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Characterisation, especially by Letters   607

42, RUTLAND GATE, S.W. July 19, 1910.

MY DEAR MILLY, You have indeed a full programme. May the weather befriend the motor trip. I have practically taken a house near Haslemere for either a month or six weeks. It has a Roman Catholic chapel attached to it, for the use of which we pay in the rent ! It is called "The Court, Grayshott, Haslemere, Surrey," and has excellent grounds and roads for my armchair on wheels. No news worth recording. My novel gets on and I live a new life with its characters. I have often read of this faculty but never experienced it before. An uncommonly neat and well got-up German translation of my Hereditary Genius has been published. It was translated by Dr Neurath of Vienna, aided by a Dr Lady of the same name*, presumably a near relation. Grace Moilliet comes to us early in August, and that is all that occurs to me to tell. I had a long morning in the Park to-day. Best loves to you all.

Ever affectionately, FRANCIS GALTON.

42, RUTLAND GATE, S.W. July 31, 1910.

MY DEAR MILLY, I do indeed sympathise with your having to forgo the long desired motor expedition to Tregeare. Perhaps it will come off after all when the bad colds are gone. An efficient ex-chief examiner of the Civil Service asked me whether I knew that the word " Whisky " appeared in the Bible? As I did not, he referred me to the 2nd chapter and 3rd verse of Hezekiah. Is it new to you, to Amy, to Guy, and to Hugh? When you write again, tell me the result; ask them separately. Our move approaches. In little more than a fortnight's time we ought to be settled at Haslemere, or rather Grayshott, which is in a different county, viz. in Hampshire. Haslemere is very near to the border of Surrey and Grayshott is over it. My cough has departed and now I am at " my usual " again, and have recommenced daily trundles in Kensington Gardens. Three Butler nephews have taken their several leaves, one to be a guest of a wealthy admirer in Canada (or ? the U.S.A.) for his holiday. Another for three weeks in the Auvergne country, and who will report on the state of dear Louisa's grave. Another, Ralph, to be assistant to the Times correspondent in Berlin, and I should add Harcourt, who will soon return to India, as a newly elected member of the Viceroy's Council. He has been made much of by people in high places and among others was struck by the keen interest of the King in Indian affairs. Howard Galton and his wife have just had tea here. He sticks to his story that the very oldest will in Somerset House is that of a Galton progenitor and that the wills of all his descendants are there in unbroken succession. The history of the first part of this is that the wills were registered at Old Sarum and that the earlier collection was transferred in recent years to Somerset House. There are hundreds of letters preserved at Hadzor that relate to the Galton family, who were not Quakers till after they settled in Birmingham t. Ever affectionately, FRANCIS GALTON.

42, RUTLAND GATE, S.W. August 7, 1910.

MY DEAR MILLY, Did any of you really look in the Bible for "Hezekiah"? I hope they did!! That is the fun of the thing. I should not have attempted such a "sell" without the prefix of the " Chief Examiner," which is literally true. It was G. G. Butler. Gladstone could not see the fun of the story about the Austrian Archduchess and her successful lottery ticket of No. 28. She had been inquiring everywhere for the holder of the then sold No. 28 and bought it back at much cost, and, lo and behold, No. 28 did really win the big prize. Her friends clustered round, begging to know her secret of divination. At last she said : " Well, I will tell you. I had dreamt it was 9, but said to myself ' a mere dream is nothing.' The next night, I again dreamt it was 9. Then I thought, this is becoming serious.-What will happen on the third night? It was 9 again. So I said ' as 3 times 9 is 28, that must be the lucky number; and so it was."' Gladstone, who had no more fun in him than an average Scotchman, simply


* The title of the translation is Genie and Vererbung von Francis Galton, Autorisierte Obersetzung von Dr Otto Neurath and Dr Anna Schapire-Neurath. It was issued in 1910 by Werner Klinkhardt in his Vienna Philosophisch-soziologische Biiclaerei as Bd. xix. The translators inscribed the copy sent to Francis Galton: "Dem Meister der Eugenik in Verehrung." O. Neurath u. A. Schapire-Neurath, Wien im Juli, 1910.

t I think this should at least read, "till after they settled in Bristol."


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