2 Belview Terrace | Pendleton | Manchester | 24th Dec. 1842.
Dear John
It was with feelings of the most unfeigned pleasure I had the honour of receiving your letter1 quite unexpected. But even that pleasure had its attendant pain, for in the said letter I see recorded in plain and legible characters another instance of that boy Willy’s2 dereliction from the path of virtue. What will become of him? Let us, having the past in view, dive as it were into the dark vista of futurity and let imagination fill up the picture and lo what a spectacle is there pourtrayed in indelible and imperishable characters! My mind recoils from the thought and as Virgil3 has it (si bene recordor)4 ‘Vox haesit in faucibus: comæ staut in capiti’5 But avaunt6 such thought being only calculated to imbue the mind with gloomy forebodings quite foreign to our subject – however I beg you will keep a strict watch over that boy. I had two letters from Bloomfield – he appears well pleased with his change. He was when I last heard from him drawing one of the large plans of York. I have reason to think he is still the same Bob. I also had a letter from our much respected host at Sarsfield Court,7 he was then quite well and was going on a visit to the Queens Co.8 From the sketch you have given me and from other quarters it appears that you have not a very choice selection in your office.9 I can without any reserve say quite the same. I really envy you, for in Preston you have some two or three respectable ones, but lo such a collection of boors as we have gotten10 no one ever before saw together: You may form such an opinion of them as you can when Mr McKerlei11 designated them as like a parcel of Irish pigs and sent two or three of them home to wash their hands. Of this satis est.12 you may fancy what my feelings are when, ever and anon, I recall to mind the pleasant nights spent in Cork when the lively temperament of Tyndall set us all in a roar aided by that other gay soul Bloomfield. And never till memory ceases to do her duty shall the night at Sarsfield’s Court be effaced from my recollection, when John T. with stentorian voice13 such as threatened a total annihilation and devastation of that part of our corporeal frame called the lungs would maintain that ‘you’r wrong Sir’ after having crushed with the force of argument that emporium of knowledge Mr. Moorough.14 You ask my opinion of the English ladies and in answer I beg to say that your description of them perfectly coincides with what I am in the habit of hearing, but I cannot give my opinion for you must be aware that I am no admirer of the fair sex but I shall bow with the utmost deference, as Willy was wont to express himself, to your opinion for I know no other more competent to give one. You who were the centre of attraction of some 5 or 6 of the belles of Cork, contrary to the laws of your gravitation; but such a phenomena is easily accounted for when we recollect that bright halo which emanated from and surrounded you. I would advise you to be very careful lest those same ladies (English) whom you describe as so warm, would not eventually be taking improper liberties: I also recommend not to let them engage you so much as to cause you to turn from that high, exalted, but still arduous, pursuit after knowledge which has hitherto characterised your life and the fruits of which are daily evinced in the respect and admiration which you elicit from all who have the happiness and honour of your acquaintance. I hope and expect that our letters shall be neither few nor far between but that a mutually profitable series of letters shall be the result. You will please excuse this attempt at a letter but we shall in time improve. Have you heard how the Cotter family15 are? Please remember me to Willy and ask him if he would be kind enough to write when not immediately tripping it on the light fantastic toe in the mazes of a quadrille or Masourka16 or else.
I am yours sincerely | J. Lilly.
Direct to me | 2 Belview Terrace | as on first page.
RI MS JT 1/11/3748
LT Transcript Only
your letter: letter missing.
that boy Willy: probably William Hunter, who was regularly referred to as Willy and had a taste for mischief and womanizing; see, for instance, letter 0150.
Virgil: Publius Vergilius Maro (70–19BC), an ancient Roman poet best known for The Aeneid, a Latin epic of the origins of Rome.
(si bene recordor): if I remember well (Latin).
‘Vox haesit in faucibus: comæ staut in capiti’: Lilly slightly misremembers the line ‘arrectaeque horrore comae et vox faucibus haesit’ (his hair stood on end with horror, and his voice stuck in his throat) from The Aeneid, IV.280, which describes Aeneas’s fearful response to a warning from the god Mercury.
avaunt: be gone (OED).
Sarsfield Court: a large house near Glanmire in County Cork. Charles Putland, Jnr was recorded as the occupier between 1847 and 1864, holding the house from his father Charles Putland, Snr (Griffith’s Valuation). Either father or son may be the ‘host’ Lilly recalls.
Queens Co: Queen’s County, now County Laois.
your office: see letter 0171, n. 2.
as we have gotten: in the Divisional Office of the 4th Division of the English Ordnance Survey in Manchester.
Mr McKerlei: John Graham McKerlie (1814–1900), who joined the Royal Engineers in 1833 and was stationed in Mauritius for several years. On returning to Britain, he was employed on the English Survey, where he served in the 4th Division, and commanded the Divisional Office in Manchester. After reaching the rank of Colonel, he was appointed a Commissioner of the Board of Public Works in Ireland in 1855.
satis est: is enough (Latin).
stentorian voice: loud and powerful, like that of a stentor; see letter 0169, n. 15.
Mr. Moorough: not identified.
the Cotter family: the family of Mrs Cotter, Tyndall’s erstwhile landlady at Pine Street in Cork.
a quadrille or Masourka: types of dance, both having a lively tempo.
Please cite as “Tyndall0180,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0180