Queenwood College. | Janry 29th / 54
My dear John
You hardly deserve a letter you rascal for turning me out so shabbily. You pretend to be a disciple of St Paul1 in the matter of hospitality and yet you could let me sleep on while you were getting breakfast and then cut away without seeing me or setting me on my journey respectably. Fie John!! You say I am to fond of Bed, and I am not inclined to dispute it but you ought not to judge of me in that respect when I am visiting. In ordinary cases your stern example is of great use to me but there are occasions when you ought to unbend a little. At first I was a little vexed, at myself most and then at you but I soon forgot it and came away reconciled but with the determination to scold you in my first letter and here you have it. Most sincerely do I wish that you were as much master of sleeping as I am of rising. It would clear away many a sad misgiving I sometimes have for you. I don’t think you would say I was too fond of my bed if you saw me in my settled habits going to bed at 1 AM and rising at 7 ½ that I have done and must begin again to do. All the teachers are already here and about 25 boys. Mummery has actually got his diploma2 Edmondson Haas and Debus have seen it. I am sorry for him and for us for it will be a cause of much unpleasantness I am afraid. There is less chance of our pulling well together, for of course I for one cannot recognize his title. Of one thing I am decided He must leave Queenwood and shall if I have any influence of course he will not rest satisfied with his unacknowledged title he will make it known and – he will injure Queenwood, it will soon spread that he is a sham doctor, people will naturally suspect we are all sham doctors and that Queenwood altogether is a sham. No, no, he must go.
Enclosed is a letter from Atkinson3 tell me your opinion about the contents. I must say I don’t feel inclined to take any steps in the matter. I think it premature and that it would end in a failure if I were to try for the situation.4
On Feb. 20th I give my lecture at Salisbury.5 Now I have a request to make. Get Newman6 to make a spiral like yours7 and to send it not later than the fourteenth. From your syllabus8 I judge that you will want the Electro Magnet on Feb. 2nd and on March 2nd Get Anderton9 to send it to Dunbridge10 before the 15th and I will take care that you have it again before March 2nd In a few days I shall send you Weber’s paper11
Yours affectionately | T. A. Hirst
On Enquiry I find all are unanimous about Mummery’s Doctorship so that it is probable he will keep it quiet at Queenwood and make use of it only when he leaves, which perhaps he will do on his own accord.
Send Atkinson’s letter back. Don’t forget my advice about your health there’s a good fellow.
RI MS JT/1/H/190
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/306
St Paul: Paul the apostle (c.4BCE–68CE), who spread the gospel of Christ during the first century.
Mummery … diploma: Mummery had recently purchased a German doctoral diploma, which Hirst, Debus, and Tyndall were all highly displeased about (see letter 0817, n. 4).
a letter from Atkinson: Tyndall recorded part of this letter in his journal on 30 January: ‘Professor Williamson of London has been here looking out for a German assistant. I was introduced to him and had some talk about the Royal Society’s medal. He said it was originally intended to be given to Hofmann, but a party set up Frankland in opposition to him and not being able to decide to which it should be given it was awarded to Tyndall that Bence Jones had said the following about it: – The Lion and the Unicorn | Were fighting for the crown | When up came the little dog | And knocked them both down’ (Journal, JT/2/13b/655–56). This is a play on the traditional British nursery rhyme ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’, which features a battle for a crown by the two beasts (I. Opie and P. Opie, The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes, 2nd edn [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997], p. 442–3). The rhyme was being used metaphorically to symbolise the two groups fighting over who should win the Royal Medal.
try for the situation: while Tyndall recorded the ‘Lion and Unicorn’ reference from Atkinson’s letter (see n. 3), it seems that here Hirst was referring to a different part of the letter that may have referred to a possible job prospect in Manchester (see letter 0876, n. 5).
my lecture at Salisbury: Hirst did not note the topic of this lecture in his journal, but stated after the event that he thought he ‘never delivered a better lecture’, there being ‘about 300 present’ (Hirst, ‘Journals’, 21 February 1854).
Newman: see letter 0717, n. 3.
a spiral like yours: instrument, not identified (see letter 0876, n. 7).
your syllabus: see letter 0865, n. 6.
Anderton: misspelling of Anderson, Faraday’s assistant. Hirst also made this spelling error in a journal entry discussing Tyndall’s introductory lecture on Heat (see letter 0809, n. 6) (Hirst, ‘Journals’, 21 January 1854).
Dunbridge: see letter 0784, n. 25.
Weber’s paper: not identified. Weber published numerous papers (see letter 0820, n. 13).
Please cite as “Tyndall0874,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on