a yeoman family of Collier associated with the villages of Stapleford
and Stow-cum-Quy, but a few miles from Cambridge and from New-
market. Here a certain Elizabeth Collier was born in 1713; she is
not married till the year after Mrs Darwin's birth, but no trace of the
registration of that birth has been found'. I suspect, but cannot prove,
that she was the mother of our Elizabeth Collier, and that shortly
before 1745, she came as governess into the household of the Dowager
Duchess of Leeds, then wife of Lord Portmore, whose stepson two or
three years earlier had married Mary Godolphin, the daughter of Lord
Godolphin of Gog-Magog House, Stapleford. Should this be correct,
Francis Galton would be a descendant of a member of a family which has
produced men noteworthy both in litei-ature and medicine. He would
probably be a direct descendant of the father of Jeremy Collier, the
famous non-juror. Collier's writings are described as "clear, brilliant and
incisive," the work according to Macaulay of "a great master of sarcasm,
a great master of rhetoric." Almost singlehanded Collier purged the

' That birth is not recorded in the church registers at Weybridge, the home of the
Portmores.

22 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

English stage at the close of the 17th century by his courageous attack
on Dryden, Congi*eve, D'Urfey, and the school of licence in his Short
Vieiv of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage (1697)'.
It is one of the weird phases of human history that if our suggestion
be correct Elizabeth Collier should be a kinswoman at the same time of
the licentious playwright Charles Sedley and the courageous and
indignant non-juring bishop Jeremy ColUer ! One thing both her kins-
men possessed in common — sarcastic wit and a fine command of English
— and that is a heritage which is so rare that none can disregard it.

A few words must be said here of the descendants of Erasmus and
Elizabeth Dai'win. Of the seven children of this marriage, Edward
Darwin the elder died unmarried at 47. We have few details of his
character or ability. John Darwin, Rector of Elston, died unmarried
at 31, Henry Darwin died as an infant, Emma died unmarried at 34,
Harriet married Admiral Maling and died without issue at 35. Thus
for our present purposes the family reduces to two : Francis Sacheverel,
afterward Sir Francis S. Darwin, and Violetta, afterward Mrs Galton.
Sir Francis Darwin (see Plate XVHI) is for us a most interesting
figure. In the first place he was godfather to his nephew Francis
Galton. In the next place, like his godson he was trained to
medicine. A brief autobiographical account of his boyhood illus-
trated by his daughter Violetta is still in existence, and it shows
him as an adventurous, rather wild boy (see Plates X and XIX).
Like his godson he soon ceased to pursue medicine as a profession,
but in 1808, at 22, he started with four others, one of whom was
Theodore Galton, a younger bi-other of Francis Galton's father, on a
tour through Spain, the Mediterranean and the East. Travelling was
not then what it is now, and we come in contact with war, robbers,
privateers and the plague in the diary of this two years' tour in the
East. Of the five who started, only Dr Francis Darwin returned alive !
The diary of the tour shows a keen antiquarian taste gratified under
many diflaculties, and we recognise that Francis Darwin not only loved
adventure for its own sake, but was a born naturalist also, whose
ready pencil followed a keen eye, where rock and mineral, plant and

■ I have followed Macaulay {Essays, ed. 1874, p. 588, and History, ed. 1876, v.
p. 8.5), but I have not done so without examination of the originals. Jeremy Collier's
Short View does not suit the public taste of to-day, but the question is whether we do
not need a second lustration.

Plate XVIII

SIR I'KANCIS SACHEVEREL DARWIN (17«0-~185!)).

Uncle and ^odfatlier of Erancis Gallon. Eroni a portrait by Haynes in the possession

of Sir Erancis' granddaughter Mrs William Wavell.

Plate XIX

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O 58

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 23

beast were concei-necl, as readily as when it portrayed au archaeological
novelty or displayed the costumes of Greece or Turkey. Typical of the
man is the account he gives of the plague in Smyrna ; instead of flying
from the place, he remarks :

" On the 2nd day we again found ourselves at Smyrna amongst the plague, which
had increased, 400 persons having died in our absence. I had now an opportunity of
watching the progress of this disorder in several English sailors, who having been on
shore, had caught the infection. I also visited the Armenian and Greek hospitals,
where numbers were dying daily of the plague " (p. 5.5).

At Smyrna also we hear the tale of a gun discharged immediately
under the window, which their ho.st informed them was the shooting of
another cat by a soldier posted to shoot the cats coming out of the
next house where everybody but the baby had died of plague ; the cats
being the chief transporters of the infection. Darwin, wanting more
experience of the plague, on another return to Smyrna undertook by
invitation of the native physicians charge of several hospitals, of which
the Greek and Armenian contained each 120 patients.

" This," Darwin writes, " was a good opportunity to become conversant with the
diseases of the climate, and from constant observation I found the plague was frequently
checked by an active practice of which the Medici of the East were totally ignorant.
Intermittent fevers and the Lepra Graecorum are very peculiar in the Levant. Hard
eggs and salt fish being the hospital diet, phthisis is most prevalent."

During the tour Darwin visited Tangiers, Tetuan, and attempted
to get into Fez, not then visited by Europeans, but was not permitted
to reach that closed centre of Mahommedanism. The strange element
in Sir Fraiicis Darwin's life is that he returned home, and after a short
practice in Lichfield, settled down in a wild out of the way pai't of
Derbyshire, and spent his days in studying archaeology and natural
history without ulterior end' ; his place was full of animal oddities ;
there were wild pigs in the woods, and tame snakes in the house.
Possibly his son Edward's keen power of observation of the habits of
animals as exhibited in his Gamekeepers Manual was developed under
this environment. But the fragmentary knowledge we have been
able to gather of Francis Darwin suggests marked character and

' There is a marked tendency, almost an instinct, in many members of the Darwin-
Galton stock to lead a leisurely country life, which completely masks their scientific
interests. It became dominant for a time in the life of Francis Galton himself.

24 Life ami Letters of Francis Gallon

ability, which somehow failed of full fruition. Francis Galtou's sister

writes in her Reminiscences of the year 1826 :

"We then went on to my uncle Sir Francis Dai-win at Sydiiope, who sent a pair
of horses to lielp ours up the steep hill to the house. It was a wild place, but very
amusing to visit. The six children slept in hammocks and kept pet snakes."

The love of adventure, the scientific and literary tastes of 8ir
Francis S. Darwin lead me to associate him closely with his godson, and
it is strange that of all his Darwin or Galton uncles, Francis Galton
in personal appearance seems to me to resemble most closely Francis
Darwin. This leads me to emphasise a point which 1 think is of some
importance : the Darwins were not by nature born travellers. Charles
Darwin it is true went on the memorable " Beagle " voyage, but prob-
ably not because he derived immediate pleasure from travel for its
own sake.

" I trust and believe," he wrote, " that the time spent in this voyage, if thrown
away for all other respects, will produce its full worth in Natural History ; and it
appears to me the doing what little we can to increase the general stock of knowledge is
as respectable an object in life as one can in any likelihood pursue." {I'ifo, i, p. 205.)

Those are not the words of a traveller for the joy of travel, but of one
who travels to obtain an end, not from innate Wanderlust. Some of
my readers may know that joy in passing on into the unfamiliar, in
spending each day under new conditions, — an unknown mortal mid
unknowns ! The Wanderlust is a fever which seizes the non-immune,
mostly in youth, but may be in the blood, unquenched even in age.
Both Francis Galton and Francis Darwin had marked touches of it,
and in two ancestral lines — other than the direct Darwin line — we
reach men who wandered and fought, and in an eai'lier century we
have little doubt our Francises would have joined another Francis
and have reached fame as Elizabethan buccaneers. This love of travel
sprung, not from Darwin, but from Colyear and Barclay ancestry; it is
manifest even in the scientific work of Galton. Both Charles Darwin
and Francis Galton were pioneers in science, but the nature of their
work was essentially diffei'ent. Darwin invaded a new continent with
the idea of settling in it. He planned great roads through it and he
largely built them, and oi-ganized the country. He left traces of his
pioneer work on the face of the land which must remain as his
memorial for all time. Galton also discovered a new world, but he
rushed from point to point of it making his hasty maps and ever eager

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 25

to see beyond. He never waited to see who was following him, he
pointed out the new land to biologist, to anthropologist, to psychologist,
to meteorologist, to economist, and left them to follow or not at their
leisure'. He left others to settle and develop ; his joy was in rapid
pioneer work in a wide range of fields. If the world did not under-
stand and accept, he would leave them thirty or forty years to consider
it, until after many other wanderings he came to that land again to
find an altered state of scientific knowledge and of public opinion. This
love of travel for its own sake, the Wanderlust, which for many of us
was largely the secret of Galton's power, was hardly Darwinian, we
believe it came partly through the Colyears— which explains its
appearance in a lessened form in Francis Darwin— but partly through
the Barclay-Cameron and Button strains, as we shall indicate later.

The second child of Erasmus Darwin and Elizabeth Collier— sister
of Sir Francis Darwin— who comes especially under our ken is Frances
Ann Violetta, shortly Violetta Darwin, the mother of Francis Galton
(see Plate XX). She inherited many qualities from her mother,
Elizabeth Collier, and although she bears the name of Darwin we
must not look upon her as a pure Darwin. Much of her joyous
unconventional nature was undoubtedly from the ancestry of Elizabeth
Collier. She was by no means a Quaker by instinct, and the Quaker,
Samuel Tertius Galton when aged 33, seems to have been baptised as
an adult (Jan. 18, 1816) at Radbourne Church— probably owing to her
influence. Her pictures as a young bride show her to have possessed

1 Francis Galton himself realised this to the full. Thus he writes as follows in his
Inquiries into Human Faculty :

"My general object has been to take note of the varied hereditary faculties of
different men, and of the great differences in different families and races, to learn how
far history may have shown the practicability of supplanting inefficient human stocks by
better strains, and to consider whether it might not be our duty to do so by such efforts
as may be reasonable, thus exerting ourselves to further the ends of evolution more
rapidly and with less distress than if events were left to their own course. The subject
is, however, so entangled with collateral considerations that a straightforward step-by-
step inquiry did not seem to be the most suitable course. I thought it safer to proceed
like the surveyor of a new country, and endeavour to fix in the first instance as truly
as I could the position of several cardinal points" (p. 2).

Six years later in the Natural Inheritance (p. 2) he again describes his work in much
the same spirit, that of a pioneer building a high level road into a new country,
affording wide views in unexpected directions and easy descents to novel and not yet
mapped districts.

V. Ci.

26 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

marked good looks, more Collier than Darwin ; she had considerable
artistic faculty, and we are inclined to think that possibly the
initials V. G. may be found on the graceful bookplate of her husband.
Through her too came longevity into Francis Galton's stock from the
Colliers. She lived to be 91, her mother Elizabeth Collier to be 85,
and Elizabeth Collier's mother to be 96'. Francis Galton's brother
Erasmus lived to be 94, his brother Darwin to be 89, his sister Emma
to be 93, his sister Bessie to be 98, and Sir Francis himself lived to
be 89 ! This again is not a Darwin characteristic. It was also a
longevity associated with persistent freshness of intellect — the sole
condition under which longevity is of personal or social value. Violetta
Darwin (see Plate XX) seems to have been a woman of much character,
for thirty years after her husband's death she was the centre of a large
household, with excellently kept records, and accounts. She did not
permit liberties", but was warmly loved by her children ; in fact, she
had an essential feature of lovableness which she handed down to her
son Francis in a marked, degree. No servant, no subordinate, ever
attempted to take liberties with Francis Galton, and yet no man was
more loved by relatives, friends, members of his expeditionary force
and of his households To Violetta Galton we owe a quaint little
biographical account of her son Francis' childhood, of which the first
page and the silhouette are reproduced later.

Passing now to the paternal ancestry of Francis Galton we find
ourselves at once in a sterner atmosphere. If we look through the list

' Francis Galton says so himself in his Me)nories, p. 7. But we have not been able
to verify the statement. There is possibly confusion with Elizabeth (Hill) Darwin.

^ She wrote a quaint Advice to Young Women upon their first going out into Service
published in Derby, and dedicated to Miss Harriet Darwin " for the vise of her school
for poor children." As an extract I take : " When you speak to upper servants, always
add Mr or Mrs before their names, it is a respect due to them ; and whenever you
happen to meet a Lady or Gentleman, in any part of the House, always courtesy on
passing them, as you should remember to be civil."

' This lovable side of his nature is so truly expressed in a letter from one of his
great nieces, that I venture to cite her words here :

" I expect we all see our friends differently ; if I were to write a memoir of
Uncle Prank I should just say what a pet he was, and how good tempered and full of
delightful naive sayings, and that everybody wanted to kiss him ! I should not bother
about his intellect, which did not come my way."

These sentences give a picture of Francis Galton, which all his intimates know to
be true, but which it would be hard to express so well.

Plate XX

■i ^^

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Plate XXI

SIR EVVEN CAMERON of Lncliiel (1629—172.'?).

(ireat-fri-eat-great-graiidfatlier of Francis (ialtoii. From a

])rint in the possession of Mr Wlieler Gallon.

SIR CHARLES SEDLEY, Poet (1(J39— 1701).
Oreat-ffreat-great-frrandfatlier of Francis (ialton. From a
print in tlie Uritisli Museuni Print Room, which is
from an oi-iffinal picture formerly in the possession
pf the Duchess of Uoiset,

The Ancestrji of Francis Gallon 27

of Galton's 16 great -great-great-grandparents on the paternal side (see
p. 10), we find that 11, possibly 13, were early members of the
Society of Friends. Another, Sir Ewen Cameron, is famous as one
of the last of the Highland chieftains, a man who summoned his clan
and fought at its head (see Plate XXI). It is at first sight strange
to find him marrying a daughter of the Quaker David Barclay, the
sister Jean of the Apologist Robert Barclay. But the Quakers were
never opposed to the Stuarts in the way the Puritans were. Robert
Barclay himself was a direct descendant of the Stuarts in more
than one line (see Pedigree Plate B). At the instigation of George
Fox, Barclay appealed to James II, to check the persecution of the
Quakers, and his kinship to the Stuarts gave him easy access to the
King. He believed in James' zeal for liberty of conscience being
sincere ; and in his Vindication of 1689 he says : " I love King James
and wish him well." But as a Quaker he was a man of peace, who
preached obedience to every established government and unlike his
brother-in-law Cameron of Lochiel took no part in the Jacobite move-
ments. His influence with Lochiel was probably great, and in 1688
Lochiel accompanied Barclay to London that the latter might use his
influence with the King to settle a dispute between Gordons and
Camerons. Barclay's mother was Catherine Gordon. Of Robert Barclay
himself we must all acknowledge that he will ever remain one of the
great masters of the English tongue. He formulated as a scholar and
a rhetorician the doctrines of the Society of Friends in a way that was
impossible for the uncultured George Fox. We may not agree with the
doctrine of immediate revelation as it was developed in the Apology ;
that the inward testimony of the spirit in each man telleth him of the
true will of God is a teaching which had led the Anabaptists to terrible
catastrophe, but held in check by such quietism as we find in the
mediaeval mystics and in the early Quakers it has done little harm and
much good. Above all it led directly, since the inward spirit alone
dictates religious knowledge and there is no formal creed or recognised
outward authority, to the doctrine of universal toleration. We do not
all realise how much we owe to the Quakers, and not least to Robert
Barclay, for proclaiming this great doctrine, and, what is more, ulti-
mately establishing it by their passive but stubborn resistance. Papist,
Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist, Anglican had not got as far as Robert

Barclay when he wrote :

i— 2

28 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

"This forcing of men's consciences is contrary to sound Reason, inid the very
Law of Nature. For Man's Understanding cannot be forced, by all the Bodily Sufferings
another man can inflict upon him, especially in matters spiritual and supernatural : 'Tis
argument and evident Demonstration of Reason, together with the Power of God reaching
tlm Heart, that can change a Man's Mind from one Opinion to another, and not Knocks
and Blows, and such like things ; which may well destroy the Body, hut can never inform
the Soul, lohich is a free Agent, and must either accept or reject matters of Opinion, as
tliey are horn in upon it by something proportional to its own nature. To seek to force
minds in any other manner, is to deal with men, as if they were Brutes, void of under-
standing ; and at last is but to lose one's labour, and as the Proverb is : To seek to wash
the Black-moor white. By that course indeed, men may be made Hypocrites, but can
never be made Christians." {Apology, 4th Edn., p. 497.)

This may serve as a sample of Barclay's opinions, and of his
command of our tongue. With his father. Colonel David Barclay,
liobert had to suffer much for his faith. Colonel David Barclay had
been a soldier of fortune, serving under Gustavus Adolphus through
many fierce campaigns, and again in our own civil wars. Then between
50 and 60 he tells us that having served many others he made up his
mind to enter the service of God, and looked around him with the
greatest anxiety and earnestness, to know, in the midst of so many
pretenders, what society of Christians to join with. Ultimately in his
perplexity he found refuge in the Society of Friends. He resolved in
the year 1666 to suffer indignities and injuries for conscience' sake and
to exhibit his bravery in a new field. He established the Quakers'
meeting at Ury and henceforth prison, public mockery, fine and dis-
traint were his lot. He has met his reward in the noble ballad of
Whittier' :

1. " Up the streets of Aberdeen,

By the Kirk and College Green,
Rode the Laird of Ury ;
Close behind him, close beside.
Foul of mouth and evil eyed
Pressed the mob in fury.

2. Flouted him the drunken churl.
Jeered at him the serving girl,
Prompt to please her master ;
And the begging carlin, late
Fed and clothed at Ury's gate,
Cursed him as he passed her.

' John Greenleaf Whittier, Poetical Works, London, 1904, p. 35.

Plate XXII

D.WIU BARCLAY of Voun^'sbiiry (IZiiS- IBOi)).
I'liilautliropist aud Slave-Einaiicipator. Ciicle of Mrs Samuel (Jaltoii (Lucy Barclay). Great-uncle
to Tertius (ialton ami to Mrs Fry, and grandfather to Hudson (iiiriiey. From a print in
the Britisli Museum Print Room after the picture hy Houghton.

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 29

3. Yet with calm and stately mien,
Up the streets of Aberdeen
Came he slowly riding ;
And to all he saw and heard,
Answering not with bitter word,
Turning not for chiding —

i. Came a Troop with broad-swords swinging,
Bits and bridles sharply ringing.
Loose and free and froward ;
Quoth the foremost ' Ride liim down !
Push him, prick him through the town
Drive the Quaker coward ' '

5. But from out the thickening crowd
Cried a sudden voice and loud,

' Barclay ! Ho ! A Barclay ! '
And the old man at his side
Saw a comrade, battle-tried,
Scarred and sunburnt darkly.

6. Who with ready weapon bare ;
Fronting to tlie troopers there
Cried aloud : ' God save us !
Call ye coward him who stood
Ankle deep in Lutzen's blood
With the brave Gustavus 1 '

7. ' Nay, I do not need thy sword,
Comrade mine,' said Ury's lord ;

' Put it up I pray thee ;
Passive to His Holy Will
Trust I in my Maker still,
Even though He slay me.' "

Galtoii had as much to thank his Barclay ancestors for as his
Darwin descent ; it was not less, possibly more notable (see Pedigree
Plates A and C). And Galton knew it ; writing in the summer of
1906 he says':

" It is delightful to hear that you are so pleasantly placed among old Quaker
associations. They — the Quakers — were grandly (and simply) stubborn."

That stubborn persistency was a wonderful asset of nearly half
Francis Galton's immediate ancestry. David Barclay, younger son of
the Apologist, walked from Ury to London, and, commencing life afresh,

' Letter to K. P. I3/7/'06.

80 Life aitd Letters of Francis Gallon

built up a big business, and tbe Barclay house in Cheapside received
visits from three King Georges. From thence spread also that
wonderful network of business families which is summed up in the
names of Barclay, Hoare, Bevan, and Gurney.

Mr Hudson Gurney' (1775 — 1864), himself son of Agatha Barclay,
a granddaughter of David Barclay of Cheapside, and husband of another
Barclay, remarks in discussing the Barclay pedigree": "Query : Taking
the moral Pedigree from 913 to 1913 in all human probability may it
not stand :

(1) Powerful and highly- (4) Norwich Tradesmanship.

connected Nobility. (5) Sectarian Opulence.

(2) Provincial Squirealty. (6) Underbred Assumption.

(3) Utter Beggary. (7) Bankruptcy and Dispersion.
Ending this queer and chequer'd history sans land, sans goods, sans
brains, sans everything."

When we recollect that Francis Galton's grandmother was a great-
granddaughter of the Apologist ; that she was the woman — herself of
marked character as her portraits show — who handed down Barclay
persistency and Barclay physique to Francis Galton — then I think we
need not fear that the Quaker Barclays have ended unworthily. The
Cameron-Barclay strain was a splendid strain, physically and mentally.
Francis Galton's great-uncle. Captain Barclay (see Plate XXIV), the
last Barclay of Ury (see Plate XXIII), was a famous pedestrian,
an athlete who when over 70 could lift a man of 12 stone on the palm
of his hand from the floor to the table, and who walked 1000 miles
in 1000 hours, one mile to each hour. His father (see Plate XXIV)
was also a man of strength, who took up and threw a trespassing
donkey over a hedge as he would have done a football. The traditions
of strength go back to Ewen Cameron and his generation. Francis
Galton himself says that from " the Barclay blood he received a rather
unusual power of enduring physical fatigue without harmful results."
{Memories, p. 11.)

Distant as may seem the connection between Francis Galton and
the gi-eat names of mediaeval history (see Pedigree Plate B), the

' Second cousin of Tertius Galton : see Pedigree Plate C.

^ Hudson Gurney's remarks are taken from an MS. account of the Barclay family.
He was dealing with a 1000 years from the last Carlovingian Emperor and looking into
a future half-a-century ahead.

Plate XXIII

The home of the Barclays. The Friends' Meeting House is seen on the right, llie Gothic window
witli shutters on tlie first Hoor is that at vvliicli Lucy Barclay worked her sampler. Photograph
from a water-colour sketch.

"^^*«^.

ELSTOX HALL,
riie original home of tlie Darwins, from a pen and ink sketch in Mrs W'lieler's MS. " Tlie (ialton Family.

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The Ancestry of Francis Galfon 31

stubbornness and physique we find in the Barclays were almost certainly
the factors which in earlier generations made their ancestors great in
the land. The reader may think that the bond is slender, but it is
strange how often we find the great linked to the great in history.
And let us remember that, although we have traced the Barclays up to
many great names, we have not followed those names downwards again
to all their descendants who may have been famous. Our pedigree is
directed only to one such man. If the reader believes that time and
patience would lead any single individual to find in his ancestry names
great in history, then will that reader assuredly find himself in error. Jn
nine ancestral lines out of ten we find a stock which, if we can cany it
back beyond 1600, lands us in a yeoman family. There we end in the soil,
and there probably the ancestry has remained from Anglo-Saxon times.
If we turn back to the fifth generation of Sir Francis' ascendants,
we find ourselves very near to that yeomanry stage at least in a moiety
of the branches. Actually, in some of the bi-anches, we have to deal
with the younger sons of yeomen who had come into the towns as traders.
TheGaltons — supposed to have sprung originallyfromGaltonin Somerset-
shire— are described in the church registers as yeomen and husbandmen.
They send sons into the law and the church, but we have no record of
any member of the family being of note. Look at the other names, as
far as it has been possible to trace them. Robert Galton, the brother
of the second John (see Pedigree Plate A), started as a " Haberdasher
of Smallwares" in Bristol; the Farmers were "Ironmongers" there;
the Freames were grocers in Aldgate, but later goldsmiths as well ; the
Braines were Tobacconists of Wapping, but carried on a variety of other
trades in Whitechapel and Ratcliffe, even to bakers and butchers.
But in many cases we can show that they were the sons of yeomen or
squires who came into the towns to trade, just as the younger sons
of yeomen do to this day. Much more was this the case in the days
of the religious persecution of the Quakers. To be a member of the
Society of Friends in the latter half of the 17th century demanded
splendid courage, and the being, as Galton phrases it, "grandly and
simply stubborn " ; but it demanded more ; it needed marked industry
and persistency in carrying on a business, and supporting a family
under repeated fines and imprisonments. Stringently selected, as the
early Quakers were, their rules of intermarriage led to a splendid breed
of men and women. If the reader wants to realise how a particular

32 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

type, even among mankind, can be relatively easily reached by selection
and intermarriage, he has only to study the history of the Society of
Friends. Great businesses were established by them, and the banking
interests of the country were largely in their hands. We are concerned
here only with their energy, persistence and industry. They did not
apparently always follow the highest dictates of their faith. While
in Yorkshii'e members of the Society were ejected, because they had
shares in merchant vessels which carried a gun to protect them against
privateers, the Galtons and Farmers set up a gun-factory in Birming-
ham which supplied large quantities of muskets to the Government.
But the business had much wider ramifications ; there were large
transactions in Lisbon, and on one occasion £54,000 of slaves were
handled in America^ Ultimately in the time of Samuel and Tertius
Galton it developed in association with the Farmers into a banking
enterprise. Generally with the Galtons as with others we pass from
the country to retail trading in the towns, then to large mercantile
concerns built up under the new conditions of industry, where the
Quaker characteristics produced their full return.

Let us look a little into some of these other Quaker ancestors
of Francis Galton. The Freames spring from Robert Freame of
Cirencester". The pedigree illustrates the three stages, yeomanry, town
ti-aders, and ultimately mercantile houses. Thus the brothers Robert
and John of Aldgate were grocers, but John was a goldsmith as well.
John Freame of Bushhill, Edmonton, married Pi'iscilla Gould, and his
sister Hannah married Thomas Gould, probably her brother. Of
Robert Freame's children by his first wife the most interesting is
Thomas, who went to Philadelphia. He married in 1725 Margaret
Penn — daughter of William Penn by his second wife Hannah Callowhill
of Bristol — and their daughter, Philadelphia Hannah Freame, became
Viscountess Cremorne. It was into the business of the Freames, and
indeed into their very household, that David Barclay of Ury came,
when he walked up to London. Like the apprentice of romance,

' On the other hand David Barclay of Youngsbury, Tertius Galton's great-uncle,
who had come into the possession of £10,000 of slaves for a business debt, carried
them to New York, taught them crafts and then, when they could maintain themselves,
emancipated them. This David Barclay (see Plate XXII) was one of the finest
characters of his time, a true humanitarian and a worthy descendant of the Apologist.

^ I think this Robert may be the son of Richard Freme (? Freame), mayor of
Gloucester, whose pedigree can be furtlier followed in I/arlman Publications, Vol. xxi.

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 33

but at a much later age, he maiTied his master's daughter Priscilla.
In conjunction with his brother-in-law, Joseph Freame, the business
was developed into a large banking and mercantile firm\ Lucy
Barclay, the great-grandmother of Sir Francis Gal ton, was a child
of this marriage.

But the Freame and Barclay intermarriages are by no means thus
exhausted. Sarah Freame, Priscilla's sister, married David Barclay's
son James, by his first wife, Ann Taylor. James Barclay and Sarah
Freame had three children, two sons who left no issue and a daughter
Anne, who married James Allardyce. Their daughter, Sarah Anne
AUardyce, was the second wife of Robert Barclay (1731 — 1797) and
mother of Captain Robert Barclay Allardyce (the pedestrian, and last
Robert Barclay of Ury) and of Margaret Barclay, Mrs Hudson Gurney,
the great-aunt, and kind hostess to Francis Galton's sisters and
himself Robert, Margaret and Lucy Barclay, who married Samuel
Galton, were thus directly half brothers and sisters, but in addition
their mothers were granddaughter and great-gi'anddaughter of David
Barclay of Cheapside, and granddaughter and great-granddaughter of
John Freame of Lombard Street ! Captain Barclay, the pedestrian,
and Mrs Hudson Gurney were thus much closer in blood than great-
uncle and great-aunt to Francis Galton". Lastly another sister of
Priscilla Freame, Mary, married Thomas Plumstead of London, and
their daughter Priscilla married James Farmer of Bingley, the partner
in Birmingham of Samuel Galton, the first. Their daughter in turn
became the wife of Charles Lloyd, who was the managing partner
of a large Birmingham bank. Thus Priscilla Farmer and Lucy Barclay
were cousins, and this no doubt brought Lucy Barclay the second into
touch with Samuel Galton, and led to their marriage. According to
a memorandum of Samuel Galton, he met Lucy Barclay at Hertford
in 1776 for the first time, and married her in Oct. 1777, shortly after
his mother, Mary Farmer's death. The pedigree (Plate C at the end of
this volume), in which a very large number of collaterals are omitted, will

' It should be noted that the goldsmiths were largely bankers in the 17th century.
The firm was Freame and Gould in 1698, and Freame and Barclay in 1736 ; the
business seems to have been a continuation of that of Pepys' goldsmith Stokes : see
Hilton Price, Handbook of London Bankers, pp. 10 — -12.

^ Another daughter of David Barclay married a Gurney, and his famous daughter,
Elizabeth Fry, a worthy niece to David Barclay of Youngsbury, was second cousin of
Tertius Galton and also a feature of Francis Galton's l)oyhood.

p. G. ■ 5

34 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

serve to ekicidate the complex relations of Freames, Barclays, Farmers
and Galtons. Thus Samuel Tertius Galton was second cousin to Hudson
Gurney, and Sir Francis himself great-nephew to Mrs Hudson Gurney,
Mai'garet Barclay, the sister of the pedestrian ! It will be seen how the
Freames, if not among the persecuted Quakers, were associated with some
of the most industrious, zealous and noteworthy of the Quaker stocks.

Of the Braines, tobacconists of Wapping, we have been able to
piece together less information. The two brothers, James and John,
and the sister, Elizabeth, were all married between 1670 and 1677,
James to Elizabeth Graeme in 1670; John to Elizabeth Hutchins of
Ratcliife in Jan. 1672-3, and Elizabeth to Henry Fiegensnow of Lime-
house in 1677. Of James Braine we know that in 1681, for refusing
to take the oath at a coroner's inquest, his goods were taken by
distress; and again, in the winter of 1684, the Quakers were kept out
of their meeting at Ratcliife by a guard of soldiers, but they held their
meeting constantly in the yard or street. For doing this they were
fined, and James Braine again had his goods taken by distress.
William Braine and Thomas Braine suffered also imprisonment and
fine — they were doubtless relatives. Where the Braines originally
came from I have not succeeded in finding out. Some of the records
point to Somerset and Gloucestershire, and the name occurs in the
Gloucestershire Visitations and in the Registers of Little Deane as
that of a family of some distinction. In London they lived in
Stepney Parish, and the various Quaker Braines belonged to Wapping
and Ratcliife. The family must, however, have been commercially
of some weight, or we should hardly find them in touch with the
Barclays. The birth entries in the registers (the spelling varies) are :

To John Braine of Wapping, Parish of Stepney (Tobacconist),
and Margaret' (in one entry there is by a slip Mary) his
wife: Thomas Braine, b. 12/11/1674; Mai-garet Braine, b.
13/5/1676 (married 14/7/1699 at Devonshire House,
Abraham Coleman - of Wapping) ; Elizabeth Braine, b.
20/12/1677 (married 6/6/1696 Robert Barclay of Scotland);
Francis Braine, b. 23/1 1/1 679 ; Farley Braine,b. 1 7/1/1 682-3 ;

' If Elizabeth Hutchins be not a slip for Margaret Hutchins, John Braine's first
wife must have died in her first year of marriage.

^ The name suggests Anne Coleman, cruelly flogged as a Quaker at the cart tail
through New England. Sewel, History of Friends, Vol, i, pp. 431 — 4.

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 35

John Braine, b. 24/5/1684; Mary Braine (b. ? ), dau.

of John and Margaret Braine, late of RatclifFe, Stepney,

maiTied 11/7/1707 John Midford of London.

The sons we have not been able to trace further. It is noteworthy

that Robert Barclay of Ury must have married Elizabeth Braine when

his brother David was only 14 years of age, and accordingly it is

unlikely that David was the link which brought Robert to seek a wife

in commercial circles in East London. His father, the Apologist, made

several visits to London, and was in touch with Friends in London ;

one of these visits in April, 1683, was to place his son Robert at school

in Theobalds, 12 miles from London ; or the link with the Braines may

have been through the latter's maternal grandfather, the mei'chant

MoUison' of Aberdeen, who would probably have business connections

with Wapping, then almost the port of London.

Another strenuous Quaker was Jaspar Batt. He came originally
from Street in Somersetshire, and must have been among the earliest
converts to the doctrines of George Fox. As early as 1657 he had his
goods seized, and in the same year he was fined for refusing to take an
oath. In 1660 he was sent to prison ; in 1663 we find him in Ilchester
gaol, from which he wrote a letter with Matthew Perin, who was
his daughter Edith Batt's second husband. In 1667 Batt was im-
prisoned in Taunton Castle; in 1678 others were fined for listening
to his preaching. In 1683 he was arrested for preaching, and later in
the same year he was again seized and put in prison. In a letter to
George Fox, 1683, he describes how his " dear wife " and he lay on the
boards of the floor because they cannot " with safety receive or keep
any goods or bedding in our house," owing to repeated distraints. In
1684 he was again before the court ; in 1685 he was in trouble about
tithes, and in 1686 we learn that he had already spent 2 years 4 months
and 1 9 days in gaol for his conscience' sake. It might be supposed that
Edith Batt's experience of her father's difficulties might have prevented
her selecting a mate of like stubbornness ! On the contrary she found
in Robert Button a husband who had spent no less than eight years of
his previous life (1664 — 1672) in gaol for conscience' sake".

' Gilbert MoUi.son was brother to the famous Colonel Mollison, who signalised
himself in the defence of Canrlia besieged by the Turks.

^ Besse's Sujerings of the People called Quakers, Vol. ii, pp. 42 — 4. He was dis-
charged from the county gaol for Wiltshire in 1672 with Walter Penn.

5—2

36 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

The Buttons are descended from an old Glamorganshire family,
and there are several distinguished men of this name. Rohert Button,
who raai'ried Edith Batt, was a near relative of Admiral Sir Thomas
Button, probably first cousin or first cousin once removed, but the
evidence is traditional and I have as yet no proper pedigree worked
out. Sir Thomas Button, however, was clearly a stubborn old fighter,
much of Robert Button's type. He was one of the earliest to seek for
a North-west passage in 1612, and although he did not discover it, he
for the first time, amid great hardships in the ship Resolution with the
pinnace Discovery, explored the coasts of Hudson's Bay. Button's
Bay and Isle, Resolution Island and Nelson River (called after the
master of his ship who died there) still remind us of Button's voyage.
Later he was Admiral of the Irish seas, busily engaged in repressing
the numerous pirates of those days. As in the case of most strenuous
men, he succeeded in quarrelling with officialdom, but the charges
raised against him were absurd, were easily disproven, and pi'obably only
raised to avoid paying his salary, which remained unsettled at his death.
When Robert Button married on his release from gaol Edith Batt
in 1672, he is described as of Taunton, Somersetshire, and by trade he
was a grocer. They had eleven children, of whom no less than eight
died in infancy. The youngest, Robert, born 1693, married twice, first
(March 1716) Mary Ellis, and second Martha Vickris' (October 1719).
Both died within ten years of their marriages. Ellis, the child of the
first, married a cousin, another Mary Ellis, but does not appeal' to have
had any children ; he died aged 40. His father, the second Robert,
died aged 33 in 1726.

Those who survived were Elizabeth (1689 — 1754) and Sarah
(1 682 — 1754), who married John Galton of Yatton in 1703. Elizabeth
married (1723) Joseph Gilford, of Wellington, who settled at Taunton.
Three daughters died as infants, one son only, Joseph Giffbrd (b. 1724),
survived, but did not marry and died in 1801, suspicious of all his
relatives. His father died in 1730.

The mortality of the Buttons" is remarkable, and doubtless points

' A well-known Quaker name.

* Edith Button (nde Batt) was 42 years old at the deatii of her husband. In the
following year she married Matthew Perin, the companion in Ilchester gaol of her father
Jaspar Batt. Perin was then 60 years of age, and died three years after. His widow
married a third time a year later Edward Watts, fifteen years her junior. There was
no issue of either of these marriages.

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 37

to some weakness in the stock, probably on the Batt side. But we
have to reaUse that during the 20 years of the married life of Robert
and Edith Button, Robert spent additional time in gaol. George Fox
visited Taunton in 1656 and 1663, in which year Street was visited.
Fox's meetings in Bristol were very frequent, and he married Margaret
Fell there in 1669 ; his last ministry there was in 1677. There can be
little doubt that Robert Button like Jaspar Batt came personally into
contact with George Fox. John Galton must have been already a
Friend in 1700, when he married Sarah Button, but we do not know
at what date or under what influences. Originally he had been
apprenticed to William Wake of Shapwick, a gentleman grazier of Dorset
(d. 1705) and father of Archbishop Wake. He moved from Yatton to
Taunton' on the day of his marriage, — which he tells us was "a sunshine
day," — and his children were born and he died there. Probably the
great mortality of the Button family opened some field of activity for
him in Taunton. His sons Robert and John moved to Bristol, where
their widowed mother also resided. But the worst persecution of
the Friends in the West was over before the date of John Galton's
marriage (1703). The severest years were 1682 and 1683'^ — the former

' Yatton is 12 miles from Bristol, Taunton 4.5 miles, and Street, near Glastonbury,
about halfway between Bristol and Taunton.

^ Probably the Grace Button who was fined with Elias Waymouth, an innkeeper of
Taunton, and 20 others in 1670 for being at a meeting was a relative of the then
imprisoned Robert (Besse's Sufferings, Vol. i,- p. 607).

In 1678 we find Robert Button is confined again in Ilchester by Justices' warrant
for contempt in not appearing at the Bishop's Court on processes for tithes at the suit of
Robert Collier, Priest of Chard. He and other Friends were confined in a place called
the Friery, and it would seem that he had been there since 1675 (Besse's Sufferings,
Vol. I, p. 612).

In 1683 we again find a record of imprisonment for Robert Button.

" On the 1 2th of the Month called August, Henry Walrond, a Justice of the Peace
and Cap*- of the Militia, came with some of his soldiers and a Constable to a Meeting
at Gregory-Stoke where Jasper Batt was preaching. After some time he was silent, and
they scornfully bid him Go on ; He answered. It is not meet to cast Pearls before Swine.
Then the Cap"- took their names both men and women. He let the M^omen go, but
committed the Men to the Constable's Custody except four, viz. William Calbreath,
John Powel, John Crocker and Robert Button, whose words he took to appear at his
House next day, requiring the Constable to bring the others also thither at the same

time (p. 637). Next day those four who had promised to appear, went to the

Captain's House, who set one of them at liberty, fined William Calbreath and John Powel
10/. 10«. each and committed Robert Button to prison" (Besse, Vol. i, pp. 620 and 627).

88 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

being the year of birth of Sarah Galton {nee Button). In Bristol all
the men in these years were put in prison ; then the women kept up ttie
meetings and they also were seized. Then the Friends' children were
left alone with the servants, and the childi'en under 16 kept up the
meetings. Notwithstanding that the law could not properly reach
them nineteen of them were carried to the house of correction and
threatened with a whipping. Most of the Friends committed to prison
were traders and craftsmen, and they endeavoured to carry on their
trades in gaol, but were not permitted. It was a time of stringent
selection and many children suffered, but it brought the " grandly
stubborn " into a community, and gave Francis Galton a factor of his
ancestry, which is too influential to be passed over.

We now reach the Farmer and Abrahams families. In both of these
we find an ancestor killed in the Civil Wars (see Pedigree Plate D) :
probably but not certainly on the Puritan side, for the sons of both
became Friends. Two sisters, Sarah and Abigail Abrahams, married
two brothers, Joseph' and Thomas Farmer, in 1711 and 1 7 1 3 respectively.

Again in 1686 :

"On the 12th of the Month called April this Year, Robert Button, a Grocer of
Taunton, being Overseer of the Poor, appeared before the Commissioners of Enquiry
into the Rebels Estates upon Summons. They would have administered an Oath to
him, which he refused to take, mildly telling them, that he should do his Duty as faith-
fully as those who did Swear. One of the Commissioners upon this began to examine
him : When he had been at Church and when he took the Sacrament 1 To which
Robert answered, That he thought he was not summoned here for that, and that he did
not come to accuse himself. Whereupon the Commissioners required the Mayor and
another Justice present to tender him the Oath of Allegiance, which they did, and on
his refusal to take it, committed him to Taunton Bridewell, where he was confined about
two weeks " (Besse, Vol. i, p. 648).

It will be seen that Robert Button was obviously a man respected in his own
district, for he was Overseer of the Poor, and he was clearly recognised as a leader, for
when others are fined he is sent to gaol. In England, I think, few were more frequently
or longer in gaol than this father-in-law of John Galton of Yatton. Yet those who
will read the history of Admiral Thomas Button's fight with the Admiralty, will under-
stand that Robert Button was not "grandly stubborn" because he was a Quaker, but a
Quaker because he came of "grandly stubborn" stock.

' This Joseph appears to be the man referred to in a deed of 1720. Joseph Farmer,
Ironmaster of Birmingham, entered into articles of agreement with Joshua Gee of
London, William and Thomas Russell of Birmingham, Ironmasters, John Ruston of
Worcester, Ironmaster, and Stephen Onion of Brewood, Stafford, Ironmaster, to
purchase land in Baltimore County in 1720 (March 17), and also gave directions to
John Copson to purchase other lands in Cecil County, convenient for navigation into

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 39

Abigail Farmer, after the death of her husband in 1725, married Arthur
Jephson of Bristol, and from this Abrahams' marriage was descended
John Henry Shorthouse the author of John higlesant. The com-
mercial links between Bristol and Birmingham were very strong, and
we are inclined to think that Joseph Farmer, the father of Joseph and
Thomas, may have been a Bristol man. There are Joseph Farmer of
Gary's Lane, Bristol, who died in 1755, and his wife Sarah, who died
in 1722, and these may well have been the parents of our Joseph and
Thomas. Anyhow, we find the son Thomas of Thomas Farmer is an
ironmonger of Bristol, and marries there in 1743 Mary Jephson,
almost certainly a relative of his mother's second husband, Arthur
Jephson'. It is in Bristol, rather than Birmingham, that we must look
for the link between the Galtons and Farmers. Robert Galton, son of
John of Taunton, appears in Bristol as a " Haberdasher of small wares,"
and there in 1734 he marries Hannah Farmer^; this is the first
Galton-Farmer marriage. Hannah was daughter of Thomas Farmer
and Abigail Abrahams and sister of Thomas the ironmonger in Bristol.
It is quite probable that Thomas Farmer and Robert Galton both
dealt in Birmingham hardware, and from this basis started the
common mercantile interests of Galtons and Farmers in later years,
Bristol being then largely the port of Birmingham. Robert Galton
lived in King's Square, Bristol, and there his last child, Sarah, was
born in 1743, and she died and was buried in 1745. Shortly after
this he appears to have gone to Boston in New England, probably on
business matters, and there he died in 1746, or according to some
accounts in 1749. It is hardly likely that he settled there as his
wife and children remained in Bristol. It is possible that his mission
had something to do with the large consignment of slaves valued at

the Bay of Chesapeake, near to the Ironstone Mines, where they would erect tlieir
forges and furnaces. Thus Farmer seems to have been one of the pioneers in estab-
lishing the iron-industry of America and the Galtons' connection with the Farmers and
their dealings in slaves seem to point to the reason for Robert Galton's visit to New
England in 1743 — 1745. [The deed above referred to was in the possession of Messrs
S. and E. Coleman of White Hart Lane, Tottenham, in July, 1913, and was most kindly
purchased and presented to the Galton Laboratory by Mr Edmund Wholer Galton.]

' Tertius Galton's physician at Leamington, Dr Jephson, was probably also a
relative.

* There were only four children of this marriage, three died in infancy, one only
survived to twenty and died then.

40 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

£54,000 to John, Robert and Samuel Galton to which I have already
refei'red. His wife Hannah Galton (Farmer) died in 1767 at Bristol
and was buried in the Quakers' Ground at Redclif. The youngest
brother, Samuel Galton, born in 1720, also started life in BristoP,
where he paid for his freedom in 1742. In 1743 his stock, he tells us,
was worth £1144. In 1746 be married Mary Farmer, the daughter
of Joseph Farmer of Birmingham, and thus cousin of Hannah, his
brother Robert's wife. He i-eceived £1600 as marriage portion, and
definitely becomes assistant to his brother-in-law, James Farmer.
This probably took Samuel to Birmingham where his brother John
was already established at Duddeston. In the next year, 1747, he is
admitted partner with James Farmer for a quarter of his stock for
£2500. In 1753 he is equal partner with Farmer. James Farmer's
cousin Benjamin Farmer, son of Thomas, was a merchant in Lisbon, and
James had very large ventures there in 1755. The eai'thquake of that
year appears to have involved the Farmers in great losses, and James
Farmer was bankrupt in this year. The partnership was dissolved
and the estates at Duddeston, Saltley, etc. were assigned to Galton.
Samuel Galton renewed the partnership with Farmer in 1757, and from
an agreement of 1766 the shares of James Farmer and Samuel Galton
are placed respectively at £13,862 and £22,281. Meanwhile by the
death of his mother, Sarah Button, in 1754, an estate had accrued to
Samuel at Taunton. By the death of his brother John in 1775,
several other estates in Somerset — Edgmead, High Ham, Allermoor,
Bridgwater — were inherited by SamueP. This brother John had
married Haiuiah Alloway and settled at Duddeston on the outskirts
of Birmingham as it then was. He, however, had no children, and
his property passed to his broth^\ When Samuel Galton died in
1799 aged 80, the Galton business held in equal partnership by him-
self and his son Samuel vpas valued at £139,000.

We have gone into these details as they are illustrative of the
Quaker stubbornness turned to successful commercial achievement.

' The connection with Bristol was kept up, for Samuel's sister Mary died there in
1789 and his daughter Hannah in 1773.

^ In 1776 Samuel Galton states in his memoranda that he sold the estate at "Beer
Hill." This proves that the Thomas Galton of Beere who appears in the Registers of
Winterbourne-Kingston in 1617, and who was probably the Thomas baptized Jan. 7, 1 580,
was an ascendant or relative of the John Galton of Yatton.

The Ancestry of Francis Galton 41

A very appreciative notice of Samuel Galton the first appears in

the Gentleman s Magazine for 1799 (p. 63):

"A sound and acute understanding, a quick and clear conception, extended views
and a mind active and firm, joined to the habit of unremitting industry, commanded
success with regard to the improvement of his fortune. The same talents were ever
ready to be employed in giving advice and assistance to those who asked and in forming
and directing charitable institutions."

After referring to his local charities and general beneficence, the writer
continues :

"These excellent qualities were accompanied with great hospitality, and their effect
improved by the urbanity and courtesy of his manners, by an agreeable, well-formed
person, and a countenance expressive of the intelligence of his mind and the cheerfulness
of his disposition. He encountered the various accidents of life and the infirmity of
old age with uncommon dignity ; the energies of a strong and powerful mind enabling
him to support those trials which related to himself, without relaxing in his attention to
the distresses of others. The same firmness of character accompanied him in death."

Surely much of this characterisation might be directly applied to
his great-grandson Francis Galton. Unfortunately no portrait of him
appears to have been preserved'. Nor were " the various accidents of
life " which the first Samuel encountered slight in character ; besides
the bankruptcy of his pai'tner a more personal distress arose from the

' A pleasing pen-picture of this typical Quaker is given by his granddaughter Mary
Anne Schimnielpeuninck (see Hankin, Christiana C, Life, of Marij Anne Schimmel-
jwnninck. Vol. I, Autobiography. Pt. I, 1778—1787, pp. 4.5 — .53. London, 1858).

" Of all the pleasures of my childhood, by far the greatest and the sw,eetest in
recollection were the visits, whether of days or weeks, to my dear grandfather at
Dudson. I can hardly say how delightful to me was the quiet, the spirit of love and
order and peace which characterised his household. The family, as I remember it,
consisted of my grandfather himself and of Lizzie Forster. She had formerly
superintended the education of my aunts, my father's sisters, but, after the death of my
grandmother and my aunts, Lizzie Forster continued her post as head of the establisli-
ment. My grandfather himself presented so striking a likeness to Wm Penn in West's
picture of the Treaty with the Indians, that I never knew any person who had seen
both, who was not struck by it. He was very cheerful, orderly, active, acute as a man
of business, and most kindly in his consideration and thought for the welfare and
happiness of all about him. While my mother bestowed out of her benevolent heart,
like a noble benefactress, my grandfather gave in a benevolent, considerate, and
business-like way ; with brotherly kindness he ascertained what would add to the well-
being of his people, and supplied the want kindly, beneficently, yet not lavishly, with a
completeness that sliowed his pleasure in giving, yet with an orderly economy. He
considered himself as a responsible steward, and as his fortune had been the fruit of
God's blessing on liis industry, he desired, remembering the lalxiur of liis youtli, to

p. G. 6

42 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

early deaths of his children. It would seem that the short-livedness of
the Button stock was handed down to the third generation. His eldest
daughter Sarah died at 1 3 ; his second child James at one year ; his

reward industry in otiiers, and to make as many liearts as he could, Hglit and grateful
to God the Giver, never .seeking to fix the eye of the receiver on himself

" Well do I recollect my dear grandfather's cheerful voice, as, at about six o'clock,
on a bright summer morning, he would call me to accompany him on his walk, or if he
were suffering from the gout, to walk by his wheel-chair in the shrubbery. First we
used to visit the little garden he had given me, and watcli the growth of the seeds and
roots I had planted there under his direction. Then we proceeded to the hothouse or
conservatoriea, where my grandfather affixed to various bunches of grapes or pines the
names of invalid friends or others, to whom they might be a comfort. If I had been a
good child, he would let me affix the tickets, and would teach me to print the names on
them or perhaps allow me to be the bearer of his gifts. And then he liked to visit his
bees in their glass hives, whence he drew many a lesson on industry. He was likewise
a great florist, and delighted to visit liis greenhouse, his auriculas, and other choice
flowers. Then we proceeded to the pond, or rather, perhaps, lake, since the stream on
which Birmingham stands runs through it. This lake occupied eight or ten acres, anfl
was of considerable length. It was truly beautiful ; its borders indented and clothed
with the finest willows and poplars I ever saw. The stillness was delightful, interrupted
only by some sparkling leaping fish, or the swallow skimming in circles over the water,
the hissing of the swans from their two woody islets, or the cries of the wildfowl from
the far-off sedges and bulrushes. It used to be a delight to me, when standing near my
grandfather in a rustic fishing-house at the farthest end of the pool, he applied to his
lips a little silver whistle (such as now, sixty-six year's after, I wear in remembrance of
him) and immediately the surface of the lake seemed instinct with life. Waterfowl, of
all descriptions, rose from their co\'orts, aiifl hurried towards us : the heavy Musco\y
ducks. Sheldrakes, Burrow ducks from the .Severn, sea-gulls, Canada and Cape and tall
Peruvian geese, and the little moor-hen and teal, half-sailing, half-flying, with six
majestic swans all drew near to be fed. How well do I remeniber my grandfather then
saying to me ' Thou canst not do much good, and canst feed but a \ery few animals ;
yet how pleasant it is to do even that ! God, the Father of all, opens His hand, and
all His creatures on the face of the wide earth are filled with good. How blessed is
He ! ' Then my grandfather would visit his mill, which was near the lake ; there he
inquired after all his workmen, went to the cottages of any that were ill, and was sure
to leave some substantial evidence of his visit, besides the kind word which accompanied
all his gifts. Pleasant were his friendly calls on some infirm or aged person, or sickly
child, and sure were those who diligently attended his school of a reward.

" On our return to breakfast, my grandfather would make me partake of his little
ration of toast and clotted cream, and then came the pleasure of throwing open the

window and spreading corn with salt on the large pigeon-board How eagerly

I listened when my grandfather pointed out to me the deep attachment of the carrier
pigeon to her home, of the queest to her nest, of the turtledove to her mate ; that thej-
could only flourish upon corn and all their food seasoned with salt. He also showed me

Plate WW

SAMUEL GALTOX, the Younger (175.3—1832).
From a portrait by Loiifjastre at Claverdou in the possession of Mr \\'heler Galton

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon

fourth child Mary at 28 ; his fifth Edith in the first year of life ; his
sixth Elizabeth at 2 1 and his youngest Hannah at 14! Only his third
son Samuel survived to carry on the line'. To anyone who has studied
the pedigrees of families in the 17th century this immense mortality
will not seem wholly exceptional. Of its great influence on national
life and character there can be small doubt.

The death of his brothers and sisters all previous to that of his
father, meant that Samuel Galton the second became, on the death of
his father in 1799, a man of large wealth and considerable estates. His
portrait (see Plate XXV) seems to indicate a man very similar to the
verbal description given by the writer in the Gentlonan's Magazine of his
father. In the family he M'as often spoken of as Samuel John or John
Samuel, but he was not so registered at birth ; it seems probable that
the name was merely adopted to distinguish him from his father.
Born in 1753, Samuel Galton the second went in 1759 to school at
Bristol — a fact which shows how the Bristol connection of the Gallons
was still maintained. In 1760 he was transferred to James Fell's
School at Worcester, which he left in the following year. In 1768 he

their beautiful but sober plumage, and pointed out, when they soared up aloft, how bright

their iridescent colours appeared in the sun I loved, too, to assist my grandfather

in arranging old letters and papers from friends of his youth, or of his ancestors

" One more anecdote respecting my grandfather. He was most kind to us his grand-
children, but I believe yet more especially to me, who was three years and a half older
than any of the others, and who from delicate health always preferred the quiet society
of those older than myself, to children's play. It was his custom to give each of his
grandchildren a guinea on the day of their birth, and on every birthday add another,
paying us also interest on the former. When we were seven years old, he made us keep
the accounts ourselves. This was to go till each attained the age of twenty-one, when
he intended the whole sum as a little present ; besides this, he frequently gave uie
money, sometimes half-a-crown, sometimes a guinea. He gave me also a little account-
book in which he desired I should set down accurately everything I received and
expended. This was contrary to my natural taste and habits ; it was also very different
from my dear mothei's magnificent manner of spending and acting in all that related
to money : but one day ray grandfather called me to him and said : ' My child, thou
didst not like when I advised thee, the other day to save thy sixpence, instead of

spending it in barberry drops and burnt almonds We cannot be self-denying wisely

till we know the real value of what we give up ; that is why I wish thee to keep
exact ace'*.' "

' Their mother, Mary Galton, died at the Swan Inn, Tewkesbury, on her way fiom
Cheltenham to Birmingham in the presence of the two Samuels and her daughter Mary —
" ray exemplary and dear mother," as the younger Sanuiel expresses it.

G— 2

44 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

went to the Warrington Academy, where Dr Priestley taught'. Here
he came, for the first time pi'obably, into touch with this man of com-
manding scientific ability with whom he remained a close friend during
life. Priestley was the second name in 1785 of those' on Samuel
Galton's certificate for fellowship of the Royal Society. Nor was
the friendship one-sided. Whatever the mob may have thought of
Priestley, when they fired the Unitarian meeting-houses, burnt
Priestley's private house, wrecked his laboratory and destroyed his
manuscripts and books, for sympathising with the French revolutionists,
Galton and Wedgwood maintained their friendship for him. There is
a fine letter from Samuel Galton to Priestley still pi-eserved which runs
(Sept. 7, presumably 1791) :

"I have this moment only received your favour by Mr Wm Priestley, and rejoice
most sincerely in the idea of seeing you. Jf you incline to come to Birmingham, which
I tliink much better and more honorable, pray inform me the hour you expect to
arrive and wiiere, for I will meet you at the Coach and accompany you in your
perambulations about the town, liappy in an occasion to avow the most explicit attach-
ment to a Person, whose friendship does me the greatest honour. If you leave tlie
coach at what was once j'our house, I will meet you tiiere. It shall never be said that
Dr Priestley was not received with open arms by one on whom he has conferred such
obligations. The idea of fear Mrs Galton' and myself equally despise, nor do we really
think there is any danger, but if the alternative were that we should lose our house or
our esteem for ourselves, we would not pause for a monienf."

There is a good deal of the old Quaker spirit of the Barclays and

' It should be noted that John Wedgwood and Malthus were both at Warrington
somewhat later 1782-3, and this College link of Wedgwood and Malthus to Priestley,
Darwin and Galton should be borne in mind.

- Tiie names are Richard Kirwan (1733 — 1812), the " Nestor of English Chemistry,"
and Copley medallist in 1782 for his ])apers on chemical afhnity, "an accomplished
linguist, a brilliant talker, and an adept in Italian music "; John .Smeaton (1724 — 1792),
the great engineer, builder of lighthouses and bridges and originator of the Institution
of Civil Engineers; Josiah Wedgwood (1730 — 1795), the keen business man, the
strenuous potter and the inborn artist; T. Lcine(1734 — 1807), the inventor of graduated
medical measures and of the discharging electrometer; and Sir W^illiam Watson, M.D.
(1744 — 1825), another distinguished medical man of the time. It would have been
difficult at that day to have a group of six supporters more weighty or more varied
in their talents.

' Lucy Barclay : see Plate XXVIII.

■* Marsh, G. F., Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire,
Vol. VII, p. G9. " On some correspondence of Dr Priestley, preserved in the Warrington
Museum."

Plate XXVI

X ^ i

— — 1/3

^Si<

^ rS

v: —

:^ "s C

-J -s

as .= -^

J ^

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon

Buttons in this letter of Samuel Galton the second, and although
Priestley did not venture, perhaps for the sake of his friends, to face
Biimingham, Samuel Galton continued to give an annual benefaction
towards the cost of his researches.

The fact that Samuel the first sent his son to the Warrington
Academy — while absolutely consistent with the toleration preached by
Robert Barclay — indicates that he had already departed somewhat
from tlie religious teaching of the Society of Friends. He also had
been concerned in the gun-trade with James Farmer. But in 1795
Samuel Galton was formally disowned by the Society of Friends "for
fabricating and selling instruments of war," after the matter had been
for several years agitated. Galton entirely disregarded the disownment
and went on attending the meetings until his death in 1832. The
position of the Society was, I think, only consistent with their doctrines,
but the disownment ought to have come much earlier — even to Samuel
the first'. If the statement be correct, that the Society continued to
receive Samuel Galton's donations, then the disownment was certainly
of a very specious character. Both Samuel Galton and his wife Lucy
(Barclay) lived and died as Quakers and were buried in the burying
ground attached to the Quakers' meeting-house in Bull Street (see
Plate XXXII). There is little doubt, however, that both Samuel the
first, and Samuel the second, the friend of Priestley and Erasmus
Darwin", had pi'ogressed from Quakerism a considerable way towards

' In the British Museum is an interesting tract by Samuel Galton, "To the
Friends of the Monthly Meeting at Birmingham " 1795. It points out that for 70 years
his grandfather (i.e. Farmer), his uncle (John G.) and his father (Samuel G.) had Ijeen
engaged in the business without animadversion on the part of the Society, that the trade
had devolved upon him as an inheritance. That to be consistent no member of the
Society ought to pay taxes to a Government which prepared for war, or for preserving the
peace in case of riots. Men were not responsible for the abuse of what they manu-
factured. He declines to give any pledge to the Society with respect to abandoning
his business ; when he did withdraw, it should be from spontaneous sentiment and not
from external influence. All is in excellent conmion sense and full of characteristic
stubbornness, but his position was undoubtedly a false one judged by Quaker principles.
Actually he gave up the gun business eight years later, three years after his father's
death.

- Erasmus Darwin was regarded as almost an atheist by Anna Sewaril, and
Mrs .Schinimelpenninck, referiing to Dr Darwin, says : " I was thus in a state of mind
to receive evil from a new and hurtful influence which now approached our family
circle" {Life, p. 126). And again, "I had been much in the society of freethinkers"
(p. 441).

46 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

Unitavianisin, or Deism. The next generation was to return to the
Anglican or to the Roman Catholic Confession.

The Warrington Academy has led to this digression on Samuel
Galton's relations to Priestley. On leaving Warrington, Galton entered
when 17 years of age the counting-house of Galton and Farmer. His
diary reveals rapid progress in business success and continuous scientific
tastes. In 1775, his father transferred £10,000 to him ; in 1776, he first
saw Lucy Barclay' (see Plate XXVI), in 1777 he married her, and his
mother, Mary Farmer, died. In 1778 he became equal partner with his
father, and took a house in Five Ways, Birmingham. In 1783 he was
worth ,£35,716. In 1785 he went to live at Barr, and bought cows and
followed agricultural pursuits — in the winters he came into Birmingham
again. In 1788 he was worth £43,049. In 1792 we find him interested
in canal development ; in 1794 he bought Warley for £7300, an estate
he afterwards presented to his son John Hubert Barclay Galton. After
the death of his father in 1799, he went to live at Duddeston, and in 1 803
he was worth more than £180,000, and later than this we have repeated
investments in and development of landed estates. At death his
fortune was upwards of £300,000. Among interesting evidence of the
intimacy with Dr Erasmus Darwin are the fees paid to him, 10 guineas
in 1787, 100 guineas for a visit to Margate in 1793, when Mary Anne
the eldest daughter had a dangerous fever, and 40 guineas for a visit
to Bath at the time of the illness and death in 1799 of Samuel Galton
the elder. Other items of general interest are 80 guineas for four years
to Dr Priestley in 1798, and a further subscription in 1803.

Of Samuel Galton's own development after he started business we
may say a few words. He was a member of the Lunar Society, a local
society the members of which dined at each others' houses at time of

' There is an absurd tale in the first edition of Cassell's History of England, only
referred to here in case anyone should e\er revive it, that Lucy Barclay was a daughter
of George III and Hannah Lightfoot, a young Quakeress. The story is disproved by :
(1) the marriage certificate of Hannah Lightfoot to Isaac Axford in 1753, four years
before Lucy's birth; (2) the marriage certificate of Robert Barclay to the first Lucy
Barclay on June 3, 1756, which in 1860 was in possession of Mrs Brewin; (3) the birth
of Lucy Barclay at Bushill in the Quakers' records on March 22, 1757 ; (1) the death
of her mother, Lucy Barclay, at her birth or one day afterwards — according to family
tradition by her bed taking tire : the Quaker records say she died on March 23 and was
buried at Winchmore Hill on the 29th ; (5) Lucy Barclay's visits to Ury (see Sampler,
Plate XXVII) ; (6) Robert Barclay's bi-annual visits to Great Barr to see liis daughter
and her husband, whom he ultimately made one of his executors.

Plate XXVII

IK.-^ ■

f-^- ^ -^ ; S f 0 soon must pafs away/* '^' ''% . ■;[..••■ '^

•'^'ly Cloic rtlend to tvery duty/**^^ •5/"'' ^- /j|jPi
#^prr-Thaft a charm wi ne'er it<i\ya,-^^^'''k T^P

%' / ^ -^^^s/s/a/s^MC^ Ssrtiay Ury Sept ,rj:4/s/s«^' ^\

/,\y-^ ^ ^ /m -% y > ^. % v_^ fK|s -v. -- \; ■/

Photographs of Lucy Barclay's sampler, proving her presence at t ry, when
seven years of age. .According to the .MS. diary of Francis tialtoii this
sampler was worked at the gothic window with shutters on the first floor
(see Plate XXIII), and he gives a sketch of the recess inside the window
where his grandmother sat. A pane of glass broken by her during this
weary task was still pointed out in 1830.

The Ancestrif of Francis Gallon

full moon, and which included many names of note', e.g. Erasmus
Darwin, William Withering (1741 — 1799) (a notable physician and
distinguished man of science of his day), Baskerville {the famous
printer), Wedgwood", Boulton and Watt, Thomas Keir (a very able
chemist), Day (the author of Samlford and Merton, an eccentric, but
of some jjower), Edgeworth and Small ("a man of delicate -sympathy,
keen perceptions, and suggestive energy'"). Galton was also a membei-
of the Linnean and Hoyal Societies.

The atmosphere of Birmingham in those days was one. of progressive
commercial development based on intimate relations to science, and
Samuel Galton was one of the strongest links in the chain. His self-
culture went on throughout his busy life. At 19 he attended Harris'
lectui'es on oratory; at 21 he began to form a library, at 23 he attended
Walker's^ lectures on gases, and he heard Walker again at 28.
In 1799, at 46, he attended Bankes' lectures on philosophy, and in
1811 he assisted in founding the Birmingham Philosophical Society.
In 1781 he bought a microscope for £10; in 1782 Nairn's electric
machine; in 1783 Buffon in IG vols.; in 1786 a reflecting telescope
by Watson, and optical apparatus; in 1789, a camera obscura, and in
1818 he paid £42. Gs. Od. for an orrery, which his great-grandson,
Mr Edward Wheler Galton, has recently presented to the Eugenics
Laboratory. Of Samuel Galton's published contributions to science
there are few to record. Dr Erasmus Darwin's long note on Galton's
colour mixing exjjeriments in Tlie Botanical Garden'', 1791, seems
to suggest that he did some remarkably early work in this direction,
which must have antedated that of Young (1801), whom Cleik-Maxwell
places first in the field as the originator of the idea of three primary
colours. The first publication by Galton himself of his results occurs

' Beside these men with whom he was very intimate, we must add Jean Andre de
Luc (1727 — 1817) and Joseph Berrington.

" Wedgwood was a frequent attendant, if not an actual member.

' See Meteyard's Life of Josiah WedyivooJ, Vol. n, pp. 208-9.

■* Probably Adam Walker (1731 1 — 1821), a successful popular science lecturer,
a pioneer of what is now " University Extension." He was a friend of Priestley, who
may have brought him to Birmingham. I have not been able to identify Harris, and
the only possibility for the third lecturer (" Bankes ") would be Sir Joseph Banks — who
was certainly a friend of Samuel Galton's, but I am not aware that he e\'er lectured,
even on natural philosophy.

'' See Additional Notes, note 2, p. 6, Edn. 1791.

48 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

in the Monthly Afaf/azine for August 1, 1799. They show that
Samuel Galton was not only a careful experimenter, but a man of
very considerable originality. Young was himself a Quaker and was as
a boy brought up in the house of David Barclay of Youngsbury'; here
he was educated with Hudson Gurney, and must have come in contact
with Samuel Galton, who married Lucy Barclay in 1777. It seems prob-
able, therefore, that Young knew Galton's work. Possibly his memoir
took originally the form of a communication to the Lunar Society.
The pui-chase of optical apparatus in 1786 is suggestive as to the date
of these researches. Samuel Galton, as we have seen, was largely
interested commercially in canals", and in the Annals of Philosophy,
Vol. IX, pp. 177 — 183, 1817 is a paper by him On Canal Levels. He
also published a book on birds' with quaint colour illustrations, which
was quite good for its date ; according to his grandson Francis he had
a decidedly statistical bent^ There is ample evidence to show that
Samviel Galton had he not been a " Captain of Industry " would have
been a noteworthy man of science ; his energies — even like those of
Erasmus Darwin — were diverted from science to more monetary pursuits.
But when we look at the strong face shown by the portrait of Samuel
Galton, when we examine the record of his scientific friends, and appre-
ciate his tastes and abilities, we find it hard to assert that Erasmus
Darwin was the only source of Francis Galton's scientific ability.

When we examine the four grandparents of Francis Galton, it is
difficult to give precedence to any one of them as more noteworthy
than another. Lucy Barclay has been described by one of her grand-
daughters as "a very clever, beautiful woman, very dignified and
Queen-like in her manner." She possessed great talent and refinement,

' See Memoir of the Life of Thomas Youiiy, M.D., F.R.l^. [By Hudson Gurney],
p. 10. London, 1831.

' Erasmus Darwin favoured also the construction of canals and formulated some
forcible and some rather quaint arguments in favour of them. His great-grandson,
Mr E. Wheler Galton, has in his possession an interesting manuscript of Erasimis's
dealing with this matter. An argument in favour of canals was tlie provision they
made for a reserve of men suited for the navy.

' Tlie Natural History of Birds containing a Variety of Facts selected from several
Writers and illustrated with upivards of One Hundred Copperplates. In three volumes.
No date, Johnson, St Paul's Churchyard.

■* There are remarkable graphic charts of his income and household expenditure,
length of service of his servants etc., etc., still extant.

Plate XXIX

A- ♦-

4 ■ « J

,/^ ', •' " •'^.-•^

iV- \(^'n<)ecl l/i^

I-.'

'^^

dfivytiX^^ Awm X^hcUx

A
^

«■ *■

Title-page to Mrs W'heler's (Elizabetli Anne Galton's) MS. account of tlie Gallon Family, showinff sketches
of Claverdon House; Claverdon Cliurcli (where Francis Galtou is buried); Loxtoii, tlie home of
Krasmus Galton ; Dudson, the home of the Samuel (ialtons ; W'haley, the home of Hubert (ialtou,
and Hadzor, the liome of Howard Galton.

Piute XAX

a
S

S '^ ■*!

o t
c

A
H

a
a

a> .2

:fl

(7^

■^

i
00

Pl(tte XXXI

'i'l

h 3

— I L.

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 49

and she studied history and literature of every kind to educate her
children. She brought the physique of the Barclays and Carnerons,
and something of the courtly bearing of the Stuarts, and the ability of
their greater ancestors into the Galton stock. Samuel Galton himself
contributed determination, industry and a strong element of Quaker
stubbornness — but at the same time wide public and social sympathies,
and a distinct scientific bent. Elizabeth Collier of more slender figure
than Lucy Barclay was not behind her in beauty. She supplied an
artistic instinct, a joyousness in life, an appreciation of form and
expression which are less usual among the Society of Friends ; in her
ancestry we trace in addition both love of adventure and love of
learning. And last, but not least, we have Erasmus Darwin, who
presented his descendants with that great gift, the scientific imagina-
tion— the match which may light a strong fire if the solid fuel of other
characters be provided.

Before we pass to the children of Samuel Galton the second, a
word may be added here about the Galton houses in Birmingham and
elsewhere (see Plate XXIX). We have already noted the partnership
of the Farmers and Galtons (John and Samuel) originating in Bristol.
When John went at first to Birmingham he took a lease of Duddeston,
and this house at his death was taken over by his brother Samuel, and
passed in 1799 to his nephew Samuel the second (see Plate XXX).
He enlarged it in 1800 and went to reside there in 1801. Samuel soon
after his marriage had bought a house in Five Ways, Birmingham,
and added the next house to it. Bat in 1785 he went to live at Great
Barr', a large country house about four miles out of Birmingham,
spending the winter in various houses in Birmingham.

In 1702 the shop of Joseph Farmer was in the corner of Bull Street
and the Minories in Old Square, Birmingham. He was an ironworker,
who became a successful gunsmith. He lived in the Square till 1735
when he moved to the house in Steelhouse Lane, known afterwards as
Farmer and Galton's house and subsequently still as Galton's Bank (see

' This house, of which we give the photograph of a water colour (see Plate XXXI),
was a frequent meeting place of the members of the Lunar Society. An interesting
account of the meetings at Great Barr in her childhood is given by Mary Anne Galton
(Mrs Schimmelpenninck). There is a paper in the Birmingham and Midland Institute
Archaeological Section, Transactions, 1890, pp. 79 — 84, by H. C. Bolton, on the Lunar
Society with references to Great Barr.

p. G. 7

50 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

Plate XXXII). Joseph Farmer died in 1741 and his son James succeeded
him. In 1746 Samuel Galton married Mary Farmer and went to live at
1 3 Old Square. When James removed to London, Samuel left the Square
to live in the Steelhouse Lane house. He appears to have remained there
after James' bankruptcy and his return to Birmingham, for the latter
then went to live at Bingley House, which afterwards passed into the
hands of the Lloyds. The Galton-Farmer house bore the initials J. F. in
monogram over the doorway, and this fine old house, scarcely recognis-
able, still exists. In 1782 Galton rented Duddeston', he took a 99 years'
lease of it in ] 7 89 and his grandson purchased the freehold in 1 820. Samuel
his son lived immediately after his marriage also in the Steelhouse Lane
house, he then went to Hagley lioad, Edgbaston, and afterwards to
Great Barr, finally settling at Duddeston on his father's death. Thus in
Francis Galton's childhood from 1822 to 1832 Duddeston was the much
frequented home of the grandfather ; it was superintended by a highly
respected Quaker housekeeper, Lizzie Forster, after the death of Lucy
(Barclay) Galton in 1817. When in 1804 the gunsmith business was
wound up^ the Farmer-Galton house was converted into a bank,
possibly at the suggestion of the Barclays. In this bank Samuel and
Samuel Tertius were partners with Paul Moon James, and later Hubert
Galton, a younger brother of Tertius, also became a partner. In 1825
there was a general panic in the money market involving a run on the
banks throughout the country. Hubert Galton, going up to Barclay's
in London to borrow, found no less than ten partners of the Gurney
banks come up for the same purpose. The run lasted about a week,
but the strain on Samuel Tertius Galton was very great during the
crisis — a crisis indeed which he had actually predicted in his tract of
1813. His friends, however, stood firmly by him during this trying
period^ and the bank weathered the storm well. The strain, however,

' A Mr Freame appears to have rented Duddeston from 1757 — 1780, 1 am uncertain
whether a relative of the Freames discussed above.

