48 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon 



in the Monthly Magazine 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 purchase 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 2 , 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 3 with quaint colour illustrations, which 

 was quite good for its date ; according to his grandson Francis lie had 

 a decidedly statistical bent 4 . There is ample evidence to show that 

 Samuel 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, 



1 Sec Memoir of ilte Life of Thomas Young, M.D., F.R.S. [By Hudson Gurney], 

 p. 10. London, 1831. 



2 Erasmus Darwin favoured also the construction of canals and formulated some 

 forcible and some rather quaint arguments in favour of them. His great-grandson, 

 M i- E. Wheler Galton, has in his possession an interesting manuscript of Erasmus's 

 dealing with this matter. An argument in favour of canals was the provision they 

 made for a reserve of men suited for the navy. 



3 The Natural History of Birds containing a Variety of Facts selected from several 

 Writers and illustrated with up^vards 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. 



