Marburg, | June 20th 1852
My dear John,
Thy letter1 arrived to-day, which as bad luck would have it has crossed mine2 on the way. I write now only a few words. Never mind sending Smith the £10, I have already arranged it otherwise and by this time he has it.3 I did so because, from a letter received from him since, I judged that the sooner he had it the better it would be for him. Why is not Debus coming to Germany? Tell him to write and answer the question. If you have not called for my watch at the Cathedral Hotel don’t. My brother John will probably be coming soon and will bring it me. Tell me whether you have called or not. I have not been at my old tricks at the Cathedral Hotel. I sent it to get cleaned and the watch cleaner played me the trick, forcing me either to miss the packet or leave my watch;4 I chose the latter. The remark of thine, of our coincidence of thoughts, is true;5 otherwise I might say something more than ‘Hear, hear!’ Ditto Ditto to the sensible remarks on the ‘Ancient Philosophers’ (the expression reminds me of our friend Sarah Carter).6
It is a pity you missed that Soirée;7 the mere fact of catching cold is no fault of yours perhaps, but your ability to get quit of it again is smaller than it ought to be; and therein art thou, in the eyes of all the Gods and the best of men of thy own stamp and ideal, GUILTY. Do good penance during the Vacation. The Irish young lady here, (intended for me, Wrightson says) is a pleasant little girl indeed, full of fun and frolic (too full perhaps); she can dance all the German students – Wrightson into the bargain8 – completely off their feet. That’s the Irish blood in her. As for the rest she is a good-natured, bright-eyed Becky Do-Good. You may understand our relations to each other however when I tell you that she calls me ‘Father’,9 and that very prettily too sometimes. The mere fact of her not being able to whisk me round the room sets me on a steadier footing with respect to her. ‘Father, will you play just one more waltz for me and Mr Gerland?’ she asks; and the reply follows, ‘No, my dear you have danced enough to-night. Bid Mr Gerland good night, and go quietly to bed’.
Write soon and tell Debus to do the same.
Thine affectionately, | T.A.Hirst.
Dr Tyndall, | Queenwood College, Stockbridge, Hampshire. | pd, To be forwarded if from home.10
R1 MS JT/1/HTYP/200
LT Transcript Only
Thy letter: letter 0633. Hirst also replied to Tyndall’s earlier letter 0631 (see n. 5 below).
mine: letter 0632.
sending Smith the £10: Hirst had reimbursed John Stores Smith for money he had given January Searle (Hirst, ‘Journals’, 6 and 21 May 1852).
I have not been … or leave my watch: Hirst defended himself from Tyndall’s accusation of carelessness over his watch (letter 0633, n. 7).
of our coincidence of thoughts: Tyndall’s agreement with Hirst’s characterisation of January Searle had led him to recognise ‘the extreme similarity of our ways of looking at things’; see letter 0631, n. 11.
reminds me of … Sarah Carter: the allusion is unclear, but perhaps Sarah Carter, in her commitment to a narrow theology, praised ancient authorities over modern, as had Tyndall in letter 0631. See letter 0624, nn. 10 and 11.
that Soirée: the soirée hosted by the president of the RS (letter 0633).
Wrightson into the bargain: another allusion to Wrightson’s sociable ways with ladies.
our relations … she calls me ‘Father,’: according to Brock and MacLeod (Hirst Journal, 6 June 1852, n. 345), ‘Father-Son’ relationships were frequently adopted among German students of different age-groups for ‘purposes of friendship and moral and intellectual guidance’, for example between Hirst and Dickinson. Whether this convention hid the romantic nature of Hirst’s interest in Anna Martin from Tyndall or from himself is unclear.
Dr. … home: address probably from the envelope.
Please cite as “Tyndall0634,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on 5 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/tyndall/letters/Tyndall0634