" It would appear that Samuel Galton the second determined on his father's death
to wind up the gun-factory (at one time producing guns at the rate of one a minute !)
and start the bank. Whether this change was due to altering economic conditions,
or to a religious scruple, reaching freedom of expression on the death of his father, we
cannot say.

' One friend collected 1000 sovereigns in a bag and threw it on the counter with
a loud chink at the height of the crisis before the clamouring depositors asking the partners
to take care of them for him, a most seasonable kindness. Mrs Wheler's Reminiscences.

Plate XXXII

The Galton-Farmer house, later the Galtou Bank, in
Steelhouse Lane, Birmingham, now a shop.

Friends' Meeting House in Bull Street, Birmingham, wliere the two
Samuel (ialtons with their wives attended and were ultimately huried.

The Ancestrji of Francis Gallon

induced Samuel Tertius gradually to close the bank, which was ac-
complished in 1831, without the majority of people knowing anything
about it until nearly every account was paid off. The Galton Bank in
Steelhouse Lane afterwards became the Polytechnic Institution, later
a Children's Hospital, and afterwards (1897) was the house of a medical
man. It is now converted into a shop. In 1831, the Galtons' business
relations with Birmingham ceased, and Samuel Tertius retired to
Leamington in 1832. He had never lived at Duddeston, although he
purchased the freehold of it in 1820 for £8000, and it became later
a most valuable building estate. After his marriage, he lived at
Ladywood, then a mile from Birmingham, and here all his children
were born, except Francis who was born at the Larches (see
Plate XLV), one mile from Birmingham on the Warwick Road. This
house had been Dr Priestley's, being then called Fair Hill, and it was
the house burnt in the Birmingham Riots to which we have already
referred ; nothing was left but one room and the laboratory over the
stablest There was a good garden and three fields, and here the
children used to scamper about on the two small Welsh ponies —
Scamper and Fenella — to which Charles Darwin refers in his letter of
1853:

" I should much like to hear something of your brothers Darwin and Erasmus ;
I very distinctly remember a pleasant visit at the Larches, now many years ago, and
having many rides with them on ponies without stirrups."

Of this visit of Charles Darwin to the Larches Mrs Wheler writes
as follows in her Reminiscences :

"My Uncle, Dr Robert Darwin, was a tall, very large man, weighing more
than 20 stone, but wonderfully active for his size and very fond of his garden. He
was extremely cheerful and agreeable, full of amusing anecdotes and considered a
very clever doctor. His son Charles was a very pleasant lad ; when about W, he was
staying with us and went out with my Father to practise shooting ; on his return we
asked if he had been successful. 'Oh,' said my Father, ' the birds sat upon the tree and
laughed at him.' Some time after my Fathers and Brothers went to Shrewsbury. My
Father had hardly sat down, when Charles begged him to come out on the lawn, where
he threw up a glove and hit it shooting, without missing, two or three times."

In 1824 Samuel Tertius purchased Claverdon% an estate near
Warwick, which, at first a summer residence, became later almost the

' It was rebuilt and occupied by Withering the botanist.

- It is now in possession of his gi-andson, Mr Edward Wheler Galton, and contains
a valuable collection of Galton, Darwin and Barclay pictures and manuscripts.

7—2

52 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

family centre. Samuel Tertlus and Francis Galton and many of the
family are buried in Claverdon churchyard. The earlier Galtons were
buried in the yard of the quaint little Meeting House of the Society
of Friends at Birmingham, a photograph of which is here reproduced.

Of Samuel Tertius Galton (see Plates XXXIII and XXXIV) we
have many accounts from his children'. Francis Galton describes him
as "one of the most honorable and kindl}'^ of men and eminently
statistical by nature^"

" When we children quarrelled," writes Mrs Wheler, " and went to my Father or
Mother to complain, he used to send one into one corner of the room, and the other into
the opposite corner, and at the word of command, each had to rush into the other's
arms. This made us laugh and ended the dispute. My Father was a <rwe peace-maker,
he always turned the matter oflF playfully. He was fond of science, and took much
interest in all new improvements. He liked measuring hills and mountains with his
portable barometer, which we always took on a journey and which required great care
not to break."

The scientific instruments, however, with which he amused and
instructed his children appear to have been chiefly those purchased by
his father. Samuel Tertius does not seem to have been a man of quite
the vigour or originality of his father, but he inherited his father's
public spirit and much of his business capacity. He was High Bailiff
of Birmingham in 1814, and took up the addresses from that town to
the Prince Regent on the restoration of peace and on the marriage of
Princess Charlotte. This public work was continued as magistrate and
deputy-lieutenant after his removal to Leamington. He was called
upon to act in numerous arbitrations owing to the widespread esteem
for his good sense and judgment. It is reported that he never kept
a poor man waiting, always saying " Time was money to the poor."
While he suffered, as his father and grandfather liad done, and his sons

' He was educated at Dr Valpy's School, Reading, and was entered in 1799,
aged 16, as a pensioner at Trinity College, Cambridge. His father's account-book
would seem to show that he went into residence, but he did not matriculate, and we
soon after find him in a commercial office in Liverpool.

- His only published work: "A Chart exhibiting the Relation between the Amount
of Bank of England Notes in Circulation, the Rate of Foreign Exchanges, and the
Prices of Gold and Silver Bullion and of Wheat, accompanied with Explanatory
Observations," London, 1813, is a graphical consideration of what we now term the corre-
lation of these variates. It is a strong attack on an inconvertible paper circulating
medium, and predicts disastrous consequences as invariably following such a system.
It must have been quite useful in its day.

Plate XXXIII

SAMUEL TKRTIUS (JALTON (ITtCi -11U4).

Fatlier of Kraiicis Galtoii, and husband of Violetta DaiHin.

P'rom a painting l)y Oakley in Ifilid.

Plate XXXIV

The Ancestrif of Francis Gallon

Hubert and Francis did later, from asthma, he yet inherited something
of his Barclay ancestors' power of walking, and wovild walk all day
without fatiofue. He was not a man of that kind of note which finds
its way into biographical dictionaries, but he did — what many of us
everyday mortals fail to do — the usual work of the everyday world
and he did it well'. As a result he was respected by all who knew him
and beloved by all his children, who found in him on every occasion
their best friend. He died at the relatively early age of 61, and left
his sons each sufficient fortune to follow their own bent apart from
a profession.

Like Samuel Tertius, his two brothers John Hubert Barclay
Galton (1789—1864) and John Howard Galton (1794—1862) married
into able stocks, the first married Mary, daughter of Robert Barclay,
Banker of London, and therefore a multiple cousin ; the second a
daughter of Joseph Strutt and ultimately his heiress. Miss Sti'utt
was a granddaughter of Jedediah Strutt (1726 — 1797), the partner of
Arkwright in establishing the spinning jenny, and himself an inventor
of no mean order. Her father was not only the benefactor of Derby,
but an intimate friend of Thomas Moore and Edgeworth. John
Hubert had four children, three died quite young and the fourth left
no issue. John Howard Galton's is the only line by which the name
of Galton has been preserved. His second son Sir Douglas Galton
(1822 — 1899) reached fame in a variety of ways: as a Royal Engineer
he did much good, especially for the Commission on the Application of
Iron to Railway Structures (1848); he was General Secretary and
afterwards President of the British Association and the third of his
name to obtain fellowship of the Royal Society. He was Assistant
Inspector-General of Fortifications (1859 — 1862), Assistant Under-
Secretary of War (1862—1870) and Director of Public Works and
Buildings (1870 — 1875); and generally an able chairman of committees
and of very considerable inventive ability. His achievements mark
the scientific and business capacity of Galton and Strutt stocks, apart
from the scientific imagination contributed by the Darwin blend. Of
Tertius Galton's sisters" the most noteworthy was Mary Anne (1778 —

' A shorthand diary of Tertius Galton for the years 1829 — 1844 (Eugenics
Laboratory) testifies to his multifarious duties and his genial nature.

" Of the remaining brothers Ewen Cameron died as a child of nine, according to
family tradition from the rough usage he received from the elder boys at Dr Valpy's

54 Life ami Letters of Francis Gallon,

1856), who married Lambert Schimmelpenniuck. She was a woman of
very considerable literary power and made a special study of Port
Royal ; her works, The Theory and Classification of BeaiUy and
Deformity, 1815, and Select Memoiis of Fort Royal, 1829, had
considerable vogue in their day. Francis Galton has said all that
need be said on her separation from her family. Members of the
same family are at times mutually incompatible and it is a fact, not
perhaps easily explicable, but none the less demonstrable that such
incompatibilities often reappear generation by generation. Of the
two other sisters of Samuel Tertius, Sophia (1782—1863) married
(1833) Charles Brewin— his grandfather Charles Lloyd was first
cousin of Charles Lloyd who married Mary Farmer — and Adele (1784
— 1869) married Dr John Kaye Booth (1827). Neither of these
marriages made relatively late in life had issue. Of his Galton uncles
and aunts, Mi*s Booth in face resembles most closely Francis Galton,
and she has more resemblance to Samuel Galton, her father, than
Mi'S Schimmelpenniuck or Mrs Brewin, who are more like Lucy Barclay
in their portraits. But in mental characters — strong sense, excellent
memory, business aptitude and fondness for natural history — Mrs
Brewin had much that was akin to her nephew Francis, and perhaps
she is with the exception of Sir Francis Darwin the nearest of any uncle
or aunt to him in character (see Plates XXXV and XXXVI).

Of Francis Galton's own brothers — Darwin Galton and Erasmus
Galton — little need be said here. Erasmus entered the navy, but soon
retired. Both brothers took their places as country gentlemen, and
did their duty to their neighbours and to their shire. This was a life
to which much of their ancestry, both Darwin and Galton, had been
accustomed. On the one side had intervened the Quaker movement,
followed by mercantile success, on the other, the exceptional appear-
ance of Erasmus Darwin. But the younger generation, whether we
consider the oftspring of Violetta Galton or Francis Darwin, followed a
sort of natural instinct and returned to the land. Their love of wild
life and nature may have been great, but it did not lead them to the
interpretation as well as to the observation of living forms. For a time
it seemed that this native bent would master Francis Galton. Like his

school at Beading. The other brother Theodore, a young man of much ability, died of
fever at Malta (1810) when returning homeward with Francis Darwin — the fourth death
in the party.

Plate XXXV

THKODORE GALTON (17ii4— liilO).
Uncle of Francis (Jaltoii.

A DELE GALTON (1784—1869).
Mrs T. K. Booth, Aunt of Francis Galton.

SOI'IILV (JALTOX (1782— 18(i3).
Mrs Charles Brewin, Aunt of Francis Galton.

MARY ANNE GALTON (1778— ]8.5(!).
Mrs .Schimmelpenninck, Aunt of Francis Galton.

Plate XXXVI

~ <

2 .i

o .5
X .S

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon

brothers he was in a position to become a country gentleman, and he
himself says that, when aged 24 he returned from Syria,

" I was conscious that with all my varied experience I was ignorant of the very
ABC of the life of an English country gentleman, such as most of the friends of my
family had been familiar with from childhood. I was totally unused to hunting, and
I had no proper experience of shooting. Tliis deficiency was remedied during the next
three or four years. Under the advice of my eldest brother, I bought a hunter and
a hack, and began to hunt at the rate of about three days per fortnight in Warwickshire
and at neighbouring meets " (^Memories, p. 110).

But something else mastered this ancestral instinct. Galton was
not to revert to the land and after six years the Wanderlust again
sent him forth on his travels. If we knew the little difference which
divides one man from another, even within the same family, we should
have the key to most of life's riddles. Of one thing we can be certain,
it is not slight variations of environment; it is the individuality of
nature not of nurture.

If we endeavour to sum up the fairly detailed account we have
given of Francis Galton 's kinships, can we attribute to their different
sources some of the chief physical and mental characters we note in
him 1 The following may be emphasised as marked features of Francis
Galton :

Physical, (a) Marked longevity, [h) Very considerable physical
strength and power of endurance, (c) A well knit figure somewhat
above the average height and not tending to corpulence, (d) Regular
features, with nothing unfinished, or at all unkempt about the person,
generally what are described as "good looks." {e) Blue eyes and
light hair. (/) Ailments, asthma and deafness, [g) Good digestion.

Of these physical (jualities the marked longevity seems to have
come from Elizabeth Collier ; the physical strength from the Camerons
and Barclays ; the well-knit figure and good looks possibly from Beau
Colyear', though Samuel Galton the second possessed them in a marked
degree. The blue eyes and fair hair were again probably a Barclay
heritage ; the asthma, and also possibly the deafness, a Galton charac-
ter— both Samuel Tertius and his father Samuel suffered badly from
asthma. Thus we realise that in most of his physical characters
Francis Galton was not a Darwin ; Darwin physical characters have

' Of Sir Heni-y Savile it was said that he was " an extraordinary handsome man,
no lady having a finer complexion."

56 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

appeared in more than one of the descendants of Samuel Tertius and
Violetta, but the most close of the Darwins to Francis Galton was his
uncle Sir Francis Darwin, who also has the Collier strain. And in
several of tlie physical features which seem to differentiate Francis
Galton from many of his Galton kin, they seem to resemble more than
he did the Darwins. If we take porti'aits of Charles Darwin and of
Francis Galton in middle life, we may perhaps detect some resemblances
in the rather firm lips, the strong chin, the heavy brow and luxuriant
eyebrows, the slightly receding forehead and the apparent absence of
marked occipital development (see PlateXXXVII). But taking physique
as a whole, Galton was in popular language, " not a Darwin." It is to
the mental characters we must turn for likeness.

Mental, (a) Even temper'. (6) Great sympathy, (c) Ascetic
rather than sensuous, (cl) Strong mechanical bent, (e) Keen delight
in numerical evaluation and symbolic expression, two factors hardly to
be put, perhaps, under one heading. (/) Strongly emphasised power
of observation and appreciation of observation — what we might almost
speak of as the "clinical instinct." (g) Marked love of adventure, the
roving lust, {h) By no means a student or collector in the usual
sense, neither a \^'ide reader of books nor a worker in museums.
Galton rather observed and collected to answer a problem he had
« priori proposed to himself, than studied material with a view to the
discovery of some hidden secret. (^) Continuous concentration in
reading or analysis was liable to lead to "mental fag," and on two
occasions in his life led to a breakdown, (j) An instinct almost
amounting to a moi-al sense that the end of science was not so much
knowledge for its own sake, as social utility and increased human
efficiency, {k) Much steadfastness of purpose accompanied by a con-
siderable power of controlling others and inspiring them to fulfil his
planned ends, (l) A noteworthy sense of humour, (m) A great
appreciation of the need for clear expression in science.

We believe that several of these features are markedly Darwin,
but others just as certainly come from different strains.

Power of observation, the " clinical instinct " that we have referred
to, was essentially Darwin. Probably also much of his sympathetic

' Francis Galton himself has said that he had a quick temper only gradually
brought under control by exercise. If this be so, the power of control was probably
hereditary.

Plate XXXVIt

( IIAHLKS DARWIN, aged .51.

Kroiii a ])li()t()frrapli liy Maull and Kox, touched up by Mrs Daiuiii

and noiv in tlif possession of Mr \\'illiaiii E. Darwin.

FRANCIS (iALTON, aged al.out .50.

Kroni a pliotofrrapli in the

(•alton Laboratorv.

Tliese two photofrraplis in nnicli the same attitude indicate the degree
of resemblance between tlie two grandchildren of Erasmus Darwin.

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon 57

nature arose from the same source. Although a most distinguished
mathematician has appeared in the Darwin stock, and it is stated
that Erasmus Darwin the younger was statistically minded, there was
no trace of it in Erasmus the elder, and it may be safely said that
statistics were almost distasteful to Charles Darwin himself On the
other hand Samuel Tertius Galton, as we have already seen, published
a statistical tract, and he and quite a number of his family delighted in
numerical and statistical representation. There is hardly a doubt that
this was in Francis Galton an emphasised Galton heritage, not wholly
unassbciated with considerable power of fine draughtsmanship, which we
also find in other members of the family. During many years of friend-
ship with Francis Galton, his present biographer never saw him handle
the pencil nor had any reason to believe he had special aptitude in this
matter ; and yet examining his earlier notebooks and diaries we find
them full of sketches which show that he had equal capacity with his
sisters in draughtsmanship. When we read also the accounts of the
work of his Galton ancestry in Birmingham, the manner in which they
not only built up a great business, but also were continually engaged
in public and charitable work, we must again place to their credit the
passion Galton exhibited to turn all his work to public service — to
regard all science as subservient to human jirogress. He was not
content that the Eugenics Laboratory should produce mei*ely scientific
memoirs ; he repeatedly urged its members to place their results in a
popular form before a wider public. He disliked technical terms, and
demanded the expression of results in language that all men can
understand. Probably he and the present winter were not quite at
one on this point, partly because the latter believed that new technical
terms are needful in eveiy progressive branch of science, partly because
the writer thought that Biometry and Eugenics must in the first place
establish themselves by the production of work especially appealing to
the scientific world. Francis Galton pulled his way, and his biographer
pulled in the opposite, both, perhaps, with something of Quaker stubborn-
ness, but never with the least personal friction, and in the end came
the compromise which marks the publications of the Galton Laboratory
and the directions for its guidance in his will. Reference is made to
these matters here because it must be fully realised that the social
utility of his work was not a secondary but a primary motive in Galton's
character. Charles Darwin thought that to add to the sum of knowledge

58 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

was perhaps the most respectable object a man can have in life,
and this desire to increase knowledge amounts in some of our greatest
men to the equivalent of Spinoza's Amor dei intellectual is ; in the case
of Francis Galton it was rather an " intellectual love of man " which
was the motive force in his work. Charles Darwin collected facts
bearing on selection without any theory and on a wholesale scale. He
made his systematic enquiry and then searched for a law'. This
Baconian method was not Francis Galton's. He had formed his
problem, and he devised his experiments or recorded his observations
so as to give a definite answer yes or no to his questions. It was
rather the economy of a business instinct. The inspiration came first,
but he did not put it down as possibly his grandfather Erasmus would
have done without array of reasoned and well-marshalled facts. He
made just the limited observations which confirmed or refuted it, and
in almost all Galton's work we see observations collected to answer an
individual and relatively closely defined issue. We cannot fit diverse
types of mind into rigid categories, but roughly we may say that
Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin, and Francis Galton all possessed in
a high degree scientific imagination. Erasmus put down his inspira-
tions without due demonstration or effective self-criticism. Charles
Darwin collected his facts before he allowed his imagination to play on
them, he followed his inspirations by self-criticism and due demonstra-
tion. Francis Galton used his imagination to find his problem, then
narrowed it to a small issue, and tested its truth by experiment and
observation before publication. To a certain extent the difference in
method is that of Bacon and Newton — possibly that of the biological
and mathematical temperament. Something of the difference in
Charles Darwin and Francis Galton was hereditary, and marked the
concentrated business instinct which Galton inherited from Farmei's
and Freames, Braines and Barclays, as well as his own name-stock. It
was that business instinct applied in science. Perhaps also the danger
of "mental fag," a heritage which we are inclined to think came from
the Farmers — was influential in guiding Galton in the matter. He
was never a great collector or a mighty reader as his cousin Charles
Darwin undoubtedly was.

In the roving hist again we see Cameron, Barclay and Colyear
ancestry rather than Darwin, and, as already hinted, this influenced
' See Life and LeMera, Vol. i, p. S.S.

Plate XX Win

N,\S':"11", KlNi. 'iK THK uVAMl'i

Kiifi-raviiii;- tVoni the First Kditiioi of Francis (ialton's Trojiirii/ South Africa.
'J'lic Kjiifj: cif tlic <)\aiiii)() cnnviioil liy tlic expliiror. In illustration of
F'rancis (ialton's sense of liuniour.

The Ancestrti of Francis Gallon 59

Galton's attitude in science ; he delighted in inroads into unexplored
territory, or even into what his neighboui's considered as their special
preserves.

The incursions of a pioneer mind, unfettered by the orthodox
opinions of a specialised group of workers, however irritating to the
established hierarchy, are undoubtedly of the highest service to science,
if that mind has exceptional insight and marked novelty of method.
Both these Galton possessed in the highest degree.

Steadfastness of purpose — may we not credit something of this
to Robert Button and Jaspar Batt with their many years of gaol
experience ? power of control and of inspiring others may be sought
legitimately also in that more distant ancestry of great names to which
I have but briefly referred (see Pedigree Plate B).

From Barclay, fi-om Sedley and possibly from Collier came the
desire for terse expression, the demand for simple language. Bat
I doubt whether the wit of Sedley was akin to the humour of Francis
Galton. Speaking of his father, Samuel Tertius, Galton writes :

" He was devoted to Shakespeare, and I'evelled in Ifudibras ; he i-ead I'om Jones
through every yeai-,'and was gifted with abundance of humour'."

The humour of Samuel Tertius was certainly manifest again in his
son-'. Many will remember the immerous personal anecdotes told by
Francis Galton with keen appreciation of subtle humour, and never with
touch of malevolence. But those who were not thus favoured will recall
the famous incident of his desire to impress a Hottentot captain, who
might prove dangerous, and how, with this end in view, he rode in a
red hunting coat on an ox up to the captain's hut, thrusting the ox's
nose into the very doorway of his abode. Or again, having sufficiently
impressed a negro chief with his visitor's weight and impoi'tance, he
then led him outside, and to emphasise the negro's own worth he pro-
ceeded to decorate his sable majesty with a paper crown of gold tinsel.
The picture of the resulting figure published in the first edition of
his Tropical South Africa, p. 220, and reproduced here (see Plate

' Memorien, p. 8.

^ Tt is of importance to empha.sise this because the late Di- John Beddoe declared
iu a sliort notice of Francis Galton (Man, 1911, p. 34) that "Humour was the only
quality we could conceive as lacking in him ; and we know it is apt to be so in the
Quakers." Humour is incapable, perhaps, of definition, and the above statement is of
marked interest as indicating how big personal equation can be in its appreciation.

8—2

60 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

XXXVIII) ought to be suflScient evidence of Galtou's sense of huuiuur!
Or consider his account of how, not daring to ask the privilege of
measuring a steatopygous lady, the wife of a Hottentot chief, he hit
upon the idea of taking from a distance, by aid of his sextant, a
trigonometric survey of her person ; this more than establishes an
inheritance of ancestral Galton humour.

Lastly, the gift of mechanical ingenuity, which was such a marked
feature in Galton's nature, and helped him so largely in his work —
whence did he derive this sense ? In the first place the business of
an ironmaster and gunsmith cannot be developed by mere business
capacity. We find whether we turn to the Strutt and Arkwright, the
Boulton and Watt or the Wedgwood firms that for success mechanical
ingenuity must supplement the business aptitude. I have little doubt
that this applies also to Galton and Farmer, and that one or both
contributed this factor, a very needful factor indeed, to their successful
gunmaking. But we must not neglect from this aspect Erasmus
Darwin's mechanical instincts as evidenced by his colour grinding-mill
(see p. 16), the ferry from his house to his orchard, or his commonplace
book which still exists and deals with numerous mechanical problems
(see p. 16, ftn. ^). Nor has Erasmus been the only Darwin distinguished
by mechanical ingenuity. We think, therefore, that we have probably
here a case of intensified heritage from Farmer and Darwin stocks.

Thus as most men Francis Galton was physically and mentally
a blend of many ancestral traits. Whether they were " unit characters "
or not concerns us little here. What we do realise is that they were not
the product of environment, whether of home or school or college.
Few men have had more noteworthy ancestry in many lines than
Francis Galton ; that such ancestry should produce, not several, but
one brother alone of this marked social value can puzzle only those
who have not considered the wide range of possible variations which
arise as we rotate the kaleidoscope of heredity. If on the average
only one in four brothers of distinguished stock reaches first-class
eminence, can we not quite well understand how Charles Darwin and
Francis Galton stand alone, but also appreciate how greatly the
chances of perpetuating ability are reduced, when men of able stocks leave
in modern conditions but one or two children to preserve their name ?
Let the reader remember that with our modern views as to parental
responsibility neither Charles Darwin nor Francis Galton would have

The Ancestry of Francis Gallon

been born 1 Herein lies, we fear, all too certainly the key to that dearth
of exceptional ability which marks our own age. Herein lies also the
key to Francis Galton's demand that Eugenics should pass as rapidly as
possible from the laboratory to the market-place.

In discussing his ancestry, we feel sure he would have allowed us
to draw a moral ; for he recognised fully that the modern principle of
small families applied to able stocks spelt disaster for the nation. One
able leader, inspirer and controller of men, is worth thousands of every-
day workers to the race.

"I have no patience," wrote Francis Galton in 1869, "with the hypothesis occasion-
ally expressed, and often implied, especially in tales written to teach children to be good,
that babies are born pretty much alike, and that the sole agencies in creating differences
between boy and boy, and man and man, are steady application and moral effort. It
is in the most unqualified manner that I object to pretensions of natural equality."

It is a hard doctrine for democracy, but the safety of the state lies
in its acceptance.

Note to p. 46. The following characterisation of the Lunar Society from a letter
of Erasmus Darwin to Boulton is so excellent that it may be reproduced here :

April bth, 1778.
Dear Boulton,

I am sorry the infernal divinities wlio visit mankind with diseases, and are
therefore at perpetual war with doctors, should have prevented my seeing all your great
men at Soho to-day. Lord ! what inventions, what wit, what rhetoric, metaphysical,
mechanical, and pyrotechnical, will be on the wing, bandied like a shuttlecock from one
to another of your troup of philosophers, while poor I, I by my.self, I, imprison'd
in a post-chaise, am joggl'd, and bump'd, and bruised along the king's highroad to make

war upon a stomach-ache or a fever

Erasmus Darwin.

Thus wrote the patriarch of the Society according to Dr Bolton, loc. cit. p. 49, ftn.

CHAPTER III

CHILDHOOD AND BOYHOOD

Francis Galton was born on February 16, 1822\ at the Larches,
near Sparkbrook, Birmingham. We have akeady noted the features of
that house ; how it was built by the botanist, Dr Withering, after the
mob had practically destroyed the whole of Priestley's residence, one
room only surviving. The site is now marked by a tablet to Priestley ;
it would be fitting to add to it some commemoration of the relation of
the site to another Birmingham worthy, who has been as great a leader
of scientific thought.

Writing sixty years after the event a birthday letter to her brother
Francis, Emma Galton thus recalls the day itself:

"My dearest Frank, We shall think of you tomorrow, and wish you and Louisa
[Mrs Francis Galton] very many happy returns of tiie day. What a blessing you have
been to us, and liow proud we all feel of you. How wonderful a thing memory is ! It
seems but the other day that Mrs Ryland had called with her 4 horses, and walked in
the garden by my mother's garden chair. A' Booth [Adele Galton, Mrs Booth, Francis
Galton's aunt] dined at our house, and in the evening you were born about 9 o'clock.
And the importance Darwin, Erasmus and myself thought of the Dudson carriage and
pompous coachman coming early on the following morning (Sunday) to take us to spend
the day at Dudson [Grandfather Samuel Galton's house]. And we worried the servants
by every now and then standing on a chair to make us high enough to reach the
call-tube in the Library to inform them : ' Mama had a Baby, and it was a Boy ! '
But we then little realised wliat a comfort you would be to every one of us. We should
have vegetated and had green mould mucli thicker upon us had it not been for you."
[Letter from 5 Bertie Terrace, Leamington, Feb. 15, 1882-].

' He was baptised on March 20 following at the Church of St Martin, Birmingham.
As we have already noted his father Tertius Galton had left the Society of Friends and
received adult baptism in 1816 at Radbourne.

^ Another account is giveu by sister Adele herself 42 years after the event : " How
well do I remember Aunt Booth dining with us on that day and she and my mother
coming up in the white room to sit with me that evening ; my mother being taken ill
at 8 o'clock ; Mr Hodgson being sent for and his coming to awake me in the middle of
the night to tell me that a ' fine boy ' was born. How well can I remember seeing you

Plate XXXIX

JIhaiu^ ■€aJX<i\

f '

^!Tji.^- vfcS^.- ^-^ ^c^c.:^ f.^^!^-—

>-?^-

x/v-/-.

■.^"-ZA

/^:3o

,^ fj/LC,.t..- A.^-v /-J a-^-^'-J^-^'^

^. ^. ../- . ,^- ^%.. > ^/ ^^■^-'^ ^

^t;^-^ ^X-7'

Silliouette of Francis (laltou in his eifflitli year, taken from tlie manuscript lifc-liistory
of her son liy N'ioletta (laltou, liWO.

Phitc AL

Sample page of \'ioletta (Jaltoii's I>ife History of Francis (ialtou^ written by his mother
on lier son's departure for school at IJoulognej 1830.

Childhood and Boyhood 63

Francis was tlie last child in a family of nine, of wliich two sisters,
Agnes and Violetta, died as infants. The youngest of his four sur-
viving sisters was eleven years older than Francis, and his brothers,
Darwin and Erasmus, were respectively eight and six years his seniors,
and thus too different in age to be very companionable. Francis had
therefore all the temporary disadvantages which arise from being the
late and somewhat solitary member of a lai'ge family. But these
disadvantages often result in permanent advantages, if a child be of
marked character. It is thrown on the one hand more on its own
resources for amusement, and on the other hand may receive special
attention from parents and elders.

" On the 16th February," — writes Mrs Wheler [EHzabeth Anne Galton] in her Eemi-
niscences, — " my youngest brother Francis was born, lie was 6 years younger than the
youngest of us and never was a baby more welcomed. He was the pet of us all, and
my mother was obliged to hang up her watch, that each sister might nurse the child
for a quarter of an hour and then give him up to the next. He was a great amusement
to Adele and as soon as he could sit up, at five or six months old, he always preferred
sitting on her couch to be amused by her. She taught him his letters in play and he
could point to them all before he could speak. Adele had a wonderful power of teaching
and gaining attention without fatiguing. She taught herself Latin and Greek, that she
might teach him. She never made him learn by heart, but made him read his lesson bit
by bit, eight times over, when he then could say it. He could repeat much of Scott's
Marinion, and understood it well by the time he was five." [J/<S'. N/'miniscences.!

For early training and companionship — her room was his nursery
— Francis depended largely on this invalid sister Adele, afterwards
Mrs Bunbury. From the couch to which she was confined by weakness
of the spine, she directed his early studies, and, whatever might be
thought of her methods now, she undoiibtedly encouraged both Francis'
literary and scientific tastes.

In a little history (see Plates XXXIX and XL) of her son Francis,
Violetta Galton gives numerous instances of his literary aptness. Thus
at the dame's school to which he went when five years old one of his
schoolfellows was writing to his mother at Madeira, as he had just
heard that his father was in danger of being shot on account of Don
Miguel's usurpation. " What shall I say to my mother about my

next morning, such a red little thing — and how we all loved you, and then how we used
to quarrel for the honour of holding you in our arms, etc. But to return to seculars — "
(Letter of Adele Bunbury, Feb. 2.3, 1864.) Mr Hodgson was sixteen years later the
helpful friend who assisted Francis Galton at the start of his medical studies.

04 Life mid Letters of Francis Galton

father," he asked Francis ; " I have said I am very sorry." Francis
immediately replied from Walter Scott, "I think tins would do:

'And if T live to be a man
Mj' Father's death revenged shall be.' "

'•Thank yon," said the little boy, and added it to his letter.

And again, in the first year of his going to school at age five, the
maid who went to fetch him home found a group of boys teasing him.
Francis kept them all at bay with his arm straight out :
"Come one, come all, this rock shall fly.
From its fii-m base, as soon as I."

Another day about this same time his mother took him into a

field where the servants were trying to catch some geese. Francis

immediately ran amongst them and seizing the old gander by the neck

brought him to his mother, muttering to himself the lines of Chevy Chase :

"Thou art the most courageous knight

That ever I did see."

On another occasion Francis fell off his pony into a very muddy
ditch, and, as he was dragged out by his legs, he sputtered out half-
choked with mud to his brother Darwin the lines of Hudibras :
"I am not now in Fortune's power
He that is down can fall no lower."

As his mother depicts him for us in the first half-dozen years of
his life Francis was a boy of mettle, full of strangely assorted know-
ledge, but naturally rather shy. A pretty story is told in Mrs
Wheier's Reminiscences, which brings together two noteworthy
English characters. Mrs Fry (see Plate XLVII) was a second cousin
of Hudson Gurney, whose wife, Margaret Barclay, was a great-aunt
of Francis Galton. Hudson Gurney was himself son of Agatha
Barclay, first cousin of Lucy Barclay, Francis Galton's grandmother'.
Aunt Gurney's house in St James's Square was the centre from which
the young Galtons became acquainted with London life, and here they
met Mrs Fry—" a very striking person, tall and dignified and yet so
kind and motherly, one felt one could open one's heart at once to her."
In 1824 Mrs Fry came to Birmingham and went to stay with

1 Mrs Fry was also a granddaughter of Catherine Barclay, who was sister to the
•first Lucy Barclay and to David Barclay of Youngsbury (see Pedigree Plate C). Thus
she was second cousin to Tertius Galton.

Childhood and Boyhood 65

Grandfather Samuel Galton at Duddeston, where a large party was
asked to meet her.

"She told ,ny mother," writes Mrs Wheler, "that she would like to see Francis

then a year and a half old, as her youngest child was about the same age. My mother

said she would fetch hiu,, but he was so shy, she feared, he would not make friends with

her. Mrs Fry said, 'Oh, never mind, I think he will.' My mother brought him into

he room where seeing so n.any people he hid his face on his mother's shoulder and

h ook a httle box full of comfits out of her pocket, and held it out towards the child
but looking the otlier way, and talking to the company. My mother whispered 'Look,
Francis, and the child seeing no one observed him, sat on my mother's knee looking a
the comfits. By and bye, he slid down, seized a comfit and ran back ; Mrs Fry took

her"k„r't"k ^°^'^/*°°^,^y ':«-• '-'P-g himself. She then gently lifted him^pon

hei knee, taking no notice, when he soon began talking to her himself."

Hi.s sister Adele's education, besides providing him with modern
i^nghsh poetry, taught him to appreciate the Iliad and Odyssey
Leonard Horner, paying a visit to Tertius Galton in 1828 would
frequently question the little Francis about points in Homer. At last
Francis grew weary of the cro.^s-examination, and one day when the
usual questioning began, replied : " Pray, M.- Horner, look at the last
line jn the twelfth Book of the Odtjssey\" and ran off.

So excited did he grow over the Ilmd, that as a partizan of the
Greeks he was known to burst into tears, when he came to the part
where Diomed is wounded by Paris.

Probably apart from poetry his sister Adele— a child herself—
rather forced the pace. He knew his capital letters by 12, and both his
alphabets by 18, months of age. He could read a little book Cohwehs to
catch Flies when 2^ years old, and could sign his name before 3 years
1 have before me his actual signature on January 10, 1825 as
witnessed by his sisters Adfele and Emma. From his fourth yelr a
laconic letter" has survived :

• "But why rehearse all this tale? For even yesterday I told it to thee and to
thy noble wife in thy house: and it liketh me not twice to tell a plain-told tale." Butcher
and Lang's version, p. 206.

■' A similar letter to his father, dated Sept. 26, 1826, thanks him for the gift of
a toy. There is al.so a quaint little paper book containing two paper pages stitched
in blue paper; the first, .second and part of the third si.le are occupied by two scripture
texts written by Francis when four years old, but the remainder of the third and fourth
side are filled in the same round hand with the remark : " Papa why do you call my
books dirty that come f j;;om the Ware-house ? I think they are very clean."

66 Life arid Letters of Francis Gait on

" My

dear

Uncle

we have

got Ducks. I know

a Nest. I mean

to make a

Feast."

It Is written between pencil lines in a round hand, and there is
an endorsement by his mother Violetta, saying that Francis wrote and
spelt it entirely himself.

The day before his fifth birthday he wrote a letter to his sister
Adele. The handwriting is now much more formed and the ruled lines
have disappeared. He writes :

My dear Ad^le,

I am four years old and I can read any English book. I can say all the
latin Substantives and Adjectives and active verbs besides 52 lines of Latin poetry.
I can cast up any sum in addition and can multiply by

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, [9J, 10, [11].
I can also say the pence table. I read French a little and I know the Clock.

Francis Galton.

Febiuary-15-1827.
The only misspelling is in the date, which is corrected as indicated.
The number 9 has been carefully erased with a penknife and the
number 11 has a small square of paper pasted over it ! Little Francis
was evidently conscious that he had claimed too much, but as ex-
perience showed that penknife erasure tore the thin paper, the paste-
pot was used to obliterate the second unjustly claimed multiplier !

In a letter written by a visitor to the Larches on December 28,
1828, we read :

" We are both delighted with the girls particularly the two eldest — thej' are so
pleasing and unaffected, and so very amiable. The youngest child Francis is a prodigy.
He is 7 next February, and reads and enjoys Marmion, The Lady of the Lake, Cowper's,
Pope's and Shakespeare's works for pleasure, and by reading a page twice over, repeats
it by heart. He writes a beautiful hand, is in long division, has been twice through the
Latin grammar, all taught by Adele. Bessy and Lucy are very modest girls with
a constant habit of being employed."

It is pleasant to catch this impression of an onlooker as to Francis
Galton and his relatives written 85 years ago !

When he was in his fifth year his sister Ad^le thought it

Childhood and Boyhood 67

desirable, as he had no children to play with at home, that he should
go to school. He was accordingly placed under the care of a Mrs French
who kept a school for 25 little boys about a mile from the Larches'.
Here Francis distinguished himself from the beginning by being head-
boy, although there were many several years older than himself. He
remained at this school for three years, until he was eight years of age,
and in the last half-year had daily private instruction from the
Rev. Mr Clay, master at the Birmingham Free School. The good
dame at the head of his school reported very highly of little Francis,
and once added, " the young Gentleman is always found studying
the abstruse sciences." This was probably a protest on his part against
the over emphasis of Latin in small boys' education — a matter on
which Galton wrote very strongly later (see p. 88). When he left
this dame's school at 8^ years of age, he had read and learnt the
following books : Eton Latin Grammar, Delectus, Eutropius, Phaedrus'
Fables, Ovid's Metamorphoses as far as the Medusa incident, and three-
quarters of Ovid's Epistles.

His mother, writing indeed of her Benjamin, in 1830, when he was
leaving Mrs French's school, says :

" Francis from his earliest age shewed highly honorable feelings. His temper,
although hasty, bore no resentment and his little irritations were soon calmed ^ His
open candid disposition with great good nature and kindness to those boys younger than
himself, made him beloved by all his schoolfellows. He was very affectionate and even
sentimental in his manners. His activity of body could only be equalled by the activity
of his mind. He was a boy never known to be idle. His habit was always to be doing
something. He showed no vanity at his superiority over other boys, but pitied them,
and said it was a shame their education should have been so neglected'."

' The school was at Balsall Heath House, and four communications to Tertius
Galton from his son have survived — a rough drawing of a suspension bridge with a ship
passing under it, a more tidy drawing of a wooden shed or house, and a neat little
painting of decorative sweet peas, and lastly a dated letter, June 1st, 1830, stating that
the holidays would commence on the 19th, that he thought he had much improved in his
Latin and Greek with Mr Clay : " I shall soon be in Greek Delectus and Sense verses, for
you know that I have nearly done with Nonsense verses."

^ His mother once said to him at a somewhat later age : " Francis, how can you
keep your temper as you dol" " I don't," he answered, "but I've found out a capital
plan. I go to my room as soon as I can get away, and I beat and kick my pillow till
I'm tired out, and by the time I've finished, my temper's all gone." He continued
metaphorically " to beat his pillow " under great provocations in later life.

' This is aptly illustrated by his great concern on going to Mrs French's because
he thought that his mother would not let him remain at that school — the boys were so
commonplace they had never heard of the Iliad or Marmion !

9—2

68 Life and Letters of Francu Galton

Such testimony from a mother might mean Uttle had it been
written when her son had reached distinction. But Violetta Galton
appears to have written only thus of one son, and of him only before
he was nine years of age. Did she see in her youngest son something
of her father, or did her acquaintance with many men of marked
intellectual ability enable her early to appreciate nascent signs of
remarkable power ?

It must not be thought that Adfele's scheme of education had not
a modern side. Seeing how fond Francis was of natural history, she
taught him a good deal of entomology, a study he became particularly
fond of; and soon the boy's perseverance and activity in collecting insects
were noteworthy'. He was also fond of studying the history of birds.
Geology he was deeply interested in, and when he went with his
mother on his second visit to Ramsgate in 1829, "he would entreat her
to let the post-boy stop whenever he saw granite, or chalk or any
mineral showing itself in the hills."

Some idea of Francis' pursuits and interests can be found in a will
he made, boy fashion, some few months before his departure to a school
at Boulogne. It runs :

I, Francis Galton of the Larches near Birmingham make tliis my last Will and
Testament — I give to my dearest sister Adele for her great kindness in teaching me all
my English Books, my Watch, and all my Compound Money and Collection of Beetles —

' It is interesting to find in this very year when Adfele was teacliing Francis
entomology a notice in the records before me of Charles Darwin. Mrs Wheler writes :
"In September (1828) Lucy and I were invited to Osmaston for the Derby Music
Meeting, but when the time came Lucy had one of her rheumatic attacks, and Emma
went in her place. Catherine Darwin came to us from Shrewsbury and we travelled
together. Charles Darwin joined us at Osmaston, and we were a merry party of
cousins — William Fox was making a collection of butterflies, and Charles Darwin
immediately began to do the same, and this was the beginning of his interest in
collecting. He and William Fox struck up a friendship which continued all their lives."
MS. Reminiscences, p. 113. Mrs Fox was the daughter of William Alvey Darwin,
a brother of Erasmus Darwin. Charles Darwin was at this time 19 years of age, and
in his Autobiography he tells us that his passion for collecting had been developed before
1817 (Life and Letters, i, p. 27). At that time Darwin was leaving Edinburgh and just
going up to Cambridge, and he was already familiar with many men studying natural
science. On the other hand Mrs Wheler's incident confirms what Darwin himself tells
us (I.e. p. 51) : "I was introduced to entomology by my second cousin W. Darwin Fox,
a clever and most pleasant man, who was then at Christ's College and with whom
I became extremely familiar."

Plate XLl

CHARLKS DARWIN (180!)— 1882).

Ill early maiiliood. Krom a print in Mrs Wlieler's
MS. "'Hie Galton Family."

CHARLKS DARWIN (1809—1882).

Ill later life. From a pliiptiiirrapli Ipy

his sou .Major Leonard Daniiii.

Plate XUI

ERASMUS GALTON (1815—1909).
Ill his uniform as a "middy," aged 13. Elder lirotlier of Fraiici
Memories, p. 16. Silliouette in the possession of M

(Jaltoii. See (Jalton's
^Vheler Gallon at t'laverdou.

GMMhood and Boxjhood 69

To Bessy, my Minerals and Shells — To Lucy my Hygrometer and Desk — To Erania
my Medals — To Darwin all my parchment and my share in Aab and Poss [? ponies] —
To Erasmus my Bow, Arrows and Steel Pens — To Edward Levett Darwin' [his cousin,
son of Sir Francis Darwin] my Skates and latin and greek Books — I make my dearest
sister Adele my Executrix.

Signed, sealed and delivered by the within named "i
Francis Galton on the 14th day of February I

day of February \ Francis Galton.
One thousand eight hundred and thirty j

Witness S. Tertius Galton Violetta Galton.

Francis Galton himself feared that the educational efforts of his
sister Adele misrht have had a disastrous influence :

"In middle life," he writes in his Memories, p. 14, "I feared that I had been an
intolerable prig, and cross-questioned many old family friends about it, but was
invariably assured that I was not at all a prig but seemed to 'spout' for pure enjoy-
ment and without any affectation ; that I often quoted very aptly on the spur of the
moment, and that I was a nice little child."

As a rule the presence of elder brothers and sisters, ready to do
a little hustling and teasing when occasion requires, suflices in most
cases to check any priggishness in the youngest member of a family.
But there is another point from which the matter may be judged.
Galton suffered in later years from occasional mental weariness, the
effect of over-strain, and there is just a sad note in an answer his
mother has preserved for us, given to his father who had been examining
him in arithmetic when he was five years of age. Asked if he was not
tired, he replied : " I am not tired of the thing, but of myself." It is
possible that with an ambitious, mentally active boy", such as Galton
undoubtedly was — a boy who was easily ahead of his compeers in his first
two schools — a little holding back would have been the more judicious
course. There is a plaintive note too, with perhaps a deeper meaning

' Edward Darwin went to school with Francis at Mrs French's.

" When four years old Francis was observed to be very careful of every penny that
he received, and upon being questioned what he was saving for replied : " Why, to buy
honours at the University." He once also told his father on being asked what he
would like most : " Why, University honours to be sure." The influence at work is
not clear, the Galtons themselves did not spring from academically minded stock, and
the University careers of his uncles Charles and Robert Waring Darwin were of the
distant past. His cousin Charles had not yet gone to Cambridge.

70 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

in the phrase he used to mutter, at four years old, when his sister

called him to lessons :

" Oh stay thee, mj' Adela stay,
She beckons and I must pursue."

Still there is another side to the picture, and we note that at
three years and a quarter the small Francis was able to trot, canter,
and gallop upon a large Galloway. The Galtons certainly encouraged
outdoor sports and exercises.

In 1830 a great change came over Francis' life. Although only
eight and a half years old his father determined to send him to a large
boarding school at Boulogne kept by a Mr Bury. It is difficult to
appreciate now-a-days the motives which induced parents — in an age
when the child death-rate was appalling even in the upper middle
classes — to place quite young children in distant boarding schools.
Francis Galton himself (ilfemor/es, p. 16) suggests that he was sent to
Mr Bury's to acquire a good French accent. " What I did learn was
the detestable and limited patois that my eighty schoolfellows were
compelled to speak under the penalty of a fine," and the final judgment
he gives on this school with its apparently poor feeding, frequent birch-
ings and bad supervision runs as follows : " The school was hateful to
me in many ways, and loveable in none, so I was heartily glad to be
taken away from it in 1832."

Violetta Galton in her little record endeavours to assure herself
of the happiness of Francis. He had left home on September 3, 1830
with his father ; they had slept in London that night, and they had
visited St Paul's and its dome next day. At 1 1 o'clock they em-
bai'ked on the " Lord Melville" steamer for Calais, where they arrived
late at night. The next day they went by " The Telegraph " to
Boulogne, and in the evening, after seeing the sights, his father
left him at the school in the old Convent, close to what is now the
Cathedral. Tertius Galton waited a week in Boulogne

" to assure himself of the dear child's perfect happiness. He did not shed a tear,
or seem at all uncomfortable at parting with his father, but to the last repeated how
happy and comfortable he was, and how kind Mrs Neive, the housekeeper, and every-
body was to him."

So Violetta Galton tried to console herself, but she sat down and
wrote the little record of her son which has been preserved to this day,
and she placed at the front the silhouette, which I have reproduced —

Childhood and Boyhood 71

the earliest portrait of Francis Galton. Before her also she doubtless
had two of the three little packets which lie on my table as I write
this: the first is entitled, "Baby's Hair," a fine golden shade, the second
" Baby's Hair, Fras. Galton " was preserved by his sister Emma Sophia,
and is of a paler shade and probably earlier, and the last " Francis'
Hair, 1829(?)," a bright light brown, must represent him much as he
was in Boulogne.

At the school he was placed in a high class, although the boys'
ages ranged to fifteen. A collection of eight letters written from
Boulogne were copied into a notebook by his sister Adele, and the
originals of five of them have also been preserved. These letters are
boyish letters, referring to the animals at home, his garden patch, the
doings of his sisters and brothers, and of his grandfather at Duddeston.
The letters are probably not quite characteristic, for I shrewdly suspect
they were supervised by the master, who occasionally adds a footnote
of his own, and in one case cross-writes a good deal of the note. Most
of the letters begin with a statement that Francis is very happy at the
school, but in later life Galton always spoke of his unhappiness there,
and the reiterated statements of happiness and the kindness of the
other boys do not seem spontaneous. Here are samples of these
boyish letters :

Boulogne suk Mer,

Saturday, 30th Oct., 1830.
My dear AcfeLE,

I an) very happy at School. The Boys are all pretty kind to me. I am

growing very tall, and in better proportion, for I am just able to clasp my wrist. I am

invited out every Sunday which I like very much. I was put in the third class a little

while ago, because I was not able to keep up with them in lessons. I ani reading a

French book called Robinson, for I have just got out of the Grammar. I do Florilegium

which I think is very hard in some places for they are taken out of the end of the

Delectus, but some are very easy. I have not begun to learn either fencing or dancing —

but I think I soon shall Ijegin. Tell Emma to take great care of my garden, and to see

that none of the sisters take any of my HoUyocks up, else I shall be in a most terrible

rage when I come home. I like Cowper's Poems very much for there is at the end a very

entertaining account of some Hares. 1 hope that the Pigs, Dogs, Horses and Covvs are

quite well. Please don't feed Riugwood so much if you think it will make him a

bad Dog. Give my best love to Papa and Mama, Sisters, and to Grandpapa and

Aunt Sophia,

And believe me always.

Your most afifectionate Brother,

Francis Galton.

72 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

A month later Francis writes :

Boulogne sur Mer,

Nov. 30, 1830.
,y My dear Mamma,

Thank you for your nice letters, but in your last letter you have no need to
praise me for mine, for I had put nothing in it hardly, for I had but a quarter of an
hour to write it in. When I said I was put in Robinson, I meant Robinson Crusoe,
which I like pretty well. I hope you will come over soon here for I should like to see
you, and to go out with you, for I miss dear Papa's greengages, which he used to give

me when he was here Tell Papa to bring at least two bottles of caustic, for what

you will hardly believe when I tell you that I have one hundred and forty-two little
warts. Unfortunately I have had a cold which kept me from going out yesterday, and
even I am now in the sick-room whilst I am writing this letter. I have been ill once
before, last Saturday I could hardly speak, and yesterday which was a going out
Sunday, I was kept in bed all day. I am getting on with my Latin pretty well, but
now I must end my letter for its getting very dark. Good bye and believe me always

Your most affectionate son,

Francis Galton.

In the next letter, we learn that little Frank, as he was called at
home, had spent his Christmas vacation as he did the following Easter
holidays at Boulogne. Nor had there been a parental visit. After the
usual phrases about liking the school and the kindness of the boys, and
spending the holidays very happily, Frank continues :

" Please to tell Emma and Bessy to take the greatest care of my carnations, and other
flowers, for when I come home, I shall expect to see about twenty roots — and please

take up all the weeds that you can All my warts are gone off — except one that is

remaining. Thank you for saying that you would keep a bit of caustic. My flannel
drawers and waistcoats are very comfortable. I am very glad that you have left off
being a Banker^, for you will have more time to yourself and better health. I must
now leave off, so good bye, and believe me

Always your affectionate Son,

Francis Galton."

The next letter preserved follows the Easter holidays, and Francis
thanks his father for buying five shillings' worth of flower seeds for his
garden. He notes also that it now will not be more than three months
to the Midsummer holidays— when the precious garden and all the
domestic pets from dogs to Alderney cows would again be actualities.

• The Galton Bank was closed on May 31, 1831, and Tertius Galton removed at the
end of this year from Birmingham to Leamington.

Childhood and Boyhood 73

Frank returned home on June 30, and had only a clear day at home.
On July 2 he went to the Colonnade House, Worthing, for the holidays.
On August 31, Tertius Galton took his son up to London to join Mr
Bury for Boulogne.

In a letter three weeks later (Sept. 20, 1831) Francis announces
his safe return to his mother. After the usual phrases as to the happy
character of the school, Francis continues :

" I arrived here very safely. It was very calm indeed I think, but all the other
people thought quite the contrary. There was a very fine Newfoundland Dog, but he
was very tame indeed. Almost all the women were seasick. I lost my Berth, but even
if I had not, I would not have slept in it. When I was asleep we past the Hector (the
ship in which Captain Parry sailed to the northern regions), but when I awoke I found
myself just opposite Gravesend. There were many Brigs and Frigates. One of them
fired two guns, which I suppose was a salute. I did not see Sheerness, nor any three-
deckers anywhere up the Thames. We past the Wellesley and the other ships at the
Downs "

The boy of nine was developing into a good traveller. The last
letter but one of the Boulogne series may be given in full :

Wth November, Boulogne,
1831.
My dear Mama,

Please will you send the desk ' which you gave me, by somebody that comes
over here, or in anyway that you can, furnished well with wafers, sealing-wax, a gimblet
(for mine is broken), a turn-screw, good paper like that which you write on to Erasmus
and a little packet containing about twenty nails, and the same number of screws, with
a file. All the wire is come off that chain which Adele bought me, so I am obliged to
tie my keys to the buttonhole of my jacket by a piece of string. I have got the key of
my playbox, which I quite forgot to tell you in my last letter. My Greek Lexicons
have not become of great use to me, but I think they will soon, but I am always
wanting my Classical Dictionary when I do my Virgil. I am quite well and I hope
that you are also. I get better notes a great deal than I did last half-year, and am
much happier. One of the Masters saw my candle in my desk which I brought last
half, and he slyly took it away and put it on his desk, intending as I thought to keep it,
but as soon as he was gone to the other end of the room, 1 sneaked it up and took it
away and put it in my cap, — but alas ! he found it out, and I do not think I shall get
it again ; so please add a Taper to the various articles and a pretty seal. Desks are so
much in fashion tliis half, that there is hardly any big Boy that has not one. Send a
quantity of pounded gum arable, as I cannot manage to get it here. Send in my desk

' In the following letter he writes : " I am so desirous of having my desk, that
I am making a very nice place to put it in, where no Boy can get, and I am always
thinking of it."

p. o. 10

74 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

with the other articles a great quantity of impressions of different seals, for a great
many Boys are always asking nie to give them the seals of my letters (as I have the
most) for gum seals, which indeed are very pretty. 1 quite long to see my gallant desk
arrive. Edward Fisher is not come to school. Schonswar is very kind to me, and he
alwa}'s gives me wafers when I want them, but now in the Even" we are not allowed to
stir from our places, and in the morning ho is doing French.
So good bye, and believe me.

Your affectionate Son,

Francis Galton.

The last letter undated is written two weeks before the Christmas
holidays, again to be spent a\\ay from home. Clearly Frank had
heard of the coming change to Leamington. " I wish very much
indeed" — he writes to his father — "just to go to Birmingham again
and to see the Larches and Dudson — and other parts of Birmingham
again." In the following year, when Frank came home for his holidays
in June, he left Boulogne for good. But besides the change of home to
Leamington, other marked changes occurred for the Galtons in 1832.
Towards the end of January Grandmother Darwin — Elizabeth Collier
— became ill and died on the fifth of February. She had always been a
marked feature of the Galton circle. The visits to Breadsall Priory
(see Plates XLIII and XLIV) were frequent^ and Grandmother
Darwin's visits to Birmingham were much appreciated ; thus her death
was a source of great sorrow to her grandchildren. She had had 12
children, 41 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren and at her death
60 descendants survived her. On the 10th of June of the same year
Grandfather Galton also died ; he was buried in the Quaker ground at
Bull Street. Thus the visits to Duddeston, made by the grandchildren
hitherto two or three times a week, came to an end, and the influential
Quaker element'' disappeared from their lives. With the death of his
fatlier Samuel, Tertius Galton — already a fairly wealthy man — became
more so, and the future independence of the members of his family
was assured. It was largely the wealth acquired by his grandfather
Samuel Galton the second, that freed Francis Galton from any necessity

^ Francis with his father, mother and sisters had had a very happy visit there in
1827. One evening they got up a country dance, their grandmother Elizabeth Collier —
then in her 80th year — joined in and heartily enjoyed it.

^ The influences were of an intellectual kind also. The drawing room and dining
room at Duddeston were large rooms, three sides of the latter and part of the former
were lined with books of history, botany, natural history, poetry, etc., and the grand-
children had the advantage of being allowed to borrow any book they liked.

Phitc XLIII

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^. ^ I

13 ■«

to S
3 S

!3«
S §

Plate XLIV

HKKAUSALL t IH lU II.

From a sketoli. Tliis Cliiiitli coutaiii.-; the tomlis of Krasiniis Darwin and his widoH (Klizalx'th Collier)
* with tliose of other members of the Darwin family.

BRI-:.U)SALL I'RIOIIV.

Purchased hy Krasiiiiis Darwin tlie Vounj;er, afterwards occupied hy Krasinus Darwin the Klder, and later
by bis widow. From a water-colour sketch at Claverdini.

Piute XI A'

mi-

Jnf

^ u

'Mil i ' ^■"

y^tVC

■^^d

--^/r/.

X', ■

Plan of The Larches, the birtliplace and home of Francis Galton's boyhood, witli two

inset aspects of the house. From a plan by Violetta Galton {iu!e Darwin). We see

the road to Mrs French's school and the meadows where Charles Darwin rode and
sliot with the (ialtoii lioys.

Childhood and Boyhood 75

for following a profession, and knowing Samuel Galton's character as
we do' we may feel confident he would have approved his grandson's
final disposition of a large portion of it.

With his return from Boulogne the first period of Francis Galton's
life closes ; his childhood is over and his boyhood begins. The letters
we have quoted from these early years may appear to the reader to
contain little of note. They are indeed just what a healthy normal
child would write, but it is that very fact that makes them essentially
human documents and gives them their fundamental interest. We
rejoice to see that men who have laid their mark on their age are in
constitution just such human beings as we ourselves and closely akin to
the childworld with which we are all so familiar. Need we attempt to
see signs of exceptional ability or to discover foreshadowings of future
achievement in the outpourings of healthy childhood ? I do not think
we can say more than that Francis Galton was a normal child with
rather more than average ability, and that possibly only his mother,
Violetta, realised instinctively that he was not just like the rest of her
children.

From plans and sketches of the Larches drawn by Violetta
Galton and her daughters Bessy and Emma we are able to realise the
home of Francis Galton's childhood, which appeared to him so delight-
ful, not only from the distance of Boulogne, but from the distance of
later life. The house was a spacious one three storied in front and
five-windowed across, two tall larches^ overtopping the roof stood
as sentinels right and left. Two wings went out from the rear,
that on the left faced a garden with terrace leading to a summer
house. This wing had a bay window, and made the house on this
side also three storied and five-windowed across. The right-hand wing
ran back to the stable and brewhouse, which had once been Priestley's
laboratory. At the back of the house was a large yard terminating in
poultry-, coach-, and pig-houses, with cow sheds leading directly to the
fields, where the boys used to scamper about on their ponies. We see
the very spot where " Ringwood " and his fellows were kept, and the
ai-chery ground, and wonder which out of the many flower borders
was the patch tended by Frank, where his beloved hollyhocks and

' See pp. 43—48.

' Mrs Wheler in her Reminiscences says these trees were among the first larches
brought to England.

10—2

76 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

carnations flourished. Undoubtedly it was a spacious, pleasant home
and one round which many childish memories would grow up still more
spaciously and pleasantly (see Plate XLV).

It is in the essence of childhood to have but one real ' home ' and
we may question whether Galton ever felt to 44 Lansdowne Place,
Leamington, as he felt towards the Larches.

Francis, as we have seen, came back at the end of June to England,
and on July 11 following, a month after his grandfather's death, we
find him on what was probably a last visit to Duddeston :

My dear Papa,

Last night I caught four perch and this morning I had much better luck for
I caught in about the same time three perch and four roach. When I was coming to
Nole a carriage arrived just before in which was a Lord ; as the servants were handing
his wife out all of a sudden she fell on the pavement and was hurt very much indeed.
I and Adele made a very good dinner on the biscuits which I brought with me. Good
bye. Aunt Sophia sends her best love to all.

Were the birds (see p. 41) still on the lake as Francis caught
his fish ? Francis' reputation as a fisherman seems to have been a
family joke, and two years later provoked a retort in sketch caricatures
of a shooting expedition of his brother Darwin (see Plate XLVI).

"Dear Dar, so I hear that no horses were strained to death in carrying your game,
but however I send you some caricatures below."

The sketches are somewhat crude, giving little sense of Francis
Galton's later power with his pencil. They open with Darwin giving
instructions to Ben to provide a waggon with four strong horses to
bring the game home, then we see Darwin in a gig with keeper and
guns and three dogs. Thirdly comes the death of one dog, and the
partridges' mocking flight, " Hee, Hee, Hee ! " Fourthly the arrival of
the waggon and waggoner " I have brought the waggon and four stout
horses." " Why I have only been able to kill my dog," says Darwin ;
" however buy 1 hare and 6 brace of partridges and put them in the
cart." The last picture represents the return of the sportsman to the
family circle : " Well, what news ? " says Mamma. "Why, I couldn't kill
anything but the dog, it must have been the fault of my gun ; but at
the end I murdered 6 brace and 1 hare." Chorus: " Hum, bad Carpen-
ters always complain of their Tools." Papa : " Who was it I saw
buying partridges for one Darwin Galton ? "

Plate XLVI

KRASMI S DARWIN (17:)1 -1802).
(iraiiilf'atlier of Charles Darwin anil Francis
(ialton. Friini a paintinjic l>y Wright of
Derl>y.

DARWIN (iALTON (1814—190:!).
Eldest brotlier of Francis lialtoii as sportsman.
From a pict\n-e by Oakley at Claverdon.
See p. 7-i.

Childhood and Boyhood

" You see it is now tit for tat, the birds are not more afraid of you than the fish are

of me. Hope Delly' is well, give my love to all. Good bye.

F. GaltonI"

After the home was transferred to Leamington, Francis was sent to
school at the Rev. Mr Atwood's, who was Vicar of Kenilworth. This
was a small private school with about half a dozen boys. Atwood was
a relative of the inventor of Atwood's machine, a man who, to quote
Galton's own words, " without any pretence of learning, showed so much
sympathy with boyish tastes and aspirations that I began to develop
freely'."

At this school Galton came in touch with the two Boulton boys,
Mathew P. Watt and Hugh William, grandson of Boulton of the Lunar
Society and the close friend of Samuel Galton, Wedgwood and
Erasmus Darwin. Mathew Boulton became an intimate friend of
Francis Galton, and one of the inspiring influences of his life^ At
Atwood's school carpentry and turning appealed to Francis' special and
boyish instincts. Bird trapping, slings, archery, cricket helped to fill
up the time. But he had got even beyond this, the summer holidays
had been spent at Aberystwith and he had shot with a gun for the first
time.

Half a dozen Kenilworth letters have survived. The first shows
us that Mr Atwood did not fail to mingle a spice of theology with his
other teachings :

December 30, 1832.

My dearest Papa,

It is now my pleasure to disclose the most ardent wishes of my heart which
are to extract out of my boundless wealth in compound', money sufficient to make this
addition to my unequalled Library

The Hebrew commonwealth by John
A Pastor advice

Hornne's commentaries on the Psalms
Paley's evidence on Christianity
Jones' Biblical Cyclopoedia

All books much approved of.

' Adele. ' Letter to Darwin Galton, Sept. 8, 1835.

' Memories, p. 19. * I.e., p. 20.

' This and the reference in the Will, p. 68, suggest that Tertius Galton had put by
certain monies for Francis at compound interest.

78 Life atul Letters of Francis Galton

Francis' spelling and writing do not improve, and this confirms my
view of much supervision at Boulogne ; but all things become freer and
more natural. On February 7, 1833, Francis writes :

Dearest Pater,

I wisli you would send me as soon as possible tliree boards just like those
which you gave me to carpenter upon on for very particular circumstances and send them
as quick as possible. I intend to direct the letter to Adele for fear if Pater should
not be at home you may keep it for him the directions for the size are about 1 inch in
thickness and a foot in breadth F. G.

[Miss A. Galton, No. 44 Lansdowne Place, Leamington]

When capitals and all stops disappear that boy is full of his own
ideas and supremely happy ! The Boulogne statements as to " happi-
ness " have wholly vanished, and Francis is really happy. Again :
My dearest Father,

I have enclosed this note to Mrs Yard (?) as you desired me and I also hope
that you will put its direction on it as I do not know it. Please ask Dely to send one

rat
of those ste^ iron traps like the one in which you caught your fingers with teeth and

tell her I will discharge the immense sum of 1', S"* at the Easter Holidays.

Francis Galton.
And again :

My dearest Pater,

Please would you let me stay here till next Tuesday because I think that
I could [learn a] deal more at [?from] Mr Churchill than otherwise for he teaches
famously. I have no more time to write so Good bye,

Francis Galton,
alius
Snog, Lord Torment
and
Tease.

When a boy asks to stay longer when the Christmas holidays are
arriving in order presumably that he may " learn a deal more " all
must be well with him ! Who Mr Churchill may have been, T don't
know\ but no man ever received a higher testimonial to his teaching.

The Christmas holidays of 1833 had been memorable in the
Galton annals. An attempted robbery was made at Lansdowne Place,
only to be consummated some weeks later. Francis Galton gave an
account of the event 65 years afterwards:

' Possibly a teacher of chemistry, for according to another memorandum Francis
began to study chemistry at this time, but the teacher is said to be French.

Childhood and Boyhood 79

"I was at home during the Christmas Holidays when an attic was my bedroom.
Awaking one morning before daylight, when a faint light came from the street lamps,
I saw vaguely, the dark form of a man, standing by my bedside, hut saw very clearly
the white blurs made by his face and hands, for he was on the side opposite the window.
Still it was impossible to be sure of the reality. I was but a small boy, in so great a
terror that my tongue refused to articulate properly, when I tried to speak. Then with
a great effort, I sprang out of bed and pushed at the figure. My hand came against the
body of a man. Forthwith I pulled the bedclothes over my head, expecting every
moment to be stabbed through the counterpane. Thus I lay in agony until the day
broke and light coming through the clothes made it seem safe to look out. When I
told my story at breakfast, I was laughed to scorn, they said it was a nightmare, but
I knew better'. The robbery took place a few days later, when I had returned to
school and the attic was empty. The thieves gained access through that room, entering
through the window from the roof and leaving the dirty marks of the slippers they wore
all about the floor. The servants then said that similar marks but fewer of them, had
been seen the morning after my adventure. My conclusion was that the man by my
bedside, was a reality and no dream, and that he had entered, it might be merely to
prospect tiie premises, believing that the attic was vacant, more probably that he came
with the intention of making the theft, but finding the attic occupied and fearing an
alarm, he decamped, to return on another occasion, when assured that the occupant of
the room was gone. He doubtless heard through an accomplice servant that no credit
had been given to my tale.

Francis Galton, Sept. 2, 1898."

In this robbery at Lansdowne Place Francis lost his watch ^ and
the accompanying letter received March 1, 1834, reminds his mother
that a year has sped without a new watch.

My dearest Mater,

I now write this letter to you on particular business to remind you of some-
thing which although you may have forgotten is still as fresh as possible in my memory
which is that a few days after the robbery (the day of which was yesterday) you did,
for the purpose of solacing and comforting me on account of the watch, faithfully
promise that if that said article was not discovered another exactly similar to that

' An almost identical incident occurred to the present writer as a child of nine,
except that the man — lunatic or sleepwalker — was seated on the edge of the bed and
visible in the moonlight that fell on him from the open window. I recollect keenly to
this day, the effort to test the reality and the solidity of the man, then the hours of
torture under the bedclothes, to be told it was a nightmare, but I too knew better,
though no demonstration of its reality ever came to justify me !

' In the police advertisement: £50 Reward, Robbery of Jewels etc., February 23,
1833, we read among other things: "a small silver French Hunting Watch, supposed
to have F. G. engraved upon the Back." It is probable that this watch was a present
from Francis' grandfather Samuel, from whom a nice letter is still extant to his son
Tertius ; this letter covered a draft to purchase watches for the grandchildren.

80 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

should fill up my watch-pocket and as the aforesaid article has not been found in the
hands of anybody I do assuredly hope and expect that the next time my foot shall cross
the threshold of No. 44 a silver watch shall be given into the hands of me. Herein
fail not.

I have been going on with my chemistry very hard and please give a thousanfl
thanks to TraT-qp for Turner since it is of a deal of use to me. As the sole import
of this letter is to remind you, mammy, of the watch I have nothing else to say so
good bye Tut Squagde.

One more letter, written to his sister just before the summer
vacation to be spent at Weymouth, and the happy days at Kenilworth
come to an end.

[Be/ore June 12, 1834.]
My dear ADi)LE,

I think that when you write to me you might possibly remember to put
where you live for the letter that you last sent to me had not the direction in it so that
when I come to Weymouth I shall not know where to go unless you write. (Please
don't read the following loud but let it be secret. Coax Pater as much as you can to
get me a gun and ask him when he is not at all in a black humour and I leave the rest
of it to yourself.) I hope that Poddy has quite recovered-ber fright and is much better
and I wish I had been there to enjoy the fun'. I wish that you had not gone to
Weymouth for you said in your last letter that it was a large place which makes it as
bad as even Brighton. Try and get a great many eggs of rare sorts but not of the
common for I have a great many of them and cover them with rather weak gum and
water instead of blowing them and try and learn their names. I am coming on the 1 9th
and are there many places for fishing Atwood is gone out for three days and
Hugh Williams goes on the 12th. Good bye and remember what I asked you.

Frank Galton.

Fishing, birds'-nesting, possibly I fear shooting sea-birds, such
were the occupations of Frank's summer holiday. Soon after his return
home a new school was found for him. Tertius Galton retained the
Quaker dislike of pubUc school education and he still held to th.e
Birmingham tradition. Had the former been based on the perception
that a classical education was idle for Frank, it had been justified, but
he sent him into the centre of a big town — to obtain a suitable
education as its justification ? No ! to obtain precisely the classical
drilling which at least he would have obtained under healthier environ-
ment in several public schools. It is remarkable to look now on the

' I think this must refer to the following incident : Mr Galton had purchased
horses for his daughters to ride, and when two of them were out passing the barracks,
the drums began to beat, and one of the steeds bolted with its mistress into the barrack
yard and took its place at the head of the regiment — it was an old troop-horse.

