Badsworth – | 9 Sepr 1850.
My dear Tyndall –
I received your letter1 and the good news2 in it yesterday when going to the village church here. This Morning I have been walking down to the post office (or the apology for one) to see if you had written again yesterday but I did not expect it as yours was an answer to what I asked on Saturday.3 On Saturday then instead of coming to Spring Bank I will go to Bristol and on my way from there to London will call at Queenwood and spend a day or two with you there. I understood you to say before that the Semester began at the latter end of October.4 I must wait until after the 1st of October in England and then I don’t care how soon we go. On Thursday and Friday I shall be in Halifax let me have a letter from you then & say whether these arrangements will suit I am glad your returning to Germany suits Mr Edmondson also, for now we go without sacrificing any body’s interest and I must confess I look upon my journey with much more satisfaction. Tell me on Thursday when you will start for Queenwood & then I can write you all further intentions from Bristol If you should write again before I answer your next a letter will find me directed to Tom Hirst. 9 Blenheim Square. Marlborough Hill. Bristol – I shall have 2 trunks – 1 Box a Carpet bag and a Hat-box, which I think will not be too much. There will be some books which I had better perhaps get, but you will be able to tell me in London. You will also know about passports. I have your umbrella with the Eudiometer5 (?) in it, will you take it back to Germany? or if not where will you have it left? I have borrowed Ollendorfs Exercises6 in Halifax and am working at them here. At Bristol I shall be stopped by not having one. I hardly think it worth while to buy one now, as I can get hold of yours so if you go through London before I leave Bristol I wish you would send it me by post – Now I think I have finished all my practical matters & driven all others of a more kindly nature out of my head so no more till we meet. I am reading Tennysons ‘In Memoriam’7 in these green Fields.
Yours affectionately | T.A. Hirst.
Dr Tyndall, | Spring Bank, Over Darwen, | Lancs.8
RI MS JT/1/H/155
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/118
received your letter: letter 0438.
the good news: that Edmondson had agreed to defer negotiations over his return to Queenwood for 6 months, allowing him to travel to Germany with Hirst.
what I asked on Saturday: this implies either a visit or letters written on Saturday. Possible letters are letter 0431 (of Saturday, 31 August) in which Hirst asked Tyndall about his negotiations with Edmondson or, more likely because more recent, letter 0439 (possibly Saturday, 7 September) in which Hirst asked about meeting up with Tyndall. Tyndall answered both queries in letter 0438.
latter end of October: in letter 0439 Tyndall had said he thought the semester started on 1 October or even earlier.
Eudiometer: an instrument used to measure changes in a specific volume of a mixture of gas after a physical or chemical change. It can also be used to test the purity of the air or the quantity of oxygen it contains (OED). The question mark may indicate that Hirst was unsure of the spelling. Tyndall may have stored it in his umbrella for safe-keeping.
Ollendorfs Exercises: see letter 0431, n. 9.
Tennysons ‘In Memoriam’: A. Tennyson, ‘In Memoriam’ was completed in 1849, a tribute to his friend Arthur Henry Hallam who died suddenly at the age of 22.
Dr Tyndall … Lancs.: only in LT transcript, presumably from the envelope.
Please cite as “Tyndall0441,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 20 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0441