Halifax | 27th. January 1854.
Dear Tyndall,
How many years is it since I wrote you, and how many centuries does your last letter1 to me bear date – I could were I not lazy give myself an answer to this question but cui bono?2 All I should get would be that the time had been very long indeed. I remember something about a promise connecting Bolton Woods3 and explorations, when is this to be realized? I hope this summer when I should be once more glad to peregrinate4 under your wing, and for the nonce5 – should you desire –forswear whisky toddy – cigars – women and the whole catalogue to give place to beautiful and fantastic ideas and speculations as to Death Immortality – the Inhabitants of the Moon &c. &c. – Speculate! think over these things! and dream over them, as I sometimes do – then of human nature with its manifold gradations – society high and low. I often have at times a hankering to get out of leading strings and set off on some erratic course – wending my way if needs be as a shoeblack6 but seeing all, doing all, and enjoying all. At other times how I despise and ridicule so extravagant an idea and wonder how it could have entered into my head – Well, well, it seems to me to be innate in me and I dream and live in dreamy contradictions. These strange fantastic dreams – ideas or aught else you like – when one comes to settle and think soberly – earnestly yet materially on the subject, how little can one carve out distinctly as to what one can say one believes. You know my old subject. I am as I always was, unsatisfied with any of the dogmas (so far as I am aware of them) of the day and know not what religious tenets so far as doctrine is concerned I hold!! Strange that this leading point which people tell us we were formed for – viz. to worship God – should be so shadowy and indistinct as to the mode, and that so many theories all professing infallibility should exist. Kingsley7 in his Yeast8 broaches the subject in many lights – he sees the disease but I can find no remedy suggested in any portion of his work to satisfy. He leaves it a problem for others to solve – Strange is it not, that after all the stir, fuss and bother that has been made about the glories revealed in Scripture – its mysteries and events – one should be ignorant and doubtful. Surely to me it has been of no use, but had the ------9 I will drop the subject. – You’re laughing and chuckling in your old way & think now I have got on my hobby10 I shall proceed for ever – with it. Well – well, I must apologize but when I write to you I always like to open my mind and thoughts to you and I am thus lead to think over these strange matters more deeply, as I have no one else here to unburden myself of them – once I did, but I shall not repeat it.
I have just finished reading D’Israeli’s work ‘Venetia’11 – it is an old work of his but I had not read it. He has painted his heroes as wild flighty poetic geniuses who speculate largely on subjects of curiosity – as death – Pontius Pilate12 &c. &c. rum subjects indeed for the author to think about certainly. There are some good noble sentiments expressed and the conversation introduced between the characters (without entering into [particulars]13) is terse and logical. There is a deal of poetic rigmarole14 and what you would call ‘bombs’ interspersed especially among scenery and lackadaisical passages, which the critic on this occasion slipped. Poor Dizzy15 I am afraid by not acting up to the sentiments so expressed in his book16 has done for himself, however he will turn radical again yet, but must be content meanwhile to chew his cud for some time to come. I am sorry to say we are not so busy as we have been, however we can improve ourselves in the interim. J. Perkinton17 is as usual – he has gone to a dance where I hope pray and trust he may pick up a wife as I am sure wedding would do him good. Think of Ellershaw and the twins,18 and his better half with another compliment in store! How by the way are you getting on herein – surely you are not arrived at so ascetic a state in your philosophical labours as to entirely pass by the gentler sex – I thought some enchantment existed for you at Owen Darwen19 or in that neighbourhood. Now I know your address – got from Tom Hirst20 – I shall if at any time in London give you a call, though at the risk of having the scowl and jeers of the other Professors who are not and cannot be so amiable and accessible as you. When are you about to visit this infernal part of the country and give me a look of your lean pale faced jaws with the prominent nasal organ very largely developed. Have you got bald yet – have you commenced wearing spectacles – and show other signs of approaching old age. At all events I hope the inner and outer man are well and that nothing remains of the illness commenced in Northgate Halifax21 and with brief interruptions continued until the Autumn of last year when the air of Bonn was sought to alleviate it, and I hope most sincerely it has. A great friend told Perkinton the other day when having both imbibed freely that he should live to see him hanged yet – So I may say I sincerely believe I shall see your name handed down to posterity as the greatest and worthy to be ranked above all the Newtons Franklins22 Playfairs and all the other literary [1 word illeg] in existence. Perpetual motion – aqua vitae23 – (not aqua forte)24 or some devilment I expect you will discover some thing of this kind one of these days.
