Friday Afternoon
My dear Tom
I was so awfully busy yesterday that I had not time to thank you for your valuable letter2 – and I am so awfully busy to day that I can do nothing more than this. I have the spiral:3 all I want is the magnet.4
Ever yours affectionately | John
Last Sunday’s excursion5 set me up for the week. I have got a great deal of work done, but the brain is now beginning to simmer again. So on next Sunday I will take a run to Gravesend6 or somewhere else.
RI MS JT/1/HTYP/359
LT Typescript Only
Friday: Hirst dated this letter ‘Aug. 25th. 1854’, which was indeed a Friday, and appears to be accurate based on when Tyndall travelled to Gravesend (see n. 6).
your valuable letter: letter missing.
the spiral: Tyndall may have been borrowing the spiral that he had ordered for Hirst earlier in the year (see letters 0876, n. 7).
all I want is the magnet: see letters 0879 and 0965.
last Sunday’s excursion: Tyndall had travelled by train to Winchester, Hampshire and then walked to Queenwood on Sunday, 20 August (Journal, JT/2/13b/684). Hirst recorded in his journal on 20 August 1854 that ‘After dinner to-day John Tyndall walked unexpectedly into the Lodge’ (Hirst, ‘Journals’).
take a run to Gravesend: in his journal, Tyndall recorded travelling to Gravesend, an ancient town in northwest Kent, England, on Sunday, 27 August (Journal, JT/2/13b/685).
Please cite as “Tyndall0964,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on