580 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



published a brief account of it) at Boulogne. What a noise it made! People thought a magazine 

 had exploded somewhere, and the trail of white that it left behind lasted for a long while. With 

 many loves. Ever affectionately, Francis Galton. 



7, Windsor Terrace, The Hoe, Plymouth. December 20, 1906. 



My dear Edward, Best wishes of the season. It will be the shortest day when you get 

 this, and then the year will turn — Hurrah ! I am particularly glad you will be on the Advisury 

 Council re Agricultural Biology. It will be just the thing you could help so well in, especially 

 when the stage is reached of the Agricultural Farm. 



Very amusing and pleasant your Gloucester host's account of Erasmus at the Regent. 

 I heard of his luncheon party there a few days since, from Lucy, aud how happy he seemed to 

 be. She too seems at last to be getting strong and happy, and her husband as well. 



A friend of mine, Pryor by name, has a collection of old silhouettes, mainly of certain Quaker 

 relatives and their friends including my Grandmother of Duddeston (whose pastel portrait 

 you have) and one of dear Mrs Schim.*, made at Bath in 1809, according to my Father's note 

 in pencil upon it. She was then an uncommonly handsome woman of 30 odd years with a profile 

 greatly like that of her very promising brother, Uncle Theodore*, who died young of plague at 

 Malta. You naturally do not share my (reserved) admiration for Mrs Schim., for your Mother 

 certainly did not, but she interests me on family grounds, so when I return home I think I shall 

 frame her. 



So James Keir Moilliet is buried to-day. Poor Lewis with his twin brother gone and himself 

 blind. Amy Lethbridge is quite well again, after a bad sore throat to begin with. Then she 

 was taken to Weston and got quite well. Eva saw her at Edymead House two days ago, just 

 returned. 



Plymouth atmosphere is not enlivening, but I get on well enough by leading an invalid life. 

 Driving is no good, for the ground is very hilly and the ugly suburbs stretch far. 



You mentioned that you read Nature. Look in to-day's issue at a paragraph, with small 

 diagrams, on how to cut a cake scientifically, signed by a certain F.G. We have used the plan 

 regularly for at least a fortnight. It suits our modest wants. So you have two bulls ! Claverdon 

 Leys will become "Bashan" (I have however no conception what the Biblical "Bulls of Bashan" 

 refer to). I am delighted that you are so lit, so busy and so happy. Loves to you both. 



Ever affectionately, Francis Galton. 



7, Windsor Terrace, The Hoe, Plymouth. January 17, 1907. 



My dear Edward, So glad to hear of your doings, of the house " bursting full of boys and 

 girls" and of the six calves. — Also of the forthcoming wild geese in Wales. — The poor old bank 

 in Steelhouse Lane!!t Nothing endures. One of Bewick's vignettes is of a churchyard on the 

 edge of a cliff that is crumbling into the sea. The havoc has reached so far as to cut a monument 

 in two. The part that remains is inscribed "To the immortal memory of..."; all the rest is gone. 

 I was more sentimental about the little Slaney Street, where there 

 was an Office connected with the bank, which my Father kept up 

 till his death, I think. It had an old copying machine, given him 

 I believe by James Watt its inventor, and which looked not unlike 

 a mangle. A huge thing worked by cross arms. I went with him 

 there on not a few occasions, but never into the big bank house. 

 I wish I could get rid on fair terms of the small remainder of my 

 Duddeston property, for the reason you mention. But after all there is not enough of it left to 

 be risky overmuch. The cistern must now be a pleasure, also the pond. 



I am not yet by any means fit, having had a week ago another shiver with bed and doctor, 

 but I feel now well cleared out and particularly comfortable in myself, leading at present an 

 invalid life, which I hope will not last for many days longer. I am to take regularly every 

 morning a purgative fizz, and strychnine after meals as a nerve tonic. The prescription seems 

 reasonable. I should greatly like to accept your kind invitation later on, but dare not make 

 any plans yet. I suppose I must stick here till spring sets in. The doctors strongly urge it. 



* See our Vol. I, Plate XXXV. 

 t See our Vol. I, Plate XXXII. 



