Royal Institution Monday
My dear Tom,
I wrote to you to Kilkenny as you suggested but you will probably never get my letter.2 I am very sorry to hear of your being ill. We have had glorious summer weather here for the last week. [But] the week I spent at Queenwood was dismal. I also got cold which kept me at home for 2 days. I had a letter from Mrs Coxe,3 Alexander Cummings’ aunt, a few days ago, containing a beautiful and expensive purse which she had worked for me herself.4 If you see her you must warn her that there is some danger of my being made a spoiled child. I gave you a description of the scene of my boyhood5 but I should be sorry if you went there in bad weather for the rain spoils all the poetry.6 We will make the tour together at a future day. Indeed I have often looked forward to this. You know nothing of what the carmen of Ireland used to be.7 They are now sucking doves8 in comparison. Time was when you and I had no voice in the choice of your own carman. The fellows would toss up for it and you must abide by the result. I hope when you write to me again it will be to tell me that the cold is vanished. I am working in my den before Faraday’s big magnet. I shall soon set off for Wales with Francis, and there I trust to become a little broader in my transverse section also.
Present my kind remembrances to Mr and Mrs Simpson and to Miss Martin if you see her. I feel half inclined to run over to Dublin – intercept you there and go to the Causeway along with you. I was yesterday rambling through the groves of Richmond and Kew, and feel all the better for it to day. Paget9 – one of the lecturers in the educational course,10 came to me on Friday and asked me to accept a lectureship11 at St. Bartholmew’s Hospital.12 I scarcely think they will make it worth accepting. As yet however I have said neither yes nor no. Faraday is in the Isle of Wight13 and I must write to him first. I am strongly of opinion that Alick Cumming might to be off to Germany soon. What say you? If you think the same I will write to his aunt about it.14
Affectionately yours │ John
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/346
LT Typescript Only
[26 June 1854]: as this was written on a ‘Monday’ and refers to the previous Friday, which was 23 June, the letter was presumably written on 26 June.
never get my letter: letter missing. Hirst did receive it according to his letter to Tyndall on 29 June (letter 0949).
letter from Mrs Coxe: letter missing.
purse … herself: Tyndall referred to the ‘beautiful purse’ that May Anne Coxe sent to him in his journal entry of 25 June (Journal, JT/2/13b/678).
description of my boyhood: see n. 2.
spoil all the poetry: LT noted an alternate phrasing for the end of this sentence in the margin: ‘scene of my boyhood rain w spoil all the poetry’.
carmen of Ireland used to be: Hirst referred to being ‘nearly devoured by carmen’ on 24 June (see letter 0942, n. 12).
sucking doves: refers to a bird still with its mother, but was used figuratively to refer to someone gentle and soft-spoken such as in Carlyle’s French Revolution: ‘Some loud as the lion; some small as the sucking dove’ (OED).
Paget: see letter 0935, n. 6.
educational course: Paget gave one of the RI’s education lectures (see letter 0900, n. 6) that was published as ‘On the Importance of the Study of Physiology as a Branch of Education for All Classes’, Lectures on Education (London: J. W. Parker & Son, 1854), pp. 213–60.
lectureship: Tyndall referred to Paget’s offer of a lectureship ‘On Friday last the 23rd’ of June in his journal stating that ‘I think they want too much work and offer too little money, it is not at all likely that I shall accept it’ (Journal, 10 June 1854, JT/2/13b/678).
St. Bartholmew’s Hospital: misspelling of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (often called Barts), the oldest hospital in Britain. Founded in 1123, it became a medical school in the eighteenth century and was formally recognized in 1822 (‘Our History’, St. Bartholomew’s History Timeline, 2016, at http://bartshealth.nhs.uk/our-hospitals/st-bartholomew’s-hospital/our-history/ [accessed 26 August 2016]).
Isle of Wight: England’s largest island, which is located in the English Channel just off the coast of Hampshire. The Isle of Wight became a fashionable resort area after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert built Osborne House there, which became their private family home in 1851.
write to his aunt about it: Tyndall would write to James Coxe (letter 0993) about sending Cumming to Germany so that he could get a better education than he would receive at Queenwood.
Please cite as “Tyndall0945,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on