Carrick on Shannon | Wednesday 19th March 1844.1
My dear Tyndall,
On yesterday noon I returned from Sligo where I had been [8] days. That will be some excuse for my silence. I did really expect to have one from you sent after me2 – I got it yesterday and it has struck me as a thunderbolt. I did not think your departure3 was [so] near at hand. I never sat before a letter with bitterer feelings – with more real sorrow, not only for your removal to such a distant place but also my total inability to do what I would to heaven I could do. I am poor, Tyndall and being idle – in fact I cannot send it nor can I write about it. I’ll send it after you when I can scrape it together or I’ll send it to your father4 as of course you’re indebted to him more than that. I have not much to say. I had hoped up to yesterday that you would not go,5 but that it seems as foolish as it was useless. I suppose George6 goes with you, a worthy companion without a doubt. The non-appearance of No. 67 will look odd, but that can’t be helped – trifles must submit to greater events! Yet you cannot be aware that some who knew you had a suspicion that you were guilty of the authorship.8 The knowledge of your departure brought in superposition with this will fasten the suspicion on you to all intents and purposes. What of suspicions though – you thought in your last ‘that it would be your last scroll’. Do you mean the last forever? Surely not – And I think you may find time to scrape a few lines to correct and acknowledge your error before you go. Write if you can before you go and oh do not fail to write when you cast your anchor in the strangers’ clime! Goodbye my dear Tyndall. You will find enclosed an effort of my muse – tho’ the short time I had prevented me from making longer or more perfect it contains the essence of my soul the breathings of my spirit. Goodbye – oh don’t for pity’s sake omit writing from beyond.
Yours ever faithfully | sincerely and affectionately | William Ginty.
Give my kindest and sincerest remembrances to your brother emigrant George Latimer.
Carrick on Shannon | Co. Leitrim. Ireland | Wednesday 19th March 1844
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The muse that oft at Tyndall’s call
Has bellowed forth her beastly bawl
‘Bout ‘Ellen’s’9 charms and ‘Aubrey’s’10 ball
And soared o’er mountains ‘fells’ and all
Resumes her ‘gray goose quill’!11
Oh now ye Gods by poets seen
Ye shadow sprites of fairy scene
Ye spectra-lords of fancy’s dream
Brace – nerve my soul into my theme
This bath-post sheet to fill!
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‘Friendship! Mysterious earnest of the soul
Sweetner of life, solder of society
I owe thee much’----------------------- Blair12
‘Your spirit dares me to forget’13
No!– Tyndall – no – too firmly’s set
Too deeply graven where ‘tis placed
Is Friendship’s seal to be effaced
Not Time’s dull tarnish e’er shall rest
Upon the mirror in my breast
Nor Time – nor Distance ever dim
Thy portrait pictured there within!
–‘The die is cast’14 – shall we no more
Our kindred souls in fancy pour!
Forefend it Heaven! ‘tho’ doubly far,
Not e’en that distance could it mar
The broad Atlantic stern and deep
Will soon its billows ‘twixt us sweep
Not ten Atlantics e’er shall roar
My Friendship’s requiem on this shore
‘Tho Fates dark cup of bitter draught
By me perhaps may oft be quaffed
Not grief nor woe shall ever tell
They rung for you my Friendship’s knell!
But ah! a pang my spirit sears
And mem’ry weeps o’er faded years
She bears me to those happy scenes
O’er which we laughed in youthful dreams
Those haunts where we so oft have trod
To gaze on Nature and her God!
But all Farewell – in Fancy’s birth
They’re monuments of absent worth!
–Thy path lies o’er the mountain waves
Thy home no longer – home of slaves!
Thy barque now streams her pennon gay15
For Friendship’s regions far away
Oh think when there – how in this land
We battled with a miscreant band
How we have grappled side by side
With petty despots in their pride
Have dealt a stout and noble blow
To lay the griping tyrant low
Oh hear the earnest in your heart
That you have played a noble part
In Friendship’s cause! o’er thoughts like these
Thou’lt often smile – they’ll often please
And conscious Truth – from Heaven a guest
Will revel in thy exiled breast!
And think thee Tyndall – now the toil
Of Tyrants in this perjured soil
There breathes a soul they cant subdue
An honest heart to Friendship true!–
Bear this with thee – beyond the wave
Where Despots find a fitting grave
Within this green and trampled isle
A soul will o’er thy mem’ry smile
In after years – when age shall shed
Her hoary blossoms on his head
Fond thoughts of thee will oft arise
To fire his dim and grave-ward eyes
A dream of thee will cheer the gloom
That presages the chilling tomb!
I’ve done – Farewell – may fortune pour
On thee and thine her choicest – store
May care or sorrow never rest
One moment in thy manly breast–
May Heaven her holiest blessings shed
In myriads on thy honoured head!
And when thy glass of life hath run
May smiling spirits bear thee home
To realms of happiness on high! –
Goodbye – Dear Jack – a long Goodbye!
William Ginty.
John Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/TYP/11/3628-3630
LT Transcript Only
Wednesday 19th March 1844: 19 March was a Tuesday in 1844; it is unclear whether this was Ginty’s mistake or a typo in Louisa Tyndall’s transcription.
the one you sent after me: letter missing.
your departure: Tyndall was planning to emigrate to America with George Latimer in the spring of 1844; see letters 0237, 0269, 0291, 0295, 0296, 0299, 0304, 0306, 0307, 0313, and 0324 for further information regarding these plans and their outcome.
your father: John Tyndall Senior.
that you would not go: i.e., to America.
George: George Latimer.
The non-appearance of No. 6: the expected sixth letter from ‘Spectator’, Tyndall’s pseudonym, to the Liverpool Mercury.
you were guilty of the authorship: i.e., the authorship of the Spectator letters.
Ellen: see letter 0288, n. 31.
Aubrey: possibly Aubrey O’Brien, who worked with Tyndall on the Ordnance Survey.
‘gray goose quill!’: Lord Byron, ‘English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers’ (1809), ii.7.
‘Friendship! … I owe thee much - Blair’: R. Burns, ‘Epistle to James Smith’, lines 1-3. The word ‘earnest’ was either a typographical error by Louisa Tyndall or a mistake by Ginty; Blair’s poem refers to ‘Friendship’ as the ‘mysterious cement of the soul’.
‘Your spirit dares me to forget’: unknown reference.
‘The die is cast’: an idiom meaning that something has already been determined.
barque now streams her pennon gay: i.e., the ship’s flag flies showily (OED).
Please cite as “Tyndall0298,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on