4 Mount Verdon Terrace1 | August 15th 1842
My dear Tyndall
Many thanks for your very acceptable letter.2 I would not have asked you to write to me if I did not intend answering you indeed it would be a very bad return for your great kindness to me whilst in the office here. I still continue to go to the barracks and have finished three of the plans on the trace. Mr Bloomfield very kindly gives me every assistance, I assure you your letter was not the least too long I am only afraid that you must have been tired writing it, for I judge from myself that I never would be able to surmount such a long epistle – I am very glad you were not sick going across the channel as when one is not ill nothing is more delightful than a sea voyage particularly when there is coasting. remember me most kindly to Mr Latimer and all who think it worth while asking for me indeed I shall not easily forget the kindness I experienced from you all in Cork We have had very hot weather since you left – Major Waters is leaving Passage3 and is coming up to lodgings in Cork Mr Moor4 or as Mr Bloomfield calls him ‘your little old crowl’5 is in the same room as us and of course we have sometimes a word about the ‘Darbies’6 – The Sawyers who threw the vitriol at Mr Wilson7 were shipped off for Dublin in the Eagle steamer great crowds were assembled and the prisoners were obliged to be escorted from the jail to the quay by a party of the 10th hussars8 and some police however there was no violence committed A few nights ago the police were in great commotion about Wilson having stabbed a man – The facts were as follows – there was a crowd passing by the saw mill and it being a wet day a recruit belonging to some cavalry regiment went to take shelter in the mill when Wilson came down and told the man to leave the place he refused and a struggle ensued during which I hear the man called him a ‘bloody informer’ and Wilson took out a dagger and struck the recruit who was in plain clothes the man was not dangerously wounded I believe he is quite recovered now9 If you think it worth while I hope you will write to me soon and you may as well leave out the Mr to my name you see I have not used it to yours which I hope you wont think too great a liberty – I am sure you must think plotting exceedingly dry work. I daresay you would like field work better10 do you expect to be sent to the field if you know Mr Eiver’s direction will you send it to me as I should like to write to him at some future time
I must now bid you farewell | and believe me | sincerely and truly yours | J.B. Edgeworth
RI MS JT 1/11/3558
LT Transcript Only
Mount Verdon Terrace: in Cork, on the north side of the River Lee.
your very acceptable letter: possibly letter 0162.
Passage: see letter 0162, n. 2.
Mr Moor: probably James Moore, a civil assistant who joined the Irish Ordnance Survey in May 1834 and worked in the Examination Office for C District, located in Cork (NAI OS/1/17–19).
crowl: a stunted or frail person (OED).
‘Darbies’: not identified, but darbies is a slang term for handcuffs (OED).
The Sawyers who threw the vitriol at Mr Wilson: On 13 August 1842 the Spectator reported, ‘At Cork Assizes, on Friday, Daniel Lonergan, John Drew, Daniel Sullivan, and Timothy Herlihy, were tried for an aggravated assault on Mr. John Wilson, the proprietor of some patent saw-mills; upon whom they cast a quantity of oil of vitriol, by which one of his eyes was burned out of the socket, and the other was seriously injured. The workmen of the firm to which he belonged were discontented because they had introduced steam-power into their mills, which diminished the demand for labour; and the prisoners entered into a combination to put the steam saw-mills down. On the 1st March, Mr. Wilson was waylaid, and the vitriol was thrown in his face. The proof rested principally on the evidence of an approver, and of Mr. Wilson, who himself identified the four men. They were found guilty, and sentenced to transportation for life’ (‘Ireland’, p. 779).
10th hussars: 10th Royal Hussars, a cavalry regiment of the British Army.
Wilson having stabbed a man … quite recovered now: On 16 August 1842 the Morning Post reported, ‘at Cork, a riot arose in consequence of a report that the four sawyers just convicted of maiming Mr. Wilson, were about to be transmitted for transportation to Dublin. A mob collected about Mr. W.’s mills, and a young man named Jowell, a recruit, drawn amongst them by mere curiosity, being thrust forward by some persons towards Mr. Wilson, a struggle took place between them, when Mr. Wilson drew a dirk and stabbed the young man under the ribs and severely wounded him. Great excitement was caused by the circumstance. The young man, however, is not dangerously hurt’ (‘Ireland’, p. [2]).
think plotting exceedingly dry work … like field work better: Under Colonel Thomas Colby’s superintendence of the Ordnance Survey, the activities of plotting (transferring information from field books, usually done in an office) and surveying (conducted in the field) were kept separate, and no surveyor was allowed to plot his own work.
Please cite as “Tyndall0163,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0163