Dublin | May 4th 1843
My dear Tyndall
I am quite ashamed of not answering your very kind note and enclosure1 long before this and the only excuse I have to offer is that my examinations in college were to come off a few days after that on which I received yours and I was so very busy that I had very few moments to spare. However now they are over and I hasten to thank you very sincerely for the specimen which you sent me2 it is exactly what I wanted and will serve for a standard whenever I am doing a map.
I am now staying for a week in Dublin and then I will go to the County Longford where my direction if you think it worth your while writing to me will be
Kilshrewly
Edgeworthtown3
Ireland
and be assured I shall always be very glad to hear from you of your happiness and to serve you whenever I may be able. We have had nothing but wet weather all winter in Cork with the exception of a very few fine days but here I believe they have had very good weather – When Mr Taylor4 was in Cork I went to the Methodist shop5 with him where he expected I should be instantly converted but I returned from it more than ever attached to the true church6 in which opinion I still continue. I hope Mr Eivers was quite well when you heard from him and also all those with whom I was acquainted when in Cork Remember me to such as remember me and believe me to be
your very sincere | friend | J.B. Edgeworth
RI MS JT 1/11/3562
LT Transcript Only
your very kind note and enclosure: letter missing.
the specimen which you sent me: see letter 0192, n. 1.
Kilshrewly | Edgeworthtown: an estate in the midlands of Ireland around 65 miles north-east of Dublin, owned by the powerful Anglo-Irish Edgeworth family, after whom the townland of Edgeworthtown was named. At this time, the estate was administered by the novelist Maria Edgeworth and her brother Francis. John B. Edgeworth was presumably a member of this family.
Mr Taylor: see letter 0168, n. 4.
the Methodist shop: The Methodist community in Ireland had split into two factions in 1818, so this was either the Church of the Wesleyan Methodists on St Patrick’s Street, Cork, which had opened in 1805; or the Primitive Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in French Church Street, which was built in 1712 as a Huguenot church. As the Primitive Wesleyans saw themselves as loyal members of the Established Church and did not themselves administer the sacraments or hold services during ‘Church hours’, Edgeworth’s response suggests it was the St Patrick’s Street Wesleyan Church he attended with Edward Taylor.
the true church: presumably the Anglican Church of Ireland.
Please cite as “Tyndall0202,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0202