Board of Trade1 | 20 Nov. 1853
My dear Tyndall,
I am somewhat tardy in offering you my congratulations but they are not the less sincere I assure you on that account, I sympathize most fully in the great gratification you must have felt in receiving so high a distinction2 from such a quarter and the more gratifying as being unsought for and unexpected and I am delighted at seeing that men are sometimes honored without pushing themselves forward.
My old draftsman3 as someone is pleased to designate himself will do me at the least the justice to say that I appreciated him long before he came to honour and that I valued him for himself and not for the distinctions he has obtained tho’ I may flatter myself a little upon my discernment.
Mrs Wynne4 in joining me in my congratulations has desired me to say that she will not consider the visit you purpose on the Sunday very wrong and she suggests your taking the train which will just bring you in time to go to church with us and afterwards join our early dinner Any Sunday will find us at home and you a hearty welcome.
Frank5 has written you a letter of thanks6 but as the character in which it is written requires a key I thought it best to reserve it until you come.
Ever most truly yours | Geo. Wynne
RI MS JT/1/TYP/5/1851
Board of Trade: see letter 0784, n. 9.
receiving so high a distinction: the Royal Medal (see letter 0815, n. 3). Wynne was not aware that Tyndall had declined the Medal due to objections from some Fellows of the Royal Society (see letters 0828; 0830; and 0831).
My old draftsman: Tyndall had worked as a draftsman in Wynne’s Division of the Irish Ordnance Survey from 1839 until 1840, when Wynne left the Survey. Tyndall remained with the Irish Survey until 1842, when he was transferred to the English Survey (Volume 1, pp. xl–xlvii).
Mrs Wynne: Anne Wynne (d. 1864), George Wynne’s wife and daughter of Sir Daniel Toler Osborne (1783–1853), an Irish baronet.
Frank: Francis George Wynne (1846–1929), one of George and Anne Wynne’s four children (see letter 0716, n. 2).
a letter of thanks: letter missing.
Please cite as “Tyndall0834,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on