134 Life and Letters of Francis Gait on 



speiik French said to an Englisliman who was with mo, " malade," i.e. injured in one of 

 the rapids and obliged to lie by. I accordingly made an agreement with this English- 

 man whom I had picked up the da}' before to hire a boat between us and to get down 

 as we could to Vienna. Well a boat we got, i.e. a punt of unplaned boards kept 

 together with wooden spikes and in this we set oif at 3 a.m. It was horribly cold and 

 a strong wind in our teeth, but we luckily got on, bailing out continually. On leaving 

 the hills the wind troubled us less and about 2 o'clock we passed Molk having gone 

 down all the rapids ; here the wind freshened. I accordingly took an oar, i.e. a tip of a 

 lir-tree with a bit of board nailed to one end and rowed as hard as I could to Stein 

 (look in the map), it was very hard work. At Stein we changed men and got two 

 rowers and arrived at Vienna at 2 o'clock this morning. Being not allowed to cross 

 the barriers we had to walk two miles with baggage to the Police Station and then 

 another mile to a sleeping place, 13 beds in one room. Got up at 7 and have been 

 walking about seeing sights, till about an hour ago 9J p.m. The Englishman is a Major 

 Parry, has seen some Canadian service, and in an eternal fuss and flurry, clubs with me 

 and as he does not know one word of German is always full of gratitude. I have just 

 come from hearing Strauss play. I have had the pleasantest possible voyage, nice 

 companions — very nice indeed in some cases. N.B. Linz is universally famous for the 

 beauty of its fair sex, and so is Wurzburg, and everything prosperous. I have never 

 enjoyed myself more. I shall be back in quite time enough to Cambridge (I have 

 altered my return route) so don't be at all uneasy about that — and I shall be in 

 Constantinople on the 23rd. Don't write after ine because I am not quite sure of my 

 return route, but I will write, if I have time from Constantinople. I would have given 

 anything to see your physiognomies, when you received ray letter from Giessen. Didn't 

 Bessy say : " What a monkey " ? Well, Good bye and believe me ever 



Your affectionate son Fras. Galton. 

 Dear Pemmy, I have been sketching away. I wish that I had you with me, you 

 would so enjoy the journey. You certainly nowhere see such universally happy faces as 

 in Germany, it puts one in the best possible humour. 1 am laughing half the day, and 

 I am tanned as red as mahogany, perfectly independent and in the best good humour 

 imaginable. Then in the evenings I tooled with a diligence friend to the coffee gardens 

 where all the fashionable of the town are assembled, and flirt furiously ; really I feel 

 quite at home everywhere. I saw such splendid etchings and sketches today by all the 

 first masters. Every style from Albert Diirer to Raphael, the trees are done beautifully 

 (Ah ! Mr Francis !) I wish you could see them tliey are the Archduke Charles' Collection 

 and 35,000 in all — and how is Bessy, I suppose as fat and healthy as possible after 

 Tenby, and Delly and Mammy and Lucy and brothers ? I should like just to have a 

 peep at all your pretty faces again, it seems at least a month since I left Frankfort and 

 I do not know how long since I saw you last. Well, Good bye. I think of you all 

 sometimes. Fras. Galton. 



Oil, the joy of it all, when the roving lust is on you, and all men 

 reflect the liappiness that radiates from yourself! The writer can 

 recollect a three months' journey on foot alone from Heidelberg to tlie 

 gates of Vienna and back when only a little older than Francis Galton ; 



