Charnley House Fulwood | Aug 31st /54.
My dear Tyndall
I thank you for the letter1 I lately received from you but the conclusion of the epistle gave me cause for some little regret – Now, can you not possibly contrive to visit us,2 either a day or two before your services are required in Liverpool,3 or after your duties are concluded? If not I must make my best endeavour to see you, by coming over to Liverpool myself – I have long had a great desire to be present at some of those scientific meetings – and if we are not to have the pleasure of having you eventually here, I ask you to have the kindness to direct my infant footsteps & name to me on what day I shall visit you. I should much like to hear my dearest Friend speak, how proud I should be to see you standing giving instruction4 even to some of the most intelligent men in our land. Tell me on what day the Association commences5 to hold their meetings. I have seen the date in a newspaper but the time has slipped my memory.– It certainly will be a disappointment I shall not readily overcome if I do not see you.– it is above a year & a half6 since I had that gratification.
Do you remember a period in your life when you resided at Goosnargh7 I was there the other day with Mamma.8 I have never been there until this time, since the Sunday I once spent there with you – that visit ever remains in my mind the most pleasing remembrances, from thence I date the commencement of my firm attachment towards you – the house you resided in has passed into other hands, we were ushered into the large room on the right-hand-side of the house, but I said to Mamma ‘I don’t like this room’– So I had to assume a very pleasant countenance and request ‘Will you have the kindness to show us into the small parlour beyond the bar?’– here I felt myself; although the appearance of the room is changed. yet I dispensed with material objects & I could fancy your spirit still traversing around the spot – here is the window where we chatted so pleasantly in that corner stood a small table which contained writing materials &c & from which, when you were absent, I so audaciously took up your journal & read.– but I must denote by telling you that I then [knew] a contrast, which even at that period was painful to my mind, but how fully has it been exhibited – I solve not this for you – You can easily guess to what I refer.– My dear Tyndall permit me to hear from you as soon as your engagements will permit
I am ever | Sincerely Yours | Gretchen9
RI MS JT/1/A/79
the letter: letter missing.
visit us: see letter 0947, n. 4.
services required in Liverpool: Tyndall served as secretary for Section A (Mathematical and Physical Science) of the Twenty-Fourth Meeting of the BAAS in Liverpool (see letters 0950, n. 2; 0972, n. 3; and 0975).
giving instruction: Tyndall presented the papers ‘On the Peculiarities of the Magnetic Field’ and ‘On the Diamagnetic Force’ during section A of the BAAS meeting. See ‘Twenty-Fourth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’, The Athenaeum 1405 (30 September 1854), pp. 1172–1183, on p. 1174; and ‘Twenty-Fourth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’, The Athenaeum 1406 (7 October 1854), pp. 1202–1212, on pp. 1203–1204, for lengthy discussions of Tyndall’s papers.
Tell me … commences: see n. 3.
year & a half: Tyndall had visited Allen in Preston in January 1853, when Allen’s son was dying (see letter 0698, n. 5). Tyndall also recorded details about this visit in his journal (1 January 1853, JT/2/13b/594).
when you resided at Goosnargh: Tyndall reminisced about his time in Goosnargh with the Allens in his journal entry of 18 December 1849 (Journal, JT/2/13b/471–2).
Mamma: not identified.
Gretchen: see letter 0872, n. 12.
Please cite as “Tyndall0967,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on