Skipton | 23rd March 1842.
My dear Tyndall,
I received yours1 to day and am going to turn the tables on yourself in your own words ‘has Higginson done anything to offend you?’ but I suppose it is such a long time since you received my last2 that you forgot whether you had received it or not before Geo. Holmes left Cork for the Re-levelling.3 I wrote to you and him the same day and received two letters from him since but you have never condescended to answer the one I sent you so I don’t know what to say you see the ill nature does not lie on my side. Ginty I suppose says the same thing that he did not receive my letter in Kinsale long before he left it. I thought I occupied a small portion of his affection alas but that thought has long since vanished.4 Indeed I suppose the vanities of Cork have monopolized all your affections so that an old faithful friend is entirely forgotten I could lay twice as much on your illnature which you try to turn upon me as the easiest way of apologizing. I think I have now done enough to eradicate the false impression that has arisen in your mind. I suppose you will be over here on the 1st. of April but I’m afraid I won’t have the happiness of seeing you as I think the divisions will be formed before that time. Capt. Tucker was in the office to day, he said that one of the 4 divisions thats here, that is the field party, is to go to Manchester in a few days. Lancashire is to be surveyed 1st and then go north so that I think you wont come further than Manchester which you need not be sorry for as this is a nasty place.5 I am expecting to be going off the survey in about a month or six weeks6 but no matter where I go to I shall always feel it the greatest happiness to correspond with my dear Tyndall. The work here is going on very quick one of this division (1st)7 got a situation of a 100 per year with an attorney this week that is a good beginning. Recommendations are going on very slowly I have got now only 13/6.8 Write to me as soon as you have a leisure moment. Dont remember me to Ginty but do to Foy and Chadwick
Your ever faithful friend | T. C. Harold9
RI MS JT 1/11/3732
LT Transcript Only
yours: letter missing.
my last: probably letter 0107.
the Re-levelling: the correction and reestablishment, by means of spirit levels, of the elevation of the height reference points used on the Irish Ordnance Survey.
I thought I occupied a small portion …long since vanished: Perhaps prompted by Tyndall telling him of this sentiment, William Ginty wrote to Higginson a day later on 24 March 1843 (RI MS JT 1/11/3598).
this is a nasty place: Higginson’s opinion had changed since his arrival in October 1841, when he told Tyndall ‘Skipton is a nice town’; see letter 0097.
I am expecting to be going off the survey in about a month or six weeks: Higginson subsequently enlisted in the Royal Artillery on 10 April 1842; see letter 0182.
this division (1st): the 1st Division of the English Ordnance Survey.
a situation of a 100 per year …I have got now only 13/6: £100 per annum corresponds to approximately £1 18s. (38s.) per week, about three times Higginson’s own pay of 13s. 6d. a week.
T. C. Harold: Harold was a nickname of Higginson’s.
Please cite as “Tyndall0133,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 29 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0133