Queenwood. | Tuesday Morng
My dear John
Your letter2 to Miss E.3 is indeed very refreshing to me. It is the answer I knew you would write. If she feels the rebuke as keenly as she ought to do she will be a better girl from this time forth. As to the ‘threat’4 I think you are a little mistaken as yet. You wrote to me5 saying that you were about to deliver a lecture on Education after Easter & might possibly mention Queenwood therein. but you could not do so if the Doctor sham6 were permitted. Now I knew this was something which Mr E7. would feel rather keenly and hence to keep the matter alive I told him it. I said ‘John intends to draw upon his experience at Queenwood and if appropriate he may mention Queenwood in his lecture but he tells me he could not, of course, do so if the Doctor “sham” were tolerated’ [Well] Edmondson straightened himself like a Bantam Cock8 & cried ‘It shall not be tolerated, it never has been, and if I see the least symptom of its being so I shall put my hand upon it. &c’ You know his talk and what it is worth. My purpose was served I saw he felt the matter keenly. He took it to No 13 of course and there the ladies interpreted it [into] a ‘threat’ a ‘bribe’ & so forth I am still very unwell & preparing my Romsey & Southampton lectures9 in low spirits. Thine
T. A. Hirst
RI MS JT/1/H/483
[27 or 28 February 1854]: Hirst dated this letter Tuesday morning, which would make it 28 February. However, Tyndall wrote a draft of a letter to Jane Edmondson that was never sent (n. 4) that was presumably written after this letter. Tyndall claimed in his journal that he wrote that draft on ‘Monday evening’, or 27 February.
Your letter: letter 0890.
Miss E: Jane Edmondson
As to the ‘threat’: Tyndall referred to a threat in his letter to Jane Edmondson (see letter 0890, n. 15). After receiving these comments from Hirst, Tyndall drafted another letter to Jane in his journal that was not sent (27 February 1854, JT/2/13b/663–4). It reads as follows:
Dear Miss E.
Today’s post brought your letter back to me. The threat I find is my own and not Dr. Hirst’s: I have only to remark that the term is a very unhappy one. Your assertion of your father’s dignity is deserving of all praise, provided he did not countenance what both you and I consider to be a fraud. But if he did countenance this, then you know the assumption of dignity would be sadly out of place and it would be sinful to talk of ‘self-respect’ where the feeling ought to be self-condemnation. However I trust whatever his views were originally that there is now no difference of opinion between us as to the wrongness of the transaction.
At the quiet of my own fireside I would earnestly repeat the advice which I urged upon you this morning – that is to keep yourself wholly unconnected with school matters. You cannot imagine what a repugnance some men feel to the interference of ladies; and moreover, these are the very men who will offer to ladies the most loyal service as long as they remain in their own sphere. Your wisest plan would be not to meddle directly or indirectly in school matters; a year’s faithful adherence to this line of conduct will do much to expel the suspicion and corroding discontent which your interference has unhappily generated. Were your father surrounded by men of doubtful character my advice would be precisely the opposite, but this is not the case, and the more trustful and less mysterious you are the better. Now be a philosopher and conquer yourself so far as to act upon my advice. One act of self-renunciation of this kind would be a real victory although no eye might see it. Indeed I believe our greatest victories are those which are never seen. When you have accomplished this I may with truth subscribe myself
Your brother | J.T.
wrote to me: letter 0882, n. 14.
the Doctor Sham: this refer’s to Mummery’s purchase of a German doctorate (see letter 0817, n. 4).
Mr E: George Edmondson
Bantam Cock: A type of fowl, used as a comparison when someone is displaying ‘cockiness’ (OED).
Romsey & Southampton lectures: see letter 0898, nn. 3 and 4.
Please cite as “Tyndall0893,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on