Tuesday night | 1841.1
My dear Father
I was making a little account book for you this night when I received your letter.2 I was anxiously expecting one from you for some days. I had written part of a letter to Mr Conwill, and in it I was determined to request him to tell you to write to me when lo! the appearance of your letter rendered all unnecessary. You may see by my employment that there is not much doubt of my going home at Christmas. I wrote to Mr Little3 the coach agent in Fermoy this morning requesting him to let me know the best mode of conveyance from this, and to give me some information respecting the fares. I’m sure he’ll tell me all.4 So you tell me that Mr Steuart and Mr Bredin have been kind enough to approve of my attempts at poetry, this is a cause of great satisfaction to me, as I know them to be persons of good taste and judgment in such matters. I heard Mrs Steuart’s taste praised long before I left home. I hope in my future attempts I shall continue to deserve their approbation. I sent off a long piece this morning – the subject is ‘Landlord and Tenant’5 – it’s blank verse. Tell me what piece you mean by the last. I sent one on the registry6 and I don’t know whether it gained insertion or not as I have never seen the paper. It begins with these words:– | ‘Child of the North’ &c.7
If you could procure the paper for me that contains this I would feel very grateful, I send you the piece you requested – take care of it and send it back to me, but tell me what do you want with it? You did not tell me this and I am puzzled to find it out. Mr Conwill told me every way he was circumstanced in his last letter,8 you no doubt will think it odd to see your direction on a letter to him, but it was to save the penny9 and I had his written first and therefore could not enclose it in this small sheet. I am extremely glad to find that things are coming to a settlement in Leighlin. Where is Jim Walsh now? I’ll have to be drawing on you for something to cover my feet when I go home, my old boots will hardly carry me to Leighlin they are like a patch work quilt. Now I beg of you not to let your next letter be so long coming as your last, write soon and always believe me
My Mother’s son | John Tyndall.
RI MS JT/1/10/3258
LT Transcript Only
Tuesday night | 1841: internal evidence suggests Tuesday 7 December 1841.
your letter: letter missing.
I wrote to Mr Little: letter missing.
the best mode of conveyance from this …I’m sure he’ll tell me all: Deborah McAssey conveys some of this information after staying with James Little; see letter 0125.
‘Landlord and Tenant’: CS, 11 December 1841, p. [3] and 18 December 1841, p. [3].
on the registry: After 6 January 1841 letters handed into a post office could be registered (i.e. entered into a register) and a supplementary payment made in order to increase the safety of delivery.
‘Child of the North’ &c: ‘The Battle of the Constitution is to be Found at the Registry’, CS, 27 November 1841, p. [3].
his last letter: letter missing.
save the penny: Since the advent of the Penny Post in 1840 the cost of sending a letter was 1d., a sum that Tyndall had saved by enclosing this letter to his father inside the presumably larger letter to John Conwill.
Please cite as “Tyndall0114,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 3 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0114