Kinsale, Thursday1 night.
My dear Father,
I think it is high time to break the ice by which each of our pens has been this good while surrounded. I have waited long in vain for something in the shape of a letter from you, but silence has bound your pen it appears. I hope on the receipt of this you will burst the shackles and not suffer yourself to be again manacled. I know you will tell me you have very little time. Look at the way I am placed and I’m sure you’ll never say a word about want of time. Here I am working from 7 to 5 o’clock2 each day without intermission; then the moment I despatch my dinner I have to tackle at my drawing or otherwise bear a lecture on the foolishness of idleness. Being determined to make the most of my time I work late every night, you will surely then confess that you have much more time than I have. Besides that, I have no less than four or five who expect a letter from me now and then. I have devoted this night solely to the purpose of writing. I began a letter to day in the office, but did not like to take time to finish it, so you see that your son is rather a conscientious fellow. Why you live in strange times in Leighlin now. I’m sure you have an abundance of news and yet you are very sparing of it. I got an English paper (The Age) the other day from a friend of mine in Youghal and in it I saw the name of a Mr Tyndall mentioned in connexion with that of Doctor Morris on account of the latter’s refusing to dress Bergin’s wounds.3 Now I ask you is it not too bad for me poor pilgarlic4 to have to wait until it finds its way into the columns of an English newspaper for the account of such an occurrence as this. See what it is to be obliged to live at the World’s End.5
Great changes have taken place among us lately. Mr Fenwick has been ordered off the Survey. He has been promoted to Captain and is going out on foreign service.6 We dont know who we are to get in his place. Some think we will be removed to Cork under the eye of Major Waters; this is the general opinion, but there is no certainty in the matter.
The English Survey is I believe a bad speculation. Our men have arrived there and there is not a word of raising their pay.7 Provisions are much dearer there than they are in Ireland so that the Surveyors are very tightly pinched to live in it at all.8 I wish I could lay my hand on the shelf behind your back as you stand in the shop. I think I’d be disposed to break the 8th commandment9 and steal a pair of shoes from you. My stock is almost run out. However I’ll keep them patched up for a while longer. Have you shifted your lodging yet? Did you see Jos. Wright.10 Are my mother and Emma well? Give my love to both
Good night | Your affectionate son | John Tyndall.
RI MS JT/1/10/3246
LT Transcript Only
Thursday: LT gives postmark as ‘Oct. 8th, 1841’, which was a Friday.
from 7 to 5 o’clock: from 7am to 5pm.
I got an English … wounds: William Bergin, a Catholic and a tenant of Colonel Henry Bruen, was severely injured in Leighlin Bridge during a violent assault by a group of men. The dispensing apothecary, Mr Morris, refused to treat his injuries. ‘Mr. Tyndal, who was on the spot, remonstrated with him for his unfeeling conduct, and immediately sent for Dr. Roche, who was promptly in attendance, and rendered every assistance to the poor man’ (Age, 26 September 1841, p. 7; reprinted in CS, 18 September 1841, p. [3]). Dr Benjamin Roche of Bagenalstown is listed in Slater’s as a physician or a surgeon. The Age and Argus was a conservative weekly newspaper founded in 1825 and costing 6d.
pilgarlic: a pitiable, lowly, or foolish person (OED).
the World’s End: see letter 0072, n. 1.
Mr Fenwick … foreign service: Letter 0097 indicates that Captain Robert Fenwick had been posted to Skipton or Grassington, Yorkshire, but he was subsequently sent to Bermuda where he would die of yellow fever in August 1843; see letter 0226, n. 12.
not a word of raising their pay: Civilian assistants on the Irish Survey thought that they would be far better paid when they joined the English Survey.
Provisions are much dearer there … tightly pinched to live in it at all: In fact Tyndall would tell his father soon after arriving in England: ‘Market rates much the same, perhaps a little dearer than in Cork, so that I can manage to do pretty well’; see letter 0164.
the 8th commandment: ‘Thou shalt not steal’ (Exodus 20:15).
Jos. Wright: see letter 0083, n. 14.
Please cite as “Tyndall0100,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 3 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0100