Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 



93 



his spectacles with joy having at last found me, and fairly out of breath reseated himself. 

 We went on to Rugby, where we were turned out into coaches, which were very bad 

 ones, and so got to Denbigh Hall, where we got into the train again and reached 

 London. Cabbed to the Old Hinnniunis — went to Bowman and arranged plans for the 

 next day. 



Next day there were passports' to be got and viseed. Francis 

 went to Barclay's for his letter of credit. Then he went down to dine 

 with Barclay at Leyton and to stay the night, there being sixteen 

 jiersons to dinner, all Barclays or Gurneys but three. Among other 

 details of his two days in London Galton reports : 



"I was magnetised to-day; it had not .so much effect on me as last time; the Baron" 

 said that he was quite exhausted. We set off tomorrow. Bowman will press on to the 

 top of the perch, I cannot displace him, Russel and I are fighting for the next place." 



We can picture the three young men, Bowman 22 years old, 

 Russell 20, and Galton miich as we have him in his portiait, all ready 

 and lit for their fi'olic ; Galton somewhat shy, and probably more boy- 

 like and sensitive to appearances than his comrades (see Plate XLVIIl). 

 He was still in the stage, when to be unusual, e.g. carry a parcel through 

 the streets — or look singular — was really painful to him. This was a 

 matter in which travel would aid him and did, for while no man was 

 more careful of social convention than Galton, even in his later years, 

 he did not allow it to become a tyrant and overrule comfort oi' con- 

 venience. I have heard him almost directly tell a caller to be gone, if 

 he wanted to talk business, and the following anecdote communicated 

 by his niece Mrs Lethbridge, witnesses how far in later years he had 

 advanced from the boy of 16, who felt shy when his name was bawled 

 through Coventry station : 



"I have an amusing recollection of a little trip to Auvergne which he and I took 



together in the summer of 1 904 The heat was terrific, and I felt utterly exhausted, 



but seeing him perfectly brisk and full of energy in spite of his 82 years, dared not for 

 very shame, confess to my miserable condition. I recollect one terrible train-journey, 

 when, smothered with dust and panting with heat, I had to bear his reproachful looks 

 for drawing a curtain forward to ward off a little of the blazing sun in which he was 

 revelling. He drew out a small thermometer which registered 94°, observing, ' Yes, 



' Galton's passport dated July 24, 1838, and viseed by police and consuls and 

 burgomasters in almost every place he came to is now before me, a curious relic of this 

 journey. 



- Querj' : Was this " animal magnetism " and the " Baron," Baron von Reichen- 

 bach 



