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J62   Life and Letters of Francis Galton

The next letter is dated, or should be, October 20, 1841

Wednesday 20th, 1841.

MY DEAR FATHER,   TRIN. COLL.

I left Leamington the only Cantab on the coach by the side of a jolly old Coachman who had been a horsedealer at Northampton and had sold horses to Uncle Hubert; he made sundry enquiries after you. On arriving at Weedon a complete shoal of Cambridge men poured out from one of the trains amongst whom was Theodore and three or four other allies of mine ; how they all were to find places was a problem too deep for the minds of anybody there except the coachman's to surmount. However they hung on the coach like crows on carrion, and a jolly drive we had recounting our adventures to each other. The coach top was unpolluted by a freshman.-I called on Mathison this morning, who skipped about through excess of animal spirits in talking over Keswick, and was as jolly as ever. I then called on Hopkins who takes me, and I begin with him on Monday. My Keswick friends are all up, two of them full of gratitude for wonderful effects produced by prescriptions which I had left them and I have got a new patient. I cannot express the bumptious state I am in, looking at poor bashful unsophisticated 1° cubs" so carefully pulling their gown to make it sit well and fidgety at finding how uncomfortable their cap is which they have unconsciously put on the wrong way; all over as "fresh" as paint--bless their innocencies.-So Whewell is Master;-I suppose he will soon come into residence.

In haste for chapel,

Your affectionate son, FRAS. GALTON.

Francis was in all the glory of the Junior Soph. Energetic beyond measure, but hastening, alas ! towards a catastrophe.

Excuse my blots as I am   Tuesday [Nov. 10, 1841 ]. in a great hurry.

MY DEAR FATHER,

I am very sorry that from having been either too lazy or too much occupied, I have not written sooner, though I consider you too little of an invalid to be further anxious about your health. Emma has probably given you a full account of her proceedings in Cambridge' and I trust rescued me from Mr Hodgson's malicious charge. She was most active and tired down both Theodore and, myself. Thank you very much for your statement of my accounts; they were certainly most beautifully written out and quite a model. In one point, however, they were not quite as useful as otherwise they

' According to her diary Miss Galton went on Nov. 4 "via Cambridge to Keswick " and returned on Nov. 28 to St James's Square with the Gurneys. Emma Galton shared many of the characteristics of her brother Francis ; she was restlessly energetic and rushed not only about England but the Continent. She had a strong business instinct and recorded almost to shillings and pence the amounts received by all members of her family by inheritance, settlements and gifts. She published a noteworthy little book which has run through many editions, A Guide to the Unprotected ; it gives directions for single women in business matters, and is still of value.


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