8 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



afterwards Lord Byron, cousin and successor to the 

 poet in the title. They were very kind to my sisters 

 in their schooldays and after. 



Now, as to my two parents and their brothers 

 and sisters. My father, Samuel Tertius Galton 

 (1783-1844), the third in descent of the name of 

 Samuel, was one of the most honourable and kindly 

 of men, and eminently statistical by disposition. He 

 wrote a small book on currency, with tables, which 

 testifies to his taste. He had a scientific bent, having 

 about his house the simple gear appropriate to those 

 days, of solar microscope, orrery, telescopes, mountain 

 barometers without which he never travelled, and so 

 forth. A sliding rule adapted to various uses was 

 his constant companion. He was devoted to 

 Shakespeare, and revelled in Hiidibras ; he read 

 Torn Jones through every year, and was gifted with 

 an abundance of humour. Nevertheless, he became 

 a careful man of business, on whose shoulders the 

 work of the Bank chiefly rested in troublous times. 

 Its duties had cramped much of the joy and aspirations 

 of his early youth and manhood, and narrowed the 

 opportunity he always eagerly desired, of abundant 

 leisure for systematic study. As one result of this 

 drawback to his own development, he was earnestly 

 desirous of giving me every opportunity of being 

 educated that seemed feasible and right. He was the 

 eldest son. 



The second son, Hubert, married a sister of 

 Robert Barclay, the banker. They had three 

 daughters, who all died unmarried two while young, 

 the other in advanced age. 



The youngest son, John Howard, married Isa- 



