From William Ginty   Sunday 19th May 1844

Carrick on Shannon | Sunday 19th May 1844.

Mon cher Jack,

Altho’ ‘remember to keep holy the Sabbath day’¹ has been chiselled on stone by an almighty sculpture – it has not yet been graven on my adamantine heart. The injunctions of the sacred preacher under this test falls upon my ears as ‘sounding brass’.² ‘Six days shall thou labour &c’.³ But if any right reverend mountebank deduced from that that writing to John Tyndall is a labour then in the teeth of his holy habiliments do I most energetically pronounce him to be a theological humbug and a sacerdotal jackanape.⁴ One would imagine from your pious horror and scriptural denunciation of my simple curses that you were some twaddling preacher or tar barrel divine. I however am not that one – oh no! too well do I know how stands the barometer of your righteousness – too perfect is the lithograph – too exact the facsimile which I possess of your very soul to think for a moment that your moralizing was anything but the essence – the quintessence of hypocrisy.

The death thoughts frightened you did they? miraculous! I really thought your looking-glass had braced your nerves pretty well on this score already!!!

Thanks for the valentine⁵ – of course I bestowed on it all due admiration (the said admiration being no trifle) but tell me – has any convulsion in the bowels of our little planet changed the geographical position of Leighlin since I honoured it with my presence (ahem!)? Or how came it to be in the ‘vicinity’ of Preston on the ‘14th of Feb., last’? – Aye, Preston, you stand connected before the impartial tribunal of my conscience for that not having the fear of God before your eyes did wilfully and corruptly in the said letter stretch the meaning of the word ‘vicinity’ in defiance of all precedent – thereby bringing the towns of Leighlin and Preston into contact to the utter consternation of the good people of the said towns. The evidence in this case being ‘my pretty Jane’⁶ short conclusive and incontrovertible. [Allah] ‘truth is Tyndall’s glory’. ‘Brutus is an honourable man’!⁷ ‘My first lame effort at a valentine’ ‘my first’ yet ‘Brutus is an honourable man’ – But quench thy rousing ire take no thought of revenge for here, ever here is my valentine which you ‘have yearned to see’, forebear! oh forebear.

‘In mercy spare me if I do my best

To make as much waste paper as the rest’.⁸

The only thing that decided in favour of this miserable and unutterably shabby production ever coming under your notice was your gigantic oath (quotha ‘him that is filthy let him be filthy still’)⁹ which said oath filled me with perspective horror lest the devil in the plenitude of his benevolence might grant you fortitude to preserve it inviolate.

I really did receive your letter¹⁰ at breakfast in Lakeview (whither it was sent after me) en passant¹¹ (which being interpreted means sitting by the road side to tell a ‘story’) that same parenthesis contains a piece of very superfluous information. But, to return, I laughed, long and loud – and uproarious, and two of ‘my chief earthly enjoyments’ dealt out their respective quantums of bliss in concert – concert? oh la! it was an outrageous discord. The laughter filtered the coffee thro’ my nose and teeth and to the unutterable dismay of mine hostess descended in a shower variegating and bedeviling her snowy table-cloth.

Confusion seize thee and thy impertinence – ‘my rugged physiognomy’¹² charnel-house¹³ deserter! this is unsufferable. But in the plenitude of my contempt and merciless scorn I pardon thee– Yes, I actually laugh at the mere anticipation of the discussion revived. I must procure a cholera morbus belt¹⁴ to avert the dissolution of my ribs. Lord how I will lacerate you if I come within an earshot of you, I have a long account to settle. How is Cupid¹⁵ – is he living or is he dead? As for George Latimer I don’t [know] what he is after. He was in Liverpool lately. My brother¹⁶ is going down to applot the Ph.,¹⁷ he leaves in the course of the ensuing week. I’ll write to him and learn particulars. I wrote to Jack¹⁸ this day fortnight, no answer yet – in good truth I have been thinking as you have thought for the last 9 or 10 days with respect to the Belfast gent. If our surmises prove in time to be true I will assuredly wreak my vengeance on him in the shape of a bitter letter. If I can so manage it without creating a feeling to Johnny’s prejudice. Have you heard any of the good results of our ‘combination’ pitiable and shabby as they are – they nevertheless prove how good and efficacious it is to agitate. Hunter¹⁹ writes ‘Men on the Survey 20 years are to have half pay while sick. Those from 7 to 14 one-third and none under 7 gets any’. If I had time or space I would shower a volley of malediction on the miscreant herd, but let them pass. A ‘Veritas’²⁰ and a ‘Vindex’²¹ and some other worthy in the ‘Nation’²² have been walking into them lately.

