Stanley Terrace | Jan. 14th./53.
My dear Tyndall
You will have received the sad news though not unexpected of our beloved darlings death.2 I now send you the card and a lock of his hair through which his little fingers were often put both in childish glee, and patient endurance. He was interred this morning, laid by his little sister’s3 side in Trinity Church yard, sweetly do they both rest in the arms of the Great Destroyer,4 and still more happily united in the Paradise of God. Ah! all my prospects for the future are darkened, I had hoped he would have proved a ‘crown of rejoicing’, even in this world; the budding vigour of his intellects gave me great reason to believe that I should one day see him a wise and good man, but fond Mother thy hopes, prayers, & anticipations so far as it regards this present sphere have been blighted, but he is gone to bloom and bring forth everlasting fruit in that Better Land where none of thy anxieties are required.5 I do indeed feel my present circumstances keenly, they require an amount of moral and physical courage which I feel I have not in store, but I do try to take your advice and believe that in the end I shall see that these trials are for my benefit.
How shall I write to Robert?6 how endeavour to fortify his mind? he will feel this loss deeply his dear boy; will you make some mention of your [1 word illeg] respecting Charley in your letter let that letter (I am speaking or rather writing to you, believing that you are my friend, in the fullest truest sense) be faithful, searching, but kind, if you think that it would in any way aid you when writing. I will send you Roberts last letter, it might give you an incite into his mind, and enable you to [direct] your [shafts] to the right [quarter]. I also propose this on the above considerations. You have declared yourself My Brother, shall I not have a sister’s confidence in you at all times, three last kisses did I plant on that marble brow, beautiful serenely calm after such severe conflicts. Mamma desires her respects to you and hopes the next time you are near Preston, you will come and dine or [remain] with us, in which I heartily concur
Yours very sincerely | Maggie Allen
Dr. Tyndall
RI MS JT/1/A/71
14 January 1853: Although the handwritten letter is dated 14 January, parish records at Holy Trinity in Preston, Lancashire, England state that Charley was buried on 19 January (‘Burials at Holy Trinity in the Town of Preston’, http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Preston/Preston/trinity/burials_1846-1855.html [accessed 13 August 2015]; Register: Burials, 1816–1888, p. 299, entry 2387; Source: LDS Film 1470818).
death: Charles Edward Allen had died on 11 January. See letter 0700.
his little sister’s: Emily Ellen Allen, the daughter of Robert Copeland Allen and Margaret Allen, who died at the age of one year in early 1852 (Burials at Holy Trinity in the Town of Preston’, http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Preston/Preston/trinity/burials_1846-1855.html [accessed 2 February 2015]; Register: Burials, 1816–1888, p. 295, entry 2356; Source: LDS Film 1470818).
the Great Destroyer: death.
‘crown of rejoicing’: 1 Thessalonians 2:19.
Robert?: see letter 0699, n. 6.
Please cite as “Tyndall0701,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on