130 Life and Letters of Francis Galton
(Violetta Darwin) also passed away. We may conclude this chapter with an extract from L. G.'s Record, for it indicates that the large amount of work which Galton published in 1874 must have been done amid much stress.
"1874. Uneasy from the very beginning about dear Mrs Galton. Frank went to see her early in February, and she died February 12th aged 90. This coming so soon after my dear mother made a sad blank; both homes gone. We went to dear Emma [,`Sister Emmy'] at Easter for a week and then made a few days visit to Winchester, Salisbury and Lyndhurst, the weather not good. At Whitsuntide we visited the Jenkinsons and greatly enjoyed their lovely country. George and Josephine [Canon Butler and his still well-remembered wife, Mrs Josephine Butler'] came to us at the end of June. We were prevented going away by domestic bothers, which have made the whole of this year sadly trying We paid many visits during July and it the end went down to Cornwall spending a fortnight with Adele and Milly [`Sister Delly' Mrs Bunbury and her daughter, afterwards Mrs Lethbridge] and visited Boscastle and Tintagel. After this we went to N. Devon till September, when we visited the Groves at Cheetle near Blandford. On the 14th I broke a blood vessel and was very near dying, but thro' God's mercy I came back to life and felt so peaceful and happy in my quiet sickroom, that it was not a time of misery. And all were so kind and good to me, and Frank especially, that I felt sustained by love. We moved to Bournemouth as soon as I was able and then in November to dear Emma, and found her well in her newly arranged house. We came home November 18th. Very severe weather soon set in and lasted to the end of the year. Frank was ill in December and had Dr A. Clarke2. We had a quiet dull Xmas, no going out, and Frank had to give up his promised lectures at Newcastle3. His book on the Nature and Nurture of Scientific Men came out in December; occupied on inquiry about Twins. On the whole a year of sad memories."
And yet Galton published one fundamental book, English Men of Science, and three memoirs in this year and wrote at least four others ! He depended singularly little upon a stable environment; yet it must be remembered that years were not needed then for the collection of data_ and its' numerical reduc on, as in the case of modern biometric studies.
ne of the protagonists for social purity. I remember many years ago, one evening in Grindelwald, being struck by a very commanding personality, one of the most 'regal' women I had yet met; it was Mrs Josephine Butler, Mrs Galton's sister-in-law.
2 "What a pleasant man Dr Andrew Clarke is. He examined me most thoroughly, pronounced it a concurrence of irregular gout with influenza and that my heart was weak. I mend, but not overfast." Letter of Galton to George Darwin, Xmas Day 1874. Strange to say Sir Andrew Clarke's directions for treatment, principally diet, have survived almost the half-century. Perhaps the wisest was: "Walk at least half-an-hour twice a day, and do the most important beadwork after breakfast, not after dinner."
11 The manuscript draft of these lectures has survived.
