Kinsale, | Oct. 26th, 1841.
My dear Father
I sit down to acknowledge the receipt of yours of the 24th.1 Whether was it – you or my letter2 – that ‘passed thro’ the Queen’s County and County Kildare?’ I suppose it was the latter, as letters are often sent round the world for sport. You bring forward a charge against me in your last letter to which I plead Not guilty. You say that I was guilty of a great sin in humbugging you. I assure you this was not the case. What I stated was literally true. Why you had a most narrow escape from the Kilkenny savages.3 And what were the lies you spoke of in your last letter? I admit the justice of the proverb you quoted.4 There is no fear of my giving up what I have at present until I have a better provision made for me. You forgot to answer my question respecting the bit of poetry in the Carlow Sentinel. Did you see any thing from W.S. in Saturday week’s paper?5 If you see next Saturday’s paper6 be so good as to say whether this W.S. has put any thing in it or not – I have particular reason for wishing to know this. I have nothing more to say. I am just after despatching an enormous dinner – a regular beggar’s dish7 – a curious compound of lumpers,8 onions, and lots of fat mutton, the relics of Sunday’s meal.
I remain your affectionate son | John Tyndall.
RI MS JT/1/10/3250
LT Transcript Only
yours of the 24th: letter 0104.
my letter: letter 0103.
the Kilkenny savages: the Catholic mob from County Kilkenny that attacked William Bergin, whom Tyndall’s father helped to save.
the proverb you quoted: ‘Don’t throw out the dirty water until the clean comes in’.
in Saturday week’s paper:Tyndall’s first poem (see letter 0101) appeared in CS, 16 October 1841, p. [3]. He published it over the signature W. S., the abbreviation of his pseudonym Walter Snooks.
next Saturday’s paper: Tyndall’s poem ‘Carlow’ (see letter 106) was published in CS, 30 October 1841, p.[3].
beggar’s dish: The ‘beggar’s dish’ was ‘a regular and proper part of his [the mendicant’s] professional accoutrements’ and was used by ‘itinerant professed beggars and … wandering tribes of gypsies’ to collect offerings. However, according to the article ‘Beggar’s Dish’ in Chamber’s Edinburgh Journal (25 February 1832, p. 27) it had by the 1830s largely gone out of fashion.
lumpers: a large, coarse but nutritious type of potato widely grown in Ireland. The failure of this potato crop a few years later resulted in the terrible Irish Potato Famine.
Please cite as “Tyndall0105,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 3 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0105