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OCR Rendition - approximate
Lehrjahre and Wanderjahre 105 great-great-great-grandfather Barclay wrote his famous 'Apology for the Quakers.' We went up a small hill at the back of the house to the chapel where all the Barclays are buried. Then into the garden, where my great-grandfather pushed a bull over the wall, 60 feet down. We went over the farm with my uncle Barclay, and walked through a wheatfield, the stalks higher than our heads'., In the sitting-room we saw a moveable panel, behind which was a secret chamber to hide in. Margaret Barclay showed me a lock of Prince Charles' hair and after much urgent entreaty, I got her to give me the one hair I have. She also showed me a miniature of Queen Anne set with diamonds, which Queen Anne gave to my ancestor. She gave presents to many of the Jacobite families, it was supposed with the hope that they would espouse her brother's claims to the throne after her death." (Mrs Wheler's Reminiscences, Sept. 1839.) Francis went back with his father and sister to Leamington, and on Oct. 3rd the lengthy letters to his father start afresh. We find him at New Street, Spring Gardens, established in the house of Richard Partridge, Professor of Anatomy at King's College, London. Here Galton had two or three fellow pupils all attending the medical lectures at King's College. These were a distinct advance on the Birmingham system of education. There was preliminary training in anatomy (under Partridge with Bowman and Simon as directors in the dissecting room), in physiology (under Todd, a man whose encyclopaedic works can still be studied with occasional profit) and in chemistry (under Daniell, of battery fame). For the first time Galton came into a more or less modern scientific atmosphere, and a microscope became a necessity. Forensic medicine also was a subject of delight "It had a sort of Sherlock Holmes fascination for me, while the instances given as cautions, showing where the value of too confident medical assertions had been rudely upset by the slt'rewd cross-questioning of lawyers, confirmed what I was beginning vaguely to perceive, that doctors had the fault equally with parsons of being much too positive." (Memories, p. 42.) In his first letter Francis expresses pleasure with his environment, his fellow pupils are " two scamps " and one seemingly very nice fellow. In his second letter he gives a more detailed account of his sur roundings 1 October 12, 1839. 17 NEW ST., SPRING GARDENS. MY DEAR FATHER, Thank you very much for your letter-uncommonly so for its contents, which I have got duly receipted. This is a very comfortable house and I certainly have many extra opportunities of reading. Our sitting room is quite respectable, well lighted, ' Captain Barclay was not only a famous pedestrian, he was also a great agricultural reformer, and did much for Scottish agriculture. P. G. 14
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