Kinsale | March 22nd 1842.
Dear Tyndall
A thousand apologies for not sooner fulfilling my promise to you of writing, but indeed my fault is so great that I almost think that the best way I can manage is to leave a – and let your forgiving disposition imagine the gnawing of my reproving conscience and by judging of the effects of the still small voice be inclined to deal leniently with me and temper the wind to the shorn lamb or ram whichever you please. Seriously speaking I have not had a spare moment hardly since I came home which, joined with my usual supineness in writing nearly steeped my memory in the lethe1 of forgetfulness to-wards you till I was awakened from my stupor by considering what idea must the ci-devant2 lodger have of his old crony, so verily the spirit moved me at last to perpetrate this scribble. I was laid up with the hoith3 of sickness for 8 or 9 days after I returned and ever since my convalescence I have been busy to the utmost extent no survey humbug but do downright matter of fact work, and it is only within this last day or two that I have had any time and almost the first use I make of it is to write to you. I had to get the shop all altered painted and papered and to clean out the dust and accumulations of centuries. I was almost beginning to think that the place was like the stables of Argus.4 Had I not left Cork at the time I did, I would most assuredly have got a heavy fever and as it was it was only by taking every remedy that I escaped it. My greatest torture was my throat, for I could not swallow for nearly a week. I now enjoy good health and find that the state of life to which it has pleased God to call me agrees with me much better than my old sapping and mining, and I like the business well enough. Tell Latimer that is hardly worth writing to him as I expect to see him so soon. As to yourself I fully expect that you will come with him according to promise, so do not fail to come for I am longing to see you. Though Mathews is in the town I have hardly had time to see much of him. Remember me to all friends too numerous to mention. I will settle about Baker’s scale5 when you come here on Good Friday. Remember me to Mr and Mrs Carberry.6 Concluding
I am faithfully yours | John Chadwick.
RI MS JT 1/11/3494
LT Transcript Only
lethe: one of the five rivers of Hades in Greek mythology. The dead drank its waters to experience oblivion and forget their mortal lives.
ci-devant: former, especially an erstwhile noble following the French Revolution (OED).
hoith: not identified.
stables of Argus: presumably a mistaken reference to the stables of King Augeas, which, in Greek mythology, contained more than one thousand immortal cattle and had never been cleaned before the task was set for Hercules as the fifth of his penitential labours. Argus was a hundred-eyed giant.
Baker’s scale: presumably a scale belonging to John Baker, a Private in the 13th Company of the Royal Sappers and Miners, who worked in the 3rd and 4th Divisions, C District of the Irish Ordnance Survey, before being transferred to the English Survey in May 1842 (NAI OS/1/16–19). The scale in question is likely to be a Vernier Scale; see letter 0150, n. 24.
Mr and Mrs Carberry: Carberry McCarthy and his wife.
Please cite as “Tyndall0132,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0132