Thursday
My dear Tom.
Do you feel inclined to spend Sunday in [putting] heath.2 If so and if you name any place within excursion range I will meet you. If you like I will meet you on the horse monument3 – or at Winchester or at Bishopstoke4 at 10 oc. I am working very hard, and my head is sure to break down at the week’s end. If you don’t feel heartily inclined just say so – I will then run out to Windsor5 and spend the evening with Francis at Richmond.6
John.
Let me hear from you by Saturday morning
Elton Hall FAM 124
[31 August 1854]: while Hirst noted ‘John Tyndall | Sep. 30th 1854’ and LT wrote ‘[Probly Aug 30]’, the date of this letter is Thursday, 31 August 1854. Letter 0968, also written on 31 August, was a direct response to Tyndall’s request contained herein to make an excursion with Hirst. In his journal entry of Sunday, 3 September 1854, Tyndall recounted his journey to Windsor where he ‘Sauntered through the castle labyrtinths, heard a portion on the Church service…. Dined at the White Hart and came to Richmond, purposing to spend the evening with Francis’ (Journal, JT/2/13b/688).
heath: possibly refers to Horton Heath, a village in Hampshire, England located approximately 10 miles southeast of Winchester.
horse monument: refers to the folly located at the top of Farley Mount, the highest hill in Hampshire, erected in remembrance of a race horse. The plaque reads, ‘Underneath lies buried a horse, the property of Paulet St. John Esq., that in the month of September 1733 leaped into a chalk pit twenty-five feet deep afoxhuntiing with his master on his back and in October 1734 he won the Hunters Plate on Worthy Downs and was rode by his owner and was entered in the name of “Beware Chalk Pit”’ (‘The “Horse Monument” at Farley Mount’, Hampshire Country Council, http://www3.hants.gov.uk/countryside/fmcp/monument.htm [accessed 14 December 2016]). Farley Mount is located 6 miles west of Winchester. Tyndall took a walk in Farley Mount and visited the Monument on Sunday, 20 August 1854 (Journal, JT/2/13b/684).
Bishopstoke: a village in Hampshire, England located 8 miles south of Winchester, near Horton Heath.
Windsor: refers to the town in Berkshire, England and site at which Windsor Castle was built by William the Conqueror beginning in 1070.
Richmond: Francis and Sarah Taylor lived in Alton Lodge, Richmond (Brock and Meadows, Lamp of Learning, p. 134). See also letter 0786, n. 10.
Please cite as “Tyndall0966,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on