Skipton,1 Oct. 27th 1841.
My dear Tyndall
Rejoice – rejoice – if you have any love for me rejoice I am once more in the office. I had a letter written and was just sending it off when I received orders to go into the office – you see what it is to have a friend in Court.2 I wrote to Colder to have me changed from the Division I was in to the old one,3 but what was my astonishment when I was ordered into the office. We petitioned for an increase of pay but received answer that if we liked to resign we might. Yesterday the surveyors got an increase, that is those that did not petition, those that had not 12s a week were increased to it, but those that were over it might remain, so those that petitioned – any that had not 1s.9d per day – were increased to it, so that your humble servant got nothing.4 But I dont care now that I am in the office. I was perfectly tired of that horrid Division.5 I am lodging in an inn at 8s.6d per week Colder desires me to tell you he would have written to you but he has not a moment to himself, and has been ill ever since he came here. I am his secretary. I am much obliged to you for answering my letter so quick, yours was the first I received, I have had the pleasure of seeing Roberts’s marriage in the Warder.6 It cut a great swell no less than John George Roberts Esq.7 I hope he has done it to better himself. Blaty, a brother of Blaty8 that is with the major9 is going to the Tower of London to be employed there – a good exchange. You must be thankful that I have written so much as bad as it is for I am almost mad with these horrid teeth of mine. Remember me to Ginty, Jim, Tid10 and all the office fellows
Your ever devoted friend | Harold11
P.S. I hope Ginty didn’t hurt the Yankee Bellies12 since.
RI MS JT/1/11/3731
LT Transcript Only
Skipton: see letter 0096, n. 3.
a friend in Court: a person in a position to use his or her influence on one’s behalf (OED).
to the old one: the 5th Division (that had become the 4th Division before this letter was written), C District, in which Higginson had worked with Tyndall in Ireland.
your humble servant got nothing: Since August 1840 Higginson had been earning 1s. 10d. per day, that is 11s. a week.
that horrid Division: the 1st Division was located at Skipton.
the Warder: the Dublin Warder, a Protestant anti-Catholic weekly newspaper owned by Joseph Sheridan le Fanu.
John George Roberts Esq: Roberts had been discharged from the Irish Survey on 9 January 1841 for ‘idleness’ (NAI OS/1/18). The Dublin Evening Mail of 11 October 1841 carried the announcement of the marriage on 6 October at Aghada Church of John George Roberts, ‘of Kieucon [?], county of Westmeath … to Esther Armstrong, of Corkbeg, county of Cork’ (p. 3).
Blaty, a brother of Blaty: probably Lieutenant Andrew Beatty of the Royal Engineers and one of his brothers. The Map Office was located in the Tower of London, but had subsequently to be moved due to a fire on the night of 30 October 1841.
the major: Major Marcus Antonius Waters.
Jim, Tid: Phillip Evans and John Tidmarsh.
Harold: a nickname of Thomas Higginson’s.
Yankee Bellies: see letter 0097, n. 18.
Please cite as “Tyndall0107,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 2 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0107