Queenwood College | near Stockbridge | Hampshire | June 9th1 1851.
My Dear John Tyndall
Thy letter2 dated ‘Berlin Tuesday’ has reached me to day, and at some risk of missing thee,3 I hasten to remove from thy mind any impression of want of confidence, any expression of mine may have given rise to; – banish it I beg of thee: – I only wished to apprize thee that I am anxious to make Queenwood self-supporting and to do this I find it necessary to curtail expenses:4 justice demands I should not run into debts, which I cannot promptly meet. The inconvenience of delay, is in my opinion, a degree of injustice to your creditor.5 So far I hope I have set this matter right. I long to have thee on one side Debus on the other to become better acquainted with the good man, I feel there is good in him: – and Haas is another deserving worthy fellow. I shall be delighted to be of any service to thee at Ipswich,6 though I am quite at a loss how it is to be done, I mean how I am able.
I am thy sincere Friend | Geo. Edmondson.
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/146
LT Transcript Only
June 9th: written shortly after Debus’s arrival and dated the same day as letter 0494 from Debus to Tyndall.
Thy letter: letter written Tuesday, 3 June, is missing. On the Quaker use of ‘thee’ and ‘thy’ see letter 0478, n. 3.
risk of missing thee: Tyndall was about to leave Berlin but not quite as soon as Debus and Edmonson expected (see letter 0494, n. 3). He left Berlin for Hamburg on 22 June (see letter 0497).
want of confidence . . . curtail expenses: alludes to Tyndall’s offer to purchase £20 worth of instruments for Queenwood and Tyndall’s sensitivity to any criticism. Tyndall gave his version of the exchange in letter 0497 to Hirst.
injustice to your creditor: an expression of Quaker scrupulosity over debts.
Ipswich: the BAAS meeting at Ipswich in July (see letter 0484, n. 17).
Please cite as “Tyndall0495,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0495