My dear Tom.
I am dreadfully crossgrained2 tonight I have been working all day and could get no result. This morning I set out beautifully and expected a clear way before me. I got into entanglements – petty contemptible entanglements – afterwards and I failed to get out of them the entire day. I do not feel like a fellow that had worked at all. I feel jaded and tired, but not healthily tired, and in this state I try and converge my thoughts upon you, hoping thereby to gather together and render my mind transparent. At present it is [between] shattered crystals – full of veins and interior reflexions, so that no light can pass through it. I was at the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society3 yesterday though not at the dinner afterwards – after the presentation of the medals one of the fellows – Huxley – got up and asked why he did not see his friend among those to whom medals were handed. ‘I can answer you in one minute said Lord Rosse. I hold here in my hand two letters4 from Mr Tyndall declining the medal – so you see there was no course left to us but let the matter rest.’ ‘Might I request those letters to be read your Lordship’ demanded the speaker – Christie read them both – there was great silence, and a general rumble of applause at the end. Some think I ought not to have written the second letter to Gassiot.5 Others think it was quite right that I should do so – for my part I enjoy the calm consciousness of having done what was most consistent with my own constitution.
I now want to ask you a question and I do it with some reluctance. It is regarding money. It has sometimes appeared to me that you have no more money than you can spare.6 I remember before I went to Germany you told me that you had plenty,7 but you probably made a miscalculation and I am dreadfully afraid that I [bore] you – I want ten pounds now. and I may want more before I receive my salary for I dont know when it is paid. Can you let me have them without inconvenience to you? I will make no promises, but I have a strong hope before this day 6 months to have your account completely sponged away. When I look at myself writing thus it is half an inducement to me to act upon a letter which I received today8 from Sir Henry de la Beche* – it would at least put me above the necessity of borrowing – If you have not the money plentiful let me know – I can get what I want elsewhere.
Your affectionate | John |
* Dont mention this – it is ‘confidential.’
RI MS JT/1/T/582
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/293
[1 December 1853]: Hirst wrote ‘Decr 3rd’ on this letter reflecting the day he received it. Not only did Tyndall mention that he wrote to Hirst in his journal entry of 1 December, but the meeting of the Royal Society (see n. 3) that Tyndall noted as occurring ‘yesterday’ took place on 30 November (Journal, JT/2/13b/641).
crossgrained: ‘of opposed nature or temper; difficult to deal with, intractable’ (OED).
the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society: the Royal Medals were presented at this meeting, which took place on 30 November (Journal, JT/2/13b/641). (See also letter 0822.)
two letters: for the first, see letter 0828; for the second, see letters 0830 and 0831.
the second letter to Gassiot: letter 0830 (see also letter 0831). Tyndall recorded in his journal that ‘Dr. Booth told me afterwards that he regretted I had written the second letter, because he thought I ought to accept the medal if awarded me a second time (30 November 1853, JT/2/13b/641).
you have no more money than you can spare: Tyndall may be referring to letter 0791, in which Hirst told Tyndall he only had £20 for Tyndall’s use; in letter 0793, Tyndall responded by stating, ‘I thought you were rich’. For more on Tyndall and Hirst’s financial relationship, see letter 0813, n. 3.
before I went to Germany … you had plenty: Hirst may have told Tyndall this in person or in a missing letter. Alternatively, Tyndall may have been referring to an earlier trip to Germany. Leaving for Germany in October 1850, Hirst wrote to Tyndall in a letter dated 1 September stating, ‘I can lend you £40 as easily as I could lend you a penny’ (see letter 0433).
a letter which I received today: letter 0844.
Please cite as “Tyndall0845,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on