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OCR Rendition - approximate
48 Life and Letters of Francis GaIton in the Monthly Magazine for August 1, 1'99.' They show that Samuel Galton was not only a careful experimenter, but a man of very considerable originality. Young was himself a Quaker and was as a boy brought up in the house of David Barclay of Youngsbury'; here he was educated with Hudson Gurney, and must have come in contact with Samuel Galton, who married Lucy Barclay in 1777.. It seems probable, therefore, that Young knew Galton's work. Possibly his memoir took originally the form of a communication to the Lunar Society. The purchase of optical apparatus in 1786 is suggestive as to the -date of these researches. Samuel Galton, as we have seen, was largely interested commercially in canals', and in the Annals of Philosophy, Vol. ix, pp. 177-183, 1817 is a paper by him On Canal Levels. He also published a book on birds3 with quaint colour illustrations, which was quite good for its date ; according to his grandson Francis he had a ' decidedly statistical bent'. There is ample evidence to show that Samuel Galton had he not been a " Captain of Industry " would have been a noteworthy man of science ; his energies-even. like those of Erasmus Darwin-were diverted from science to more monetary pursuits. But when we look at the strong face shown by the portrait of Samuel Galton, when we examine the record of his scientific friends, and appreciate his tastes and abilities, we find it hard to assert that Erasmus Darwin was the only source of Francis Galton's scientific ability. When we examine the four grandparents of Francis Galton, it is difficult to give precedence to any one of them as more noteworthy than another. Lucy Barclay has been described by one of her granddaughters as " a very clever, beautiful woman, very dignified and Queen-like in her manner." She possessed great talent and refinement, ' See Memoir of the Life of Thomas Young, M.D., F.R.S. [By Hudson Gurney], p. 10. London, 1831. 2 Erasmus Darwin favoured also the construction of canals and formulated some forcible and some rather quaint arguments in favour of them. His great-grandson, Mr E. Wheler Galton, has in his possession an interesting manuscript of Erasmus's dealing with this matter. An argument in favour of canals was the provision they made for a reserve of men suited for the navy. 3 The Natural History of Birds containing a Variety of Facts selected from several Writers and illustrated with upwards of One Hundred Copperplates. In three volumes. No date, Johnson, St Paul's Churchyard. ' There are remarkable graphic charts of his income and household expenditure, length of service of his servants etc., etc., still extant.
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