574 l/ifi and Letters of Francis Galton 



The Ministry seem learning to blunder less, but have a difficulty in carrying out their party pro- 

 gramme, etc., as stated at the Elections. I heard a good story of, let us say, Lady A., a great 

 lady who lives in Grosvenor Square. She told her friend, say Mrs B., "I have asked all the new 

 Ministers to my reception in July." Mrs B. said, "What, all of them? Have you asked John 

 Burns and his wife?" Lady A. answered, "No, not them: they are impossible. Besides, I have 

 never called there." Mrs B. said, "But you must ask them, or it will he a .slight and they and 

 many others of their party will be angry." So Lady A. went home and wrote, " Dear Mrs Burns, 



I hope you and Mr Burns will give me the pleasure of your company at my reception on 



Pray excuse my not having called, but the distance is so great from Grosvenor Square to 

 Battersea." The answer came: "Dear Lady A., I fear that Mr Burns and I shall be unable to 

 avail ourselves of your kind invitation, for I have studied the map, and find the distance from 

 Battersea to Grosvenor Square to be just as great as that from Grosvenor Square to Battersea." 

 Neat, wasn't it? Mrs B. told Lady Galton who told me. I am getting answers and suggestions 

 to my typewritten circular 1 about the Eugenics Certificates, which were sent to about half-a- 

 dozen experts. We shall see the final results, probably in the first instance in a paper published 

 somewhere. Best loves, ever affectionately, Francis Galton. 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. June 24, 1906. 



Dearest Milly, July 12th or 13th, as you propose, will suit excellently; so come here at 

 once on your arrival. Eva will stay two or three days to overlap you and to have the pleasure 

 of seeing you. What about Amy? The little dressing-room will be the only room available for 

 her. It would be heartily at her service if she came with you. As the time approaches, you 

 will tell me more particulars? —day and train, etc. To continue business, you will, of course, 

 stay a full fortnight. Later on / should greatly like a week with you and I would arrange 

 about Gifi in the way you describe, but I can't say more just now, as Eva's plans are not 

 certain — cannot be certain — just yet, and mine would be somewhat governed by hers. The plan 

 in outline is that she should go with her artist friend, Mary Savile, to some picturesque place, 

 yet to be decided on, in conformity with Miss Savile's portrait-painting arrangements. Eva 

 writes to-day to fix more particularly, but cannot hear for some three days, I expect. One idea 

 was to go to Polperro, which would be very convenient to her and to myself. But this must stand 

 over for a few days. She is most obliged for your very kind invitation, but she wants a bit of 

 artistic Bohemianism badly. Miss Savile, too, who is coming into high vogue with great people, 

 wants the same. Lucky for Bob, not to have been blown up! So glad the Pyrenees have been 

 a climatic success, though not a social one. Hugh and Fred will, I trust, enjoy it all thoroughly. 

 I have been in what is now for me a whirl of doings. There was a big dinner at Trinity College 

 given to us old fogeys, once undergraduates at Trinity. T was the oldest fogey but one, but it 

 was very interesting meeting many scattered friends. Llewelyn Davies was one, who sat next 

 to me. Lord Macnaghten (the Judge of Appeal) was one of the guests at the Lodge and talked 

 to me very pleasantly about R. Cameron Galton, who was his contemporary. They both won 

 rowing prizes and were great friends. Macnaghten was a Senior Classic of his year. Then I had 

 a good deal of talk with Sir Fowell Buxton, who told me he had a genealogy of the descendants 

 of the Gurneys of Earlham. There are upwards of 1000 now living, but of these some 200 must 

 be subtracted owing to cousin marriages, which include duplicate entries of the same name. 

 He has sent me some figures and asked me to suggest how to work the thing to the best 

 advantage. I had some ideas and have written them out fully and sent them. There were 

 many others of great interest to myself, but tedious to narrate. Then, one day, I went with 

 George Butler and his boy, with Eva, into the country to hunt up family portraits of the boy's 

 family, contained in an old house, whose representatives welcomed us warmly. In the evening 

 at 11.15 I went to a big affair in the offices of the Daily Telegraph, to which the German 

 Editors now visiting London were invited, and a lot of English to meet them. We saw the 

 set-up of the paper in all its details and the beginning of the printing of it at 12.15. The scale 

 of the whole thing is enormously costly. One ,sees that home industries, in producing things in 

 tvide demand, have no chance against big machinery. There are eight big machines, all fed from 

 duplicates cast from the same type. Each machine is fed from a roll of paper four miles in length 

 and drops out Daily Telegraphs, ready folded and dried, faster than it is possible to count — 

 certainly at least five in each second. It was a wonderful display. 



Ever affectionately yours, Francis Galton. 