I have no news that will interest you. Carter is well and I believe busy I never see him – the lovely S.25 whom Perkinton as usual gives the euphonious title of Bitch is still a virgin to the best of my knowledge. She talks when I see her learnedly about you and dimples in her cheeks make many appearances while her eyes sparkle away famously. She was I think in love with you and if it is any interest to you she is yet disengaged – N.B. I don’t particularly wish you to have her. How is Tidmarsh?26 When did you hear from him? Has he got a rich harvest of the Australian gold? How is his wife27 for I understand he had one. Has he a family. Tom Hirst writes me he has had the pleasure of having seen and staid with you. What a noble fellow he is! My brother28 whom you may remember has left London and has commenced on his own fundament at Sowerby Brg 29 – as a Solicitor – he is well and in tolerable spirits. I hope and trust we are going to have a jolly good war30 and that those crafty devils the Russians will get a h---l31 of a licking such as they never had before. the Czar32 should be hanged cut in eights and distributed about by way of example – and Richard Cobden33 should be his successor – only the kingdom or Empire should be materially lessened in extent – the allied powers34 should take all they can get from the devils by way of compensation and payment for expenses. Such is my idea of Russia and Turkey of which all the world talks. You must write me please when you have some loose spare time
I am | yours as usual | Jas. Craven.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/11/3552–3554
LT Typescript Only
your last letter: letter missing.
cui bono: a Latin phrase meaning, ‘To whom for a benefit?’ (OED).
Bolton Woods: a community located in Bradford, England.
peregrinate: to travel or journey (OED).
for the nonce: ‘for the particular purpose’ (OED).
shoeblack: ‘A person who cleans boots and shoes for a living’ (OED).
Kingsley: Charles Kingsley (1819–75) was a novelist and clergyman of the Church of England who advocated social reform (ODNB).
Yeast: C. Kingsley, Yeast: A Problem. By the Author of Alton Locke (London: John W. Parker, 1851), a ‘Condition of England’ novel focusing on the Chartist movement in rural England.
------: when this occurs in an LT transcription, it often means she has excised something, a word or three words or a phrase.
on my hobby: likely a reference to ‘hobbyhorse’, an allusion to L. Sterne, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 9 vols (York: Ann Ward, 1759–67). In Sterne’s novel, the main male characters all have infatuations or obsessions that they ‘ride’ called ‘hobbyhorses’, which contribute to the digressive form of the novel.
D’Israeli’s work ‘Venetia’: B. Disraeli, Venetia, 3 vols (London: Henry Colburn, 1837), a novel that explores social class with characters based on the Romantic poets Lord Byron (1788–1824) and Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) (see also n. 13).
Pontius Pilate: the fifth prefect of Judea, and the governor under which Jesus was crucified (H. Bond, Pontius Pilate in History and Interpretation [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998], p. xi).
[particulars]: in the typescript, LT has written ‘partars (sic) [?particulars?]’.
rigmarole: ‘An unduly protracted, involved, or diffuse piece of speech or writing’ (OED).
Dizzy: nickname for Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81), a politician and novelist who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880 (ODNB).
his book: see n. 11.
J. Perkinton: likely a typing mistake by LT. The original letter most likely read T. Perkinton.
Ellershaw and the twins: Mrs. Ellershaw was one of Tyndall’s colleagues on Richard Carter’s surveying team. In his 26 February 1846 journal entry Tyndall wrote that Queen Victoria, from her coach ‘fixed her clear blue eyes right upon Mr Carter, Mr Ellershaw and myself, and acknowledged our bows with a gracious nod’ (JT/2/13a/108). Tyndall worked for Carter in the mid-1840s (see Volume 2). Not further identified.
Owen Darwen: misspelling of Over Darwen, a town in Lancashire, England. Tyndall’s close friend, Josiah Singleton, ran a school at Spring Brooke, Over Darwen. Tyndall helped teach there in the summer of 1850 (see letter 0424, n. 5).
address … from Tom Hirst: Hirst asked Tyndall for his address in letter 0868 and Tyndall provided it in letter 0869.
the illness commenced in Northgate Halifax: possibly a reference to the illness Tyndall developed soon after his father’s death in April 1847, while he was in Halifax, UK. Tyndall noted the commencement of this illness on 29 April 1847 (Journal, JT/2/13a/193).
Franklins: reference to Benjamin Franklin (1706–90), an American writer, natural philosopher, and politician notable for his public-spiritedness and for inventing the lightning rod (ODNB).
aqua vitae: Latin, ‘water of life’, an alchemic term for alcohol (OED).
aqua forte: Latin, likely a misspelling of aqua fortis, an alchemic term for nitric acid (OED)
the lovely S.: not identified.
Tidmarsh: John Tidmarsh (1824–1906), a surveyor who worked alongside Tyndall in Halifax during the mid-1840s.
his wife: not identified.
my brother: John Craven, likely James Craven’s younger brother (see letter 0389, n. 5).
Sowerby Brg: Sowerby Bridge, a village in the county of West Yorkshire.
a jolly good war: the Crimean War (1853–56), fought between the Russian Empire and the allied forces of Great Britain, France, Sardinia, and Turkey. The two sides fought for control over the land under Ottoman rule (OED).
h---l: see n. 9.
the Czar: Nicolas I (1796–1855), Czar of Russia from 1825 to 1855.
Richard Cobden: Richard Cobden (1804–65), a politician and manufacturer. Cobden was against the Crimean War, and believed that Britain’s support of Turkey was misguided (OED).
the allied powers: see n. 30.
Please cite as “Tyndall0873,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on