Queenwood Sunday mng.
My Dear Francis.
I am thoroughly satisfied with what you have done and see no plan better or more practical than that which you have proposed – The sending of one copy of the testimonials2 renders the thing sure – in fact the others are rather a luxury than otherwise and if they arrive too late all is not lost.
In short I fully subscribe to your proposal and will thank you to carry it out for me.
I received the enclosed yesterday. perhaps it will be worth while to send it with the others3 – should I hear from Wheatstone or Grove within the coming 10 days it will I think be judicious to post [the] letter at once Something less than a month seems sufficient to carry a letter to Toronto.4
I have got the number of Poggendorff which contains Riess’s complete memoir5 and will6 complete the thing whenever you want it.
believe me dear Francis | most truly yours | J Tyndall
RDS 27/2
[12 October 1851]: dated by references to Toronto testimonials. Sundays in October were 5, 12, 19 and 26. It seems that Tyndall was replying to proposals of Francis (for example, on the number of testimonials, n. 2). He wrote while still hoping to get a testimonial from Grove and therefore before receiving letter 0547 (of 12 October). The enclosed may be letter 0542 (9 October) from Whewell (see n. 3), which would support a 12 October date.
sending of one copy of the testimonials: Tyndall had left the number of copies up to Francis’s discretion (in letter 0544) and Tyndall seems here to agree that some larger number is not needed. Francis’s reply (acknowledged in this letter) is missing.
received the enclosed yesterday … with the others: possibly the letter from Whewell which, as it was a statement of support but not a formal testimonial, might be described only as ‘perhaps’ worthwhile to send. Whewell’s letter written from Cambridge on 9 October could well have arrived in Queenwood on 11 October.
within the coming ten days … a letter to Toronto: the Toronto deadline for the reception of applications was 19 November 1851 (see letter 0504, n. 3). If Tyndall received the hoped-for testimonials by 22 October (10 days after 12 October) he proposed to post them separately, expecting that less than a month would be sufficient for them to reach Toronto by 19 November.
Riess’s complete memoir: P. Riess, ‘Ueber die electrischen Strüme höherer Ordnung’ (cited letter 0514, n. 4). An abstract of this paper and an earlier related paper was published by Tyndall, but not until 1853 (ibid.).
will: the last word at the bottom of the second page. The remainder of the letter is written vertically at the left of the second page.
Please cite as “Tyndall0545,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on