Dublin, Feb. 18th 1841.
Dear John
Once more I am obliged to sue for forgiveness for my neglect. If it were not for the apology I have to offer I would hardly have trespassed on your notice. I got the words said on last Sunday week1, since then I have been engaged looking out for a proper place to commence business and amongst the rest I was at Ln Bridge2 I saw your Father, Mother and sister they are all in the enjoyment of good health Your Mother when she saw me was a little affected, knowing and as she remarked if you were at home how happy we all would have been at the meeting. I have been unsuccessful in procuring a proper situation or rather the rents of houses are so very high and trade very dull and unsettled that I would not like to undertake anything of the kind. So that I have entirely given up settling in this country and intend to embark for New York from Liverpool on or about the first of next month. I will expect a line from you as soon as convenient, although I cannot hardly expect you would comply with my request on account of my own negligence. But whenever you get yourself in the same hobble3 I will cheerfully give you two months to think of nothing save the Fair Lady.4 My Sally5 desires me to say that it is not her fault for my not writing to you before this but you may believe as much of that as you please. I am sorry that you will not have an opportunity of seeing her before we go out but I expect if that is now denied it is only making room perhaps for a future meeting in distant land, for if my memory is correct I have often heard you express a wish to go to America.6
Yours truly | William Wright
Direct your next letter (which you must send before this day week) to 13 Lower Camden Street, Dublin.7
RI MS JT/1/11/3889
LT Transcript Only
I got the words said on last Sunday week: William Wright married Sarah Maria Neale on 7 February 1841 at St Nicholas Parish Within, Dublin (Irish Church Records).
Ln Bridge: Leighlin Bridge.
hobble: an awkward or perplexing situation from which extrication is difficult (OED).
the Fair Lady: Tyndall’s (unnamed) lady friend, who he should consider marrying.
My Sally: William Wright’s wife Sarah (née Neale).
a wish to go to America: Tyndall thus appears to have shared with many of his Irish contemporaries the wish to emigrate. In the early 1840s some 50–60,000 Irish emigrated each year, mainly to America and Canada. During the Irish Potato Famine of the late 1840s the annual rate nearly quadrupled.
13 Lower Camden Street, Dublin: Slater’s lists the occupant as Matthew Bredon, private teacher.
Please cite as “Tyndall0041,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0041