Macloneigh Glebe, | Macroom.1 | Dec. 28 1847
Dear Sir,
I hope you will excuse me for not having replied to your kind letter2 of the 20th inst.3 before now, but I have been so engaged by Christmas duties that I really had not time to do so.
The misery and destitution of my large and impoverished parish is beyond description great, and I would gladly and thankfully avail myself of any help that I could procure for the poor people. But, before sending you any statement respecting the distress around me, I feel that it would be but right that I should be aware whether you are acting in this work of mercy as a benevolent individual, or on the part of a charitable Society. I trust that you will not blame me for asking this question, which makes me feel quite ungrateful after your kind letter, but I should not like to appeal to the public without knowing exactly whether it was to be in a private manner through you, or through some of the many charitable Associations.
I recollect the time you allude to, when you were one of my class at Castle Bellingham,4 and wishing you many happy new years, I remain,
Dear Sir, faithfully yours, | Henry F. McClintock.5
John Tyndall Esq.
(Have the goodness to enclose this when you next favour me with a letter. | J.T.)6
RI MS JT/1/TYP/11/3761
LT Transcript Only
Macroom: a market town in southern Ireland.
your kind letter: letter missing. From Tyndall’s journal, 20 December 1847: ‘Wrote to Mr McClintock requesting some information relative to the poor of his district’ (RI MS JT/2/13a/285). Tyndall was visiting Ireland at the time and was dismayed by the poverty and malnutrition he observed.
letter of the 20th inst.: the letter was from the 20th of December.
Castle Bellingham: also spelled Castlebellingham, a town in County Louth, Ireland where the Tyndall family lived from 1833-1836. From Louisa Tyndall’s unpublished biography: ‘In 1833 the Tyndalls were transferred to Castle Bellingham, Co. Louth, where they remained until the autumn of 1836. The teaching in the school which Tyndall attended was in many ways defective, and was not of a quality to attract’ (Louisa Tyndall, ‘Biography’, vol. 1, p. 12).
Henry F. McClintock: (?-1879). An Irish cleric whom Tyndall evidently knew in Castle Bellingham. McClintock died in Macroom in October 1879.
(Have the goodness to enclose this when you next favour me with a letter. | J.T.): this postscript is included in Louisa Tyndall’s transcript; it is unclear who made this request, or exactly what is meant by it.
Please cite as “Tyndall0341,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on