(Jhiklhood and Boyhood

intellectual activity of Birmingham, on Priestley, Watt, Boulton,
Samuel Galton, and their association with the Wedgwoods and
Darwins, and realise that no attempt was made to free Birmingham
from the trammels of mediaeval education. Samuel the first had
indeed sent his son to Warrington Academy to study under Priestley
and Enfield, but the younger genei-ation, the sons and grandsons of the
men, who had made Birmingham and their great fortunes out of
Bii'mingham, fell back into the old theological and educational ruts.
It is one of the most interesting chapters in the life of Francis Galton
to read on the one hand the letters of Dr Jeune, headmaster of King
Edward's School, Birmingham', then called the Free School, to Tertius
Galton, and compare his views on education with those of his pupil
Francis Galton, a boy in his teens ! Galton lived in Dr Jeune's house
at Edgbaston, and walked daily through a mile of streets to school
and back. He started with ill luck, for some weeks after going on
Jan. 26, 1835 to the school, he was invalided home and the attack
proved to be one of scarlet fever. Francis had been in the doctor's
hands in the previous Christmas vacation and was possibly specially
receptive, and the attack undoubtedly left him languid and inert. The
epidemic was a severe one, for the headmaster wrote that he felt
convinced by his late fatal experience that however disguised it might
be by other symptoms it would turn out as in every recent instance an
attack of scarlet fever. " It is a subject of congratulation rather than
of regret that he should have undergone the trial, as the complaint I
understand never returns." Little Johnny Booth, stepson of Galton's
aunt, Adele Booth, who had been at Boulogne with him, and then
gone to the Free School died from the fever. The life of another
boarder was despaired of for some days. We have indeed to remember
that we are back in the days when healthy children were put to bed
with one that had the measles, in order that they might " get through
them." When Francis got back after Easter, he was far behind his
classmates and he was removed from the second into the third class
at his own desire. Probably he never properly recovered from this

' Dr Jeune afterwards became successively Dean of Jersey, Master of Pembroke
College, Oxford, and Bishop of Peterborough. He was a man of distinction and had
a distinguished son. He was only 2i^ when he went to Birmingham, and he remained
there from 1834 to 1838 just the time of Galton's career in the school. At Oxford he
was a reformer, and, perhaps, his experience at Birmingham was of value to him later.

p. G. 11

82 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

throw-back in his school woi'k. Writing before the attack to his father
on February 2, 1835, for his foils, he appears fairly cheerful :

"I am very happy liere, and we liave everything almost we could wish. We do an
immense deal of work but nevertheless I sliould like to fence as we should havc^ quite
3 quarters of an hour to ourselves after fencing for an hour on half-holidays. All this
week there have been only two boys caned and none flogged they are in such capital
order, but the rules are pretty strickt [sic!] and the Doctor does not allow us to make
a mistake in our Grammar."

But this tone of commendation very soon ceased. Of the rest of
this year we have no further records in letters, but we know that the
summer vacation was spent at Castle House, Aberystwith^ — the second
visit to that place ; that the mode was shooting — in which sea-gulls
and water wagtails met their fate. Here too Dr Jeune was invited to
come for a few days' change — not wholly to the satisfaction of Francis —
and the family learnt how a very clever man may be ignorant of evei-y-
day customs*.

One day in July the family was alarmed by hearing that a mad
bull had got loose and was tearing round the town. He had tossed a
small man onto the top of a fish-stall.

" We all went out in front of our house, which was enclosed and so quite safe, to
watch. Just under our wall was a flight of six or eight steps, and some children were
seated on them. The bull rushed by, clearing the whole steps, children and all, without
hurting them, and rushed towards the sea, the men following him with pitchforks only
made him worse, and he darted into the sea and swam away. The butcher not wishing
to lose him got a boat and rowed after him. The poor beast thoroughly tired, allowed
them to put a rope round him and tow him back, when he dropped down on the sands
unable to stir. The butcher went to get something to put an end to him, when, on his
return, the bull jumped up and charged him. Away scampered the man and it was
some time before the bull was caught, I think he was shot at last for no one dared go
near him. Francis drew a caricature of 'All the Taflies put to flight by one John Bull,'
and showed it to our Welsh cook, who was very angry with him. She had offended him
by throwing away some rooks he had shot, instead of making them into a rook-pie, .so
he had taken this means of punishing her " (^Irs Wheler's Reminiscences, p. 1 92).

Returning home Darwin drove Francis back in a "dogcart out-
rigger." The servants went by coach, which was overturned at Bewdley

Francis went to Aberystwith in May — probably to recuperate — and we find him
on May 20, 30 and June 1 sending with brief letters to Dr Jeune long translations from
Cicero, Greek exercises, translations of the Medea, Latin verses, etc., and asking the
Doctor to forward his Donnegan, Ainsworth, and Lempriere. Clearly the terrible Doctor
and his classical torments followed him into his Welsh holiday!

Childhood and Boyhood

Bridge, the maids escaping but the butler being injured. The family
usually posted, sometimes in their own carriage '.

It is worth recording that the first mechanical design of Francis
that has been preserved dates from July 17, during this Aberystwith
stay. It is entitled: "Francis Galton's Aerostatic Project, 17 July,
1835." It represents a flying machine with five passengers, a pilot
and (?) an engineer. It was apparently designed to work by rather
large flapping wings, with a sort of oscillating steam-engine. The
mechanism of the flapping indicated in two additional rough sketches
is not very clear. I do not know how far it was suggested by his
Grandfather Erasmus' lines on air-ships".

The only record of the autumn of this year is a letter from Dr Jeun^
of August 26, reporting the marked throw-back in Francis' educational
progress due to his illness. He reports him, however, in excellent
health and spirits with a good appetite, and notes that his vigour
in cricket and football promise well for the continuance of his health.
From the beginning of 1836, however, we have a small pocket diary. It
is fuU of the frank outpourings of a very healthy boy, who has clearly
no one to guide his tastes and sympathies. I shall give a few extracts :

Saturday, Jan. 2. Took Pincher with a cord and Crab and Game a walk. Darwin

came back from Brum. I went to the Younge's party, pretty good tuck.
Monday, Jan. 4. "Went to shoot at Claverdon, killed a partridge. Went to Wood's party.
Friday, Jan. 7. Invited to Mrs Proby, did not go. Went hunting, pony fell over me

and hurt my leg ; they had a run of an hour and 10 minutes.
Wednesday, Jan. 13. Thawed. Went to Mr Curtis who gave uie some feathers, and

taught me a good deal about artificial flie.s.
Thursday, Jan. 14. Had a dinner party ; the Dr' came here, much against my liking.
Wednesday, Jan. 20. The old Dr went away with Dar to Brum. I walked out with

Jones to fire my cannon.

' Earlier when Grandfather Galton took his family to Tenby, in Wales, he used to
hire the only two hackney carriages in Birmingham to take part of his party.
* " Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear

The flying-chariot through the fields of air.

Fair crews triumphant, leaning from above.

Shall wave their fluttering kerchiefs as they move ;

Or warrior-bands alarm the gaping crowd,

And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud."

The Botanic Garden, Canto i, 1. 291.
"There seems no probable method of flying conveniently but by steam or some other
explosive material, which another half century may probably discover." Note to 1. 254.
' Dr Jeune.

11—2

84 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

Monday, Jan. 25 is called "black Monday" and framed in black

border, because of return to school.

Tuesday, Jan. 26. The Dr flogged a chap. Tlie Dr's father was buried.

Friday, Jan. 29. Got 50 lines of Virgil for going down to school in the evening without

Earp's' permi.ssion, which he called an insult to his dignity.
Saturday, Jan. 30. A bit of a row at school got 30 lines from Gedge' for throwing

chewed paper at the fellows' heads. The dame' tremendously cross.
Sunday, Jan. 31. The dame pretends she's half dead with a headache.
Moiiday, Feb. 8. Got an imposition for knocking down an umberella (sic!).
Tuesday, Feb. 9. The Dr in a tremendous rage, because I let a chap copy his exercise

from me.
Wednesday, Feb. 10. The Dr came upstairs after we had gone to bed and caught us

making a row ; gave the chaps he caught tremendous impositions.
Thursday, Feb. 11. Got half the syntax to write out for not being able to say my lesson.

Dr very sulky.
Friday, Feb. 12. Dame received a valentine, which told her that she liked a pot of beer,

which I think is pretty true.
Fi-iday, Feb. 19. Saw a stuffed cat with 6 legs 4 ears 2 tails and one eye.

The rest of February, while well hlled with notices of imposition
and " tremendous rows " with the Doctor and Earp, is also noted by
young Jeune and another boy getting the small-pox. Most of the boys
went home, but

Thursday, Feb. 25. Saw Pater who told me I was not to go home, which I did not
much like only 2 left(?) in the 1st class.

March shows the same round of severity :

Tuesday, March 15. One boy was expelled and another flogged.

Thursday, March 17. Dukes was expelled.

Satui'day, March 19. Took a walk to Edgbaston park. Earp bought a swing for us,

to put which up we had to cut away some shrubs ; we expect a row.
Sunday, March 20. Foe preached. The Dr made a tremendous row about the swing

and said that it should be taken down.
Monday, March 21. The swing was taken down. We set up some leaping posts.
Tuesday, March 22. The Dr caught us looking over our books at school, a tremendous

row. One of the blagards gave ? a crack in his face^

Saturday, March 26. Bought a cat's gallows. Got caned.

Monday, Mar. 28. Got caned.

Good Friday, April 1. We were made to fast, but we went over to the grubshop and

got plenty.
Saturday, Ajml 2. The Doctor did not go round with his cane.

' Presumably an usher at the Doctor's house.

' Francis' form master. ^ Presumably the matron.

* There were continual fights with the street boys of the roughest kind.

Childhood and Boi/hood 85

Wednesday, April 6. 1 was examined by Gedge in mathematics, the examiners were

Cramer, Johnstone and Meryvale (1).
Thursdny, April 7. Was examined in classics. I was •2nd in class. Tom Price got the

prize. Bates and Holmes accesserunt. Came home.

After return to school the rather unedifying life begins again :

Monday, April 18. I knocked a fellow down for throwing a brick at me.

Tuesday, April 19. I thrashed a snob for throwing stones.

Wednesday, April 20. One of the boys bought a half-crown trumpet which made a

tremendous row.
Thursday, April 21. We bought a birch pro bono publico for 1.5 shillings.
Friday, April 22. A tremendous row in the streets, on account of a blaguard thrashing

one of our boys.
Monday, April 25. Saw the 1st swallow this year.
Tuesday, April 26. Got 30 lines of Virgil.
Wednesday, April 27. Got 20 lines of Virgil.

Tuesday, May 3. Got the syntax to write out for drawing a picture of a race.
Sunday, May 8. Arnold preached. A fellow gave me a thrashing in the street.

During the 2)eriod May 2 — 20 measles broke out in the school,
and Galton appears to have been ill and some days staying away from
school. Possibly he had a mild attack. On the 20th "mater" wrote
to ask for Francis to come home for Whitsuntide. But he is soon back
again at the old round :

Thursday, May 26. Got an imposition in algebra to do for Gedge.

Monday, May 30. Turner tecame a day boy, because he had not sufficient attention

shewn him.
Tuesday, May 31. A complaint in the Journal on account of the Dr sometime ago,

setting a boy 100 lines for talking.
Friday, June 10. The Dr took away a knife which I had bought with Pater's tip the

day before.
Thursday, June 16. Fletcher knocked the cricket-ball into the ivy and lost it. The Dr

was black as charcoal.
Friday, June 17. Had to bring up a tremendous imposition to the Dr.
Tuesday, June 21. The Dr stayed at home, so we could not have any bolstering or

fighting. Came home by the Regulator.

The summer holidays seem to have been spent at home ; tlie
weather was very hot — 85° in the sun. Darwin had bought a pony,
and the new pony and the old were driven tandem. Francis went to
stay with his sister Lucy (Mrs Moilliet), and shot thrushes and even a
swallow (" 1st shot"), and caught perch and other fish. Later in the
holidays he is shooting rabbits. This holiday also records :
Monday, July 18. Went to Stourbridge in the gig with Pater to see the locomotive engine.

86 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

Wednesday, July 20. Went to Kenilworth to see a new school opened, and electrified

the cat and girls.
Friday, July 22. Went with £mma to Kenilworth to sketch.

On August 8 Francis goes back to school, and the old state of

warfare is I'esumed. On the 11th the impositions begin; then the

boys go to bathe in the canal, but the Doctor stops it, and they go to

Ladywell bath. August 22 and 23 there are further impositions ; on

August 24 Hawkins gets thrashed. Sept. 1st Galton took a walk in

the evening by French leave, but was seen by the servants. Sept. 7

and 10 there are impositions, and on the 9th Galton is nearly thrashed

by the Doctor for not knowing his lesson. Sept. 12 there is another

imposition, but perhaps consolation in the record that the cat has run

away with one of the partridges presented to the Doctor !

Saturday, Sept. 17. Walked out, had an imposition. Dr in a black humour.

Sunday, Sept. 18. Had cider for dinner. I think the Dr is getting rid of it, for it

tasted very sour.
Tuesday, Sept. 20. A row between Hawkins and the blackguard ; had two chases after

him, but at last lost him.
Wednesday, Sept. 21. Lines missed for the 1st time since he [?the Dr] has come to the

school.
Thursday, Sept. 22. Was too late for school got an imposition.

For change on Sept. 27 there was a " regular row " with the
dame, and so through the months of October, November and December
we have the usual round of boyish pranks and punishments, inter-
spersed with touches of more general interest, e.g. Oct. 20 " The gas
was lighted for the first time," and Oct. 21 "The gas all of a sudden
went out. Got 40 lines." While on Oct. 22 "We walked to see the
railroad ; had some fun, was not in time for breakfast."

On the 27th of October Francis sends a very piteous letter to his

sister Adele :

My deae AoiiLE,

Thanks for the paper. I have not been able to write on account of
the hard work and many impositions I have lately had — 30 one day and 10 pages of Gk.
grammar to write out, the next 40, and the next 40, so that I have not had the least
time. Another boy has left and is believed to be in a consumption. Indeed I never
knew such an unhappy and unlucky school as this ; 2 more will leave at Christmas, and
I would give anything if I could leave it too. There has been a great row about some
chaps getting books from a neighbouring circulating library, one book the Dr cribbed
and another Earp threw into the fire, and some of us were called into the study, and he
accused us, telling the greatest story possible but luckily he was found out in most of

ChiWiood and Boyhood 87

them (sic). I do not like the Dr taking our class at school, he expects the granunar
said more perfectly than we can, & thrashes the lower part of the class for every mistake
they make in construing; this morning he thrashed 11 fellows in 8 minutes!! So we
have no peace at home through Earp, and no peace at school through the Dr. I wish
Papa had taken me away at the Holidays, hut of course he won't; he has no reason that
I know of except about changing schools, as forgetting that I am not getting on the
least and every day is a day wasted. How is it then expected that if I leave school at
17 as Pater has told me, I shall know enough to pass examination at college and again,
as you know how easily Latin and Greek are forgotten am T to turn away wholly from
classics to doctoring, which of course [will] confuse me and make me forget the greatest
part of what little I have learnt. How much better it would be to remove me before it
is too late. But, however, I suppose Papa will not change, and thei-efore I must bear
the consequences. Good bye, and believe me. Your affectionate brother, F. Galtox.

Ad^le, like a good sister, sent Francis' letter on to her father with
a postscript added :

" I have just received this letter and send it on for your perusal in case you should
like to make any inquiries, as poor Fi-ancis appears much downcast...."

Tertius Galton must have shortly afterwards communicated with
Dr Jeune, for there is a letter of the latter's dated Dec. 7 , 1836. He
thanks Mr Galton for his frankness and confidence, and promises to
communicate with him if he considers a change requisite in the course
of Francis' education, or if a public school instruction is really not
calculated to form his mind. Dr Jeune saw that Francis had great
powers, and believed that if he would apply them he would hold a very
distinguished position both in his school and later in the world. He
then states that he had that very evening been struck with the vigour
of a translation from Cicei'o which Francis had sent up to him, and that,
although there were undoubted inaccuracies in the exercise, it still
proved that he possessed a mind of no vulgar order. Dr Jeune is sure
that Mr Galton will second his exertions by paternal advice.

The letter is one of a conscientious man who lias not the least
insight into the wants of such a nature as Francis Galton 's. Here was
a boy of immense physical and mental activity, longing for employment
of hand and head, and no occupation is found for him but a drill in
grammar with imposition and cane as sanctions I The harshness of
treatment is no doubt modified now in many of our schools ; the war-
fare of master and boy is not so continuous. But is the workshop, the
laboratory, and the field expedition, the combination of observation
and physical exertion universally provided even now to meet the needs
of such natures as Galton 's ? Have we even now-a-days any true test

88 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

for ascertaining whether a man has real insight and sympathy with
boyish growth — any other test than a brilliant degree in classical or
other studies— before we appoint him to be headmaster of a school,
where quite unconsciously he may make one boy after another miserable ?

1 very gravely doubt it, and because I doubt it I have quoted much
from Francis Galton's diary, and must now give a letter written a few
months later (February 22, 1837). In the interval, i.e. since the letter
to Adele, the Doctor had been apparently trying to treat his boys more
as men, but the general scope of his method remained clearly the same :

My dear Papa,

Thank you very irmch for your kind letter and allowing me to take
mathematical lessons from Mr Mason. I have come over to your opinion that Classics
are of the greatest use in training the mind, but I feel certain that I do rwt get on as I
ought to do here. But even not counting that ; there is a thing which you must own is
of almost equal importance witli classics, and that is extensive reading in English, both
History and Poets'. Now although the Dr says he approves of that kind of reading,
yet when he comes in in the evening and sees us reading any book besides a classical
one, he always says to us " Have you done your lessons 1 " Then, if we sjiy Yes, he
makes us say them ; then if we do know them perfectly he tells us to look over what we
have done before, etc. In fact although nominally he approves of it, yet really he tries
to put a stop to it.

Also on thinking it over, it seems to me that 6 books of Euclid are very little for

2 years'". Now there was one thing which I forgot to say about English reading, that
my time of life is the one to make the most use of hereafter, and can anj' person
get on anywhere without having read certainly a great deal of English 1 When I i-ead
now I am obliged to read undei" the table at meals, or pick up time as I can which
amounts to very little in the end. As for my Classics T certainly am not getting on.
If at Easter we are made part of the Doctor's class we shall be put back and the old
round of impositions and hai-d work will come again as the Dr himself has assured us
more than once. If we remain on the other hand in Gedge's class, I .shall keep where I
am. I ask you in this lettei' to i-emove [me] not because I am unhappy here, for
certainly we have much more liberty and are treated moi-e as men but because I feel I
am really not getting on. I am not going down in my class, but then my class is

' On Dec. 14, 1836 his diary tells us that he "bought Lord Chestei-field and some
pomegranates." In Oct. 1837 he thanks his mother for sending him money to buy
Southey, but Southey being unprocurable, he had purchased Crabbe.

- I think Francis had learnt in mathematics a good deal more than this — perhaps
partly with Mr Mason. Thus there are from the year 1837 fragments of algebraic
notes on homogeneous products and limiting ratios. On a slip of paper recording work
done, we have not only the 6ti) and part of the 11th books of Euclid, but Algebra
Part I and Part II, except cubics, biquadratics and theory of equations ; Statics and
velocities of bodies. Dynamics, oscillations, projectiles, etc. ; Hydrostatics and Hydraulics,
and a "very little Differentials."

Childhood and Boyhood 89

remaining where it is. I leave it to you to do as you think best ; but I must say I
think I have good ground for what I have said. Goodbye and believe me your affec-
tionate son Francis Galton.

Although effective reform of the Free School did not come
during Francis Galton's school time, I cannot help thinking that his
attitude of prote.st, to some extent directly and more perhaps indirectly
through his father, produced real changes. The Doctor writes to Tertius
on Oct. 23, 1837, that he is studying Edinburgh schools, and that the
Governors have determined at Christmas to add to the establishment
a Mathematical and an English master, and further, at the beginning
of 1839, teachers of French and Drawing, and one more of English. The
final report which the Headmaster gives of his pupil is characteristic, but
shows the influence of the boy notwithstanding the constant warfare with
the masters. Mr Gedge reported that he went on well with his mathe-
matics, displaying much mental power and increasing daily in accuracy.
The Headmaster confirmed this judgment, remarking that Francis

" found it irksome to tie down his attention to the exactnesses and niceties which
distinguish a good classical scholar. It is generally the case that boys dislike most what
is most needed for their peculiar turn of mind. He will I think do well, for though he
does not entertain all the horror of false quantities or all the admiration of Greek accents
which are felt by some of his fellows, he js docile and willing to submit to occasional
defeat."

Such the opinion of the Master of the Boy ; in his Memories
Sir Francis gives the opinion of the Boy on the Master :

"I retained Dr Jeune's friendship until his death, and it was impossible not to
i-ecognise his exceptional ability and educational zeal, but the character of the education
was altogether uncongenial to my temperament. I learnt nothing and chafed at my
limitations. I had craved for what was denied, namely an abundance of good English
reading, well-taught mathematics and solid science. Grammar and the dry rudiments of
Latin and Greek were abhorrent to me, for there seemed so little sense in them " (p. 20).

Galton had been anxious and willing to learn, but he had been
given stones instead of the bread that he hungered for, and thus his chief
school years were years of stagnation. It is curious to find him uttering
in 1908, when 86 years of age, the very opinions he had given in 1837,
when a boy of 15 ! I have spent long over this school period because it is
not only interesting from the standpoint of educational history, but it is
possible that some few parents reading these lines may save another
boy from a like ])eriod of depression and stagnation, for I sadly fear its
possibilities have not for ever vanished.

p. 0. 12

90 Life and Lettera of Francis Gallon

The Slimmer of 1837 had been spent at Worthing with expeditions
on the Downs to Cissbury and Chanctonbury Rings. Frank was studying
fishes, making smidials, and riding with his sisters and Darwin. In
the preceding Easter he had projected a tour to Bangor, to attend
cathedral service there, since he " had never heard it chaunted," then
to Snowdon, Beaumaris, and back by Liverpool and Manchester (Letter
to Tertius Galton, March 26, 1837'). I am hot certain whether the
tour came off. Perhaps it was postponed till the Birmingham and
Liverpool Railway was opened. This happened on July 4, and in
September Tertius Galton, his daughter Emma and Leonard Horner,
travelled from Birmingham to Liverpool, by what is now the London
and North-Western Railway, to attend for the first time by train the
meeting of the British Association.

Francis lingered on at the King Edward School for the first half
of 1838 S but he knew that his time was over, and that freedom and
more congenial pursuits were soon to come'. His father had arranged
that he should enter the General Hospital, Birmingham, at midsummer
as House Pupil. The proposal was made at the Weekly Board,
December 8, 1837, Rev. John Garbeth, Chairman, "Resolved: That
the Secretary do write to Mr Galton informing him that his son will
be admitted a Pupil at the Hospital at Midsummer next at the rate of
200 guineas per annum." It was afterwards arranged that he should
postpone his medical studies till October. His appointment was con-
firmed by the Weekly Board, December 29, 1837, R. T. Cadbury being
Chairman. Dr Booth, the husband of his aunt Adfele, and Mr Joseph
Hodgson, who had seen him into the world, seem to have acted as his
medical sponsors. This was the bridge, not a very direct one, but
of great import in its influence, by which Francis Galton passed from

' This letter is of considerable interest. Francis discusses quite freely with his
father his work in mathematics and his chance of being second in the class. He also
discusses with his father the proposition as to the equality of the triangles with two
sides of each equal and two not included angles.

^ A boyish poem on the Spanish Inquisition has survived from March of this year.
Without any definite evidence, it seems to me to show signs of the study of Erasmus
Darwin's verses. Galton never attained any power as a poet, but from sixteen onwards
to the end at least of his Cambridge days, he was very fond of making occasional verses.

* In his last school letter to his father, chiefly about the medical man he was to live
with in Birmingham, and his gratitude for the new educational departure, Francis notes
that the Doctor is "sworn in to-day at Jersey"; he, too, was leaving the field of battle.

Plate XLVII

HIDSON (ilRNKV aii.l MAIUiAKICT (il KXKV (Maifiaiet liairlay), sister of Captain Haiilay.

MRS FRY (Elizabetli Guriiey).

Hiulsoii, Klizabetli and Marpiret (Juniey were all {freat-fjraiiddiildreii of David Rarilay of Cheapside,

and second cousins to eacli other and to 'J'ertius Galton, another great-grandchild.

Childhood and Boyhood 91

the harsh discipHne of a classical school into the fascinating field of
scientific observation '.

But the year was to be memorable in other ways. The house at
Claverdon, the country home of the Galtons, was taken in hand. In
June the Coronation of Qileen Victoria took place. On the 26th
Francis Galton went up to London to stay with Darwin in his lodgings,
and spent most of the time with his sisters at the Howard Galtons in
Portman Square. It was his first long stay in London, and his friends
took him out each day sight-seeing. Every house had thrown out
balconies, and scaffolding, and galleries, covered with crimson cloth, had
been built for spectators. The Hudson Gurneys (see Plate XL VII) had
obtained a ticket for Sister Bessie in the Abbey itself. Uncle Howard
and Sister Emma were at the Reform Club, Darwin at a Mr Collins',
the Hubert Galtons in St James' Street, and Francis got a seat in Pall
Mall for 30s. Sister Bessie (Mrs Wheler) describes the excitement both
inside and outside the Abbey very vividly for us, the crowds, the
illuminations, the ceremony and the feelings of the day itself.

I have frequently thought that Galton's idea of carrying, when in
a crowd, a block of wood or a brick in brown paper which he let down
by a piece of string and stood upon, as well as his "hyperscope," a simple
tube with two parallel mirrors at 45 degrees to its axis, were devices
impressed upon him by his experience at these coronation festivities ;
they satisfied his desire to see over the heads of a mass of people.
Unfortunately no letter of Francis himself, describing the events, has
been preserved. But the formal beginning of the new reign was the
formal beginning of Francis Galton's adolescence. Henceforth he was
no longer a boy, but an apprentice, starting his craft ; rather early, it is
true — at sixteen years of age — and rather old-fashionedly, but he was
strong in character, and given freedom, he could and would absorb all
that his active mind needed for its sustenance.

' There is an excellent letter, dated Leamington, December 9, 1837, from Samuel
Tertius to his son, announcing the medical appointment. He writes :

"I really believe, if you turn the opportunities you will have at the Hospital to the
Ijest account and avail yourself of the advautages of explanation that my medical friends
there will be disposed to give you, if they find you willing to profit by them, that you
will begin your medical career very propitiously. You must be careful to avoid low
company and not be led astray by any pupils there that may not be equally well disposed
— but I have great confidence in your wish to do what is right, and when we meet at
your approaching holidays, we will talk over all your plans and arrangements in good
earnest aud particularly in reference to your masters and studies whilst at the Hospital."

12-2

CHAPTER IV

LEHRJAURE AND WANDERJAHRE

Part I. Medical Studies and the Flight to Constantinople

Before Francis Galton started work at Birmingham, a delightful
trip for the sixteen year old boy was arranged in July, 1838. He
travelled across Europe with two young medical men. Bowman and
Russell, who were going on a tour combining pleasure of travel with
inspection of continental hospital practice. The link with Bowman is
pretty clear ; he was the son of John Eddowes Bowman, a naturalist
and banker of Wrexham. He had been a pupil of Joseph Hodgson and
then house-surgeon to the General Hospital, Birmingham; in the
previous year he had gone to London to study at King's College, and
he was later well known to fame as Sir William Bowman, the ophthalmic
surgeon. Of Russell the only knowledge I possess is that conveyed by
Galton himself in his long letters to his own father.

Wediiesday Niyhl 25 of July, 1838
Old Hummums
My dear Govenor [sic]

First of all the things that I send are those that are over and above
what I want; there is much grumbling about the size of my carpet bag. Now to my
history. I arrived at the Coventry Station house at about 9. Accordingly I looked
about Coventry till it was ^ past and returned and took my station on the steps; at
25 minutes to 10 the train came up — prominent out of one of the carriages was a pale
jaundicy face, to which face was attached a most indescribable proboscis across which
glittered a pair of spectacles. Before even the train stopt the mouth of the foresaid
face was engaged at bawling out the name of "Galton" in such a tone that the passengers
of the other carriages simultaneously popped their heads out of the windows expecting
some awful calamity. I accordingly, most awfully ashamed for the police officer had
taken up the hue and cry, and Galton was the burden of the song, elbowed my way to
where the yellow face was bawling, introduced myself, Russel's' eyes glistened through

' The spelling varies of this name.

Plate. XLVIII

FRANCIS GALTON.
From a portrait by Oakley of 1840. (Galtoii Laboratory, University of London.)

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre

his spectacles with joy having at last found me, and fairly out of breath reseated himself.
We went on to Rugby, where we were turned out into coaches, which were very bad
ones, and so got to Denbigh Hall, where we got into the train again and reached
London. Cabbed to the Old Hinnniunis — went to Bowman and arranged plans for the
next day.

Next day there were passports' to be got and viseed. Francis
went to Barclay's for his letter of credit. Then he went down to dine
with Barclay at Leyton and to stay the night, there being sixteen
jiersons to dinner, all Barclays or Gurneys but three. Among other
details of his two days in London Galton reports :

"I was magnetised to-day; it had not .so much effect on me as last time; the Baron"
said that he was quite exhausted. We set off tomorrow. Bowman will press on to the
top of the perch, I cannot displace him, Russel and I are fighting for the next place."

We can picture the three young men, Bowman 22 years old,
Russell 20, and Galton miich as we have him in his portiait, all ready
and lit for their fi'olic ; Galton somewhat shy, and probably more boy-
like and sensitive to appearances than his comrades (see Plate XLVIIl).
He was still in the stage, when to be unusual, e.g. carry a parcel through
the streets — or look singular — was really painful to him. This was a
matter in which travel would aid him and did, for while no man was
more careful of social convention than Galton, even in his later years,
he did not allow it to become a tyrant and overrule comfort oi' con-
venience. I have heard him almost directly tell a caller to be gone, if
he wanted to talk business, and the following anecdote communicated
by his niece Mrs Lethbridge, witnesses how far in later years he had
advanced from the boy of 16, who felt shy when his name was bawled
through Coventry station :

"I have an amusing recollection of a little trip to Auvergne which he and I took

together in the summer of 1 904 The heat was terrific, and I felt utterly exhausted,

but seeing him perfectly brisk and full of energy in spite of his 82 years, dared not for
very shame, confess to my miserable condition. I recollect one terrible train-journey,
when, smothered with dust and panting with heat, I had to bear his reproachful looks
for drawing a curtain forward to ward off a little of the blazing sun in which he was
revelling. He drew out a small thermometer which registered 94°, observing, ' Yes,

' Galton's passport dated July 24, 1838, and viseed by police and consuls and
burgomasters in almost every place he came to is now before me, a curious relic of this
journey.

- Querj' : Was this " animal magnetism " and the " Baron," Baron von Reichen-
bach

94 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

only 94°. Are you aware that when the temperature of the air exceeds that of blood heat
it is apt to be trying?' (I could quite believe it !) By and bye he asked me whether
it would not be pleasant to wash our face- and hands ] I certainly thought so, but did
not see how it was to be done. Then, with perfect simplicity and sublime disregard of
appearances and of the astounded looks of the other occupants of our compartment,
a very much ' got-iip ' Frenchman and two fashionably dressed Frenchwomen, lie
proceeded to twist his newspaper into the shape of a washhand basin, produced an
intinitesimally small bit of soap, and poured some water out of a medicine-bottle, and
we performed our ablutions. I fear I was too self-conscious to enjoy the proceedings,
but it never seemed to occur to him that he was doing anything unusual ! "

It needed African travel to enable Francis Galton to throw off
a certain self- consciousness ; I have heard acquaintances, who knew
perhaps little of his true simplicity and his width of toleration when
intellectual values were under consideration, speak of hira as conven-
tional. He belonged, indeed, to an old-fashioned school, which liked
good manners, which preferred its women to be pretty and dress
gracefully, and which appreciated without worshipping the conveniences
of wealth. But these conventional things were for him but grease to
the wheels of life, to be put aside, whenever they interfered with the
greater aims of existence. He might not have found it as easy as
W. Kingdon Cliffoi'd did, to call in at the butcher's and walk home
with a leg of mutton under his arm, but assuredly if "Universe" were
to be solved on the homeward walk, he would have kept Clifford
company regardless of the joint. Francis Galton's conventionality in
boyhood and youth was largely shyness and self-consciousness — in
manhood it was a traditional courtliness not without its protective
advantages, and wholly disappearing before the warmth of his affection,
when acquaintance had ripened into intimate friendship.

Our youthful travellers voyaged down the Thames and across to
Antwerp, thence to Brussels, Mechlin and Liege (see Plate XLIX).
Many of the letters to his father Tertius tell us of the usual travellers'
sights, the churches, the pictures and museums, but occasionally we
pass to things more suggestive, as the ornithological and geological
collections at Brussels, and then to the first pleasures of the Rhine, and
of the strangeness of foreign life.

"I really am quite full of obligations to you for letting me take this trip. I have
been as happy as possible. You must excuse my writing longer letters, as after being
out all day, coming into the coffee-room tired, you are stupefied with baccy smoke puffed
out of the moutlis of some 60 people. Then writing a long journal, it is rather tiring."

Plate XLIX

Sketch liy i'"iaiicis (iaitoii of the Bishop's (iateway at Lie^e. Visited 18.'J8.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjalire 95

The " tags " to his sisters (see Plate L) follow as usual :
" Dear Emma, since I wrote the first part of this letter I have been sketching most
tremendously — I took 33 drawings in the space of 4 liours or so in going from Bonn to
Coblentz. I have taken also a great many others. I am so very tired, that good bye
and l)elieve me ever your affectionate F. Galton. Dear Bess, I have duly kept your
precepts in mind about the immeasurable superiority oi Englishmen. 1 have not looked
out yet for vellum for you, because of carrying it such a distance. Dear Dellv, I am
very glad I did not bother my head with Dutch lingo. Get 20 phrases in your heatl,
and in a few weeks you will speak German like a house on tire. Give my love to
Erasmus and Darwin. Good bye, Francis Galton."

In several towns the hospitals are visited. In Frankfort we read :

" They say that this is a very clean hospital, but I never fully appreciated the value
of fresh air till I found myself without its wards."

Then followed Darmstadt :
"Looked up the Museum; the jawltoneof the Dudotherium and all that sort of fossil
nonsense (!) "

Then to Heidelberg and on to Stuttgart and Augsburg with the
Danube and Vienna as goal. Francis writes very patriotically; he is
thoroughly enjoying himself, but his mind is expanding :

"There is certainly nothing more useful than travelling. The more you see the more
you are convinced of the superiority of England. However nothing can be so admirable
as a German or Frenchman who loves his country ; it must be a great and genuine

patriotism to be able thus to prefer it I wish you were there to see all the beautiful

scenery we have passed through. The views were by far the most splendid I have ever
seen. The architecture is very curious there is a great deal of the okl Roman style. T
have never seen a perfect building of that style in England."

And again of Cologne Cathedral, "it is most splendid... I never
saw anything like it in England." Francis had yet to learn that the
existence of patriotism is not contingent on the possession of the best !
In Heidelberg there was also experience of first class medical ability :

" Tiedermann a top-sawyer of the medical line and a whole quantity of others.
There was also a Dr Cobalt to whom we had letters of introduction, a doctor who has
made himself celebrated by transferring a wax candle (without the wick) from a candlestick
into some holes in a skull i.e. as M.D.'s would call it, injecting the veinous system of the
Ijones with wax (I think that is the phrase)."

In a letter from Munich we see that Francis has now to excuse his
coming conversion to Bessy.

"Dear Bessy, I always keep your precepts in mind, but after all the Germans are
not so bad. Remember that as you told me the Hanoverians are our cousins, and the
other states are brothers to them, and so they are related to us. Also smoking is not

96 Life and Letterft of Francis Galton

their nature— foi' had it gone by blood, it would have descended through the female
line which is not the case "

Then after attributing most of their faults to smoking, Francis
continues :

"So evidently tlieir nature is gootl but unfortunately much spoilt. And their
Eilwageii — their jolting is awful. N.B. (Don't read this aloud) I have got one boil and
two blisters in such awkward positions that when sitting back I rest upon all three ;
when bolt upright on two, and when like a heron, I balance myself on one side upon
one !!! My feet are in a worse predicament liaving 3 blisters besides two agricultural
crops. This is all from their Eilwagen or 13iligences. Next time I go abroad, I shall
most certainly get my mackintosh double behind and blow it up like an air cushion....
I am getting more contrite about not learning the lingo. I certainly shall next time."

Then from Munich through the Tyrol, and the Bavarian light blue
and white colours — "trop tendre" for national colours as a Frenchman
observed to Francis — are replaced by the yellow and black, the " awful
Austrian stripe."

" But it was to be gone through, accordingly the coach stopped before the bar, when
out popped an Austrian officer with mustachios like sweep's brushes looking thunder and
lightning. ' Kein Tabae' growled or rather roared the officer in interrogation (Tobacco
is an imperial monopoly). Three ' Kein Tabacs ' followed each other uttered in a most
submissive tone of voice from us, like the echoes of Oberwessel. The officer's eyes
flared. He pointed to the luggage, down in the twinkling of an eye it came and was
opened. He looked awful at my green bags with black strings, in which two or three
dirty shirts were esconced, and terrible at the other luggage ; he made signs that every
thing must come out, wlien in the moment 3 Zwanzigers (a coin about \M.) touched his
hand — a galvanic shock seemed to thrill his whole system. The sour of his disposition,
like the acid in Volta's pole seemed only to increase the change. The flare of his eye
changed in an instant to a twinkle, the baggage was shut up and the officer fell into
a ' paroxysm of bows ' and away we drove. Got into Linz at 3 in the morning of the
26th and at 7 we were steaming down the Danube in one of the early voyages of
steamers on this part."

Again there is a fraternal " tag " to this first Vienna letter:
" Dear Bessy, You will be glad to hear for the honour of our country that the
steamers on the Danube like those on the Rhine are all worked by English Engineers,
and the orders all given in English."

In Vienna Dr Seligmann took our travellers the round of the
hospitals' and museums :

' In his letters from Vienna Francis does not mention the incident of the young
and buxom female lunatic, who, on a visit to the asylum female ward, rushed forward
and clasped him tightly to her bosom as her lost Fritz! {Memories, p. "25). He was
probably too shy to record it then.

Plate L

iJ •S

Plate Lhls

ELIZABETH ANNE GALTON (1808-1 !»()(!), "Si.ster Bessy."
Frcini a painting by Eastou of 1844 in the possesisioii of Mrs T. J. A. Studdy,

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 07

" He has shewn us everything. Tell Bessy that after all some of these Germans are
not a bad sort of fellows."

The route now turned northwards to Prague, Dresden and Berlin.
Saxon Switzerland was a disappointment as the Danube had been.
From Beilin he gives Sister Bessy a quaint account of his medical
comrades :

" Dear Bessy, The boils have subsided without the salt water, but thanks for the
receipt. However I must tell of some specimens of professionality in my two com-
panions. My foot has been unfortunately exactly Uke Erasmus' at Weymouth ; that is
the nail of the large e.xtreuiity thereof (which I will call eot for the same reason that
you designated pirt of my fishing tackle tug) most pervei-selv grew in the side causing
inflammation. I happened to mention this to them ; a smile of conscious professional
power illumined the face of one, a grin of delight that of the other. Both readily
profferred their services, and as a backer Rus.sell whipped out a bag containing 2 lancets,
1 spatula, a pot of ointment, a pair of surgical scissors, bandages enough and to spare
for any compound fracture, 2 boxes of blue pills, lint, and a sewing up needle. He
deposited these in succession on the table, adjusted his spectacles and smiled serenely.
However as my foot pained me dreadfully, I made up my mind, and contrary to Gil Bias,
accepted the Senior hand of Bowman. Kus.sell disappointed retreated. Well, at last
I found myself seated, the sick member was bared, Bowman, sleeve tucked up, advanced
scissors in hand. The reflectetl light from the instrument looked awful. He made
a most beautiful circular twist of the hand for what earthly reason I do not know, and
brought the scissors to their former plact\ He then examined my eot, shook his head,
ejaculated: 'Bad, — very. Russell, have you a pair of forceps?' 'No' was the
response. The two heads were now brought together to discover a substitute for the
instrument in question ; at last a bent pin was found to answer. Accordingly Russell
had to hold the flesh back, and away went Bowman, — wrenching up the nail, then
cutting it snip-snap all round, I writhing. However I could not help laughing at the
operators. It was a splendid sight. And to do them justice all pain has gone .iway"'
[Sunday Sept xvi. 1838, Berlin].

Galton came home via Hamburg and Hull and his letter to his

father from Kirk Ella where he paid a flying visit to the family friends,

the Broadleys, may be cited at length :

Tuesday [Sept.] 25, 1838.

Kirk Elui.
My dear Goverxor,

I had not room in my last letter to tell you all the news so I will now
commence. After leaving Hamburg where we saw old costumes, old canals, cathedrals
etc, etc. we had the sci-ews of the boiler get wrong, which caused a delay of about
3 hours. We were then just too late for the tide and stuck on a sandl>ank where we
had to wait for the tide. We accordingly got the ship's boat and rowed to the Danish
shore where we rambled about four hours. After that we were t«i late to be able to
see our way at the mouth of the river, where we had to spend the night. Next day we
P. <;. . 1:5

98 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

passed Cuxhaven and Helgoland, and had a long passage to Hull. We also got stopped
by the Humber fogs, and could not proceed for a long time, making on the whole
3i days and 4 nights. I was dreadfully seasick and although like a true Briton nobody
(when on terra firnia) can enter more fully into the spirit of "The Sea, the sea etc." or
" On the glad waters of tlie dark blue sea," yet my enthusiasm dies within me, or rather
like Bob Acres' courage "oozes out," but unfortunately not like his "out of the palms

of his hands," but. I arrived at Hull at 9 o'clock on Monday. The time of absence

from England was determined at 60 days. I was absent 60 days all but a quarter of an
hour. After custom house etc. at Hull I set off for Kirk Ella and took the Broadleys
by surprise, who have been lionising me all about. Mrs Broadley unfortunately is not
able to leave her room ; Anne & Charlotte are the only ones at home. I shall escort
Anne to Lucy so as to be at Moor HalP at 5 on Saturday and at Birmingham about 6
or ^ past. I shall then go to the Hospital, if I cannot get leave of absence. Please to tell
all about what I am to do. Accounts etc. I will settle then. I am very sorry that I
could not come to see you, but I wished particularly to call on the Broadleys, if possible
and accordingly went round by Hull. They are most kind and good natured to me, and
Anne sends her love etc. Kirk Ella is a most comfortable looking place, surrounded by
a colony of Sykes, their houses looking like towers to the ramparts of their garden walls.
The weather is rather foggy. However tell Bessy that Yorkshire is not such a very
bad place after all. The Humber is muddy — awfully — but anything looks well after the
Elbe. And as for the English Hedge Rows and Green Lanes you cannot appreciate
them till after having been abroad. Tell Bessy that if possible I am three times as loyal
as ever ! The reason of this unreadable
writing is the very uncomfortable length

of my pen. I have marked the length
below.

Good bye and believe me ever your affectionate son, Francis Galton.

There are a few lines from Anne Broadley herself to Sister Bessy

telling of Francis' bright face :

" The surprise as well as joy were very nearly too much for my weak head, and I
was in a bewilderment the whole day, and still I cannot help looking at him with a sort
of feeling as if it were a dream, and it cannot be true that Francis Galton is actually
seated opposite to me at home. Mama is nearly as happy as I am to have a Galton at
last under her roof. He looks very well and is just the same charming boy as ever, not
a bit spoilt, full of enthusiasm on all he has seen and giving a most agreeable account

of his most agreeable tour. Mama thinks I have not said enough about him before

I feel proud not a little of his coming to see me."

Francis escorted Miss Broadley to Moor Hall, a delightful cavalier,
but if we read his letters from the eai4y days at the Larches to the end
of his Cambridge career, we feel impelled to point to this continental
tour as the dividing line between boyhood and manhood. Francis is
no longer a charming hoy.

' The home of his sister Lucy, who had married James Moilliet in 1832.

Lehrjahre and Wauderjahre 99

Returned to Birmingham Francis Galton plunged at once into his
medical studies. The dozen pages in Galton's Memories which deal
with this first medical experience are perhaps the most fascinating in
that book, not only for the picture they throw on hospital life in the
first half of the 19 th century, but also for the indication they give of
the great advantage clinical experience was to Galton himself. I do
not propose to reproduce what Galton has told so well, but merely to
supplement his account from letters written to his father Tertius during
this period.

A first letter of Oct. 10' deals with the supplementary studies

Francis was planning.

Wednesday [Oc«.] lO^A, Leamington.

My dear Governor,

I have just returned from Birmingham where I dined yesterday with
Dr Booth and the day before with Hodgson. Hodgson advised me ^low to read some
medicine aiid Dr Booth has lent me the book, but when I mentioned that I intended to
go on with German whilst I was at Leamington, he said that I had certainly better not,
but give up my time to Pharmacy. Accordingly I have not called upon the Pole, as
I know that you wish me to knock under to Hodgson in everything of that sort. He
and the Dr were both very good-natured to me. I was sorry to hear from Hodgson
rather diflerently to what I had before understood. His words were " that I must
expect every possible annoyance both in society and in continual interruptions ; that I
shall never have a minute that I can call my own," and he spoke very strongly on the

subject By the bye Hodgson says that my masters must be German and Mathematics

twice a week, and he will inquire about them. Not drawing ; he says that I shall have
quite sufficient to do with these

Ten days later Francis again writes of his mathematical and
German studies :

"I will see if Mr Mason can give me lessons or not in mathematics Mr Jones is

spoken of as the best German Tutor Would you be so kind as to send me my German

Grammar and Elementary Book and Klopstock and a few Tracts. Adfele will do this.
Also please ask Emma to put out from my knick-knack cupboard a little instrument for
boiling water, it consists of a cylindrical copper vessel — a sort of boiler with a bent pipe
running out of it, and a spirit lamp. [Picture.] There is a hospital seat at St Paul's
which I attend. Tomorrow there will be an amputation of the leg, when I shall see

how I can stand fire I am rather anxious to begin dressing myself, as it is a bore

seeing some pretty little operation going on where you cannot be the performer. By
the bye would you tell me if I am to dress for Mr Hodgson or not as I really do not
know what you have fixed on in that way. All the ' higher powers ' are very good-

' Sent to his father who was staying at Hadzor.

i:j— 2

100 Life and Letterst of Franris Oalfnn

nMarad ete, bat snobs. the Dispenser is not at ai^ a U'.uit/uard, bat yon do not

intioMte with him, which I am glad to see as I shall be much under him."

On Nov. 10 vre have an amusing accovmt of work in the
Hospital:

"There is aa immenaw deal of work here. It does not come in cHie long pull bat in a
series of jerig of hbow butamii intervals of rest, like playing a pike with a click reel.
I will gire joa a sort of diaiy of the evening of the day before yesterday, h past 5 p.m.
went romd all the wards (So joke I assnre yoo) — made up about 15 prescriptions.
Awfal headariie etc: Entered in the Hospital Bo(^ records etc. of patioits ; writing
in mj caae book eta, hard work tiD 9. Sniper. Went round several ai the wards
again. Aecident came in — broken leg, had to asaiat setting it. | past 11, had to read
itdkiiie etc 12, v^eiy deepj indeed, lifted my candle to go to bed. A ring at the
Aecident Bell ; foond that it was a trenendom fractme. Was not finished till | past 1.
Went to bed and in the arms of Forpos. 3 a.m. in die morning: a trem^idoas
kwwking at the door ; awful oomponnd fractvre^ ke|^ me up till 5. Went to Bed — up
agun at 7 o'do^ — Bather tiring work on the whole, bat very entertaining. Attended
a post BOrtani and diaaectian 3 dajs ago — Horror — Horror — Horror ' I do not know
when I sfaaD get over the impiMBion. It was & woman whoae wounds I had assisted to
dress. I made her medirine and prescribed once or twice tar her. Mv first r^olar
patient died alsoi, jesterday morning. However as it was a bam, my mind is perC^ly
easy. Dont (eO this it won't aosuad welL I shall set op a case of instruments soon.
I can write pteauiptioBa splendidly, and moreoinr bc^ to ondentand all the hnmbog
of frfirine, which is not a little. I am very aony that you have got the goat, if I
were at home I would pnaeribe for you with great fdeasure. Tell Bessy that I hare
sane Tuluafaie reee^ta— aucli as ifilendid Tooth-Powdets— dorioos Perfomea — Beaotifnl
VamidieB. Also lAcjr's Biscuit Pie Crust answers very welL

I oqMct to cut Gfl Uaa quite out. I can hardly refrain from sending yoa a
splendid receipt for cure of the Gibberish.

Good Bye and Bdieve me ever.

Your affeetaoBate Son,

Feaxcis Galtox.

Fleaae send my D^phin Honoe^ and Ainswordi's Didtianary, and Scfarereiins'

liBxiean.'

In November we find Galton bnsj witJi his German and Mathe-
matical inatmehMs; he is sending fix* Snowball's Trigonometry. He
has had "what thej call a grand field-day, six important operations."
"The M.D.S are leallj most good-natored to me. I am allowed to
spesad a Sunday ev«y now and then out," A letter of Dec. 5, 1838,
deserves T^codactkm in its entirety — it is so diaract^istic of Galton's
vaxied interests, of his fund oi qoiet homoor and of his liability to
overwork hnnsdf !

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 101

Dee. 5, 1838. Birmingham Generax Hospital.

My dear Governor,

I should have written before but I was waiting for my instruments, to see if my
funds were sufficient. They have not yet come, so I write to you at once. Thank you
for your letter. I am very glad to hear you are flourishing. Now for business. My
Mathematical Master comes at 7 o'clock Tuesday Evening — my German at i past 6 on
Friday Evening. My time is distributed as follows : Up by 8. Breakfast ic. until
I to 9. I then go round the House with Mr Baker; afterwards at abmit 10 I "post-
mortemify " should there be a subject, sometimes operations take place etc. ; if not,
I dispense should there be many out-patients : otherwise I read Medical Books, and go
rouud with the Surgeons and sometimes Physicians (who by the bye are abomixably
unpunctual). However it is impossible to regulate that part of my time, but mv hands
are full with the alx)ve occupations until 2. Not forgetting by the bye 5 minutes as
the clock strikes 1 1 which are invariably employed by me in swallowing a Digestive PHI.
Well, at 2 o'clock I dine etc. tiU J to 3, 1 then read Medical Books etc. till \ past 5. Then
take tea till i to 6. Then Mathematics till \ to 8. After that I write in the registers I
have to keep and [dispatch] a few other little hospital jobs : also go round a few of the
wards etc., and read Horace and Homer on alternate days till \ past 9, when supper is
ready. After supper (at i past 9) I read German an hour or so according to the state of my
headache. I walk out when I can — about 2 or 3 times a week, generally between 3 and 5.
When I dine out I read Mathematics from 2 to 5 and return to the Hospital at i past 8
(if with Dr Booth) ; only just show myself at supper, so I get j of an hour of medical
reading from J to 8 to i past 9 and then as before. I also always make this law : should
an accident occur such as a fractured leg which takes sometimes 2 hours to set, such as
finding splints, making patls etc., I do not continue my studies in my other branches as
if nothing had happened, but divide my remaining time between all that I have not
done that day. I like Mr Abbot my Mathem. Master very much ; he advises me not
to read the Calculus until I have read a little of other branches. I have read in the last
fortnight the greater p)art of Analytical Trigonometrj-, I have got some way in Conic
Sections, which I like very much. I expect to have tinished them in about a month or
6 weeks, and then for the Calculus. Ask Bessy not to row me for this writing because
I really do generally write better, but I cannot make my pen mark and I have no knife
in my pocket. Good Bye and believe me ever your affectionate Son,

Francis Galtox.

P.S. You ought to see me vaccinate I do so pitch the lancet into the children's-
arms. If I take wine I should be the only one that does so at table ; accordingly
I cannot do so.

But the rushlight was not merely burning at both ends, it was in
the oven itself, and Francis Galton was soon to feel the efl'ects of this
overstrain. A letter of Dec. 22 postpones his Christmas home visit,
a dresser was ill and he could get more experience by staying :

" Tell Bessy that I am fully aware how wrong it is to ^^olate old customs etc.,

especially that of meeting on Christinaii dav, but ir psii't lx> JipUxvI Really now that

102 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

1 am turned ' Doctor ' I find tliat I can decide on nothing beforehand ; tliis is not my
tii-st disappointment. I do not know if I told you what a public character I have
become. Four distinct times in walking in Bull Street and New Street have I been
surrounded by various juvenile members of the Rag-Tag and Bobtail division of the
inhabitants and addressed not with hurrahs, but with 'I say ould chap, gie us some
medicine,' also ' There goes the Doctor ' and otlier phrases pointing to my profession."

On January the 8th, 1839, Galton is still at his post, and his

experience is increasing ! He reports to his father his first experiment

in dentistry :

" I tried my hand at toothdrawing the other day. A boy came in looking very
deplorable, walked up to me and opened his mouth. I looked awfully wise and the boy
sat down in perfect confidence. I did not manage the first proceedings well, for first
I put in the key (that is the tooth instrument) the wrong way, then I could not catch
hold of the right tooth with it. At last I got hold. I then took my breath to enable
nie to give a harder wrench ; one-two-three, and away I went. A confused sort of
murmur something like that of a bee in a foxglove proceeded from the boy's mouth, he
kicked at me awfully. I wrenched the harder. When, hang the thing, — crash went
the tooth. It really was dreadfully decayed — and out came my instrument. I seized
hold of the broken bits — the boy's hands were of course over his mouth and eyes from
the pain, so he could see nothing — and immediately threw them on the fire and most
unconcernedly took another survey of the gentleman's jaws. The tooth was snapped
right oflF. Well, I pacified him, told him that one half the tooth was out and I would
t^ke out the other (knowing full well that he would not let me touch it again) and that
it was a double one. But, as I had expected, he would not let me proceed. Well there
was another tooth which he wanted out and against which I took proceedings. I at
last fixed the instrument splendidly and tugged away like a sailor at a handspike, when
the boy, roaring this time like a lion with his head in a bag, broke away from me and
the sawbone that was holding his head, bolted straight out, cursing all the Hospital
Doctors right manfully. So much for my first tooth-drawing."

To his sister Adfele he writes under a fortnight later :

" I have been rather invalided and was sent olf for a few days to Moor Hall to
recruit. I shall look you up at Leamington some of these fine days, but not just yet.
Hang it, it is now past ten in the evening and a car is just rolling up to the door, so I
must finish, perhaps it may be a broken leg, so Good bye, etc."

The next day he adds a postscript :

" It was only a bad scald. This morning Hodgson gave me a letter from the
Governor to him, and in reply, first of all my arm is all but well, it was an old sore
which I had forgotten when dissecting, it broke out of course and then subsided ; about
a week or ten days after that it broke out again, and gave me some trouble. Then as
to my general health my headaches are better than they were once — a great deal better,
and I have of course a little hospital fever ifec, but that is all. About my mind which
Lucy attacks I shall not say much, except that it is werry uncomfortable, but I shall
soon get over all hospital horrors, etc., etc. I am in a great hurry as I want to get a

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 103

walk out now, not having had one on account of the weather for the 3 last days. Of
course I have nothing to tell yon, as the medical world is quite a little world of its own
and its proceedings I should imagine are not very interesting to the civilised one. Oh
Donner und Blitz ! here is another accident. I must look sharp for my walk, if not kept
long by this double calamity both to me and patient. T am calling out — Coming — tar —
tar — . Fras. Galton."

So the months went on — far too much woi'k and too httle play —
none of the sports and pastimes of our own medical schools. At Easter
there was again no holiday :

"Can't come — quite impossible. Patients increased — awful number. Cut a brace of
fingers oflf yesterday and one the day before. — Happy to operate on any one at home —
I am flourishing — wish I could say same of my Patients. Love to all. Bye-bye.

Fras. Galton."

But by July a change was really needful. Francis is planning
a tour and mentions as possible companions his cousins Theodoi'e Galton
and Edward Darwin. His last letter from the Hospital to his father
runs as follows :

July 10, 1839. GuNERAL Hospital.
My dear Governor,

I have been waiting before I wrote to you, to see whether Mr Hodgson
would have recommended anything for me, but as he has not, I will tell you what he
has done. He called me aside and asked me if I felt unwell or not, I told him that
I was, — gave symptoms etc. When Mr Hodgson asked what I had intended to do
about this trip that you proposed, — I replied that I had but just heard of it, and that
I did not think that I could spare my time. To which Mr Hodgson agreed, said it was
a foolish plan tfec, <tc. (N.B. He was in a bad humour because an operation of his
for cataract had not exactly succeeded), and after saying other things of the same
import, tooled off. He did not prescribe for me. However I shall do very well. There
is capital fun going on here— only think of Dr Booth. Amongst other performances of
his when he led the police into the Bull Ring, the people swearing, throwing stones at
him etc., etc. The Dr (it being dark) coolly rode to the neai-est Liimp Post, put his
hand in his pocket and pulled out his Barnacles, inserted it again and lugged out the
Riot Act and read away most edifyingly ! By the bye about Mr Abbot — I have had
30 lessons, a brace in November — do. in June and regularly in tlie intervening months'.
His banker is Taylor and Lloyds, and he wishes to have it directed for the Rev. J.

I Abbot, Free School. Our Matron has had a tremendous epileptic fit ; she is in bed
still and very unwell. Quite sorry to hear about your Asthma, but you must I suppose
console yourself with the Aphorism of the Cook on the Eels — " Nothing when you are
accustomed to it." By the bye I have been on the stage with Van Amburg — took up

This proves that Galton had never taken a week's holiday since he started at the
Hospital !

104 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

his whip and sliook it (it is a common horse hair one, but very large, not heavy), and
helped to draw the Lions' Cages off afterwards. I am rather badly off for soap. My
Books cost a wee and there is my British Association fee £1 (I have kept regular
Accounts ! !) Amongst others of my entries is one : Various Charities id. I must look
you up some of these fine days. I have got no news watsumever. So bye bye.

Your affectionate Son,

FbAS. G ALTON.

P.S. Mr Thomas Knott the Editor of Avis' Gazette has died suddenly of apoplexy.

Of Samuel Tertius Galton it must be said that he knew what his
son Francis could stand. The summer trip did come off and what is
more Francis did not I'eturn in the autumn to the Birmingham General
Hospital.

On September 2', Francis started with his father and Sister Bessy
via Coventry to Liverpool and thence by packet to the Clyde and
Dumbarton. The tour went through what is now very familiar country,
Loch Lomond, Loch Long, Loch Katrine, Oban and then across to
Aberdeen, and Uiy, the home of the Bai'clays. Francis' diary of the
tour is still extant, and it comes to an abrupt end on Sept. 10,
apparently because he had already filled in the bulk of the remainder
of the book with sketches. We know from these that the party were
at Inverlochy Castle on Sept. 17th and at Ury on Sept. 21st. There
are no less than six unfinished sketches of Ury, three of the outside
of the house, one of the chapel and burial ground of the ancestral
Bai'clays, one of the wall — a tremendous looking structure — over which
Captain Barclay's grandfather is reputed to have thrown a bull, and
lastly the inside of the gothic window above the porch — with the deep
window recess showing the thickness of the walls — where Francis'
grandmother, Lucy, had sat to work her sampler, according to the
custom of the family. Ury must have been a fascinating spot to those
whose ancestry had dwelt there, and thus Sister Bessy describes it :

" We left Inverness at six o'clock in the morning passed Forres, where the witches
met Macbeth, arrived at Aberdeen at 7 o'clock, drank tea at the Inn and then came on
to Stonehaven where we slept. After breakfast we drove up to Ury which had belonged
to the Barclays for some centuries. Margaret Barclay showed us over the curious old
house (now blown up and a modern house built by the Bairds), she showed us the
Meeting House of the Quakers, close to the house, which all Quakers when travelling
in Scotland, came to see; a tiny closet, out of the large sitting room, is where ray

' The British Association met in Birmingham this August ; and there is evidence
from Galton's accounts that he attended it — it was probably his first meeting.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre iO.i

great-great-gieat-grandfather Barclay wrote his famous 'Apology for the Quakers.' We
went up a small hill at the back of the house to the chapel where all the Barclays are
buried. Then into the garden, where my great-grandfather pushed a bull over the wall,
60 feet down. We went over the farm with my uncle Barclay, and walked through
a wheatfield, the stalks higher than our heads'. In the sitting-room we saw a moveable
panel, behind which was a secret chamber to hide in. Margaret Barclay showed me
a lock of Prince Charles' hair and after much urgent entreaty, I got her to give me the
one hair I have. She also showed me a miniature of Queen Anne set with diamonds,
which Queen Anne gave to my ancestor. She gave presents to many of the Jacobite
families, it was suppo.sed with the hope that they would espouse her brother's claims to
the throne after her death." (Mrs Wheler's Reminiscences, Sept. 1839.)

Francis went back with his father and sister to Leamington, and on
Oct. 3rd the lengthy letters to his father start afresh. We find him
at New Street, Spring Gardens, established in the house of Richard
Partridge, Profes.sor of Anatomy at King's College, London. Here
Galton had two or three fellow pupils all attending the medical lectures
at King's College. The.se were a distinct advance on the Birmingham
system of education. There was preliminary training in anatomy
(under Partridge with Bowman and Simon as directors in the dissecting
room), in physiology (under Todd, a man who.se encyclopaedic works
can still be studied with occasional profit) and in chemistry (under
Daniell, of battery fame). For the first time Galton came into a more
or less modern scientific atmosphere, and a microscope became a necessity.
Forensic medicine also was a subject of delight :

" It had a sort of Sherlock Holmes fascination for me, while the instances given as
cautions, showing where the value of too confident medical assertions had been rudely
upset by the shrewd cross-questioning of lawyers, confirmed what I was beginning
vaguely to perceive, that doctors had the fault equally with pai-sons of being much too
positive." {Memories, p. 42.)

Li his first letter Francis expresses pleasure with his environment,

his fellow pupils are " two scamps " and one seemingly very nice fellow.

In his second letter he gives a more detailed account of his sur-

I'oundings :

October 12, 1839.

17 New St., Spring Gardens.
My DEAR Father,

Thank you very much for your letter — uncommonly so for its contents,
which I have got duly receipted. This is a very comfortable house and I certainly have
many extra opportunities of reading. Our sitting room is quite respectable, well lighted,

' Captain Barclay was not only a famous pedestrian, he was also a great agricultural
reformer, and did much for Scottish agi-iculture.

p. (i. 14

106 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

ditto carpetted ; fire etc.; furnislied with a most capital libiaiy, about 10 skeletons, etc.,
a loyal cast of St George and the Dragon, and a bust of Harvey, and I don't know what
else. A view from the window of the Admiralty witli a telegraph at the top continually
working and attitudinizing like a skeleton learning gymnastics ; the Horse Guards etc.
My bedroom is small and a garret, but the most comfortable one possible not too large
nor too small, with bookshelves and a reading desk where I stew away most com-
f ortablj'

King's College is a very nice place. I am there from 9 till 4 attending lectures and
dissecting. There is a sight there which a Frenchman would give his ears to see, viz.
a most splendid collection of large green frogs all alive and kicking and croaking too,
kept, however, for Dr Todd's Physiological Experiments. Thank you for the microscope
it was just the thing; the shirts too were werry acceptable'.

I was quite surprised to hear that you got home without such an amiable personal
as myself. I am glad that the tartans were properly appreciated. Good bye etc. Fras.
Galton.

Dear Pemmy — I want you to be in the very best humour possibly and the reason is
this : in my bedroom there is a yellow wall 12 ft. x 5; now this does not accord with my
notions of beauty but — remember you are a capital Pemmy — if there were two water-
colour pictures to relieve its monotony, it would be most reputable. Now there is not
a single engraving that will do in all London, they are all either too large and too
expensive or too small and good for nothing. Now if you would but paint me two
pictures, each about the size of a novel and send them up by some parcel or other
I could get them framed in black for 1 bob apiece. I should like something in a Prout
style, not three Turks smoking their pipes in a triangle, with one blue hill in the
distance and a white river between them, and something on the hill with two uprights
and a cross bar like a gibbet only intended for the ruins of an old temple
but some building or other well touched up with Indian Ink and reed ' j-i r?
pen. I shall take such care of them. Now remember the "aspect "of J[- -j\,
the room is this : pretty well-lighted, 1 window not opposite the wall,
which is yellow. The frame will be black. You will now know what sort of things
will suit. Tell Bessy that the paws are improving. Hair very bad. Nails middling
but better and that "smutty" week is not quite passed. Good bye — You are, at least
will be, a nice Pemmy. Love to all

Postscripts and other addenda refer to the presentation of his first

cheque at Barclay's Bank. It is clear that Sister Pemmy provided for the

artistic element, and Sister Bessy supervised Francis' neatness of attire and

personal appearance. Although there are no letters bearing on Francis'

transfer from Birmingham to London, it is clear from the next letter I

shall quote that his career — a year in London followed by Cambridge —

must have been practically settled before he left Birmingham.

I have retained any intentional wrong spelling, the unintentional slips are
somewhat numerous, they would comfort other suiferers, but I have thought it best to
remove them. K. P.

Lehrjahre and Waiiderjahre 107

Sunday Oct. 16'" 1839.

17 New Spuing Gardens,

London.

My dear Father,

Thanks for your letter. I have been thinking over about another year's
Londoniziug, and, having crammed up " Whewell's Uni^•e^sity Education," I certainly
think that it would be better to give it and the Laboratory up altogether. As the
Dissecting season is over about June (I forget exactly when) my hands will not be full
for three months or so before going up to Cambridge, in which time I shall hope to get
up my first part of Mathematics well, and a fair proportion of the Classics that
Mr Blakesley has mentioned. 1 think it would be as well at that time not to touch either
Mechanics or Conic Sections, but to exhaust Merridew's shop in scribbling paper for
working equations etc. I am as well as possible, getting thorough exercising twice a week
at Angelo's either at Cai-te and Tierce, or else in pitching into a huge Life Guardsman,
six feet and a half liigh in his slippers, or rather in his pitching into me with single
stick. I have no headaches or anything of the sort and dissecting increases the appetite
wonderfully. I don't send any accounts as there is nothing particular to put down. As
for those I sent last time, I only sent the General not being very fond of Double Entry,
though I have the particulars safe in my account book. For instance I did not write
2 ounces of Epsom Salts — 2g?., having included that in the Washing Bill, since it was
most undoubtedly for a cleaning out that I bought them, and so for the rest'.

Pemmy, you are a most dutiful sister. Pictures splendid, the framemaker nearly
broke his windows when he started back in admiration ; they are hung up with my little
Ariadne between them. Are they real scenes? However, don't ask me whether I
admired the perspective. And now in return I will show you what a deal of attention
I bestow on them ; I will just make a calculation. I am, on an average, 5 minutes
dawdling in getting up, 10 minutes ditto in going to bed. During this time I must
necessarily look at one side of the room or the other, and as the room is bare on the
other side that can be no attraction in looking there. Therefore at least | or 10 minutes
will be daily spent in looking at your pictures, besides this I am always awake about
I of an hour before getting up, when I cannot help seeing them as they are just before my
nose, that makes 25 minutes a day, or 12 hours nearly a month or 156 hours or 19i days
of 8 houre each yearly !

Dear Bessy, I did not receive your missal ; of course it was an accident. I didn't
ask for it by letter, as I knew you would draw it intuitively ; it will look so pretty,
especially as it will be about the size of Emma's pictures, rather larger perhaps but same
shape. Paws vastly improved, but horrors ! about a week ago a huge crimson boil
appeared a little to the left of my nose ; it was as large as a fourpenny piece and seemed

I' Samuel Tertius Galton was most particular as to his son's accounts, and we find
specimen accounts with various methods of keeping them sent to his son Francis. He
endeavoured to inculcate thorough business habits in his children, while at the same
time he was most liberal in his remittances and preserved to his death the most intimate
confidence and friendly familiarity of his son Francis.

108 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

to increase "wisibly afore my werry eyes." What could I do? Partridge said it was
a carbuncle, but I knew better. For I had as soon as I had seen it, read 12 ditl'erent
authors on that point, and thus prepared, I was determined to fight vigorously. I
pitched a lancet into it, poulticed it all night, swallowed a fearful dose of blue pill and
colocynth, and an ounce and a half of salts next morning. They felt very aggravating
in my stomach, but at 3 p.m. the boil was almost colourless and gone down wonderfully.
Tuesday, fast improving, lancet cut healing. Wednesday, all but well, left off sticking-
plaster. Thursday, cured. Extreme cases, i-equire extreme measures. Please write
and tell me when the Gurneys come. How often ought I to call on the Homers — ditto
on Clias. Darwin, who left his card here the other day. I drink tea with Mr James
Yates' tomorrow. Good Bye, love to Mammy, Delly etc.

Tell Darwin that I have lots of tales to tell him. Partridge [sends] complts.

In the next few letters we find the question of future education
still prominent. Clearly Tertius Galton was emphasising the importance
of laboratory work, especially in chemistry, and there appeared little
chance of it at Cambridge. Francis' social side was having consideiable
claims made on it, and he was working and jjlaying hard at the same
time. Again, as at Birmingham, the rushlight was doubled up and
burning at both ends.

Nov. 5, 1839.
My dear Father

I was in\"ited to tea by the Homei-s, very kind invite, but unfortunately
signed Anne (I think) Horner. Now as I had not the slightest earthly idea whether
there was such a person as Mrs Horner or not, I did not know whom Anne meant, and
therefore I could not answer, so as soon as I had time I set off to call. But they had
directed their note Bedfoi-d Street, Russell Square, and when I got to Russell Square,

1 could find no such place. I went to B. Street, Bedford Square, Upper B. Place and
knocked at every No. 2 in the neighbourhood. At last I called a consultation of three
policemen, who after some debating gave over my case as hopeless ; what could I do ?
Their name was not down in the Court Guide. The next day I made an expedition to

2 other Bedford Streets, but no go. Then came the day I was to take tea with them,
and it suddenly struck me that the numbers in Lower B. Place might be different from
those in Upper B. Place. I tooled there and luckily it was right ; the Lyells were there,
and one of the Horners had just returned from Germany, St Petersburg etc. ; they were
very kind to me. Mr Horner was in the North. I shortly after called upon Charles
Darwin', who was most good-natured etc., he has been unwell. I called upon Mr James

' The well-known Unitarian and Antiquary of Lauderdale House, Highgate, and
founder of the Yates Chairs at Univei"sity College, London.

' Charles Darwin had returned from his voyage in the "Beagle '; had been married
in January of tiiis year (1839) and was living in Upper Gower Street.

Lehrjfilire and Wandcrjahre

l()i>

Yates. I am as well as -possible. Cartwright charges awfully, viz. for 1 W)at 1 waist-
coat 2 pi- trousers £9. 19. 6. I have moreover begun fencing at Angelo's Rooms. The
charges are high but as for exercise etc., I think it was about the best thing I could do,
3 hours twice a week for the season, almost the whole year, at fencing, single stick or
whatever I like, .£11. These two have been my great expenses, but luckily they don't
come again. The way I spend my time diffei-s a good deal acwjrding U) the dissection
or not, 9 — 10 Anatomical Lecture, lOJ — IJ dissection, 2—3 Chemical Lecture, 3 — 4
Physiological Lecture, 5—6 read or walk or fence or something of the sort; 6 — 7
dinner ; doze \ of an hour, often a wee more, then tea till 8. Read and microscopize
till 1 and amuse myself till 2 or 3J according as I am lazy or not. Sleep till 8. iS<j I
eat 2 hours, sleep 7, attend lectures 3, read hard 3^, micro.scopize 1, dissect 3, amu.se
myself 3, dress etc. etc. li. This is something of the way I spend my time. Now for
the way I spend my money; this is not exact to sixpences — though N.B. I keep
accounts :

£, s.

Cartwright ...

Fencing

. 11

Dissecting Case etc.

An upper Extremity of

an aVxlonien

Boots it Shoes

Stationery ...

Luncheon (about 1 shilling

per week)

Exceedingly diversified

Chemical Apparatus ..

17 6

Washing

Postage

=i;30

nearly.

Tell Pern — that she is a nice Peni.
Thank Delly for letter. Your niicroscojHj
is very useful. Mr Partridge has let me
have the use of his very splendid one,
value £60. But I u.se your one commonly.
Tell Mater that I thought of her and the
Pig. I am afraid that the Pork Pie is
not quite worth the carriage, although
made out of a Claverdon Pig. Loves to
all. Tell Bessy that paws are improving
though I have got a cut on theui.

