Faraday to John Barlow   1 August 1853

Royal Institution | 1 August 1853

My dear Barlow

I only learned on Friday last1 that you had left a post office reference to Geneva or I should have written to you before[.] I am so accustomed to communicate with you that even when there is no other occasion than kind feeling I do not like to give it up. In real truth the kind feeling is after all the most important of any. I am hoping to hear from you some day soon and to hear also that you are better. I should like you to be so well as to be unconscious of it. Tell me soon how you both are and that you are enjoying the scenery & the circumstances: give us a delightful account but let it be a true one. We most sincerely hope & wish that both these points may coincide in one. We have had a fortnights trip into N Wales with constant wet weather - so after living in the hotels for a while we came back not having seen much of the country but we are pretty well[.] Nothing to brag about: nothing to complain of.

To day Mr. Vincent begins his holiday and the work folk go into the Library &c2. He wished me to offer his respects & to say that there was nothing particular to mention. Anderson also begins his holiday today - the Porters have had theirs. I wished Anderson to take his whilst I was here: he is very well & I expect will enjoy himself - i.e if the rainy weather ceases. We have had thus far a very rainy season & it still continues.

The works in the corner of the Hall are now in progress; but here again the rain teazes us sadly & much retards their progress but I think they will be a great comfort when they are finished[.] Mr Wright3 of the Clarendon was somewhat frightened when he saw them & called whilst I was away. He saw Mr. Vincent & sent his surveyor[.] I suppose he had forgotten that he was upon our wall & not we upon theirs.

As to our painters it is a sad thing that drunkenness should take them away one after another. I have taken the man who succeeded Mr Newsham4 for the present jobs of the season. He is I understand quite sober, he knows the house, and he works for Mr. Ellis5 & others gaining their approbation: We shall see how things turn out[.]

I am glad to tell you that Percy will lecture here next season6. He has chosen the Metals for his course and I have no doubt that he will make it very interesting to our audience. In the point of character (which you know is often apart from the attraction) they are sure to do us good. The Museum of Economic Geology &c is no longer the Museum having changed its name into some other long phrase as Metropolitan School of &c &c7 but I hear that it may perhaps change its name again as the point does not appear decided. I fancy the College of Chemistry is by this time identified with it but as you know I am an exceedingly bad Newsmonger & shall make all sorts of mistakes[.]

You would laugh when you heard of our Cab revolution - only think of a strike for three days8. It must have been a petty annoyance spread over a very large extent of population & I have no doubt produced extreme irritation with a great number of persons which yet was often extremely ludicrous. We expect much good will result from it in relation to cab conduct[.]

Whether this will find you at Geneva or whether it will have to follow you elsewhere I do not know. If you see De la Rive give my kindest remembrances to him & also to Marcet if in your company[.] We want to know something of you and Mrs. Barlow, for nothing had come to our ears or eyes in any way until I heard on Friday last that you were at Geneva & at the same time through two or three reporters, that Miss Grant had heard of you - the report being pretty good - I hope it is so in truth. My wife & I often think of where you will be & what you may be doing and we hope that Mrs. Barlow will think this part of the letter is as much to her as to you and that it is the bearer of many kindly remembrances founded upon a long continued course of affectionate intercommunication[.]

Ever My dear Barlow | Yours most truly | M. Faraday


Address: Revd. John Barlow MA | &c &c &c | Poste Restante | à Geneve

That is 29 July 1853.
See RI MM, 18 April 1853, 11: 6; 6 June 1853, 11: 19; 7 November 1853, 11: 32.
Unidentified.
Richard Newsham. Plumber of 8 Little Stanhope Street, Mayfair. POD.
Unidentified.
Percy eventually withdrew his offer. See RI MM, 21 November 1853, 11: 35.
The name was changed to the Metropolitan School of Science Applied to Mining and the Arts. On these changes see Bentley (1970).
Cab drivers went on strike on 27 July 1853 over a reduction in their fares. See Ann.Reg., 1853, 95: 91-2.

Bibliography

BENTLEY, Jonathan (1970): “The Chemical Department of the Royal School of Mines. Its Origins and Development under A.W. Hofmann”, Ambix, 17: 153-81.

Please cite as “Faraday2710,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2710