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OCR Rendition - approximate
610 Life and Letters of Francis Galton THE COURT, GRAYSHOTT, HASLEMERE. September 19, 1910. MY DEAR MILLY, Your sick list is sad. I hope Guy got comfortably to Loxton. Tell me the latest news about the well. Did you happen to see in the Obituary, or hear from Claverdon, of their sad adventure-of their friend, Mr Aylmer, dying at their house? I know no particulars yet. So Hugh is to be a curate in Exeter, good fortune to him ! Devonshire air is certainly relaxing to most strangers, but what tough and hardy men have come from there ! And Hugh is quasi-Devonshire in origin, having been reared just over the border. Beak's* wife is a slow case, but she is working towards the good, though it appears that her arm is permanently crippled. She is tortured by having it twisted and stretched weekly to prevent, I suppose, adhesions, and goes to the Hospital for the purpose. Bob Butler has been with us for the week-end and told us much about his tour besides Clermont-Ferrand. He is very observant and is already an advanced student in architecture. The country West and South-West of Auvergne has many architectural interests and some imposing situations, of which Rocamadour is one. It is built against a steep cliff, near its top. He and Eva went to London early this morning. She to inspect doings at Rutland Gate and to bring some things back with her. A rather pretty girl called here with her people, she wore a big hat at which I exclaimed saying it was as long round as she was tall. She wouldn't believe it, but it appears that on going home the measurements were made and I was right as she confessed yesterday, when she called with a still more absurd hat than before on her head. It was not so large but shaped like a cask. What absurdities abound just now. The Times will begin a weekly t"' Froat supplement of ladies' fashions in November, I believe. My old friend, General Sir Richard Strachey, was a famous Engineer Officer, and once upon a time when in a very out-of-the-way part of India his wife suddenly required a smart dress for some important function. He rose to the occasion and drew a pattern for it with the same care that he would have taken over the plan of a fortress and the gown proved a success. At least he said so. With loves to you all. Ever affectionately, FRANCIS GALTON. It will be nice to have you both here, first Dim and subsequently you. Has the motor yet arrived? Of course you can do little with it while the gardener is ill. THE COURT, GRAYSHOTT, HASLEMERE. September 28, 1910. MY DEAR MILLY, Again I am late and without valid excuse! Beak is just off to fetch his wife here for a week or fortnight's fresh air and good food. We are going on as usual. What a tragedy it was at Claverdon. I hope M. L. does not suffer really much from her rheumatism, but the Harrogate treatment seems drastic. At the temperature of her air baths not only would a cup of water boil in her hands but a joint would roast and turn brown. 1 grieve at Lucy Cameron Galton's bad carbuncle. They ought to go to Bordighera in less than a month, but an actual or possible carbuncle is a bad travelling companion, and one never knows when the risk of a new one is over. I had a pleasant letter this morning from Mary Spencer Butler. Her son (the lame one), Geoffrey, has been having a lovely time in America. The equivalent there to our "Leader of the Parliamentary Bar" wanted a young Englishman as a guest, and hearing of Geoffrey and that be was looking out for a vacation pupil, invited him to his house and has taken care of him in every way, introducing him right and left and having him at a camp, where they live the so-called "simple life." The only ill-luck he had was through a misdirected letter from Roosevelt, asking him to stay a day or two with him. It was directed to Geoffrey Baker instead of Butler. This from M. L. to finish up with : Scene, Breakfast table, a small boy and his nurse who is reading the Christian Herald. Boy: " Nanny, I don't like this egg." Nurse, without looking up: "Be a good child and eat it." Boy, after a while: "May I leave half of it?" Nurse: "No, be good, eat it all up." Boy, after another pause: "Nanny, must I eat the beak?" Best loves, affectionately, FRANCIS GALTON. THE COURT, GRAYSHOTT, HASLEMERE. October 3, 1910. MY DEAR MILLY, Your account of Olympet is pityful. I am vegetating on pretty happily, only vegetables don't cough in spasms and require cigarettes either of haschisch or of stramo Galton's valet-nurse. j Olympe Chapuis, a little Swiss girl who came as companion to Millicent Bunbury. She eventually married the Rev. T. K. Lethbridge. ANN
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