FuAS. Galtox.

Daniell's Experiments are most beautiful. Ue froze some Carbonic Acid Gas the
other day by first condensing it to a liquid and then letting it suddenly free, the
abstraction of Heat for Latent froze it at a temperature of 130' FaLr. below the
Freezing Point, it could be held up as the Carbonic Acid Gas being given off in every
direction from it keeps it from actually touching the hand. I swallowed a piece, queer
taste. Some mercurv was frozen with it in no time.

The next letter is of special interest not oiJy for the advice it
contains from Charles Darwin, but for the picture of the young medical
student, who trusts his sister's home recipes in preference to his own
knowledge I

110 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

• December (i, 1839.
My dear Governor,

I hope that you won't consider uie guilty of disrespect in sending you
such a disreputable letter. But as I am at King's College', and have not any other by
me, and moreover as in these happy days of ^ ounce fourpennies anything in a decent
envelope will do therefore — here goes.

I should have written before but I waited for Mr Hodgson, but as he won't come
I wait no longer. I have spoken to Charles Darwin about Cambridge, wlio recommends
next October and to read Mathematics like a house on fire; thinks I had better go as
soon as possible for these reasons : that I cannot take my degree of B.M. until 5 years
after matriculation, if not 6. A medical education takes 3 or 4 years, of which I shall
have had 2, and after taking an M.A. degree I shall have 2 more before I can pass as
Doctor. Now if I delay matriculation I shall defer the possibility of taking a physician's
degree for a corresponding length of time which may be an inconvenience. Again he
thinks it certain that wlien at Cambridge I shall forget all the theoretical part of
Medicine, I mean \ of Physiology, f ths of Surgery and |ths of Medicine, to say nothing
of Anatomy Lectures, on the two last of which I shall attend next year and will be time
thrown away.

Now about reading Mathematics, he said very truly that the faculty of observation
rather than that of abstract reasoning tends to constitute a good Physician. The higher
parts of Mathematics which are exceedingly interwoven with Chemical and Medical
Phenomena (Electricity, Light, Heat etc., etc.) all exist and exist only on experience
and observation .■. don't stop half-way. Make the most of the opportunity and read
them.

I quite agreed with all he said. Again, if after Cambridge I return to K. College,
I should necessarily feel much greater interest in chemicalizing than I do now, not being
able at present to comprehend one half of the fundamental principles which are
mathematical, Light especially. This would be a great convenience with regard to tlie
Laboratory, for were I to enter tliere now, I should be able to go there and tool about
when I do not dissect (which I am afraid will be very often as there are hardly any
subjects), and work regularly after Cambridge, when I could finish my medical education
at King's College. Bowman thinks ditto and he is a great man now, and he also says
that e^ery high mathematical M.D. that he knows has got on well. Dr Evans and
Dr Blakiston of Birmingham, and Dr Watson of King's College, etc., etc. Please write
and tell me what you think. Should I enter into the Laboratory, there is no time to
lose. We shall have a week or ten days at Christmas, though, perhaps, it will scarcely
be worth while to come down for so short a time. Good Bye etc. Feas. Galton.

Dear Bessy. Thanks for your letter and missal forthcoming. But don't please [give]
any advice in the middle (even though it's an ancestor's) for T am sure I have had
enough, it's quite as eternal and does me no more good than Dr Sangrado's Warm Water.

' O, Bessy, Bessy I have had another boil exactly by the side of the former which

has partially i-eappeared. The new one is mountainous, but alas! not snow-capped like
Ben Nevis, but more like Ben Lomond covered with scarlet heather. I shall have

' Throughout this letter and for two months previously Francis invariably spells
this " colledge " !

Lehrjahre and Waiulerjahre 111

a complete Snowdonia of them soon and my moutli is rather sore. Paws rather
improved.

(1) "When a note of invite is sent unpaid by the twopenny post, may I answer it
by ditto or how ' ?

(2) Ought I to call at St James Square' before these boils go away and take the
chance of more not coming, or not? N.B. the 2nd is just the size of and exactly like
those purple polypuses there were at Weymouth.

(3) When the Homers invite with a note beginning with " My dear Francis " how
am I to answer it 1

Give my love to all. Ask Emma what I can do for the boils.
Diet. Breakfast, 1 large cup of tea.
1 round dry toast.
Luncheon, not always, Bread and Cheese.
Dinner, 1 or 2 times of meat, vegetables, melted butter. 3 glasses wine.

Pudding or Tart. 1 glass of water.
Tea, several small cups, bread and butter.
This is my full diet. Please Emma tell me what sort of low diet will do. T have
fearful indigestion, sleepiness, variable appetite etc., etc.

Good Bye, Fhas. Galton.

Possibly the very Spartan diet had more to do with the boils than
Francis imagined. But he was soon to be home for the Christmas
vacation and he was preparing for it. To his father he writes on
Dec. 15th:

" 1 have agreed with Erasmus to spend a week in looki:ig him up at Loxton, the
time of travelling inclusive. Erasmus came yesterday to London. I introduced him to
the Dissecting lloom, from which he seemed rather glad to bolt. Would you ask Mater
to see that my gun is in perfect condition, and as clean as a peeled potato, 2ndly to see
that my powder flask, which I think is in a Bank Box in my room, is gunpowder tight ;
if not to let the hole be soldered up. I want now to ask you about the state of my
wardrobe."

Then follows a very complete account of Francis' wardrobe, the
morning coat which will "do for the Strand, btit not St James Square,"
the dress-coat " not exactly a perfect fit," the " two pair reputable
trousers," etc., etc.

"What am I to do? Cartwright has no conscience, he has charged ^l.'i. 18.
altogether.

Would you also send me word how many morning coats you and Darwin wear
yearly. My consumption would be 3 per year about. Please write .soon as I am going
to a ball at Homers next week. Moreover I liave no great coat which is rather
unplea.sant in a London Fog."

' On the introduction of general letter post, it was considered as rude to prepay
a letter, as it is now to leave it unstamped.

' Great-aunt Mrs Hudson Gurney (Margaret Barclay, sister of Captain Barclay).

112 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

Francis is undoubtedly growing into a bit of a beau, although he
makes fun of his needs throughout. The letter concludes with his
accounts, the terrible tailor, "washing bill (not salts)," "medicine, a
fearful quantity for indigestion, boils, carbuncle etc." 9.s., " Luncheon
and Dinner" 6s., " Head and Neck" 8s. 9o?., etc. To those who study
the development of human character it is of extraordinary interest to
watch the cross currents working at this time in the young man's
mind. There is the social cun-ent with the love of country pursuits
which had dominated several of Francis' near relatives and collaterals ;
thei'e is the observing "clinical" inclination, which had carried other
relatives and collaterals into medicine and natural science, and then
there is the love of mathematics and physics, which was again to
manifest itself in other kinsmen. I doubt whether anyone watching
the youth closely or reading his letters of those days would have been
able to predict whether Francis Galton would end as a social leader,
a country gentleman, a doyen of the medical faculty, or a noteworthy
man of science. Tastes inherited from Beau Colyear, Erasmus Darwin,
and Samuel Galton — wit and literary instinct, scientific imagination,
power of organisation, with not a little Barclay tenacity were fermenting
in a youthful mind, and none could have foretold with which victory
would remain, or how they would ultimately be balanced. Examine
Francis Galton's letters in these Lehrjahre superficially, and they
amuse as their humour and boyish freshness necessitate. But behind
this, those who can read between the lines will find a most instructive
study in character development, one in which we seem to see not
environment but innate tendencies contesting for mastership, and the
environment itself is changed as each reaches control. None but the
most careless i^eader could deny that the mind was seeking and making
its environment, and not the environment moulding the mind.

When Francis Galton got back to Spring Gardens after the
Christmas vacation we find one of his rare letters to his mother :

Jan. Qfh, Monday [1840].
My dear Mother,

I have been a wise person, tliat I liave! Run away with Darwin's Dress Coat
and left my own. Please send me mine by return of coach as in case of a party I have
nothing to wear. I am full of contrition, etc., etc.

Now as I am writing T may as well tell you how I got here. As I got into the
Coventry and Leamington Omnibus I saw at the other end a paii of tliundering

Lehrjahre and Wanderjalire 113

moustacliios, evidently part and parcel of Capt. Sayers. However nobody spoke a word
and I fell fast asleep as usual, but before arriving at Coventry we found out that we
each had to wait till ^ past 12 for trains, he for tiie Birmingham and myself for the
London train. So there being no cofl'ee room we took the same sitting room and chatted
away, balls, etc., etc., he complimented yours very much. He is a great African
traveller ; wears a beard, which he showed me, down to his waist and which he hides
under his shirt and stock and sports it in travelling and in fancy dress balls. He
showed me how to make a turban of my plaid, etc., etc., and was most agreeable.

Set off for London at 12|. Got there 5| — Victoria Hotel — and am now at
Partridge's.

Good bye. Loves, etc., Fras. Galton.

Writing on the 12th of January to his father, Francis says :

"I cannot say that I agree in what Hodgson says', but as I have written so often
to you on this subject, giving my own reasons and those of others upon the question,
it is scarcely necessary to repeat them. I will work like a trooper whilst I am here,
and when T get to Cambridge and to Mathematics, which for the last three or four
years it has been my principal wish to study, I am confident that I shall not
lose time.

Please thank Mater for sending my coat. Tell Pemmy that I thought of her
and the balls on Wednesday and Saturday."

On January 2 1 Francis reports to his father the loss of his purse :

" I am as angry with myself as possible ; the only thing that consoles me is that
everybody is served out similarly, even you, e.g. your gold watch at the Spread Eagle.
Catch me putting anything above 5 shillings in my coat tail pocket again. Hang the
rascals. I shall have to pay Cartwright's bill for a great coat and frock coat which
I ordered from Leamington and which together will be about £11. So could you send
me another cheque which I will take the same care of as a passport in Austria.

Everything else going on prosperously. I have just received your letter, and will
certainly call on Lizzie Forster- as soon as I easily can (this week or so). Your Sliding
Rule is in continual use. Thank you very much for writing for my rooms at Cam-
bridge "

The next letter is written three days later :
My dear Governor,

Hurrah ! not been pickpocketted after all. Purse and Door key slipped
through a hole in pocket of my old Reading Coat into the lining, where I found them
last night. I expect a regular good rowing blowing-up letter from you to cross this
on the road, which will do me lots of good.

Tar, Tar. Fras. Galton.

Thanks innumerable to Delly for cardcase.

' Presumably Hodgson was not in favour of the mathematical interlude in a
medical career.

' Lizzie Forster was the Quaker lady who had been housekeeper at Duddeston after
the death of Mrs Samuel Galton (Lucy Barclay).

p. o. 15

114 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

In February the question of Clubs arises. Francis had met his
Uncle Howard at the Hubert Galtons, and the relative advantages
of the Oxford and Cambridge, the Athenaeum and the Parthenon had
been discussed. Uncle Howard had promised to get him proposed and
seconded for the Athenaeum, the Library being mentioned as a chief
advantage. Actually it was not till fifteen years later, in 1855, that
Galton, then distinguished as an African traveller, was elected under
Rule n to the Athenaeum. He always spoke with great pleasure of
the friendly meetings with many different minds at that Club, and
already at 18 he had directed his thoughts towards it.

We have seen that Galton had started his College career with
Anatomy, Physiology and Chemistry. He appears diu'ing this term
to have worked more definitely for preliminary science, adding more
Chemistry, some Botany and apparently Forensic Medicine to his
studies. But the exact range of subjects he tooTc up and the nature
of the " matriculation " to which he frequently refers are not clear
from the letters. In March we find plans being made for a visit
to Paris with Sister Emma and his father — thus in a letter of
the 28th :

"I have got my passport drawn out, but they will not give it me until I get from
you a certificate stating that I go abroad with your approbation, I being a minor; so
please send me one, couched in the following manner :

This is to certify that my son, Francis Galton, is leaving England for France with
my entire approbation.

(Signed) S. Tertius Galton.

Only think of the man's insolence in requiring one ; it was almost saying : ' Does
your mother know you're out.' To get your passport you must attend once yourself and
can represent the family. The times of attendance are between one and three. No. 6,
Poland St., Oxford St. You must tell rae however the day before you appear as I must get
a ticket to fill up. Just come crammed full of information about Names, Height, Eyes,
Hair, Complexion, Ages, and all that sort of thing which you know of Emma and
Stone. Perhaps the ' Varmints ' will want me next to write you a certificate certifying
my approbation. The passports are ' free, gratis and for nothing,' as they say to the
hospital patients. The Fweing I know nothing about as I have no passport to Vise yet.
I am almost sure I can do that. Hodgson has just made his appearance, says he saw
you and Darwin the other day — he looks ^■ery ill.

Now then for accounts."

The letter concludes with the usual summary of accounts'. We

' Existing letters show that Tertius Galton's other sons, e.g. Erasmus, although
much older than Francis, were at the same time returning equally elaborate accounts

Lehrjahre and Waiiderjahrc 115

learn that the expenditure of £12 on the great coat and frock
coat at Cartwright's must have been paternally sanctioned. Other
interesting items are " P'" of Foils and Handles," 14s. ;" Medicine
(& enough of it too)," 8s ; " Head, neck, leg and arm," £1. Gs. ;
"Magnetic and Galv. Apparatus," 5s. Gc?. ; "Rattletrap, stationery,
etc.," 5s.; "Larks, etc., etc.," 12s. 60?.

There is also a paragraph in the letter bearing on the coming
change to Cambridge :

" As to Blakesly please say that I wished to give my time principally to Mathe-
matics and was entirely ignorant of the course usually pursued with regard to a private
Tutor — whom he should recommend, whether Hopkins or another — and what steps I
ought to take to enter myself under one."

A letter of April 8th is worth citing at length. It contains a
neat drawing of the Coddington lens, with details of its construction
and parts; that lens had been invented by Brewster in 1820, but
brought into general use by Coddington's paper (Camb. Phil. Trans.
vol. iii. p. 421) of 1830, so that it was new commercially.

My dear Governor,

I have taken your ])laces. I have not matriculated. I wish that you would
send the enclosed paper to Mr Frederick Ledsam to ask him to nominate me, as I do
not know him'; there is no particular hurry. We are beginning to expect no Easter
Holidays and consequently no Paris for me, as Partridge is dreadfully behindhand
in his lectures. However, it can't be helped. The Sliding Rule was 12 shillings —
wood, beautifully marked in every possible direction and of very great use. I invested
yesterday in a Coddington Lens, as I very much wanted something of the sort. It
admits at least 6 times as much light as the microscope that you gave me — though
it does not magnify so highly — and is a hand lens — 18 shillings certainly, but so very
useful, they are just the size and shape of picture; it slides into its case with a
huge joint (a).

Fbas. Galton.

In case you cannot (like myself) read one word on the ticket, it means that yon
start from Boulogne at 1 2 o'clock and that I have paid £2. 9». and that you will have
to pay £1 at Boulogne.

to their father. He had certainly the banker's sense of order in this matter, and must
have had a great share in his father's and grandfather's power of elaboration and
organisation to be able to bear in mind, criticise and often correct these individual
details. The nature of the entries in these accounts also demonstrate the affectionate
freedom of expression and expenditure that governed the whole relationship.

' A student at King's College nominated by one of the members of the body was
allowed a reduction of about 7 per cent, in fees.

15—2

116 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

The visit to France did come off, but Tertius Galton and Emma
started first, and on April 13 Francis was to have his second near
chance of losing his life by drowning. The event is described in the
following letter to his sister Bessy':

Thursday, April Uth, 1840.

17 New Spring Gardens.

My dear Bessy,

Yesterday at 17 minutes and 45 seconds to 5 (I know the time because my
watch was stopped), just when you were puzzling yourself over some cross-stitch pattern
and whilst Delly was trying to find out a type in the Old Testament for the fact that
St Paul left his cloak behind at Ephesus — well, as you were both amusing yourselves
at that said time — I, your humble servant, Lord Torment and Tease, clothes and boots
on, was floundering under the wheels of a Steam Packet, the paddles of which were
bumping upon my head with a 1 5-horse power, and some short time afterwards I found
myself kicking about some 8 or 10 feet deep, rising to the top, which instead of
reaching, I merely knocked my head against a huge piece of wood and sank down
again, at the same time gulping in water like a fish and bubbling out air like a
blacksmith's bellows, my life woith " a little less than nothing at all," as the sailors say.
Well, I am alive, which is a great deal more than I had expected, but desperately
beaten about my head. I can't lie in bed, so I'll write you all about it.

I went in a Steam Boat to Putney to see the Oxford and Cambridge rowing
match. As we were returning, very fast and with the tide, through Battersea Bridge,
we ran foul of the middle pier. I, who was behind the paddle-box, saw how we were
going just before we struck, and caught tight hold of one of the paddle-box steps,
expecting a general smash and determined to have a swim for it. Well, the body of the
packet cleared, but the paddle-box, behind which I was, came full crash against the
sides of the arch. It split open just before me by the shock. I was thrown head
foremost through the cleft, right amongst the paddle wheels, which were still going
round, they not having touched the pier, owing I suppose to the recoil from the smash
of the paddle box, though when they did, they were doubled up and rendered useless
immediately. Well, this regularly stunned me. Thank heavens my neck was not
broken in the wheel (Escape No. 1). I was quite insensible, and how I cleared the
bridge I have not the slightest conception. I must have been beaten down by the
paddle wheels beneath the bottom of the boat — and fortunately enough, otherwise from
the shape of the packet which heeled over I must have been jammed between it and the
pier [illustrative sketch of packet and pier in elevation], and of course squashed. That

' The first event occurred in 1833, when Francis was 11 years old; he had been
taught to swim. He went to pay a visit to his sister Lucy at Smethwick. He was
walking by the canal at the bottom of the garden, when he saw a bird's nest on the
branch of a tree and fell into the water in trying to get it. His legs got entangled in
the tree so that he was held with his head under water, and no one near to help him.
At last with a vigorous effort he made himself loose and swam to shore. (Mrs Wheler's
Reminiscences under 1833.)

Lelirjahre and Wanderjahre 117

makes Escape No. 2. Well, as I said, I was insensible, and when T knew where I was,
I found myself under a large piece of wood which proved to be the outer side of the
paddle box, with part of the top still attached, thus making an angle in which after
some floundering I got stuck, and though I dived as well as I could, for I was nearly
spent and had swallowed a great deal of water, 1 still on rising bumped against the
wood. [Illustrative sketch of floating portion of paddle-wheel, showing submerged
angle under which F. G. was caught.] I of course gave myself up, but determined to
have a regular good push for life. I felt the wood round me and could see a little, and
at last I made out the edge of the top part of the paddle-box, grasped tight hold
of it, and pulled myself from underneath and cleared it. I then rose rapidly towards the
surface, when I bumped against another piece of wood, which, however, I easily pushed
aside and rose ; but I rose too high and consequently sank again, but I had had a good
breath of air and was a little refreshed. I did not sink I dare.say a foot below the
surface, but I got entangled in some long bits of wood, which as I was all but spent
nearly drowned me, and when I got to the surface they were too heavy to give me any
real support, so I looked round and saw the side of the paddle-box, which had before
been so much in my way, floating down with the tide. I struck out and soon reached
it — and I did feel happy. I climbed onto it and it was a perfect raft. (Escape No. 3.)
On looking about me T found that the steamer was 300 yards or so in front and could
not stir. I was quite 200 yards and nearly 300 from the bridge, the whole of which
distance I had floated down head under water (only one other man went overboard and
he merely got a ducking, swam to a bit of wreck and was quite safe). Well, I was
in the midst of the river, plenty of boats and watermen were at the shore, those nice
dear fellows who when they see you struggling, look on, and never dream of rowing
to you till you are either safe or dead — yes, and if safe, they swear they saved your life,
march off to the Royal Humane Society and get a gold medal for their pains, with
a long paragraph in the Times about " unparalleled bravery," and so forth. Well, after
waving my hat, for I don't know how long, oft' some half-dozen came in a body. I was
pulled into a boat and felt very seedy, I was dizzy and very sick. However, to put the
captain out of his fright, I took an oar, declared nothing was the matter with me and
pulled mechanically.

I was so dizzy that I scarce knew what I did. On getting to the packet
everybody looked horrified, one or two ladies held up their handkerchiefs before their
eyes. I couldn't make out what at, but on getting ashore and to an inn, with a looking-
glass I found my face, ears and whiskers, shirt, etc., all covered with blood. One nail
had hooketl me by the side of the nose, another had " sarved " out my face and I had
as many cuts on my ear as a Christmas pig. I got to bed, half dried clothes and walked
to London. Now don't fancy I am ill. I took enough calomel and salts to do anything,
and except a rather torn face and broken head, I really have nothing the matter with
me. I have walked out to-day and am going to Lecture in half an hour. I have
gained great glory by my splashes under water and it is a very good tale to tell — at
least when the pain goes off". I now know something of what drowning is — I felt
no pain, but rather dreamy — and I also know what my feeling will be when I am
dying, as I firmly believed I was then.

Tell Dar that if he had not taught me to swim I should have been stifi" by this

118 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

time and a coffin in pfocoss of being made. I am most grateful to him — and if I have
children I'll make thcni ampiiibious.

Now don't fancy that I am ill — once again. Just send an epistle soon — all about
journey to Isle of Man and everything. N.B. The ducking has cured a cold.

Yours, etc., Francis Galton.

I have got a relic from the wood which saved my life. It stuck into my waistcoat
pocket and broke oft' as I was getting into the boat, and I send you some enclosed '.
My watch is much hurt.

In the account Sir Francis gives in his Memories (p. 46) of this
event, the reason for his strong feehng about the watermen is mani-
fest— the men in the first boat asked a sovereign to take him in, but
being in comparative safety he was able to resist this extortion !

Ten days later Francis' examinations are over ; he feels he has
done well, and, ready for his holiday, he sets out a free man to
overtake his father in Paris :

Boulogne, H6tel ue Gibraltar.
Dear Pater,

Couldn't write before on account of the Examination in Anatomy and
Chemistry. I will tell you why when I come, but I am too lazy now. Mr, one young

Mr, and 3 Miss W (Civil Engineers), were in the Steam Packet with me from Dover

to Boulogne. I canie very " strong " with one of the Miss W , who says that they

are going to stay a week at Paris. I think that we shall travel together tomorrow
at 9 o'clock. I being "dished" for this evening and they, I believe, ditto.

Hang their Vin Ordinaire, it has diluted ray gumption, till it is as weak as their
vermacelli soup, which hang also. Travelled by night from London to Dover; got there
at 6 a.m., walked without interruption for 5 hours up the cliffs and in every direction,
set off at 1 2 ; got here at 3. I have no particular news worth telling. Tell Emma that
I have two views of Dover and one of Boulogne (having invested in a small board
Sketching Book). There is nothing to be seen in Boulogne, so I am going to dress and
promenade ! ! !

Good-bye. Fra. Galton.

N.B. It is the custom in France to write on thin paper and with a wafer,
and not to direct epistles which are written on something very like millboard and
sealed with a seal such as a Cardinal would affix to a Pope's Bull to London ; and
thereby make the postage 2 shillings and 4 pence. Such was the case with a certain
letter I received.

N.B. to N.B. (or 1/NB=). I am not sure whether the letter was 1 shilling and
4 pence or 2 shillings and 4 pence. I think the latter. All mistakes to be referred
to "Vermacelli soup or Vin Ordinaire.

' I imagine this is the shaving of wood which has been preserved with a small
triangular piece of lead in this bundle of letters.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 119

None enjoyed the frolic of a holiday more than Francis, although
no one could work harder at the proper time. The tour went by way
of Paris to Nancy, Strasburg, Baden-Baden, Stuttgart, Heilbron,
Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Schlangenbad, Coblentz, Bonn and Antwerp,
Mr Galton and his daughter reaching England on June 4th. A
sketch of the tour seems to have been made out by Francis at some
Rhenish town on April 30th, and accords fairly closely with the route
ultimately described by Emma Galton in her diary. But Francis was
back at King's College on May 7th, and there is no record of how far
he accompanied the party. On his way home he appears to have
called in at Jersey and seen his old adversary, Dr Jeune of the Free
School, now Dean of Jersey. His great news on arrival home is
conveyed to his sister Delly' :

17 New St., Spring Gardens,

London, May llh [1840].
Dear Delly,

Hurrah ! Hurrah ! ! I am 2nd Prizeman in Anatomy and Chemistry. I
had only expected a certificate of honour. Hurrah ! Go it, ye cripples.

An undated letter of a few days later to his sister Bessy puts the
circumstances of the prize in more detail :

17 New Street,

Spring Gardens, London.
My DEAR Betsy,

Thank you for your letter, and thanks innumerable for your congratulations.
I am excessively glad that I have gained this prize, as it is such a good introduction ;
it was the only prize open to rae, else I hoped that ray name would have appeared
in another place as well ; however look again, about the first week in August in the
papers and in the meantime wish me success in Botany and Forensic Medicine.

Had I gained the fir.st prize instead of the second it would have been an im-
provement, but if you consider that the class consists of between 70 and 80, and
that Anatomy and Chemistry are the Sciences which students principally follow, and
again that of these 70 or 80 students, about 30 were 2nd year men, that is had
dissected for two years, whilst I had only dissected for one, you will see that it was
plenty for me to do ; however I was within a very few marks of being first, but a miss
is as good as a mile.

' This letter has upon it the first postage .stamp on any of Francis Galton's letters,
and an endorsement on it states that it is the first the home circle had seen. Francis
stuck the stamp in the top left-hand corner at an angle of 45°, head downwards. Ten
days later he has adopted the now usual method.

120 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

My books are, one folio Seneca, printed Antwerp 1652, very scarce, good type
and very valuable ; D'Tsraeli's Essays, which originally appeared in three volumes, now
printed in one ; Songs of England and Scotland, 2 vols, small 8vo, all gilt stamped with
College arms and so forth, — they are well worth having.

I am quite glad that you like Tenby so much, and the good memory of the Lady
at the Post Office is highly laudable'. I had capital fun in France, I do love travelling.
Oh, Betsy, if you could but see Mr Y., poor man, so down in the mouth whenever
Mrs Y. contradicts him He was talking to me of his manservant who had married
a housemaid and said, "That fellow John, like a great fool, has just been married,
the idiot ! A man is good for nothing after marrying ; he would do so though in
spite of all that I could say." Poor Y. There is however one thing in Iiim highly
commendable, which is that unlike the tame elephants who delight to decoy wild
ones into their own state of captivity, he loudly declaims against all marriage in all

circumstances He began once during dinner to argue, and after his old style was

debating whether " Cause should be considered as the precursor of Effect, or Effect as
the consequence of Cause," when the baby, who was sitting on his knee, having
previously unobserved insinuated its paw into a wine-glass of Port, splashed a volley
of the wine right upon Y.'s white tie, and then upset the glass and what remained
in it over Y.'s knees. I did so pity him, he is irrevocably a family man.

Write occasional epistles. Yours, etc.,

Francis Galton.

P.S. I think my old schoolfellow C is at Tenby ; he is dying of consumption,

poor fellow ; he was the kindest boy possible and very talented. Should you find out
that he is there, please tell me. I saw Dicky Doyne yesterday.

How little we grasp at 18, what we shall sigh for at 50 as
incomparably more weighty than many soiled shirt fronts !

The few days' holiday in France enabled Galton to return to his
work with renewed vigour. He was taking several new subjects, and
as is the case with each man of original power, they came to him as
new worlds to be discovered and conquered afresh.

May 17, 1839 [? 1840],

17 New St., Spring Gardens.
My dear Mother,

When you next write to my father, please tell him that a letter which
I directed to him shortly after my arrival in London at Baden-Baden, was returned
to me the other day, opened from the Dead Letter Box, owing to my not having
previously paid the sum of 1». 8c?., which it seems is necessary, and of which I was not
aware. Please tell him this in order to account, for his not having received a letter
from me. I would write, but as of course by this time he has left Baden-Baden, I
do not know his address. As I suppose that by this time you have heard from him,

' See the first footnote, p. 83.

Lelirjahre and Wanderjahre 121

please write shortly and tell me all the news and his present plans. I shall also want
£10 (the Governor told me to apply to you), which please send soon as I am in some
want of it. I have to invest in several new books owing to my attending perfectly new
subjects for lectures. Don't forget to tell the Governor in your 7iext letter that you
have given it to mo. Also please tell him that tlie lectures that I am attending
are 1. Botany at King's College, 2. Forensic Medicine, 3. Chemical Manipulation,
4. Surgical Operations, and 5. Botany under Lindley' at the Chelsea Botanical Gardens,
only twice a week. I do not attend the Civil Engineering Classes as it would be too much
I think to do well''; neither do I dissect as I had previously intended, because I can only
get pickled subjects, and also because there is an immense deal of microscopifying
required in Vegetable Physiology, to which, it seems to me, that I had better at present
give my time. I like my summer course very much indeed, it is not half such hard
work as the Winter Course, and much more amusing, and two good prizes open to me
at the end of the course, viz. Botany and Forensic Medicine.

I received a letter from Bessy the other day, who told me that she had just had
a letter from Delly, who assumed the honour of sending her (Bessy) the first glutinous
stamp, but Delly not being very expert, the stamp did not stick on, and so Bessy had to
pay double Postage.

Oh, Delly! Delly 1 your congratulatory letters with regard to the reduced Postage
System have been singularly unfortunate ; in case of any fresh alteration, please don't
write to me.

Good bye. Your aflfectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

P.S. Mrs and Miss Hodgson are just gone to Brighton to recruit from the Hooping
Cough (no vicious w, you observe, to my Hooping Cough'). How are Darwin and
Claverdon getting on ?

On Tertius Galton's return in June there was a good deal of corre-
spondence about expenses. Francis had not been really extravagant,
but he had taken his accounts to Paris to show to his father, he had
not shown them and then he had lost them I Further, he did not
always promptly acknowledge the receipt of remittances and Tertius'
training as a banker demanded absolute punctuality in these matters.

' Lindley was Professor of Botany at University College (1829 — 1860), and
attracted large classes. He was also lecturer on Botany to the Apothecaries Company
at Chelsea (1836 — 1853). He was a botanist of great distinction, and it is plea-sant to
think of Galton attending his Chelsea lectures.

- This is the first evidence of Francis Galton's interest in Engineering. No
earlier reference to the possibility of attending these lectures has been found, and
it is probable that mechanical rather than civil engineering would have specially
interested him.

' Francis Galton appears to have hit oflf the older form (see on the point Skeat and
Johnson). Or was it the French tour ?

H. <i. 16

122 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

Wednesday, [/wwe] \Qth, 1840,

17 New St., Spring Gardens.
My dear Governor,

You are the most delectable Governor going in the early part of your letter,
but in the last not a man of business (! ! !). Now to support my charge. When I dined
with you at the Euston did not you, the defendant, say that if the 40 pounds did not
come that it would be my business to look after them, thereby leaving me to mine own
resources, and dependent upon them alone to obtain the said forty pounds? Under such
order I acted and accordingly under ray " auspices " the 40 pounds appeared in my
pocket. There was nothing more evidently for me to say. .'. I said nothing. Q.E.D.

Now as to the other part'. My holidays will begin on the 21. ..28 of July.
I certainly should not disapprove of 70 days journey ; indeed I have no doubt but
that I should see a very great deal very well worth seeing in that journey, and see
it well too.

The route I propose taking is Hamburg, Copenhagen, Esteborg, Stockholm (by
Gotha canal) (St Petersburg by Abo ?), Stockholm to Sundsvall, Trondheim (this is
beautiful scenery), Bergen (s|>lendid), Christiania (by V0ringsfoss and the Hardanger
Fjeld (P0rgnis) [? word not readable], Christiansund [? Christiansand], Hull, or else going
exactly the opposite way and landing from Hull at Goteborg, thence to Christiania and
so on, and thus I shall be able to judge more correctly about St Petersburg. There is
reindeer shooting ! ! ! ! and only 4 hours night at Bergen, Eternal Snow in the form of
glaciers 300 feet high ! ! In fact I am raving mad about it. I have of course taken
care that Cambridge shall not suffer in anyway by it.

Please to make enquiries for a companion. I am not yet sure of one. Would
you let me have the liberty of taking one book at a time from Saunders and Ottley
and give me the necessary instructions, that I may cram up about Sweden, Norway and
Finland ?

Please tell Emma that that lady with an illegible name something like Oh law !
has sent me no seals.

Your affectionate, half-cracked son,

Fkas. Galton.

The Wanderlust was seizing Francis, another factor becoming
ahnost dominant, and the blood of Buttons and Colyears manifesting
its influence. We know our Norway now as we do our Switzerland,
but it was not so usual for a boy of 18 in those days to plan a tour
through Norway, especially with the three days' fjeld journey across
the Hardanger Vidda from Vik to the Hallingdal. It was, I know,
a fairly lonely track 25 years ago, and more than 70 years back it
would indeed be an unusual route, probably taken only by a few
reindeer hunters. Francis gives no clue as to the source of his

' The " most delectable Governor " in the early part of his letter had clearly been
proposing ten weeks of travel.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 123

projected journey. But his letter a week later to his father shows
Francis still wholeheartedly for the Norwegian tour.

June 15, 1840,

17 New St., Spring Gardens.
Deab Father,

Thanks innumerable for intended tour and for book order. [There follows
an explanation as to non-acknowledgement of a remittance.] I have just received from
Leonard Homer a report " On the Employment of Children in Factories and other
Works," to be transmitted to you by the next opportunity. N.B. Though I know
that an opportunity won't present itself, I write to ask what I am to do, that I may
have time to read it before your answer comes. Now acting life to the maxim of
business first and pleasure arter'ards — and having pitched into business, here goes for
pleasure — about my tour, I mentioned 70 days, though I believe that 50 days will do,
just to take the outside, as, in case of a good wind and in case of a boat sailing that
way when at Trondheim, why I may just as well go to the Lofoden Isles, which rise
several thousands of feet bolt upright from the water's edge and are superb — and
besides close to them is the Malstrom. My chief expenses are in getting to Norway
and back, when in the country they are but slight and will be mucli less with a
companion.

I shall be free in the 3rd week of July. Poor Di' — when will she be buried 1
How is your asthma?

Your affect, son, Fkas. Galton.

The next few letters are chiefly occupied with the distressing
subject of accounts. After giving details of his expenditure, which
are chiefly of interest for us as showing the nature of Fi'ancis's
occupations — two botanical excursions with Professor Lindley, two
visits to the Opera, etc. — Francis continues (June 16) :

" I own that I have not kept my accounts, especially my Paris ones, at all carefully.
I have generally set my expenses down, but on scraps of papers and consequently lost
them afterwards from carelessness. I do not think that I have wasted any money,
though I doubt if I could account for all. I am sure that I could not accurately.
I don't owe anything except 32 shillings for a pair of boots and I cannot get the bill.
My present riches are £14. 8s. I shall have to get a frock coat and waistcoat. The
frock coat being the 3rd that I have had in London.

As my journey to Norway and Sweden can .scarcely be less than £50, I shall not
grumble at giving it up ' in toto,' but am quite ready to do so. I e.xpect a good roiv
from you by return of post, and as I deserve it, am resigned.

And now having to the letter followed the example of our Ministei's, and when
the Budget must come, having made a clean breast of it — what is to be done? It

' His cousin Diana Galton, daughter of Hubert Galton. Emma Galton, who had
been staying with the Gurneys, writes on June 7 of the grave illness of Diana.

16—2

124 Life and Letters of Francis Galtoti,

is no use on my part to blarney about 'full of contrition' and so forth, but beginning

from to-day, I will send you by every Monday's post my accounts for the week

preceding ; and in case of omission, I wish that you would write and blow me up.

Please tell me by return of post — how much I am in arrear, as not understanding your
figures I cannot calculate it.

Good Bye, and believe me ever,

Your affectionate son, Fras. Galton."

How we should have valued the answer of Tertius Galton to this
letter of his son Francis ! How few young men at College now-a-
days would satisfy their father's desire for a weekly account of all
expenditure, and how neat and elaborate are the little weekly accounts
we find sent to Tertius after this date ! To us it would have seemed
more i-easonable to grant a fixed allowance and to make no inquiry,
if it were not exceeded, as to the details of expenditure. But Tertius
Galton had his own views, and he insisted on the most elaborate
system of petty cash accounts. Can we assert that Francis Galton's
business habits and his full appreciation of the value of money arose
from his father's training ? Is it not rather probable that the instinct
of elaboration and organisation was already there, for we find it taking
strange forms in several of Francis Galton's relatives' ?

A further letter about expenses is dated June 24 (by the recipient
Tertius !).

" I am very glad indeed to find that my private expenses have not been
extravagant.

On consideration I have determined to give up Norway and Sweden for the
following reasons. First that although I should otherwise have etiough time for

^ Thus one of Tertius Galton's sisters had a triple inkstand with three coloured
inks, triple penwipers and pens ; every conceivable apparatus for writing, printed
envelopes for her various banks and business correspondents ; printed questions for
her grooms, "Has the mare had her corn?'' etc., etc.; a dozen or more cash boxes
elaborately arranged to receive in separate labelled compartments each kind of coin
from each type of her property. The apparatus for the instruction and relief of the
poor-tracts, ounces of tea and sugar, worsted stockings, bundles for mother's aid, etc.,
etc., were arranged in separate indexed presses, with records of all transactions relating
thereto. The crockery ware of the store-room and housekeeper's room was all lettered,
and all metal articles, pans and pots were duly labelled, as were the garden tools, and
there were corresponding labels on the pegs on which they were hung. As many as
100 painted labels have been counted in a flower bed of hers of 12 square feet. In
short, we appreciate what Francis Galton meant when he said that the desire to
classify and organise which existed in his family, he felt at times as almost a danger
in himself.

Lehrjaliro and Wauderjahre 125

Cambridge — yet an increase of 6 weeks would give me abundance. Secondly, I have
already been the cause of so much expense that I have made up my mind not to
incur a greater.

I called upon Leonard Horner to tell him what I had determined, and to thank
him for having made enquiries for a companion, but he was not at home, nor expected
till the middle of next month ; so I should be obliged if you would write to him.

The cause of the cheapness of the envelopes is this — The stationer who sells them
has an advertising sheet printed on their inside, which of course will enable him to sell
them at a great reduction. This man has, however, not found them to answer, as
he has no more, but I hear that they are to be got for 8c/. the dozen. I will make
enquiries. I call to-morrow on the Huberts. I have not had time owing to Hospital
engagements. Everything, including accounts, getting on flourishly. There will be
very near play whoever gets the prize for Forensic Medicine. I do not make myself
sure of it.

Good bye. Your affectionate Son,

Fras. Galton."

Ill his next letter (June 29) Francis tells his father that he fully
understands and appreciates his arguments about the money : " I am
most obliged to you for your liberality ; however I think that for many
reasons, I had better give up Noi'way and Sweden and go elsewhere."
He suggests a month in Paris, boarding in a family who don't under-
stand a word of English —

" a large family, as good a class of life as possible — and the most complete innocence
of anything like the knowledge of the English language. In case of several equally
qualified that those who can talk the most gossip be the chosen ones. This will explain
my taste pretty well, — of course if the daughters are comely — why taut gaymP

Friday, 10<A (I think), 1840,

17 New St., Spring Gardens, London.
My dear Father,

Thanks for your unanswered letters — that one which you wrote to Paris
really was a perfect specimen of English composition — had it been a will and had
£50,000 a year de[)ended on it, I am sure a lawyer could not have picked a
flaw in it.

...Everything gets on capitally, especially accounts. When I want to know
if I have any coppers in my pocket to give to a begging crossing sweeper I do not
condescend to feel but pull out my pocket-book fuld up and the result is sure to be
correct. I shall want some more money, not enough though for the Paris expedition,
as I propose to come to you at home first — thenRas.sy\ and then Paris. Shall I send
you my account book or an extract ?

[Here follow accounts.]

' Erasmus Galton, who had given up the Navy and settled down to farm at
Loxton. Darwin Galton was farming at Claverdon.

126 Life and Letters of Francis Galtoii

So much for business. Went to the Opera last night, Taglioni, last appearance
— am quite hoarse with bellowing out "bravo." Aunt Gurney' has been out of town
for 3 weeks, just returned. I went to see Courvoisier hung, and was close to the
gallows, poor fellow. I went professionally for death by hanging is a medico-legal
subject of some importance.

Tell Delly that I have not seen a scrap of her handwriting for ages and that
she must send me a letter. What does she do without her school? I am glad that
she is going to Somersetshire [Loxton], it will do her back so much good. Nothing
is so bad for health, such as hers is, as a sedentary (lyingdown-in-a-school-all-day) habit
of living and one without variation. If she divides her attention between two sets
of objects — to both of which she is attached — school and farm — her health will be
wonderfully improved, Frampton's pills of health discarded and steel mixtures thrown
down the sink.

My accounts shall be sent by return of post, if you will tell me in your next letter
how you would like me to send them.

Good bye. Your aflfectionate Son,

Fras. Galton.
This is wrapped in an "lie?, a dozen" cover.

The Paris trip was not destined to come off'. A new direction
was to be given to Francis Galton's plans ; but the goal reached was
far from the direction indicated at the start. The Wanderlust had
seized Francis, although he was little conscious of it, and laboratories
and lecture-rooms were incapable of holding him back.

Monday, July [13], 1840, 17 New St., Spring Gardens.
Dear Pater,

Thanks for letter, I am in a great hurry for the post, so I will send
accounts to-morrow.

Please write an answer and send it with all the speed a penny envelope is
capable of.

Wm Miller is going to Giessen in Germany, to Liebig's Laboratory — Liebig is the
1st Chemist (in organic chemistry) in the world. In his Laboratory there is every
opportunity for getting on, in addition to the certainty of a knowledge of German
being acquired. The terms are very low, not more than £5 for admission, though of
course there are many more expenses in the way of tests and other documents. Wm
Miller tries to persuade me to go with him. I should like to go. Have you any
objection? I write to Hodgson by this post to ask his opinion. Miller is as you know
exceedingly talented and will in all probability rise high. My acquaintance with
Bowman has proved to be most useful — a similar acquaintance with Miller promises
to be so. Liebig's assistance will of course be invaluable to me in after life ; and as
his immediate pupil, more especially as I am a foreigner and come with an introduction
from Daniell, I shall have every opportunity of acquiring his friendship. Again Daniell

' Mrs Hudson Gurney : see Plate XLVII.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 127

will necessarily be much pleased with one of his class, more especially his prizeman,
following up so good an opportunity of working at practical chemistry ; he will of
course give me introductions to Liebig and will take more interest in me. Liebig's
season begins next week and ends Sept. 8th nearly, all which time I shall be with him.
My going there will not interfere with my Forensic Medicine Examination. I am sure
that it is the best thing that I can do. T shall not gain refinement most certainly — but
will have evei-y advantage possible for obtaining Chem. Knowledge, and will return as
dirty and as clever as can reasonably be expected.

Your affectionate Son,

Fras. Galton.

Glad very, about asthma.

In Captain Donellan's case you used to tell a story of a Mr Somebody who lent
Capt. Donellan some book or other containing a description of the manufacture of laurel
water, this book after the Capt.'s execution was found always to open in the place where
the process was described. Please give me the names.

Attached to the neat account which followed next day, duly
headed by the receipt for the last cheque, are a few lines in which
Francis states that he should not have time to write to Liebig and
wait for an answer, and that if Liebig cannot take him, what is he to
do — " Go to Paris or to Switzerland ? "

The next letter from Spring Gardens acknowledges the receipt
of a credit on Barclay and Co. for £100. Hodgson approved of the
visit to Liebig. Francis is in his holiday mood :

July 16, 1840.

...You enjoin me not to smoke cigars. I will not, but I will buy a meerschaum
with a pipe 4 feet and a half long, and with a bowl that will contain an ounce of
Tobacco at a time. Shall I get one for you ?

I have got my money changed into circular notes at Herries, Farquahar & Co.
I land at Ostend, railroad Liege, diligence Aix and Cologne, steam Coblenz ; diligence
or voiturier, if I must, to Giessen. Doe.s not Bessy return to-day ? How is his worship
the farmer at Claverdon getting on ?

Good bye. Affectionate Son,

Fkas. Galton.
I will write again. Loves and all that sort of thing.

The last letter from the old environment is written on July 22,
just before the start for Giessen :

Tuesday.
My dear Father,

I am 2nd in Forensic Medicine. There is only 1 prize and so I get a
Certificate of Honour. I am much vexed at not being first, but there was more
comj)etition than usual. One of the men (I am above him) got a Certificate of Honour

128 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

last year. As you understand the circumstances in which I was placed as regards
juniority, I shall not attempt any further to justify my failure. If it is not infra dig.
after a Cambridge degi-ee, I shall of course go in again....

I have secured my berth in the Ostend steamer and start to-morrow at 12.
I will send you my medical books in a parcel. Don't let them be opened. My other
Ixjoks I will pack up separately. My chemicals too I had rather were not touched.
I have been unavoidably prevented from calling on Leonard Horner. Will you write
to him and tell him of my proceedings 1 I .saw the Gurneys to-day. She talks about
coaxing Bessy or Emma to Chiswick. As I have much to do, I will wish you good-bye.
Loves to all.

Your affectionate Son,

FrAS. G ALTON.

Of this "stay in Giessen " Francis's letters must themselves speak.
There are two dated Giessen, the others are from Vienna, Buda Pest
and Constantinople ! A sketch-book diary shows that Francis, then
18 years of age, went down the Danube to Vienna, thence to Con-
stantinople, thence to Smyrna, Syra, Athens. Beyond this records
are obscure. Sketches show that he was at the Bay of Navarino
on Sept. 13, and at Missolonghi on Sept. 14. A projected itinerary
in the early part of the book gave a return by Rome, Pisa, Genoa,
Marseilles and Paris. But he was still in Ithaca, when he should have
been near Pisa, and from Constantinople he requested money to be
sent to Trieste. The brief notes ceased after Sept. 14, and I do not
know how Francis got home !

Those who had seen the Wanderlust rising to full intensity in
the planned Norwegian expedition might have been fairly sure that
Liebig would not hold him. His diary tells only the external side of
the attack :

"Giessen, July 30th, 4| p.m. Being thoroughly ennuied and kicking about on
the sofa, I suddenly thought of a voyage to Constantinople and made up my mind
in a quarter of an hour and sent off my passport to be viseed to Frankfurt ; then went
to Herr Prof. Adrian for my grammar lesson, who it seems went the same route last
year, and who gave me several good hints. Wrote a penitent letter home begging for
absolution, and without waiting for an answer packed up."

Monday, 27 July, 1840,

Giessen, 1 o'clock.
My dear Father,

I arrived yesterday at Giessen in the afternoon. I find that Liebig's
laboratoiy is under quite different arrangements to those which Mr Daniell, Mr Miller
and myself had expected. The plan with which it is conducted is as follows :
A number of men (30 at iiresent), who have long studied practical Chemistry, wish

Lehrjahre and Wauderjahre 129

individually to examine certain organic substances. Now in analysing bodies of this
class much tact is required in devising the mode of treating them, and in adapting
trains of experiment to the individual case. These men go to Liebig who gives his
opinion as to how they are to set to work. He has a room where there are tables
and sinks and some furnaces, about a yard's lengtli of table is allotted to each man
and there he experimentalises (he brings his own apparatus and tests). Liebig looks up
the men once or twice a day, telling them how to go on, etc. etq. Their investigations
are all published with the name of the experimentalizer attached. Liebig therefore
presupposes delicacy of manipulation, and professes to teach the application of it to
particular ca-ses. It is the first part that I wish to practise and, not having done
so sufficiently, of course instruction in the after part is useless. Under these circum-
stances and with the advice of Mr Miller I have determined not to enter the chemistry
class, but shall work at learning German instead. My arrangements I will tell you
at the end.

I set off from London at 12. Motley assemblage of passengers. Lady Noel
on board ; and with the exception of treading upon a little poodle-dog's tail by accident,
and making it squeal horribly, and of tumbling against a lady who was trying to drink
unobserved a glass of wine, and so causing her to spill it over her neighbours, I got
on very well. Calm passage, not sick, good berth, in which I didn't sleep, and splendid
appetite. Ostend at 3i in the morning, shore at 4i, tooled about, got passport viseed
etc., breakfast and railroad at 6. Very agreeable companions they had come with
me in the stefimboat, and were travelling for their first time, a lady and her Governor ;
there were other English also in the same carriage. Stopped an hour at Malines just
looked about me. Liege at 4| ; ran about with one of my fellow-travellers, saw
everything — dined and set off for Aix at 10 at night ; a couple of Englishmen still
.sticking to me, one of whom tried to inveigle me into acting as a sort of courier, etc.
a " Speed Malise speed," but I dished him nicely. Aix at 4| in the morning, warm bath
etc. ; ran about the town, Charlemagne's throne, etc., etc. Good breakfast and set off
for Coin at 7i, arrived there at 3i ; bolted to the bankers ; just had time to look at the
cathedral and off in the steamer ; we came opposite Drachenfels about ^ past 1 1 at
night. I disembarked at Konigswinter ; ran to the top of the Drachenfels and waited
to see the sun rise (the steamer would ha\e been in Coblentz by 4 o'clock), bolted down
again in 1 3 minutes and f*", grabbed a breakfast, and off for Coblentz ; found that
I could not get off to Giessen till 3 o'clock next morning, so I walked up the Chartreuse,
and in every possible direction till I was thoroughly tired (boiling sun) ; reinvigorated
myself with a brace of ices etc. The men at the inn (Hof zum Riesen) very uncivil,
so I knew that if I went to bed they would not awake me at 2 in the morning ;
consequently I took my luggage to the Schnellpost office, told the man my unfortunate
condition and asked him to let me sleep in a diligence. He immediately took compassion
on me and bundled alx)ut for the keys of the Passagierstube, but the keys were not
to Ije found so I picked out the most comfortable Postwagen and fell asleep most
cosily. However the chocolate ices, bonbons, and coffee that I had taken not exactly
agreeing in my inside, I had a desperate nightmare, fancying that 2 vipers were dancing
the " Cachuca," whilst an old rattlesnake was posturising in the ." La Gitana." At this
I squealed awfully and being thoroughly awakened by a desperate rattling at the door,

p. o. 17

130 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

I found the Sentinel standing with a tixed bayonet. I however kept still and soon went
to *Uvp. Set off at 3 in the morning (Sunday) and got to Giessen at i\ p.m., tooled
to the inn and on inquiry fortunately found Miller there. In the evening walked about
the town rtMmd the ramparts etc.. etc. Miller introduced nie to Playfair, late chemical
assistant to Gkaham, to Gilbert, also assistant to Thompson, and to Herr Bettenbacher,
a yi«ina professor, all studying at Liebig's. Went to bed, slept gloriously, up at 6
this BMrnin^ went ta the Laboratory, heard Liebig lecture, saw all that was going
OM. Mftde •nrmi^genMnts with the German Professor for daily lessons. My present plans
are as foUovs. Work hard at Giessen for a fortnight till I can speak it tolerably.
I diall then expect letters from you with Berlin, Dresden or Hanover introductions ;
go to one of these places, and mix in society and lark for 3 weeks at least, and shall
be in fingjand on the 14th fA September. — Please write to Hodgson and tell him about
my ahermtkm mentioning that Miller thinks it the best thing that I can do. Write an
answer please by retsm of post and another letto- with introductions (if you approve
of the plan) as soon as jtm can get them.

I am most oooifartahfy ho«sed etc, eating, drinking and sleeping cost 3 shillings
a day. I dine with the chemiealims at 6 o'dlock. Tbese are great top-sawyers amongst
them. We always ^>eak German. I am much vexed at losing my Chemistry, but
I shall gain tax note fay stewii^ away at German, than I should had I worked at
CAewstiy, lidi^s anangeaHVfo beii^ as I had expected. I have enjoyed myself
MMUMiely,

Good fa^ T' afeetionate Son,

Fkas. G.^ltox.

MiDer and myadf are great dman and we talk German to each otho- most
■wjntenigihly. I have no donbt that the lingutB at tibe table dlWtte wiO have much
dBaenaaoB on what the to^ne is in which we comer se.

Of the men mentioned in this letter several reached distinction
lafctf. William Allen ililler — also a Birmingham (General Hospital
man — became Professor of Chemistrv at Kind's College. London, and
lata*, espeoally in conjunction with Huggins, made noteworthy chemical
investigations Plajrfeur, afterward Lord Playtair, was well-known to
cor genefatkffii both as dtemist and politician. Bat the mood of Francis
Galton was at this moment neither for research nor intellectual society.
He could not possibly have settled down to dith^- chemical analysis or
" stewing at German." The roving Inst had soaed him and it was to
bold him for many yeats, until indeed it should itself become sab-
aerrient to his love of soentifie inquiry.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 131

GiESSBN, July 30, 18-tO.

My dear Father,

Being thoroughly ennuied at Giesseu and having nothing to do from morning
to night', I have determined to make a bolt down the Danube and to see Constantinople
and Athens. I have made all the calculations of time and cost and they are very
favourable. Can I take any message to the Skeys 1 I do not wait for an answer before
I start for two reasons, P' that I have not time and 2"<"J' as you promised me a good
summer's tour to Sweden and Norway, of course you can have no objection to a com-
paratively civilised trip. I am getting on in German capitally, and shall learn almost
as much of it in these my travels as if I had settled in the midst of Berlin — much
more than by staying in Giessen. Another rejison for my unhesitating bolt is that as
I shall have very little time after I am settled at Cambridge, I had better make the
most of the present opportunity. So I will fancy that I have received a favourable
answer, and so thauk you very ujuch indeed for your consent. My conscience being
thus pacified, I will tell you something of Giessen. — It is a scrubby, abominably paved
little town — cram full of students, noisy, smoky and dirty. Of these students, by far
the best are the Chemicals, they being all firstrate men, wot write books and so forth ;
they are one shade less dirty than the others, that is to say they are of the colour of umber,
the others being Bt Sienna. They have a table d'hote to themselves at 6 o'clock (at
which I join) and they drink much sour wine and Seltzer water. Every now and then
they dissipate, i.e. send for a quart bottle extra of Rauenthaler, and drink healths and
sing songs. To drink healths you clink your glass with everybody else's glass at table,
thereby spilling much wine on the table-cloth and over your neighbours' necks — over
which you are stretching. As there were 30 sitting down together at the one which I
witnessed, by the simple rule of combinations", n(n- 1), or 30 x 29, the glasses must
have clinked 870 times for each health that was drunk say (at a low computation 20
were drunk) then 17,400 clinks must have ensued!! If one student calls out to
another : " Sie sind Doctor," it is a challenge to drink 2 glasses of wine with him ; if
" Sie sind Professor," then 4 and so on. They have also a very uncomfortable custom
for foreigners which is this — one man walk.s up to another (whom he knows) and asks
him if he has any objection to drink " Schmollens " with him ; the consequence of
which ceremony is the calling each other " du " ever after instead of " sie," and in fact
making them perpetual chums. The way in which it is performed is by drinking a glass
of wine, the arm which holds the glass being put through the corresponding arm of the
other — and then saluting each other on both cheeks ; this last part to be continually
repeated after any absence ! I have not seen it performed, but I was in great fear and
trepidation, even more so than when before Mary Luard at a Christmas party. — The

' Our hero forgets that in his last letter to his father he had arranged to work
hard at German for a fortnight ! I do not think that Francis Galton ever obtained
more than a working knowledge of German, i.e. that he spoke it fluently or read its
literature from inclination.

^ Francis's mathematics seem to have failed liim, or the Giessen custom diflfered
from that of Heidelberg forty years later ; each pair clink only once, not twice.
Perhaps he counted a clink to each glass !

17—2

132 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

Professor who gives me lessons is a delectable old man, quite an original, who has 17 (! !)
pipes in his room and who smokes to a corresponding extent. Tell Pemmy that there
is a splendid cathedral at Liraburg, almost unknown to Englishmen, — and B3fzantine
architecture with a touch of Gothic, just like the church of the apostles at Coin, only
much more splendid. By the bye in case that you should fancy any part of this letter
to be a " take in," I can assure you that I never was more in earnest in my life.
Having nothing more to say — with many thanks for your kind consent to my travels.
I remain Your affectionate son Fras. Galton.

P.S. I have just opened to say that I have seen one of the professors here who
went a similar tour last year, and the one that we have together concocted is Frankfort,
Wiirzburg, Ratisbon, Passau, Linz, Vienna, Constantinople, Smyrna, Athens, Patras,
Ancona, Rome, Livomo, Pisa, Florence, Livorno, Genoa, Marseilles and Paris.
I have plenty of time. I could see this all very well, quarantines &c., and be back on
the 18th Sept., but I will take more time. [In pencil.] I start tomorrow at 7 in the
morning. In case of a letter from you crossing this Miller will take care of it.

Francis actually set off on July 31st with Dr Meyer for Frankfort,
the Doctor having parted " Schmollens " fashion from several of his
fellow-students. The picture the diary provides for us is that of an
intensely happy boy — full of fun and feeling himself out for a bit
of a frolic truant fashion. At Frankfort, Francis began to drop the
unnecessary : " Left in a parcel 1 coat, 1 p'' trousers, Liebig's Chemistry
Part I., Liebig's Organic Chemistry and the handbook for Northern
Germany (1836) with the map torn out." He had time, however, to
"scetch " {sic!) very neatly in pen and ink the Katharinen-Kirche and
a general view of the town. The next stage is Wiirzburg, with some
careful pencil work sketches of the town, and here Galton fell in with
a travelling companion :

"Aug. 2. Went to sleep on the sofa in the coiFee room and on awaking a scrubby-
looking little Hungarian addressed me in bad English, asked me my route and said that
we should be fellow travellers to Wien. Set off' at 12 for Ni'irnburg, a Lady being the
only other person in the diligence. The little Hungarian no sooner perceived a petticoat
in the diligence than he bellowed out for lanterns most furiously, l)ut notwithstanding
his exertions couldn't get one, so cursing awfully sat down with his eyes 3 inches from
the girl's face. On passing out we came close by a light which exposed the physiognomy
of the girl, and the Hungarian being satisfied commenced a most vigorous courtship.
He told me that it was quite necessary for me to make myself an ade[)t in the art, and
so I tried and with some success fell fast asleep.

Auij. 3. Awoke and found him holding both hands of the girl and singing love
songs. I accordingly burst out laughing in which they both joined. I then began nvy
flirtation with much more success than my rival, at which his mustachios desponded and
looked sad. Arrived at Niirnburg at 12. Marie, for such she said was her name, gave
me a bit of an artificial flower that she wore, but would not let me crib some of her

Lelirjalire and Wanderjalire 133

hair, because I had only a penknife to cut it witli, though she said had I had a pair of
scissors it would liave teen different."

liatisbon and Walhalla followed, the sketchbook showing various
details of buildings, rafts, and country folk. At Passau the steamer is
found to be injured and on Aug. 6 Galton set out with Major Parry in
a boat with one rower to go down the Danube to Vienna, which was
reached on the 7th. In Vienna there was sightseeing, opera and
gaiety. Then down the Danube to Buda Pest and on to Semlin,
reached on August 13th.

"Tlie natives beastly dirty, sheepskin clothes, wide full trousers, long greasy hair,
turned-up hat. Passed Peterwardein, anything but picturesque. Slept at Semlin
having first walked about the dirty town and up to the cemetery, whence is a very good
view of junction of the Save and Danube. It was too dark to see Belgrade well. [There
is a picture of Belgrade from Semlin by moonlight, Aug. 13.] Sang 'God save the
Queen' and went to bed loyal."

Then by way of Sistova, Kustendje, Castle of Europa to Constanti-
nople, reached on August 22nd. There is little in the diary here but a
youthful traveller's impressions, a long description of the first Turkish
bath, the slave-market and the mosques, only seen fi-om outside. From
this first section of Galton's tour three home letters remain. The first

is from Vienna :

Vienna, Hurrah!!! Aug. 7, 1840.

Stadt Frankfort Hotel.

My dear Pater. It has just struck me {i.e. after having taken my place to
Constantinople — not before) that this expedition of mine is about the coolest and most
impudent thing that I have done for a long time. But I remember when about G yrs
old you telling Darwin and Erasmus of an exploit of yours in kindly offering to escort
some young lady (I forget whom) from Birmingham for a mile or two, and somehow or
other when once in the carriage you thouglit it better to go on to Bromsgrove merely as
a protection to her ; at Bromsgrove of course the same reason held good and so on to
Worcester. I thought it then a very naughty thing. Now from Birmingham to
Worcester is at least 40 miles and from Fraufort to Constantinople is only 2075 (I have
carefully counted them) a leetle more certainly, but not enough to matter, so please be
lenient. How I shall get scolded when I return ! But there is one consolation, viz.
tliat I go too fast for any letter to overtake me and disturb my serenity, when once

started from here on Monday next the 10th. Now for my diary [Then follows the

account of the flight from Giessen and the journey to Linz.]

Splendid scenery, dark lovely piue-wood forests, many rapids and boiling sun.
Here you feel that it is the sun, it puts life into one and warms one quite into the
sublime. Bye the bye I am as nearly mad in that way as a person can possibly be
imagined to be, who does not actually turn down his shirt collar and go about without
his cravat. On arriving at Linz found that the steamboat was, as a waiter who tried to

134 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

speiik French said to an Englisliman who was with mo, " malade," i.e. injured in one of
the rapids and obliged to lie by. I accordingly made an agreement with this English-
man whom I had picked up the da}' before to hire a boat between us and to get down
as we could to Vienna. Well a boat we got, i.e. a punt of unplaned boards kept
together with wooden spikes and in this we set oif at 3 a.m. It was horribly cold and
a strong wind in our teeth, but we luckily got on, bailing out continually. On leaving
the hills the wind troubled us less and about 2 o'clock we passed Molk having gone
down all the rapids ; here the wind freshened. I accordingly took an oar, i.e. a tip of a
lir-tree with a bit of board nailed to one end and rowed as hard as I could to Stein
(look in the map), it was very hard work. At Stein we changed men and got two
rowers and arrived at Vienna at 2 o'clock this morning. Being not allowed to cross
the barriers we had to walk two miles with baggage to the Police Station and then
another mile to a sleeping place, 13 beds in one room. Got up at 7 and have been
walking about seeing sights, till about an hour ago 9J p.m. The Englishman is a Major
Parry, has seen some Canadian service, and in an eternal fuss and flurry, clubs with me
and as he does not know one word of German is always full of gratitude. I have just
come from hearing Strauss play. I have had the pleasantest possible voyage, nice
companions — very nice indeed in some cases. N.B. Linz is universally famous for the
beauty of its fair sex, and so is Wurzburg, and everything prosperous. I have never
enjoyed myself more. I shall be back in quite time enough to Cambridge (I have
altered my return route) so don't be at all uneasy about that — and I shall be in
Constantinople on the 23rd. Don't write after ine because I am not quite sure of my
return route, but I will write, if I have time from Constantinople. I would have given
anything to see your physiognomies, when you received ray letter from Giessen. Didn't
Bessy say : " What a monkey " ? Well, Good bye and believe me ever

Your affectionate son Fras. Galton.
Dear Pemmy, I have been sketching away. I wish that I had you with me, you
would so enjoy the journey. You certainly nowhere see such universally happy faces as
in Germany, it puts one in the best possible humour. 1 am laughing half the day, and
I am tanned as red as mahogany, perfectly independent and in the best good humour
imaginable. Then in the evenings I tooled with a diligence friend to the coffee gardens
where all the fashionable of the town are assembled, and flirt furiously ; really I feel
quite at home everywhere. I saw such splendid etchings and sketches today by all the
first masters. Every style from Albert Diirer to Raphael, the trees are done beautifully
(Ah ! Mr Francis !) I wish you could see them tliey are the Archduke Charles' Collection
and 35,000 in all — and how is Bessy, I suppose as fat and healthy as possible after
Tenby, and Delly and Mammy and Lucy and brothers ? I should like just to have a
peep at all your pretty faces again, it seems at least a month since I left Frankfort and
I do not know how long since I saw you last. Well, Good bye. I think of you all
sometimes. Fras. Galton.

Oil, the joy of it all, when the roving lust is on you, and all men
reflect the liappiness that radiates from yourself! The writer can
recollect a three months' journey on foot alone from Heidelberg to tlie
gates of Vienna and back when only a little older than Francis Galton ;

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 135

and the same strong impression received that the race of men from the
Neckar to the Danube must be the happiest population on earth ! But if
the Wanderlust grips a man, he runs grave risk of never setthng down
again in this Hfe ; it is one of the fascinating features of Galton's
career, that with all the means and tastes to become a wanderer, he yet
settled down — after fourteen years — to steady scientific work. Might
it not well have been a case of :

" What's become of Waring
Since he gave us all the slip.
Chose land-travel or seafaring.
Boots and chest or staff and scrip,
Rather than pace up and down
Any longer London town?''

From Buda Pest Francis Galton writes to his father for a remittance
to place him on the safe side on his journey home :

"Would you therefore send me to Trieste £15 ; if the correct way of sending it
be in letters of credit please make them payable at several of the places about there,
Venice especially. Should you, however, have disinherited me or forbidden my reading
mathematics or some equally severe punishment, then please send duplicates of that
letter to Malta, Syra, Athens etc., etc., because after tliat I have read one of them
I shall be sure not to enquire after the others, and they will so amuse the postmasters.
Well here I am in the most Hungarian town of Hungary, and already fully entitled to
the Travellers' Club. There is such a capital specimen of an Hungarian opposite that
I must scetch [sic .'] him. The hair and mustachios are no exaggeration [sketch of the
HungariaTi]. I never fully understood what a hot day was till I came here, in truth
sight seeing opens the mind and the perspiratory pores also. The water that I drink
oozes through as fast as through a patent filtering machine. I must really invest in a
parasol to-day, the heat at midday is absolutely, awful. This morning I actually saw
a live cow not half-roaHed, but really and truly quite dun. I have got a mosquito net
of which I shall find the full benefit, shortly, about Skela Gladova (pronounced Skela
GladOvS). A water coat pea-coat is the greatest comfort imaginable. Yesterday in a
storm of rain on the river, which by the bye was much more violent than any Scotch
storms, and which looked just as in the scetch [«ic.'], I coolly posted myself on the top of
the paddle box, looking quietly and comfortably with my hands in my pocket at the
poor miserable-looking pa.ssengers for whom there was not room in the cjibin and who
umbrellas being useless, posted themselves as well as they could under the tarpaulin,
their exposed parts suifering considerably. I was considered a maniac or something
like it, but two or three Newfoundland-dog-like shakes made my peacoat lialf dry and

not an atom of rain had gone through it In 11 days more I am in Istamboul,

hurrah ! I remember a bit of advice of Darwin's when I was climbing up a ladder to the
cistern in the yard at the Larches, — not to look down, but only upwards and .see what
was left to be climbed ; just so with my present tour. I fancy myself not much farther
than Belgium, quite at home and only calculate what J have to do."

13G Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

The last letter we have is that from Constantinople :

Stamboul, Auff. 22nd, 1840.

Mr (not Madame) Josephine's Lodging House.
My dear Father, Here I am at Constantinople — among Turks, Armenians,
Greeks, Jews and Franks, in a good Lodging House, <as well as possible and happier
and happier every day. The Golden Horn is just in front of ine, crammed full of
mosques and minarets, Seraglios and Towers. Scutari to my left on the other side of
the Bosphorus and on lx)na fide Asia, and I myself in Pera on the top of the Giaour's
Hill (remember the " G " in that word is pronounced hard, and it is only two syllables,

thus ( ™. „j.) the " ia " is just audible). I never in my life had a more pleasant
voyage than down the Danube. The funny costumes, and languages, viz. German,
Wallachian, Sclavonian, Illyrian, Turkish, Russian, Italian, French and English were
all spoken around me. We eat water melons and grapes. I scetched (sic .') a good deal,
walked on the land wherever the steamer stopped and really saw an immense deal.
Tell Bessy that I passed by the cave where St George killed the Dragon, and sketched
too — and that the putrid body of the Dragon gives birth yeaily (so says the legend) to
myriads of mosquitoes, very many of whom bye the bye bit me. At Orsova I went to
the baths of Mehadia (see Murray — as you have got my " Southern Germany Murray "
you must read up my route) the rapids and between Alt MordOva and Skela Glad6va
are very fine rough brown mountains on each side, a good deal of wood, a swift stream
below, whirlpools occasionally, and splendid eagles soaring about. The Iron Gate is a hum-
bug, the rapid is swift enough but the scenery nothing particular. At OrsCiva (Or-sliowa)
on stepping into the boat we were tabooed for 10 days quarantine had we returned, and
we were in a minute among turbanned Turks. The Quarantine laws are a great bore.
A Turk has 3 days Quarantine in Wallachia and 10 in Hungary, a Wallachian 7 days
in Hungary. So there are 3 nations close together none of whom can trade ifec. to any
extent, with the other. See Murray as to the way of making exchange, and passing
the money through water. Stopped at Czernaboda (that is a Russian name) and went
overland to Kustendje — 3 other English with myself made the first English party who
had ever done it with the exception of one solitary Englishman about three weeks
since. We arrived at Kustendje and the Black Sea (! I) all comfortably (except one
breakdown of the axle tree), and found a very good inn and actually Barclay and
Perkins' porter, a bottle of which I drank to the health of all at home. Steamer was
to set oflF next morning at 12. Was lent a gun by an inhabitant and so went out
a-shooting. Shot a couple of Sea Gulls first, then broke the leg of a heron, when flop
flap flap up got an eagle, bang ! Mr Eagle lay a subject for dissection on the ground.
Accordingly I did dissect him, at least skin him to the admiration of all beholders (I had
my dissecting knives with me) — and I shall bring him to England. It is not a large
one, not above 3^ to 4 feet from tip to tip of wings, but a very powerful one. (Dinner's
ready so I must stop.) Set off in a steamer on the Black Sea having first bathed
therein. Very windy — cross sea worst passage since March. My breakfast and dinner
were soon food for fishes, if they could digest them — 1 could not, in fact I was horribly
squeamish at last having during my short time of health seen a splendid storm,
lightning as bright as in the most vivid illumination, a broad glare of sheet lightning

Lehrjahre mid Wander jal)re 137

extendiug along a quadrant of the liorizon concentrated itself together in the middle
to a broad band of forked lightning, it was splendid. The Black Sea is really very
black, I do not know to what it is owing — rocky bottom?. [We] sailed down the Bosphorus
through the Symplegades. Egad the Bosphorus beats any thing in the way of a view
I have ever set my peepers upon. The kiosks are so opera-scene-like, so white and
so much trellis work about them, the mountains are so grand and the Bosphorus
so broad and blue, that (I am stuck fast in the mud about how to finish the sentence
being afraid of verging on the romantic).

Arrived at Stamboul seeing as Byron says

" The selfsame view
That charmed the charming Mary Montague."

The seraglios are splendid, ditto palaces, such a great deal of trellis work about
them, and then there are cypresses, and the veiled ladies just looking out [sketch of one]
between folds of gauze and very pretty eyes they have too ; then there are the Greeks,
I never saw such black eyes in all my life. I should like to put one of them in a rage ;
they must look splendid then. I saw the women's slave-market today — if I had liad
50 pounds at my disposal I could have invested in an excessively beautiful one, a
Georgian. Some of the slaves had their nails dyed in henna. Most of the black ones
were fettered, but they seemed very happy dancing and singing and looking on com-
placently whilst a couple of Turks were wrangling about their prices. T took a Turkish
bath today, such a shampooing and lathering and steaming. Now about getting home.
These plaguy quarantines have been extended, though there is no plague now in Turkey
(a great bore for I wanted to see some cases) and that at Syra with that at Trieste will
be, I fear 24 days I therefore shall scarcely be able to see you before going to
Cambridge. If I can get books I will read away in quarantine at mathematics and
classics if I can't why I must learn Turkish or something desperate of that sort. In
my last letter (fi'om Pest) I asked you to send me £15 to Trieste — if you have not
done so already please send it now — as I shall then have no possible anxiety about
money matters. Good bye, loves in all directions.

