578 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



between the garden and the stables a cistern 20 x 10 x 10 feet is just dug out and built round, 

 and in an ingenious way all the water that falls on the many roofs connected with the 

 farm-yard is collected into a pipe to feed it. Ever so much is going on besides. I had a quick 

 but stuffy journey from Newton Abbot. The fast train was easily caught there, but there was 

 overcrowding in it. The three nights in London were very profitable, for I finished my little 

 paper and did various jobs, and I reached here, as arranged, on Thursday. Eva is at Bibury. 

 I join her there to-morrow, for the week ; then I go home, and she for a few days to 

 Warwickshire, and we converge in London afterwards. I wonder if the drought has continued 

 with you. There has been a little rain here, and yesterday a big threatening cloud, with 

 apparently waterspouts of rain, hung over Leamington and elsewhere, but only a few drops 

 touched us. The newcomers at Gannoway Gate (where Darwin lived as a bachelor, and the 

 Torres till lately) were here while getting their furniture in. It transpired that the male could 

 whistle through his fingers and after moderate persuasion he did. He gave us lessons in that 

 musical and very useful art, but although I blow with his diagram by my side, in front of the 

 looking-glass, for five minutes at a stretch, I have not yet caught the trick. Edward occasionally 

 succeeds. I shall go on night and morning till I can. How many useful accomplishments are 

 neglected in our youth! — this of making "cat-calls" among the number. I want it every day 

 to get a cab in London. It beats all whistles hollow, but confessedly is not elegant to the eyes. 

 I do not suggest Amy's acquiring it. 5, Bertie Terrace is not yet sold, several things that 

 they all are glad to have stored are still there. I had not the heart to look at it. Gifi cycled 

 over to Leamington and saw Temple, who had been here for a little while in Claverdon, and 

 learnt that since then she had been somewhat seriously ill, a doctor-three- n< 



times-a-day business; I don't know more. She is convalescent now, but / \5o 



weak. Yeales is, I hear, losing her memory. Everything ages, and is 

 extruded when of no further use. Among others, I am glad to reckon 

 my pinched thumb nail, only one half of the old one is left now. Good- 

 bye, loves to you all. Fred was very patient. We were \ hour too early 

 at the station and the train was late as well! Ever affectionately, Francis Galton. 

 I am writing before breakfast so have no message to send. 



42, Rutland Gate, S.W. September 23, 1906. 

 Dearest Milly, I am really at this moment still in Bibury, but go home for good 

 to-morrow. We, like you, have much sunshine and warmth, but I hear dismal stories from the 

 Cumberland Lake country of what the weather is and has been there. Thank Amy ever so 

 much for Mrs Benson's letter which I keep and which confirms essentials. Amy seems to have 

 told her that I said it was Fob etc.*, my point was that I thought it could not have been him 

 but that I quite forgot who it was and wanted to learn. This, Mrs Benson supplies. The 

 object of the visit to Lambeth was to see some papers in the library there which bore on the 

 history of the Greek Church. For all the rest, I can trust my own memory. The interview 

 was described by the Archbishop most graphically and forcibly. I have now been a week here 

 at Bibury in extreme cottage-comfort. Eva has a lady artist friend, Miss Savile, who has to 

 sleep out but takes her meals here. The post has just brought me the photo-process reduction 

 of the diagram in my forthcoming paper (composed at Edymead); the proof will doubtless be 

 at Rutland Gate. I shall be glad to have this preliminary off my hands. You shall have a 

 copy of the thing when Nature has published it. I am receiving excellent tracings of profiles, 

 full of character, from Dance's big works. They are large enough to fill (allowing a full margin) 

 one page of this note-paper, and are all of well-known contemporaries, sketched from life. 

 They are making a most interesting subject for study and comparison. The caster of the 

 British Museum coins is on his holiday, but undertakes to cast them all when I come back. 

 I mean all in the list of 100 or so that I sent him. To cast all in the British Museum would 

 indeed be a large order. To-morrow we all separate. Eva goes for a week to Warwickshire 

 and then she rejoins me for good in London. We have not yet absolutely, but approximately, 

 decided against wintering partly in England. The probable event will be that of going slowly 

 Rome-wards early in November. I look back with ever so much pleasure to Edymead. Pray 

 give suitable remembrances all round, not omitting the Signora. 



Ever affectionately (from the awning as usual), Francis Galton. 



* This probably refers to C. P. Pobedonosteff. See p. 548 above. 



