Queenwood College. | Augst 11th 1853
My dear John.
My first question is, have you received the £20 I sent 10 days ago?1 We have all got well at work and things are in an exceedingly promising condition, there are already upwards of 60 boys here and some have yet to come. To night I give my 3rd Lecture,2 the first two3 have satisfied myself and I think every body else. My chief object in writing these hurried lines to day is the following. A
Mrs Graham4
formerly sent a boy to Queenwood called Newton,5 through Playfair’s interest, she has to day written again to ask sundry questions previous to sending another of her sons.6 She intends sending him to Queenwood because (she says) she expects you are here still. When she finds you are not here she will of course hesitate until she knows something about the fellow who has taken your place. Mr Edmondson asked me to answer the letter as a matter of delicacy as well as satisfaction to Mrs Graham it would be best if you would tell Mrs G. your opinion of your successor for she will of course attach most weight to it. Will you do this by return of post?
Edmondson writes today to answer other questions and will of course have to tell her that I have taken your place, no time must be lost therefore. He will also mention the probability of her hearing soon from you.
Hoping your visit to Berlin is proving satisfactory both in a physical and intellectual point of view believe me as ever
Thine affectionately | TA Hirst
The four Cummings7 have arrived, and are already under my eye. They are fine little fellows all. Yesterday afternoon I was playing cricket with them like any other youngster. My cottage is getting beautified rapidly in a few days I shall live there.
Instead of the above address Mr E tells me you must write to | Mrs Graham | 19 Queen’s Road | Regents Park8
RI MS JT/1/H/181
have you … 10 days ago?: see letter 0793, n. 3.
3rd Lecture: not identified (see n. 3).
the first two: Hirst’s first lecture at Queenwood was delivered on 4 August; he noted in his journal that it ‘was a sketch of the subject of Physics, and at the conclusion a word of encouragement to boys and masters’ (Hirst, ‘Journals’, 7 August 1853). In The Queenwood Observer of 31 August, this first lecture (which was misdated to 8 August) was noted to be ‘an introduction to a course on Natural Philosophy’. After this first lecture, Hirst ‘chiefly treated of the general and specific properties of matter, such as its divisibility, compressibility, expansibility, elasticity, density, inertia, malleability, ductility, &c.’ in the remainder of August (‘Lectures’, in P. Grubb and G. Case [eds.], Queenwood Observer 5 [31 August 1853], pp. 37–44, on p. 37). Hirst’s second lecture is not further identified.
Mrs Graham: below her name, Hirst included Mrs Graham’s address as 7 West Cliff Gardens, Folkstone – Kent. He crossed this out, however.
Newton: one of Mrs Graham’s sons. Not further identified.
another of her sons: not identified.
The four Cummings: brothers who all attend Queenwood College. Three of the brothers are Alexander, George, and Charles Cumming. The fourth appears to be W. Cumming, who gave a paper on the porcupine on 3 December at a meeting of the Mutual Improvement Society at Queenwood (P. Grubb, G. Case, and H. Smithers [eds.], Queenwood Observer 9 [15 December 1853], pp. 69–72, on p. 69). Tyndall was fond of the brothers and remained in correspondence with the family after his departure from Queenwood (see letters 0774; 0777; 0778; and 0781).
Regents Park: a park located in northwest London, England.
Please cite as “Tyndall0794,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on