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OCR Rendition - approximate
.510 Life and Letters of Francis Galton HOTEL WASHINGTON IRVING, GRANADA, SPAIN. Friday, April 14, 1899. (But please address up to midday post of April 20 to Hotel de Rome, Madrid, Spain. If a little later, I think the letters will be forwarded, I will certainly tell them to do so.) DEAREST EMMA, Your letter of April 8th welcomed us on arriving here last night. We have continued to have great variety of interest and pleasure in the journey and are both quite well and happy. At Tangiers we stayed five days and made several acquaintances, among them an English lady whom I had long greatly desired to see, the widow of the late Sheriff of Wazan. My friend, Dr Spence Watson of Newcastle, wrote a book about her, long ago. She was a handsome girl (? a governess) some 18 years ago and the Sheriff of Wazan, who is a sort of rival Emperor of Morocco and of most holy Mussulman origin, but who affected European ways, met her. They mutually fell in love and married, she going to Wazan, continuing Christian and wearing European dress, but of course much shut up, and he remaining the religious and temporal head of a large and fanatical community there. She did her part with great tact and got on excellently. At length her husband died at Tangiers, and left her with two sons and an adequate property. She is now a plain, sensible, rather brusque but very kind, middle-aged and fattish woman. We quickly became great friends and she told us any amount of her experiences. The people kiss her hand and her shoulder which is the correct homage from an inferior, and she showed us the house and room where the Sheriff died and which her eldest son, for whom she has just found a correct Mussulwoman to marry, is to occupy. The trousseau box was gorgeous to look at. All this was quite a feature in our stay. On Monday we sailed to Spain again, opposite to Gibraltar, and went in seven hours to Malaga, where there are wonderfully beautiful gardens to be visited, all sorts of tropical trees and clumps of bamboos, but I thought them as muggy as they are beautiful. Yesterday, ten hours railway brought us here, to stay for three or four days. Then we go to Cordova where (at the Hotel Suisse) I may possibly find some letters. After that to Madrid till the 25th, then to the South of France, then to Hotel de la Poste, Clermont-Ferrand, Puy de Dome, France, which I hope to reach about May 3, and home by about May 7, or a few days later. Eva is a capital companion, always cheerful and punctual and interested; moreover she always sees the good side of things and of persons. Eschbach continues to be perfect. We are idling this morning, as I have many letters to write, and the weather is a little dull and unsuitable to give an excellent first impression of the Alhambra, to which I am now close by. You will have missed Bessy during this week; give her my best love, of course. I am so glad the bicycle tour was a success. What a scandal it is about the Warwick and the Beaufort properties, and to think too of the Stoneleigh pictures! I gave your letter to Eva to read, so she knows of your messages and will write. I am very glad that Guy has a free passage to England and another chance for his career as a soldier. Amy Johnson's is a sad case. I trust she will be guided by her lawyer's opinion (Wm. Freshfield) before going to law. She told me the whole matter. What fun about Lady Harberton ! I hope Punch will make something, good-naturedly, of it. About Lady Stanley, she was a kind friend. Louisa and I stayed some days with her, near Holyhead. Your "ups" will I hope increase and the "downs" diminish as the weather gets warmer. It was like midsummer in Malaga, but this place is 2000 feet high and cooler. Best loves, ever affectionately, FRANCIS GALTON. [Enclosed with previous letter.] HOTEL WASHINGTON IRVING, GRANADA. MY DEAR AUNT EMMA, Your letters are such a pleasure, Uncle Frank gave me the one of last night to read. I don't suppose he ever mentions his cough, so I will tell you about it. It has never actually gone yet, but is much better and he looks very well and is tremendously energetic, the Spaniards all ask me his age, and won't believe it when I tell them; you should see his complexion when he is on the sea, it is splendid, just like Sophy's when she is very well. He is really a perfect person to travel with, because he never fusses or gets impatient or grumbles if we are kept waiting ever so long for food or luggage ! I hear from Sophy as usual with accounts of you; a letter from her last night tells me you were "in your tea gown and very delightful" when you last met. Poor Mr Lloyd, I am so sorry he is still so ill. I wrote to Gwen from Cadiz, I felt so very much for her and was truly fond of Mrs Lloyd. I am so happy out here, I love the Spaniards, they are so kind and polite to us, but all the same they are poor creatures and not a bit strong-minded or intellectual, but so picturesque. We hardly
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