Your affectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

Those who have had the privilege of examining Sir Francis
Darwin's journal of his tour in Turkey and Greece, and comparing it
with Francis Galton's diary and letters of more than 30 years later,
must at once be struck by the close i-esemblance of the two men ; they
.sketch much the same objects, in much the same style, and they are
both interested in the same sort of things, especially the plague. The
impression of the marked hereditary resemblance between uncle and
nephew is much strengthened when we read these diaries.

Beyond Constantinople the diary — and it is very fk-agmentary — is
all that tells us of Francis's further progress :

p. G. 18

138 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

"Aug. 26. Set off' from Constantinople in the Crescent at 4 p.m. Italian captain,
English mate. One English gentleman, 4 ditto Ladies; French, Greeks, etc. and
innumerable Turks, lying about, men and women, .smoking and drinking coffee. They
are a great nuisance ; the clear space on the quarter deck is not 18 inches broad and the
consequence is that when the ship rolls you are almost sure to tumble over their feet,
right into the middle of them, and as they are mostly women, such a po.sition is very
indelicate, and as they are all sea sick highly disagreeable also. Very rainy on setting
out; it was soon dark. Entered the Dardanelles at 8 next morning.

"August 27 Came to the place where Troy was, thoroughly disappointed. There

is no truth in the proverb ' Ex nihilo, nihil fit,' for Homer has shown its fallacy. He
must have had a brilliant imagination to make a little bit of plain 2 miles long and
1 mile broad the scene of all the manoeuvres of a ten years' war. The idea too of
fighting ten years for a woman ! Catch me doing such a thing for the fair Mary Anne,
but the days of gallantry have passed. Achilles' tomb, a little hillock ; as for Tenedos
opposite which the Greek toiled a couple of days to reach, I would bet anything that
I could row over in 40 minutes (supposing the marsh on which Troy stood to have been
increased by alluvial deposit, still Mount Ida and the rocks of Tenedos are necessarily
stationary and so there cannot be much mistake about relative distances). Tenedos is
I'ocky and barren, has a large stone fortress built on it. Mytelene rocky and barren
also ; if it used to be in the same state Orpheus must have been a dab hand to find
beasts to charm with his lyre. Anchored off" Smyrna at 11 p.m "

In Smyrna Galton bought two pistols and a rifle barrel and he
was "as happy as possible" with his purchase. On August 28 he
walked out to the Aqueduct, practising shooting with his pistol and
sketching the Aqueduct.

"Caught a splendid locust which I keep for Delly ; got to the Aqueduct at last
having had previously to walk up the middle of the sti'eam on natural stepping stones
for about 200 yards and trespassing in orchards innumerable. The Aqueduct is a very
large one, I should guess 500 yards and only from 3 to 5 feet wide. I walked on the
top from one side to the other, a feat which my valet de place had told me had been
once accomplished at great peril by an adventurous Englishman

"Aug. 29. Set off" on board a French man of war steamer Dante for Syra ; very
large and roomy, very slow sailer. Eat a fearfully large breakfast of meat and fruits,
drowsiness and some symptoms of multigrub supervened. Passed Scio, rocky and bare.
Eat an enormous dinner, terrible cholei'a, stomach-ache and nausea all night."

On Sept. 3 we find Galton in the Quarantine House at Syra,
of which he provides a sketch. Here on the 6th he records a dream of
ill omen to a friend, Miss Hawke, and adds, " I can't help fancying this
true." A note is added at a later date, "which signified nothing."
Most persons record such dreams after the event and only when they
come off. In this Quarantine House Galton stayed 10 days, then he
passed to Athens with a brief visit and so to quarantine at Trieste.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 139

He has himself in his Memories (p. 55) told us how he escaped three
01' four days' quarantine at Trieste by the quaint process of making
Spoglio. The assumption made is that an apparently healthy human
body passed through water is not as dangerous as the clothes it carries.
Accordingly a few days before termination of the usual quarantine
there is a medical inspection and the doctor directs those who satisfy
him, and wish to " make Spoglio" to a covered quay ; opposite to this,
at a distance of about 20 feet, is a second quay, the two being separated
by a strip of water four or live feet deep. On the second quay are
vendors of clothes.

" A bargain hail to be made with one of the old-clothes men by shouting across the
water. I," writes Galton, " was to leave everything I had on me, excepting coin or
other metal, and papers which were about to be fumigated, in exchange for the offered
clothes. When the bargain was concluded, I stripped, plunged in, and emerged on the
opposite quay stark naked, to be newly clothed and receive freedom. The clothesman
got my old tilings in due time — that was his affair. The new clothes were thin, and the
trousers were made of a sort of calico and deficient in the fashionable cut of my old
ones ; but as it was not then late in the year the tiiinness mattered little in those
latitudes, and I did not care about the rest."

From Trieste Galton returned by way of Venice, Milan, Geneva
and Boulogne. We have no record of the home-coming beyond what
Galton himself has told us :

" My dear kind father took my escapade humorously. He was pleased with it
rather than otherwise, for I had much to tell and had obviously gained a great deal of
experience." Memories, p. 57.

But the seed had been sown ; the first attack had run its
triumphant course, and the Wanderlust would manifest its power
year after year in Galton's life. He himself says :

" This little expedition proved an important factor in moulding my after-life. It
vastly widened my views of humanity and civilisation, and it confirmed aspirations for
travel which were afterwards indulged."

18—2

CHAPTER V

LEURJAHRE AND WANDERJAIIRE

Part II. Mathematical Studies and Cambridge Pleasures

In October, 1840, we find Francis Galton established in Trinity
College, Cambridge. It was, he says, a notable day in his life when,
escorted by his father, Tertius, he arrived on the top of a stage coach
in the town of Cambridge. No man was ever a more loyal son of
Alma Mater than Galton, and nothing gave him greater joy in later
life than the honours conferred on him by his College and University.
That the portrait of him — a mere pollman — should hang with those of
great heroes in the dining-hall, that he could once again order audit ale
and dine by right at the Fellows' table were matters which gave him
inexpressible delight. Those who have never left the University have
little knowledge of how very tender, and largely unreasoning is the
affection of the old Cambridge man to his University. The existing life
of the place he feels has nothing to do with him, it is transient, inter-
loping. The peimanent and substantial is the old environment, peopled
with many familiar forms, with the wonted figures crossing the court,
the friendly shout from the windows, the tones of voices long silent or
now grown unsympathetic, the midnight fireside, the enthusiasms of
youth {our youth, of course !), and the seniors with their failings, which
have grown to be essential virtues, landmarks of that time, with their
indulgent tolerations, and their moulding affectionate sarcasm of our
certainties. We own the place, we people it ; the present population
are but lessees of our ancestral halls, intrusive, alien, anomalous. The
magic fascination of it all is merely thwarted by the reality ; for us
" the ideal shall be the i"eal." And when two Cambridge exiles talk
together of the place — they unconsciously mingle in one same en-
vironment, two races of men separated, perhaps, by a generation. We
know them all: Harry Hallam', "with his singular sweetness and

' Brother of Tennyson's Arthur Hallam.

Lehrjahre and Waiulerjahre 141

attractiveness of manner, with a love of harmless banter and paradox " ;
F. Campbell', who set for himself " an ideal of public life too high lor
his powers "yet who had a disposition unalloyed by pettiness, and when
consulted about difficulties " put things in fresh lights, and always with
noble intent " ; Johnson" of King's, the active member of the Epigram
Club — of which more anon ; Maine' of Pembroke, one of the few men
as thoroughly at home in Trinity as in his own college ; Kay, the idler
of the staircase, but the effective man in later life ; Charles Buxton,
with none of the exceptional brilliancy of the others but with " manly
virtues and as much common sense as was consistent with a charming
dash of originality " ; W. G. Clark^ — who like many men gave promise
of high achievement, but failed to fulfil, and could but sing :

"Truly there's something wanting in the world";

Mathew Boulton, the boy known from the old school and from home
(see p. 77), and the relative, Cousin Theodore', to complete the circle.
Galton tells us of these friends" in his Memories (pp. 65 — 70) with a
few brief lines of characterisation. Surely they are not more his friends
than our own? Are they not types that we ourselves have known
tliirty to forty years after Galton 1 types which, under other names,
yet haunt to-day, thirty and more years later still, the old staircases,
and even now assemble to express in new language the old dreams and
ever new ambitions round the ancient fireplaces, where they seem to
our generation intruders, and where we seem to them shadows of a
profitless past, which they dismiss as mid-Victorian !

Galton knew and loved his Cambridge right well ; it gave him friends
and some mental training. He appreciated the thoroughness of its

' Afterward Lord Campbell ; he was son of the Chancellor.

- William Johnson Cory, the Eton master.

^ Afterwards Sir Henry Maine. Among (lalton's personalia I have come across
Maine's undergraduate visiting card.

* Public Orator of the University and Vice-Master of Trinity College.

' Theodore Howard Galton, see Pedigree Plate A.

' They were, apart from degree standard, in many respects a brilliant group. Maine
ill l!^42, Johnson in 1843, won the Chancellor's English Medal ; Clark got the Porson in
1843, and the Greek Ode in 1842 and 1843, and the Epigrams in 1842 ; Maine the Latin
Ode in 1842 and 1843 and the Epigrams in 1843, and the Camden in 1842 ; M. Boulton
the Epigrams in 1841 ; Johnson the Camden in 1844. Maine got the Craven in 1843,
Johnson in 1844, Maine and Clark the Cliancellor's Classical Medals in 1844 and Hallam
"ot them in 1846.

142 Life aikd Letters of Francis Galtoii

studies, but complained — even bitterly — of their narrowness. Luckily
for him his medical studies had supplemented them at the very point
where they were most defective — the training in observation and
experiment. In 1840 there was no Natural Science Tripos, and of
course Moral Science and History had not been thought of There
were Professors of Chemistry, Botany, Geology, Natural Philosophy
and Mineralogy, but as the honours students must read for either the
Mathematical or Classical Tripos, these professors did not attract the
able students who were working for fellowships. Indeed Laboratoiy
and Museum accommodation was very limited in Cambridge in 1840,
and the modern idea of laboratory training may be said to have been
practically unknown. In a certain sense Galton's training had been of a
far more modern character in London than it could be in Cambridge, but
at the same time the intensive study of mathematics was a distinct
gain and one which was of great help to Galton. His first letter to his
father, after the lattei^'s departure from Cambridge, runs as follows :

Tkin. Coll. Cambridge. Monday, Oct. [19], 1840.
My dear Father,

Thank you for your letter. Six silver teaspoons will be amply sufficient.
If you cannot send wine easily from Leamington, the best plan will be to write to your
London wine-merchant as there is a carrier direct from there. There are no letters for
you from the post, but I enclose one from Adele which I received today in a letter to me
from her. I have had as yet no answer from Leonard Horner. O'Brien has not yet
returned to Cambridge, but was expected today. He fell desperately in love at Inverary
where he went with a party as tutor. I will write to you on completing my arrange-
ments.

My rooms are very comfortable. Emma's pictures are quite at home, as usual, in
my bedroom, and I am going to invest in a plaster bust of Newton and get it bronzed over
and put up opposite the fireplace [see Plate LI]. I have got everything except my linen
which is not quite got ready. I shall however be able to send you my accounts in two
days. Theodore has i-eturned, but I cannot find him, he arrived about an hour since.

Perry' gave us his first lecture today; what a pleasure it is to hear a real senior
wrangler speak. My organ of veneration is so very strong that I doubt when I shall
dare to address him. What a fine sight a surplice night is, the bright light of the wax
candles and the white dresses so well contrasting with the dark panelled oak behind

gives no slight resemblance to a scene in Revelations I am as happy as possible and

am preparing for a long and strong pull at reading. Love to Mater and all.

Your affectionate Son Fkas. GtALTON.

' Senior Wrangler in 1828, Tutor of Trinity, 1837—1841, and afterwards Bishop
of Melbourne, 1847—1876.

Lehrjahre and Wandcrjahre

143

The following lettei's provide a more intimate picture of Galton's
life at college :

Oct. 23rd, 1840, Trinity, Cambridge.
My dear Father,

I did not write before, as I wished to hear whether Mr O'Brien' would
have me or not, before sending my letter. However I have just learnt that he will and

1 begin with him on Monday next ; he recommends me not to go over with him notv my
old subjects, but to start oft' and read as I can of Differentials and their application to
Statics and Dynamics, and after this term to read over again what I have done against
my first examination in May by which I am classed. Thanks for your letter received

2 days since. Port wine not arrived. The communication between the intellectual
nucleus of Cambridge and the Boeotian town of Leamington is excessively tardy.
I really think that our present economising Government must have made a contract with
the carrier for the transmission of the mail-bag, a.s, if the postmaster at Warwick was not
seized with an apoplexy and thereby occasioned a delay, your letters take 3 days to get
here. Yesterday I had a letter directed to you in my mother's handwriting (the enclosed
letter) sent me which must have slept on the road many days. I for a wager any day
would undertake to be on the top of the Draoiienfels by Bonn before a letter put in the
post at Cambridge at midday, would reach Leamington. I waste paper fearfully, i.e.
scribble over both sides of it innumerable x, y's and funny looking triangles. Mrs Hoppit
says that : " It's a great comfort to her to have a reading gentleman, because there is
then always plenty of stuff to light the fires with." Theodore looks blooming, he bangs up
pictures of Cerito'^ in his rooms and talks of the 0-pey-ra. I tea with Boulton tonight ;
he is not much altered, but very shy. Talking of tea, please send me some soon, as there
are many sloe leaves in the Cambridge. I have proved this by microscopical observation.

H is very goodnatured and has introduced me to some nice men ; he was officious at

first, wanting I think to make me as dependent on him as Z. is, but there was then
a difference of opinion between us, and now we are great allies.

Good bye, your affectionate son, Fra.s. Galton.

The letter i.s followed by the usual accounts, which this time include
most of a freshman's needs — -cap and gown, ironmongery, crockery,
linen, etc. There are also a few lines on a little strip of paper somewhat
characteristic of the man and rather hard on his father. Leonard Horner
had clearly written to Tertius Galton praising the character of his son
Francis— how we should like that letter now ! — and Tertius had for-
warded it to Cambridge. " Now I don't like being soaped ; in that
letter there were 3 words or so on the subject of introductions ; why

' O'Brien was .3rd Wrangler in 1838 and afterwards Professor of Mathematics at
the Royal Military Academy. He has given his name to one or two mathematical
demonstrations.

' See The Ingoldshy LegendK, " A Row in an Omnibus (Box)."

1 44 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

not copy them then ? If I do not as yet like blarney, why try to make
me fond of it by large doses ? "

The next letter is endorsed by Tertius Galton, Nov. 3, 1840 :

My dear Father,

I should have sent a letter to you yesterday if it had not been that tiie one
tliat I had written was spoilt by an accident in my Gumption-Reviver machine which
covered it with water. This machine as it has perhaps come into use since your time'
I will describe to you.

[Sketch of the Gumption-Reviver machine : a student sits reading
at a table, elbows on table and hands support head, lamp in front to
right ; funnel dripping water which runs off a cloth boiind round head
to left. Additional sketches of gallows to carry funnel and of method
of arranging cloth.]

"A large funnel is supported on a double stand about 6 ft. high, it has a graduated
stopcock at the bottom by which the size of the aperture can be regulated. This as you
read is placed above your head and filled with water. Round the head a napkin is tied,
dependent on one side where the bow and end is so [arranged] that the water may drop off.
Now it is calculated that as the number of hours of study increases in an arithmetic ratio,
so will the weariness consequent on it increase in a geometrical ratio, and the stream of
water must in that ratio be increased. The geometric ratio used in the 1st year, i.e. for
freshmen is 2, in the 2nd year 3 and in the term before taking the degree 5. At that
time the gyp has to call every quarter of an hour to refill the funnel ; the clothes are
then also not protected as damp shirts do not invite repose. We generally begin to use
this machine about 10 at night and continue it till 1 or 2 ; it is very useful. My private
tutor recommended it to me as the first thing; it is in fact quite indispensable to a high
wrangler. I have received wine, spoons and tea, for all of which thank you. So Fanny
Broadley is going to be spliced — I congratulate her heartily. Mr Burrows may think
himself uncommonly lucky, for I think she was the prettiest girl I almost ever saw.

" You mention the case of Mr H of Catherine Hall. I hear that he liad worked

himself almost to madness, but was quite unable to succeed on account of his natural
powers ; poor fellow he did the best thing that he could do though. As to who were
plucked nobody knows except the pluckers and the plucked ; it is done very quietly.
I have been reading very hard and am accordingly very dull. On going to O'Brien my
private tutor (a 3rd Wrangler) he set me about Conic Sections, which I had not read
before. He opened the book from which I was to learn them (Boucharlat lv pages
close print^) and asked me with a sort of grin if I could get it up by the next lesson in
2J days. I took it in earnest and did get it up, but I verily believe that I never worked
so hard before. I got up the bookwork pretty well, but I own that I was not able to

' These words seem to confirm the view that Tertius Galton actually went up to
Trinity : see the first footnote, p. 52.

" Boucharlat, J. L. : Theorie des courbes et des surfaces du second ordre.... 2'' ed.
Paris, 1810.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 145

work problems and of course not having had time to accustom myself to a new subject.
I will write to Hodgson.

" Distribution of Time. Up at Chapel at 7 ; ditto to Ih- Reading and breakfast to
9. Lectures to 11. Reading by myself and with O'Brien to 2, walk to 4 — a 4 mile
walk — Hall to 4.20. Read lOJ including tea. Lectures 2 hours a day, Reading (full
tide) lOJ hours. I .shall cut this down to 6, as it is really too much. Tell Bessy that
there is the most extraordinary possible change in my complexion, the tan having quite
disappeared. Breadth of phiz on the wane. Loves universally.

Fras. Galton."

On the 5th of November Galton writes home :

" I progress salubriously. Bye the bye in case any laughs are directed against
Theodore I shall most pugnaciously take his part, as he certainly has got a very great
deal of knowledge in Modern History etc. I have been quite surprised with the extent
of his information on Hungarian, Turkish and other out of the way worthies. And
though mathematics are most decidedly not his forte, yet still he has a great deal in him.
Goodbye tell Mater I am much obliged for her house-keeping ad\ace."

The salubrious progression was not of long duration :

[November 26, 1840.]
My dear Father,

Thanks for letter received yesterday. I am much obliged to you about
getting me nominated to the Athenaeum, please thank Uncle Howard for me. As he
explained to me on a former occasion it will be much better to make use of his assistance
than for me to get Daniell or Partridge to nominate me, in which latter case I should be

sure of a jyrofessional opposition. I hope Bessy will get better soon The reason why

I write in pencil is as I am lying on my back I can't get a pen to write ; I have been
confined to my l)ed for some days, rheumatism not over reading but will shortly be
relea.sed. It has put a pro tempore dead stop to Maths. I have just received a letter
from Horner, he offers to get me an introduction to any men I may like, said he did not
write before to give me time to settle and to find out the most desirable quarters for
introductions. T must make many enquiries before answering his letter.

Goodbye, affect. Son, Fkas. Galton.

Hurra for the Queen's Kinchin"! I have ordered 3 dozen of "audit ale" on a
venture for j'ou at Leamington but am afraid that it will not be ready for X'""". I
shall be with you certainly not later than the 18th Dec'.

But the illness had been more serious than Francis had revealed.
On Dec. 3^ he writes to his father :
My dear Father,

Would you please send me by return of post some money as I do not know
what my doctor's bill will amount to. I was released part of Monday from bed (the

' Princess Victoria, Empre.ss Friederich of Germany, born Nov. 21, 1840.
' Like his cousin Charles Darwin, Francis Galton was singularly remiss in dating
his letters ; we have to trust to Tertius Gallon's endorsed date.s.

p. o. 19

146 Life atid Letters of Francis Galton

12th day of my rigid confinement thereto). As I hnd been extremely ill, the Doctor
came 4 times in two days (fever and touch of delirium). I am in a great hurrj' for the
post. Shall not be with you before the 18th as I have some thing.s to do in London ;
we are free for 5 — 7 weeks beginning on the 12th. Shall begin lectures again on Monday
next. Fras. Galton.

A letter of Dec. 8th discusses continuing to read with O'Brien
for the following term :

" Next term he tells me that I had better go over the early part of Maths, with him,
where he would certainly be of the greatest use to me with reference to my approaching
examination. For though I believe that T know these subjects very well in the way that
I was taught them, yet a Cambridge gloss makes much difference in the marks

" P.S. I forgot to say that I am getting on well. Shall not I think dissect in
London, but give up my time to Maths, and Classics."

The next day a letter is sent, showing that Francis had been up

and about far too soon :

Wednesday dth, 1840.

Trin. Coll. Cambridge.

Please, bed made, warming pan in trim, plenty of hot and cold water by seven and
a half o'clock Saturday Evening 12th.

Too ill for London, in bed again, cold in lecture room this morning, get out again
tomorrow. Fras. Galton.

Of the influence of this serious illness of Galton in his first term at
Cambridge upon his work we have little direct information. He un-
doubtedly worked too hard, and this probably contributed to his ultimate
breakdown. But his mind must have been very active during all this
period, and it is singular how closely his lines of thought even in little
details followed ancestral tendencies. Francis Galton began — exactly as
his grandfather Erasmus Darwin had done — to design simple mechanical
contrivances, and Erasmus's Commonplace Book with one page covered
with mechanisms and the next with medical lore might well have been
the product of Francis himself. Nay, the very rhyming aptitudes of
Erasmus were reiterated in Francis during the whole of his Cambridge
career. Long and short poems occur not infrequently among his papers,
and without the facility of Erasmus, he had still considerable power of
producing a sonorous line. It would not be possible to say that the
true instinct of the creative poet was behind the versification of either ;
Galton probably realised this as I have not come across any poetry
later than 1844.

Already in November Francis had been writing to his father
about hot oil lamps : he was interested in the question of the best

Lehrjahre and Wauderjahre 147

temperature at which the oil feeding the flame should be kept in order
to give a maximum of illumination.

On Jan. 25, Galton is in London, at 17, New Street, Spring
Gardens, again ; he writes to his father :

My dear Father,

I set off at 2 this afternoon for Paris, wiiere I intend to stay till the end
of the Vacation, — that is to say I should have done, but that plaguy thing conscience
prevented me. The placards about Boulogne steamers looked very tempting. I have
just been to Bramah about mj' lock, was more than I| hour with his top-sawyer man,
who was in raptures and most deferential ; he thinks about it today and I call again
on Monday to e.Kplain anything that he may not fully understand. I enter my caveat
for lamp on Monday. Now for proceedings.

Arrived at Brum at 8J p.m., theatre and whiskey grog till 12^-. Was shut up in
the coach with a frowsy fat old gentleman and a fast young gentleman whose lungs
were, judging by his breath, entirely composed of full-flavoured cubas and the Cream of
the Valley. The latter wa.s not a very pleasant companion for vinous fumes ascending
into his cranium displaced what reason had existed there, and showed their presence by
causing him primarily to carol forth Nix my dolly pals — 2'""*' to sing a very senti-
mental song, and at last to open the window and afford me a very convincing proof that
gin and cigars act as a strong emetic. — Fell asleep and awoke about 10 miles from
Bristol. Cross coach had had an accident, waited an hour till it was mended, occupying
my time in eating 2 eggs, 4 slices of beef, 2 plates of muffins and half a quartern loaf
and then sallied forth and studied St Mary Le Port. Went to Cross, box-seat, a
provincial medical man sitting behind with 2 friends, we got into a dreadful quarrel
about homoeopathy, and as he was giving in and I was blarnying about Hippocrates,
a gust of wind carried my patent gossamer hat down a steep hill into the middle of
a pond (what was more natural than that beaver should take to water). The guard
reclaimed it, but it presented the appearance of a chemical filter [sketch], as well it
might for on inspection I found that its substance was composed of brown paper. The
day was beautiful. Arrived at Cross, Erasmus had been in the morning to meet the first
coach, and had gone away again. I gigged it to Loxton. Sun shone, quite mild.
Somersetshire is really the most beautiful country I have ever seen, nortii of the Alps
(for Bessy), and of all dull pig-headed stupid bipeds the Somersetshire clown stands pre-
eminent. Arrived at Loxton the manor house commodious but not gaudy'. Eras:
girth visibly increased, Delly all smiles and lawn collar, the last mentioned article being
as whitewash to a sepulchre or as charity, covering a multitude of deficiencies. They
really both look as happy as possible ; don't clash at all being separate all the morning,
and in the evening whilst Delly writes letters for 4 hours and reads others for 1 quarter,
Ra.ssy pulls Track (the dog) by his tail and ears alternately, causing him to growl
ferociously for 1 hour, then sleeps 3} ; and after that both adjourn to the dinner room
to edify 3 maid-servants and a small boy with a learned commentary on the psalms,
giving the true interpretation, pronunciation, and critical dissertation upon the most
difficult Hebrew or Chaldee words. Was knocked up next morning at 6, of course fell

' See Plate XXIX.

19—2

148 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

asleep again, but was awoke at 6^ by a cracked dinuei- bell in hysterics, when the
farming men go to their work. Got up and the small boy afore-mentioned brought me
a pair of shoes [sketch] with nails at the bottom like the teeth of the cog wheel attached
to the fly of a 10-horse steam engine; this I found was truly necessary to Somersetshire
walking. I am in a great hurry, will finish to-morrow — but must say that llassy and
Delly were most kind. I enjoyed my visit greatly. Kassy works hard at his farm and
evidently takes the greatest interest in it. I went to Bath to call upon my earliest flame
Douglas Hunter'. I have no time to write more. How is Charlotte?

Fras. Galton.

Another letter of nearly the same date describes the lamp and lock
attempts :

My dear Fatheu,

Lamp and lock both dished but have come off honorably in both. Capt.
Basil Hall, aided by Wheatstone had hit upon the same idea a short time sinct^, and
has since been making experiments. The light appears not advantageous as regards
illuminating rooms, though it is useful for lighthouses. As regards my lock, Bramah
complimented it and spoke very sensibly about it, he said it was certainly much more
ditticult to pick than any one of the same size and of a difierent construction, but the
chances were quite great enough for security against a chance key in either the Bramah
or Chub, the only thing to be feared was a model being taken of the original key when
accidentally left about. Now mine being merely a piece of bent wire could be imitated
from the impression left on almost any substance, or traced on paper — whilst his (here
he grew coxy) required a very careful modeller and much time to imitate — my lock
would also be expensive. This was very true, and I quite agree with him ; but as
regards the security of his lock when the key had been left in the hands of a pickpocket,
I offered to make a false key in 5 minutes, if he would leave the original key in my
hands for 5 seconds. He of course stood up in defence of his own key, so I got 10
knitting pins 5 large and 5 small and one wooden one which was central, the others
surrounding it. On passing the central one down the bore of the key, the other ones
were variously depressed according to the teeth in the key, as in the drawing, the other
end B of course exactly represents the key (^4) ; the ward (0) is always the same distance
from the end and could therefore be fixed to one of the pins. Knitting pins are of
course clumsy, but with a little contrivance a perfect picklock can be made (the breadth
of the slits is of no consequence only the depth). Bramah was very fierce, I told him
that I had some intention of patenting the picklock, and advertising " Important to
Thieves, Housebreakers and others." I enclose a model of one of his show looks by
five pins. Bramah who was called down to see my knitting pins looked angry.

Eras. Galton.

On Jan. 31 Galton is back at Trinity and writes home as follows :

My dear Father,

Thanks for letter. Lectures begin tomorrow (Monday) Poor H !,

Charlotte's cousin, was unable to stand the examination more than 3 days on account of

' Another letter describes this visit with Galton's usual flow of satirical humour,
but concludes with the P.S. "Douglas is a very nice girl."

Lelirjiihre tiitd WaiRlerjahre 149

liealth and so got an honour aegrotat. I was very much vexed about my lamp, but am
now trying other things. I have I think a neat plan of making any balance weigh (by
double weighing) to the greatest accuracy. I do it by fixing the balance near its centre
to a bar of steel (magnetic) perpendicularly. The upper end of this carries a steel point
which works against an iron plate, which plate can be screwed up against one of the
poles of a fixed magnet, downwards, through a small space

Galton's sketches show more clearly what he means — the mam
idea was a pivot or knife edge with very little friction because gravity
was largely balanced by magnetic pull. Any very rough balance might
be used as he proposed double weighing, and a fairly crude bearing, " a
steel point against an iron plate," as there was a minimum of pressure.
He probably did not intend to deal with any but very light weights
and balances, otherwise the magnet would need to be very powerful.

...I think that in this way a very accurate balance might be constructed for
10 shillings, which would be a desideration. I will make one.

I am having a Bramah picklock made. I smoke my Turkish or German pipe
nightly with somebody else, and give Theodore eau micree to drink with it — bless his
innocence — it comes uncommon cheap — no man can diink more than three tumblers full,
or it would make him sick.

O'Brien begins on Thursday.

Fras. Galton.

The fourth page of the letter has a rough sketch of Galton's room —
"recent improvements" — "sofa drawn out before the fire." Above the
fireplace is a long low glass, and above this hang two pistols — clearly
those purchased in Smyrna (p. 138), — crossed foils, — those purchased for
practice at Angelo's (p. 109) — and what has the appearance of a lance,
which might well have been used in the famous wild boar hunt at
Sydnope in 1837 — when the last boar was killed, Darwin Galton
despatching it' : see Plate LI.

Francis Galton's rooms were on the right-hand side of the ground
floor of staircase B of New Court, that is the staircase to the left of the
archway leading to the Avenue. The sitting-room looks east into the

' Sir Francis S. Darwin led the chase riding " a coal black steed, of mettle high and
noble breed," others present were Miss Emma Darwin his daughter, his nephew Darwin
Galton and Frank Jessopp, who celebrated the hunt in a poem (see Darby Mercury,
April 8, 1874):

" Then yelped the dogs, halloed the men,
Till Sydnope's echoes rang again.
The beast is roused with wrathful eye
Surveys his foes, yet scorns to fly."
etc. etc. etc.

loO Life and Letters of Francis Galton

court, and the bedroom looks west towards the river bank, the willow tree

and the lime trees of the Avenue ; there is a small slip of* a gyp-room

next the bedroom. The rooms were small, and, being on the ground

floor and not far from the river, may have contributed to Gal ton's bad

health in Cambridge. Of their internal appearance we have the rough

sketch just referred to, and also a picture of the last meeting of the

" Caseo-Tostic," 1843; apparently it was drawn vv^hen the New Year,

1844, was five minutes old. (See Plate LIV.) Dalyell is in the chair,

before what appears to be a punch bowl, Stewart and Clark are on the

sofa in front of the fire and Galton's feet only are visible^he is sitting

facing Dalyell'. It is a New Year's Eve celebration. The whole is

drawn hastily upon a sheet of scribbling paper which had been used on

the reverse for studying geometrical optics. The picture we get of

Galton throughout his college career is of a man who cared about many

things, who enjoyed equally work and social life, and had not yet learnt

that human powers are limited.

Three days later than the date of the "balance" letter — on

February 3, Galton writes :

Wednesday {Feb. 3, 1841].

Trin. Coll.
My dear Father,

Atwood'- came down this morning and breakfasted witli me and I have left
him in the hands of Boulton to lionise, as I am invalided from a relapse of my old
illness which came on on Saturday without any cause to which I can assign it. I am
all but well, it has not confined me to my bed, but only to my room. Thanks for lecture
per post. I am rather mad about a rotatory steam engine which I have been contriving.
Boulton thinks it will do. Advantages being : P' The whole power being available
cranks being absent. 2'"' The momentum of the piston increasing the effect and .'. the
rapidity of working being unlimited, 3''' consequently very small cylinder, 4"" no fly-
wheel, 5* exceedingly light

The principle involved is similar to that of pumps now used for air
and water ; the direct action of steam on a vane causes rotation of the
shaft to which the vane is attached. There is an ingenious mechanism
for admitting the steam first to one half and then to the other of the
pressure chamber, and there are numerous sketches. Galton's claims
for his rotatory engine are possibly unsound, but very little as to
rotatory engines could have been done before 1840 and that little
could hardly be known to Galton. The letter is evidence of Galton's

' For reference to Dalyell see Memories, p. 78. ^ His old schoolmaster : see p. 77.

Plate LI

Till' fire-place witli the foils, Smyrna pistols, and native lance.

The living-room before the renio\al of the sofa to the fire-place.

(ialton's Rooms in Trinity College.

Sketches from (Jalton's (amliriilffe Letters.

Lehrjahre aud Wanderjahre

151

mechanical originality and his general interest at an early age in
mechanical problems.

But teeming as young Galton was at this time with ideas, he was
still equally eager for and markedly impressed by new experiences. His
mind was rapidly developing, and each new conquest, as it is made, is
at once reported to his home circle. The readiness with which he
communicates everything which occui's to his father — absolutely con-
fident of sympathy and suggestion — suffices to demonstrate a very rare
and perfect relationship between parent and child'.

[Marehl: 1841.]
Dear Emma,

I send 17 shilliugs worth of etchings etc. some of them by C. Schub are
exceedingly good. I was unable to get some outlines by Rembrandt, which I was
anxious to have done.

I am very sorry that my Father is so unwell ; perhaps this attack will do for
asthma and all.

Yesterday I made my appearance before the eyes of wondering Cantabs, where do
you think ? Why right in the midst of a den containing 1 Lion, 1 Lioness, 1 huge
Bengal Tiger and 4 Leopards in Wombwell's menagerie. The Lion snarled awfully.
I was a wee frightened for the Brute crouched so. The keeper told me that I was only
the fourth that had entered that den. Nothing like making oneself a " Lion " at
Cambridge. My Turkish tour and medical education does wonders and my late van
Amburg performance promises to crown my reputation.

F. G.

P.S. I send a view I had of a street in Smyrna — thitiking that it would make
a very good picture a la Prout.

A few days later Francis writes to his father in a Iiand showing

much sign of emotion :

Surulay ["21 Mnrrh 1841].

Trin. Coll.
My drar Fatiikr,

Thanks for your letter. Tomorrow I will see if Mortlock has received the
£20. I will send my accounts. Thanks greatly about Aberystwith.

I am rather cut up by the sudden death of a College friend of mine. Poor fellow
he wined with me last Tuesday, walked with me next day, complaining only of a slight
headache. I heard that he wa.s ill yesterday Saturday morning, and going to see him
after hall at .5 p.m. found him dying, with what I took to be typhus ; called again at 9,
he was much worse and evidently could not hold out 6 hours. An eruption of scarlet

' It must have existed in earlier generations of the Galton family, for it is
evidenced in the story of Samuel Gallon's appeal to one of his sons : " Tell your friend,
Samraie, all about it, and he will take good care your father does not ^lear a word of it."

162 Life and Letterst of Francis Galton

fever had broken out. He died at 12. He was one of the most kind-hearted fellows
I ever met with ; he had just taken his degree and was going into orders and had begun
hospital attendance that he might be of use in his parisli. He tlius caught the scarlet
fever and is dead. He was a very great friend of Hughes'.

It is curious that T have as yet lost only 7 schoolfellows or fellow-collegiates tliat
I really care for and every one of these liave died of scarlet fever or typhus, and all
except one within three days warning. How fearfully death intrudes in the midst of
enjoyment like the skeleton at the Egyptian's feast. It is remarked by D'Israeli
(I think) that the shock from the sudden loss of a friend is the only feeling which the
mind cannot become callous to. The frequent sight of death seems in no way to
diminish it. Patients in a hospital one looks upon as doomed men and their death
takes place as in the natural order of things. A friend appears part of oneself, and
when he dies, one contemplates the grave where he is laid in as ready to receive oneself ;
we then know that we are mortal. However this kind of language is out of place to
you at home in the midst of marriage festivities, etc. I received no cake with your
letter !

Good bye, Yours truly,

Fras. Galton.

During the Easter vacation, Francis Galton consulted both with
Hodgson and Booth in Birmingham, who appear to have given
diametrically opposite advice, but the nature of their proposals is not
clear. They most probably concerned Francis's prolonged study of
mathematics and his neglect for the time being of medicine. He writes
to his father, April 8th, 1841 :

" I have on reconsidering, reconsulting, etc., etc., determined to abide the Trinity
Examination, as I should be sure not to get the Caius prize as they have two very
superior men there, and as they take up slightly different subjects — but to do my best
for a Trinity first class and to migrate afterwards "

It is impossible now to say, but probable that the " Caius prize"
referred to may have been a Tancred studentship. There is a good
deal of discussion later about the position in the May examination, but
no further reference to this migration proposal, it probably arose from
Galton's Birmingham medical sponsors urging concentration on medical
studies.

Later in the same month, with the Darwin omission of exact

dating, comes a characteristic letter :

Trin. Coll. April, 1841.
My dear Father,

No letter of yours, whether received at school, announcing that I might
come home a week before my time, or whether containing a cheque on Barclay, Bevan,
Tritton and Co., ever came more gratefully than the one I have just received to say that

Lehrjahre and Wander jahre 153

my Mathematical M.S.S. were at Clavei-don. I have been latterly in despair owing to
their loss. I had hunted for them befoi-e leaving Claverdou, but found them not.
I looked everywhere in Cambridge and was equally disappointed. They are invaluable ;
all the talent of Perry, O'Brien and IMathison' are condensed into those papers. There-
fore please take the greatest care of them. Burn the Duddeston titledeeds if you will,
i^ut pre.serve these manuscripts. If you have even the compassion that glimmers in a
butcher's breast whilst he sticks a pig, or in Majendie whilst he runs needles into the
brain of a living dog, send them immediateli/. Till I receive them I am desperate.
I am very glad to hear Holland's report of Bessy ; please tell me all you hear
about her.

DON'T FORGET THE M.S.S. PAPERS , if you do, may the spirit of gout tweak
your remembrance ! ! !

P.S. Please remember the Manuscripts — send them immediately.

Good bye, Yours truly.

Eras. Galton.

Saturday, May 1 [1841].
My dear Father,

I received 2 or 3 days since your letter with good news about Bessy and bad
news about yourself, for which thanks (I don't mean specially the latter part). I have
also received 1 dozen of port marked "very old."

O'Brien told me the day before yesterday that I must certainly read with Hopkins
next October, and on my saying that I would rather remain with him he strongly
recommended me not. I own this has made me very bumptious ; it does great credit to
O'Brien for his openness, as of course tutors prefer to keep the better men. As he sta3's
in Cambridge during the Long Vacation (poor man, he is married), which is very dull
and hot during summer, I go with Mathison our Mathematical Lecturer to Keswick in
Cumberland with a party to read. The terms are .£30 for about 3 months, and the life
we lead a very pleasant and inexpensive one, certainly much cheaper than in College.
By the bye we are turned out of our rooms during the Long Vacation. I have been
obliged to take a half-classical coach for the approaching College examination (in about
4 J weeks).

Now you must not expect me to be first Mathematic in Trinity'^. I do not expect
it myself, as amongst other very good men, there are some who have already read

' Perry was senior in 1828, Mathison fifth Wrangler in 1839, both were ultimately
tutors of Trinity and Perry Bishop of Melbourne.

^ Galton's year (1844) was not a very strong one in mathematics ; there was no one who
has left a name in that field ; and in particular it was not .strong at Trinity ; that College
got 6th, 7th and 8th Wranglers only, with men who did not take Trinity fellowships.
Of Galton's friends, Hughes was 22nd Wrangler, Stewart and Maine were low Senior
Optimes, but first classes in the Classical Tripos ; Dalyell, very nearly " wooden spoon " ;
Clark was 18th Senior Optime and .second Classic to Maine's Senior Classic. Dalyell
also took the Classical Tripos. On the whole Galton's friends were on the literary side.
With what we know of his mathematical powers, he might easily have led the Trinity
contingent.

1'. G. 20

154 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

exceedingly high and who know their early subjects very well. I hope to do better in
each succeeding examination, but ill health, for T severely overstrained myself my first
term,— and I feel convinced that to have read during the X'""" Vacation would have
been madness, — has necessarily kept me back. But with no more excuses, as there is
much in what Dr Jeune used to say. Good bye. Your affectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

Galton appears to have taken only a third class in the Trinity May
examinations, but apparently the class was determined not only by
mathematics but also by classics :

Friday, Old Hdmmums [11 June 1841].
CovEXT Gakden.

Left Cambridge on Tuesday, — the classes are just out.

My dear Father,

I am not yet aware what my place is in all the math, subjects. I was
fourth in Trigonometry (Matliison told me) and as I did comparatively better in
Geometry and Algebra, I probably am higher in those two. Having done but little

classics and that badly I am in the third class I care scarcely at all about being

where I am as I am as high in maths, as I expected. You must notfoiget that, as
regards Classics more especially, I have to compete with men who have spent that time
on them which I have employed in medicine, and it is therefore improbable that I should
take a good place amongst them.

The Math, papers were exceedingly easy this year so that everybody, who knows
anything about them, must of necessity do three fourths, hence there was little room for
a man to distinguish himself in them.

In the Algebraical paper there were absolutely only .3 questions not bookwork, that
is problems. This is too bad, it is also unusual.

I am moving about town, doing one thing or another, dined with the Huberts
and Hornei's. I stay here till Tuesday morning to hear Madame Rachel on Monday.
I expect to be in Leamington Tuesday afternoon

I have had to invest in a frock coat and two pair of trousers

[P.S.] Hence as you observe I have not paid my Classical Tutor £7, who had left
Cambridge without an address. I have not paid for my Frock Coat which will be
about £5. I should be obliged for £5 — £10 as my bill at the Old Hummums will be
for a week and I take one meal daily. My stock in hand is £6. 19., there being a
mistake somewhere of 3 shillings in my account.

Somewhere about the October of this year Tertius Galton sent
his son Francis an "Essay on Book Keeping." It is a very simple
description of how to keep accounts in an orderly manner, but it is of
interest as showing us that from July 1st Francis was given a regular
allowance, payable in advance quarterly, and thus the minute details of
expenditure hitherto transmitted to his father cease. The allowance

Lolirjuhre and VVanderjalire 155

was a generous one, £300 per annum and apparently an extra sum for
private tuition. Tertius Galton was no doubt right in impressing ujion
his son the necessity for accurate record of expenditure — even to
mistakes of three shilhngs. But the ahnost weekly rendering of
accounts without a definite allowance does not provide a young man
with the same training in monetary affairs as a definite income with
freedom to spend within its limits. We caiinot help considering that
this statement : " Fi'ancis Galton, Esq. in account with his Treasurer,"
must have been a considerable relief to the undergraduate mind.

The summer vacation spent at Keswick was a very happy one ;
Francis Galton was in a most merry frame of mind. The final part of
the vacation was overcast by the illness of Tertius Galton, who came
down to join his son, and caught a severe cold, which caused his first
bad illness, lasting four or five weeks. The tutors were Mathison of
Trinity, and Eddis, first Chancellor's medallist and fourth classic in
1839, and well-known later as a Queen's Counsel. The members of the
i-eading party besides Galton included Blomefield, Atkinson, Strickland,
Young and Cooper'. The house Galton stayed at was Browtop, which
stands well upon the Thirlmere road before the old turnpike at the
junction with the steep road down to the church is reached. Galton
had visited at the end of June the Hodgsons and Booths in Birming-
ham, and he had made a flying visit with his Aunt Booth to his
sister, Lucy Moilliet, at Selby Hall. On July 1 he writes to announce
his safe arrival at Keswick to his father :

"I set off [from Birmingham] by the \ 2 o'clock train in the night and slept

without once awaking until we were near Preston, we got to Lancaster at 7^

I set off at 8 by mail to Kendal. The town was in a bustle owing to the nomination,
flags, trumpets and so forth. I had a very entertaining fellow-traveller; he had a
hooked nose, gold spectacles, was a member of the Reform Club, and a ne-plus-ultra
radical ; he had travelled, and hatl also been a rowing Cantab. We had a red hot
argument on politics, which I firmly believe neither of us knew anything about, but he
would talk alx)ut them, and as I must answer yes or no, even Bessy will excuse my not
assenting to a radical's ideas ; he knew the lakes very well and told me many legends
about them. Windermere is said to be a beautiful lake. Word.sworth asserts that it is
superior to anything abroad, but I humbly conceive that he thereby shews his patriotism

' Blomefield was about the middle of the Junior Optimes in 1843, Atkinson
27th Wrangler in the same year and afterwards Director of Public Instruction,
Calcutta, Young was Third Class, Classical Tripos and Junior Optime also in 1843;
Cwper was a Senior Optime in 1844 ; Strickland was one of the well-known Yorkshire
family of Howsham Uall, his tragic end is described in the Memories, p. 64.

20—2

lo(j Life aiul Letters of Francis Gallon

rather than his taste. It is certainly pretty but very narrow in comparison with its
length, and the high mountains on each side apparently reduce this width still more, so
that it looks like a river, and not a particularly broad one. [Then follows an account of

the well-known road from Windermere to Keswick with slight sketches.] To-day is

horribly misty ; Skiddaw is covered with clouds that reach low down as a Quakeress's
dress, but those on the chain opposite are more a la Taglioni. I had intended walking

up Skiddaw last night to see the sun rise but it began to rain Browtop is a very

nice house, the habitable part is quite separate from the kitchen and outhouses ; it is
one story high and the passage down the middle with 4 bedrooms on one side, and
4 sitting-rooms on the other side ; thus the whole house is £5 per week, so I pay
25 shillings. I have a beautiful view ; I should have sketched it for you, but there is
nothing but clouds this morning. I am the first of the party that has come ; the rest
are expected tomorrow.

Oood bye. Your affectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

Thursday, July 8 [1841].
Browtop.

My dear Fathkk, Being upon my own allowance you must excuse letter paper. In
answer to your question : The Apothecaries' bill I owe, though differing some shillings
from the one sent to Blakesley. The Hosier's Bill is not mine probably's Theodore's.
I do not want the boots at Keswick, certainly not at present, as I always walk in thick
shoes. I am very glad to hear about your asthma's want of punctuality this year;
should you have an opportunity I wish you would enquire whether the other asthmatic
Leamingtonians, I think 3 in number, have got oif equally well, as it would be interesting
to find out whether some years are more favourable than others as is apparently the case
in typhus and influenza.

I never enjoyed myself so thoroughly as at present — Mathison and Eddis are
thoroughly goodnatured. When it is fine we walk out in a body from 2 to 5 ; when
wet play at battledore and shuttlecock or at fives in a most unstudious manner. Eddis
you know is a senior medallist. Blomefield is the other undergraduate staying at
Browtop. The St Quintins are very kind and their son (Charles) very agreeable, he
rattles off about the Himalaya Passes and the scenery of Thibet, and totally condemns
Howqua's Mixture. They introduced me to the Parson, a INIr M. who again intro-
duced me to a Count 0 (I purposely write the word illegibly and that for an obvious

reason, it consists of "three sneezes and a ski"), who is the lion of these parts, being
Chemist, Botanist, Zoologist, etc., etc., and last not least a top-sawyer Animal Magnetiser.
I need scarcely say that we got the greatest allies immediately, he is a very gentlemanly

man, he shewed me through laboratories, hot-houses and monkey cages He has

moreover got me patients to magnetise, lent me books and in short we are the greatest

possible allies. He married a rich heiress who is a very pretty girl 18 years old, he

is about 40 1 ought to say that as I walked with the Count through his laboratory

he introduced me to a Dr Schmidt who was staying with him and working there.
T thought I knew both the face and name, and found out that he was one of Liebig's
class at Giessen, and we had great amusement in talking over the wine-parties, etc. after

rjchrjahre ami Wanderjahrc 157

the table d'hote. He was a great plirenologist and I got him to paw my head, he gave
me I think a very true character (self-esteem was remarkably full). I have not now the
bump of constructiveuess very large though he says it is large. Mary's bump is firmness,
I described her character and he immediately said that he had observed equally well
developed cases'. I have just descended from Skiddaw, it is a very seedy mountain to
go up, there being no difficulty whatever, the view is very extensive including the Isle
of Man and Ben Lomond. It was very hot and we pitched into much whisky, and on
the strength of it cheered 3 times 3 for God save the Queen, Trinity, etc. Whatever
Father Matiiew may say there is nothing like vast quantities of whisky on a mountain
top, it would be a splendid way to subject a convert to temptation. — Please address in
future Browtop as an oblique-eyed intimate of our skullion having nothing else to do
brings up the letters. Love to all and each ; may the critical spirit of Bessy smile on
this epistle.

Good Bye, Your affectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

The Keswick letters show such joy in life, such healthy vigour
and a nature bubbling over with such fun that those who read them
must feel at once on terms of intimacy with Galton's genial personality.
I have allowed his criticisms of Whewell to remain, for they are only
the opinions of a boyish undergraduate on the Master of his college" —
and most of us remember what fair game the Master must ever be to
the world of junior members of his college !

Buow Top, Keswick.

July 18, Sunday, 1841.
My dear Father,

Thank you for your letter. I am very glad that you talk of coming towards
the lakes, as they are well worth seeing, and as a long course of fine weather almost

' Galton's interest in phrenology was a precursor of his later system of head-
measurements. While Francis was a boy at King Edward School, Birmingham, a
Cambridge examiner fond of phrenology asked to be allowed to inspect the boys' heads
to test his phrenological opinion against the results actually found in the following day's
examination. He went into the school-room and was much struck with Francis' head
and sent for him for a second inspection. He then said to Dr Jeune, " This boy has the
largest organ of causality I ever saw in any head but one, and that is the bust of
Dr Erasmus Darwin." "Why," said Dr Jeune, "this boy is Dr Darwin's grandson."
Owen, the Lanark Utopian, also noted Galton's head when an infant and pi-edicted from
its peculiarity that he would not be a common character. The large organs of causality,
i.e. a good temporal development in ordinary parlance were noted by the professional
phrenologist, Donovan, who gave in 1849 an amusing estimate of Francis Galton's
character as wonderfully correct in .some respects as it was absurdly incorrect in others.
I shall cite some part of it later.

- Whewell was made Master this very autumn.

168 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

invariably sets in about this time. I do not know of any house in Keswick wliicli you
could take (bona fide) as they arc all small and mostly dark and dirty. The inn is very
good, good bedrooms etc., and has been honoured by Queen Adelaide's sleeping in it,
if that be any inducement to you, but Ambleside has many good lodging houses.

1 received the enclosed letter from Christian the day before yesterday. We have had
beautiful weather the last 4 days, and have already been making several excursions, to
Butterraere, where the celebrated beauty whom Hatfield the robber eloped with some
20 years since, lived, and where several uncommonly pretty girls keep up the character
of the place still. We have also been up Helvellyn. They said it would take us
3 hours to reach the top, but it occupied only 2| to get up, stay 25 minutes at the top,
and be at the bottom on the other side. The country people are exceptionally hospitable,
they give us no end of milk, oatcakes, home-made cheese etc., and it is difficult to make
them take anything in return, so our plan is to ask if they have any children and pick
out one of the curly headed young scrubs, and visibly slip a shilling or two, according to
the probable extent of our united appetites, into his hand. Yesterday after taking a
stroll up Skiddaw we went to the perfection of a farm house. A very pretty Creole
niece of the farmer chatted, smiled, gave us milk etc. and set off a musical snuff-box
playing, then brought a nosegay, and lastly sat down with us to grub. She asked if we
were any of the Cambridge gentlemen, and on our saying that we were she told us that

2 or 3 years ago there was a large party at Keswick who were a "sad set of scamps."
So you see what a reputation Cambridge has got. Whewell, wonderful to say, has fallen
in love with an Ullswater beauty, Miss Marshall, and is going to marry her. She is
very rich and of very good family, hence our continual conversation at Browtop is in
surmises as to how Whewell would set to work to make love, he is nearly 50, she a little
more than 20

We like Browtop excessively, the only fault in the situation of Keswick being that
it is in a wide valley, so that there are but few walks within a short distance. The
hills are all quite green so that we can run down them at a capital pace. Mathison
tried sliding down one of them, but he reached the bottom a complete cherub having
scarcely whereon to sit, owing to the friction

We hear that a party of Cantabs at Ambleside think of migi-ating to Keswick, it
will be a great bore if they come as we are enough already. Armitage the to-be senior
wrangler of the February after next is one of them.

Dear Bessy I know tliat this letter is a stupid one but I really have nothing to say
foi' myself. Write soon and tell me about Scarborough.

Good-bye and believe me ever your affectionate \^ , I ,

(Brother J

Fkas. Galton.

My deak Father,

Bkowtop.

Sunday, Auy. 1st, 1841.

I received this morning £15 all correct enclosed in an envelope stamped
"too late"; for which thanks. The letter before this one was dated from "N.g. cliff."

Tjehrjalire and Wanderjahre 159

Do they ticket the houses as cabinet curiosities? It is certainly novel and decidedly
literary. I suppose that Lucy and James have already arrived, what with them and my
two uncles, the Galton family will inundate the place, and if the ordinary appetite that
accompanies the several branches of tlie family be present at Scarboro' it will give a
very satisfactory interpretation of the N.g. ticketing. Whewell is undoubtedly under
the guardianship of Hymen, though an oyster may be affected by love, a Whewell can't,
for he has (I understand) been so involved in the metaphysical line that he looks on the
approaching event with the most philosophical indifference. In 3 weeks Keswick is to
be turned topsy-turvy with amusements. Inpriniis a 4-oared race in which your humble
servant is to pull, as we get up a boat for the honour of Cambridge. (The names of the
crew are Atkinson, Strickland, Young, Galton and Cooper steersman) ,1^12 prize. We
really shall have a very fair chance, for though the Keswick boatmen are trained to
pulling from their sash and petticoat age yet they are more in the cart horse line, whilst
the description that I heard given of our crew was that they are "intensely plucky."
We have great amusement here in scrambling about. Mathison is a capital walker but
not a dab at climbing, consequently he occasionally sticks amongst the rocks like a saint
in a niche and immovable without a miracle. We get on capitally at Browtop. The
order of the day is — Breakfast finished as the clock strikes 9. Reading till 1 or 1|.
Lunch, walk till 5, dine and chat till 8, Read till 10, tea to 10^, Read to 11 or 12.

When a long walk is taken we eschew dinner put our leathern whisky flasks in our
pockets, which I am convinced is the true interpretation of " seven leagued boots," and
walk from 1 to 8 or 9. We certainly do great things in the walking line instead of
" manage-ing nos forces " after the Swiss regime. We scamper up the hills and somehow
or other don't get tired. To-day I ascended more than |''' of the height of Skiddaw
(driven back by mist) in .35 minutes, about 2200 feet, this was in Sunday costume and
without puggyfying to any extent.

Dear Bessy. How's the bathing ? and how are Emma's freckles ? The amount of
sunshine here is by no means dangerous to beauty as the sun has generally a mass of
mist rather thicker than Skiddaw is high to shine through. It has been miserably cold
so that I read with a pea-coat on and with my feet on the fire hob. In your letter in a
quotation from Aunt Hubert a word occurred "odm...ts." I have looked in Johnson's
Dictionary but can find nothing corresponding to it, so I presume that it must have
been coined since his time.

Again, there was a passage in your letter ending with 4 notes of admiration
combined. This is an excess.

Thirdly, I should recommend a more refined choice of phrases than such as the
" weather taking up " and others of a similar nature. You state " The air is delightful,
and a beautiful walk along the cliff." I am not aetherial enough to enter into your
delights — (I must bully you). How has Lucy's bazaar gone off? Please write oftener.
Tell me what you had for dinner if you can think of nothing else, but do write.

Goofl-bye,

your affect. Brother,

Fras. Galton.

160 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

Keswick Browtop,

August [13] 1841.
My dear Fathkb,

You talk of "fear of annoying mo with a formal visit" etc. I can

assure you that I sliouki enjoy nothing so much as Atwoodizing you over the country.
We can give you dinner occasionally at Browtop. Yon will find Eddis and Mathison
very agreeable, and I really think tliat the very best thing that you can do is to settle in
Keswick for a fortnight or 3 weeks. If you will give me a commission for lodgings,
I will make every enquiry. Our boat-racing scheme has been given up for on enquiry
we find that the competitors must pull on pins, not in rollocks [sketches]. To pull in
that manner we unanimously decreed was below the dignity of a Cambridge " oar " as all
the beauty of and skill of rowing consists in correct feathering which of course is
impracticable with pins. It is altogether a ridiculous piece of business. There actually
is no practising on the lake and consequently the pulling at the race must be
wretched

Poor Chance my old schoolfellow and chum is dead. He was my chief friend at
Dr Jeune's and also at King's College, where he read classics. He was one of the best
fellows that I have met with; he was expected to have distinguished himself. Poor
fellow — he died of consumption

Yesterday morning I walked up Skiddaw to see the sunrise. I got to the top of
the eastern peak which is not 150 feet lower than the highest one in 40 minutes. Of
course saw nothing but mist. I shall, however, try it again tonight — We have got some
sails to our boat at Keswick, it is curious how frightened all the boatmen here are of
tliem, they never use them. Even the attendant " cad " upon the party, a man ready to
poach, knock down, do anything on an emergency, refused to go into the boat on the
ground of having a " wife and 5 small children'."

The postscript to sister Bessie propounds on this occasion a problem

in etiquette. Galton and others had dined with the Russian Count,

and the Countess had not received them in very friendly fashion.

Meanwhile " the Count (a very punctilious man) had left the town,

leaving the Countess behind." Galton had not called since the dinner,

ought he to do so ? The final story of the " Count " is told in the

Memories, p. 63.

Browtop, August 19</t, 1841.
My dear Father,

Thank you for your letter which T have received this evening. I hope that
you will not give up your plans as regards the lakes, for if your only fear is about rainy
weather, I do not think you will suffer more in travelling through Westmoreland than
elsewhere, since on comparing tlie state of the weather here with that which a Cambridge

' The danger to sailing boats on Derwentwater from sudden gusts of wind coming
down between the mountains is well known to the inhabitants : I remember a fatal
accident to a sailing boat occurring during a .stay near Keswick.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 161

party has had in Devonshire we find that we have had the fewer rainy days. This of
course does not include misty days. I have been deluded enough lately to climb
mountains to see the sunrise, it is certainly the best regime that I know to cure romance.
I for my part never felt less spiritual or more corporeal than I did when I got to the
bottom of them. I had a long walk in that manner the day before yesterday.
Happening to look out of the window aVjout 12 after reading, I found that it was the
most beautiful night that we had yet had. So pocketing my whisky flask and putting
on my pea-coat and plaid, I walked to the town and got up a party to go, slept under a
table for 35 minutes, drank some whisky punch, and then walked up Blencathra,
ignominiously called " Saddleback," stayed on the top about an hour and then got back
by 7 a.m., it was about 16 miles. As the morning was splendid I then got up another
party for Ennerdale. Then slept 25 minutes and walked off, and we walked the whole
day, up two high mountains. I got back by 8| p.m. and after all I really was not so
very tired. Keswick is at the present moment all wrestling and dancing. The champion
in the former has been declared, having thrown some 10 opponents, but even he is now
taken off his legs under the influence of brandy and water.

In the dancing department of course I assisted, and had for my partner a damsel
whom I had observed in the morning employed in the unpoetical position of all fours,
scrubbing stone steps with great diligence. — I have today committed a most dreadful
ofifence in the eye of the law. I happened to be walking in a field when I saw a bull
looking intensely ferocious, so I picked up a stoue of a size corresponding to my fears
which was therefore very large. Thus armed I ran to the nearest gate for escape ; when
up jumped a hare. All thoughts of the Game Laws vanished, as also of the bull.
I threw the stone with a most lucky aim, and knocked the gentleman over and then
I soon got over the gate and gave him the coup-de-grace with my shillelah. I shall eat
him tomorrow or the next day. We are getting very dull ; we read the Times through,
advertisements and all everyday, and often ask for the catalogue of the circidating
library. Under these circumstances. Good bye and believe me ever

Your affectionate son, Fras. Galton.

The letters to Tertins from Keswick cease with this date. The
Galtons were staying at No. 9 on the Chff [N.g. cUff of Francis's letter :
see p. 158], Scarborough, and Emma Galton states in her diary that
on Sept. 3 she rode from Castle Howard Park to the Lakes. Tertius
Galton was fond of riding expeditions with his daughters, and he
probably took a chill on this occasion. But we have no details of the
illness at Keswick. The party got home to Leamington on Sept. 21,
and on Sept. 26, Miss Galton records in her diary " Papa very ill
indeed." Francis Galton, in the " annual register " of his life, speaks
of his father's first serious illness occurring at Keswick. Doubtless much
help was given by the Gurneys at Keswick, for we find from this time
the intimacy between Gurneys and Galtons extended and visits are
paid to Keswick as well as to St James's Square.

p. G. 21

162 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

The next letter is dated, or should be, October 20, 1841 :

WedTiesday 20th, 1841.
My dear Father, Tein. Coll.

I left Leamington the only Cantab on the coach by the side of a jolly old
Coachman who had been a horsedealer at Northampton and had sold horses to Uncle
Hubert ; he made sundry enquiries after you. On arriving at Weedon a complete shoal
of Cambridge men poured out from one of the trains amongst whom was Theodore and
three or four other allies of mine ; how they all were to find places was a problem too
deep for the minds of anybody there except the coachman's to surmount. However they
hung on the coach like crows on carrion, and a jolly drive we had recounting our
adventures to each other. The coach top was unpolluted by a freshman. — I called on
Mathison this morning, who skipped about through excess of animal spirits in talking
over Keswick, and was as jolly as ever. I then called on Hopkins who takes me, and
I begin with him on Monday. My Keswick friends are all up, two of them full of
gratitude for wonderful eflfects produced by prescriptions which I had left them and
I have got a new patient. I cannot express the bumptious state I am in, looking at
poor bashful unsophisticated "cubs" so carefully pulling their gown to make it sit well
and fidgety at finding how uncomfortable their cap is which they have unconsciously
put on the wrong way ; all over as " fresh " as paint — bless their innocencies. — So
Whewell is Master ; I suppose he will soon come into residence.

In haste for chapel.

Your affectionate son, Fras. Galton.

Francis was in all the glory of the Junior Soph. Energetic beyond
measure, but hastening, alas ! towards a catastrophe.

Excuse my blots as I am Tuesday []Vor. 10, 1841].

in a great hurry.

My dear Father,

I am very sorry that from having been either too lazy or too much occupied,
I have not written sooner, though I consider you too little of an invalid to be further
anxious about your health. Emma has probably given you a full account of her
proceedings in Cambridge' and I trust rescued me from Mr Hodgson's malicious charge.
She was most active and tired down both Theodore and myself. Thank you very much
for your statement of my accounts ; they were certainly most beautifully written out and
quite a model. In one point, however, they were not quite as useful as otherwise they

' According to her diary Miss Galton went on Nov. 4 " via Cambridge to Keswick "
and returned on Nov. 28 to St James's Square with the Gurneys. Emma Galton
•shared many of the characteristics of her brother Francis ; she was restlessly energetic
and rushed not only about England but the Continent. She had a strong business
instinct and recorded almost to shillings and pence the amounts received by all members
of her family by inheritance, settlements and gifts. She published a noteworthy little
book which has run through many editions, A Guide to the Unprotected ; it gives
directions for single women in business matters, and is still of value.

Lelirjahre and Wauderjahre 163

might liave been for after reading them through carefully 5 times I abandoned all hope of
making out the meaning of any one single line in utter despair. The words appear all
bewitched for I can't make out which is substantive and which is nominative case etc. etc.
As a specimen " Debtor to balance agreed £. ." — Should you have spare time, would
you be so kind as to write two or three lines in account book style with their interpreta-
tion in popular English and then I have no doubt but that I shall make out the rest of
the paper, which you so kindly sent me.

My box arrived safely and the books inside in good preservation, with the exception
of one book right through which, like Sisera's temples, a hobnail was driven — however it
was only some temperance tracts bound up and therefore it is quite immaterial. Emma
was not sure whether my D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature was packed up — it is.

I like Hopkins more and more every day, and I never enjoyed Cambridge so
thoroughly. Love to all.

Goodbye, Your affectionate Son, Fras. Galton.

The following letter gives a vivid picture of a famous mathematical
coach and enables us still better to realise the Cambridge life of those

days :

Trinity,

Thursday Eveiting,

My dear Father, Nov. [11] 1841.

Thanks for the second edition of my accounts which I received this morning,
and still greater thanks for the explanatory notes by Bessy thereunto attached'.

Hopkins progresses capitally. I had forgotten to tell you that I find that his
charges are only £72 per annum instead of £100 as currently reported : this will make
a jolly difference to my finances. Hopkins to use a Cantab expression is a regular
brick ; tells funny stories connected with diflFerent problems and is no way Donnish ; he
rattles us on at a splendid pace and makes mathematics anything but a dry subject by
entering thoroughly into its metaphysics. I never enjoyed anything so much before.
I made my first acquaintance with Laplace today, in one of his theorems, greatly to my
satisfaction.

H has not returned to Cambridge. He is an utter Puseyite, he dances much

and instructs his partners in the "Fathers" and in their controversies. Eddis and
Mathison both bloom. I wined with the former last night, who decidedly has not
recovered from tender impressions received at Keswick. He spoke on walking in the
cloisters by moonlight, and quoted Byron. He is therefore hopeless.

I am going to become a member of the Camden Antiquarian Society as being
a gentlemanly thing and really very amusing. The subscription is 7 shillings a term
until £.3 has been paid when the subscriber becomes an honorary member, and is released
from further subscription retaining the same privileges. Whewell is expected next week
in Cambridge. He is not Vice-Chancellor this year as Dr Archdall of Emmanuel has
been elected to that office.

' " Lord Torment and Tease," as he had been called at an earlier date, neither
deserved that second edition nor the commentary ; the accounts were beautifully simple
and clear, and we may shrewdly suspect he understood them.

21—2

164 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

My cake has long since gone. As it disappeared it looked like a girl dying of
consumption, pining away and retaining its sweetness to the last ; it was very good.
I ingratiated mj-self much with Mrs Hoppit by sending for her sevenfold offspring and
arranging them round the table, when I made an equable division of the remains of the
cake between myself and then), and afterwards sent them away laughing, eating and
digesting like steam. Twelve out of the fourteen jampots still remain fiee from the
encroachments of the enemy, but decidedly in a state of predestination thereunto.

How is my Mother's foot? and Mary? Love to all and good-bye and believe me

ever your affectionate son,

Fbas. Galton.

P.S. I suppose you all know that the meaning of the F. G. on the outside of my
letters is that they are family letters to be opened by anybody and merely addressed to
some particular person for the satisfaction of the postmaster.

I do not know how or where the Christmas vacation was spent,
presumably at Leamington, yet on Jan. 21, Francis is up at Trinity
and from there a few days afterwards joins his sister Emma, who had
gone down from London to Keswick with the Gurneys on Dec. Slst.
He probably only stayed a few days there, as the results for his " Little-
Go " were sent to his father on March 9th from Cambridge, and that
examination must have taken place some weeks earlier :

" Hurrah— I'm through. Fkas. Galton, Wed. \M2."

[March 9].

The list shows him to have taken a second class ; J. Kay and
another of Hopkins's pupils were also in the second class, seven of them,
including Buxton, were in the first. Maine, Clark, Cooper, Dalyell,
Stewart and others of Galton's friends appear in the same list.

The earlier letter of Jan. 21 is of some historical interest :

Jan. 21, 1842.
My dear Fathek, Trin. Coll.

Thank you for your letter wiiich I received this morning. The Math.
Examination for degrees is just over and as you will see by the accompanying paper
Cayley is Ist and Simpson 2nd wrangler ; these were very far superior to the rest.
Hopkins told me today that Simpson was 1000 marks ahead of the 3rd wrangler and
tlie getting of .500 marks only entitles a man to be a wrangler. The Ist and 2nd
wranglers are considered to be the most superior men, for at least many years that
Cambridge has produced', llie rest of the Tripos as usual. The examination papers
this year are much easier than usual.

' How difficult it is to see at close quarters! Stokes had been Senior in 1841,
Adams was Senior in 1843, and Thomson (Lord Kelvin) second in 1845. They were the
most brilliant years of Cambridge mathematical productivity and 1842 did not stand
alone.

Lehrjahre ami Wiuulcrjaluv 1«».">

Tho GIsioiftrium is couiposed of a mixture of i'nrWnnte and sulphate of potass

wliich deliijuesoes in their water of crystallisation and afterwanls hardens. This Miller

told me, who himself had he«rd it from Faraday. I have not seen the specification.

I shall be quit* dissipjvted next week. Monday 1 dine with Dr Fislier and go to an

evening pvirty at Hopkins : Tuesday, Bacheloi-s' liall ; Weilnesday, I gi.> to Keswick etc.

Good bye, your aflfectionate Son,

Fr.\ncis G.\ltos.

In this letter Galton returns to liis original and later usual t'orni ot"
signature, but it took a long time to re-establish it.

The letter of March 19th tells us more details of the Little-Go and
Galton's work at mathematics :

TlUNITY, C.\MBRIDOK.

Maveh lit. usn>.

My de.kr Fathku,

1 enclose you the Little Go list. I ought to have seiit it yesterday, but was
not in my rooms till aft-er post-time. 1 have I consider had 3 grand escapes in my life-
time : 1'' walking into a Lion's den and coming out undigi>.sttHl, 2"'"-* Utthing in
a frosty stream at moonlight ami not itnnaining at it.s l)ottoni in an apoplexy, ;?""''
going into the Little Go when I had not read over half my subjects and coming out
unplucked, not, however, that the pluck would Ih> of any conse*iuence. T have never the
less been the gainer by this examination for calculating the advant^ige of Innng in the
first class to be estimated at six^^nce, I went to a man yest-eniay and bet a shilling
I would be in the '2'"', thus leaving 2 sixpenny pieces to luck, which as you seo I have
won. 1 am much obliged to Bessy for the melancholy news alMuit Miss H. I was,
however, aware of my misfortune the saiue week that the engagement ttxik place, but
had not been informed who M'' E. was ; there is one thing that acts as a poultice to mv
wounded feelings which is that that small chin)jv»n/.<H< .M' S. is not the happy man.
Time has done wonders for me in soothing etc., but, oh Bessy ! '. Miss D. has done much
more ; she is without e.xccption the nu>st beautiful etc., etc., etc. I have e\er st>en.
I was at a hop at her Ma's hou!«e the other night (I know most of the families in
Cambridge now), I was dancing with her (the daughter not the mama) in a quadrille
with one of my Little Go-Examinei-s for a vU-a-vis. Ttnlay as the sun was shining
lieautifully I decked myself out in resplendent summer appai-el, light trowsers, light
waistciMit (those that I had last yi>ar) to make a call upon this fair creature, but as
I wasi fa-st tinishing my toilette, and wjis •' throwing a perfume over the violet " in the
way of arranging my cravat ties, the wind blew and the rain fell horribly, a»id the
streets weiv one muss of mud. I was in desjuiir, but retlecting that if I^vinder swam
the Helle.sjMMit for Hero, / was duty-lmund to loii/r' as far as the Fitxwilliam for
Miss D., off I sot. When, however, 1 arrivwl at their door, I wisely retlwtwi on the
spla.sluHl state of my trousers U'foir l knwkeil, and then rt>tit'attHl civst-fidlen. Tonight
I hang out (otlu>rwise give a sprwul) in oysters ; 1 have Invn all anxiety to gt<t a dish of
frogs lis an adjunct and yesterday 1 made trt<mendous eflbrts to catch some with the
anncxtni apparatus [sketch of triple luwk attache*! to a line |)endont to a walking stick]

1H6 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

but quite unsuccessfully. I could not see one although with another man I patfolled
every imaginable ditch within reach. I firmly believe S' Patrick liad got the start of
me, for Cambridge without frogs is quite an anomaly. Hopkins gave up for the term on
Wednesday ; before he left he called rae to him and complimented me no end on my
mechanics, which has made me quite jolly. I wish though that I were a better analyst.
Buxton and Kay are going to leave his class as their health won't stand it. I shall
certainly stay with him during the Long Vacation, and if the Dons won't let me
stay in Cambridge I propose quietly taking lodgings in Grancester \sic!'\ {\\ miles off)
and coming over to him every morning. For want of room Good bye and believe me ever

Your affectionate Son,

Fbas. Galton.
(It's vacation time now.)

