To John Tyndall, Snr   Jan. 16th, 1842

Robroy Hotel,¹ Cork. | Jan. 16th, 1842.

My dear Father

After a weary week of incessant tossing I have at length found time to sit down and write to you. You may see by casting your eyes to the right hand corner² that I have left Kinsale and am at present a denizen of ‘Cork’s awn town’ tho’ this can scarcely be considered as strictly true as my present quarters are not within the precincts of the City.³

Last week we were on the tiptoe of expectation thinking that every post that came had the order for our removal.⁴ The order however did not come until Saturday night.⁵ On Monday we broke up and a lot of us purchased our liberty⁶ until 12 o’clock on the following Thursday. It was specified that Wednesday was to be the day on which we should flit. Well I packed up on Tuesday having previously determined to walk to Cork, a distance of about 16 miles. Tuesday you may recollect was a very fine day and we had sanguine expectations of having a pleasant walk on the day following. But all my hopes as to this matter were crushed the moment I opened my eyes at about 4 o’clock in the morning. The rain was pelting most unmercifully against my bedroom window, while the wind moaned piteously thro’ the crannies of the houses. I however got up and breakfasted early, consulted the wind’s eye and found it enveloped in clouds; in fact there was not the least sign of it ceasing. So that I had to be content until 12, as I was told that the day would then clear up. Well 12 came and no cessation of rain; so did one, two, three. I then gave up all hopes and sat by the fireside until bedtime, then I started to hammock. Wakened at 4 o’clock on the following morning⁷ and heard the rain still pelting. It cleared up at 6 o’clock, so I breakfasted and started along with four or five more at 8 o’clock. The roads were very heavy and by the time that we got to the barrack hill not one of us was in much humour for jumping a five barred gate. We got a little refreshment and then were obliged to unpack and drag the tables, stools &c. in to the barrack. We did not get away until dark and that was a bad time to look for lodgings. We (that is Foy and Holmes, a friend of mine named Chadwick and myself) set out on the search. We rambled a great way but without success. We then stepped into an eating house and got each a snack and finally determined to sleep there that night. Well bed time came and we were ushered into our dormitory. The look of the place was not very prepossessing. A broken skylight was all the window it could boast of thro’ which the rain trickled down the walls. The beds seemed something worse of the wear, and the idea that they might contain bugs compelled me to give more than one involuntary shrug of my shoulders. Well, we stripped and Chadwick went to bed. I then thought of looking about me. I examined the bed clothes raised and found them very different in colour from snow. I went farther, I raised the tick and there to my no small disgust I found a foolish bug foraging about. I suppose he only formed the vanguard of a host of them. I call him foolish because if he had kept under cover he might have got his maw⁸ filled before morning. The effect that this discovery had on poor Chadwick was amazing. An electric shock could not produce the like. He sprung from his lair like a mountain cat. We all dressed again, settled for what we had got and sallied forth once more. We got a good bed at the Munster Inn.⁹ Before we left Kinsale the four I have mentioned had determined on stopping together; we found however that it was difficult to get accommodation for four and thought it judicious to separate. Chadwick and I have pitched our tent at an inn which stands nearly opposite to the barrack gate, and as the office is situated in the barrack it is very convenient. Some of our lads have to walk nearly a mile every morning from their lodgings in the City up a tremendous hill.¹⁰ Our board and lodging will stand in about 9/- a week here. Our board consists of two meals daily. No tea at night. In fact this is a luxury I have dispensed with these 18 months so that I don’t care about it. I could make this epistle twice as long, but I have three or four more to write and so must cut this short.

I suppose you have seen Mr Alexander, and in your next letter will be able to tell me the result of your conference with him. I am as stout as an ox and have a capital edge for my dinner which I expect to see appearing every minute. Give my love to my mother and Emma

Good bye | Your affectionate son | John

Direct your letter to me – Ordnance Survey Office Military Barracks Cork.

RI MS JT/1/10/3262–3

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