Faraday to Richard Rathbone   8 September 18541

[Royal Institution embossed letter head] | 8 Septr. 1854

My dear Sir

Your kindness is greater than I could imagine and I earnestly thank you and Mrs. Rathbone2 for the proofs of it: but I still feel on several accounts that I must remain in the Town of Liverpool3. In the first place I had a very kind invitation before I received yours by Dr. Reynolds4 and that I declined on the grounds that I advanced to Dr. Reynolds in my reply5. In the next place I may pass only two & certainly not more than three nights at Liverpool and having some poor and distant relations there6, I shall want all the hours I can find to do what I wish to do. So that I really am constrained to keep myself very much at liberty.

Again thanking you most earnestly for your kindness I can only say that I am

Your Very greatly Obliged Servant | M. Faraday

Richard Rathbone Esq | &c &c &c

1
Richard Rathbone (1788-1860, Marriner (1961), 231). Liverpool merchant.
2
Hannah Mary Rathbone, née Reynolds (1798-1878, DNB). Writer and historian. Married 1817.
3
For the meeting of the British Association.
4
William Reynolds (1803-1877, Greg (1905), 204). Liverpool merchant.
6
See Faraday to Lyon, 28 December 1846, letter 1941, volume 3.

Bibliography

GREG, Emily, (1905): Reynolds-Rathbone Diaries and Letters 1753-1839, [Edinburgh].

MARRINER, Sheila (1961): Rathbones of Liverpool 1845-73, Liverpool.

Please cite as “Faraday2896,” in Ɛpsilon: The Michael Faraday Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/faraday/letters/Faraday2896