But how was Francis Galton's own health standing the strain is
the question which arises in our minds as we read this letter ? A letter
written a few days later shows that the strain was beginning to tell :

Tkinity, Tuesday [March 22, 1842].
My deak Fatheu,

On thinking over about the approaching Scholarship Examination, I so
plainly see that I have no chance whatever of getting one this year that I really think it
quite useless to compete. The mere going into an examination for a few days is a thing
of no great labour, but I am of course anxious that if examined I should do the
mathematical part as well as I am qualified to, and not place myself below my level for
want of preparation as would be the case with me now. I have at present read 14
different mathematical subjects' ; now to get up all these sufficiently well to undergo
a good examination in them would necessarily require very considerable application,
which would be better bestowed on the subject (Mechanics) that I have now in hand,
inasmuch as the fact of having them now well prepared would in no way assist me in
any future examination, after a year's interval for instance. I spoke to Hopkins about it
a fortnight ago ; he strongly recommends me not to put myself out of the way for the
examination, should I be inclined to go in for it. I find that it is impossible to get up
my subjects without doing so and therefore think it preferable not to go in at all.
I would, however, have possibly tried my best, but my head is already rather bad from
having overworked myself in attempting to get up these subjects as well as doing what
Hopkins has set us for this vacation, so that in the short time that is left I could do but
very little. There is one other reason remaining namely that I should not know my
standing in Maths, in the College from the result of this examination any better than

' In a postscript Galton says : "The subjects I have read are : (1) Algebra Parts I
and III (2) Algebra Part II (3) Euclid (4) Trigonometry, Plane (5) Spherical
(6) Conic Sections (7) Theory of Equations (8) Newton (9) Differential Calculus
(10) Integral Calculus (11) Differential Equations (12) Statics (13) Dynamics (not
finished) (14) Geometry of 3 Dimensions."— Astronomy and Optics (of which he had
certainly read some) were needed to complete the old two years' course, leaving the
physical subjects for the third year.

Pliiic lAl

Pen and ink sketch of Ely Catliedral from a letter
of Fraiiris (ialtou to his Father. 1842.

Pen and ink sketch of King's College Chapel from the field hv the .Mill, 1843.
Sketches from Galton's Camhridge Letters.

Lelirjahre and Wanderjahre

167

I do now as those with whom I have to compete read with Hopkins, — viz. Walker,
Hotham and Bowring' (Kay, and Buxton and Edwards have been obliged to leave off).
I should therefore much prefer not to go in at all, subject however, of course to your
wishes. I can easily get off on the plea of ill health which will be in a considerable
degree a true one and can leave Cambridge for 5 or 6 days during the time of the
examination. Should you agree with me will you let me know your plans for certain,
that I may make mine accordingly. I have no news to tell you at present, so I remain,

Your affectionate Son, Fras. Galton.

This letter indicates much to those that read between the Hnes.
In the first place Galton was staying up during the Easter vacation ; in
the next there is little doubt that he was or had been seriously over-
working. Galton could not work under pressure, he had to do his
work leisurely, and this he was to learn by sad experience before it
became the practice of his later life. He was so keenly excited by
many things that he could not repress his instinct to carry on numerous
pursuits at once. Of the relics of this Easter vacation I note a visit to
Ely Cathedral and a careful sketch of its western tower (see Plate LII),
sent to his father ; thei-e is also a long poem on the birth of the Prince of
Wales (Nov. 9, 1841), with the motto Tu Marcellus ens; it is dated
March 31, 1842, and was probably composed for the Chancellor's medal.
The Chancellor's English medal is for a subject given out at the end of
the Michaelmas Term, and exercises are to be sent in on or before
March 31st following. The .subject for 1842 was actually Galton's
theme, and the medal was obtained by H. S. Maine, of Pembroke, one
of Galton's friends and afterwards the distinguished Master of Trinity
Hall.

Gralton's poem has rather the roll of Erasmus Darwin's poetry and
its theme the infant prince considering the deeds of his ancestois, some
of whom — Edward I, and Edward II, first Prince of Wales — were as
much Galton's ancestors as King Edward VII's :

" How different is thy lot to Edward's son.
Bom in the land hia sire had scarcely won,
'Midst warriors rude within that turret tall
That beetles o'er Carnarvon's massive wall,
Coldly through grated loopholes streamed the day
Lighting the couch where Eleanora lay."

' Walker was 8th Wrangler, Bowring 23rd Wrangler in 1844.
in the same year, but, T think, mu.st have taken a poll degree.

Hotham graduated

168 Life awl Letters of Francis Oalton

From April and May of this year no letters have survived ; we do
not know whether Galton went on reading with Hopkins or went in
for his College May. We lose also all account of how he came to join
a reading party under Cayley and Venables' which went in June to
Aberfeldy, in Perthshire.

On June 15 he is staying with the Kays at Terrace House,
Battersea, and writes to his father that he is leaving by boat for
Dundee in an hour and a half. He describes his journey to town, how
he has dined with Partridge, seen the Mlssourian (which he liolds to
be falsely articulated in order to increase the apparent heiglit), and
heard Robert le Diable — all told with the usual quaint humour. The
first letter from Aberfeldy is five days later and some of it may be
given here :

Aberfeldy, June 19, 1842.
Mv DEAR Father,

My proceedings have gone on splendidly but the voyage from London to
Dundee was all that could be horrible; instead of taking 36 we were 50 hours, a swell
of a most abominable description inclined slightly to our course so that the rolling was
dreadful. Everybody (104 in all, 30 was the usual number) was wretchedly sick. I as
usual dreadfully so. — Otherwise we had a jolly voyage; most of our party on board and
the two tutors. Cayley is unanimously voted a hrick and a most gentlemanly-minded
man. Some of the passengers too had seen much life. One was a traveller in the interior

of Africa, shot elephants, lions, etc. etc Perth is beautiful to a degree, ditto the lady

inhabitants I hear Sir Neil Menzies is a most hospitable person, but I have not yet

sent my letter of introduction. In haste

Your affectionate son, Fras. Galton.

The reading party on this occasion consisted of the two Kays,
Fowell and Charles Buxton, Galton and Yeoman". We may reasonably
expect that play rather predominated over work. The reading party
gave a ball :

The Cambridge party requests the honour of company on Wednesday the

31st instant. Dancing will commence at 8 o'clock.

Breadalbane Arms, Aberfeldie.

There were 29 " Dancing Ladies " and only 22 " Dancing Gentle-
men," but as " 7 Cantabs " are included in the latter we may safely

' Venables, afterwards Canon of Lincoln, was 33rd Wrangler and in the second class,
Classical Tripos.

^ Yeoman was 27tl) Wrangler, and third class, Classical Tripos in 184."), T think the
Buxtons and Kays took poll degrees.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre

169

conclude that Cayley did his duty on the occasion. A draft pro-
gramme prepared on a rough piece of paper by Francis Galton, giving
the names of the guests, the dances and music, the supper menu
(somewhat substantial), the flower decorations, the directions — "many
candles," " polish the coffee pot," " pins, needle and thread, and
looking glass," etc., showing how completely and carefully he provided
for all contingencies, has survived to the present day. It was wrapped
round some fishing hooks and flies, and enclosed with a piece of ribbon
worn at the Highland wedding of Margaret Carmichael, described

in the letter below.

Aberfbldy, Monday [Aug. 1, 1842].
My dear Father,

We are enjoying ourselves very much at Aberfeldy, there is unfortunately
much monotony in the walks, as the village is situated on the side of a broad strath
through which runs the Tay, and itself formed by high barren moorlands. We have just
witnessed a true Highland wedding, and absolutely danced witli only 1^ hours altogether
inteiTTiission from 3 in the afternoon till 4 the next morning. I myself was pretty con-
siderably knocked up, but several of the villagers did not go to bed at all and really did
not seem much the worse for it the next day. The Scotch reels are great fun, for after
every one is ready and before the reel is played, a particular squeak is given on the fiddle
and every one kisses his partner, and if they are obstreperous tliere is a fine chase and
scramble. We are really very much liked at Aberfeldy, and have been huzza'ed more
than once as we walked up the town. When we were invited to the wedding, we each
subscribed 2 shillings and so bought the bride a very good looking tea tray, 2 jolly brass
candlesticks and snuffers, which overwhelmefl the lady. The Scotch air has done wonders
for my general health, but my head scarcely improves. I have been able to do but little

reading since I have been here and altogether am very low about myself Lady Menzies

has been most kind to me and other neighbouring residents have been exceedingly hospit-
able to the party. Will Bessy thank Mrs Cameron for the note of introduction when

next she sees her. Goodbye, Your affectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

The next letter is from Edinburgh after the reading party

had broken up :

Edinburgh, The Queen's Hotel
[Sept. 14, 1842].
My dear Father,

I left Aberfeldy very early yesterday morning with Eben Kay' and went
thro' Crieif and Stirling to Edinbro', really quite sorry to part with the Highlands. We
left in high feather, knowing every family well in the Strath, some of them intimately
and altogether have, I really think, left a very good name for Cambridge. Our ball went
off superbly. I wrote a description of it to Emma who has possibly forwarded it on to

' Afterwards Ju.stice of Appeal; Joseph Kay was the "Travelling Bachelor" who
wrote on education and challenged Whewell. He was later a Q.C.

p. <i. 22

170 Life aiul Letters of Francis Gallon

you. We went to the Queen's reception at Taymouth'. Major and Mrs Menzies took
me with tlieni in their carriage. The Highlanders looked very well, drawn up in files
round a large quadrangle in 4 bodies dressed in the Campbell and Menzies dress and
hunting tartans respectively. The Queen and Prince Albert looked most gracious, but
were not cheered half enough. I am sure we Cantabs did all we could, but everybody
else did nothing but gape with astonishment. The evening illuminations were most

perfect, everything in such perfect taste I saw Mr Dalrymple in a splendid highland

dress among the lookers on; he did not recognise me and as I scarcely knew him, I did
not address him. We "hung out" fireworks the other night and had several persons to
come and see them; they went oflF very well. We subscribed 10 shillings each and got
about 30 rockets, a dozen and a half Roman candles, many wheels, etc., etc.

I will write to j-ou again from Inch Dairnie (where Aytoun of Trinity lives), he has
written to ask me to stay as long as I possibly can, and I am thinking of spending a few
days there; it is near Kirkcaldy to which place there arc steamers every 2 hours from
Edinburgh. Goodbye, Your affectionate son,

Francis Galton.

For those who have carefully read these Aberfeldy letters, there
will I think be little doubt that Galton was nearing a breakdown ;
the uncontrollable joyousness of the Keswick correspondence has gone ;
there is little about work or long expeditions, there is a sub-tone
indeed of depression. This finds its full utterance in the first letter
that has been preserved from Galton's third Cambridge year. It
seems to me as powerful an indictment of the competitive examina-
tion system as Galton's earlier attack on a classical school education.
Before studying these Cambridge letters, I had imagined Galton's
breakdown to be individual and due to his own constitution, but these
letters dii-ectly show it to be the outcome of a pernicious examination
system (superposed on great social and mental activities), which ruined
the College career of men who distinguished themselves in later life,
and whose University work ought to have been not only a delight
to them, but of I'eal service as a training for the future.

Trin. Coll., Nov. 2, 1842.
My dear Father,

I forgot in my last note to go into proper raptures about Stultz; he really is
a wonderful man. I had no idea that it was in human power to make such extraordinary
improvements in my personal attire as the combined geniuses of Stultz and Gobby have
efiected. Consultations of course had to be frequent during the course of the Friday and
Saturday that I was in Town, but 1 at length emerged from my chrysalis crust of
Cartwright and James' manufacture to the butterfly adornments of Messrs Stultz.

My head is very uncertain so that I can scarcely read at all ; however I find that
I am not at all solitary in that respect. Of the year above me the Jirst 3 men in their
College examinations are all going out in the poll, the first 2 from bad health and the

' The seat of Lord Breadalbane.

Lehrjalire and Wanderjalire

171

third, Boulton, from tiiiding that lie could not continue reading as he used to do without
risking it. Fowell Buxton is quite knocked up and goes out in the poll, so does Bristed
one of the first classics in our year, in fact the whole of Ti'inity is crank. Two other
men Hotham and Edwards who read with Hopkins and at the same time were very
superior classics (Hotham was Newcastle scholar at Eton, which is the highest classical
honour they can get there) have both given up classics finding their two subjects are too
much for them. It is quite melancholy too to see the men who stood high in the College,
but did not get scholarships this year in May; they seem most of them quite broken
spirited. Our man Stokes who was considered sure of being Senior Classic of his year,
who used to be the merriest fellow going, lost his scholarship from not doing his Mathe-
matics, he scarcely ever perpetrates a laugh and so also with the other men. Johnson also
(Adele knows Mrs Johnson) is quite cut up. Joe Kay has left from illness produced by
reading and won't come back till ne.xt term. I feel more convinced every day that if
there is a thing more to be repressed than another it is certainly the system of com-
petition for the satisfaction enjoyed by the gainers is very far from counterbalancing the
pain it produces among the others'.

I have not after all entered a boat club but patronise hockey and made my first
debut yesterday at it. Montague Boidton is a very nice fellow and uncommonly sharp,
I do not know what his chance is considered to be in Honours. Charley Buxton's and
my debating club gets on famously. We have just enrolled Hallam- (the youngest and

' To go out in the Poll was according to Bristed i^Five Years in an English
University (1840 — 5), 3rd ed. p. 216) the cour.se which many a man took at that date
out of pride when from early idleness, ill health or other cause his degree would not be
equal to what he thought his abilities deserved. Of the men mentioned Hotham must have
finally taken a poll degree, but he was elected to a Trinity fellowship in 184.5; Edwards
was a very low wrangler; Stokes did not graduate at all or took a poll; Charles Astor
Bristed was an American, he is referred to in the Memories, p. 77, and was a great friend
of Henry Hallam. He gave an obituary notice of Hallam in the New York Literary
World, which is cited by Maine and Lushington and carries us back into the circle of
the "Historical." — "He was the neatest extempore speaker I ever heard; his unprepared
remarks were more precisely and elegantly worded than most men's elaborate written
compositions. He had too a foresight and power of anticipation unconnnon in such a
youth, which enabled him to leave no salient points of attack and made his arguments
very difficult to answer. He was always most liberal in his concessions to the other side
and never committed the fault of claiming too much or proving too much. His was not
a passionate oratory that carried his hearers away in a whirlwind, but a winning voice
that stole away their hearts, the ars celare artem, the perfection of persuasiveness." — These
lines are a striking testimonial to the powers of Hallam, but also indicate the nature of
Galton's personal circle. Bristed was next but one to " wooden spoon " in the mathematical
and second in the second class of the Classical Tripos in 1845. I have already referred
to Fowell Buxton and the Kays.

' This is the "Historical Society," and we may fairly assume it was founded by
Galton and Buxton. In the Memoir of Henry Fitzmauriee Hallam by Henry Sumner
Maine and Franklin Lushington, which is published in the Remains in Verse and Prose
of Arthur Henry Hallam (new ed. 1862, p. lii), it is said of Henry Hallam: "In the
first year of his College-life he became the virtual founder of the 'Historical' debating

22 — 2

172 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

only surviving sou of "Middle Ages") among our members and spout away most learnedly
once a week on subjects in the ethical line. There are 9 of us altogether and I shall be
president next week and shall array myself in Stultz for the occasion. We keep it very
secret and meet in each others' rooms in rotation under the pretext of a wine party; then
the man who gives the spread is president and at \ before 5 sports his door and the debate
begins. The president of one meeting has to propose a subject and open the debate on
it in the meeting a week after. Mr Hodgson sent me my certificate for degrading the
day before yesterday. I will let you know how the proceedings about it progress in my
next letter. I have invested in such a jolly second-hand arm chair. I really believe it
is the most comfortable in Cambridge, it cost £'i. 10s.; the seat is only 10 inches from

the ground so it is thoroughly luxurious. [Sketch of said chair.] How is Capt. B ,

wedded or single? By the way one can imagine the following scene :

Scene. Interior of a church, marriage procession, bridesmaid.s, etc., rather an elderly
bride and bridegroom.

Priest. Wilt thou have this man to be thy wedded husband?

Bride. Not a doubt about it.

How are the various family ailments? Does Mater find bannocks lie very lightly on
the stomach? Thank you for taking care of the papers; there were some books also that
I left, Guizot's Civilisation, etc., and there are some at Claverdon. Now if Mater had
such a redundancy of preserves and jams from the garden that she was really obliged to
manage with them as she used to with the cats of old, viz. give sixpence to whomsoever
would take them, then the strength of my filial affection would rejoice at the opportunity
of being useful and of taking 2 or 3 pots out of her way. And should all this be the
case it would be worth while to put them with the books in a box and send them at once
to Cambridge, where they would be severally eaten and read.

I am learning singing after the Hullah fashion, but alas notwithstanding maternal
prophesies I find the Galton ear is as slightly developed inside my skull as it is largely
on the outside, and although I keep up the credit of the family failing, yet I am afraid
I shall not at the same time qualify for the professorship of music.

I read with no tutor at all at pi'esent, as I question the advantages of doing so, but
shall attend the University lectures on mechanics by Willis, which begin on the 10th.

Theodore is reading hard for his degree which comes off in about 10 weeks.
Goodbye and believe me, Your affectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

The next letter does not tell us whether Galton has given up the

idea of degrading, but it shows that there was little hope of any

immediate improvement in his health.

[circa November 28, 1842.]
My dear Father,

Thank you much for your and Bessy's letter which last I received yesterday.
I am quite ashamed at not having written oftener but my head generally is not as well

club, established to encourage a more philosophical habit in style, argument, and choice
of subjects, than was in vogue in the somewhat promiscuous theatre of the Union."
Galton's letter of Nov. 2 and that of Feb. 1 7 of the following year seem to indicate that
Hallam, although possibly an early member, was not the virtual founder of the "Historical."

Lehrjahre and Wauderjahre 173

as might be at the orthodox letter writing time, namely about 7 a.m. I lijid myself quite
unable to do anything in reading for by really deep attention to Maths. I can bring on
my u.sual dizziness etc. almost immediately though generally I feel much better than I
used t« do. Palpitations of the heart have lately come on when I read more tlian I ought
to do which I am rather glad of than otherwise, as it saves my head. What annoys me
most is that my powers of reading vary so much on consecutive days, at one time being
able to read some hours, at another not half one, and the dizziness etc. when it does come
on, comes on so rapidly that I have no fore-warning symptom to tell me when to stop,
except occaisionally the palpitations. I have been rather diffuse a la Leamington about
my health so by way of change do thank Hiner particularly for the cake and tell her that
if the quickness of its disappearance be any sign of excellence that it decidedly must rank
among the very best that culinary science has produced. It was capital and at least 20
individuals concurred in that remark

The breakdown in Galton's health must have been so complete

that he determined to give up reading for mathematical honours

(not to degrade) and to enter for a poll degree only. He now spent

much of his time in literary and social pursuits, and towards the end of

his stay at Cambridge resumed there his medical studies. That he

was a popular man at Cambridge appears from the societies he founded

or assisted to found ; he was also active in various undergraduate

movements as the following letters will indicate.

Sunday [17 Feb. 1843].
My dear Father,

Thank you very much for all three of your letters, which were certainly very
amusing. All my time has lately been taken up by canvassing and afterwards by a most
unfortunate collision between two of my friends with one of whom I was much interested

and in some degree involved. P and C are the two men. The first you have

heai-d me mention before. The last is a son I believe of Sir Thos C and was a fellow

commoner. P is a man whose whole object was to make a very extended acquaint-
ance, in which he certainly succeeded, but at the same time was very unpopular from
being a pushing sort of man and often mixed in quarrels, and a very noisy arguer at the
Union. He was a great friend of Theodore's at one time, who afterwards was rather
offended at him. To proceed, on Monday night the candidates for the Union Officers
were proposed. P proposed one and C seconded'. In some private business

' Galton, Mr Harold Wright infonns me, was elected a member of the Library
Committee by 152 votes. Mr Wright has most kindly extracted from the minute-books
for me the references to Francis Galton; they show that he was a frequent speaker — thus
on March 15, 1842, he opened a debate on the negative side of the question: "Would the
method of voting by Ballot in returning members to Parliament be an improvement upon
the present system?" The negative was carried by 26 to 4. He was less fortunate on
April 12th when he opened a debate against Sir Robert Peel's financial proposals and the
voting in favour of them was 32 to 9. When on Dec. 7 of the previous year he had spoken
in favour of a repeal of the Corn l^aws, however, only 7 voted for repeal with 23 against.

1 74 Life ami Letters of Francis Galton

tliat followed P made a great disturbance — calling out, groaning, etc., etc. in which

he urjj'cd on 4 or 5 Magdalene men to support him. I on meeting him that evening
assuretl him that had I been president I should have fined or expelled him, but he seemed
to look upon the whole matter as a joke, and assured me that with 4 or 5 supporters he
would break the Union lamps and upset anything like order. The reason of his anger
was that a different man was elected President from tiie one he supported. The next day
he apologised for the disturbance he had made. When that very evening on Gibbs, the
new President taking the chair he was so shamefully uproarious that nothing could go on.
At one time I heard him cry out three groans for the President, which he and his men
gave. I then went to the President and requested him to censure or expel him for the
whole Union was in an uproar. The President shortly after seeing one of his supporters
X crying out fined him a sovereign. P rushed across the room crying out "in-
famous," and was neither fined nor expelled as he ought to have been. I then spoke to
some other members of the Historical about his immediate expulsion out of that society,
which they cordially agreed to, but we determined to talk it over next day, Wednesday.

On Wednesday morning I met P , who told me he was highly vexed at his conduct

the night before; when by all that is shameful that very night at a lecture which was
given in the Union and [at which] Mr Thorp the tutor of Trinity kindly took the chair

(he had been when an undergraduate a President), P was more uproarious than ever- — •

urging on several Magdalene men, who stood behind the furthest benches and kept up
continually stamping so that nothing could go on. Thorp threatened twice to leave the

chair and was going to do so, when C jumped up and rushed into the midst of them,

confronted P — — and told him that his conduct was disgraceful and blackguardly as it
had been the night before, he then turned round and said his observations applied to all

who had assisted in the row. When turned C felt a push on the shoulder of which

he took no heed, but turning again repeated his observations to P . He then spoke

to all the men who had left their seats (about 200) and were crowding round, and said is
it your wish these men should be turned out; they all cried Turn them out, turn them

out. Cries of Chair, Chair recalled the men to their places, and P and his associates

left the room. — I immediately drew up a requisition to P to leave the Historical',

which was signed by all who saw it about 17, and then began to take steps for expelling

him the Union ^ When going to C 's room I found him half -mad hearing that P- •

had spread a report that he had struck C in the Union, who was too cowardly to

return it. C then put a horsewhip in his pocket and went everywhere in search of

P , but could not find him. Late in the evening he returned to his rooms with his

two friends where he found P with X and Y of Magdalene, who said I have

heard that you have been looking for me all day, here I am. C said he wished to speak

with him by himself. On his demurring he gave his word that he need be under no

^ Galton has misplaced the foundation of the Historical in the Memories, p. 76. No
doubt the violent behaviour at the Union strengthened the Historical.

^ On Feb. 20 a motion to expel Mr P was brought forward at a special meeting,

and on its being carried a poll was demanded; this resulted, next day, in 246 for expul-
sion and 76 against. On the report stage another poll was demanded with the result of
236 for expulsion and 103 against, so that the motion was lost, a three-fourths majority
being apparently needful.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahrc

175

bodily fear. So they went down into the cloisters. On arriving there C asked him

if it was true that he had spread the above report. P replied that he had struck

him in the Union. C drew out his horsewhip and held it over him and said : Consider

yourself horsewhipped. P said: You have not struck me. C dropped the whip

on his shoulders. P drew out a life-preserver and struck C ferociously over the

temples which quite confused him ; he however closed in when X and Y actually

pinioned C and whilst C 's two friends were trying tf) tear them off, P de-
liberately hit C several times on the head. P trotted away and said I have

witnesses that you first struck me. He since owned that the whole affair was prearranged.

All C 's friends were of course almost mad. It was beneath his dignity to challenge

him '. To skip over all the different plans that were proposed and laid aside it has ended

in laying the matter before the College authorities who have rusticated P "sine die,"

which is the same as expelling him, for they take his name off the boards and they have

not allowed C to reside this term which is almost a nominal punishment as he is a

bachelor scholar, and in no way to be injured by such sentence. I need not add that
P is universally cut and I understand that he has threatened being revenged on me.

C was a good deal hurt. A large committee of whom I am one are always

together either at C 's or some others' rooms. He breakfasts with me tomorrow

before going down and the whole of Trinity will probably see him off. The motion for

P 's expulsion comes on tomorrow evening. Denman, son of Lord Denman, and

senior classic takes the chair. A printed statement will be published as soon as the
Magdalene men have been punished and I will send you one.

The tests for arsenic are very easily applied and quite cheaply, but the 4 pounds is
I believe the Chemist's fee. Your affectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

I fear the shortness of the above statement will not give j'ou a very clear notion of
the way matters .stand.

There are no further letters relating to this remarkable episode in
the life of the Union", but a few verses — apparently by Galton — among
his papers show that he saw the humorous as well as the serious side of
the matter. They run :

Horxeivhip and FAfp-prenerver.

P I'll face it out and 'stead of dawdling

Go and see my friends at Magdalene

' On the propo.sal to challenge: see the Memories, p. 75.

^ Among Mr Harold Wright's gleanings from the minutes we find a motion by
Galton "That the restriction by which the Library Committee are prevented from
purchasing novels be done away with" (October 29, 1843). The motion was lost. His
name also appears (March 28, 1843) at the end of a report of a committee appointed to
consider the question of the Union giving a ball. The Committee strongly opposed the
suggestion. Galton was proposed on Jan. 31, 1842, by Housman of St John's for the
office of President, but was defeated on a poll by Crawshay of Trinity. Some account of
this disturbance at the Union will be found in Bristed, loc. cif. p. 1G9.

1 76 Life and Letter's of Francis Galton

My friends I've told you once that really

I did hit C most severely

Who answered nothing when I whacked him,
But now some plucky friend has backed him,
And made him threaten me a flipping
Or a sanguinary whipping.

X and Y together

D — n it if he don't deserve a
Licking with a Life-preserver,
Up! and, when your coat is put on.
Buy the instrument at Mutton.

Versification was indeed very much in Galton's mind at this time

and on April 5, 1843, he writes to his father :

Trin. Coll.
My dear Father,

I am having the greatest fun imaginable in getting up an "English Epigram
Society ' " which is to meet 3 times a term, the members are to send in their epigrams
anonymously and they are to be read by some one chosen by lob. The subject is to be
chosen out of those proposed by a majority. I have got the first in the University among
the rising men to join it, two young Fellows of Trinity and bachelors, etc., so T expect that
some of the Epigrams will be first rate. The society consists of 12. All the men I have
spoken to have jumped at the idea, and I have great hopes of its working exceedingly well.
I think I shall be able to come down this week, when I would coach it to Hatton
and then walk on. I send you a poem, 1 have just sent it for the Camden medal and
fear it will not interest you much as it is all relative to the present great controversy as
to whether man has a conscience (innate I mean) or not. Paley and Locke and many
Greek philosophers as you know against it, Plato and Bishop Butler and some German
metaphysicians and Whewell on the other side. Stewart seems to be for it, but does not
give a decided opinion one way or the other. The mottoes I have chosen explain the
point of the whole; I take the paraphrase of the one from Plato to be: "They have ever
in their soul a specimen of the Divine nature, lasting and bright as silver or gold."
I was obliged to print it before sending it in. I leave it on the honor of the Family that
it be not shown to any besides themselves I mean my Father and Mother, Bessy, Adele,
Emma, nor in any way to be spoken of to others.

Your aflfectionate son, Fras. Galton.

The poem is of" deep interest — not as a poem, it gained no prize" —
but as evidence of Galton's faith and view of life at this period of his

' See Bristed, loc. cit. p. 214.

^ The prize was won by Galton's friend, W. Johnson of King's. As Mrs Browning
puts it:

Many fervent souls
Strike rhyme on rhyme, who would strike steel on steel
If steel had offered, in a restless heat
Of doing something.

Aurorn Lei(/h, 22nd ed. p. 34.

Lehrjahre ami Wanderjahre 177

career. He had not yet realised that the social virtues were the
products of a long evolution, he considered that mei'cy, justice and
truth were absolute ideals, and that a knowledge of what they consist
in was divinely planted in every human breast. The world for him
was a degenerate world :

" The heart of man is intellectualized,

" And the high souls of other days are gone."

Its salvation depended not on a forward progress, but on a return
to some earlier ill-defined state, where conscience had held more
complete sway, and Divine rule had been more fully recognised.

"Well may we loathe this world of sin, and strain

"As an imprisoned dove to flee away;

" Well may we bum to be as citizens

" Of some state, modelled after Plato's scheme,

"And overruled by Christianity,

" Where justice, love, and truth, and holiness

" Should be the moving principle of all,

" And God acknowledged as its prop and stay.

" I am no ingrate foster son to thee,

" Granta, revered mother, in thy lap

" Have good men grown to their maturity,

" Nourished and strengthened by thy wholesome lore,

"And thence have proudly walked before the world

" As statesmen, poets and philosophers.

" Still thou art but a corner of the earth,

" Wherein a penitent may weep and pray,

" While all abroad is rough disquietude."

There is no doubt that Galton was at this time in a depressed
frame of mind, and therefore too much stress must not be laid on such
opinions as those conveyed above or in the words :

" How foolish and how wicked seems the world,
" With all its energies bent to amass
" Wealth, fame or knowledge."

But the poem does form an index to his standpoint at that time,
and enables us the better to appreciate those fetters from which, he
tells us, Darwin's Origin of Species emancipated him (see p. 6). The
time was yet distant when he too would hold that to increase the
bounds of knowledge was, perhaps, the " most respectable task " a
man could set himself in life, or when he would settle down to
p. G. 23

178 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

ascertain how the social virtues arose from the evolution of the herd or

endeavour to inquire statistically into the efficacy of prayer.

The following letter must have been written shortly before the

Long Vacation, which Francis was planning to pass in Germany with

his sister Emma.

Trinity [Date ?].
My deak Fathek,

I do not think I can get any Weimar introduction from my London medical
friends though they may have some acquaintances in Jena. Jena is I find a stage from
Weimar. I am making all enquiries I can, and from all I can gather Weimar is decidedly
the place for us. The Historical Society flourishes. I speechified there the last meeting.
The Epigram Society appears most prosperous, we had its first meeting last night. A great
many were sent in, and 5 chosen out of them by ballot. Then we have subscribed for
a superb manuscrii)t book with AMOENITATES CANTABRIGIENSES on it, in
which such epigrams as are chosen are inserted. I have not time to write out for you
the five in question, but they were very fair. I ought to say that we take the word
epigram in its most general sense, that is any poem of any character on a given subject
with or without point. The subject was Via trita, via tula (the worn way is the safe way)
the Duke of Norfolk's motto. The verses I sent in, they were one of the five, were :

" A plucky lad was he,
" Who fastened quills together,
" And tried to cross the sea,
" In spite of wind and weather.
" Though better to have wept
" In silence Minos' ire,
" Facts only prove he leai)t,
" From frying pan to fire.
" Shareholders save your load,
" Save money, save material,
" So keep the turnpike road
" And sell your steam aerial."

Your affectionate son, Fkas. Galton.

The last letter from Cambridge this term is undated but it must

have been written in the first few days of June :

Wednesday Evening [Date 1].
My dear Father,

Thank you very much for your kind present to me which will be very accept-
able as I do not doubt but that my journey will be somewhat expensive. I will be with
you on Monday Evening, as I propose to leave Cambridge for Claverdon by the Eagle
on that day. Then I was thinking of staying with you there until Wednesday or
Thursday and then joining Emma in London and starting off with her on Monday.

I cannot write a longer letter now as we are being plagued with an Examination,
in which, however, I am not trying to do much, as I am quite indifferent as to my place

Lehrjalire and Wanderjahre 179

in the Classes and only want to avoid being posted which is a bore because the name is
published in the newspapers as such and relations are generally ignorant of the nature
and character of these examinations. I have prepared literally nothing but trusted to
the light of nature which has been very useful so far, and I think I have already avoided
a post '. If it had not been so, I should only have had to cram for any one of the later
papers over night and that would have done perfectly.

Henslow the botanical lecturer has been very good-natured to me about Saxe
Weimar; he says he would have given me introductions, but he has never himself been
abroad, but he advises me to ask at once if there be any resident botanist, to go to him
and to state my case, and to ask him what are the valuable flowers in the neighbourhood,
etc. He says there is a kind of freemasonry among naturalists, that it is very little
trouble for a professor to open his herbarium and to shew a few leaves of it, and it may
be of great service and therefore they never hesitate a moment about doing so. I shall
certainly follow his advice.

Goodbye, my dear Father and with many thanks for your kind letter, I remain

Your affectionate son, Fras. Galton.

The next letter finds Galton in London (June 10, 1843) preparing
to go to Dresden with his sister. He has seen " the farce of Fortunio
at Drury Lane, which is certainly most absurd and contains more puns
than it has hitherto fallen to my lot to listen to even from your-
self [S. T. G.]." There are a few days of seeing friends — Partridge,
Kays, Horners, and relations Hubert Galtons, Charles Barclays,
Gurneys — and a new acquaintance, Denham Cookes, is made. " He has
the funniest head I ever saw, is exceedingly agreeable, and at his
ease ; nobody except his lawyer knows where he lives, under cover
to whom all communications are addressed. His hair is yellowish red ;
his face something like this [sketch of a face with bizygomatic much
greater than minimum temporal breadth]. He told us a great deal."
Then brother and sister are oW via Hamburg to Dresden. Li Dresden
they appeared to have stayed till August 16, but only one joint letter
of Francis and Emma to " Father, Mother, Bessy and Delly " has
survived. Emma writes : " We enjoy ourselves much, it is most kind
of you allowing me this journey, I feel most obliged to you for it.
Francis has been busy with his Doctors lately. He asked Dr Todd
of London and his brother to tea ; Fras. makes a capital host, and
we hang out tea, bread and butter and cherries. We leave on Thurs-
day for Tetschen to stay till Saturday at Mr Noel's The Hallams

and ourselves are prodigious friends. They leave on Monday." Henry

' Galton got a fouith class in the May Examination, 1843.

23 -2

180 Life and Lettern of Fraticis Gait on

Hallani and his sister had also gone to Dresden. Francis himself
writes in something of his old light style on people and customs :

"We are in full preparation for leaving Dresden early the day after tomorrow. Wc
go by steamer to Tetschen to the house of Mr Noel, Mr Woodne.ss's friend; he called
upon me the other day whilst I was snoozing in bed at 9, and was \ery good-natured to
Pern and asked us to stay in his house on our way to Prague. Accordingly we go to
him on Thursday and stay until Saturday, which time he wrote to say would suit him.
Coombe, the phrenologist, is I believe staying at Tetschen; at least Mr Noel came to
Dresden to meet him and afterwards returned with him in the steamer home. Mrs Noel
is a Bohemian lady of very good l)irth and sister to Count Thun, who is a great man in
these parts. His face is plain, but tlie bumps on her liead are undeniably good, Mr Noel
himself being an authority on that subject^ Emma suggested that Lecky who was
second in the late duel might be my old schoolfellow at Boulogne ; have you any means
of ascertaining whether such be the case? I do not remember him personally, though
I remember passing a Sunday at Colonel Lecky's. The Hallams go on Monday but we
have made arrangements foi- meeting them two or three times on otir way southwards
and then they will stay 10 days at Munich."

There exists only Emma Galton's diary, which tells us that

the party went to Prague (August 22), Carlsbad, Regensburg,

Munich (September 2), Augsburg, Constance, Hollenthal, Cologne,

Ostend and so to London (September 31). Miss Galton notes that

there was a fearful storm ; Francis Galton records that he was nearly

drowned off the Goodwin Sands, but I can find no details. Galton

was back in Cambridge on October 20 begging his father and Emma to

come down there for the visit of Queen Victoria. " Mrs Hoppet

is all anxiety to see you." Miss Galton's diary does not refer to the

visit so that probably it did not come off. The following letter

indicates that Tertius at least was not present.

Trin. Coll. [31 Oct. 1843].
My dear Father,

I have been talking with Dr Haviland about the lectures I have to attend.
He tells me that if I put a "spurt" on and go to 4 lectures a day, that I shall be able to
finish with Cambridge by the end of next term; he absolves me from liospital practice in
Cambridge and accordingly I shall be able to practice (if T like) next June 2 years.
I have without hesitation adopted liis plan. I must pass an examination by ejich of the
Professors separately and the examination takes place at the close of their lectures.
Whether I shall feel myself strong enough to go in for all four or any of them at the end
of the course I attend I do not know; if not I shall do so ne.xt year. I am working

' Mr Noel formed a fine collection of casts from living heads — taking those of
men noteworthy for either ability or crime. This collection has recently been presented
to the Galton Eugenics Laboratory by Lady Lovelace.

Plate Llll

Emma (ialtou and Julia Ilallam.

/J^

tTi

-^SES-5:;i==?=~~il

"Sister Kmma."
From Francis Galton's sketclil)()oli of tlie German tour in 184.3.

Plate LIV

/>K

Tl^ l_

r^. /^

/^<n^^u^ /t^u^^ iti:

Letter of Francis Galtou to 'J'ertius Galtou aiiuouiiciiig liis graduation.

Tlie last meeting of tlie Caseo-Tostic Club, 1843. Present: Stewart, (lark, Dalyell and Galton.
Last Days in Cambridge. Sketches found in letters.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjalire 181

ferociously at present. First for my degree and secondly on the 4 different subjects,
Anatomy, Practice of Medicine, Chemistry and Forensic Medicine. I did at one time
know these same subjects well enough, but they slip in an extraordinary degree out of
the mind. I am writing in the Union and waiting for some motions to come on that I
was pledged last term to open. I wrote you a note by this morning's post. My gown
was iiot among the number thrown down for the Queen to walk upon and caught up
before the maids of honor (bless their pretty feet) could do so, as I had no inclination to
assimilate my loyalty to that of the Aldermen of Southampton.

Goodbye, Your affectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

The postscript of this letter contains a long description with
sketches of " the jolliest dodge imaginable to supersede the old plan
of bolting the left door into which the right door locks " of any
two-door cupboard. The contrivance is one in which the shutting of
the right door automatically fastens the left.

In November Galton found that he woidd have to stay in Cam-
bridge till June to complete his medical work. He proposes to go
to St George's Hospital to complete his medical education. He con-
siders that London would be the best place after leaving Cambridge
and before the winter medical session begins he could learn Botany
and Materia Medica, together with some degree of hospital practice.
" If not, I could dissect in Paris, though, after all, minute anatomy is
really useless to a practitioner who does not opei'ate, and I think
I know quite enough of general anatomy." He thinks of taking rooms
in King's College as moi'e suited to a medical student than lodgings.
A letter without date of January 1844 contains on the first page a
sketch of a handsome young bachelor.

My deah Father,

Your affectionate son is B.A., the ceremony having taken place this morning
anfl I now wear a flowing gown with ribbons hung in front over either arm. I send
you a list. I am 44"' at which I highly pride myself, the Classics being below par
and Medicine etc. only allowed me a month to get my subjects up. I was third in
Mathematics but would have been first only for a misunderstanding in one question
which lost me fifteen marks. Tlie place however in the Poll signifies nothing.

I see Hopkins occasionally who often asks mc out; he has asked me to dinner

L tonight and again on Tuesdaj' night.
Thank you very much about the can-iage to the Stratford ball. It will be most
convenient and capitfil for me. Please U-\\ Emma that I fear my Schiller will not do
for her on account of the type, besides I think that I had rather keep it. Tell her I
was much obliged for her rememtering my offer of selling it.

182 Life atul Letters of Francis Galton

Apparently shortly before taking his degree Galton drew up a
petition concerning the badness of dinner "at Hall." The fate it met
with — if ever presented — I do not find recorded'.

Tu the Master and Seniors of Trinity College.

We being tlie whole of the undergraduate pensioners of Trinity College who are
now in residence, beg to call your attention to the very uncomfortable character of
the dinners at Hall. It had been intended last year that a memorial to this effect
should have been sent. But it was understood that the Steward of the College
expressed his wish that such a measure should not bo resorted to, as he was then
preparing a report in his official capacity, one which we hoped could not fail of meeting
with attention as the evil arose not from the smallness of the sum we pay for our
dinner, but from the mismanagement of it. On this account the memorial of last
year was not proceeded with, but the Steward's report having failed in producing any
improvement we take these means of calling your serious .attention to the subject as
strongly as is consistent with the respect we owe you. We complain of the dirtiness
of the waiters, the bad state of the cutlery, and the pewter dishes, which with the
character of the meat give the tables an appearance far from gentlemanly and very
inferior to that of most of the Cambridge smaller colleges and all of the Oxford ones.
And this appearance has created a very general feeling among visitors to the prejudice
of Trinity, which for the honour of our College we would gladly see removed. We
make no petition for unnecessary luxurj' at Hall, but only desire that our meal there
should not be inferior to wliat is usual in society at the present day and to which
therefore as gentlemen we feel ourselves entitled, and more especially so when it is
acknowledged that the sum we now pay for it could by management fully satisfy our
requirement.

Possibly a hunt in the Trinity minute books might provide the
reply of the Master and Seniors to this petition. Such a body has
generally a ready answer, as when at the beginning of the century
the undergraduates of another large Cambridge College petitioned for
dinner at 1 o'clock instead of 12, stating, for one reason, that it would
give an hour longer for the morning's work, and the Master and
Seniors replied that they thoroughly approved of their reason and
that to meet their views in future chapel would be at 6 a.m. instead of 7 !

' Bristed writes : " The tables of the Undergraduates, arranged according to their
respective years, are supplied with abundance of plain joints and vegetables, and beer
and ale ad libitum, besides which, soup, pastry, and cheese can be ' sized for,' that is,
brought in portions to individuals at an extra charge; so that on the whole a very
comfortable meal might be effected but for the crowd and confusion, in which respect
the hall dinner much resembles our steamboat mejils. The attendance also is very deficient
and of the roughest sort." Five Years in an English University (1840—5), 3rd ed.
p. 35.

Lehrjahre and Waiiderjahre 183

A whole series of epigrams and verses touch on the fun and frolic
of this last year of Galton's College career. The lirst, I quote, refers
to the Historical Debating Society founded by Galton and his friend
Charles Buxton.

On the cursed Gift of Oratory.
Within the Black Bear's ancient walls,
Sit the young Historicals.
Sambo Sutton once fought there,
Once a meeting met for prayer.
Once a Tory there did try
Election bribes successfully.
But now worthier than all
Sits the Sage Historical.

Look at him that now is pleading.

Gravely, earnestly.

His hands against his lips applied.

Swaying about from side to side.

Ever with uneven motion.

Like a barrel on the ocean.

The while some one idea he lays

Before the club in many ways.

Or, there was satire of some well-known member of the circle :

Nature when she built you Taffy,

Made a lion too.

For whom she found a soul so gruff

And one so meek for you.

She had in the live-coal

Far too many irons,

So the beast got Taffy's soul

And Taffy got the lion's.

Taffy's heart of steel
Knows not fear at all.
But the lion he must feel
Particularly small.

Towards the end of his Cambridge time Galton became for a
short while a teetotaller, and possibly the following lines commemo-
rate the episode :

Ode to Milk Punch.
When first I met thee warm and young
There shone such truth about thee,
Such fragrance o'er thy surface hung
I did not dare to doubt thee.

184 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

I sipt and next si bumpur tried,

My friends' prediction scorning,

Tiien reeled and told them all they lied.

But ah ! the following morning.

Then go, Deceiver go.

Those tongues whose lust could make them

Trust one so false, so low

Deserve salines to slake them.

Away, thy charms their bloom have shed.
Now failing to adorn thee.
While men who loved thee once have Hed
And teach the world to scorn thee.

Milk Punch, bland hypocrite be gone
And my worst wishes to ye
You ne'er do good to any one.
But screw the hands that brew ye.
Then go. Deceiver go,
etc. etc.

Some of these points are again illustrated in Galton's six months
as a bachelor at Cambridge. He returned there on Feb. 13, 1844,
and reports to his father that he is working hard at medicine and that
Dr Bond has offered him a clinical clerkship on the next vacancy.
He encloses the following Bulletin :

Case of Francis Galton.
Year. 1844. Trade. Cantab.

Month. Feb. Disease. Extreme appetite.

The patient states that he left Leamington by the coach on Feb. 3'''': the day
was cold and rainy. At Southran he purchased some captain's biscuits which he
continued eating till Northampton, at which place he invested in a pork pie. His
appetite continued extreme even more so than natural. Present state. Face flushed,
which he accounts for by a violent walk, appetite remarkable.

[March 6, 1844.]
My dear Father,

Will you tell Bessy that I received her letter just after I had put my last
into the post and thank her much ff)r it. I see young Barclay occasionally we have
breakfasted at each other's rooms and are good friends when we meet, but I have
now so little spare time at my disposal being the whole morning in attendance on
medical lectures etc., that I have been unable to go out nnich lately and consequently
have rarely met him. I get more and more fond of medicine every day. I am trying
some new ways of taking cases, or rather the outlines of cases by lines drawn under
each particular symptom and varying according to its severity, every day or every

Lelirjahre and Waiidcrjahre 185

second day as the case may be. In fact like the ordinary plan of statistical charts'.
It seems of great use for noting cases quickly, since you can do all you want by
the bedside of the patient and when going round with the physician which wf" be quite
out of the question in the ordinary way of proceeding, and then many cases are noted
which would otherwise be neglected.

Do you remember my mother and myself talking about the connection of gout
and asthma? T asked several medical men whether they had ever observed any and
they all said no, when curiously enough 3-esterday Dr Haviland stated in his lectures
that "from a wide observation he c'' not help thinking that gout and asthma had
certain connections which have not yet been investigated." I shall certiiinly look out
for cases that way, for it would be very curious if such apparently unlike diseases were
after all related. Dr Haviland spoke much of very strong coffee as often being of
very great service in asthma; — that or tea, which is much the same, for their active
principles are identical, I know you have found good only you don't take the former
strong enough.

Does my mother still adhere to her intention of accompanying me to Shrewsbury
next Easter, will you ask her to write about it? I shall have I hope nearly a fortnight
altogether, but must spend a week at home to talk over our future plans and Bob
Sawyer dodges, for getting into practice and so on, with you-'.

You will probably have heard from Emma, who found it out through the Hallams,
that I am a tea-totaller of about a month's standing. It suits with my constitution
gloriously — but warm advocate as I am of the cause, whatever you do, my dear Father,
don't lower yourself-, as wine is a most necessary medicine for you. I am very glad
I have taken the pledge. I told Delly my reasons, wh<5 will tell them you. It was not
done without a term's previous consideration.

Your affectionate son, F. G.

Tertius Gallon was slowly failing in health during these years
and very tender and playful ai-e the letters of his medical son. On
March 9, 1844, he writes:

Saturday morjiing.
My dear Father,

As I was not able myself to enter into learned consultation with Pritchard
and Dr Jephson I cannot altogether give up my privilege of " family doctor," and so
will write this letter full of prescriptions. But first I must truly congratulate you
on your convalescence which Delly tells nie is in capital progress; and as I presume

' The suggestion becomes clear when one has seen the elaborate statistical charts
of the grandfather — Samuel Galton — covering most complete records of his household
economy.

^ From about this date have survived two plans, one an elaborate ai'i-angenient
of the in.side of a doctor's carriage with sleeping things, escritoire, pots and pans of
all sorts ; the other a description of a physician's waiting room with a number of
devices to impress the patients with the scientific character of the consultant and some
humorous items as "folio works of various authois, too large to be abstracted."

P. o. 24

186 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

only wanting a little hospital patient discipline to make it perfect. Now my pre-
scriptions are :

1st. That the Hospital Patient do on no occasion feel his pulse.

2nd. That the H. P. do never look in the glass to see whether his eyes are red.

3r<l. That the ]f. P. do never examine his own health with a view to self-doctoring.

4th. That the H. P. do make improvements at Claverdon, and commit prisoners
at Leamington when so inclined, but that he never attend canal-meetings, nor put
himself to inconvenience or anxiety.

5th. That the H. P. do henceforth enjoy an "otium cum dignitate " and leave
hard work to younger heads for whom it is a duty.

And now my dear Father I have finished doctoring for the present, but shall go on
writing doctor's letters until I hear that you obey my rules, and that you treat your own
constitution with the respect it deserves for having brought you through asthma, hard
work at banking and anxieties of all sorts for so long. Indeed it is a highly meritorious
constitution and fairly deserves rest. — I hope to be with you in alwut a fortnight
but the exact time is not yet fixed, however I shall know before another three days,
when I will write. At present I still continue full work at medicine. I am reading
Hippocrates and Aretaeus in which we are examined for the M.B. degree. It is now
my lecture time, and so not to lose a post I send my letter unfinished but will write
again on Monday.

Your very affectionate Son,

Fr.\s. Galton.

During the Easter Vacation following Francis Galton went to
visit his uncle Dr Robert Darwin and there is a letter dated Shrews-
bury, Wednesday, and endorsed by Tertius Galton, April 10, 1844\

At 3 p.m. yesterday I arrived at my Uncle's gates ; the palms of my hands were
decidedly moist — the courage was oozing. The fly drove up to the door and I was
heartily welcomed by my cousin Susan. I made many apologies which were directly
stopped short as everything was made up and excused. And then I was taken into
the dining room to eat luncheon and then in came my uncle who welcomed me if
possible 5 times more heartily and who also stopped short all apologies, having, how-
ever, first shewn me the delinquent letter, which was wonderful free from all dates.
Not a word have I heard of my iniquities since then up to the present time. And
they have all been as goodnatured and as warm-hearted as possible. They wanted me
much to stay, but I thought I had better not, lest my uncle should feel the excite-
ment too much^, and also because they wanted me to ha\'e some amusements all day,
and Shrewsbury does not afford any, and so I fear they may be afraid that they are

' There is a letter from Violetta Galton to her son Francis from about March of
this year, saying how the health of both Tertius and herself has failed: "I dare not
make any positive engagement to take you to Shrewsbury, but if I cannot do so,
I propose, as soon as you come home, to write to my Brother and say how anxious I
am to introduce my youngest son to him."

^ Dr Darwin was then 78 years of age; he died four years later.

Lelirjahre mul Waiulerjahre 187

not as hospitable as they might be which is far fi'om the case, but still they might
think it. My uncle is very much better and stronger than I expected, and I have
enjoyed my visit extremely. Your affectionate son,

F. Galton.

At the beginning of May, Galton was back in Cambridge full
of his medical studies and pointing out the value of a Cambridge
degree for a medical man.

" Robert Frere who was ni}' senior at Partridge's, and who has indeed taken a
surgeon's degree has had this fact so much urged upon him by different London Doctors
that he intends coming to Cambridge as a freshman next term. So I was right after

all, notwithstanding Hodgson's forebodings, in wishing for a Cantab, education

Tell Delly that as soon as I came up, and through the medium of Tooke I served a writ
for total abstinence on Selwyn. He professes himself not quite decided as yet, though
undoubtedly in favour of the cause. Tooke introduced me to him the day after. The
Epigram Society flourishes in great vigour, we meet next time to write epitaphs on the
various dons now in authority. Selwyn I hear desires to join us. The Kays come up
next week to t<ake degrees in Freemasonry', and then they are to tell nie about any
lodgings near them they have found out for me in town." \^May 1, 1844.]

Only two more letters of the Cambridge period have been pre-
served— indeed we shall soon reach the end of our material of this
kind ; for with the death of Tertius there was no other member of
the family who preserved Francis' letters with the same tender care.
At the risk of wearying the reader, I give them both.

Mvuday ^fornhtf/ [May 6, 1844].
Mv DEAR Father,

Thank you very much for your two letters and I have just received Emma's
also with the account of .Miss E. I should think Mr T. was not a person of very
sanguine temperament. What is the correct thing for a lady to do under those
circumstances? I always thought that the bridegroom was made to breakfast with
the bridal party before the ceremony, and never lost sight of till after it was over, lest
lie might bolt. It .seems so odd to make an appointment to meet and be married at a
given hour at a church. Had Mr T. only been a di.sciple of my Father's, he would have
been shivering at least half an liour before his time waiting for the church-door to open,
and not he so grievously late. I am glad Mrs Onslow is getting better, did you say the
Imll went right through her? My old friend, Joe Kay, is in Cambridge and he tells me
of several lodgings about where T should like to be in London. I have not actually

' Francis Galton him.self was initiated on February 5, 1844, into Scientific Lodge
No. 105 of the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, held at the Red Lion Hotel,
Camljridge, and on March 12, 1845, he was registered on the books of the Grand Lodge,
London.

24—2

188 Life and Letters of Francis Gal ton

fixed upon the street but certainly should prefer one of those running out of Park Lane,
for then 1 shall be near St George's Hospital and the Park, and close by the Kays,
Campljells, C. Buxton and not far from Mr Hallam, and indeed some others. I fancy
that I shall get from Kay's description quite as gowl rooms as I shall want for

20 shillings a week We had such a glorious May day here. I determined to

improve upon my last year's one and together with two other men raised a shilling
or sixpenny subscription to £3. With this we got 80 buns, 240 oranges, 600 small
biscuit cakes and materials for 8 gallons of tea (to be made ready sugared etc. in cans) ;
then we got a maypole 9 feet above the ground [picture], with a great wreath on the
top and two flags one on either side fastened to sticks and held by boys. Then an arch
through which only 2 could pass at a time, receiving each of them a bun or 2 or three
biscuits and an orange (in transitu). Then we chose a Queen of the May, the prettiest
little girl I ever remember to have seen [portrait] and Mrs Hoppit took her in charge
and washed her and attired her in a royal diadem and then the undergraduates present,
about 60 shoved their way in to the maypole and took hands and spread out leaving a
large vacant ring, in the centre of which was the maypole and the Queen of the May.
She choose her partner and with five other girls and their partners danced the College
hornpipe. Then we let in a number of other smaller girls who took hands and danced
in a wide ring round them and the maypole, and after that another ring concentric that
danced the opposite way round, so all three were going at once. We had one of those
street hurdy-gurdy things for the music. So the plan of the proceedings was thus :
[Diagram of the dancing circles, the outermost sketched below in elevation consisting of
undergraduates in caps and gowns with stretched linked hands and outstretched legs —
outside these a crowd of undergniduate onlookei'.sj. There were more than 200 children
and the undergraduate arms were at full stretch. The maypole was put up in the college
green.

Middle. If a man wants to obtain a vegetable time piece at what hour should he
rise ]

Answer. He must get " up at eight o'clock " (mu.st get a potato clock).

Goodbye. Your affectionate son,

Fras. Galton.

P.S. I will always write on Mondays as on this and last week.

Trin. Coll. [May 13, 1844].

Tuesday (instead of Monday).
My dear Father,

Pray excuse this small sheet of paper, for I have so much of it on hand that
I can find no way for its disposal. A number of my old college friends have come up
during the past week, and most of them gone down again. Mathew Boulton just
appeared for two days and a night to take his degree. He asked me much to come to
Tew, and I have accepted his invite gladly for some far future time as I am afraid
that I shall have no time for holidays in London. Everybody is making up long
vacation parties and I liave had earnest entreaties to travel with different allies to
St Petersburg, to Madrid and I don't know where else, but after all it is satisfactory
to have something better to do than to join them. Powell Buxton has also been here.

Lehrjahre and Waiulerjalire 189

he is working at the brewery in London but unfortunately keeps a long way off from
where I shall. The 2 Kays came up, one to be made a Freemason, the other to be
passed to the 2'"' degree and I was raised to the third on the same night. Frederick
Bristowe has been in Cambridge the last week to see his brother, who takes his degree
next year. At the Epigram meeting last time we had the most amusing collection that
as yet we liave been favoured with. One short one was on Griffin, a Johnian Senior
Wranglei', who has written the most stale, abstract and uninteresting books oti optics it
is possible to conceive and quite spoilt the beauty of the science. I ought to say the
subject given was " An Epitaph." It was :

"Who'll weep for Griffin?
" Not I said the eye,
"He has made me so dry,
"I cannot weep for Griffin'."

Bessy wrote to me the other day, it was principally on good advice.

The Kays tell me that they are going to build a splendid street in London longer
than any at present existing and closed at either end with large metal doors and
archways ; it is to be by Kensington Gardens. Westmacott has nearly finished his
bas-reliefs for the basement of the new Royal Exchange ; they are said to be splendidly
executed. I do not know how the figures are grouped, but they form an allegory
relating to Commerce, and the figures are in motlern not ancient dress and I believe
not unlike those on the old penny postage envelope. The British and Foreign Institute
is going to build extensively ; there are now 1 2.50 members, the prices for dining ai-e the
same as those of the Athenaeum, which are high. A very fair library has suddenly
sprung up by all the principal publishers giving very handsome presents of books to
Buckingham as a return for hLs exertions in that pai-t of the copyright bill by which the
number of copies of each publication that must be sent to different libraries has been
diminished, and these lx)oks he has made over to the Institute. Are Lucy's kinchins
still with you? Give my love to them, if they are and also to Lucy. Your very
affectionate son,

Francis Galton.

How is my mother's health? and do j'ou still teach Adele's school-children? Your
chess-lKjard is invaluable; we lie lazily on the biinks of the river in the sun playing
chess after hall, which is luxurious to a degree. I didn't read the speech of Sir Robert
you mentioned but should have been very glail to hav(^ iu'en able to have cheered
him for the pa.s.sage in question.

' N. W. Griffin: A Treatise on Optics, Cambridge, 1842. The last information as
to the Epigram Club I can find is in a letter of Nov. 10, 1844, received by Francis
Galton on Dec. 16th. It is from Charles Evans who hopes Galton has not lost all
interest in his old protegee, which is flourishing satisfactoril}'. The subjects for the
next meeting were "Much cry and little wool," "F'ools enter in where angels fear to
tread" together with the "current epitaphs." Evans states that they mi.ss Galton very
much in the colony, for though his old rooms are occupied by a man known to both of
them, he being a fellow-commoner and rather antique did not associate much with them.
In the postscript comes the query, " Is the pledge still inviolate ? "

190 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

The following dateless letter is wi-itten soon aftei- Galton had
settled in London a^ain :

Monday.

Mv DEAR Father,

I am afraid that I have two inianKwerctl hitters on tlie score against nie, and
thank you mucli for the letter of introduction to Mr Walker contained in the last.
I will tell you the result after I have taken it. I meet with numbers of my Cambridge
friends so that I am prettj' sure of a call every day and this with working till about 4 at
medicine, and again before going to bed makes my existence about us jolly and as cozj'
as I ever expect to aspire to. Mr Hallam gave me a ticket for the private view of the
fresco-paintings now in Westminster Hall (on Saturday). They are said to be decidedly
inferior to what was expected, and nearly half of them were rejected as unworthy of
exhibition. The two best (and I had come to the same conclusion without hearing it
before) .are considered to be "Rachel and Jacob" b}' Cope and a .study by Armitage, a
female figure looking something like; Britannia'. Armitage and Cope were two of the
three that got £300 prizes for their cartoons last year.

Dr Todd is very good natured to me. He has invited me to spend next Sunday
with him at a country cottage of his near Streatham Common.

I enclose you two scrawls on one piece of paper intended respectively to represent
different views of my room. Tell Bessy that since she was in it, my landlord has allowed
me a glorious damask green little bit of a sofa which fits as snugly as possible into the
room. [Picture of a most uncomfortable-looking, philistine piece of furniture.]

Sir Arthur Brooke said he would take me to see Alexis the mesmeriser about whom
so much has been written in the l^imes. Chronicle and Herald by and in reply to Colonel
Gurwood. I thought I had better go as he is said to be Ijy far the most successful
clairvoyant; he won't exhibit publicly and this time Mr Ramsay Clarke had him in his
room. It was entirely a failure, he certainly played at cards with his eyes blindfolded
but that is not conclusive ; but in not one instance could he read words written aside,
and put into boxes, which he professed to be able to do.

Will you be so kind as to let me know on what days Warwick Castle is visible as
Mr Hallam spends a day next week over Warwick, Coventry and Kenilworth, not
Leamington. If you have any thin guide book to those places which might be sent
easily by post I should be much obliged if you would send it to me, as I want to do
everything obliging for the " Antik Vogel." Emma will explain.

Your affectionate son, F. G.

[P.S.] Dear Emma, She is sweeter than ever. F. G.

We know that Francis was in Cambridge on May 13, probably
June, July and August were the extent of his stay in London and the
limit of his medical studies at St George's. His address seems to have

' It may comfort some of my readers to know that Francis Galton thrice wrote this
name and crossed it out, before he reached the above spelling.

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 191

been 16 King's Street, Covent Giirdeu'. Francis Galton liad many
friends about him in London; the friendship with the Hallams had
strengthened since the German visit. Emma Galton was staying with
the Gurneys in St James Square in February, and had visited the
British Museum with Mr and Miss Hallam, meeting there Miss Edge-
worth, Samuel Rogers and Macintosh, and in July of 1845, she was
staying at Nailsea with the Hallams. Tertius and Violetta Galton
were in London in February and calling on the Hallams. But the
friendship of Francis Galton and Henry Hallam seems to have ripened
most in the latter part of 1844 and in 1846, from which years several
very affectionate letters from Hallam to Galton have survived, to which
some reference will be made in the following chapter.

Very tender are the letters from Tertius to his son Francis during
the last nine months of his life. He was clearly very anxious that
Francis should concentrate himself on medicine and should follow a
definite profession in life. Nor does he fail to remind him of family
claims.

" I hope you will go to Shrewsbury at Easter as you ought to see
Uncle Bob before he dies " — is the prompting that comes from home
before the Easter visit (see p. 186), which had doubtless been several
times postponed.

On Feb. 4th, 1844, Tertius writes:

"As Bessy has no doubt given you much sahitary advice as to exclusive attention
to medicine, I forbear repeating to you all that Horner said to me on the importance of
it to success in London practice as founded upon his own observation and the remarks
of many leading medical men of his acquaintance."

And again on Mai'ch 'Jth :

" I am extremely glad that you take so fondly to your profession upon e\ery account,
as an occupation useful to yourself and to others, and as a source of pecuniary inde-
pendence, which, after all, it is among the number of our duties to promote I

admire your courage in taking the pledge, and your motives for it, and am glad that the
plan agrees with you. Adele tells me that in your case unlike that of the gin-drinking
lady, resolution was rewarded beforehand."

Emma Galton, writing on March 4 of the failing health of her
father, Tertius, says, " My father has said over and over again ' Give

' A letter from Tertius Galton to Francis, dated June 30, 1844, and enclosing the
last Cambridge College bill is thus addressed. Tertius speaks of himself as still weak
and restless.

192 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

my affectionate love to my dear Francis'.'" There can be little doubt
that Francis was iiis Benjamin, and when on September 9 Tertius goes
to St Leonards in the hope that a change of air may effect some good,
Francis was chosen as his companion and niirse. The picture of father
and son together in the last few weeks of the former's life has been
preserved for us in the letters of Tertius to his home circle. They
went by way of Tunbridge Wells, whence Tertius writes to his
daughter Emma of a drive round the rocks with Francis. From St
Leonards we hear :

Francis has sketched a little. He is an excellent travelling Physician and does not
buckle on the muzzle too tightly as he used to do. You know my detestation of being
valetted, so when John comes in the morning for orders, I tell him to make himself
scarce ; he employs much of his time in fossil-hunting and for ought I know the rest of
it in taking private lessons in the Polka to qualify him for dancing with Buswell and the
rest of the maids on his return.

I have not heard from Claverdon or of Mrs Cameron. 1 hope tomorrow's post will

bring me a letter. I am getting wonderfully stronger and can climb hills a la chamois.

If it were not for the dread of Hodgson blowing me up, I should plunge into the sea —

but Prudence and gout dictate that I should remain altogether a tcnrestrial animal.

Francis sends his love.

Your affectionate Father,

S. Tektius Galton.

Give my kind regards to Mr and Mrs Gurney [Emma was at St James Square]

We are just returned from the aforesaid Meliboeus [Fairlight Glen trip], but could not

quite distinguish Louis Philippe on the other side of the Channel.

A few days later Tertius writes cheerfully again :

" The sea air has done wonders with me and tells every day — so do not be surprised
if you see my name in the papers as having gained a prize at a cricket match. Francis
and myself have an occasional game at chess, but have not yet put the pack of cards into
requisition."

These last weeks of affectionate intercour.se remained a life-long
memory to the son. When 65 years later he received the Copley
Medal of the Royal Society, his first thought was how the news would
have delighted his father. It seemed a justification for deserting a
profession his father had chosen for him.

From the date of these letters onwards Tertius' health failed
rapidly. On September 30 Emma Galton joined her father and

' Emma Galton writes again : " It would please him very much, if in a day or two
...you would write him an affectionate letter... a letter from you is as good as a dozen
draughts."

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 193

brother. On October 9 the party moved to 57 Marina, where Mrs
Galton and her daughter Bessy joined them. A fortnight afterwards
(October 23) Tertius Galton died, and to Francis Galton fell the
melancholy task of accompanying his father's coffin to Claverdon,
where the funeral took place on October 31. Bessy, writing to her
aunt Hubert Galton soon after her father's death, says :

" Yet none but his children can know what a daily, what an hourly loss he is to
them. All our occupations and pleasures were so connected with him, that everything
now seems a blank and it will be a very long time before we shall cease to be constantly
reminded of him in everything we do."

Such losses leave always a deep impress on our feelings, and often
a still deeper impress on our careers, but as in the case of the death
of Samuel Galton the loss meant a shifting of i*esponsibilities and the
members of the younger generation stood free to follow their individual
bents. Some changes bearing on Francis Galton's future life must
here be noted. The home at No. 29 Lansdowne Place was given up ;
Mrs Galton went in the May of the following year to live at Claverdon.

On May 13 Adele Galton, " Sister Delly," was married to the Rev.
Robert Shirley Bunbury, only to be left a widow in the following year
with one child, Millicent, afterwards Mrs Lethbridge, Francis Galton's
much loved niece. On December 31, Elizabeth Galton, "Sister
Bessy," was married to Mr Edward Wheler, and on November 13, 1845,
Emma Galton started on extensive French, Italian and German travels
which lasted till June 5, 1846. She was again abroad from May to
November of 1847, thus illustrating the hereditary Galton Wander-
lust. The independence that had come to each member of the family
with the death of Tertius influenced not less the life of Francis. There
can be little doubt that had Tertius lived Francis would have followed
the strong desire of his father and would have had a profession in life'.
To those at that time viewing his actions, there must have been some
hesitation in judgment ; the next five or six years were to be spent
without definite object, apparently in the pursuit of rather idle pleasures,

' Bessy Galton writes emphasizing the gravity of her father's illness in 1844. "He
regrets not hearing from you so dri, dearest Francis, write immediately a nice steady letter
telling him what you are studying etc., and talk of your profession with pleasure, it
would do him more good than anything, and make a point of writing at least once a
fortnight." The home letters to Francis Galton show how keen Tertius Galton was that
his .son should follow a definite profession, and how anxious the family circle had become
about his roving tendencies — both in space and in mind.

p. G. 25

194 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

and those who loved the open-hearted joyous youth best must have
felt, if they did not give expression to the feeling, that the loss of his
father vras an irreparable loss, which had spoilt Galton's career.
Knowing what we now do of Galton's later work, we can see that this
period of freedom may not have been wholly without value. Yet we
may wonder whether had his medical education been completed and
the fi'eedom come later, Galton might not have entered on his life-work
with somewhat more knowledge and with even greater insight into its
scope and the possibilities of his mission to his fellow-men.

It would be difficult to sum up the balance of good and ill which
flowed to Galton from his Cambridge career. He went to Cambridge
keen to observe and measure, full of the creative, inventive, contriving
spirit. In these directions Cambridge gave him little or nothing. The
mathematical tripos was the only door to an honours degree, and he
never passed fully through the analysis, which should have led him
to the physical branches, where he would have profited most highly.
Even there he would have met theory alone — no observation and no
experiment. Hopkins and Cayley were not the teachers for a man
like Galton — such a man would have developed rapidly under a Franz
Neumann, a Helmholtz, or a Kelvin. As it was his thoughts turned
largely into other channels than the routine work of mathematical
honours. He became a centre of much social life, of literary ambitions
and of varied and somewhat scattered purposes. I do not think that
we can fairly say that the competitive work for the mathematical
tripos was the sole source of Francis Galton's breakdown at Cambridge.
It had largely to do with his mathematical studies, but it was the
impossible attempt to combine those studies with a very wide range
of other interests and occupations, which finally led to his academic
failure. The men with whom Galton associated, the Kays, Buxton,
Johnson, Hallam, and Maine were not men of one interest or a single
idea. Galton, as well as his friends, strived to cram too much into
the brief years of undergraduateship — hard work, hard play, late
hours and conviviality all told : — the renunciation of honours, the eager
retvirn to medical studies, the pledge in the last year of college life,
were not isolated factors, but symptoms of a growing restlessness, —
not one thing alone accounted for his breakdown. He tried too much
and he failed. Cambridge had not given him the training he needed,
it did not bring him in touch with the helpful older mind, that it

Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre

196

provided for his cousin Charles Darwin, but it stirred an already too
active mind intensely, and brought it into touch with many young,
keen and sympathetic spirits. The long period of fallow years which
followed Galton's Cambridge career, was partly due to a mind recovering
from overstrain, partly natural in a youth to whom pleasure was
possible, but who had not yet measured its insufficiency. We have so
little evidence bearing on Galton's mental evolution during the next six
years of his life, that we can but speculate on what those years did for
him, and what might have been, had school and college training been
individualised. The " Sturm- und Drang Periode " of our lives are
claimed by Alma Mater, and she ever afterwards is glorified in our
minds by their enchantments, but it is possible that the child gives
more than the mothei^ and that the more brilliant her children, the
less she regards their individual needs. Why should she make so
little attempt to chart the course, which would lead the adventurous
mind to those fragrant i.sles, whose enticing scents ever summon it,
luring but illusive, across a barren sea ? Why is the personal influence
of the older on the younger mind, the unwritten experience, which lies
so far above all regular tutelage, and which the sympathetic master-
mariner alone can give to the apprentice hand, so rare an item in the
debt her more famous children bear to Alma Mater ? Is it due to
the want of a thought-out system of education, to the want of the
right men, or to an inherent principle in human nature which asserts
that real ' education ' is only attained during the solitary cruise " by
chartless reef and channel " ?

^•^^^C

Visiting Card of Dr Efasmtis Darwin.

2.5—2

CHAPTER VI

FALLOW YEARS, 1844—1849

On October 23rd, 1844, Tertius Galton had died. Francis Galton
returned to town and took rooms at 105 Park Street in association
with W. F. Gibbs, who afterwards became tutor to Edward VII when
he was Prince of Wales, and with H. Vaughan Johnson, who had Uved
on the same staircase with Galton at Trinity, a man whom Galton
describes as singularly attractive and with quaint turns of thought.
But we have no letters of these years to guide us ; the letters to his
father of course ceased ; the letters to his mother and sisters have
perished, and even the letters of his sisters to him, which would have
given clues to what Galton was thinking and doing — letters which
Galton included in an index to his papers made late in life — have been
destroyed before his papei-s reached the hands of his biographer. We
have no evidence of what this young man of twenty-three, with ample
means and intensely vigorous mind and body, was either doing or
thinking, reading or observing. Yet we can be certain that in these
fallow years, when nothing was published, nothing even written that
has remained, there was much ferment and much change. Francis
ceased any longer to be "little Francis," the controlled of older brothers
and sisters. His desertion of medicine, a profession, hereditary on the
maternal side and ardently desired for him by his father, — his gradual
change from orthodoxy towards agnosticism, were probably disapproved
by his family ; his brothers and sisters were settling down to their own
individual lives and in more than one case their ideals were not his
ideals. As Galton himself expresses it : "I was therefore free, and
I eagerly desired a complete change ; besides I had many ' wild oats '
yet to sow'."

