510 Life and Litters of Francis Galton 



Hotel Washington Irving, Granada, Spain. Friday, April 14, 1899. 



(But please address up to midday post of April 20 to Hotel de Rome, Madrid, Spain. If a little 

 later, I think the letters will be forwarded, I will certainly tell them to do so.) 



Dearest Emma, Your letter of April 8th welcomed us on arriving here last night. We 

 have continued to have great variety of interest and pleasure in the journey and are both 

 quite well and happy. At Tangiers we stayed five days and made several acquaintances, 

 among them an English lady whom I had long greatly desired to see, the widow of the late 

 Sheriff of Wazan. My friend, Dr Spence Watson of Newcastle, wrote a book about her, long 

 ago. She was a handsome girl (? a governess) some 18 )'ears ago and the Sheriff of Wazan, who 

 is a sort of rival Emperor of Morocco and of most holy Mussulman origin, but who affected 

 European ways, met her. They mutually fell in love and married, she going to Wazan, continuing 

 Christian and wearing European dress, but of course much shut up, and he remaining the 

 religious and temporal head of a large and fanatical community there. She did her part with 

 great tact and got on excellently. At length her husband died at Tangiers, and left her with 

 two sons and an adequate property. She is now a plain, sensible, rather brusque but very kind, 

 middle-aged and fattish woman. We quickly became great friends and she told us any amount 

 of her experiences. The people kiss her hand and her shoulder which is the correct homage 

 from an inferior, and she showed us the house and room where the Sheriff died and which her 

 eldest son, for whom she has just found a correct Mussul woman to marry, is to occupy. The 

 trousseau box was gorgeous to look at. All this was quite a feature in our stay. On Monday 

 wo sailed to Spain again, opposite to Gibraltar, and went in seven hours to Malaga, where there 

 are wonderfully beautiful gardens to be visited, all sorts of tropical trees and clumps of bamboos, 

 but I thought them as muggy as they are beautiful. Yesterday, ten hours railway brought us 

 here, to stay for three or four days. Then we go to Cordova where (at the Hotel Suisse) I may 

 possibly find some letters. After that to Madrid till the 25th, then to the South of France, then 

 to Hotel de la Poste, Clermont-Ferrand, Puy de Dome, France, which I hope to reach about 

 May 3, and home by about May 7, or a few days later. Eva is a capital companion, always cheer- 

 ful and punctual and interested; moreover she always sees the good side of things and of persons. 

 Eschbach continues to be perfect. We are idling this morning, as I have many letters to write, 

 and the weather is a little dull and unsuitable to give an excellent first impression of the 

 Alhambra, to which I am now close by. You will have missed Bessy during this week ; give 

 her my best love, of course. I am so glad the bicycle tour was a success. What a scandal it is 

 about the Warwick and the Beaufort properties, and to think too of the Stoneleigh pictures! 

 I gave your letter to Eva to read, so she knows of your messages and will write. I am very glad 

 that Guy has a free passage to England and another chance for his career as a soldier. Amy 

 Johnson's is a sad case. I trust she will be guided by her lawyer's opinion (Win. Freshfield) 

 before going to law. She told me the whole matter. What fun about Lady Harberton ! I hope 

 Punch will make something, good-naturedly, of it. About Lady Stanley, she was a kind friend. 

 Louisa and I stayed some days with her, near Holyhead. Your "ups" will I hope increase and 

 the "downs" diminish as the weather gets warmer. It was like midsummer in Malaga, but this 

 place is 2000 feet high and cooler. Best loves, ever affectionately, Francis Galton. 



[Enclosed with previous letter.] H6tel Washington Irving, Granada. 



My dear Aunt Emma, Your letters are such a pleasure, Uncle Frank gave me the one of 

 last night to read. I don't suppose he ever mentions, his cough, so I will tell you about it. It has 

 never actually gone yet, but is much better and he looks very well and is tremendously 

 energetic, the Spaniards all ask me his age, and won't believe it when I tell them; you should 

 see his complexion when he is on the sea, it is splendid, just like Sophy's when she is very well. 

 He is really a perfect person to travel with, because he never fusses or gets impatient or 

 grumbles if we are kept waiting ever so long for food or luggage ! I hear from Sophy as usual 

 with accounts of you; a letter from her last night tells me you were "in your tea gown and 

 very delightful" when you last met. Poor Mr Lloyd, I am so sorry he is still so ill. I wrote 

 to Gwen from Cadiz, I felt so very much for her and was truly fond of Mrs Lloyd. I am so 

 happy out here, I love the Spaniards, they are so kind and polite to us, but all the same they 

 are poor creatures and not a bit strong-minded or intellectual, but so picturesque. We hardly 



