26 Lij'e nnii Letter* 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 2 , 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 household 3 . 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 



1 Francis Galton says so himself in his Memories, 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 use 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." 



3 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 Frank 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. 