I will be done in Lakeview²³ in 3 or 4 weeks – if you write within the coming fortnight address to the care of: –

Henry Boyd Esq.²⁴ | Lakeview | Ballifarudn | Boyle.

for pity’s sake write soon for I am wretchedly lonely down there. Give my best respects to your sister²⁵ and believe me

dear Jack | Yours sans changes | Ginty.

To Evans. A rigmarole.

Child of Lilliput!²⁶ and mine

Ginty greets thee with a rhyme

Dwarfish man with giant soul

As the needle points the pole

As the ivy seeks the tree

Veers my spirit unto thee! –

But say thou ‘smallest born of earth’ (3)

Has memory sought the ‘second birth’

Or why oh Evans has thy pen

Ne’er sought my hapless fate to ken

Is recollection’s powers dead

Has every Irish feeling fled

Shades of the past too often wooed

Is this thy base ingratitude!

÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷

Miniature of him of Gath!!!

We have trod a common path

Thro’ the sweet and witching dears

Of the southern world for years

O’er ‘the green’ together pranced

And in Auberys²⁷ harem danced

Harem! not for lewdness there

Harem for its beauties rare

Such at least ‘twas ours to know

Tyndall says we felt it too

And as truth is Tyndall’s glory

‘I’m half inclined to believe’ the story

Now take thy fulsome memory back

To Youghal’s²⁸ oft betrodden track

See what is there! oh ask thy heart

If silence should have been my part

Have I not sought at your behest

To calm Miss Bessie’s²⁹ troubled breast

When your foul fancy for a kiss

Brought infamy instead of bliss

Forsooth ‘Miss Sally³⁰ one – no more

You can’t object Bess gave a score’

Oh dearly was that one smack bought

Bethink the ruin that it wrought

Oh think how oft you swore a kiss

Had played the devil with your bliss

Think, think how well I fought your fight

When you were banished from her sight

Aye think of this – ungrateful man

Go – go repent while yet you can

÷ ÷ ÷ ÷ ÷

Giant thro’ a microscope! (1)

I have cast a horoscope

Skilled in dark Egyptian lore

I have scanned the heavens o’er

Read thy fate in jumbled stars

Clustered round the bloody mars!

Hear their dismal tale and dread

Vengeance pending o’er thy head

Few short weeks shall fly apace

Then we’re fronted face to face

I with fearful vengeance mad

Thou despairing pale and sad

Thou shalt shiver neath my glance –

Nerveless sink in coward trance –

Gasping for thy puny breath –

Looked unto a frightful death

Thus shalt thou die – in terror base

The last of all the Pigmy race!!!

– But jokes avaunt– my day dream is

A wish to view thy ancient phiz³¹

My heavens! I long to have a shake

For quandam ‘Cupida’ quandam³² sake

My pent up extacy to shed

Like steam from boiler on thy head

Lord how I long to hear thee whine

Thy sorrows over auld lang syne³³

As once thou used in Youghal shade

‘The rent the envious Bessie made’ (2)

To hear thee doat on beauties gone

And hear thee praise the present one

I long for this – write – break the spell

Child of Lilliput³⁴ farewell.

W.G. Ginty.

(1) That is to say thou art a giant when viewed thro’ a microscope– _________! So would a flea.

(2) ‘See what a rent the envious Casca made’³⁵ | Shakespeare

(3) ‘Behometh biggest born of earth

Upheaved its wetness’³⁶ | Milton

Verily I say unto thee Evans thou art the antipodes³⁷ of the Behometh – the minimum of the animal world – the smallest specimen of genus Homo.

Lakeview | Ballifannon | Boyle | Co. Roscommon.

RI MS JT/1/TYP/11/3630-3631

LT Transcript Only