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 



