My dear Tom.
Push your visit to London2 as far forward towards the 21st as you can. I want to be there on the 21st. Write to me however and I will meet you any day you name. I am preparing to meet the emergency stated in the enclosed programme.3 I looked out upon the blue sky this morning as your letter4 reached me. The sun shone and it was calm and beautiful – so it spread ages ago and so it will spread when you and I are gone. Poor Booth – he has been soon whispered away – I do not wish to die but I often wish for a closer communion with thoughts which would be natural to a dying bed. The flanks of the Calder5 will soon be a closed book to Booth. Well when I do die I should like to die somewhat in his fashion; with a friend like you beside me – who knows boy. You may close my eyes also: – bid the little fellow farewell for me. He is but a few paces in advance of us. We are travellers to the same “bourne”6 and mayhap on the shores of another sea, and clothed in other forms may look upon each other again. One thing is sure, however – all will be right at last.
Your affectionate | John
call to see Carter he mentioned you lately in a letter to me.7
RI MS JT/1/T/1010
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/226/1
[14 or 15 January 1853]: on 16 January, Tyndall noted in his journal having ‘A morning or two ago received a letter from Tom; it was dated from Brussels’. On 17 January, he also noted having received a reply from ‘Tom’ arranging to meet in London (JT/2/13b/595). His reply to that letter, sent on 17 January, is letter 0705.
your visit to London: Tyndall reported meeting Hirst at Waterloo station in his journal entry for 18 January (JT/2/13b/595). See also letter 0705.
enclosed program: not identified.
your letter: letter missing (see n. 1).
flanks of the Calder: the banks of the River Calder near Halifax, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England, where Booth lived.
bourne: a small stream or brook (OED).
Carter … letter to me: letter 0697. This postscript was written on the top right corner of the first page.
Please cite as “Tyndall0703,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on