' Memories of my Life, p. 85.

Fallow Years, 1844—1849 197

Not a single letter is available, not a record of the winter 1844 — 5
in Park Lane ; but in the later part of 1845, the Red Gods' call reached
Galton, the spring-fret was on him' :

Velvet-footed, who shall guide them to their goal 1

Unto each the voice and vision : unto each his spoor and sign —
Lonely mountain in the Northland, misty sweat-bath 'neath the Line —

And to each a man that knows his naked soul !
Let him go — go — go mvay from here !

On the other side t/ie worlds he's overdue.
'Send your road is clear hefore you wJieu the old

apring-fret comes o'er you
And the Bed Gods call for you 1

The Red Gods called, but for Galton the road was not clear before
him, not for another five years did he know his soul ! Galton's visits
to Egypt and later to Syria were aimless, they were the restless visits of
the well-to-do young man, seeking travel-pleasure in the routine way,
without scientific object and without archaeological or linguistic know-
ledge. Yet there were epochs in them — as the meeting with Arnaud
and the death of the faithful Ali — which influenced Galton permanently.
Above all he gained two experiences — first that mere travel without
aim does not give the highest pleasure, and secondly that travelhng is
itself an art and needs training — training in what to take and what to
observe, training in how to meet and how to handle men. Think only
of the Galton, the boy of 23 years, who set off" to Khartoum without a
map and without purpose, and who in Syria wished to sail down the
Jordan on a raft based on inflated waterskins without thought of
current or season of the year — think of these things, and then of the
cautious preparation, the thought-out purpose of the African journey
of six years later by one who after six fallow years had become a man
in bearing and in power of achievement !

The young medical student of the Birmingham General Hospital
and the freshman at Cambridge impress us with the power of observa-
tion and the capacity for action. The last year at Cambridge, the
year in Egypt and Syria, the years to come of social life, hunting and
shooting, bring before us another aspect of a many-sided nature, which
had under the influence of the " spring-fret " to test many things before
it knew its " naked soul." As Galton himself has said, there were

' Rudyard Kipling : "The t'eet of the Young Men" in The Five Nations.

198 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

" many wild oats yet to sow." Yet in the sowing of them a trans-
formation took place from the pleasure-seeking boy of unformed
character controlled by any of many inherited tendencies, to the
purposeful man seeking to extend human knowledge and with a
character moulded firmly to opinions, which changed relatively little
during the remainder of life. How sad it seems that all power of
tracing the transformation of these fallow years has perished with
the letters from and to him of this period !

The account Francis Galton has provided in his Memories of the
travel in Egypt and Syria was written in 1908. It is more elaborated
than the few simple notes he put together in 1885, twenty-three years
earlier, of the same journeyings. In Chapter VI of the MeTnories
Galton gives no date to his departure for Egypt. In the account of
1885, he states that he "started for the East in September (I think)
1845." But there is in existence a playful letter from his friend
Henry Hallam, dated Wraxall Lodge, Thursday, October 3rd, without
year. The contents of this letter seem to indicate that Galton had
asked Hallam to accompany him to Egypt, and if this be so, Galton
did not start till somewhere near the anniversary of his father's death",
and thus we have lost the record of one whole year of his life. The
letter from Hallam runs :

My dear Galton, — I have been deliberating since I received your letter on the
desirability of joining you, and though finally overcome by the prospect of minor and
highly conventional difficulties relating to degrees and other matters equally con-
temptible, I envy you exceedingly. The pleasure of shooting at so large a mark as
a hippopotamus of respectable size is peculiarly attractive to the mind of the infant
sportsman, who like myself has been vainly endeavouring to rid creation of an orthodox
number of partridges during the last month. I trust, however, that the terror of my
arms is beginning to be spread in the neighbourhood, as I have been given to under-
stand that a number of highly respectable pheasants, the fathers of families whose
custom it has been for many years to insure their lives on the first of October have this
year been either totally refused or accepted only on the payment of such an extravagant
sum by their respective oflSces as must obviously have reference to the introduction of
some new element into the sporting world to which it would be indelicate in me to refer
more closely. Still, as I said, I gasp after the blood of Pachydermata, and under proper
encouragement would direct my artillery with great hope of success against any
inoffensive animal of large size, and easily vulnerable whom I might find sitting on
the banks of the Nile.

• It may be doubted whether the legal business of winding up an estate like that of
Tertius Galton could be completed much under a year.

Fallorv Years, 1844—1849 . 199

Duty, however, calls on me to be serious. It is incumbent on ine to point out the
. vast moral responsibilit}' you incur, to warn you of the irretrievable disgrace in which
all your friends will hold you, if when you are fairly committed to the pellucid streams
and bracing atmosphere of an Egyptian river you stop short of penetrating to the Court
of the Negus and reposing for awhile under the shadow of the Asj'lum of the Universe.
If you will follow my advice you will go right ahead till you reach the Mountains of the
Moon, then taking the first turning to the right continue your course until you find it
necessary to ask your way ; by which means you may immortalise yourself by the
discovery of the great Central Sea, and by which time I hope to be able to join you
there or anywhere else.

As you are anxious to have your dignity supported at foreign courts you may rely
on a handsome case of brickbats with " Robert Peel " or " By Her Majesty's command,"
" From the East India Company, private " etc., addressed to you at every large town,
postage of course not paid. Are you going before the end of next week ? On Friday
the 10th or Monday the 13th at latest I shall make my transit over the London disk,
and will attempt to find you, if possible. I am sorry you never came into this part of
the country as we should have been delighted by a visit. I am grown tremendously
agricultural, and intend to come out strongly on the Potato disease next term. Yours
most sincerely, H. T. Hallam.

One wonders how the Egyptian and Syrian journeys would
have worked out had Galton had Henry Hallam for his comrade. As
it was Galton started alone. In the following memorandum we see
how forty years later he described the events of those days :

EGYPT, SOUDAN AND SYRIA

1845—6

F. GALTON

written from memory 1885.

After ray Father's death, October 1844, finding I had a competent fortune and

hating the idea of practising medicine, also being disheartened by the sense that the

medical knowledge to which I had access was very lax and that its progress seemed

barred — I don't do justice I know to the state of the case, but only describe my feelings

fresh from the rigorous methods of proof at Cambridge — that I determined to give it

up. My passion was for movement and travel and I ultimately started for the East in

September (I think'), 1845. On going by diligence south from Paris, I found myself

with Denham Cookes as a companion. He was charming and full of anecdote and fun ;

we travelled together to Avignon, where we stayed some days and there I left him. He

was killed at a steeplechase in Florence soon after. Stopped at Malta where Temple

Frere was with his Uncle Hookham Frere-. On reaching Alexandria, (or was it

' From what has been said above this is probably incorrect and the middle or latter
half of October more likely.

' In his Memories, Galton regrets not having, owing to Frere's ill-health, been able
to talk to the man whose Loves of the Triangles had given the ''coup de grdee to the
turgid poetry that had Ixicome a temporary craze in my grandfather's time " (p. 85).

200 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

en route after Malta?) I met with Montagu Boulton and his travelling companion,
Hedworth Barclay, intending to go up the Nile ; they having just toured in Greece.
We went together to Cairo in barges, towed up the Nile by a tug — a most luxurious
and charming night. At Cairo we three agreed to make a party togetiier up the Nile.
Barclay had a courier, a Greek, Christo, who would act as cook. Boulton had a very
smart courier, Evard by name, who had been once groom of the chamber, he said, to
Lady Jersey. He would be butler and I undertook to engage a dragoman as my special
servant and he was Ali (Mohammed, — Sureyah = the little).

We spent one day boar shooting, got no boar but wounded one and when among
the tall reeds holding my gun vertically above my head, as the only chance of making
way, a litter of wild pigs ran through at my very feet. I was quite helpless, could
not get down my arms, but the sow did not pass me. We had to give a name to
our boat and register it with its flag, and Boulton suggested an Ibis with the motto
"Tutissimus," which we adopted. Barclay had a pointer for quail shooting. My
impressions of the Nile were those that so many have expressed. Especially the
pleasure of living all day barefoot and only half dressed, and of waking oneself by
a header into the river, clambering back by the rudder. We lived in style and state.
I think the awfulness of the Old Temples impressed me most at Carnac, going among
them alone by moonlight and the silence broken rarely by the jackal. The feeling
was so strong that it nearly made me faint away. A little above the first cataract,
when near Korosko, the stream being swift, we went as usual by virtue of Barclay's
firman to impress men to tug our boat, but found they had all been already impressed
by the owner of a small and dirty looking Egyptian boat, who they told us was a Bey.
We went to him and spoke impudently, like arrogant Britishers and discussed loudly
in English together whether we should not pitch him into the river. He shortly
astonished us by speaking perfect French and after a while discovered he was a much
more interesting person than we had dreamt of. He was Arnaud, a St Simoniaii
exile, in service of Mehemet Ali, who had lately returned from Sennaar where he had
been sent to look for gold. He invited us to his mud house, at which I was charmed.
Perfectly simple, clean, matted, with a barometer and thermometer hung up and other
scientific gear, books, (fee, like a native philosopher. He then, after we had become
friends, explained to us, that though he spoke English badly, he quite understood what
we had said among ourselves when we first met him and made me feel very small
indeed. However, we got on very well and made him talk of his travels and tell
us of the country ahead, we had then no map and knew nothing hardly. He said ;
" Why do you follow the English routine of just going to the 2nd cataract and returning?
Cross the desert and go to Khartoum." That sentence was a division of the ways in
my subsequent life. We caught at the idea, he discussed it and said that the chief
of the Korosko desert was then actually at the place with camels, that he knew him
and would send for him to us that afternoon or evening, when we might finally settle
matters. We asked Arnaud to dinner, received him in the grand style, Evard doing his
best, and gave our good friend and ourselves quite as much wine as was good for us.
When in the midst of the carouse the door of the cabin opened, the cool air came in,
and with the cool air, the dignified cold presence of the Sheikh, with the band of sand
on his forehead, the mark of his having just prostrated himself in prayer. He did look
disgusted, but we got over him and finally all was arranged. We wei'e to start the

Falloiv Years, 1844—1849 201

very next afternoon. We settled to leave the boat, her captain and crew under the
charge of Bob, our Arab pipe boy, as our representative, who rose easily to the position
and they had orders to take the boat to Wadi Haifa and await us there. This was in
inid January, we expected to return, as we did, early in March. We got off on camel
back in the afternoon and encamped 3 miles from Korosko and next morning started
fairly off. It ivas a desert, like the skeleton of the earth, with sand blown clean away
fi'om the bare stones, or lying here and there in drifts, table topped hills. Evard had
some .sort of eruptive fever and was frightfully depressed and lamenting, then Boulton
got it and bore bravely up. It was hard lines for them. The water 4 days from Korosko,
the only wells on the route, was brack and undrinkable ; that in our water skins was
horrible with the taste of leather. The waste of desert was terrible, and the way was
marked by bones of slaves and camels. Often a dead camel was desiccated ; it looked
fairly right but when touched broke and crumbled into dust, all the inside was blown
away, or eaten away by the ants leaving the skin and part of the bones. These
desiccated bodies were so light, that I once held up what appeared to be half a camel
when first seen and as it lay untouched. Our guide, a son or nephew of the Great
Sheikh, was a jovial gay fellow and we all became excellent friends. Others joined
our caravan ; a man, his wife, baby and donkey, just like Joseph's flight. Also another
man on foot, with no possessions but an old French cuirassier sword, wherewith he
was going to join slave raids in Abyssinia. In 8 days from Korosko, we reached
Abu Hamed— the sight of the Nile most refreshing, but we soon tired of the midges
and air, and were glad to travel on a little inland by camel to Berber. On the way
we stopped at the .5th cataract, where we waded with our guns across the river among
the many islands. At Berber the Pasha received us in state and gave us lemonade
from his own limes and it .seemed delightful. He also lodged us in a mud house and
gave us permission to hire a boat for Khartoum. The people were troublesome when
we tried to start, and seized the rope and wanted to detain us. Barclay behaved with
much pluck, cast off the rope and made the 2 or 3 men who were on board hoist
the sail. We got away and after a little, the rest of the crew ran along the bank and
swam to us, and we got off. It was quite a small one-masted boat, cabin 4 feet high,
cockroaches all about but we made shift well enough. I recollect little of the sail
to Khartoum, except the mud pyramids of Meroe by the way. At Kliartoum we got
(I suppose through the captain of our boat) a mud house facing the Blue Nile across
which the dust columns were seen in numbers dancing on the plain. We heard of the
existence of a wonderful Frank, possibly an Inglese; so we went to see. We knocked
and walked in and there was about the most magnificent physique of a man I have
ever seen, half-dressed in Arnaout costume, looking quite wild, and he turned out
to be Mansfield Parkyns recently arrived there after years in Abyssinia. He had
been at Trinity College as well as ourselves and having taken part in an awkward
row, found it best to leave, and had travelled ever since. He put us in the way of
all the "life" in Khartoum and introduced us to the greatest scoundrels I think, that
could be found anywhere in a room, men who were too rascally for the Levant or
even Cairo. They were slavedealers, outlaws and I know not what else. Full of
stories about how A had been poisoned by B, B having just left the room before the
story wa.s told kc. Parkyns with perfect sang-froid and with all his wits well about

P. o. 26

202 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

him, held his own unscathed in tills blaclfguard Bohemia, not a bit sullied by it and
much amused. We arranged with our Captain to take us all together a little way
up the Nile. We could not spare time for more than a very few days. So up we
went. The mournful character of the big, slow, marsh-like expanse of river was very
depressing. The air was heavj' and seemed to be pestiferous and I was heartily glad
to get away from it. The hippopotami were in great numbers, I blazed at 40 different
ones (at absurd distances though) in one day. Boulton went out one night with
Parkyns and shot a poor cow by mistake for one. There was no perceptible current
in the river, the offal and cook's messes that were thrown overboard each night when
the boat anchored, hung about her all night and were still there in the morning, so
that we had to send a man wading to a distance to fetch clean water. The river
lapped over the sloping banks like a flood over a meadow. There were vast flights
of flamingoes, ifec. and the aspect of the river was weird and strangely melancholy.
We turned back short of the Shilluk country, and returning to Khartoum, where we
dropped Parkyns, sailed on to Metemneh. There we engaged camels to cross the
Bayuda desert. It hardly ranks iis a desert as there are many watering places, we
only took 2 or 3 days rations of water with us and travelled 14 and even 16 hours
a day. I started equipped in native dress, just a white cloth wrapped round with ann
and shoulder bare. The effect was I got fearfully blistered by the sun, all my back and
arm was covered with minute blisters side by side. It was fearfully painful at night
for some days. We travelled late into the night and the tail of the great bear was
the index of our 24 hour clock. We met Prince Pukler Muskaw (? spelling) by the way.
I saw nothing of any wells, for we camped at night away from them and the camel
men fetched the water. The ground had not at all the utter desert look of the
Korosko. Rain falls there periodically
and there are plenty of shabby mimosa
trees. We were 6 days in getting to
Meraweh. There we stopped a few days
wondering at the white ants. Everything
had to be laid on "angarebi," frames with
strips of hide across, and on legs, otherwise the white ants got at them. I went up
Jebel Barkal bare-footed as a bravado, and the sharp edges of the schist like rocks
severely punished my feet. There I got the vase, with what I now know was the
representative of the God Bess upon it (given to the British Museum). From Meraweh
we went a short .3 days ride across the desert to New Dongola where the Pasha was
a much grander person than any hitherto seen. He had a review in our honor and
mounted us on thoroughbred ponies with their queer Arab seats with the cruel curbs.
We all made a great mess of our riding with so unusual a seat, and if we touched
the curb up went the plaguy ponies' heads, who were always at a gallop or a sudden
stop. The Pasha gave a monkey, to add to the two I had got at Berber and which
were my constant companions in travel sitting on the camel with me or if not, with
someone else. From Dongola we rode along the left bank of the Nile to Wadi Haifa,
passing that wonderful Semneh. The Nile was then low and ran in a sluice between
two low rocky banks that are under water at other times. It was so narrow that
we thought we might throw a stone across it and tried hard to do .so, but failed, some

Fallov) Years, 1844—1849 203

throws (not mine for I can't throw a bit) nearly succeeding. The river whenever we
looked down upon it during our journey seemed totally unnavigable, seething among
jutting rocks that were thickly set in its bed. At Wadi Haifa to our joy, we found
our boat all right and Bob lording it with undisputed sway. He had actually ordered
the Captain to be flogged for some offence, and the men obeyed Bob and flogged the
Captain accordingly. Such a difference between the Berbers and the Egyptians. You
can not strike a Berber but may flog as many Egyptians and beat them with sticks as
much as you like, they are thoroughly slavish.

The voyage back, though March, became unpleasant from the Khamsin wind. It
was uneventful except in the usual Nile experiences, at Cairo we hired a house in one of
the quarters of the town with a big wooden key and lived there a week, conforming of
course to the native ways of being in-doors by a specified and not late hour. Finally we
.separated — Barclay returned straight to England, Boulton by the short desert to Syria
and I not being particularly well, by steamer to Beyrout. The awakening in the early
morning when sailing along the shores of Syria and seeing the Holy Land for the first
time, is one of the living pictures in my memory. Here my memory fails me. I was
somehow in quarantine at Akka and made great friends with the Pasha there. — On the
other hand I fancy J went straight to Beyrout. Such a change from Egypt. The
people seemed so much less sedate and disagreeably go-ahead, and the verdure and hill
slopes were so great a novelty to the eye. I lived rather stylishly, bought 2 good horses
and a pony and jobbed a native groom, Ali remaining as my personal servant. Furnished
with introductions from my Akka friend, I stayed a night with the great Druse chief in
his stronghold, who feted me with distinction believing evidently that I was a much
greater personage than I was, which rendered the stay embarrassing. I went to
Damascus and boarded in the house of the English Doctor (Thompson) thence as the heat
was increasing I moved to Salahieh, when I took a house and set up an establishment
in which figured my two Soudan monkeys and a pet ichneumon. I lived a very oriental
life and became a fairly fluent talker in common Arabic, though nothing of a scholar ; in
fact, I am ashamed to say, I never read it or even deciphered it fluently. It was before
I went to Salahieh and while still in Dr Thompson's house that faithful Ali was seized
with dysentery. After an evening of parched skin and low delirium he died with my
money belt, that was under his charge still round his Ixxly. We had the washers in
and all the Moslem ceremonial duly attended to and I followed him to his grave, standing
of course far off so as not to pollute. It was a great and serious loss. I was sincerely
attached to him and condoned willingly heaps of small faults in regard to his great
merits. One cold night in the desert when he and I were both chilled through, he
pushed over me his rug. I did not know it till morning. I got many rides from
Salahieh and spent many pleasant afternoon hours in Arab caffees sitting by the flowing
waters. Colonel Churchill lived with much display near by, with his Syrian wife and
I had a pleasant stay there. Finally, when the summer heats had passed I went to
Lebanon and stayed a week with the Sheikh of Aden, a right good fellow. The first
morning I counted 97 flea bites on the right lower arm and up a little way above the
elbow. There were Druse rows going on while I was there and we had to stand a brief
attack, shots being fired and the house temporarily barricatled. Going thence to Tripoli
I saw the most beautiful view on which my eyes have ever rested. It was of the

26—2

204 Life awl Letters of Francis Gallon

Mediterranean through a gorge. At Tripoli I did a foolish thing, viz. slept in the low
marshy land and caught an ague that plagued me until I wholly lost it in 1851 in Africa.
Riding along the shore towards Beyrout I met Boulton — a joyou.s meeting. We crossed
and parted and I never saw him again. He went eastwards and finally being an
onlooker at the siege of Mooltan, with General Whish, took up a post of observation
through a loophole in a deserted turret and when there a matchlock ball passed through
his eye and brain. He was singularly gifted and amiable ; an epicurean in disposition,
that is to say a philosophical pleasure seeker and of sterling merit. At Beyrout I found
my gi'oom and horses had got into scrapes and I sold the latter. Being unwell with
ague I felt unable then to ride to Jerusalem, so I took a place in a common collier
sailing to Jaffa, making myself supremely comfortable with rugs &c., on a cleaned corner
of the deck. At Jaffa I found baggage camels and in defiance of usage rode one into
Jerusalem. The time when the Akka episode occurred and my stay in Mount Carmel

has quite escaped me. It was there that Mr 's baby died and I performed some

share in christening it just before its death. Also a Jesuit priest (as I believe) got hold
of me and took great pains to convert me. Also I had a scramble at night to find, as
I ultimately did, a wretched piece of humanity, a converted Jew, who had wandered
about the hill and contrived to get himself into grief and lost himself and was become
rather desperate when found. At Jerusalem I planned an expedition, common enough
now but then quite new, with one fatal exception of a year or two previous namely,
to follow the valley of the Jordan all the way from Tiberias to the Dead Sea. Until
Costagan's time (brother of Mrs Bradshaw of Leamington) from that of the Crusader,
I believe there was no record of a Christian having attempted the journey owing to the
wars of the tribes and the impossibility of getting safely from each to its neighbour.
But a time of peace had set in and I availed myself of it. The plan was to get water
skins at Jerusalem, take them on horseback to Tiberias inflate and make a raft of them
and on it to float down the Jordan. Starting from Jerusalem escorted with spearmen
and all mounted, including my native cook and I think one or two others, we ultimately

slept at overlooking the valley of tlie Jordan, half way along its course (there

was a row at night and some of the horses tails were cut off in derision by the attackers)
thence I descended to the valley and rode up to Tiberias. After a few days stay
I started back, rigged out my raft just below the bridge where the Jordan issues from
the lake, to the great amusement of the escort, who had orders to ride by the side, and
ofi" I floated, the stream was far too narrow and I got capsized twice. Then came a
more serious misadventure for the current swirled in a narrow channel under over-
hanging boughs nearly touching the water and I was knocked off and got into difficulties.
I soon saw that the raft project was not feasible at that season and took again to my
horse. It was really a picturesque group. I had to ride in Arab head dress with a
fillet and my men with their clump of long spears with ostrich feathers at the top looked
very well indeed. After a while we came to a great Arab encampment, that of the Emir
Ruabah whose sister, a relative of some kind of my own escorter, Sheikh Nair Abu
Nasheer (of Jericho or thereabouts) had married. He was civil but wary and punctilious,
and wherever I went I was watched. He had a quantit}' of old chain armour, beautiful
Saracenic coats of mail. It was a somewhat uneasy visit to me and I was glad to be off.
We finally got to Jericho and thence to Jerusalem, I making various plans with my Sheikh

Fallow Years, 1844—1849 205

for bringing a boat from Jaffa and with his permission navigating the Dead Sea, as
Costagan had done, but poor fellow he had died in the act. On returning to Jerusalem
I found letters urging me to return home principally on account of some trust business
for my sister Adele. I went, hardly thinking it was a final parting with Syria, but so it
was and the next year Lynch the American came, subsidized my Sheikh, surveyed the
Jordan and Dead Sea very thoroughly and published the results in a big and valuable
book, which by the way does not contain a word of allusion to myself, his predecessor.

Peancis Galton.

A perusal of this sketch of Galton's tours in Egypt and Syria will
indicate to the reader that the Wanderlust, however keen, had not yet
ripened into the desire for scientific travel. Galton was still touring
for the boyish fun of movement and of new scenes. He had not yet
thoughts of the language, habits or archaeology of the people he
mingled with. It was, as far as we can judge, still possible for him to
settle down as a sporting country gentleman after finishing the some-
what extended "grand tour" of the day. The significant incidents of
the Egyptian and Syrian tour, which seem most markedly to have
weighed with him in after life, were the meeting with Arnaud — of
which he wrote that his words were " a division of the ways in my
subsequent life" — the incident with the Sheikh on the same day", and
the death of the faithful AH. Galton reached England in November,
1846. One longs for the graphic letters of the earlier tours, or still
better for a sample of such as came later from Africa, but none have
survived. The following letter addressed to Beyrout shows that
Galton must have been in continuous correspondence with some of his

Cambridge friends :

Wilton Crkscent, June 24, 1846.

Mr DEAR Galton, — Your letter was such an enormous time reaching me that if this
be similarly long in arriving at its destination, I entertain serious doubts as to your
getting it, particularly as I have been lazy and have put off writing till the day before T
start for Ostend, amidst the infinite hurries of packing. I own I ought to have written
or brickbatted earlier but Kay positively told nie that it was useless as you never
acknowledged his, and that he did not know wliere to direct. Your letter is a great
work of art, worthy to be ranked with the most ingenious productions of modern times ;
of course I don't believe it, and am inclined to think you have been all the time in
105 Park St concealed, and examining the map of Africa. If I really could put my

' " The cabin reeked with the smells of the recent carouse, when the door opened and
there stood the tall Sheikh marked with sand on his forehead that indicated recent pros-
tration in prayer. The pure moonlight flooded the Bacchanalian cabin, and the clear
cool desert air jwured in. I felt swinish in the presence of his Moslem purity and
imposing mien." Memories, p. 88.

206 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

faith in what you tell me I should look upon you as the real Carlylese hero, the "coming
man " of whom Tooke used to talk at the Union, and I should prepare to fall down and
kiss your slippers, or perform any amount of ritual observance. As it is, T waver in
thinking you either destined to be the greatest man of your age, or as having been the
perpetrator of a gigantic hoax. So I give you conditional but unbounded admiration
and I express humble but ardent gratitude for tlie monkey, on tlie hypothesis I fear a
most improbable one, of the dear animal not turning out a monkey of the mind, a simious
Harris, a beautiful delusion, etc. If you have taken me in, it beats the famous Campbell
hoax, for proud in my confidence of your veracity, I have been ensnaring everyone at
dinner, breakfast, evening party, man, woman or child to commit themselves to an
opinion on the sources of the Nile, when I have been forthwith down upon them with
geographical facts, and have by means of them tyrannised over sundry meek and respect-
able members of scientific societies. Whenever there is a pause in conversation I never
fail to say in a calm manner " I had a letter from Abyssinia the other day, very hot
season at Dafour I believe," whereat the Horners, Murchisons, Sam Rogers etc. gape
with respectful mien.

I suppose you want to know what is going on here (always on the supposition that you
have not been daily to Silk Buckingham's Institute' to read the papers). In public matters,
great things, corn laws repealed, ministers expected to go out in a week ; in Cambridge
things very little ; Evans got the University Scholarship ; Lushington head of the Tripos,
of course ; your humble servant 9th, a tremendous shave off the second class ; however,
fortune favoured me and I got the 2nd medal. Since this I have been three weeks at Paris,
and a month reading at History. Tomorrow I start for the Rhine, Geneva, Venice and
Milan — family party — alarm about cholera which the papers say is coming westward
with great rapidity, and cases of death in London last week. If you have got Kay's
letter you will have heard that he published a volume costing 14s., nominally at the
desire of the University, whereat Whewell waxed greatly indignant and had him up
before the Senate^. Campbell has nearly given up P.E. and now talks nothing but
uncompromising Evangelicalism to the great annoyance of his friends. It is even
becoming a matter of doubt whether the chief end of education is to impede population.
But no doubt the perusal of the Poor Law articles in the " Times " will soon fan the
dormant flame. My Paris trip was eminently successful, I went with Lushington,
Mansfield and Bartwick, and for 3 weeks we ate the most glorious dinners in the world,
at 18 francs a head, went 14 nights running to the play, and polished oif some French
evening parties, whereof my opinion is that they are eminently trumpesque. I take it
for granted that you will come leisurely back through Italy, and therefore hope to catch
a glimpse of you at Venice or Milan, monkey and all. I am afraid the amiable animal
must be a source of considerable inconvenience to you when you return to civilisation.
I can fancy a few more comfortable positions than that of looking after an ape in a
railway train ! You had better pack him up in brown paper, cover him (I believe her,
I beg her pardon) with postage stamps and direct her to my gyp, or to Wilton Crescent,

' For James Silk Buckingham, see Diet. Nat. Biog.

^ Galton gives some account of Joseph Kay's book. The Education of the Poor in
England and Europe, 1846, written by the "Travelling Bachelor of the University of
Cambridge " and bearding Whewell, in his Memories, pp. 68-9.

Fallow Years, 1844—1849 207

where I trust every satisfaction will be afforded. I find of course on the eve of departure
that all one's German has vanished as usual, and I shall have to begin the old story
again with Ollendorf, satisfying a morbid anxiety as to the hunger of the good baker's
dog, etc. I shall expect lessons in Tigheree, and the scimitar exercise. Your giving up
mediculeizing is a great blow ; who is henceforth to tell me pleasant stories about lupus,
and purpuristic elephantiasis of the pia mater ; you had much better not become a
parson, but come with me to Maimachtin in 3 or 4 years.

Ever most sincerely yours, H. F. Hallam.

There is little doubt that Galton's view of life was indirectly
widened by his residence among and friendship with Mohammedans.
He had in later days a great respect and admiration for them ; during
his stay in Syria he conformed lai'gely to their way of life and possibly,
in a measure, to their i-eligion'. Experience of another great religious
faith, the devout followers of which compared in conduct at many
points favourably with his own co-religionists, led Galton to a wider
view of the origin and function of religion in general, and there is little
doubt that from this period he ceased to be an orthodox Christian in
the customary sense. Writing in 1869 (see Plate II), Galton says
that "the Origin of Species formed a real crisis in my life; your book
drove away the constraint of my old superstition, as if it had been
a nightmare, and was the first to give me freedom of thought."
I think this really means that Galton owed to Darwin a positive faith;
his negative attitude towards the old views had arisen thirteen or
fourteen years before the publication of The Origin, and had formed
to some extent a division between Francis and the more orthodox
members of his family. The first blow to orthodoxy came from the
expei'ience that more than one religion helped men efficiently in the
conduct of life, and brought the ideal into closer touch with the actual
as a controlling and purifying factor. Galton taught absolute toleration,
both in religious belief and in formal observance ; he was pi-epared for
family prayers, if they aided anybody in his household, and he would
have accepted a fetish, had he thought the fetish-worshipper thereby
better able to face the moral difficulties of life; he had none of the
intellectual hatred of Huxley or Cliffijrd for what their minds recognised

' Bosworth Smith, who advanced the view in 1874 that Mohammedanism was in
some respects better suited than Christianity to the Oriental races and to the negro,
writes to Galton in 1875: "Your view of Islam as compared with Christianity would,
I fancy, from what you said to me, be even more favourable than mine."

•208 Life aiid Letters of Francis Galton

as unreasoning. Speaking on his own initiative to the present writer
about a friend who had then recently joined the Gathohc Chui-ch, he
said : " Yes, I think it will be a real help, a controlling factor in X's
conduct," and then he added: " How impossible it would all be for you
or me !" It appears to the writer that the recognition of the relativity
of religion and its individual temperamental value was attained at this
time, if a positive view of life which suited his own temperament only
came to Galton with the Origin of Species. Much light would doubtless
have been thrown on this point had the Egyptian and Syrian letters
been preserved. But the fact that they did contain evidence of Galton's
religious development may be the very reason why they have wholly
perished.

The years which succeeded Galton's return from Syria are a blank
except for what he has himself told us in his Memories, Chapter viil.
The four years in question, he himself entitled "Hunting and Shooting."
He writes :

"I returned to my mother and sistei-, who then occupied (Jlaverdon, much in need
of a little rest. I was also conscious that with all my varied experiences, I was ignorant
of the very ABC of the life of an English country gentleman, such as most of the friends
of my family had been familiar with from childhood. I was totally unused to hunting,
and I had no proper experience of shooting. This deficiency was remedied during the
next three or four years " {Memories, p. 110).

We find Galton for the following three years spending part of his
time in Leamington, hunting with a set chiefly noteworthy for their
extravagance and recklessness ; part of his time on Scottish moors,
shooting grouse, or sailing in the Hebrides, and lastly part of his time
— which amounted to weeks and months — in London, walking and
riding with friends or attending meets of the Royal Stag Hounds. A
few letters of Henry Hallam, spared apparently from the holocaust,
indicate the thoughts most prominent in the minds of both young
men — their ambition was to shoot 100 brace in a day, to kill 87 hares
in a quarter of an hour, to avoid the tailor-like habit of putting a
bullet into the haunch of a stag ; the most provoking thing was to
fail in a shot, — " I would have given my eyes to have brought the
animal down." Landseer was not the man and the artist, but "the
crackshot never missing and quite up to all the dodges of the sport ;
he had got and shot and killed his animal very neatly." The shoot-
ing experience was undoubtedly of value to Galton in his later

Fallow Years, 1844—1849 209

African work, but the strange thing is that it seemed to absorb
his whole nature, and to be done not for the sake of the experience,
but in the pure pursuit of occupation. He tells us himself that he
" read a good deal all the time, and digested what I read by much
thinking about it" [Memories, p. 119). But Galton was never a great
student of other men's writings ; he was never an accumulator like his
cousin Charles Darwin ; and the most well-i-ead and annotated books
in his library certainly belong to a later date and to periods of definite
lines of research. Perhaps the words which follow the above quotation,
" It has always been my unwholesome way of work to brood much at
irregular times," better explain his development during these fallow
years. Be this as it may, Galton's pursuit of travel and sport for pure
amusement's sake lasted fiiUy five years, but came to an end almost as
suddenly and inexplicably as it commenced ; Galton — to use his own
words — had finished sowing his "wild oats" by the summer of 1849,
and was returning once more to those scientific pursuits, which had
been his delight in 1840, and which he was never again to desert
except under stress of ill-health.

Nearly all record of developmental influences during this period
having perished, we are thrown back on surmise and hypothesis to
account for these fallow years in the life of a man who both before and
after was conspicuous for intellectual activity. Naturally we turn in the
first place to the many hereditary strands blended in his character. On
the one side we have the manifold scientific tastes of the Darwin stock,
combined, however, with love for purely country pursuits and with
sporting tendencies which have dominated not a few members of both
the Darwin and Galton families ; on the other side we have the social
aptitudes and the keen love for the pleasui'es of life, which marked and
led to the downfall of the Colyear and Sedley stocks, strangely united
with the business aptitude and disciplinary sense of the Quaker blood
of Farmer and Barclay. If we examine most of Galton's relatives we
find one or at most two of these very difterent hereditary strands
manifest in the same individual ; but in Galton himself, and pi'obably
as source alike of his mental width and of his charm of character, we
find these various strands commingled — ^the word is here better than
blended — in a single nature. To speak for a moment in the crude
language of a current theory of heredity, it is as if opposite allelo-
morphs could be united in the same zygote and alternately dominate
p. G. 27

210 Life and Letters of Francis Gal to it

its characteristics. These fallow years show the dominance of deter-
minants of which we are fully conscious in tracing Galton's family
history, but which after 1850 play only a subordinate, albeit a graceful
part in his character and activities. In 1849 Galton's mechanical tastes
revived and his scientific bent came once more to its rights. When
the " spring-fret " again came o'er him, he knew his " naked soul " and
had found a congenial purpose in life.

In the failure of any record of environmental influence', we can
only attribute the difference between the Soudanese and the Central
African journeys to the not unfamiliar experience of different hereditary
tendencies developing potency at successive stages of an individual's
growth. Charles Darwin was a student and naturalist from his College
days ; Francis Galton's six fallow years threw back his work in life,
so that much of it was achieved at an age when most minds grow
quiescent. But the delay was not greatly to his, nor, in the long run,
to the public disadvantage. His earlier papers on the improvement of
the human race by conscious selection v/ere nearly stillborn, they faced
a world quite unripe for the ideas Galton had to teach. The acceptance
of the principle of Natural Selection and the recognition of science as
a capital authority in human affairs had to make marked progress
before Galton's teaching could reach its audience, and produce its
effect.

' We know how the publication of the Origin of Species moved Francis Galton. At
first it seemed to the writer of this biography that the voyage of the " Beagle " might
have turned Galton's thoughts to scientific travel, but the Jozirnal of that voyage
appeared in 1837, five or six years after the voyage, and there is no reference to it in
Galton's letters of that date or later. The famous Linnaean Society publication made
jointly with Wallace dates from 1858, when Galton had already settled down to
scientific work.

riuir IS

■r. ~

ic -

CHAPTER YII

THE REAWAKENING: SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION

In the absence of records for the period 1844-9 we are unable
to trace the outside influences, if any, which again stirred Galton's
latent scientific tastes, awakening once more those instincts for the
production of work of social value, which for six years had been lying
fallow. We do not suggest that these years were without any profit
for Galton's ultimate career. The accumulation of experience — how-
ever apparently aimless — is always capital of a final interest-bearing
value to the man who has by heredity a receptive mind and an unusual
power of storing observation. The knowledge gained hap-hazard in
the Soudan and Syria, the pursuit of grouse on the Scottish and York-
shire moors', the shooting of seals in the Hebrides, the observation of
bird and beast, the ready presence of mind, which the hunting field
encourages", the knowledge of human motive and human weakness
in the gambling, wine-loving, tale-capping' set of the Hunt Club at
Leamington, whose typical representatives were the Jack Myttons,
father and son*, — all these experiences were not without profit in later
life. Even their value in African travel was not to be despised ; it is
only their incongruity with the youth of 1840 and the man of 1850,

' Well for Galton that it was before the days of the modern " drive " !

' In later years Galton with characteristic modesty and the love of a joke even at
his own expense, would say that he had learnt by experience to reduce falling off to a
fine art.

' The relief at hearing the simple truth told in simple words was, Galton once
remarked, one of the new and pleasurable experiences associated with the family circle
which his marriage introduced him to.

* The life of Jack Mytton, Senior, has been written by " Nimrod " (J. C. Apperley)
under the title : The Life of John Mytton Esq., oj Halston, Shropshire, with his Hunting,
Racing, Shooting, Driving and Extravagant Exploits (with colour illustrations by Aiken
and Rawlins). Jack Mytton, Junior, inherited his father's recklessness ; he also got
through a fortune and died prematurely. "There was no question of his ability or power
over others," wrote Galton in his Memories, p. 110.

27 2

212 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

which must puzzle the onlooker unacquainted with that strange
mixture of Stuart and Barclay, of Colyear and Darwin blood.

The first sign of the reawakening of the old tastes is the endeavour
of Galton in 1849 to design a printing telegraph. The account of this
instrument was printed in 1849, but post-dated in the publication June
1850, two months after Galton had left for Africa. The pamphlet gives
very extensive details of the mechanical parts of the apparatus. In
order to appreciate what the " teletype " meant in those days, we must
remind the reader that telegraphy, then recently introduced into this
country, was not carried on by the Post Office but by a number of
commei'cial companies, and a printing telegraph had not yet been
achieved. Galton's instrument looks cumbersome with our modern
experience of tape instruments, but there are some ingenious ideas
involved. How far it was ever actually constructed it is now perhaps
impossible to say, but from the wording it might be supposed that
portions at least had been actually made ; Galton speaks of the instru-
ment as the result of many experiments^, and dealing with his method
of intensifying the mechanical effect of the slight touch of a needle he
writes :

" It is very interesting to watch such a series in operation ; how the delicate,
scarcely perceptible touch of the first arm causes an influence that travels on, almost as
if by instinct through the whole series ; how each arm hands it to the one beyond it ;
its available power increasing at each delivery^."

If the whole or parts were constructed, they do not appear to have
been preserved, or at least to have reached the Galton Laboratory with
the long series of his models and other instruments, which we possess.
Galton's teletype involves three wires to connect sending and receiving
stations. The needle of a galvanometer may remain stationary, turn
to right or turn to left. Thus each wire can send three signals, or the
system of three wires 27 signals, enough for the complete alphabet. Now
consider a lever in the form of a rectangular frame balanced about a
median line or axis ; suppose a key slightly longer than the parallel sides
of the rectangle turning on the same axis, then if the frame be horizontal
and the key pass over the perpendicular edge of the side of the frame
it will depress it, when itself depressed. The depression causes contact

' The Telotype : a printing Electric Telegraph, by Francis Galton, Esq., M. A., Trin.
Coll., Cambridge. John Weale, 1850, p. 32.
■^ Ihid., p. 10.

Plate LVhh

T— (

^^^H

!»

^^T^

r-^

■^.., 1

T-H

r^ a >=

-a y; -S

?'-

-. i/2

The lieawakeniny : Scientific Exploration 213

and a positive current is transmitted. If a piece of the breadth of the
key be cut out of the edge of the frame of depth equal to the play of
the key, no motion of the lever takes place. A second similar rect-
angular frame inside the first may be depressed and give a negative
current, or again may have a piece cut out and give no current at all.
Thus one key depressed can give any of the three possible signals on
the first wire. With three pairs of such rectangular frames and 27 keys
all the possible combinations of signals can be sent through the triple
wire. The keys may be given any letters or numbers, four wires and
eight I'ectangular level frames on the same axis would give 8 1 signals.
Elsewhere in the paper (p. 29) Galton indicates how with eight frames,
two wires only, but two battery strengths for each wire, five signals
might be got on each wire and so twenty-five signals in all. This
I'oughly describes his third section, the determination of the proper
movements of the needles for any given letter by touching a key. In
his first section he considers how the weak movements of a needle may
govern the movements of a heavy arm. He does not achieve this, as
we might anticipate, by electromagnets, but, discarding these, by a
somewhat elaborate mechanical device, which directs in a given manner
the energy of wheels kept rotating as nearly uniformly as possible.
We must refer the reader for the details of this part of the teletype, as
well as for those of the manner in which the appropriate letters are to
be actually printed, to the pamphlet itself ; they have now only historical
interest, but they suffice to indicate a mechanical versatility which was
later to come to fuller fruition. Various additional possibilities are
then indicated, thus, on making certain signals, mechanical effects
other than printing letters, e.g. the sounding of a bell, can be obtained ;
methods are given by which the combination of one signal followed
by a letter shall print a capital or a figure ; and again processes for
messages to be printed in cipher are indicated.

Lastly Galton's concluding words may be cited here, for they
anticipate much that was to come later — the transference of the tele-
graphs to the Post Office, and the modern development of the telephone :

"If telegraphs, that worked and printed satisfactorily were once found practicable,
most large houses, public and private, would soon become .supplied with them. The
communication being .so iniuiediate, answer following question as soon as it is put,
affords much more nearly the advantage of a personal communication than the best
regulated post office ever could. Any scheme to introduce telegraphs generally, would

214 Life awl Letters of Franch Gait on

probably be first confined to London. There would be central offices, and from these
bundles of wires would radiate to numerous branch offices; from the branch offices
again wires would pass along the adjacent streets, and supply houses as they passed.
The expense of distributing wires in this way could not be extreme, for, if the branch
offices were as numerous as the branch post offices now are, the distance that the
wires to each private house would have to traverse would never be great" (p. 32).

The perfect system of house to house telegraphy will probably
only be reached when we return to the recorded signal, to the true
telegraph, to the written instead of the spoken word. But in a large
measure Galton's anticipation of 1849 has been realised. Before,
however, the world could express any opinion on the value of his
teletype, the " spring-fret " had again seized him. Galton was off
for the " misty sweat bath 'neath the line," but this time with a
definite end to his travels — the exploration of a little known tract
of Tropical Africa. When and how the idea of a journey of explora-
tion in Africa occurred to Francis Galton we cannot now ascertain ;
the reader will remember his boyish admiration for Captain Sayers
(see p. 113), which was doubtless not without permanent influence.
Oswell, Murray and Livingstone had just reached Lake Ngami, pro-
ceeding from the Cape, while ten years earlier Captain (later Sir)
James E. Alexander, starting also from the Cape, had twice tra-
versed the country of the Great Namaquas, and travelling almost
due east and west along Lat. 23° S. had linked Walfisch Bay with
the country of the Damaras of the Hills. North of 23° S. from
Walfisch Bay to Lake Ngami, of the land of the Damaras of the Plains
and of the Ovampos, but little was known; it was to this land that
Galton's attention was ultimately directed. Oswell and Livingstone
were already at work to the north of Lake Ngami, and there .seems
little doubt that Galton for a considerable time had in mind the
linking up of the districts traversed by them with the West Coast.
But this was hardly his original project ; that appears to have been
to reach Lake Ngami from the Cape and then proceed northward
by means of the rivers flowing into that lake'. For this purpose his
equipment contained originally two boats which were discarded at the
Cape. Galton's friend, Dalyell, was acquainted with Sir Roderick
Mui'chison, at that time President of the Royal Geographical Society;
Galton's cousins Charles Darwin and Captain Douglas Galton were

' Colborne's Netv AlonOdy Magazine, November 1850, p. .3.50.

Plate I. VI

SKETCHES KKO.M GALTON'S Al RIf'AN DIARIES.

l'lH)t((frra])li of w roiiirli water-colour sketch of ^\\\\ set as u trap (or a lion ; the beast in
|)iilliiiir off the liiiii]p of meat at the muzzle (liseharfjes the ^m\.

Sample page of one of Galton's iliary-sketchbooksj illustratiujf his penc^il snapshots.

The Reawakening: Scientific Exploration 215

fellows, and at the suggestion of the latter, Galton consulted the
officials of the Society as to his journey. He was elected a member
in the spring of 1850 and thus begun his relationship to the Royal
Geographical which lasted so many years. According to the minutes
of the Society Galton submitted, on March 25, 1850, a scheme for his
journey to the South African lake and the route he proposed to take.
This paper was not published in the Society's Journal and it has not
been possible to obtain access to the papers of that period in the Society's
archives'. The matter is probably of small importance, for had Galton
gone up from the Cape to Lake Ngami, he would have found Living-
stone already at work exploring the district he had thought of, and
it was probably therefore providential that on his arrival at the Cape
he found himself cut oft' from Ngami by the great trek of the emigrant
Boers, who had "wrested the whole breadth of the habitable country
north of the Orange River" and cut off all communication northward.
After some doubts as to proceeding to Lake Ngami from the Portu-
guese settlements on the east coast, Galton determined on starting
from Walfisch Bay on the west and crossing Uamaraland. This roughly
enabled him to fill in the unknown district between Alexander's west
and east line, Livingstone's Lake Ngami work and the Portuguese
possessions on the west coast, that is to say the upper half of the
pi-esent German South-west Afi'ican colonies. The account of Galton's
journey was published by Murray in 1853'^ and a new edition by
Ward, Lock & Co. in the Minerva Library of Famous Books in 1889".
A succinct account of the journey — Recent Expedition into the In-
terior of South- Western Africa — was given at meetings of the Royal
Geographical Society, Feb. 23 and April 26, 1852, and is published
in their Journal, vol. xxii, pp. 140 — 163. The paper which imme-
diately follows this is by Livingstone and Oswell giving an account
of their explorations to the north of Lake Ngami. A common map
of the Galton and Livingstone explorations (p. 141) is of much interest

' I have to thank Dr J. Scott Keltic for most kindly examining the minutes of
the Royal Geographical Society for the years 1850-2 for references to Francis Galton.

^ The Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa, with coloured Maps,
Plates and Woodcuts. One of the maps gives a most valuable scheme of the routes
of various explorers up to 1851. The cuts are after sketches in Galton's note-books.

' This edition has a most interesting Appendix by Galton on the later history
of exploration, etc., in Daraaraland. It wants, however, most of the cuts of the original
and the small map is inferior.

216 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

as showing the approach to Livingstone's ground that Galton made in
his journey to 'Tounobis. The Geographical Society's Journal gives
also his astronomical observations for six longitudes and the latitudes of
53 stations. The map was based chiefly on triangulation with an azimuth
compass. The positions thus obtained were tested with the longitudes
and latitudes taken astronomically. The agreement was on the whole
fair, the longitudes (by lunars with a small circle) being least satisfac-
tory; a result which will not surprise those who have used this method
and remember that Galton's experience was chiefly, if not wholly,
gained on board ship after sailing for the Cape. Galton's diaries,
sketchbooks and observation books are now in the Galton Laboratory',

' Among the books in the Galton Laboratory are (i) a small note-book with MS.
native grammar, abstracts of Vardon's and Oswell's travels, lists of right ascensions
and declinations of stars, a small table of logarithms, etc. It records that Professor
Owen wanted the heads of wart-hogs of various ages to study their teeth, also dried
heads of ostriches, especially young ones. Receipt for preserving skins and note for
making experiments why a water bird's plumage gets immediately wet after being shot,
etc. (ii) A quarto book of triangulations, also latitudes and longitudes. It is started
by a pen and ink sketch of a saddled ox, "Ceylon — the best hack in Africa." (iii) A
folio book containing route distances, bearings, itineraries, sketches. History of the
Namaqua atrocities before arrival of Galton; letters to or from Jonker, Swartboy,
Amiral, Cornelius and other Hottentot and some Damara leaders. Jonker's signature to
his "Apology," and the laws laid down for him, both in Dutch; fragments of diaries and
other notes. A good deal might be of service to a future historian of German South-
west Africa. There is a fairly extensive vocabulary, (iv) Ten small pocket note
and sketch books. Sketches of native women and utensils, rough bearings and
itinerary notes, journals, notes of necessaries, of talks, further vocabularies, rough
drafts for Galton's law-code for the Namaquas, etc., etc. (v) A tracing of a map of
which the original was said to have been left at the Cape " 7 years before," by the
Rev. Mr Hahn of New Barmen, missionary. It shows a big lake, the "Demboa Sea," in
Lat. 18° S. and about Long. 18° E. This is the lake to which Galton's letters several
times refer but which he never really identified. If we were to trust the missionary's
map, it would be as large as Lake Nganii itself! In a letter to Lord Campbell he
supposes it Omanbonde, which is too far south. It might represent the Elosha salt-
pan in the wet season, then "a rather pretty lake," much displaced and immensely
exaggei-ated in area, but it was probably Onondova.

In (iii) is a loose pencil sketch of a small lake with steep cliff-like banks surmounted
by trees, and entitled: Omutehikoto, JmvK 25, 1851. This must be, I think, the
Otchikoto, of Galton's map, r'eached at that date on the return journey. It is noted
on the map as a small pond 400ft. in diameter and 180 ft. deep. Galton writes:
"There we took a day's rest, and amused ourselves in bathing. I made some fish-
hooks out of needles, and caught about a hundred small fish, which we eat " {Tropical
South Africa, 1st edn. p. 238). Otchikoto was reached on May 26, 1851, on the

Plate LVH

•i - =^

^<r

:=;

V-*

'/-

'—

-li

■"— '■

'rt

bi -s is

— ;" ^

^ 5 >.

The Reawakening: Scientific Exploration 217

and before the writer of these lines ; they indicate very fully the
thoroughness with which he now went to work. Of the sketches we
reproduce some in the Plates of this chapter, but it is not our intention
here to rewrite or even to abstract the account of the African journey ;
we propose to bring the reader again in touch with Galton himself, chiefly
by printing in part his letters home. They bear the mark of the
immediate impression made upon him by his environment, and are
largely written in the old playful strain of the Cambridge days.
Individual occui-rences are coloured with the feeling of the moment
and by the writer's relation to the recipient, in a manner which must
be set aside, when a serious narrative is written a year afterwards
for the public eyes.

We now turn to the letters of this period.

Friday night [22nd March, 1850].
Dearest Mother, I shall turn up some day next week but I cannot tell when.
The " Dalhousie," my ship, is at anchor in the river now. The Captain's name is
Butterworth and my books are at the Pantechnicon, Belgrave Square. Ever in great
haste, AflFectionately, F. G.

The Dalhousie.
Plymouth Harbour, Tuesday [Ajyril 2].
Dearest Mother, T sha'nt, hang the ship, be of!' till Friday I fear, so I will write
again. I came down from London by last night's mail train and am now fairly settled
on board. It's blowing hard. Ever affectionately, Frank Galton.

Off rL mouth Harbour, Api-il 5, 1850.
Dearest Mother, At length we are off. You will soon receive 4 copies of my
Telotype; keep one, send one to Darwin, one to Emma, and one to my most useful
amanuensis and draughtswoman Anne Broadley'. The weather has been very wild
here, but has now reformed. Good bye for 4^ months when you will get my next letter.
Ever affectionately, Frank G.

outward journey (p. 200). The superstitions about it are like those of the Mummelsee
in the Schwarzwald — i.e. no living thing which gets in ever gets out again. Galton,
Andersson and Allen swam about the lake and astonished the natives, who had never
seen swimming before. "We had great fun at Otchikoto, there was a cave there
full of bats and owls, which we swam to and explored." The position appears tx)
be about I^ng. 17°-5 E. and Lat. 19°-25 S. Professor H. H. W. Pearson of the South
African College, most kindly reported to me in 1912, that the name GALTON had
been recently found painted on a rock, only accessible by swimming, above a small
lake in Damaraland. The letters appeared still quite fresh. I think this must be
at Omutchikoto, otherwise Otchikoto : see Plate LVII.

' See p. 98.

P. G. 28

218 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

Lat. 1G N., Long. 20 W. May dth, 1850.

Dearest Mother, As there is a chance of our shortly meeting .some ship homeward
bound I write a few lines. I never enjoyed myself much more than I have done. Glorious
weather, and to my unmitigated astonishment I find that a ship is not always in this
position [sketch of a three-master going bow first down the flank of a wave of 30°] or
in this [same three-master going up the front of a wave of 45°]. The fact is that a
large ship like the one I am in hardly moves at all except in very bad weather and
the sea scarcely ever washes over her. At starting we had very bad weather and were
about 10 days in the Bay of Biscay. A poor girl, a passenger, a clergyman's daughter,
who was going out to settle with her brother at the Cape caught a severe inflammation
of the lungs and died there. Our passengers make a very amusing party, and the
time passes as pleasantly as can be. I am quite a good hand at taking observations'
and have learnt about 600 Sichuana words' (the language I shall have to speak).
Andersson is a very good fellow. I keep him in excellent order. He rammed a
harpoon almost through his hand the other day, but he is a sort of fellow that
couldn't come to harm. He had an old gun burst whilst firing it last week and only
shook himself and all was right. I don't know if I told you that I called on his
aunt just before starting. She knew Adele at Swansea. Miss Elizabeth Lloyd tea-ed
with her there. We passed under the sun the day before yesterday. It's not a bit
hot. Thermometer has never been more than 80° in the shade. I should like yachting,
I think, and I should go to Teneriffe and then the Verde Islands, doing Lisbon on
the way; they looked so uncommonly pretty. Teneriffe would not be on an average
19 days from England. Suggest it to Darwin, if he is seized with a mania that way
this spring. I was only sick three days.

May 10. Lat. 9| N., Long. 24 W. There is a sail just reported ahead, and they
are bellowing out to get ready and board her. It's very odd how few ships one sees,
this is only the first homeward bound* we have yet come across; however the tracks
outward and homeward are difierent on account of the winds. The emigrants are
rather fun than otherwise. I introduced the game of bob-cherry for the boys and every
evening we filled our pockets full of things at dessert and fish away. We have made
them sing together, etc., etc., but on the whole they are an uninteresting set of cubs.
I have got to polish up to go on board, as I have been in slippers and a leather coat for
the last fortnight. So good bye, and with love to all at Edstone', Smitterfield^, and
Adele. Ever affectionately, Frank G. Tell Emma that I am working hard at drawing.

The latitudes suggest the "Dalhousie" was off the Gold Coast and
had not yet passed the line.

' The advantages of a sailing ship over a modern steamer for a traveller of those
days will be obvious.

' Several pages of the diary contain long lists of words.

^ The home for a time of Darwin Galton, who had married Mary Elizabeth, eldest
daughter and coheiress of John Phillips, Esq., of Edstone.

■* The home for a time of sister Bessy, Mrs Wheler.

The Reawakenimi : Scientific Exploration 219

Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope. %th July, 1850.

Dearest Mother, We arrived here safely and all well a fortnight ago — and this
is tlie first mail tliat has left since then, so that what with our very long passage and
the other delay, you will I fear have wondered where in the world I am. I found I had
letters of introduction to everybody worth knowing in Cape Town. Sir Harry Smith
is most civil, and I feel just as much at home here as in Leamington. Andersson is
a right good fellow and particularly well. He desires to be very kindly remembered to
all of you. I found out an old Leamington acquaintance of yours, or rather she found
me out, a Mrs Menzies, who was there in 1840 and knew Admiral Christian well. She
is the wife of the Chief Justice here and is a particularly nice person. I daresay Emma
will recollect her. My old ally, Hyde Parker is here in command of a ship and has just
taken some prizes — another friend also, a Cantab whom I had my Xmas dinner with,
on the Nile, is settled here. The news as regards my future plans, is somewhat
chequered : Four days after I arrived news came from the frontier, that the Rebel
Dutchmen (Boers they call them) had entirely stopped every route, and were on the
point of themselves, going immediately to the Lake in order to keep it for themselves
and had stopped parties of English Travellers and robbed them. My plans have been
therefore changed. I intend either to go round by Natal near Delagoa Bay, or else on the
western coast by Walfisch Bay, so as to turn their flank. Government, i.e. Sir H. Smith,
desires me to take some letters to the Chiefs about, with reference to this movement of
the Boers — in order to resist them. It has been, and still may be for aught I know,
seriously contemplated to annex this wide country to the Colony. Anyhow I shall know
all about it in two days. I have offered to do whatever Government wishes, and
I should not be sui-prised if I had orders of some importance to carry out. Till then as
my plans are so unsettled I cannot say more but I am ready for a start any day and as
soon as a decision is come to shall very likely be packed off at once ; so I may have to
leave Cape Town this week.

I have received no letter from England as yet. Please direct them. Cape Toivn —
Cape of Good Hope, unless I write again to the contrary as I have no chance whatever of
going within 500 miles of Colesberg. Andersson is delighted at the prospect of anything
like a scrimmage — and the fact of there having been £1000 offered for the capture of one
Boer, and j£500 for another — on account of pre\iou8 enormities quite unconnected with
the present business gives an extra zest to the fun of his present destination.

If I go to Natal, I shall recollect to enquire about Darwin's prot^g^ Mr Hume, and
will report on the state of liis farm. Sir H. Smith has a glorious team of beagles — they
don't run half as fast as those at Edstone did, and if possible make more noise. They
run about in front of Government House and have been trained to chivy any strange
dog that may approach too near, which they do at full cry. Give my love to everybody
— babies and all. I will write by next mail, which must leave in 10 days I should
think.

Ever your affectionate son, Frank Galton.

Welch's Hotel, Cape Town. August oth, 1850.

My Dear Darwin, In an hour more and I shall be off, with I think nearly as
efficient a lot of men and cattle, as could possibly ha met with. 1 have been obliged to

28—2 ■

220 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

freight a small Schooner to take me and my traps about 1000 miles up the Coast to
Walfisch Bay where I land and go towards the interior. The assistance and kindness
in every possible way, both of Government here and of all the people, has been extreme.
I take out credentials for establishing friendly relations between our Government and
different tribes, in opposition to the movement of these Dutch Boers, and they have
given me an immense parchment passport, engrossed and in English, Dutch and
Portuguese, with a hugh seal 8 inches in diameter, set in a tin box and dangling
on to it, so I go as a great swelP. Sir Harry made a long speech to me the other
day after dinner at Government House, to say, I was a good fellow — and he spoke
very kindly indeed.

Andersson is a right good fellow, and does whatever he is told, which is particularly
convenient. My head-man is one of the best known servants in Cape Town. He is
Portuguese — has travelled all his life, speaks Dutch and English perfectly and has
always been liked by everybody. Then I have a Black, to look after my nine mules and
horses. He calls me " Massa " and that also, is very pleasant. He is a tall athletic
well built fellow, who has worked uncommonly well in Kaffir land. Next comes a smart
lad to help him, and then I have 2 Waggon drivers and two leaders for the Oxen. One
of the Drivers has worked 4 years together at a blacksmith's and waggon maker's shop
here, and is a very good workman, so that he can repair anything that goes wrong in
my waggons, and one of the leaders can also drive. Our party therefore consists of
seven servants Andersson and myself, and except Juan, the head-man, their wages run
from £3. 10. 0 to £1. 10. 0 a month. I have been obliged to lay in a very great
quantity of stores, for the place where I am going to land, has no communication
established with any other port, and nothing that is forgotten can be replaced, of these
things about half go to exchange for oxen, of which there are plenty there, and
to get me guides and so on, of the rest I leave one half as a depot at a missionarj'
Station, so that I have always a place to fall back upon. If the roads are good, I go with
my waggons and my cart, if there is doubt about water ahead, I send on my cart alone
with the mule — and if the road is execrable, I hunt about for a better one, using my
mules as pack animals. The country is utterly unvisited bj' any White, after the first
300 miles, no traveller or sportsman has ever been there at all, only a few missionaries
and traders — but the universal account from the Natives is, that the further you go, the
richer it becomes. There is this large reported lake. Lake Demboa, only 200 miles from the
furthest missionary Station. It will be my first object to reach this, and trace the river
that flows out of it, and which is said to be a branch of the Cunene to the sea, and if
the river be as large and the country as fertile and healthy as it is declared by the
natives to be, it will most assuredly rise soon to great importance. The Cunene is the
river that bounds the Portuguese possessions on the West coast, to the South. I daresay
I shall bring back a lot of ivory and gold dust from there, for I shall certainly swop any
of my stores for them, if I can do so to advantage. I am comfortably provisioned,
barring meat, for two years and have an immense quantity of the things, that these

' This remarkable document is now in the Galton Laboratory. According to
Galton's own account the seal had originally been attached to a royal mandate creating
a deputy or lieutenant-governor of the colony. Sir H. Smith wanted something to
impress the natives, so he cut it off and attached it to the aforesaid parchment !

The Reawakening: Scientific Exploration 221

savages are understood principally to fancy. All this has cost a lot of money, but like
buying a ship, unless she is wrecked, you will sell her again. I have been obliged to
draw a bill on Barclay for £400 beyond my letter of credit, at 30 days sight, and
I leave behind me about £350 in cash, to pay the wives and mothers of my men, in case
of any possible emergency. I wrote duplicate letters to Barclay, which I gave my
Bankers here, to send with the bills, to ask them to advance what balance there may be
against me, at a usual rate of interest, but that if it was not convenient for them to do
so, 1 had left a power of attornej' with you, to sell out some .shares and requested them
in that case to communicate with you. But I hope they will advance the tin, as it is
a bore selling, and I cannot draw any more money, till I come back. I take £50 in my
pocket in case of any possible accident, but I am assured that money is no earthly use
where I am going, everything is done by exchange for cloth and iron or something else.
My two large boats I am compelled to leave behind as my ])resent route lies over a hilly
country, where I could not possibly take them. But, if I make out the Cunene satis-
factorily, they may yet have to carry me. I shall be able to write one more letter, that
you will get in a reasonable time and that will be when the vessel leaves me in Walfisch
Bay. After then I will leave one or two with the Missionaries, and when I quit them,
if all goes well I may soon get within messenger reach of the Portuguese settlements.
1 have of course to write to Sir H. Smith and I think I will do so to Lord Palmerston
and to the Geographical Society, so that letter sending will be a great object to me and
I will do all I can to contrive it successfully. Well, I have now done with myself. It
is no good asking questions about home because I do not expect to receive a letter until
I return. I have had none from England yet, your hunting season will be just beginning
when you get this, I suppose. I am curious to know if you have been yachting this
year. I think if you were suddenly transported here, you would like the place
amazingly so many horses all with a deal of blood in them. Every cart goes at a trot
and is driven 4, 6, or even 8, in hand. Sometimes you see a set of tearing horses and a
young strip of a lad only, with an immense whip to manage them. I have only 4 dogs.
Well the sheet is out, so goodbye. I often think of you all at Edstone and Claverdon
and regret the Sunday evening rides. Give my love to my Mother and all, and send
this letter as a circular to them. I will give you pictures in my next. When you write,
address to me care of Messrs Van der Byl and Co., Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope.
Goodbye old fellow,

Frank Galton.

Walfisch Bay, South West of Africa. 21th August, 1850.

Dearest Mother, At last I am fairly on the desert with everything before me
quite clear and apparently easy. I have, I find, made a most fortunate selection of men.
They work most willingly and well, and nearly all know some kind of trade. When
I arrived here some 3 days ago, the Missionaries came down to meet me, and have been
most civil. I am sure I have selected a far better route than my first one, for now
I am quite as near the undiscovered country as I should have been after 3 months land
journey from Algoa Bay. Ostriches are all about round here, though I have seen none
yet. We got 5 eggs and ate them the other day. Lions infest the country about
30 miles oflT; if they don't eat my mules I shall have delightful shooting. The ship
unexpectedly is on the point of starting, so my dear Mother, a long intended letter is

222 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

spoilt. It appears the weather glass has unexpectedly fallen, and the vessel is obliged
to be off some hours before her time. Many of my intended letters are therefore
stopped, pray tell Douglas and Uncle Hubert I had intended writing to them, you will
hear no more from me, for I fear a very long time. I explained the reason why in full
to Darwin, in my letter to him. Goodbye then, give my affectionate love to all the
family. I start into the country in 4 or 5 days.

Ever your affectionate son, Frank Galton.
Aiidersson is an excellent fellow and desires to be remembered to you.

Lat. 22.7, Long. 17. About Deer. 1850.
Dearest Mother, This letter cannot I think be less than 6 months on the road, as
it is pretty far by land from the Cape. In the first place we are all in excellent health,
high spirits and thorough travelling order, though we have had an immense deal of
trouble and some hardships. The weather too is warm, 157° (one hundred and fifty
seven degrees) Fahrenheit in the sun at midday and from 90° to 100° in the coolest
shade, under thick trees and that sort of shade about 110° to 115°. This appeared
quite incredible to me, but I have compared 7 thermometers of 5 different makers and
they all agree, so there can be no doubt about it. The air is not oppressive at all — we are
at the furthest missionary station and not further, and now I will tell you all the story
in order. The ship sailed away from Waltisch Bay which is 3 miles of heavy sand
from fresh water; we were employed about 10 days in getting every thing thence to the
water in the cart with the mules. When there we were 18 miles from a Missionary
Station. It took nearly 3 weeks to get everything there. It is the only liveable place
in that part, as the water at the first place was execrable, so bad that I had to distill
every drop we drank. I kept a still going night and day and so we were supplied.
After resting the mules we packed plenty of iron things, guns and so forth, making
a very heavy load in the cart, to buy oxen with about 180 miles up country. I got
3 oxen here on the backs of which, some more things were packed and with a good sort
of ruffian, originally a Tailor, subsequently a kind of Missionary, and now a ruined
cattle dealer for a guide away we went. The men had all to walk. Andersson crossed
40 miles of desert in great style and made another 24 miles journey after, when the
mules were sorely knocked up ; we were obliged to let them and the horses feed at niglit
in the river and seeing no tracks of lions about, we did so without much fear. What was
our horror the next morning on going down — when we saw, not a mule or a horse, but
their tracks going full gallop in a drove, and by their side, tlie tracks of six lions, full
chase. A little further on, my pet mule lay dead, and a lion eating it ; by the side
a wolf waiting for his turn, again a little further my biggest horse just killed and nothing
more to be seen. We ran up to where the cart and encampment was, 2 miles off at the
top of the steep banks of the river ; provisioned and armed 4 men for two days and sent
them off after the mules, and the rest of us hunted the lions, but unsuccessfully all day.
They had got among the rocks and we could not track them. In the evening we went
down to get the flesh to eat, for all our live stock had perished and we were very hungry
and then Andersson (who is the best fellow in the world) and myself went up well
armed, to watch the carcass of the mules from a charming place in the rocks just over
it, and which we agreed no lion could possibly climb and made sure of making a good

The Reawakenhui : Scientific Exploration 223

bag without any danger, however as we were busied about the flesh, it was getting dark,
and we saw what we thought was a quantity of antelopes running about the rocks,
liowever they came nearer, and as I was lifting up a shoulder of the inule, I heard
a sudden exclamation from the nusn and there were these annoying vermin of lions, just
above in the very place we were going to sit, it was very dark and they just put their
heads over the stones, like big watch dogs. I thought it better not to fire in volley,
but to keep guns in reserve, in case they came on us — so the Tailor tired first, but
missed and the brutes were away. It was of course unsafe to watch where we had
intended, especially as the night became very dark and so we went away, thoroughly
vexed. I had polished off a lion in great style at the Missionary station of which
I spoke ; it was a one eyed brute that had done an infinity of mischief and had been
hunted, I really am afraid to say how often. He came growling amongst the horses and
frightening the oxen, three nights when I was there and ate up a nice little dog that
I much wanted to buy. We stai-ted, the Missionary, the Tailor and myself with a great
posse of natives who tracked him' beautifully ; when we found, he was about 80 yards off and
bounding about, so that as I had but one barrel and was on horseback, I did not like
then to venture my reputation on a shot, so we cantered after him, dogs and men full
cry and after 3 hours got him nicely among the heavy sandhills, a loose lion is certainly
a fine beast, so I cantered to about 40 yards behind him, pulled up and placed a two
ounce ball very nicely in his stern. It was great fun to see him growl and lash his tail.
Well on he went and turned into a bush in a towering passion. Here we dismounted
and walked up the next sandhills, about 30 yards from him and the first bullet (from the
Missionary) shot him stone dead, and the little dog was undigested in his inside, hardly
at all chewed. — Well going back to my story we found the rest of the mules unhurt and
we pushed on. Water was now to hand continually, and Andersson and myself alternately
rode. We had great ill luck with game, seeing none. I had however a very pretty
gallop after a giraffe and after wounding him, drove him to a tree in front of the cart
and there shot him. I had only my little rifle with 32 bore but I fired conical bullets,
steel pointed, and he dropped just like one of the oxen at Eklstone on a Monday morning.
This was a very welcome addition to our food, for we were very weak from hunger, it
was near a native village and I exchanged the flesh for ostrich eggs, milk, sweet gum
(to eat) (fee. ikc. and we stopped and gorged ourselves for two days. So we went on, and
on the fifteenth day reached Rehoboth'. The men were tired and partly mutinous, and
the Namaquas (a sort of Hottentot) had driven every native away and all their cattle,
and not one was to be got. Fortunately an American lived there, who had 50 oxen to
sell. I took him into my service and bought his oxen at 25«. each — half of them being
broken in. To break in the remainder was a dreadful labour, but now all 47 (3 being
killed in the process) are excellent draught oxen — 6 or 7 of them good riding oxen — and
we think nothing of packing the wildest beast. The men have been tossed about
a little, and I got a vicious poke made at me, when on horseback, but turned the horse

' In January, 1909, Professor H. H. W. Pearson met at Rehoboth an old woman,
Mrs Bassingthwaite, who remembered distinctly Galton visiting her father's house when
she was a girl, seven years old. He was the " very intelligent Englishman, a blackmith,"
Dixon by name, mentioned in Tropical South Africa, 1st edn., p. 117. For a lifetime
she had wondered what had become of him and why he never came back !

224 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

just in time to receive it only slantingly, so that the skin was not broken. All this
breaking work my new man Hans, under Andersson's management did. Of the three
men who were chiefly mutinous and who also were convicted of stealing, one went away,
and Andersson flogged the two others most severely— and with the best effect — and now
everybody works well and willingly. Waggons and all are brought here, and we shall
soon start. The murdering and stealing of the Namaquas against the Daniaras is
horrible, they cut off the hands and feet to get the iron bracelets. About 25 thousand
head of cattle have just been stolen. I have been diplomatising, in pursuance of my
instructions, but with very little effect, and must now push my way between all these
ruffians. The only fear I have is of the oxen being stolen at night, when we should
have to walk, which is very severe work in this weather, but go I will, and we are
strong enough to astonish a great number of the natives, if we blaze at them. My
remaining horse and 3 mules have died of the horse distemper. I have now 5 mules and
51 Oxen. My cart I shall leave behind as it is hardly strong enough. Andersson went
down to fetch the waggons with most of the men and 'shot a rhinoceros^but there is
very little game, and now, as I have to hunt entirely on foot, I seldom go out, it is no
joke in this weather. I have picked up a little of the Ovaherero language, which
is spoken most extensively I find. I go northwards and shall thence probably get
a letter to you, through the Portuguese. Every step now is exploring. The season
is now unfortunately at its dryest, but I think I shall get on. Ten days journey to the
North, will put me beyond all desert and among kindly negroes who garden and plant.
My black man speaks very fairly the language, it is so like to his own. Where I shall
next be heard of, if not through the Portuguese, I can give you no idea. I have of
course received no letter whatever from England, since I left it. This goes by a kind
of clubbed up post, from Missionary Station to Station. The map I sent you, turns out
to be simply traced from an English map made by a theorising map maker, which the
Missionary had. — He adopted the outline, just to put in what he conceived to be the
positions of the Stations and for no other purpose. It is therefore totally valueless.
You know I write this letter to all the family. It is quite a round robin — and therefore I
send no special message to anybody. Andersson desires particularly everything civil, &c.,
ifec.,it's a long message buti have no room for it. — Ever most affectionately, Frank Galton.

