96 Lif<' find Letters of Francis Gallon 



their nature for had it gone by blood, it would have descended through the female 

 HUP which is not the case...." 



Then after attributing most of their faults to smoking, Francis 

 continues : 



"So evidently their nature is good but unfortunately much spoilt. And their 

 Eilwagen 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 having 3 blisters besides two agricultural 

 crops. This is all from their Eilwagen or Diligences. 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 Tabac' 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, when in the moment 3 Zwanzigers (a coin about lOrtf.) 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 1 and museums : 



1 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. 



