Cork, | Wednesday evening
My dear Father
Having returned from the office, dined heartily on hashed mutton and new potatoes! and perpetrated a most comfortable shaving operation to the no small detriment of my whiskers! I now sit down to gratify you in giving you a short epistle as you say that you would prefer a short one to yourself before a long one to any body else.
I am glad to find that you were prepared to acknowledge the force of my arguments respecting the Milford conductors1 – I floored you completely. Things are going on as usual here. I have three or four methodists preaching to me daily, very nice fellows indeed and I think consistently religious. We are expected to sail on the 29th. There will be three or four lads waiting for us in Liverpool – Ginty among the number – to conduct us to nice lodgings. Ginty has been employed in the field since he went there, he tells me that if the skin of his face was analyzed it would make raw sienna,2 a colour resembling yellow soap. We heard to day that the Survey of London3 is about to be commenced immediately. If this be the case it’s probable that we who have been employed at the city of Cork will be drafted thither. I cant vouch for the accuracy of the report. With respect to Mrs Payne it is quite unnecessary to advise me not to suffer myself to be humbugged.4 Stern necessity compels me to look sharp. A fellow on the eve of a long journey wants every shilling he can muster. Mrs Payne knows this, at all events she has not applied to me since I came here. She gets sewing to do from a man named Booth,5 I dare say you know him, his father is a Carlow man. This, together with what Joe6 sends her, ought by good management to support her well. I am sorry to hear of Mr Holden’s death, he was a man for whom I had a great regard.
Give my love to my mother and Emma good bye
Your affectionate son | John.
I weighed myself two days ago and found that I had increased half a stone since I came to Cork – I mean from Kinsale, I’m thriving. | J.T.
Let me know how John Murray is when you write next | J.T.
RI MS JT 1/10/3275
LT Transcript Only
Milford conductors: see letter 0147, n. 1.
he tells me that if the skin of his face was analyzed it would make raw sienna: see letter 0150, n. 36.
Survey of London: A Survey of London at a scale of 5 feet to 1 mile, to be paid for by the Exchequer, was proposed in early 1842, presumably to assist with much-needed improvements to the city’s infrastructure. Colonel Thomas Colby estimated that the cost of surveying and publication, to be carried out by the Royal Engineers, would be £104,000. However, the Treasury, keen to keep a tight rein on public finances, rejected the proposal. The plan was revived in 1848, following a request from the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission in November 1847, and the passing of the Public Health Act earlier in 1848. The Survey of London, superintended by William Yolland and Lewis Alexander Hall, was concluded in 1850.
humbugged: hoaxed or cajoled into doing something (OED).
Booth: not identified.
Joe: Joseph Payne.
Please cite as “Tyndall0154,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 4 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0154