24th March 1852.
My Dear Tom.
Brutus under the eye of Caeser’s Ghost1 was hardly more bewildered than I was for 5 minutes this morning – even now I can hardly believe that you are so near me, and shall not be thoroughly convinced until I have had the pleasure of kicking you for treating me so scurvily – Come to me before Sunday if you can – nay if you could come by Friday evening and deliver a lecture for me here it would please me much2 – I am condemned to give a lecture at Romsey on tuesday next and am now preparing for it so a substitute at Queenwood would relieve me. If you cant come before you will surely manage to witness my dexterity at ‘Shooting dry rubbish’3 in Romsey,4 but if you are here on Sunday we shall wander out together – Easter is coming boy and if you are here at the time I will sacrifice a week’s work to take a ramble with you – Now write to me and say when I may expect you5 – I have got a cold too. But this glorious day and your arrival has thrown a flush of vigour into my veins which has completely quelled my infirmity and expanded me into a Hercules –
now boy write | John –
Kindest remembrances to your brother6
RI MS JT/1/T/549
Brutus ... Ghost: an allusion to Shakespeare’s play, ‘Julius Caesar’, in which Brutus is visited by Caesar’s ghost, who tells him that they will meet again at Philippi (Act 4, Scene 3). In the final scene, Brutus commits suicide after losing the battle at Philippi, thus fulfilling the ghost’s prediction (Act 5, Scene 5).
Come to me ... please me much: Hirst did not arrive in time to deliver the Friday lecture (see n. 5) but he gave a lecture to the boys on the evening of Tuesday 6 April and, because Tyndall became ill, took his classes over 5–7 April (Hirst, ‘Journals’, 3–7 April).
‘Shooting dry rubbish’: means, literally, to dump or tip dry rubbish, as distinct from wet rubbish. We cannot identify Tyndall’s figurative meaning.
witness ... in Romsey: Hirst did attend Tyndall’s lecture at Romsey on Tuesday 30 March (Journal, 4 April 1852, JT/2/13b/562).
when I may expect you: Hirst replied that he would arrive in Queenwood on Sunday 28 or Monday 29 March (Journal, 28 March, JT/2/13b/561); he arrived on the Monday and left again on the evening of the 7 April (Hirst, ‘Journals’, 29 March–7 April).
your brother: Hirst was staying in Bristol with his brother John. (Hirst, ‘Journals’, 29 March)
Please cite as “Tyndall0611,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on