<RA>Sibertswold2 Vicarage | near Dover | June 24th 51
<#>
My dear Tyndall,
I only received your affectionate letter3 a few days since, as since being doubled I and my better half4 have been travelling on the Continent, visiting Belgium, Prussia, Germany and back by Paris
I hope now my dear old friend and companion that I have shown you the way you will take the matrimonial leap Man was not made to live alone and a good fellow like you was most certainly not. Only choose wisely and not a girl that might be your daughter. My wife is only three years younger than myself. I have known her for many years and am therefore well acquainted with her character. If you go across the water this summer you might halt at Folkestone and pay us a visit, when no doubt I shall be able to make you up a bed (not a part of my own now) I can lend you all the night apparatus. I return to Shorncliff5 on Friday next
Now as ever | Your attached6 friend | Tom Hig.7
<#>
<INFO>RI MS JT/1/TYP/2/600
LT Transcript Only
Higginson: Thomas Charles Higginson (c. 1821–98), an early companion of Tyndall in the Irish Ordnance Survey. Higginson had joined the Royal Artillery in 1842 and served in India (see Volume 1). In 1851 he was stationed at Shorncliffe and, as indicated here, recently married. In the next few years he travelled on army business in the United States before being appointed to superintend recruiting in Ireland (letters of 28 January 1853 and 6 July 1854, Vol. 4). Tyndall maintained contact over the years, writing letters and meeting on at least one occasion (in London, referred to in letter of 28 January 1853).
Sibertswold: Higginson was visiting Sibertswold, a village about 6 miles north-west of Dover. The letter implies he was living at Shorncliffe.
your affectionate letter: letter missing.
being doubled … my better half: allusions to his marriage (doubled) and wife (better half).
Folkestone … Shorncliff: Shorncliffe, a military camp 2 miles west of Folkestone.
attached: another allusion to his married state.
Hig: another use of a nickname among Tyndall’s Irish friends.
Please cite as “Tyndall0499,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0499