36 Walter Frank Raphael Weldon. 1860—1906. 
of editing, for proof-reading, for preparation of manuscripts and drawings for the 
press, or for interviews with engravers, he had little taste or time. He was too full 
of his current problem to undertake work of this kind regularly ; proofs might 
remain for weeks unopened, until the number was printed off, and manuscript 
might disappear into a drawer, when the co-editor imagined it was safely on 
its way back to the author! But Weldon was always delightful when such "laches" 
were discovered ; to meet Weldon when he was in an apologetic frame of mind 
meant that you must apologise to him yourself for the very thought of scolding 
him ! It was all over before he had shaken hands, sat down, and lighted the 
inevitable cigarette ; you were not talking of proofs, but of Kobelt, Mendel, 
Maeterlinck, the Kritik der 7'eiven Vernunft, — anything and everything but dull 
editorial matters. And you felt a freshness and a tonic, and a sense of the healthy 
joy and pleasure of life, and you wondered how it was possible to do anything but 
love this man and rejoice in the clearness of his vision and the suggestiveness of 
his thought. 
Starting on October 16, 1900, and extending throughout the early Biometrika 
letters, runs a flood of information with regard to Mendel and his hypothesis. 
" About pleasanter things, I have heard of and read a paper by one, Mendel, on the results of 
crossing peas, which I think you would like to read. It is in the Abhandlungen des natur- 
forschenden Vereines in Briinn for 1865. I have the R.S. copy here, but I will send it to you if 
you want it." [October 16, 1900.] 
Then follows a resume of the first of Meudel's memoirs, and for months the 
letters — always treatises — are equally devoted to snails, Mendelism and the basal 
things of life. It is almost impossible to give an idea by sampling of the crush of 
keen and vital interest these letters represent. Some attempt must, however, 
be made : 
" Have you ever been up here ? It is not at all a bad little country when you are tired. — We 
started sim23ly to see the architecture at Llibeck, because neither of us knew the North German 
brick and wood church work. That was very interesting, then we came here for fresh air and 
quiet — and we found snails. 
I have rather more than 5000 snails all properly pickled, with localities recorded There 
are so many points about snails, if one could only measure and breed them ! . . . Also I have been 
gi-eatly impressed with the way in which they are dependent upon conditions of environment, so 
that one quickly learned to know almost exactly what species one would find in any place one 
passed through. I think that by going from here, which is almost the eastern limit of several 
species, to a very different country, such as Oxford, one might almost hope to make a good shot 
at some of the essential conditions which determine the distribution of some of the species.... 
It is ridiculous that such abundant material as snails aflbrd everywhere (except at Danby End ?) 
should he. left useless because one cannot see how to take advantage of it. Send me some "tips" 
for trials. (To Oxford,— we go home to-day)." [Plon, 5/9/90.] 
" You ought to see Liibeck some day. You know so much about German art that I suppose 
the pathetic ugliness of it does not hurt you any more ? 
You can't get a beautiful art in a climate where peoj^le must wear clothes. Just as the 
northern idea of a portrait is a round face stuck on top of a heap of fine clothes, so the northern 
idea of a building is a thing with all its good simple lines disguised by silly excrescences. If you 
