Ipswich | Nov. 10th
My dear Tyndall,
I was very sorry at not having the pleasure of seeing you when in London on the 25th ult.,2 but I fear our not having met was caused by my stupidity in putting a wrong date to my letter3 I called twice at the Institution4 on the 25th and left my card which the stupid porter seems not to have delivered. Non importa,5 the pleasure is only deferred, if I had a bed to offer you I would ask you to come and spend a few days with me, but my sister6 who keeps house (or rather lodgings) for me, occupies the only spare room in the small house I am in, in every other respect you should have the run of the house and an Irish welcome. I am now very busy providing food for powder7 and at the same time lining my pockets, when we do meet what a chat we shall have recounting to each other all the events that have occurred since our boyish days
Believe me | Your sincere friend | T. C. Higginson.
RI MS JT/1/TYP/2/598
LT Typescript Only
10 November [1854]: in the typescript LT noted ‘probly 1854’.
ult.: abbreviation for the Latin phrase, ‘ultimo mense’ or ‘last month’.
my letter: letter missing.
the Institution: the RI. Tyndall noted in his journal entry of 29 October 1854, ‘Higginson was to have come one day – I was not at the Institution and I know not whether he did come’ (Journal, JT/2/13b/696).
Non importa: Italian for ‘it’s not important’.
my sister: possibly Mina Higginson (see letter 0963, n. 2).
food for powder: ‘soldiers, esp. low-ranking recruits, collectively regarded as expendible in war’ (OED). This is a direct reference to Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, ‘Tut, tut, good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder. They’ll fill a pit as well as better. Tush, man, mortal men, mortal men’ (IV.ii.66–8).
Please cite as “Tyndall0998,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on