158 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE
granddaughters, one has obtained a First Class in History at Oxford. This by no means exhausts 'the achievements of the grandchildren. The Butler family well deserve study as an instance of hereditary gifts, but this is hardly the place for it.
Neither can I enlarge as I could have done on the far greater importance of being married into a family that is good in character, in health, and in ability, than into one that is either very wealthy or very noble, but lacks these primary qualifications. The enlargement afforded to the previous family interests through marriage is so great that much must be lost when first cousins marry one another.
I protest against the opinions of those sentimental people who think that marriage concerns only the two principals; it has in reality the wider effect of an alliance between each of them and a new family. Moreover, the interests of the unborn should be taken far more seriously into account than they now are. Enough is already known of the laws of heredity to make it certain that the marriage of one class of persons will lead on the whole to good results, and that of another class to evil ones, however doubtful the result may be in particular cases. Of this I shall speak more fully in the final chapter.
As regards the earlier domestic life of my wife and myself, we lived in a flat in Victoria Street for three years ; then I bought the long lease of 42 Rutland Gate, which has been my home ever since. We followed the usual routine of social life of persons of our class, making tours every year, usually abroad. The doctors sometimes sent one or both of u s to iru(lergo n cure at same watering placei III this
