Charnley House1 | Freehold Park E. Fulwood2 | June 27th / 54
My dear Tyndall,
I am afraid that you will consider me extremely neglectful in not acknowledging your kindness in sending me the lecture on Education3 – but you must excuse me, I cannot tell you how much instructed and delighted I have been in its perusal, & tho as yet its contents have under gone but one reading be assured it will not be laid upon the shelf as one of those everyday pamphlets with which the public are daily supplied.
I suppose you are now enjoying some little recreation after your laborious duties, I trust you will employ your leisure in the recovery & strengthening of your health. All your attainments will be of little value to yourself & the world if you do not take care of yourself & why shorten your existence. Why have the world more ignorant than it might be by not using proper precautions for the preserving of your bodily strength, thus enabling you to become a great blessing to the world. I am hoping to see you in September,4 by all means you must remain two or three days with us, longer if you can. Mamma5 says I am to tell you that you are not to stay at Mr. Hebden’s;6 now you will remember. I think you will be much pleased with our new residence, it is a very agreeable change from Stanley Terrace & that place was not to be despised. I had a delightful note from Dr. Hirst7 a short time ago what a fine noble fellow he is, proud indeed you may be of your ‘son’.8 I hope all your adopted children may prove so worthy of such a Father.
I am | Yours ever sincerely | Gretchen9 | Dr. Tyndall.
RI MS JT/1/A/78
Charnley House: was a townhome located at 13 Winckley Square, Preston, Lancashire, England (‘Charnley House’, Charnley House, https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1279781 [accessed 15 October 2016]).
E. Fulwood: a district of Preston, Lancashire, England where Margaret Allen lived.
sending me the lecture on Education: letter missing. The lecture Allen refers to was Tyndall’s ‘On the Importance of the Study of Physics as a Branch of Education’ delivered at the RI on 27 May (see letters 0900, n. 6 and 0933).
see you in September: Tyndall visited Allen on 24 September, finding himself ‘cordially received by her parents and sisters’ (Journal, 24 September 1854, JT/2/13b/692). See also letters 0967 and 0972.
Mamma: Margaret Allen’s mother; not otherwise identified.
not to stay at Mr. Hebden’s: see letter 0872, n. 8. Tyndall must have stayed at Mr. Hebdon’s residence in the past. Allen had previously requested that Tyndall not stay at Hebdon’s when he visited her in Preston (see letter 0872).
delightful note from Dr. Hirst: Hirst had asked Tyndall for Allen’s address on 30 April (see letter 0926, n. 12).
your ‘son’: Tyndall used to refer to Hirst as his son. See Volumes 2 and 3.
Gretchen: see letter 0872, n. 12.
Please cite as “Tyndall0947,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on