From William Ginty   (Apr. 1st, 1843)

33 Windsor Street1

My dear Jack

Your exquisite production2 greeted my eyes in due time. Oh you bigot! – however it is first rate. The ‘Requiem of common sense’ has called forth my most extravagant admiration. You done well to finish it; look out for it shortly in the P.C.3 I would send you 3 or 4 every week on an average, only for the same reason – I cant finish. This day I tried two – no go tho’, one was a capital subject and I may finish that. ‘Tis sweet to be watching her eye’– Expressive is it not? eh?

I think it very probable that we may see Sinnett here ere long. Scott4 is on leave and Lowrie5 is for Canada, along with 3 others from this Division.6 I hope Sinnett may come at all events.

I send you this week’s Mercury with this, vide7 ‘Ordnance Survey’ in the column to correspondents.8 What think you of this? Here now the ice is broken and let us see what a fine splash you’ll make. Some fellow seems to be inquisitive on this subject. Just set the poor fellow’s mind at rest – it demands an answer.

I will write in the course of the week. I made an application last week for a Clerkship of £70 a year. I got no answer yet. I think it is a failure. No word of the journals! Yet9 – When you squint over this paper please to put a label on it for ‘auld’ Ginty10 Carrickonshannon Co Leitrim.11 Willy12 is beginning to run foul of a black eyed Susan13 that shakes the feathers for us. Jack’s father14 gave him a very nice little watch when he was here last and talks of removing him from his admirable occupation. Did you read that affair for Evans that I remodelled for his especial use.15

You must excuse this, damn me if I have either pen or ink within the room and as I soon must trot to 75 for cash16

Good bye | Yours | Ginty

RI MS JT 1/11/3599

LT Transcript Only

33 Windsor Street: the location of the Ordnance Survey Divisional Office in Toxteth Park, Liverpool.

Your exquisite production: letter missing.

P.C.: the Preston Chronicle, although Tyndall’s ‘Requiem of common sense’ did not appear in the newspaper; see letter 0199, n. 1.

Scott: Corporal William Scott (b. 1811) of the 16th Company of the Royal Sappers and Miners, who had worked in the 5th Division, B District of the Irish Ordnance Survey before being transferred to England in July 1842 where he superintended work in the Divisional Office of the 5th Division of the English Survey in Liverpool (NAI OS/1/17–19).

Lowrie: Corporal William Lowrie (b. 1816) of the 16th Company of the Royal Sappers and Miners, who had worked in the 1st Division, B District of the Irish Survey before being transferred to England in February 1843 and working in the 5th Division of the English Survey in Liverpool (NAI OS/1/16–20).

this Division: the 5th Division of the English Ordnance Survey.

vide: see (Latin), used to direct the reader’s attention to a specific point in a text.

‘Ordnance Survey’ in the column to correspondents: ‘To Correspondents. Ordnance Survey’, Liverpool Mercury, 31 March 1843, p. 106, which stated: ‘The gist of A Constant Purchaser’s Note seems to be the question why this expensive national survey could not include the necessary data, such as the precise contents of fields, &c., to serve in arrangements of tithe commutation. We are given to understand that the scale of the great survey is not sufficiently large to answer this purpose completely, and that, therefore, special sketches are made, for such purposes, for parties paying for them’.

No word of the journals! Yet: presumably the ‘Journal of Progress and Weekly Report’ (see letter 0038, n. 3) whose late arrival Ginty had also bemoaned in letter 0143.

‘auld’ Ginty: Ginty’s father William.

Carrickonshannon Co Leitrim: the town of Carrick-on-Shannon in County Leitrim, in the north of Ireland.

Willy: William Hunter.

black eyed Susan: not identified.

Jack’s father: the father of John Tidmarsh.

that affair for Evans that I remodelled for his especial use: not identified, but possibly a poem addressed to a woman.

trot to 75 for cash: not identified.

Please cite as “Tyndall0197,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0197