Strand Road, Cork. Wednesday1
My dear Father
I am beginning to think that the post offices are dealing unfairly with one or the other of us. I wrote to you on Sunday week2 and I think it highly improbable that you should delay until now without writing to me, this induces me to enquire if it be the post office I have to blame for being so long without hearing from you. When I last wrote to you I was quartered at the Robroy hotel.3 This my letter stated. I now stop on the Strand Road4 having removed from the Robroy of Friday last. My mother I’m sure will be glad to hear that my hostess is a quaker. Her name is McCarthy.5 I hardly thought there was a reformer of the name to be found.6 I am comfortably situated. These ‘Verilies’7 have everything very nice and regular, its a quiet place, removed upwards of half a mile from the din of the City. I am still employed colouring the City of Cork. I am making great improvement, I was very fortunate in being transferred from Kinsale, the style of drawing adopted for the City of Cork is quite different from our usual method. It is a very useful style, and I have now a good opportunity of making myself master of it. Ask my mother did she ever hear of Sunday’s well.8 If she did she knows of the ground that I am employed at. Little I thought when she used to be telling me of the Grand Parade and the dyke9 that it would be my fortune to be rambling thro’ each, yet so it is.
We had a dreadful storm here last night.10 It continued all day unabated. The barrack got a great stripping. The slates were actually flying like feathers thro’ the air. It was rumoured to day that three women were killed in the meat market by the falling of tiles. I cant vouch for the truth of the report. When I was coming out of the barrack gate this evening I cast my eyes on the Robroy hotel. There were two splendid bow windows in front the lower one has every pane in it shivered to pieces and there was not a vestige of the upper window to be seen at all. Not a sash remained. The house was nearly unroofed. Several others in the vicinity fared little better. The Garrison hotel11 had even the leading of the roof torn away, and some houses lost not only their slates but their rafters also. I cant say what appearance the city presents as I have not been there since the storm abated. Our little domicile fared well. I believe it did not lose a slate. Its very well sheltered. I received a paper last night from Emma Young.12 This name sounds odd to me. I was near writing it Tyndall. It was the Sentinel I received. I dont see W.S. figuring there now the fellow has become dumb. They expect to have finished the Irish Survey at the end of March. Surely I’ll get away to see you then.
Your affectionate son | John
Direct your letter to Cpt.13 Carberry McCarthy, Strand Road Cork, for me. Have you seen Mr Alexander?
RI MS JT/1/10/3264
LT Transcript Only
Wednesday: LT gives postmark as ‘Jan.27th, 1842’, which was a Thursday.
I wrote to you on Sunday week: letter 0118.
the Robroy hotel: see letter 0118, n. 1.
the Strand Road: Strand Road is to the north-east of the City of Cork.
My mother … McCarthy: Tyndall’s mother (Sarah, née McAssey) was descended from the Malone family of Ballybrommell and had included Quakers among her great grandparents. The only direct evidence that connects Sarah with the Quakers is a letter of hers in which she mentioned that she had been taken by her father to a Quaker meeting (N. McMillan and M. Nevin, ‘Tyndall of Leighlin’, Carloviana, 27 (1978–9), pp. 22–7). No person named McCarthy has been found in the records of the Cork Quaker meeting. Although Tyndall describes Mrs McCarthy as a Quaker, it seems likely that she (like Tyndall’s mother) was not a practising Quaker but was descended from Quakers.
a reformer of the name to be found: This is a rather strange claim since traditionally McCarthy is an Irish Catholic name, and thus most likely the name of a nationalist and supporter of the repeal of the Union with Britain.
Verilies: truthful people; Quakers are committed to dealing honestly and, more broadly, to living in accordance with their religious principles
Sunday’s well: part of Cork situated in the north-west of the city. Mr & Mrs Samuel Carter Hall described it as providing ‘a magnificent view of the river and of the landscape for many miles around it. “Sunday’s Well” derives its name from one of those sacred fountains …where devotees assemble, at particular periods, under the belief that the water is blessed and cures all disorders’(Ireland: Its Scenery, Character, &c., 2 vols (London: J. How, 1841–3), vol. 1, p. 47).
Grand Parade and the dyke: The Grand Parade in Cork was wide and lined with fashionable houses; the Mardyke (the shortened name being ‘dyke’) was a tree-lined promenade beside a canal.
a dreadful storm here last night: on 25–6 January (‘Awful Hurricane and Loss of Life’, Cork Examiner, 26 January 1842, p. [2]).
Garrison hotel: the Garrison Hotel was opposite the Barracks in Cork.
Emma Young: Tyndall’s cousin Emma (née Tyndall) who had recently married George Young; see letter 0111.
Cpt.: There is no evidence that Carberry McCarthy was an army Captain. ‘Cpt.’ may be a mistranscription of ‘Cpl’, although no Corporal of that name has been identified. It is possible that he was captain of a ship, but that has not been corroborated. A contemporary reference suggests he may have been a clerk (Cork Examiner, 5 August 1842, p. [2]).
Please cite as “Tyndall0119,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0119