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OCR Rendition - approximate
558 Lifeand Letters of Francis Galton a big Xmas function at this hotel, dinner, champagne (probably bad), speech-making, holly and a dance,-" sauterette." This house is full of R_ ussians. The Duke of Oldenburg, whose wife is some near relation of the Tsar, is among them. The wife is rather maid-servantish looking, and reminds me of Temple in a way. Oddly enough Mrs Hill-James' name' was Fanny Arkwright. She is a cousin of her namesake, Darwin's (first) wife. Other news is wholly local ; you would not care for it. Over again a happy Yule-time to you all. Ever affectionately, FRANCIS GALTON. Mrs Robb's son is made a general, the youngest in the army. He did excellent work at the Intelligence Department. Sir George Darwin's son (Charles Galton) has just won a major scholarship for mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, while still at school, (Marlborough). Montagu Butler's brilliant son, James, has done the same for classics, while at Eton, at only 1611! Both of these are promises of great University success. I think each is about .£100 a year for 5 or 6 years. HOTEL D'ANGLETERRE, BIARRITZ. December 27, 1905. DEAR SCHUSTER, The enclosed " Note," to follow your typed account and to be printed in smaller type, is what I mean. Perhaps you will type it and submit it to some "Devil's advocate" to hear the worst that can be argued against it, and to get hints for improvement. It certainly contains much information in a form well suited for statistics. There is some repetition of what appears in the text, but that does not seem objectionable. Please supply the number of Sir Edward's children. I have pencilled some small suggested corrections in the letterpress. It would be well to use the typed "Note," after such revision as you think well, as a guide; then, after doing a few more families on the same plan, to seriously reconsider the form and finally to decide. Recollect that all complexities of kinship should be unravelled in this "Note." Very faithfully, FRANCIS GALTON. HOTEL B'ANGLETERRE, BIARRITZ. January 5, 1906. MY DEAR EDWARD*, Our morning post goes out a few minutes after the incoming post arrives, so I had not time to finish Eva's letter. Give my dear love to your mother. She knows, and so do you, that I realise the discomforts of asthma and bronchitis. I had a brief bout only yesterday, which has passed off happily. It is a queer thing. I wish I knew how to cure it as well as I do how to bring it on myself, viz. by a cosy, well-warmed and carpeted room, and good feeding. But what is bad for me may not be bad for others, who knows? Please thank Lucyt much for her long letter. I grieve at her family misfortunes and own uncertain health. Do not think of bothering her or yourself overmuch, but I should dearly love a frequent postcard until your mother is convalescent. Bugs for ever! I am delighted that your brochure is to be published. It will be timely. Snails are the interest here_ according to Professor Weldon. There is one sort that in ancient forest times up to the present does not, or hardly does, cross the Garonne (the river at Bayonne). Why, no one yet knows. It is very common on the south side. We are going in the middle of next week to St Jean de Luz for a week or so, but the above will be our address till I write again. I have no news you would care about. Three sets of people here know Claverdon well: 1. Miss Hodgson, 2. Col. and Mrs Hill-James (she an Arkwright and a Fanny Arkwright too), 3. (I forget at this moment). I am busy finishing off an outline account of occasional experiments during the past few years on the Measurement of Resemblance. It is possible, I find, to give a brief account of the essentials, but the subject with its many side issues is big, and would require a book full of illustrations to treat, properly. I have not now time nor °' go " enough for such a task, I fear. Do you know young Sir G. Skipwith? Our friend Mr Townsend, who died very lately, has left him the Honington Estates. He was one of the nearest though a distant relative. * Galton's nephew, Edward Wheler, son of his sister Bessy. t Lucy, Mrs Studdy, sister of Edward Wheler. Ever affectionately, FRANCIS GALTON.
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