200 Life and Letters of Francis Gallon 



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, I 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 the monkey, on the 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 witli 

 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 HCM i 

 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 Homers, 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 1 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 great things, corn laws repealed, ministers expected to go out in a week ; in Cambridge 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 ; Lushingtoii 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 coining 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 2 . 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 off 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, 



1 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. 



