From Maria Payne   Oct 9th 1840.

Bagnalstown Oct 9th 1840.

My dear John

I am sure you think me a sad girl for not having answered your letter before now but I assure you that I am not a willfull offender – there’s not a day in the week that I am unemployed except Friday. You have touched a chord that always vibrates in my heart. There is something very strong in an appeal from an old friend and I am not one to turn a deaf ear to yours – but I really am at a loss for any information worth communicating.

Things are going on here as usual, only that we are just now going to have a race in Ballybar – the 26th1 of this month it takes place – I believe we all intend going <words missing> As the world and <words missing> are to be there, they have commenced building the stand house on a very large scale and in future they are to be continued. So much for the sporting intelligence. Now the melancholy part follows as a matter of course. Well then, by the way, we are kilt2 crying for my uncle John and family3 and Tom Wall.4 Seriously speaking they are gone to Vandiems land5 but I think we must endeavour to live without them and reconcile ourselves in the best manner we can to the separation. I am sure you have a variety of nice acquaintances to say nothing of the many ardent admirers in Youghal. Emma is anxious to know if you are as fond of going to evening prayer there as you were in Leighlin Bridge I am told you are turned methodist6 and a most exemplary character, I suppose when you come home you will be making converts though I tell you before hand that you will never make one of me. Dear John you must not condemn George7 he has had the small pox lately and was in a delicate state of health. He desires to be remembered to you also Ann McGhee and Emma and my mother. Maryann and Bridget Commins send their compliments

farewell dear John | I must now subscribe myself | your affectionate coz | Maria Payne

P.S. Write to me again. Emma and Ann McGhee want to know what’s become of the young men or what you have done with them

RI MS JT/1/10/3137

LT Transcript Only

26th: The race meeting at Ballybar (Carlow) was held on 27 October (Bell’s Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 1 November 1840, p. 2).

kilt: probably killed (died), pronounced kilt in local Irish accent.

my uncle John and family: ‘uncle John’ has not been identified but may possibly be John Styles or John Payne.

Tom Wall: probably the Tom Wall, born 22 June 1812, to Dowling and Sarah Wall (Irish Church Records).

Vandiems land: Van Diemen’s Land, nowadays called Tasmania.

turned methodist: In his Fragments of Science for Unscientific People; a Series of Detached Essays, Lectures, and Reviews (8th edn, 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892), vol. 1, p. 11) Tyndall later recalled that when he was ‘a boy’ he used to read a Methodist magazine, which can be identified as the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine.

George: probably George Payne.

Please cite as “Tyndall0015,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0015