Steuart’s Lodge | Nov. 28th 1853
Dear John,
I had been for some time anxiously wishing to hear from you, before your first letter1 arrived, as I feared your health had not been good previous to your departure for the Continent,2 and my reason for seeking to know your address was, that I might write to make enquiries about you: I truly hope you have derived benefit from the excursion which must have been an agreeable relaxation to mind and body. I sincerely rejoiced to hear of your having been awarded the gold medal,3 but your few lines by the late post on Saturday4 brought disappointment and regret that you had relinquished the honor5 of retaining it –: No doubt you have good reasons for this, which even if you had told me, I might not have been able to comprehend, but your refusal does not alter the high estimation in which your talents are held, and therefore the gratification of your friends remains the same. I ought sooner to have written to you, but I often find it difficult to collect my ideas, for I have much that is distressing to occupy my mind, and take up a large portion of these short days: Unaccustomed as I have ever been to care or responsibility, I now most sensibly feel all that I am obliged to contend with, but still I try to be contented, and thankful for the blessings still left to me, and though happiness in this world cannot henceforth be mine, I have the comfort of looking forward with hope of never ending glory, where there is no more sin and sorrow: This prospect is all that enables me to bear my great loss6 and utter desolation, for I have no earthly support, nothing to lean upon or cling to: Dear John I trust it never may be your wretched lot to feel alone in the world, without object or interest, a weary wanderer, longing to be released from care and strife.
My brother7 is, I believe, at Brighton8 just now, at least he was about ten days ago. It is likely he may be in London before he returns to Ireland, and I am sure would be very glad to see you: he frequents the Conservative Club,9 when there, where perhaps you might hear of him: he of course cannot know you are in London, as he has been in Paris for some weeks.
With every kind wish for you welfare, temporal and spiritual, believe me as ever,
my dear John | Your most sincere friend | E. D. Steuart.
Professor Tyndall | Royal Institution | Albemarle | London10
RI MS JT/1/TYP/10/3337–3337a
LT Typescript Only
your first letter: letter missing.
your departure for the Continent: see letter 0823, n. 1.
the gold medal: the Royal Medal (see letter 0815, n. 3).
your few lines by the late post on Saturday: letter missing.
relinquished the honor: Tyndall declined the Royal Medal (see letter 0837).
my great loss: the death of Steuart’s husband, William Richard Steuart (see letter 0707, n. 2).
My brother: Steuart had four brothers: John Dawson Duckett (1791–1866), William Duckett (1796–1868), Joseph Fade Duckett (1796–1875), and Thomas Jonas Duckett (1799-?). It is not clear which brother Steuart was referring to. Not further identified.
Brighton: a popular seaside destination on the south coast of England.
the Conservative Club: a Conservative London gentlemen’s club formed in 1840, which many who could not gain admission to the more popular Carlton Club joined (‘St. James’s Street, West Side, Existing Buildings’, in F. H. W. Sheppard [ed.], Survey of London (London: London Country Council, 1960), pp. 472–86, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols29-30/pt1/pp472-486 [accessed January 1, 2016]).
Albemarle | London: LT wrote this at the top of the typescript. Presumably it is from the envelope.
Please cite as “Tyndall0842,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on