Lat. 22.7, Long. 17. Dec. 5, 1850.
My dear Campbell ', We have been now three months among the savages and I
find an opportunity of sending letters by clubbing together with some missionaries on
the road. The letter will have a three months laud journey to make to get to the Cape
so that in England it will give rather antiquated intelligence. I like the work amazingly
although we have had some real hardship. It is a curious feeling the being really weak
from starvation, and I have had the pleasure of experiencing it more than once, but then
it is such a luxury to get something to eat that all taken together leaves nothing to
complain. Once six lions came down and ate part of ray favourite horse and my nicest
mule; we had to live on the rest for some time, the meat was tough but strengthening.
Another time we were sadly off when to my delight I saw great tracks quite fresh,
as broad as a plate, of a cameleopard and we encamped after we had shot him near
his carcass and lived like wolves upon him. It is a barren country hereabouts. I must

' The Hon. W. F. Campbell, M.P., afterwards Lord Campbell.

The Reawakening: Scientific Exploration "I'iii

try to get to the north and start in a fortnight; we have got no distance as yet as I
had first to buy the oxen and then which is no joke to break them in. Fancy having
two heavy wagons on the one hand and fifty wild oxen on the other that toss and kick
and roll and are as vicious as young "thorobreds" it took time before we could make
them pull kindl}'.

The plan is to drive the oxen together all in a heap, and then one man, who
must understand the work takes a long cord with a loop at one end and this he holds
twisted round a stick and two or three otiiers hold the loose end, then he creeps up
behind the ox that he wants and as the ox is shuiHing about he slips the noose round
his leg, and then such a confusion! The ox pulls frantically, runs at the men who
have hold of the rope and they hold on all the same, at last they pull him down
and catch tight hold (3 or -t of them) of his tail and turn him on his back and then
they tie all four legs together and leave him, so they treat as many as they want,
then they yoke them as they lie and let them loose. My horses and most of my
mules are dead so we hack oxen; my hunting saddle fits an ox's back excellently, but
it is not a sporting beast to put it on. I don't like the horns, an ox is a difficult
beast to have a firm seat on as their skin is so loose, they also kick and jump very
short so that a rider's seat is severely tried; if you fall the horns are much in the
way, especially as they usually butt at you as you fall, and kick afterwards. The
countiy here is in the wildest disorder, murdering and cattle robbing are of every day
occurrence ; T picked up a poor wretch with his neck cut down behind to the backbone,
and did what I could but he died. A set of lawless ruffians many of whose leaders
were born in the Cape Colony do all this; they destroyed a missionary station 9 miles
from here a few days since. I have been making all use I could of the instructions
Sir Harry Smith gave me to stop this, but with no avail. Immediately after I wrote
to these men (the Naraaquas) they set out, attacked twenty-five different villages took
very many of the women and children as slaves and all the cattle, which last can
hardly be reckoned at less than 18 thousand in number. The scoundrels too cut oflf
the hands and feet of any of them that they catch in order to get ofl' the iron
bracelets that they wear and which otherwise would take them 4 minutes to do.
I have seen two wretched women who crawled here for refuge thus mutilated, they
told me that they stopped the blood by poking the limb in the sand. All the natives
here believe every white face to be their enemy, and very naturall}' too, I shall have to
force my way through them in a fortnight as I best can. We should make a fair
resistance to a verj' large body of natives and to a good-sized force of Namaquas ;
so that if they don't steal our cattle and leave us a wreck on the plain we shall do.
14 days journey North will carry us through all this and to a much better country
bordering on the Portuguese where the blacks garden and have kings; here the chiefs
have no power, there is no union among the people, but each does what he likes.
You can kill any man you like (not a chief) if you pay 6 oxen to his heirs and poor
men are much cheaper. Is it not horrible % My men I had much trouble with at
first, they did not like hard work and a hot sun; they thieved and were almost
mutinous. At last two cases occurred that called for strong measures, open theft and
an attempt to stab, the men were flogged about as severely as they could be and with
the very best eflTect. I think one and all of them would now go with me almost

P. o. 29

■

226 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

anywhere. Andersson has uniformly been of the greatest assistance. If all goes right
I think I shall be able to send a letter through the Portuguese settlements. Remember
me to all my friends and believe me ever sincerely your Frank Galton.

Feb. 28</t. After T had written the enclosed letter and sent it off I started
but after going a short distance all my native servants were so alarmed on account
of the fightings that were going on that they ran away. Besides that, there had not
been rain sufficient for our journey insomuch that the letter carrier came back. So I
determined to employ ray time by riding straight down with my double barrelled
rifle on the Namaqua captain and seeing whether I could not bring him to reason.
I saddled my ox with the largest horns, and in my pink hunting coat and jack boots
the identical ones that have more than once been in your company to Slough,
I hacked over the three days journey that separated us and then going cautiously
to the very edge of the little hill round the corner of which his place lay let my
oxen get their wind and then together with the men I had with me rammed my
spurs into the beast's ribs and shoved him along right into the captain's house, at least
as far as his horns would let him go. The captain was at rest, he was smoking his
pipe. It was the cool of the evening. Fancy the effect. I made the man as sub-
missive as a baby. I made him solemnly pledge his word before his people that he
would leave off all oppression towards the Damaras. I had all the other Captains from
a wide extent of country up to his place and made them promise to do the same.
To the missionary whose station was destroyed I made them write a most submissive
apology, and it is really a fact that I got these scoundrels to like me. They made me
umpire in their own disputes. I laid down laws for them, simple concerns certainly
Ijut they had none before. And these are in force along 2-50 miles of frontier, and
then having settled all to my satisfaction I told them to be careful as I should
certainly return that way and then went back to my waggons. The Damaras are
charmed, I .shall have no difficulty now in travelling. I could almost worship my red
coat and jack boots that have done all this. I had not conscience enough to put on that
huge cocked hat of mine — no, I patronised my hunting cap. This is a very important
land for future commerce from the large quantity of cattle and its neighbourhood to
St Helena, which is the great store for homeward bound ships. I have of course sent
all particulars to Cape Town and I really tliink that what I have done in the way
of making peace will be followed up. Our waggon road is determined on ahead.
I am now at the very furthest point Europeans have ever reached and tomorrow
we start. I expect to come back here in about 6 months. There is a large lake
"Omanbonde" about 10 days N.W. from here. I have myself seen hills that can descry
it, and there I hope first to go.

Once again good bye and believe me ever yrs sincerely Frank Galton.

Galton's position was a very difficult one; he found the Namaquas
headed by Hottentot chiefs — to whom indeed the British Government
had given "captain's sticks," and who wei'e Britisli subjects — massacring
Damaras and steahng their cattle. His sole official instructions, as sent
to Jonker, "were to offer friendly relations on the part of the British
Government to nations living in a certain specified tract of country in her

Plate LVIII

SKK'RHKS FROM (iALTONS AFRK AX DIAKIKS.

'Hie Captain of tlie Iliitteiiti)ts walks off witli tlie laws
ilrawii iij) tor liiin by Francis (ialton.

„^i/u ' ^'i^''^ iji^aa •> //'«■/'

•/.'»

U,c/a.i -^^ HxAfH iHilnO^^l^,

tajLtuh. 6 {(f* t i^* /^^A

Facsimilf of the orig'iiial promise of .loiiker Afrikaner to kce]) tlie jieace in Daniaraland. The promise
is in Dutch and sijfned liy tlie Chief, witnesses Francis (ialton and 'I'imotiieus Sneewe.

The Reawaheninff : Scientific Exploration 227

neighbourhood, and within the probable reach of her future commerce,
and which were understood to be in danger of oppression from certain
British subjects and others who are in no way connected with your
[Jonker's] people. Now this specified tract of country includes Damara-
land and my instructions are of so general a character that although
not framed with a view to oppose Namaqua oppression in particular,
yet in so far as it is oppression, carried on in part by British subjects
and in this part of South Africa it becomes my immediate duty to
act upon them. " [Letter to Captain Jonker Afrikaner from Barmen,
Nov. 25, 1850.] Even while Galton was waiting for the answer to
this letter to Jonker — which answer the latter sent 300 miles round —
the Hottentots burnt eleven of the remaining 15 werfts of Kaitchene
and eleven others belonging to other Damara chiefs, corresponding
according to Galton's calculations to about 18,000 head of cattle raided.
Galton could not possibly go forward through the middle of this ravaging,
and with characteristic pluck, and probably disregarding entirely his
very nebulous instructions, he determined to frighten Jonker into more
orderly behaviour. His fairly stern letters had produced no efiect.
Such was the origin of the "red hunting-coat" expedition as described
in the above letter. The end might have been very different, but
Galton faced the danger, got abject apologies to the missionary Kolbe
and to the British Government signed, and laws proclaimed by the
Hottentot chiefs to rule their relations to the Damaras. We reproduce
Captain Jonker Afrikaner's promise to the British Government: see
Plate LVin. Translated freely by Galton it runs :

I acknowledge that I have done much wrong in this land, hut I pledge my word
to the English government that from this day forward I will abstain from all injustice to
the Damaras. I promise that I will with all my power keep peace with them and that
I will use ray influence as well as I can to persuade the other Captains to do the same.

[Signed] I am, Jonker Affrikaner.
Witnesses to this signature :
Francis Galton.
TiMOTHEUS Sneewe.

Interesting are the notes Galton, then aged 29, wrote for the speech
he made as first lawgiver to this lawless crew. They run as follows :

Speak alxjut the signatures, strength of England, could furnish every Damara with
a gun, could cut off trade to south.

(1)' What is "justice," explained by these laws. 15 laws cannot meet every
case, but they will lay down a hase on which very many cases may be treated. If
' The numbers refer to the remarks on the special laws which follow this.

29—2

228 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

J. acts well on the whole, it will be known, if ill, also. No enquiries need be made
into special cases. It is the office of a Captain to take the labour and anxiety of
judwino' on himself. A man who does not do so is not fit to be a chief.

(3) Better ten guilty escape than one innocent suffer.

(4) Against the practice of retaliation (indiscriminate).

(5) Speak very strongly about this — it shows the Namaquas are cowards — say
they are drunkards too.

(6) Very much punishment must be left to the discretion of the judge; this
explains the principles on which it is regulated. Crime is never checked by severe
and uncertain punishment. If too severe it raises sympathy on behalf of the criminal
and the laws are hated.

(7) Speak much on the advantages of certainty and quickness of punishment
towards checking crime.

(8) J.'s simple justice. J. must not keep the [stolen] cattle for himself, but return
the stolen — and half the "Regt's Beesten'" to the Damara.

(9) I conceive that in the long run the "Regt's Beesten" will defray the costs
of justice. A sufficient number of the stolen cattle must of course be found to warrant
acting under this law.

(11) To receive oxen in compensation for punishment would be in most cases
simple bribery in order that oxen might be stolen. J. might be glad to have a watcher
killed that he might demand oxen.

(12) Great honesty must be shewn in regard to the "Pand Ossen" and simple
suspicion must never warrant their being taken. Culprit must be brought to Jonker's
place to ensure a cool enquiry into the case and proven identity.

N.B. For frequently repeated thefts stronger measures must of course be taken.
(15) AlludeagaintoNo.il. Police Badge.

Here follows Galton's code^ put into the mouth of Jonker and
read out in Dutch to the assembly :

(1) I have pledged my word to the English Government that I will act hence-
forth according to law towards the Damaras.

(2) Now I give these laws for myself and for my people.

(3) I will not treat the innocent as I ti'eat the guilty.

(4) I will not fire off an innocent werft to make amends for stolen cattle.

(5) I will not allow that women and children have their hands and feet cut ofi"
and suchlike mishandlings.

(6) I will not punish a thief with death, and I will not give heavy punishments
for small offences.

(7) But I shall do my be.st that no offence against me or my people shall remain
unpunished.

(8) I will also punish my own folk, who do injury to the Damaras, with the same
penalty and law as I punish the Damaras with, who do injury to me or my people.

' I.e. the judicial fine measured in oxen.

^ The Dutch version is in the folio volume; a much overwritten and rewritten English
original in one of the pocket-books in Galton's hand.

The Reawakeuhuj : Scientific Explonition 229

(9) But when beasts or cattle are stolen from me or my people, I will take
two-fold as many from the thief, or from those who have aided the thief, when it is
proven. That it to say, I will take again the beasts which have been stolen, or when I
cannot find all, so many as the number is. And I will also take the same number
as "Regt's Beesten" (that is to say, cattle taken to pay for the trouble and costs).

(10) Also I will punish the thief with forty lashes.

(11) When one of my watchers on the feldt has been murdered, and my cattle
stolen, then shall the murderer be brought to my place and put to death. T will take
no payment from the murderer in any form whatever.

(12) From him who hides a thief, I will take 10 oxen as pledge oxen (Band
Ossen), and retain them until the thief is brought out to me. I will take 20 pledge
oxen from those who hide a murderer. I svill give these back when the evil doer is
brought to me.

(13) If the thieves drive ray cattle away to a werft, and the werft will not give
the thieves up when my men go there and ask for them, then I will not fire that
werft, neither will I take all their oxen, but I will take back the beasts that are
stolen, and from their beasts will drive out " Begt's Beesten " for the werft is guilty,
and besides the.se I will take the pledge oxen. I will not take more.

(14) Furthermore if the men of the werft have fled when they see my men
coming and have left their cattle loose on the feldt, then I will not take all beasts
that they have, but I will take the stolen cattle out from among the others, and
then over and above the " Regt's Beesten " and the pledge cattle. I will take no
more.

(15) The half of the "Regt's Beesten," shall go to him from whom the cattle have
been stolen. The other half goes to me. The pledge oxen I take in charge.

A primitive law code it must be admitted! But this Galton-
justice ruled for many months on the borderland of the Namaquas
and Damaras, and half-a-dozen honest Englishmen with fifty Cape
mounted police could have maintained order and developed trade for
many years in that district after Galton's visit. As it was the British
Government idled and faltered, until Germany stepped in to reap
where Galton had sown.

Imagination dwells pleasantly on the youthful law-giver fresh
from his fallow years of shooting and hunting facing this population
of "O'erlams" — a mixture of Boer and Hottentot blood — the greater
part of whom according to him had the common "felon face."
A note made on Jan. 24, 1851, in one of the pocket books is, how-
ever, worth reproducing :

" Jonker is decidedly a talented man and seems in full vigour, his shrewd remarks,
concise descriptions and keen observation shows him to be no ordinary man. He came
out quite as a diplomatist in the long conversation I had with him about the interior,
artfully contriving to turn the conversation to his own ends."

230 Life and Lettern of Francis Galton

Galton's influence not only over Jonker, but over Cornelius,
Swartboy and Auiiral, was marked, and it is characteristic of the man
that but little of it is manifested in his published book. The whole
episode of his attempt to establish order in Namaqua and Damara-
lands must be studied in the MS. notebooks.

The following is the bare account which reached the press of that
day of Galton's proceedings.

Cape Newspaper. '22nd Angust, 1851. Mr Gallon's Expedition.
Letters have been received from the enterprising traveller Mr Galton who our
readers will remember started for the Great Lake via Walfisch Bay in September last.
Mr Galton writes, under date the 1st March from Lat. 22° South, Long. 10° 49' East.
Mr Galton arrived in the Damara Country in October, he reports constant fighting and
wars of reprisals between tlie Damaras and the Namaquas, which commenced 4 years
ago but had lately increased in ferocity and extent ; Jonker Afrikaner being a principal
mover. The destruction of the viilnge of Damaras, gatliered around Mr Kolbe's mission
station reported in the paj)ers at the time, and the purchase of plundered cattle by
white men, had led to difficulties in tlie way of Mr Galton's progress, and to the
prospects of commerce. Mr Galton, on his arrival in that country wrote to Jonker
Afrikaner, acquainting him with the instruction he had received from the Governor
to establish friendly relations with the native tribes on the route to Lake Ngami,
with a view to prepare a -way for future commerce and to warn them against any
attempts to dispossess them of their country ; and intimating the displeasure of the
British Governor at the oppression of the other tribes by the Namaquas. Jonker's
answer was delayed a month and was unsatisfactory, and Mr Galton then rode straight
to him with an escort of only three followers, and succeeded in thoroughly alarming
hira. He made Jonker write a most ample acknowledgment of his wrong to Mr Kolbe ;
and ad\'ised him also to make the same acknowledgment to the British Governor, which
he did, and sent it by a messenger forthwith to the colony. Mr Galton also made
Jonker send for a neighbouring captain of the red people, and made him also solemnly
undertake to leave off oppressing the Damaras, and wrote out a few simple laws to meet
cases of cattle stealing, which were cordially agreed to. One of these laws provided for
the equal punishment of Namaquas with that of Damaras for stealing. Some of their
own disputes were also voluntarily referred to Mr Galton as umpire. Mr Galton has
received much valuable and interesting information respecting the transactions in that
part of the country for some years past, from the diary of Mr Hahn, the longest
resident missionary among the Damaras. Mr Galton, at the date of his letters, was to
start for the interior in two days, but intimates his intention of returning that way in
about six months. A considerable impression has been made on the native minds by
Mr Galton's visit, and a way appears to be prepared for the progress of European
commerce and civilisation in that direction at no very distant period : but very much
will depend on the conduct of those here, who hereafter attempt to open out further
relations with the natives.

We shall endeavour to procure for our readers if possible, further details of these
most interesting communications.

The Reairakeidixj : Scieidijic Exploration 231

We may now return to the home letters.

Fehy. 22nd [1851]. I^t. 22, Long. 18° 50'.
Dearest Mother,

We are all well provisioned here, I have about 85 oxen and 30

small cattle. Still, eating nothing but meat, and having so many mouths to feed,
an ox hardly la.sts 3 days. I allow 4 lbs. of meat to each man. I have quite lost all
care for vegetables, and I have only drank wine (or rather brandy) once since landing
at Walflsch Bay. We have had admirable health and now although the sun is high yet
the rainy season has brought its clouds and the climate is really very pleasant. I am
becoming a stunning shot with my ritie, and always shoot plenty of ducks, partindges
and guinea fowl with it. Andersson is quite invaluable, and I have a very good set of
servants now, some I picked up in the country. Tliree I turned away — one of these
committed some barefaced robberies, but the natives were afraid to take him prisoner.
I happened to be at Rehoboth sliortly after he left it, where I heard of what he had
done, and I rode very hard to the Southward for a night and day — changing oxen after
him, but a stern chase is a long one, and he had too much start, so that I could not
catch him. — Oxen are certainlj' cheap among the Daniaras — you recollect my guns that
I gave 9s. 3c?. each for — well I get 5 large oxen for each gun — I heartily wish I had
more. — I do not think that I shall be more than 6 months from here, as I must keep my
eye on the Naraaquas. If fortune favours me, I shall be able, I have no doubt, to
make an entirely open road for future commerce here — where people may travel and
trade without any danger. I have taken great pains about mapping the country. — It
is a great amusement, and the Government at tlie Cape, expressed so much anxiety al)out
creating a cattle commerce here, that I have no doubt that what I have done will be
soon followed up. We have found that tliere really is a lake, corresponding to what was
placed down as Demboa, in the map you had from me — its name is Omabonde — there
I am first going. I have several blacks in my service who have been there. The
Ovam|X) Blacks live close by. They are a good set of people, everybody speaks well of
them. For interpreters I am right well ofif and on the whole, all looks very favourable.
I fear my letter is very dull — when I can write again I do not know, but do not expect
to hear from me at any fixed time. — There are so many difficulties in sending letters that
it is impossible to be punctual but in 6 months I dare say you will get one. Give my
best love to each and all of the Family and believe me ever, Your afifectionate son,

Frank Galton.

Lat. 22, Long. 16° 50'. Feby. 23rd, 1851.
Dear Darwin,

We had such a chivy after a hj'ena two nights ago, the dogs found him

just as we had all turned in to sleep. I jumped up, had only time to put my shoes
on and dressed in them, my shirt and my gun and nothing else, had a scamper up and
down, through thorns and over hills for ever such a way. I could have speared him two
or three times, but could not shoot for the darkness and the dogs. — At last he stood at
bay in an open place where I shot him through the back bone. Talking of back bones,
as 1 have just left the land of the Hottentots, I am sure that you will be cui-ious to
learn whether the Hottentot Ladies are really endowed with that shape which European

232 Life and, Letters of Francis Galton

milliners so vainly attempt to imitate. They are so, it is a fact, Darwin. I have seen
figures that would drive the females of our native land desperate — figures that could
afford to scofl" at Crinoline, nay more, as a scientific man and as a lover of the beautiful
I have dexterously even without the knowledge of the parties concerned, resorted to
actual measurement. Had I been a proficient in the language, I should have advanced,
and bowed and smiled like Goldney, I should have explained the dress of the ladies of
our country, I should have said that the earth was ransacked for iron to afford steel
springs, that the seas were fished with consummate daring to obtain whalebone, that far
distant lands were overrun to possess ourselves of caoutchouc — that these three products
were ingeniously wrought by competing artists, to the utmost perfection, that their
handiwork was displayed in every street corner and advertised in every periodical but
that on the other hand, that great as is European skill, yet it was nothing before the
handiwork of a bounteous nature. Here I should have blushed bowed and smiled
again, handed the tape and requested them to make themselves the necessary measure-
ment as I stood by and registered the inches or rather yards. This however I could not
do — there were none but Missionaries near to interpret for me, they would never have
entered into my feelings and therefore to them I did not apply — but I sat at a distance
with my sextant, and as the ladies turned themselves about, as women always do, to be
admired, I survej'ed them in every way and subsequently measured the distance of the
spot where they stood — worked out and tabulated the results at my leisure. I have
been measuring other things all the time I have been here, for I have been working
hard to make a good map of the country and am quite pleased with my success. I can
now calculate upon getting the latitude of any place, on a clear night to three hundred
yards. I have fortunately got very good instruments and have made simple stands to
mount theui upon, so that I can in a few minutes set up quite a little observatory. My
little tent has been of great use in making excursions with ride and pack oxen. It is per-
fectly waterproof and is still as good as new. My establishment now consists of 9 white
or whitish people, including myself and two blacks but they are men who have lived with
Whites all their lives and about 10 natives — 86 Oxen and 30 small cattle, and some 6 or
7 dogs; togethei- with two waggons. We start onwards the day after tomorrow. Now
we are at the furthest point Whites have ever reached and we steer about N.W. to
a lake we have heard of about 200 miles off. I shall then make a short tour and return
here to keep the Namaquas in order. I want to explore this country thoroughly. It is
a very important one for future commerce, and I should prefer exploring it well, rather
than quickly going over a long line of country. I have learnt a great deal about the
place and people and all that, but it is a long story about which you could feel little
interest and therefore I spare you the history. We live on nothing but meat and
coffee — and it suits us all admirably, there is quite enough to do to keep us from being
dull — though I certainly should like to be dropped for a week in civilized society and

then be taken back again I of course have heard nothing from Home since 1 left it. —

Give my best love to everybody and believe me Ever affectly. yrs. Frank Galton.

If I get smashed I have told Andersson he may take all my things in Africa, and
also that the wages of the men, which are £17. 15. 0. a month shall be continued for
three months beyond the time that is reasonably necessary for the expedition to reach
Cape Town. I have given him and also sent my Bankers a paper about it.

■

The Reaivakening : Scientific Exploration 233

Atigust 25. "South Africa."
(The lake I had heard about I went to; it proved to be a mere nothing, Omanbonde
is the name of it\ I did not try to get to Lake Ngami.)

My dear Campbell. I have just returned to the most advanced missionary stations
after my exploring journey, which indeed led me through a country most desolate,
thorny and uninteresting. But the end of it quite repaid my trouble, for I came to
a peculiarly well civilised (if I may use such a word) nation of blacks where I was
received most kindly but beyond whose territory I was not permitted to pass. I had
arrived within • 4 days of a vast river, the wonder of these parts, and to which the
Portuguese traders reach, but it was impossible for me to go on. My waggons were
broken and left behind with half my party to guard them amongst a large tribe of
savages. My slaughter cattle were almost all consumed, and there was not nearly game
enough to support us. I had ridden forward the last 200 miles on oxen, and these
were knocked up and quite unable to stand more travel, so that I was in quite an unfit
condition to force my way further. It was therefore with no ordinary reluctance that,
like so many other African travellers, I was, when at my most interesting point, obliged
to turn back. Still I consider that I have completed the road from the Portuguese
boundaries to the Cape, for the small intervening tract of land which I have not seen
is well inhabited and well watered. My furthest point was Lat. 17° 58', Long. 17° 45'.
The nation I reached was the Ovampos, governed by a fat stern king. I crowned him
with all solemnity. His country is most fertile, broad plains, half corn, half pasturage.
Abundance of palms and other fruit-trees of magnificent size ; they have poultry and
pigs and live right well. I did not see a single person among them who shewed the
least appearance of poverty. They have more than one sort of com ; that which they
prize the most is, I believe, unknown in Europe ; it is certainly unknown in the North
and the East of Africa. I have of course brought plenty of it with viie. Their fowls
too are nice like Bantams, so I put a cock and two hens in a basket and made a man
carry it all the way back ; they thrive very well and are always laying eggs, which
I am distributing among the missionaries so as to ensure extending the breed. I cannot
say that we have had any real hardship, though the annoyances have been very great.
We were mistrusted from the first as spies and could get no guides ; the road was horrible
for waggons, dense thorns curved like fish hooks cruelly tore our clothes and hands,
the oxen dare not face them. However I got them on 300 miles, and then the best
waggon broke down. It was mended on ray return from Ovampo-land and we got back
safely. I have learnt a great deal about the interior of Africa which will much
interest those who care about such things. Now I have my hands full of Namaqua
Hottentots. I told you how I had been setting the afiairs to right in these parts before
I left, and all have continued in admirable order up to my return. One tribe had
however just broken out, so as soon as I came to the first Namaqua chief and heard all
about it 1 rode straight away 100 miles in a day and a half to the next chief (where
I am now) and tomorrow I take him back with me and the two chiefs are to ally
together and compel the rebel one to restore all that he has just robbed with much loss
of life. The barbarities that occur daily in these parts are most horrible and disgusting.
It was quite a relief getting beyond them to the Ovampos. If all turns out well I go in

' See remark, ftn. p. 216.
P. G. 30

•2;U Life and Letters of Francis Galton

a few days about 300 miles to tlie East for a little Elephant shooting. I can get
horses now, and after all my trouble I want a little amusement, and I expect to gain
some information that I want in that direction. A ship comes to Walfisch Bay in
January and by it I shall go if all is right to St Helena on my road home. I cannot
express the interest I feel to hear about England. No post has come here since
I arrived but the ship is to bring everything. We have been most fortunate as regards
health none of us have ever as yet suffered from illness, and everybody did his duty with
the greatest good humour. For myself I feel in better health than I ever did in England.
I hope that your occupations have not induced you to abandon the noble sport of fox
hunting. I have now tried many sorts of hunting but I cand[idly assert] that fox
hunting will bear comparison with any. T[here may be] greater excitement (but not
much) in going after a large and vicious be[ast, but] the excellent horses of England, the
music of the hou[nds and the nice] society are wanting in this country. I don't know
that I have had any particularly hair breadth escapes ; perhaps the one that was most
so was in running up a hill I was quite blown and jumped up on a ledge of rock, when
I had a little lost my balance. It happened that I had leapt on a large serpent's tail,
one said to be of the most venomous kind, a black creature 7 feet long. He was up in
an instant as high as my face in a fearful wrath, and drew back his head to dart at me ;
but I had recovered my balance, and did not wait for him, for I leapt clean down the
steep rock near. He came down too, but when I at last found a stick he was going best
pace among the bushes, and though I had a long chivy after the rascal, I could not kill
him. Pray remember me to Lady Stratheden, and to your party and believe me ever
sincerely yours, Frank Galton. I regret much that I could get only a bag of the new
corn for the Harmonicon that I was entrusted with.

EiKHAMS, Namaqua Land, 8. Africa. Augt. Idth, 1851.

Dearest Mother, I have a long story to tell, so long that I think it will tire you
to read it, all about captains and chiefs and all that sort of thing, which interests people
in these parts, but about which you cannot be expected to care. I have returned after
a journey not so long as I had hoped to have made, but still extensive enough to save
my credit as a traveller. Of bran new country I have explored about 500 miles out and
then went back again by much the same route. The Portuguese and the magnificent
intervening river, of which the Cunene is but a branch, I did not quite reach. Those
abominable waggons have been like a drag chain upon me. All has ended well and we
have had no sickness whatever. Andersson is a right good fellow and I have had plenty
of occupation in mapping the country, so that altogether the time has passed pleasantly.
Of game there is next to nothing, my guns have been quite idle. — After leaving the
farthest Missionary Station, I got just between the two principal Black chiefs, who were
on the point of fighting. I managed to get myself and party clear of the massacre, and
without guides had the good luck to find a sufficient quantity of water from place to
place for ourselves and oxen, so that we had no hardship that way. The country was
a dense mass of thorns, not simple straight thorns like a quickset of hedge, but curved
like fish hooks, the oxen would not face them, it was terrible work getting them on.
I often tried the strength of these thorns by fastening a bit of rag to a spring balance
and pulling till the thorn broke — one thorn stood a pull of 27 lbs. — ^just conceive. Our

The ReaivaJcenhui : Scientific Exploration 235

clothes were in rags and at first our skins were very painful, from being torn about so
much, especially as the scratches generally festered, but we got hard in time. Well
I found my way to the reported lake Omanbonde, which was as dry as dust, not a drop
of water in the reeds, quite a sell. From the natives' description we had reckoned on
a sheet of water about 30 miles by 8. It was just a bit of a water course 300 yards
broad and might be in the rainy season 2 miles long — Lake Ngarai I have not tried for.
Well I went on to the North. We moved very slowly— the waggons had to crush
through everything, and the oxen would not j)ull through the thorns. After 300 miles
altogether I got to the end of the country of the Ovahereros and to a large village.
Hence I tried to get guides to the Ovampo, the chief would not give them, so I set off
again, for we would not be beaten. Just at starting the oxen were frightened and set
off on a trot, there was a rotten looking stump in front, but really a hard strong tree — ■
the near fore wheel of my best waggon came against it and crash went the whole
concern. There was a fix ; we set to work, brought the other waggon alongside — made
a hedge of thorns, cleared the ground and at once a party went ofT, to cut down trees to
mend it. The road had been so stony and execrable in every way, that it would be
folly to venture with an axletree of green wood, and so the waggons must stay
some weeks there, while the trees seasoned a little. I halved my party, and Andersson
and myself saddled our oxen and went to the North. We got a man who said he could
take us the 15 days' journey on to the Ovampo, he led us all wrong, and we were hard
put to it for water. All sorts of little disasters occurred, we made three pushes to try
and get on ; the third time most fortunately we met an Ovampo trading party, who had
come down to buy cattle, so we went back with them, waited 3 long weeks till they
were ready to return and then went to theii' country with them. After 200 miles, the
bushes dnd thorns suddenly ceased, and the charming corn country of Ondonga, with
its palms and fruit trees, was before us. I rode to the King and crowned him straight-
way with that great theatrical crown I had. He was a brute, fat as a tub, but his
people were most hospitable. The journey had been longer than I thought, my oxen
were in a sad state, footsore and galled backs. I had to buy and carry back provisions,
for we had but little cattle left. The Cunene river was 4 or 5 days a head, but
Nangoro (the King) would not let us go; had I been able to stay 3 or 4 weeks, I might
have persuaded him or frightened him, for he had a strong dislike to gunpowder, but it
was impossible. My waggons and the men with them, were in a precarious situation.
I could not wait, so I packed 500 lbs. of corn flour, beans and so forth, on my oxen's
backs and returned. All was right — the waggon well mended, axletree better than
before, and about 60 more sheep and a few oxen, had been bought while I was away.
We got back without accident of any sort by a slightly different road, and I am now at
the Namaqua chief's place. I told you in my last letter how I made peace over the
country, and it has been admirably kept during my absence. I have therefore given
Jonker, the chief, a cocked hat, and an old Ambassador's coat of M. Sampayo's — that
he gave me when in London. He is highly delighted. I go now to the East to get
a little elephant sliooting and shall swop everything I have for ivory, of which the
Namaquas there liave plenty, take it down to Walfisch Bay and start by the missionary
ship for the Cape or for 8t Helena, either in Decemlier or January. If however there
offer a good opportunity of going far, I may stop in the country. A trading party of

30—2

236 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon

Blacks, from the Portuguese country, were at Mondonga, when I was there, but I could
not send letters by them. The people are very superstitious and would have nothing to
do with written things. I have of course heard nothing from home since I left England.
I need not say with what anxiety I look forward to the arrival of the missionary ship
which will bring my post from Cape Town. I have of course picked up much about the
country, which will be of great interest to the people, wlio care about tiiese things.
A posse of missionaries are going to follow my road. The Ovampo are a charming set
of niggers, but almost all the other nations I have heard of, are brutal and barbarous to
an almost incredible degree. The Ovahei'eros, a very extended nation, attacked a village
tlie other day for fun, and after killing all the men and women, they tied the children's
legs together by the ankles, and strung them head downwards on a long pole, which they
set horizontally between two trees; then they got plenty of reeds together and put them
underneath and lighted them ; and as the ciiildren were dying, poor wretches, half
burnt, half suffocated, they danced and sung round them, and made a fine joke of it.
Andersson desires to be particularly remembered to all. With my best love to all the
family, relations and friends collectively and individually. Ever affectly. yours,

Frank Galton.

Ondonga is Lat. 17° 57', Long. 16° 44' (my farthest point).

The waggons broke down Lat. 19° 30', Long. 18° 20' — the furthest part seen by
Europeans before is Lat. 22°, Long. 15° 50'. Ondonga is the corn country of Ovampo
land ; the lat. and long, given above, are of Nangoro's place, the capital.

P.S. On further consideration I shall be almost sure to sail for St Helena in
December or January.

Walfisch Bay. 9,th Deer., 1851. Reed. 2.1th March, 1852.
Dearest Mother, 1 have just returned from my travels to the Sea Coast, and have
now to wait there until the vessel comes to fetch me and bring ray letters, ifec. This
note I send by a ship now in the Bay and I wish mucli that I could go with her but
I have to look after my men and I had ordered all my money to be transferred from the
Cape to St Helena, but whether the letter has been received or not I cannot tell — so
I must wait here a little longer, it may be a day, or it may be two months. I have
made a pleasant journey this time and pushed on very far and to my satisfaction reached
the tracks of people who had gone on to the great Lake. This year has been unusually
dry, the driest that is known and so all along we have had great difficulty with water.
Now as I went this time it was six months since any rain whatever had fallen, the
cattle were dying of thirst, even at the regular watering places, so that you can fancy
it was not easy to get on in travelling. However I came very well to the furthest point
that the Hottentots hereabouts had ever reached to the Eastward, and there I heard
a great many stories about the great waters a little further on (some ten days) from the
Bushmen. There was a broad plain 63 miles across, with no water now, which made
the next stage ; so I got Bushmen guides and started. These distances which are
nothing to a camel take a great deal out of an already tired ox ; I had only 7 ride and
pack oxen witli me, two of them died on the road and a third was crippled he is since
dead. However we got there all right and magnificent shooting there was. All the
Bushmen and beasts of the country were collected there and any number almost of the

Plate LIX
SKETCHKS FR(Ji\J GALTON'S AFRICAN DIARIES.

Naiigoro, King of the Ovampo, original sketch, June 1, 1851, of his Majesty
crowned with the tlieatrical tinsel crown purchased in Drury Lane.
Cf. Plate XXXVIII.

ue^4vt

Z5^'/jw>/'-^(oA i^ UJin'Ul

(ialton's favourite liack in Daniaralaiid.

The Reawaketiiag : Sclent IJic Exploration 237

latter could have been killed. We got tired of shooting and after bagging thirty
rhinoceroses in a week, left them alone. The Bushmen were in ecstasies, they dried
every bit of the meat and wasted none. There were herds of elephants there but what
could be done I The country was perfectly open and without horses it would have Ijeen
madness to have gone after them. They look immense beasts in the night time. We
sat up in the night in little places built round with loose stones. The walls about
3 feet high, and a circle of some six feet across, close by tlie water and there waited for
the rhinoceroses. Many were shot 8 paces off — most about twelve. They very
seldom drop on the spot, but as soon as wounded run about most viciously — one found
out Andersson and knocked down his screen however he jumped out on the other side.
They are extremely quick beasts — the largest shot was 16 feet long and about 6 feet
high. I forget his girth, but it was enormous. I put a bullet clean through one, in at
one side, and out at the other. It is very seldom that this happens, as the hide is so thick.
Well at this place we came on the tracks of people who had reached the Lake on ride
oxen, and great scoundrels they were too. The story is a long one, it is this. The year
after Mr Oswell discovered the Lake, some Griquas explored a direct road to it, from
the Southward and just after they had gone a party of the Kubabees (also fi'om the
South but more to the West than the Griquas) also went up the country on a plundering
excursion. They reached 'Tounobis the place where we shot the rhinoceroses, and
there hearing of the Griquas, tliey got Bushmen guides and reached their waggon
tracks in four days, three days more brought them in sight of the Lake, and to the
borders of a river that runs out of it to the eastward ; there tliey attacked a small
village. The Natives (the Mationa) all had their throats cut and the cattle were
driven ofl'. Another very large village was near, so the Kubabees dared not tire, for fear
of being heard, so they only cut the throats of the people in the small village, and then
went quickly Ijack. They got, I hear, some vei-y pretty carosses and all the Bushmen
assure me that the unicorn is found here. I really begin to believe in the existence of
the beast, as reports of the animal have been received in many parts of Africa,
frequently in the North. Anyhow the skins which were stolen were quite new to all
those who saw them. The guide of the Kubabees was one of my many informants.
Last rainy season another party of 4 waggons and plenty of horses went to the Lake to
shoot elephant. I do not know whether they have been murdered there, or returned
some other way but nothing more has been heard of them. I could not find out, whether
they were Griquas or Europeans — one of the Bushmeii had got one of their iron cooking
pots, a broken one. — I would have pushed on with my 4 remaining Oxen that were in
travelling condition, but the next stage which intervened, between where I was, and the
Mationa, was said to be a still longer one than that which I had just come. It was
risking too much. My time was very limited, and as it is, after my return to my
waggons, I have come down at such a pace that my remaining oxen are quite unfit for
the shortest journey (I was so afraid of missing the ship that I expected). The rainy
season will now soon come on and in April thei'e will be water everywhere. My
remaining things I have divided in two parts, with one I have paid £100 of wages <fec.
to Hans (my head man) who wants to stay in the country, the other half I have given
to Andersson, who has entered into partnership with Hans, to trade in cattle and ivory.
Anders.son has been a right good fellow and has gone through very hard work. I have

238 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

thus fairly made out a road perfectly practicable in the rainy season from Waltiseh Bay
to the Lake, and what is more I have thoroughly identified the river that runs to the
North of the Ovampo with one that runs out of the west corner of the Lake, and which
very likely will before long, prove a highway to the interior. — Andersson will go to the
Lake next April. A posse of missionaries will go to the North about the same time, so
that discovery hereabouts will still be going on. Tliis coast is the only one by which
a practicable communication with the interior can be made— and I expect that before
long it will prove of much importance. I have got a little ivory, about 300 lbs. weight.
It will depend a good deal on the letters I receive, whether I go straight home hence or
not. But I have had almost enough of knocking al)out, and should much like a little
civilized life and a bed to sleep in. We have all had excellent health. It is now nearly
two years since I have heard anything of any description whatever from home, so that
I am getting very anxious for my letters. I wonder if you have received any of mine.
I wrote in Feby. and in Augst. 1851. St Helena is now my first point, it may be even
3 months before I am there, though I hope it will be much sooner. I will write my
next letter from thence. Goodbye now, with my best love or regards to every relation,
connection or friend. Believe me ever Yr. Affectionate son, F. Galton.

Emma Schoonek, en koute to St Helena. Janry. 9>lh, 18.52.
Dearest Mother, Thank Heavens I am safe away from the Savages, in better
health and all that, than I think I have ever been. We are just half way from Africa
to St Helena where I trust that we shall arrive in less than 5 days. I write this to be
posted as soon as I land there, though I myself shall stop a little to get what information
I can upon some points that interest me a great deal from the niggers. I was most
delighted when this vessel hove in sight at Walfisch Bay where I had been stopping for
a month waiting here, and considerably in doubt whether or no, she would have brought
me my letters &c. from Cape Town. All however turned out right, and a fine packet of
letters and newspapers made their appearance, being the first news of any description
that I had received from home since leaving Plymouth Dockyard, and most thankful
was I, that all of you at home were in the same good health as when I left you. Many
happy new years to you all. Poor Hallam ' ! I feel as much grieved at his death as if
I had lost a near relation, it makes a sad blank among my oldest friends. Walfisch
Bay usually quite deserted, has been thrown into the greatest excitement by no less
than 5 Vessels — 3 of which where Whalers and one a man of War brig, coming in
whilst I was there. I was in a nicely ragged state to pay my respects on board the
Brig, but was most hospitably received. It was the "Grecian," Captn. Keane, who knew
all the Howards and who was most civil. There had been a rumour that gunpowder
was intended to be taken overland to the Kaffirs from there and she came down to
reconnoitre I of course was able to give all information as to how it could be stop|)ed,
Ac, if any arrived, and sent letters to the Native Chiefs telling them to stop the
waggons if any came itc. I have brought these gentlemen into a considerable fear of
me, Heaven knows how, but principally by bullying them. They made me their umpire
in all weighty questions and do anything for me. Only think of the Chief one amongst

' Galton's friend Henry Hallam had died.

The Reawakeniiir/ : Scientific Exploration 239

them, an old man, riding a long ten days' journey right across an abominable country,
just to wish me goodbye before I left. Andersson I have left behind as trader, and set
him up with my remaining provisions ifcc, on condition that he makes a good try,
straight;iway to reach the Lake, in this he will have I believe but little difficulty, as we
have already so fully explored the more difficult parts of the roads there. The Missionaries
go in a posse with 20 guns in another direction due north to the great river, at my request,
and now I am trying to find out where this river most nearly joins the sea, and if I can
arrange affairs so as to get a cruiser to take me there, which I do not think improbable,
I will make a fortnight excursion to it and then return home. I have an excellent
interpreter in my man Timboo and now knovving all the tribes adjacent to the river,
I shall have I think very little difficulty in getting the necessary information at St
Helena. To the Governor there I have a Government letter so I daresay that he will
stretch a point to help me in my scheme. I have traced a water communication from
a great lake if not the lake to the westward and so if I can only find out its mouth,
a great step will be gained towards opening a road to the interior. But you will be
tired of hearing about these things, which though they are my hobby, cannot be
expected to be yours. — So Douglas and Herman have both gone and got married ; if it
was not so late, I would have written to them to have offered my best congratulations. —
The missionaries here have a very funny way of getting married; when one wants a wife,
he writes to the President of the Society who turns the matter over in his mind and
picks out a likely young lady to suit him and packs her off. The most extraordinary
thing is, that the young ladies are quite willing to go, whether they have ever seen their
future spouse or not. 1 wife came out by this vessel for one of them. A middy on
board the " Grecian " told me that he had lately met a German missionary at Sierra
Leone who had had no less than thirteen wives. The climate killing the poor creatures
as fast as they came out. This Bluebeard was just married to his fourteenth. I shall
be very glad of a fortnight's rest at St Helena. Potatoes and bread T have been
worrying at ever since I have been on board. They taste so nice after living for such a
very long time on tough meat and hides, and a house with a roof to it and glass windows
will be a real luxury, right glad too I shall be to get on the back of a horse, after plodding
more than a hundred days' journeyings on that of an execrable ox. My saddle tree
and stirrups I shall keep and use them in England. I shall of course write to you again
from St Helena and so now. Goodbye and with my best love to every individual of the
family. Believe me. Ever your affectionate son, F. Galton.

Galton reached England on April 5, 1852, two years after his
departure on the same day of the same month by the " Dalhousie." A
sketch map of hi.s route from Walfisch Bay to the interior had reached
the Royal Geographical Society two months earlier. The paper de-
scribing his journey was read on Feb. 23 and on April 26, 1852,
i.e. partly before and partly after his I'eturn. The {)reface to his Tropical
South Africa is dated April 27, 1853 — :a year later. During that
year he was awarded a gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society,
followed in 1854 by the silver medal of the French Geographical

240 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

Society. Of the chief friends and acquaintances of Galton on this
tonr, Andersson ultimately followed the Galton northern route to the
Cunene, the border river of the Portuguese possessions, and the Galton
eastern route by 'Tounobis to Lake Nganii. Later he undertook
commercial expeditions and tried a mining settlement in Daniaraland ;
he had a stormy time with the Namaquas and an adventui-ous life,
and ultimately died not far from Nangoro's capital. Nangoro's people
came in 1858 into a controversy leading to much bloodshed with an
expedition of the missionary Hahn, and Nangoro himself died some
say foully or some say in fair fight at the same time. Galton himself
expressed much regret at this attack on Nangoro's folk. The disastrous
expedition of the missionary Hahn led incidently to the discovery of a
lake said to be 25 to 30 miles long, by name Onondova, in lat. 21'
and long. 19" ; this is probably the origin of the mysterious Demboa
Sea for which Galton vainly sought. Since the days of the German
protectorate the resources, geography and people of Daniaraland have
been often and copiously illustrated and studied.

The publication of Galton's Tropical South- Africa led to a letter
from Charles Darwin, the first of a fairly long series, and marking the
resumption of an old acquaintance. It runs as follows :

13, Sea Houses, Eastbourne, Sussex. July iXth, 1853.

Deak Galton,

You will probably be surprised, after the long intermission of our
acquaintance, at receiving a note from me ; but I last night finished your volume with
such lively interest, that I cannot resist the temptation of expressing my admiration at
your expedition, and at the capital account you have published of it. I have no doubt
you have received praise, from so many good judges that you will hardly care to hear
from me, how very much I admire the spirit and style of your book. What labours
and dangers you have gone through : I can hardly fancy how you can have survived
them, for you did not formerly look very strong, but you must be as tough as one of
your own African waggons !

If you are inclined at any time to send me a line, I should very much like to hear
what your future plans are, and where you intend to settle. I so very seldom leave
home, owing to my weakened health (though in appearance a strong man) that I had
hardly a chance of seeing you in London, though I have often heard of you from
members of the Geographical Society.

I live at a village called Down near Farnborough in Kent, and employ myself in
Zoology ; but the objects of my study are very small fry, and to a man accustomed to
rhinoceroses and lions, would appear infinitely insignificant.

We have come to this for a few weeks for sea-bathing with all our children, now
numbering seven.

Plate LX

FRANCIS CiALTON AND HIS WWK (Louisa Jane Butler).

Ill early married life. From a i)liotofjrai)h in the iwssessioii of

Mr W'lieler (iaitou at (laverrtou.

The Reaioakenlufi : Scientific Exploration 'lAX

I should very much like to heiir something about your brothers Darwin and
Erasmus : I very distinctly remember a pleasant visit at the Larches, Heaven knows,
how many years ago, and having many rides with them on ponies, without stirrups.
The only member of your family whom I have seen for years, is Emma, who gave
myself and wife a very cordial greeting at the British Association at Birmingham, some
few years ago.

T do not know, whether I ought not to apologise for troubling you with this note,
but the spirit wliich makes me write, must be my excuse. Pray believe me,

Yours sincerely,

C. Darwin.

In the summer of* 1852 (June 14) Galton wrote a letter to the
Royal Geographical Society urging the want of proper instruments for
travellers, and we note therein the development of his interest in the
study of the art of travel, to which we must return later. But he needed
rest and he appears to have suffered from low fever, which was not com-
pletely dispelled by a yachting tour with Sir Hyde Parker to Scotland
and Norway. The winter was therefore spent at Dover, his mother
and si-ster Emma nursing him. Here at a Twelfth Night party in 1853
Galton met for the first time Miss Louisa Butler. Early in March
Miss Emily Butler writing to her brother A. G. Butler reports that
" the lion-killer certainly seems smitten." Galton returned in March
and Miss Butler in April to London, where they again met, went
togethei- to the Crystal Palace, and returned engaged. On the day —
April 27 — of Miss Butler's return to Peterborough, Galton finished his
Tropical South AjHca ; three days later the Dean, her father, died
suddenly at luncheon, and Francis Galton arrived the same evening to
look only on the dead face of the man, who should have welcomed his
daughter's future husband. There is little doubt that this sad initiation
bound with unusual closeness the links between Galton and his wife's
family.

Only one other characteristic picture of the Galton of these days has
reached my hands. It is again in a letter of Miss Emily Butler to her
brother of May, 1853.

■' Mr (talton's book is fery jolly, and gives one a high idea of his resolve and
prudence ; the latter quality is so strongly <feveloped that he has to have hats made
for him ! He has got such a line medal from the Ji. G. iS. When it was given him,
the President said very fine things of him, but regretted that so spirited an adven-
turer was going to be spoilt and married. Mr G. says it was very well put or he
would hnvv thrown the «lecanter at the worthy President.

I-. (i. 31

•_'4i' Jjife and Letters of Francis Galton

" Mr G. came yesterday fresh iVoni the Derby ! 1 felt so pleased to have such
a sportive relation. It was a splendid day at Epsom, and ho was very happy
wandering among the gypsies etc. He tells such rich stories and very neatly. He
has been to spirit-rappings' and hiul another conversation in Damara with a deceased
chief of that tribe. Is not that wonderfid, for Mr Galton is the only man in Europe
who knows Damara. The chief promised to go abroad with him, which is a pleasant
look-out for Loui I "

The marriage of Francis Galton and Louisa Butler took place
on August 1, and was followed by a tour in Switzerland and Italy,
the winter being spent partly in Florence and partly in Rome. The
return to England in March, 1854, was largely followed by visits, and on
August G the Galtons again left for an extended tour in France. Hardly
till the summer of 1855 did Galton settle down to steady research, but
from that year onwards there is scarcely a year which does not bring its
definite piece of noteworthy research, and Galton's scientific production
now becomes the story of his life. The extended continental tours con-
tinued throughout a long life, but they were holidays, and, however they
extended his field of observation, they had no longer to do with scientific
exploration. But what Galton had learnt in his African journeys, became
the fund on which he di'ew for his Art of Travel, 1855, and for those
lectures at Aldershot on the ArU of Campaigning (1855-6), by wliich
he endeavoured to supply the "helplessness of our soldiers in the most
elementary matters of camp-life," a helplessness the Crimean War was
emphasising in the most potent and cruel of manners. These subjects
will be dealt with in the following chapter.

' Francis Galton enters under the events of 1853— " spirit-rapping mania."

Plaic LXI

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APPENDIX

NOTE I

Portraits of the Darwin Family

Portraits of the more immediate ancestors of Charles Darwin and Francis Galton
exist at C'reskeld Hall, the seat of Francis Darwin, Esq., and at Newnham Grange,
Cambridge, formerly the home of Sir George Howard Darwin. Of the pictures at
Creskeld, the most noteworthy are those of Robert Darwin (1682 — 1754) supposed to
be by Richardson about 1717, and of his three sons: William Alvey Dai-win (1726 —
1783) by Wright of Derby, Robert Waring Darwin (172-4 — 1816) aged 51, painted by
John Borridge, 1775, and Erasmus Darwin (1731 — 1802), painted by Wright also. See
our Plates VI, VT"" and VI'''. I have heartily to thank Colonel G. W. Darwin for
photographs of the pictures of the elder and younger Robert, and Mr William Erasmus
Darwin for a photograph of that of William Alvey Darwin. The general resemblance
to Erasmus of these portraits is striking.

Some of the Darwin portraits at Elston Hall were sold by William Brown Darwin,
and in part have been I'epurchased by members of the family. Sir Francis Sacheverell
Darwin had a copy made of the portrait of his grandfather, Robert Darwin, and he
further purchased, about 1850, from a dealer in Newark, a Darwin portrait with which
he had been familiar in his youth as part of the Elston collection. These two portraits
fle.scrnded to his grandson, Sacheverell Darwin, liy whom they were left to Sir George
Howard Darwin. They passed for many years traditionally as those of Robert Darwin
(1682 — 1754), and of his father, William Darwin (IG-'iS — 1682), and photographs of
them formerly in the possession of Sir Francis Galton are so entitled. An examination
of the photographs convinced me, however, that the portrait of the so-called William
Darwin must be of a later date than that of Robert Darwin, and could not possibly
represent his father. By the kindness of Ijady Darwin I was enabled to examine both
pictures at Newnham Grange, and also to see vai-ious correspondence concerning them.
Sir George Darwin, I then learnt, had himself felt in doubt as to the William Darwin
portrait. The Robert Darwin portrait is rightly ascribed and its ascription agrees
with that of the original at C'reskeld ; the copyist has, however, lost something of the
delicacy of the original. The history of the "William Darwin " picture is very definite :
it includes a written .statement by Reginald Darwin' as to his father, Sir Francis,
finding the picture at Newark, and its being then identified as "William Darwin." The
Director of the National Portrait Gallei-y has most kindly examined a photograph of this

' Letter to George Howard Darwin, Esq., Nov. 5, 1890, and also a footnote to a
MS. memoir of the Darwins in the possession of the Rev. Darwin Wilmot.

31—2

244 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on

" William Darwin " for ine, and he dates the painting from the wig as belonging to the
period 1730 to 1745. The only "Williams" possible are therefore William Darwin of
Cleatham (1681 — 1760), elder brother of Robert Darwin and uncle of Erasmus Darwin,
—who would have been 49 in 1730 and rather old for the portrait — William Morgan
Darwin, his son (1710 — 1762) — who would have been much the right age, but little likely
to have a portrait at Elston — and William Alvey Darwin (1726 — 1783), as a very young
man. The latter is the only alternative that seems probable, and the portrait is not
wholly unlike Wright's portrait of a later date. It seems therefore reasonable to ascrilx-
this " William Darwin " portrait to William Alvey Darwin although probably no
certainty will ever now be possible. The Newnham Grange portraits are reproduced
on Plate XLII.

There is a miniature at Creskeld Hall of Aun Lascelles, that is, Ann Waring
(1664 — -1722), whose first husband was William Darwin (1655 — 1682), the mother
of Robert Darwin (1682 — 1754), and grandmother of Erasmus. A portrait of the
Rev. John Darwin (1730 — 1805), another brother of Erasmus and Rector of Elston —
artist and date unknown — is at Elston Hall. Finally we may note that there exists in
Mr William E. Darwin's possession a very fine portrait, also said to be of a " William
Darwin." This portrait, an undoubted Romney, is dated V)y the Director of the National
Portrait Gallery 1780 — 1783 ; it represents a very young man. There appears to be no
" William Darwin " of this date ; and the only Darwins at all of an appropriate age
would be the sons of Dr Erasmus Darwin by his first wife. The portrait bears no
marked resemblance to Erasmus or Robert Waring, nor is there any knowledge of a
poi'trait of Charles. Its history before purchase appears to be unknown. The difficulties
that have arisen in this case may emphasise the importance of returning to the good old
custom of painting on the canvas itself the name of the subject.

NOTE 11

On the Howard Ancestry of Charles Darwin
(See Pedigree Plate E)

While working on the Darwin side of Francis Galton's pedigree, 1 came across
a good deal of material bearing on the noteworthy ancestors of Charles Darwin, and it
occurred to me that, as it might be many years before any one else again went through
the same material, it would be worth while forming a pedigree of the noteworthy
ancestors of Charles Darwin. Accordingly I determined to put together a pedigree
for Charles Darwin similar to the one already issued by the Galton Laboratory for
Francis Galton. In this task I have received great assistance from letters to me of the
late Sir George Howard Darwin touching on points I had asked him about with regard to
the latter pedigree, and referring to papers in his possession bearing on family history.
Through the kindness of Lady Darwin and Mr William Erasmus Darwin and with the per-
mission of Mr Charles Galton Darwin I have been able to examine a variety of documents
bearing on the matter ; the most valuable of these documents were drawn up many years
ago by Erasmus Darwin, son of Dr Erasnms Darwin; he must have had a very extended
antiquarian and historical knowledge of genealogical facts, which more than a century

Plan- LXIII

THOMAS FOLE^' (](!i7_i(i77).

Fouiider of Old Siiiiiford Hospital, fi-oiii the engraving in Nash's llixfor// nf Worresternhire after the

painting of l(i70 hy \\'illiani Tnihiite in the Hospital. A direi-t ascendant of {'harlos Damvin.

Appendix 245

ago' was iiiueh liarder to aeijuii'e than at present. His accuracy' is often greater tiian
that provided in tiie more elaborate pedigrees of the present day. I have had, of course,
to judge occasionally between conflicting statements, but if tlie reader finds my ])edigree
dififers at points from other versions, it has not been done without inquiry and con-
sideration. It is impossible here to defend in detail the version actually provided. Of
course the present work difl'ers absolutely in character from the excellent, privately
printed, PeiUijrce <;/' the Family of Daririii, 1888, compiled by the Somerset Herald,
H. Farnham Burke. The object of tliat work was to trace as completely as possible all
the descendants of William Darwin of Marton (who died c. lo42) without regard to
their achievements. The scope of the present pedigree is to follow back from Charles
Darwin himself those lines which lead us to persons noteworthy in the history of this
country, or noteworthy from the standpoint of European history. It is needless to say
that in a certain sense sucii a pedigree cannot be complete. Further reseiirch would be
certain to lead us to still further instances of noteworthy men or women. Indeed to
keep the pedigree within anything like reasonable bounds I have had to indicate
occasionally only final ancestors, and in other cases to entirely omit lines I perfectly
well knew to te of distinction, but for which no space was available.

The reader who studies this pedigree alongside that of Francis Galton will be struck
with many similarities, but some marked differences. The turning point, of course, lies
in the Howard marriage of Erasmus Darwin. That marriage brought into the Darwin
stock the sound commercial energy of the Foleys (see Plate LXIII), who like Galtons and
Farmers had amassed large wealth by iron-foundries. It gave also to the Darwin stock
their share of aristocratic and ultimately royal blood through Pagets and Devereux, an
acquisition which the Galtons had made through the Barclays ; it supplied also a pleasure
pursuing element in Lettice Knollys and Penelope Devereux, which may be paralleled in
the Colyear strain of Francis Galton ; but it failed to provide anything of the strong
religious nature that we find the Quakers contributing to Francis Galton's stock. We
largely miss too the strong admixture of Scottish blood, tliough possibly the Butlers,
de Burghs and Fitzgeralds may supply Celtic imagination. It is of interest to note that
Galton and Darwin were linked together by conniion blood in a variety of ways wholly
independent of Erasmus Darwin. I should not wish the reader to look upon a pedigree
like the present as an amusing tour deforce. I think, on the contrary, that it illustrates
a principle expressed by Galton himself on more than one occasion, namely that those
who have chiefly made the history oi this country, we maj' indeed say of Europe, fall into
relatively few strains and these strains are closely linked together by blood relationships-'.
Distinguished leaflers of men — judges. Speakers of the House of Commons, leaders of
commerce, warriors, diplomatists, and men of affairs — are all there in the background
and linked by ties of blood with the modern leaders of men — the originators of ideas
which govern human progress — with men like Darwin and Galton.

I have not reproduced fully Mary Howard's immediate relatives. They belonged to
a strain almost as physically delicate as the Buttons (see p. 36 above). Charles Howai'd,
Mary Howard's father, died at (54, her mother at 40, their daughter Elizabeth livwl

' His single pedigrees of various lines do not reach back to the same distant
ancestry ius mine do, but they have been very helpful.

- See the quotation from a letter of Galton's to Nature given on p. 6 above.

246 Life and Letters of Francis Galton

three years, Penelope one year, Mary herself lived to be thirty, his son Charles died at
48 years, his daughter Frances lived six years and his son Tliomas only a few months.
The Howard line lias been solely preserved through the one child of Mary, Robert
Waring Darwin, that survived to have children, and through her brother's child, Mary
Ann Howard, who married Sir Robert Wilmot of Osmaston. Tn both these lines there
has been noteworthy achievement.

T have tilled in at the lx)ttom of tlu^ pedigree two connections of some interest, namely,
first the pedigree of the Earles of Heydon (see Plates LXIV to LXVI) as far as known
to me, and secondly a pedigree showing how the Sachevt-rells, through the Warings, link
Darwins, Poles and Howards together. It has been suggested that Erasmus Darwin met
Mrs Pole, his second wife, solely as a medical attendant. T think there was a recognised
Sacheverell relationship. In the first place Charles Howard, grandfather of Dr Erasmus
Darwin's wife, made Mary Sacheverell, the wife of the famous Dr Henry Sacheverell, an
exec\itrix of his will. This lady was the sister of Edward Wilson, a forniei' bailiff and
(1687) mayor of Lichfield, and is .said to have been a tirst cousin of Charles Howard's wife,
Mary Bromley. She tirst married George Sacheverell, High Sheriff of Derbyshire, 1709,
and secondly his distant relative, the famous Dr Henry Sacheverell. Elizabeth Collier's
tirst husband, Edward Sacheverell Pole, was a son of Elizabeth Sacheverell of Morley.
Elizabeth Sacheverell and Erasmus Darwin were distant cousins by common descent
fr-oni Robert Waring, who died in 1662. Thus Erasmus Darwin probably appears as
medical adviser to the Poles owing to the Sacheverell or Waring relationship, and in
marrying Mrs Pole as his second wife, he was linking himself to a family already con-
nected by marriage with both Warings and Howards. I am inclined to take the view
that Erasmus Darwin gave the name of Francis Sachevei-ell to his second son by
Elizabeth Pole, not after her first husband, but after the family, which itself dying
out, had yet linked liy intermarriages Darwins, Wilmots, Poles, Howards and Wai-ings.

Edward, Emma and Violetta Darwin (mother of Francis Galtorr, on the right),
children of Erasmus and Elizabeth Darwin, Derby, 1800. From a picture
in the possession of Mr VV^heler Galton at t'laverdon.

CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Plate LXIV

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Plate LXV

KHAiSMIS KAUIJ-: (1.i:m) m;-).

(rreat-great-trraniUatlu'r of Knisiinis Darwin. I'lom the poitrait liy Zoesl at

Heyiliiii Hall in the |Misses>iiiii of W. I). Hiihver, Esij.

Phttc LXVI

THOMAS K.MILK (UVIA \i\W.\).
if Krasiiiiis Kai-le and (iiTat-fri-fat-uiiolc i)t' Krasnms Darwin. From the iiortrait
by Zoest at lleydon Hall in the possessiiin of W . D. Hiilwer, Ksq.

BIOMETRIKA

.4 JOURNAL FOR THE STATISTICAL STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

FOUNDED BY

W. F. R WELDON, KARL PEARSON and FRANCIS GALTON

EDITED BY

KARL PEARSON

Biometfika appears about four times a year. A
vdlume containing al)out 500 pages, with plates and
taUes, is issued annually. The subscription price,
IJayalJc in advance, is 30«. net (^7.50) jier volume
(post free) ; single jjarts 10«. net ($i2..")0) each. The
cun-ent volume is Volume X, the first part of which
has just appearcd.

Vohuues 1— IX (1902—1013) complete, 30*. net
per volume ; bound in buckram, 34*. Qd. net per
volume. Till further notice new subscriliers to
Biomelriku may obtain Vols. I — IX together for
£10 net, or in buckram for £12 net.

Some idea of the scope of the journal may lie
obtained from the following list of topics wliich
have l)een disc\is.sed among others in the first nine
volumes of Bimnetrika : —

Craniometry. Prehistoric Eg\ )itian Crania (Faw-
cett), 17tli centvHT English Crania (ilacdonell). Long
and Round Barrow Skulls (Schiister), Negro Crania
f'njm GaVxHin and CoTigo (Benington), Pigmy Crania
(Smith), Cranial Ty])e Contours, Intei'nal Capacity
from External Measurements, Study of Special Cranial
Bon&s, Na.sal Contours, Craniological X'otes, etc., etc.

Anthrop<jmetry. Of Criminals in New South
Wales and in England (Powis, ilacdonell, etc.), of
Scottish In.siine (Tocher), Survey of School Children
of Scotland (Tocher), Influence of Pigmentation on
DLsease, Measurements of Brain Weight (Pearl,
Gladstone, Blakeman), Con-elation of Hair, Eye
Colour, and Age (Pearson;, Expectation of Life in
Ancient Egypt and in Rome, Relation of Intelligence
to Physical Characters ( Pearson j. Correlation of
Bonas of the Hand, Measurements from Oxfoi-d and
Cambridge Anthropometric Lai loratories, Fertility
and Degeneracy, Anthropometric and oKstetric
Studies of the female Pelvis, etc., etc.

Medicine. Vaccination and Recovery, Measure-
ments of Severity of Disease, Cancer and Diabetes,
Multijjle ca-ses of (lise;i.se, 'Cancer Houses,' Incidence
of Syphilis, Mosquitos and Malaria, Numlier of

Erythrocytes and the Altitude, Split-foot Deformi-
ties, Albinism — histological and classificatory. Anti-
typhoid Inoculation, the Opsonic Index, Weights of
human Viscera, Piebalds, etc., etc.

Heredity. Of Duration of Life in Man, of Fer-
tility, of Health, of Physical and Mcnt^il Characters,
of Eye and Skin Colour and of Special Deformities,
of Coat Colour in mice, in greyhounds, in cattle and
hoi-ses, of size of litter in mice anil sows, of jjroduc-
tion of butter-fat in cows, of characters in Shirley
Poppy and in Bejins, Papers on Mendelism, Law of
ancestral Hei'editv and determinantal Theories, etc.,
etc.

Thereare numerous papers on stfitistical problems
ill Zoology and Botany doAling with natural selection,
variation and growth in tadpole, trout, cuckoo, wasps
and liees, earthworms, jiaramccia, termites, domestic
fowl, etc., etc., anil many papers with measurements
of correlation and variation in plant life.

Practice and Theory of Statistics. Btometrika
cont^iins many standard tables : for (Joodness of Fit
(Elderton), of the Proliability Integral (Shcppard),
Powers of Natural Numbers, I'-functions, Crades
and De\iates, of Probable Errors, Tetrachoric Func-
tious and iiicom]iletc Jloment Functions, etc., etc.
There are many papers on the Theory of Correlation,
of Association and of random Sampling, on Inter-
polation, the construction of Moi-tality and Sickne.ss
Tables, Index-distributions, etc., etc. Amcjng those
who ha\e contributed are A. O. Powys, W. F. R.
Weldon, E. Warren, O. H. Lattei-, F. Ludwig,
W. R. Macdonell, Francis (ialton, Karl Pearson,
W. F. Sheppard, E. H. Schuster, David Heron,
W. P. and E. M. Elderton, (i. Diincker, R. Pearl,
G. H. Shull, Geof. Smith, Major Greenwood, J. W.
Jenkinson, F. Y. Edgeworth, J. F. Tocher, C. D.
Fawcett, A. Lee, A. R. Galloway, R. J. Gladstone,
J. Brownlee, F. de Helguero, R. C. Punnctt,
Edmund (iain, F. E. Liitz, K. Tschepourkowsky,
Major W. F. Harvey, H. H. Stannus, E. C. Snow,
J. A. Harris, and inanv others.

Cambridge University Press

C. F. Clay, Manager

London : Fetter Lane, E.G.

Chiciigo : The Univei-sity of Chicago Pi-ess

1'. T. o.

THE FRANCIS GALTON LABORATORY FOR NATIONAL EUGENICS

EUGENICS LABORATORY LECTURE SERIES
T. The Scope and Importance to the State of the Science of National Eugenics.
By Karl Pearson, F.R.S. Issued. Third Edition. Price Is. net.

II. The Groundwork of Eugenics. By Kahl Pearson, F.R.S. Issued. Price

\s. net.

III. The Relative Strength of Nurture and Nature. By Etuel M. Elderton.

Issued. Price \s. net.

] V. On the Marriage of First Cousins. By Ethel M. Elderton. Issued. Price
1 s. net.

V. The Problem of Practical Eugenics. By Karl Pearson, F.R.S. Issued.

Second Edition. Price \s. net.

VI. Nature and Nurture, the Problem of thi! Future. By Kakl Peakson, ]'\R.S.

Issued. Pi'ice Is. net.
\W. The Academic Aspect of the Science of National Eugenics. By Karl Pearson,

F.R.S. Issued. Piice Is. net.
VIII. Tuberculosis, Heredity, and Environment. By Kakl Pearson, F.R.S. Issued.
Price I.*, net.
IX. 1 )ar\vinisii), .Medical Progress, and Eugenics : The Cavendish Lecture, 191'i.
By Karl Pearson, F.R.S. Issued. Price Is. net.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY AND OF THE FRAY

I. The Influence of Parental Alcoholism on the Physique and Ability of the

Offspring: a Reply to the Cambridge Economists. By Karl Pearson,
F.R.S. Issued. Price \s. net.

II. Mental Defect, Mal-Nutrition, and the Teacher's appreciation of Intelligence :

a Reply to Criticisms of the Memoir on ' The Influence of Defective
Physique and Unfavourable Home Environment on the Intelligence of
School Children.' By David Heron, D.Se. Issued. Price Is. net.

III. .Vn Attempt to correct some of the Misstatements made by Sir Victor Horslev,

F.R.S., F.R.C.S., and Mary D. Sturge, M.D., in their Criticisms of the
Galton Laboratory Memoir : ' A First Study of the Influence of Parental
Alcoholi.sm,' etc. By Karl Pearson, F.R.S. Issued. Price Is. net.

IV. The Fight against Tuberculosis and the Death-rate from Phthisis. By Kahl

Pearson, F.R.S. Issued. Price Is. 7iet.

V. Social Problems : Their Treatment, Past, Present, and Future. By Karl

Pearson, F.R.S. Issued. Price Is. net.

VI. Eugenics and Public Health : Lecture to the York Congress of the Royal

Sanitary Institute, By Karl Pearson, F.R.S. Issued. Price Is. net.

VIL Mendelism and the Problem of Mental Defect. J. A Criticism of Recent

American Work. By David Heron, D.Sc. Issued. Price 2s. net.
VIII. Mendelism and the Problem of Mental Defect. II. The Continuity of Mental
Defect. By Karl Pearson, F.R.S., and Gustav A. Jaedebholm. Issued.
Price Is. net.

Published by Dulau & Co., Ltd., .S7, Soho Square, London, W., fi'oni whom complete
lists of Galton Ijalwratory Publications may be obtained.

921 G181 V.1 C.1

Pearson # The life,
letters and labours of Fr

3 0005 02014871 7

.The Ufe, lette "—

The R.W.B. Jackson

Library

OISE

THE ONTARIO INSTITUTE
;dl^^9TLJKa;-S IM EDUCATION

^ %JCRONTb':"%A:iAOA

S^^^YonQm-

PLATE

A.
B.
C.
D.

PEDIGREE PLATES

CONTAINED IN THIS POCKET

Immediate Ancestry and Collaterals of

Sir Francis Galton.
Pedigree showing connection of Barclays

with Noteworthy Ancestors.
Pedigiee illustrating Relationships of

Freames, Barclays and Galtons.
Pedigree of Abrahams, Farmers and

Galtons.
Pedigree showing connection of Charles

Darwin with Notewoithy Ancestors.

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